Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 350

Chapter 350 The Giant Sleeping In The Den

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Finished

Jonna turned to Caleb. “I need you to send threads out — quiet ones. See if you can pick up who the thief is on base. If it’s someone here, they’re gone. No matter who they are.”

Caleb nodded once, already sliding into a more serious focus than his usual easy grin allowed.

She looked around the table at the rest of them. Levi and Briggs both nodded in agreement, thong Levi’s expression carried a weight that hadn’t been there before.

“Honestly,” Levi said quietly, “it’s hard to believe it’s one of our own. Before all this, I would’ve vouched for every single person on this base without hesitation.”

Briggs’s jaw tightened, something dark passing over his face. “Yeah, well. If it’s one of my men, or their families-” A small burst of flame flickered briefly along his knuckles, gone almost as fast as it appeared, his anger igniting the ability without conscious thought. “–they leave, or they die. I don’t care who it is.”

Julian leaned forward, expression hard. “I agree with Briggs. Everyone at this table knows exactly what food means out here – it’s the line between living and starving. Whoever did this doesn’t understand how desperate the world still is. They’ve gotten complacent, living safe under Joanna’s protection, forgetting what it actually took to build this place.”

A heavy silence settled over the table at that, the weight of it sinking into everyone present. Joanna let it sit for a moment before speaking again, voice quiet but absolute.

“Whoever it is,” she said, “they’re going to learn real fast that safety here isn’t free. It’s earned. And stealing from people who trusted you isn’t just a crime against me – it’s a crime against every single person in this base who’s counting on those reserves to survive the winter.” Her eyes swept the table, cold and resolute. “Find them.”

While Caleb turned his focus toward hunting down the thief, Joanna made her decision – she’d take her team and Raven out to deal with the dens herself. She had no interest in wiping out every wild animal near the base; balance mattered, and she’d learned that lesson well enough by now. But safety came first, and whatever was denning up on that ridge, feeding on carcasses large enough to leave bone piles behind, wasn’t something she could ignore.

They crossed the valley on foot, snow crunching underfoot, the ridge looming ahead pale and jagged against the gray sky. As they neared the base of it, Joanna noticed the air itself seemed to change – heavier somehow, carrying a faint, unfamiliar mustiness that hadn’t been there in the open snow.

“RJ,” she said quietly, “do you sense anything?”

RJ shook her head, brow furrowed in concentration. “If whatever’s out here is underground, my telepathy can’t reach it. I’m getting nothing.”

They pressed forward, slower now, until the ground sloped upward into a wide, dark opening carved into the rock – easily large enough for something significant to move through, the edges smoothed unnaturally, as though something had been carving it wider over time rather than simply finding it.

Briggs moved first, stepping in front of Joanna without asking. “Let me stay up front. I can burn anything that comes at us before it gets close.”

Ryan and Uncle Nate crouched low near the den’s entrance, examining something in the packed snow, and

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Chapter 350 The Giant Sleeping In The Den

both of them went suddenly, deathly still.

Finished

ys, Ryan said, voice dropped to barely a whisper, already easing backward. He pointed at the ground without looking away from the den. “The tracks.”

Uncle Nate leaned closer, studying the wide, sinuous groove pressed into the snow leading into the opening. “That’s a snake trail,” he murmured. “And judging by the width of it… that’s a huge one.”

The air shifted again, subtly, and everyone instinctively stepped back from the entrance.

“Don’t snakes hibernate?” Joanna asked quietly, eyes fixed on the dark opening.

Ryan swallowed hard. “Yeah. Normally. But who knows if it’s mutated.”

A slight, dry rattle sounded from somewhere deep inside the den, faint but unmistakable.

Julian huffed, some of the tension easing from his shoulders. “Sounds like nothing more than a rattlesnake to me.”

Joanna’s hand shot out, grabbing his arm before he could take another step forward. “No normal rattler,” she said, voice low and sharp, “would be sitting on top of a bone pile that size.”

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