Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 89

Chapter 89 Some experience with zombies

Finished

Ja paused, his jaw tightening in uncertainty. He looked away from the map, his gaze dropping to the floor before snapping back to Joanna with fierce sincerity. “Will saved my life once. We were overseas, when everything went sideways. I just want to return the favor.”

Joanna let out a soft breath, her expression softening. This was Jake. Always the protective soldier, always loyal to the marrow of his bones. He couldn’t just sit by and watch a brother-in-arms march into a meat grinder, even if the warning came from a future that hadn’t happened yet.

“I don’t know…” Joanna sighed, looking back at the green marking for the Eldon Mall. “I am definitely not going into Eldon with them. There are too many unknown variables, and it’s a death trap. But… we can ag along for a while. We can shadow the convoy from a safe distance and offer support after the chaos breaks

out.”

She turned fully to face him, her eyes serious. “If your friend listens to you, if he takes your warning seriously, he might just make it out of that mall alive. If he does, we can pull him out of the fire and bring him back to our safehouse.”

Jake nodded, a look of profound relief mixing with his resignation. “Okay. I can live with that.” He understood the boundaries. He knew she couldn’t risk the entire group for a ghost from his past.

Joanna rubbed her temples, a headache beginning to throb behind her eyes. “Just let me think about it,” she muttered. “Our team is strong, Jake. We’ve got the gear and we’ve got the training. But right now, no one else has awakened their abilities yet. I’m the only one with an inventory, and I can’t carry a war on my back.”

Jake gave her a small, reassuring smile, the tension in his broad shoulders easing just a fraction. “Understood.”

Rachel walked over from the hallway, dropping two heavy duffel bags onto the floor. “These bags are the last of our things,” she breathed, wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead. She looked around the cluttered room, where the rest of the team had gathered. “Are we going back into the space?”

Joanna didn’t answer with words. Instead, she took a slow breath and focused her mind, channeling the strange, invisible energy humming just beneath her consciousness.

To everyone’s absolute amazement, everything in the apartment vanished in the blink of an eye.

The piled suitcases, Rachel’s duffel bags, the heavy couch, the dining table, and even the large kitchen appliances instantly wiped out of existence, pulled cleanly into the void of Joanna’s pocket dimension. Even the tactical map pinned next to Joanna was stored away seamlessly. The apartment was suddenly nothing more than a hollow, ringing shell of bare walls and empty floorboards.

Everyone blinked, standing completely stunned in the empty space. Julian opened his mouth to say something, but Joanna kept going, already shifting focus to the next subject before the shock could settle.

“Here is the plan,” Joanna said, her voice commanding and sharp. “I want to hit the surrounding areas immediately. There is a grocery store and a pet store just a few blocks down. From there, we go to the mall before we come back here to rest.”

She looked out the bare window, charting the position of the late afternoon sun as it began its descent toward the horizon.

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Chapter 89 Some experience with zombies

Finished

“I think the best course of action is to get you all some experience with zombies while we still have daylight,” Joanna explained, looking at each of their faces. “And with all the chaos starting to erupt, grabbing supplies ight now is the smartest move we can make-before the rest of the survivors realize what’s happening and stay scavenging everything clean.”

The shift in reality hit the room all at once. The collective awe over Joanna’s vanishing apartment quickly dissolved, leaving behind a heavy, somber weight. Every member of the team locked up, their shoulders stiffening as the unspoken truth settled over them: the apocalypse was no longer a distant warning or in the beginner phase. It was here.

Allen, true to form, couldn’t let the silence last. “Well,” he said, offering a sarcastic smirk as he looked around the tense circle. “If we’re marching into the end of the world, I guess we need some hype music.”

Rachel immediately rolled her eyes and smacked him hard on the shoulder.

“Hey, as long as it’s not one of Jake’s classic rock albums, I’m down,” Jolie scoffed, crossing her arms.

Just like that, the suffocating atmosphere fractured. A ripple of genuine amusement passed through the room, and even Julian cracked a rare, small smile.

Seizing the lighter mood, Joanna reached into her awareness and pulled a stack of heavy-duty backpacks directly out of her storage space. Jolie stepped forward to help prep them, sliding compact, empty duffel bags inside each one to maximize their potential haul along with radio coms so the team could communicate. Joanna followed behind her, dropping several bottles of chilled spring water into the side pockets for every person.

When Joanna reached Raven, she stopped. Raven was adjusting a specialized backpack that had custom leg holes crudely but securely cut out of the canvas. She wore the pack backward against her chest, carefully lifting Titan into it. The small dog settled in, his stubby little legs sticking out of the bottom while his head rested comfortably over the top edge, his dark eyes blinking up at them.

Resting against the wall next to Raven was a specialized small electric bat-a brutal piece of defensive gear Jake had custom-welded for her just last month.

“If Titan gets too scared out there, I will throw him into the space immediately,” Joanna said, her voice dropping to a gentle but serious tone. “Okay, Raven?”

Raven looked up, her expression quiet and resolute, and gave a sharp, silent nod of agreement.

Jake stepped up beside them, his massive frame radiating an aura of absolute security. He adjusted his own gear, his eyes scanning the perimeter of their empty apartment one last time before looking down at the girls.

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