Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 370

Chapter 370 Piper Wakes Up

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By midmorning, the bad breakfast was a distant memory and the good one had worn off. It was Fletcher who started it.

“We should barbecue,” he announced, flat on his back in the grass with a cinnamon roll wrapper on his chest. “Out by the spring. Right now.”

“We just ate,” Glacier said.

“And yet my soul is hungry.”

Within ten minutes the whole team was on board. Joanna pulled a grill, a bag of charcoal, and crates of meat and corn out of the pantry, and Briggs, after a long, solemn negotiation about whether he could be trusted with fire, was allowed to light it, on the condition that Caleb stay at least twenty feet away.

“That’s discrimination,” Caleb said.

“That’s breakfast,” said half the group.

They changed into swimsuits and drifted out to the spring in twos and threes, towels slung over shoulders. Steam curled off the water, the grass was warm underfoot, and the smell of sizzling meat drifted across the clearing. Fletcher cannonballed in first, sending a wave over Glacier, who sat on the edge with a book and a look of deep personal betrayal. Jolie and Kailee dangled their feet in the shallows, Kailee casually positioned within arm’s reach of Will, who was floating on his back with the duck scarf draped over his forehead like a sunshade. Allen and Jake bickered over who was supposed to be flipping the burgers while Briggs, apron on, guarded the grill like a sentry.

Joanna sank into the warm water up to her shoulders, closed her eyes, and let the tension of the last few weeks drain out of her. Nobody needed saving. Nobody was bleeding.

A heavy thump of paws sounded on the stones beside her.

Bubbles had settled at the edge of the spring, tail curled primly around his feet, regarding the splashing mob with open contempt. “This is undignified,” he announced. “The Lord of Destruction does not bathe.”

“He’s not wrong,” Joanna murmured. “Leave him alone.”

Julian, dripping, grinning, and entirely unrepentant, rose out of the water behind the cat. “Sorry, Boss. Can’t help it.”

“Julian-”

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Chapter 370 Piper Wakes Up

Splash.

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Bubbles went in with a yowl of pure outrage, a fifty-pound tabby launched straight into the middle of the spring. He surfaced a second later, soaked to the skin, his fur plastered flat against his body so he looked like a drowned, furious rat with enormous paws. He paddled in a frantic circle, ears pinned, whiskers drooping, glaring at Julian with a hatred so pure it was almost beautiful.

“I will remember this,” he said, spitting water. “I will remember this forever.”

“You look majestic,” Julian said.

“I am being murdered.”

Joanna was laughing so hard she had to grab the edge of the spring, tears squeezing out of her eyes. Fletcher was howling. Glacier had lowered his book to stare. Even Briggs, at the grill, had to turn away, shoulders shaking.

“Somebody help me,” Bubbles said, his voice dropping to a small, pitiful, waterlogged mew. “I am too young and handsome to die.”

“You’re fine,” Joanna gasped. “It’s two feet deep.”

“It is a tragedy.”

She finally waded over and scooped him out, dripping, and he clung to her shoulder like a wet, grumpy sack, shooting Julian a look that promised revenge in this life and the next. Julian blew

him a kiss.

Bubbles was going to need a lot of bacon for this.

Joanna was mid-splash, flicking a wave of warm water at Julian, who was retaliating with a smug, perfectly aimed counterattack, when something made her freeze.

The grass behind the villa was moving.

Her eyes widened. Around the corner of the house, vine by vine, something enormous was coming. It was Piper, and she had grown ten times larger since the last time anyone had seen her. The world’s most dangerous plant had finally woken from hibernation, her great venomous flowers half open and swaying, her body a writhing mass of thick green vines that rippled across the lawn like an octopus crawling toward its prey. Every step left the grass flattened behind her. The whole team went quiet, and a few hands slid toward weapons that weren’t there.

“Piper!” Joanna yelled, half horror, half delight. “You’re awake!”

The last time any of them had seen her, Piper had been staggering around drunk on a zombie

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Chapter 370 Piper Wakes Up

core. The memory made the sight of her now even stranger.

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“Hi, boss!” Her sunny, cheerful voice floated out of the tangle of petals, a perfect opposite of how terrifying she looked.

“I missed you, Piper!” Jolie called, waving both arms.

Piper winced, her vines curling in around her blossoms. “Not so loud, Jolie,” she groaned. “My head.”

“Is she hungover?” Fletcher whispered.

“Months of hibernation hangover,” Kailee whispered back. “That’s a record.”

Briggs, who had every justifiable reason to be terrified of Piper, vaulted out from behind the grill and landed behind Joanna, using her as a shield. His commander’s composure had completely evaporated.

Joanna smirked over her shoulder. “Calm down, Mr. Hot Stuff. She just woke up.”

“Do not call me that,” Briggs said hoarsely, not taking his eyes off the flowers.

Piper lowered herself toward the grass, speaking softly. “I feel like a completely new plant.”

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