Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 304

Chapter 304 Any Update From Caleb?

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Finished

Samantha walked up right next to Joanna, her boots clicking softly on the damp floor tiles. “You don’t want to go downstairs,” she said, her voice dropping to a low whisper that seemed to echo in the quiet lobby. “It’s an underground parking lot, but the vines took control of the space already.”

RJ looked sharply at Samantha, her instincts immediately picking up on the sudden shift in the woman’s demeanor. “What does that plant do?” RJ demanded, her eyes narrowing beneath her heavy scarf.

Samantha smiled a cold smile, her previous submissive refugee act completely vanishing for a split second. “It feeds,” she murmured softly, looking at the black leaves dripping sap onto the floor. “It likes warmth. When the freeze happened, a bunch of settlers ran down into the garage thinking it would shelter them from the wind. The vines sealed the doors behind them. Within an hour, they were just fertilizer.”

Edward and the brothers, Chase and Cory, shifted their stances slightly, casually blocking the path back toward the front door. The friendly facade of the entire group was rapidly evaporating under the pale winter sun.

Joanna didn’t flinch. She kept her posture relaxed and approachable, but her fingers tightened subtly around the handle of the hatchet resting at her belt. She looked at Wendy, who was watching them with that same penetrating, analytical stare from before.

“If the basement is a death trap,” Joanna said, her voice calm and steady as she lightly tapped the head of her hatchet against her palm, “then I guess we go up. What’s waiting for us on the second floor, Wendy?”

Edward, with a sour face, answered instead, “We don’t know exactly. How about you clear even floors and we clear odd floors? Whatever we get, we keep.”

Could it be that simple? Something felt entirely off about the arrangement, but Joanna couldn’t quite figure out their angle yet. Still, maintaining their cover was paramount.

Briggs gave a gruff nod, playing his role as the brute leader. “Fine by us. Even floors are ours.”

With the deal struck, Joanna’s squad separated from the settlers. They walked up the concrete stairs to the second floor, the heavy thud of their boots echoing in the stairwell. Meanwhile, the muffled sound of footsteps continued above them as Wendy and her group kept walking up to the third floor.

When Joanna’s squad stepped onto the landing, the door clicked shut behind them. The second-floor hallway was pitch black. The only illumination came from a single dusty window at each far end of the long corridor, letting in weak shafts of winter sunlight. Shadows pooled deeply in the doorways of the abandoned apartments lining the hall.

Joanna, annoyed by the games and the creepy atmosphere, didn’t bother waiting around. She just kicked in the first door with a sharp, heavy thud and strode inside, her group following tightly behind her.

The door flew open, revealing a two-bedroom apartment that looked like an older couple had lived there at one point. Faded floral wallpaper lined the entryway, and dusty porcelain figurines sat undisturbed on a side table. In the center of the small living room, a large, dark pool of dried blood stained the carpet. Through the cracked doorway of the adjacent bathroom, the silhouette of a frozen body was clearly visible, leaning stiffly against the tub.

They ignored it entirely.

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07 Sat, Oct 10 T

Chapter 304 Any Update From Caleb?

#Finished

Briggs immediately shoved a heavy wooden dining chair underneath the front doorknob, wedging it tight to secure the perimeter. The moment the room was sealed, Joanna waved her hand and pulled everyone

stele her storage space.

The transition was instantaneous. The freezing, suffocating gloom of the apartment vanished, replaced by the incredible warmth, ambient light, and absolute peace of Joanna’s pocket dimension. Everyone collapsed onto the lush green grass just outside the villa, shedding their heavy face masks and scarves with collective groans of pure relief.

Will sprawled out completely, a huge smile breaking across his face as he exhaled a long breath under the soothing warmth. “Man, I don’t care what anyone says,” Will laughed, shaking his head. “Wendy’s group gives off serious ‘we sacrifice people to a volcano god’ vibes. Did you see that penetrating stare? I thought she was trying to read my medical history through my coat.”

Briggs unbuttoned his collar, letting out a rare, low chuckle that cracked his usual stoic/mask. “Don’t worry about Wendy. It’s those two brothers, Chase and Cory, you have to watch out for,” Briggs said, his voice laced with a cold, deadpan humor. “With weapons like those rusted pipes, their ultimate apocalyptic ability is definitely going to be weaponized tetanus. One scratch from them is deadlier than a Level 5 zombie bite.”

The group burst out laughing, the heavy tension of the undercover mission melting away under the glowing sky of the villa as they took a moment to regroup before heading back out to the cold reality of the even floors.

Julian, looking gorgeous and relaxed, came out of the villa in comfortable clothing carrying a stool and a tray of fresh lemonade. The contrast against the bleak, bloody reality of the apartment world outside was so jarring that everyone simply blinked at him for a moment. He sat elegantly on the stool, smoothed his clothes, and handed everyone a cold glass.

With his permanent CEO vibe fully intact, he asked, “How is it going out there?”

Joanna sighed, taking a grateful sip of her drink before updating him in a few sentences. She explained their fake settler cover story, Brad’s strict core quotas, the creepy pulsing black vines in the lobby, and Edward’s highly suspicious decision to split them up by even and odd floors.

Once Julian was caught up, Joanna turned her gaze to her telepathic teammate. “RJ, I am guessing you scanned the building already?”

RJ took a long sip of her lemonade, her eyes sharpening as she looked back at Joanna. “As soon as we cleared the laundromat, Boss,” RJ confirmed, setting her glass down. “I left a mental thread attached to Edward and his group. Right now, they are just raiding an apartment on the third floor. But as for the rest of the structure… The building has twenty-five zombies. All of them are above us. This floor is completely clear.”

Joanna then placed a call to Caleb and Kailee using her mental link through their watches.

Kailee answered immediately, her voice crisp. “Hey, Boss!”

“Any update?” Joanna asked.

“He has been in deep meditation this whole time,” Kailee spoke up. “Hasn’t broken once. Someone knocked on our door, but I didn’t answer.”

RJ frowned, setting her glass of lemonade down. “Why would someone knock on our door?”

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