Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 88

Chapter 88 Eldon

Finished

silence in the living room grew heavy while the chaos outside the apartments raged on. Julian froze, his hands still resting on the rough wood of the ammunition crate, his breath caught in his throat. Beside him, Joanna held her breath, turning sharply towards him.

Jake nodded towards Julian motioning him to continue packing. Julian nodded and went into the kitchen. Jake stepped closer to Joanna, his posture rigid yet intensely protective. “My buddy Will wanted to make sure I got out of Felton,” Jake said, his voice a low, urgent rumble. “The city is falling. The military is pulling out, and Will is bringing a squad right towards us.”

Joanna’s eyes widened slightly. “Are they coming here?”

“I didn’t give him our exact location,” Jake admitted, shaking his head. “But I told him I would try to find him. He said their immediate mission is to grab my old major, who is currently running point over at city hall. Will didn’t explicitly confirm it, but from what I can piece together, once they regroup, the military going to strip the local resources and retreat toward Evercrest.”

Jake stepped into her personal space, his eyes searching hers. “I wanted to tell you this because if you plan to raid the stores for your inventory, you only have about three days at most. From my experience in the service, they will take civilian survivors along with them-but only if those survivors already have their own rations. The main focus is loading up several truckloads of supplies for the base.”

Joanna frowned, a chill settling deep in her chest. Honestly, it made perfect sense. In fact, it mapped directly onto her vivid dream. In that dream, that was exactly how she had been rescued. She vividly remembered handing over bags of scavenged food just to secure a spot in the safety of a convoy for her sister, mom, and herself. That convoy was where she and Drew had originally met.

A sudden, jarring thought stopped her cold. The military convoy that picked her up in her dream had eventually driven to Evercrest, but they had originally started out in Aurora. Was this the exact same convoy?

She looked up at Jake, her heart hammering against her ribs. “Your friend Will… what is his last name?”

“I just call him Will, but his full name is William Moore,” Jake said, watching her closely.

Joanna paused completely. She didn’t remember meeting anyone named William Moore in her dream. But as the pieces clicked together, a grim realization settled over her. It made perfect sense that his squad would join up with the main force here in Aurora. And if he wasn’t there by the time the convoy reached Evercrest in her dream… it meant he probably died somewhere on the way.

Jake immediately noticed the subtle tension in her face. He stepped even closer, his brow furrowing with deep concern. “What is it, Joanna? You look worried.”

“This timeline is a little off from my dream,” Joanna said, her voice completely flat as she rubbed the back of

her neck.

She turned away from Jake’s intense gaze and walked over to the far wall. Pinned to the drywall was a large tactical map of the surrounding region. It was covered in markings: bold red dots labeled their established safe houses, while several green dots marked by Allen highlighted prime targets for supply runs, like malls, distribution centers, and gas stations. Her first safe house was actually just before Dillon, her home town. Her finger traced a line across the paper. Three distinct towns separated Aurora from her hometown of

MION

27

O

J

1/2

Chapter 88 Eldon

#Finished Finished

Dillon. She tapped her fingernail against the city located just before Dillon. “Eldon,” she muttered.

She looked back over her shoulder at Jake, who had followed her to the map. “Once I joined the convoy in mydream, I heard the background details. The military originally started out with two hundred fully trained, heavily armed soldiers. But they ran into absolute hell in Eldon.”

Julian stepped closer, listening intently as Joanna pointed to a massive green cluster over Eldon’s commercial district.

“The military decided to strip the resources from the Eldon Mall when the civilians started going crazy” Joanna explained, her tone chillingly clinical. “The problem was, over a thousand civilian survivors were sheltered inside that mall. When the military arrived, those people demanded to be evacuated. But once the crowd saw the soldiers loading up the trucks with supplies instead of people, they snapped. They attacked the military convoy.”

Jake frowned, his tactical mind immediately analyzing the scenario. “A desperate crowd against armed soldiers. That’s a meat grinder.”

“I heard It was,” Joanna nodded grimly. “Even though the military had the guns, gear, and training, they took heavy losses because they were completely overwhelmed by numbers and caught off guard. I think that’s exactly why they accepted my family so easily later on. They desperately needed people. They recruited me, Jolie, and Drew into the base operations almost immediately because their numbers were devastated.”

She locked eyes with Jake, the weight of her memory hanging heavily between them. “If this is the same convoy, Jake, your friend Will and his squad are heading straight into that trap. In my dream, Eldon wiped out most of the unit. First, the civilian rioters attacked and separated the squads. Then, the noise from all the fighting drew a massive zombie horde right down on top of the mall, wrecking several of the supply trucks.”

She let her hand drop from the map, a shadow of uncertainty crossing her face. “I can’t be one hundred percent sure if that’s exactly how it will play out this time. But if it is… your friend is a dead man once he hits Eldon.”

Jake wiped a heavy hand down his face, the rough skin of his palm scraping against his stubble as he stared at the red and green dots on the map. The weight of his past and the terrifying reality of Joanna’s premonitions pressed visibly into his shoulders.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify