The Endgame Chronicles (by Hugh White) novel Chapter 650

Chapter 650

“Raarh!”

A zombie finally managed to grab the edge of the fifth-floor stairway and began clawing its way up.

Warren swung his fire axe and brought it down hard. The blade chopped through the zombie’s arm, sending the severed limb tumbling.

But before he could even catch his breath, another zombie scrambled up in its place.

He kept hacking and kicking, barely holding the line.

Just as it looked like he was about to be overwhelmed, Donnie shouted from above.

“Get up here!”

Warren spun around and ran.

He sprinted across the damaged landing between the fifth and sixth floors. The platform was already cracking from the beating it had taken.

The moment he cleared it, Donnie and Charlie smashed the last section apart.

Several zombies that had climbed onto the fifth floor tried to rush after him. Instead, their feet slipped through the broken gap, and they dropped straight back down into the swarm.

Warren leaned against the wall, gasping for air.

For a moment, he felt as if he had escaped death.

But deep down, he knew it wouldn’t last.

If the zombies could reach the fifth-floor landing, sooner or later, they would find a way to jump up to the sixth.

Destroying the stairs wasn’t going to hold them forever.

So what now?

Hide upstairs?

There were zombies up there, too. No one even knew how bad it was.

And once the horde was inside the building, it was only a matter of time before they were all dead.

Warren lifted his head.

f

His eyes landed on Hayley, who had been standing quietly at the sixth-floor stairwell the entire time, watching everything unfold.

“Take us with you!”

Warren rushed toward her, half stumbling as he moved.

“You’ve got a helicopter, right?” he said desperately “Take us with you. Get us out of here?”

Hayley looked at him calmly.

“Why would 12”

“Our supplies.”Warren sad themighclenched teeth. “We’ll give you half. Just get i

Hayley raised an eyehow “You really think I carboplam poletoms?”

Chaptersee

+15 Bonus

Warren didn’t even know how to respond to that.

This was the apocalypse. Potatoes were practically currency.

Then what do you want?” he desanded. “What would it take for you to take us with you?”

Hayley thought for a moment.

Taking them along wasn’t impossible. Her settlement needed people. More members usually meant more growth, not more burden.

But honestly, she wasn’t impressed with this group.

Not one of them stood out.

In the past, the people she had rescued had something valuable. Either rare abilities, or strong character, like Monica, the kind of leader who had both courage and skill.

These people?

They were just bodies. That was it.

And then there was Ellen with her constant troublemaking, and Jasmine, whose kindness bordered on foolishness.

Hayley glanced at the time. Liam and the others should be finished in about five minutes.

“Alright,” she said finally. “If you can hold off the zombie swarm until my people get back, I’ll take you with us.”

She added casually, “And hand over the sack of rice I gave you earlier. Plus all your potatoes.”

She might not care about them much, but there was no reason to waste supplies.

Warren hesitated.

Hayley shrugged. “Just so you know, if you manage to survive and leave with me, someday, you’ll realize giving up those supplies was a bargain.”

Everyone around them looked at her.

The way she said that…

“Raarh!”

Another wave of zombies surged up the stairwell.

Warren clenched his jaw.

“Fine!” he said at last. “I agree. Just make sure you take us with you!”

Hayley shook her head slightly

“Let me correct that. If you survive, you can come with me. I’m not responsible for whether you live of the Yost’s not part af og settlement. I’m only offering a helicopter seat to whoever’s still alive.”

Warren nodded Sarmly. “Deal”

Just an agreed, Ellen suddenly spoke up. “don’t agree?”

+15 B

Chapter 651

Hayley turned to look at Etten whose eyes were wide with anger.

There’s no way we’re giving you our food!” she shouted. “We grew that ourselves. Blood and sweat went into it. You won’t ever guarantee we live, and you still want our supplies? No chance!”

Hayley didn’t bother responding to Ellen. She looked at Warren instead.

“You’ve got 30 seconds,” she said calmly. “Give me your answer.”

Warren turned to Ellen. “This isn’t your decision.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Ellen snapped. “That woman will take all our supplies and leave us with nothing! How are we supposed to survive after that?”

