Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 365

Chapter 365 The Ant Queen

Chapter 365 The Ant Queen

+10 Free Coms

The rotations bought them a second wind. Briggs’s flames thickened again. Glacier’s ice walls rosehaller. Fletcher’s boulders found their marks. On the field, RJ stood braced in the mud, blood trickling from her nose, eyes blazing white as she reached into the swarm and twisted. Ants wheeled on their own kid mid- charge, whole clusters collapsing into screeching knots of infighting.

“Boss!” Jolie pointed toward a jumble of boulders at the foot of the far ridge, vines still dragging at ants around her ankles. “Look at the rocks!”

Joanna followed her gaze, and her breath caught.

The ant queen was the size of a delivery truck, her bloated abdomen dragging behind her, pulsing as pate eggs slid out in a wet trickle. Her head was crowned with plates the color of dried blood, her mandibles as long as scythes. Around her stood a ring of black, spiked soldiers the size of horses. They didn’t charge. Every time the queen’s antennae twitched, the whole swarm shifted in answer.

That’s the brain, Joanna said through the mind link. Behind the boulders at the foot of the east ridge. Everything out here moves when she moves. If we kill her, they might lose their organization.

Might? Briggs said, strained.

It’s the best chance we have.

Then do it, Julian said, low and certain.

“Everyone out!” Joanna flung her hand wide, and every teammate resting inside her space tumbled onto the field, wounds closed, lungs full. They surged forward to hold the front, Briggs’s fire roaring beside Glacier’s ice, Fletcher bellowing as he scooped up another boulder. The soldiers on the wall cheered.

Only then did Joanna grab Julian’s hand and jump.

They landed behind the queen’s guard. Killing intent rolled off Julian like a change in air pressure. He was her sharpest blade, and he was done being patient.

Lightning detonated across the first two soldiers before they could scream. Joanna’s sickle took a third at the neck. The queen reared up, shrieking loud enough to crack a boulder, and Julian’s electricity charred her front legs black.

She lurched toward a tunnel mouth at the base of the ridge, fleeing.

No.

Joanna blinked forward, caught the queen’s hind legs in both fists, and heaved. She swung her in a wide arc and smashed her against the stone. Once. Twice. A third time, and the shell split along her thorax.

The queen still twitched. Joanna drove her fingers into the crack, and ripped. Armor tore like a splitting tree. The thorax peeled open, spilling yellow-green fluid and pulsing organs over her arms. The abdomen burst next, drenching her to the elbows in a steaming tide of half-formed eggs and writhing white larvae. She tossed the ruined head aside and stood dripping and silent in the wreckage.

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Chapter 365 The Ant Queen

+10 Free Cons

Julian stared at her, cold fury on her face, and beneath it something like pride. This is their leader, and she

e it apart with her hands. Love for her surged through him so hard it nearly buckled his knees.

Below, the swarm faltered. Ants stopped mid-charge, antennae whipping in confusion, ranks fracturing. Soldiers on the wall poured fire into the disorganized mass.

It took another hour. The team fought their way across the field while the wall picked off the fee By the time Briggs reached the rocks, the ground was a carpet of broken shells.

He stopped dead at the sight of her covered in the queen’s blood, then crossed the gap and gripp Act shoulders, eyes raking over her. “Are you hurt? Is any of this yours?”

“Briggs.” Joanna caught his wrists gently. “I’m alright. It’s all hers.”

His breath shuddered out. He didn’t let go right away.

Allen limped up, a gash across his forearm, nodding toward the black tunnel mouth. “Boss, you think that leads to the nest? Because if it does, the ants can come back. Unless we kill the babies.”

Kailee trudged up, caked in grime from boots to braids, and held up a fist-sized core slick with yellow- green gore. “Half of these monsters have cores, Boss. Cleanup alone is going to take forever.”

Joanna looked out over the carpet of broken shells and almost laughed. “Later,” she said hoarsely. “Everything later.”

She staggered to a patch of ground at the edge of the field where no bodies lay and dropped onto the dirt. One by one her team followed, too tired to complain about the smell. Fletcher flopped flat on his back. Glacier hung his head between his knees. Jolie leaned against Allen, who was too worn out to make a single joke about it.

Joanna pulled a handful of Jolie’s turkey jerky packets from her space, tossed them around the circle, and tore into one herself. It was the best thing she had ever tasted. For a minute, nobody spoke.

Her eyes drifted to the black tunnel mouth at the foot of the ridge. Should I go down there? She didn’t want to. But she knew what waited at the other end: eggs, larvae, a colony that could rebuild if even a few survived.

Back at the base, Levi and his men were still firing at the last stragglers, but the volleys were thinning. The battle was nearly over.

Joanna sighed. “Briggs. Send the fire users down there. Burn the eggs. Finish the colony.”

Briggs, black with soot, didn’t lift his head. “Affirmative. Nothing says relaxation like crawling into a hole. full of bug babies and setting them on fire.”

“You volunteered,” Julian said.

“I was drafted by exhaustion.”

Thin, cracked laughter passed around the circle. Even Glacier’s shoulders shook.

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