18 Floors Above the Apocalypse novel Chapter 379

Stella was behind the wheel of her eighteen-wheeler, and Jasper was tearing up the road in his rugged SUV. They hadn't even left the base when they realized someone was tailing them.

But they played it cool. Grabbing their walkie-talkies, they coordinated a plan and split in different directions.

Duke, the ringleader, was flabbergasted. "Split up! Chase 'em down! They can't get away," he barked.

Don’t let the mud and grime fool you; those vehicles were beasts under the hood.

Stella, now decked out in a bulletproof vest and a steel helmet, floored it. She handled the big rig like a pro, quickly leaving their pursuers in the dust.

Taking a hidden detour through a ravine, she slipped her truck into the safety of Arcadia.

The ragtag pursuers, pushing their beat-up jalopies to the limit, arrived only to be left scratching their heads.

Where’d the trucks go?

Before they knew it, a loud bang echoed, sending them diving for cover.

Turned out, one of their tires had blown out.

“Damnation!” they cursed, scared out of their wits.

With no trace of their quarry, they had to slink back to base, tails between their legs.

Stella arrived at the base of Mount Murray to find Jasper and their canine companions already waiting. "Everything good?" he asked.

"Just a bunch of riff-raff," she replied.

Those who made it into the Kindle Society were usually tough, but this lot? They were smooth-talking slackers. Any edge they had was dulled by life's grind, reduced to conning newcomers into doing their dirty work.

If real trouble came knocking, they’d probably run faster than anyone.

"And you?" Stella shot back at Jasper. "Any close calls?"

"None. Lost 'em easy," Jasper replied. His SUV was a beast and had left the pursuers in the dust.

But Jasper frowned, "These guys will be tough to shake. They might set ambushes on the way back. We need to stay sharp."

Stella nodded, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

She wasn’t one to stir up trouble, but if trouble came knocking, she wouldn’t hold back.

The trio and their four-legged friend didn’t wander aimlessly. They broke out the RV, taking care of all their needs onboard.

Rosie kept Cooper entertained with cartoons, Jasper kept watch, and Stella seemed to be napping in her room, but in reality, she was loading rare metals into the truck in Arcadia.

They had enough to fill two big rigs, but Stella left some behind for emergencies.

Once loaded, she covered everything with a tarp.

They were trading for a submarine and couldn’t afford any mishaps. If they ran into highway robbers, the tarp would give them a chance to pull everything back into Arcadia.

After camping out at Mount Murray for two days, they judged the timing right and prepared to haul their cargo back to base.

They didn’t take the ragtag crew seriously, but couldn’t afford to let their guard down either. They’d take a roundabout route just to be safe.

Disguised so well even their own parents wouldn’t recognize them, they drove their clunkers back towards base, only to spot something suspicious. The ambush was there, just as they’d predicted.

But decked out in disguise and driving vehicles that looked ready to fall apart at any moment, they slipped by the ambushers unnoticed. The ambushers even thought the dilapidated vehicles were an eyesore.

The ambushers, about a dozen strong, were spread out on both sides of the road, hunkered down in a no man's land just outside Kindle Society's patrol zone.

Stella knew they couldn’t risk an open confrontation, so they had to deal with these goons discreetly.

Their old beater of a truck stopped out of sight in a dip by the road.