Warren’s thoughts were racing.

The snarling growls of zombies echoed from the stairwell below, while Ellen’s words kept circling in his head. His scalp felt tight with stress.

“Forget it,” he muttered finally. “We have to go with them.”

Giving the supplies to Hayley might mean death, but staying here meant certain death.

“I don’t agree!” Ellen shouted.

“I don’t, either,” Theo said. He was the same man who had taken Ellen’s chocolate bars earlier.

“We’re not agreeing to this,” another man and woman added. “We don’t trust her. Give us our share back, and we’ll split.”

Warren’s expression darkened.

He looked around at the rest of the group. The others stayed silent.

Hayley’s voice cut in, impatient. “Time’s up. Give me your answer. If you want to run on your own, go ahead. If you want to come with me, hand over the supplies.”

Warren looked at the divided group.

“Fine,” he said. “If you want to split, then we split.”

He gave Ellen and the other three a portion of the supplies and let them go their own way.

The rest of the food went to Hayley.

Now, there were only ten people left with him.

“Raarh!”

Zombies began jumping up from below. First, they landed on the fifth floor, then lunged upward toward the sixth

Warren and the remaining survivors grabbed weapons and pieces of furniture to use as shields, bracing theses Hoor stairwell to hold the line.

With their supplies strapped to their backs, Ellen and the others paned on die stairs. They wished Wars and the gear lighti despately below.

A strange lonk crossed Ellen’s face.

“You’re gonna regret this!” he called out.

+15 Bonus

Then she turned and ran upstairs with Theo and the others. When they reached the seventh floor, they stopped abruptly.

The staircase above their had been destroyed.

“How are we supposed to get up there?” someone asked.

Ellen stared at the broken section. The gap was nearly ten feet high

When Hayley’s group came down earlier, they had juraped down easily.

Climbing up was another matter entirely. They weren’t jumping down; they needed to jump up.

While the group stood there trying to figure out a way forward, Ellen suddenly snapped her fingers.

“I’ve got it,” she said. “The elevator shaft.”

Inside the shaft, there was a maintenance ladder. If they climbed up one level through the shaft, they could reach the upper floor.

Without wasting time, the group rushed toward the nearby elevator.

Theo, the strength-enhanced Gifted, stepped forward with a crowbar. With one heavy strike, he pried the elevator doors open.

The doors slid apart, revealing a dark shaft that dropped into a black void.

Theo leaned forward and looked carefully into the darkness. He spotted the ladder mounted on the right wall, a short distance from the doorway.

He tightened the straps on his backpack, grabbed the edge of the elevator frame, and reached out into the shaft.

His large hand caught the metal rung, and he pulled himself over smoothly.

Seeing him climb inside, Ellen hurried after him.

She was much shorter than Theo. When she reached out, her fingers barely missed the ladder.

She stretched farther. With a desperate lunge, she finally grabbed the rung.

But as she did, the backpack on her shoulders shifted sideways. The bag full of potatoes tilted dangerously, ready to spill into the darkness below.

COIN BUNDLE: get more free bonus

Comments

Share

Support

GEA IT

+15 Bo

Chapter 652

Ellen didn’t have a free hand to fix the backpack sliding off her shoulder. She just tightened her grip and kept climbing. Once she made it up, the last two people stepped forward.

They were a married couple. The husband jumped into the elevator shaft first. He pressed himself against the inner wall and reached out his hand.

“Come on,” he said to his wife.

She grabbed the doorframe carefully and stretched her arm toward him.

Just as their hands finally connected and her body tipped into the shaft….

Potatoes suddenly came raining down from above.

A whole pile of them.

The man’s grip jerked violently as the weight shifted. The next second, his wife slipped and fell straight down with the tumbling potatoes.

“Honey!”

“My potatoes!”

The man and Ellen shouted at the same time.

Thud!

The woman hit the bottom of the elevator shaft like a sack of meat. Blood spread across the dark floor instantly.

Her skull burst on impact. Pieces of bone and flesh were scattered across the concrete. Her body twisted into several broken angles. One arm slammed into the elevator doors at the bottom.