Rewrite the Apocalypse dream (by Dee Cari) novel Chapter 97

Chapter 97 Take whatever you want!

Jonna listened to the scraping sounds, her expression completely unchanged as the other survivors trembled. She stepped forward, her voice cutting through the panic with absolute authority.

Finrhed

“Here is the deal,” Joanna said, looking directly at Ryan and Beckah. “I can clear out any zombies left inside this complex, and we will safely escort all ten of you down to the police station. In exchange, we get total, unrestricted access to take whatever we want from these three stores.”

The survivors exchanged wide-eyed, frantic glances. Behind the locked glass door, the metallic groaning grew louder as the undead slammed their weight against the frame. Terrified that they wouldn’t survive the night trapped in a brightly lit fishbowl, the group didn’t hesitate.

“Take whatever you want!” Ryan, the outdoor store owner, agreed instantly, his voice shaking with desperation. “The guns, the generators, the boats-all of it. Just kill those things and get us out of here alive!” Beckah and the others nodded vigorously in agreement, completely desperate for protection.

Joanna turned back to her group, her posture relaxed despite the noise bleeding through the walls. “Stay here and guard the survivors,” she ordered calmly. “I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, alone?” Ryan cut in, blinking in surprise. He quickly pointed toward the rear of the room, explaining the layout of the building. “The three stores are completely connected by the main warehouse space back here. You don’t have to go through the front. You can enter right through the back doors.”

Following his gesture, Joanna scanned the rear wall. Sure enough, she spotted two heavy service doors leading directly into the storage rooms of both adjacent storefronts.

“Perfect,” Joanna murmured.

Leaving Julian, Jake, and the rest of the team behind to watch over the ten civilians, she walked over to the door marked for the outdoor recreation warehouse. She turned the handle, eased it open without a sound, and quietly slipped through into the brightly lit maze of the adjoining store.

Joanna walked cautiously down the rear aisle of the outdoor recreation warehouse, the bright fluorescent lights buzzing overhead. The stale air was punctured by the distinct, wet sound of shuffling footsteps and guttural growls echoing deeper within the showroom.

Instead of creeping forward and risking a messy ambush, she sprinted into the wide open space in the middle of the store and instantly activated her ability, jumping clean into her storage space pocket dimension.

Ensconced in her safe haven, Joanna used her consciousness to project a teleport view, opening a sensory window into the real world. From inside her storage space, the store layout spread out before her as if she were looking out from the center of a transparent bubble. She scanned the illuminated aisles carefully, cataloging the threats. There were only three zombies wandering the floor: two were clustered together near the front counters, while a lone straggler was pacing the opposite side of the store near the apparel racks.

Target locked.

Using her spatial movement, Joanna triggered a sudden teleportation. She materialized in a seamless flash right behind the back of the lone zombie. Before the creature could even register the shift in the air, she swung her tactical hatchet. Channeling her awakened super strength, she drove the blade forward in a brutal

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Chapter 97 Take whatever you want!

Finished

arc. The edge chopped cleanly through the decayed neck, severing the spine instantly. The head came clean off, bouncing away into the aisle just a second before the headless corpse dropped heavily to the polished

Drboards.

As the headless corpse collapsed onto the floorboards, something caught Joanna’s eye. Laying just outside the severed neck, covered in dark, viscous brain matter, was a small, hard crystal that had dislodged from the base of the skull.

It was a zombie core.

The crystal was smooth and beautiful, opal in color and exactly the size of a very small marble. Reaching out with her storage space ability, she waved her hand. The messy fluid vanished as the clean opal marble materialized directly in her palm.

In the vivid dream of the future she had experienced, she never had any powers other than her storage space. Because she couldn’t use them himself, she had never personally collected the cores. Instead, she had always handed them over to Drew, who would sell them at the survivor base to other awakened users in exchange for high-end weapons and essential supplies.

A small, knowing smile lit her face in the empty aisle. I never realized that zombies had cores this early, she thought, turning the tiny gem over in her fingers.

Apparently, the infected possessed cores from the very beginning of the outbreak. Most people in her dream believed the creatures only began developing the crystals much later on as the virus mutated. The truth was, the world simply hadn’t known to look for them yet.

She pulled out a small cloth pouch from her gear, slipped the opal core securely inside, and tucked it away. Ready to finish the sweep, she instantly activated her ability and jumped back into the safety of her storage

space.

From the safety of her storage space, Joanna locked onto the final two targets loitering by the front counters. She blinked, triggering her spatial movement.

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