Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 364

Chapter 364 Get Into The Bunker

Chapter 364 Get Into The Bunker

+10 Free Coms

“Yes, Boss,” came the answer, one voice after another, no jokes left in any of them. Kailee was already sprinting for the east flank, wind swirling around her hands, and Jolie followed, her braced wrist forgotten, green tendrils uncoiling from her palms.

Caleb hung back a moment, face pale. He was no fighter, and he knew it. Uncle Nate caught his sheese. “With me, son. The bunker’s safest, and those kids down there will want someone steady.” Caleb needed and followed him toward the stairs, glancing back once at Joanna before the door swung shut beld them.

“Levi. Leo. The walls are yours. Rotate shooters, keep the ammo moving, and shout if anything breaks through.”

Levi nodded once, already barking orders. Leo sprinted to the far tower, hauling crates of ammunition up the ladder two at a time.

Joanna grabbed Raven’s shoulder. “Tell Dante to get every pigeon in the air. I want as many cement eggs dropped around the base as he can manage. Wide ring, thick as possible. If that sticky mess slows them down even a little, it buys us everything.”

Raven closed her eyes, face tight, and sent the message. Seconds later the sky filled with wings, a chaotic cloud of basketball-sized pigeons wobbling overhead, Dante’s furious cooing carrying over all of it. Eggs fell in a pale, spattering rain, bursting across the ground in gray, sticky splashes that hardened and clung. The leading edge of the swarm hit the first patch and stumbled. Legs stuck. Bodies piled up against each other, shells cracking, the front rank bogging down into a writhing, screeching mass.

It wasn’t enough. The ants behind simply climbed over the stuck ones, using their trapped bodies as a bridge.

Joanna dropped from the parapet into her space and reappeared on the ground outside the gate, her team forming up around her in a ragged line. The roar of the swarm was deafening at this level, the earth shaking under her boots.

Fire bloomed as Briggs flung a sheet of flame across the slope, and the smell of burning chitin rolled over them, acrid and sweet. Glacier slammed his palms down and a wall of ice erupted from the earth, shattering the oncoming wave. On the east flank, Kailee thrust out both arms and a roaring gale slammed into the swarm, flipping ants end over end and hurling them back into their own ranks, while Jolie’s vines burst from the ground in thick, thorny ropes, snaring legs and binding mandibles shut. Somewhere to her left, Fletcher roared and hurled a boulder into the mass, crushing a dozen at once. Ants screamed, a high, Į grinding shriek that set every nerve on edge.

And still they came.

Joanna drew her weapon, her pulse hammering, the whole valley a seething sea of red-black shells rushing toward her home. Above her, the guns on the wall thundered in steady volleys, the bells still clanging behind.

“Hold the line!” she screamed. “Don’t let them reach the wall!”

Hours bled together. The sun climbed, hung overhead, and began to slide toward the western ridge, and

23

M

|||

O

1/3

09:58 Fri, Oct 23 T

Chapter 364 Get Into The Bunker

32

+10 Free Coms

the swarm never thinned. For every ant that fell, three more scrambled over its shell. The ground outside egate had become a churned, slick field of cracked chitin and ichor, and the smell of scorched shell And ro clung to the back of Joanna’s throat.

She was swinging at the edge of the line when she finally noticed how slowly her people were moving. Briggs’s flames had shrunk from roaring sheets to ragged licks. Glacier’s ice walls came up thinneach time, and he was leaning on his knees between casts. Fletcher still hurled boulders, but he was breathing like a bellows, and one throw fell short. On the east flank, Kailee’s gusts had weakened to gasps, and lie’s vines hung limp for seconds at a time, her face gray.

They’re running on empty, Joanna realized. And if they drop, the line drops.

“Rotate!” she shouted. “Every thirty minutes, I pull you out! No arguments!”

She grabbed Briggs and Glacier first, yanking them into her space. They landed beside the healing spring, gulping water and splashing it over their faces, wounds closing under the warm shimmer of the water. Thirty minutes later she returned them, steadier, and pulled out the next pair. Fletcher swore he was fine until his knees buckled, and she hauled him in anyway. Kailee and Jolie went next. Back and forth she went, a tireless shuttle, her own lungs burning, her own arms trembling, while the gaps she left behind were filled by whoever still stood.

Through it all, Bubbles and Titan stayed close to her heels. Titan planted himself in the mud, brown eyes narrowed, and the air around the nearest ants seemed to thicken. The ants froze mid-stride, legs pinned to the ground by an invisible weight, mandibles snapping uselessly. Bubbles pounced on the trapped ones, claws tearing through joints, jaws crushing shells.

“Fierce and majestic!” he roared, tossing an ant over his shoulder.

But the swarm was too thick. An ant slipped past Titan’s hold and slammed into Bubbles’s flank. Another clamped onto his hind leg. When he tore free, red streaked his grey stripes. Then a shallow gash across his shoulder. Then another along his ribs. Blood matted his fur, and his breath came in short, hard huffs.

“I’m fine, Boss,” he snarled. “They’ll never get The Lord of Destruction.”

“You’re bleeding,” Joanna said, voice sharp.

“Barely.”

She didn’t argue. She threw him into her storage. He vanished mid-hiss, and his furious yowl echoed for half a second before cutting off. “You’ll thank me later,” she muttered. She knew he’d be livid. She also knew he’d understand. D

When she turned back, her stomach dropped. Ants were crawling up the face of the wall itself, dark shapes clinging to the stone, climbing toward the soldiers’ positions. Rifles cracked above, but the climbers kept coming.

“Titan!” She scooped him up, teleported to the parapet, and set him down. “Keep them off the wall! Hold them!”

Titan barked once, planted his paws, and the climbing ants froze, then slid and tumbled back down the

23

M

|||

O

Г

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify