All Chapters of Project Dakota: Rising of the dead: Chapter 31 - Chapter 34

The profound quiet of the apartment was a living thing, a balm on the raw nerves of our entire group. For a long time, no one spoke. We simply existed in the safety Elise had provided, the residual adrenaline of our journey and arrival slowly metabolizing into a deep, bone-melting exhaustion. The light through the window softened from the sharp white of afternoon to the golden hue of late day, painting long, lazy shadows across the floor. Lena’s soft, even breaths from the sofa were a metronome of peace. Carlos’s occasional, contented sigh from the armchair was the sound of a watchman finally standing down.Elise watched me, her eyes tracing the lines of weariness on my face as if reading a map of our ordeal. Her expression was a complex blend of sisterly love and a new, harder-edged assessment. She was seeing not just her younger sibling, but a survivor, a resource. After a while, she squeezed my hand and stood up, her movements practical and quiet.“You should all try to rest proper

The next week settled into a strange, new rhythm. A rhythm that sounded like the clang of the breakfast gong, the thump-thump-thump of morning drills, and the distant, tinny pop-pop-pop from the shooting ranges. Elsie and I had gone to that beginner's session, just like we promised. My hands had shaken so badly holding the pistol that the instructor, a no-nonsense woman named Reyes, had put a steadying hand on my wrist and said, "Breathe, kid. The gun isn't the enemy. Yet." Elsie, to my utter lack of surprise, was a crack shot. Of course she was. She approached it like a math problem—stance, grip, sight alignment, trigger squeeze. It was methodical, precise. I was more... enthusiastic. But I was learning.The whole base was a whirlwind of activity, and our little "unit" was swept up in it. We were assigned jobs, chores, and training. It was during one of these busy afternoons, while I was lugging a crate of surprisingly heavy lightbulbs to the storage closet, that I literally bumped i