All Chapters of APOCALYPSE QUEEN: LEVEL UP OR DIE: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I didn't bother making coffee. I didn't need the jittery, false energy of caffeine anymore. Instead, I stood by the kitchen island and watched the bread knife. It was a simple serrated blade, but under the influence of the LUS, it seemed to vibrate with a low-frequency hum that only I could feel.[Predator's Mark: Level 1 Initializing.] LUS whispered. [Target proximity detected: 2.2 miles. Estimated arrival: 14 minutes. Recommendation: Secure the perimeter. Assets at risk.]I looked around my apartment. It was a clean space, too clean. It was the home of a woman who spent her weekends volunteering and her evenings worrying about whether Jason felt supported. It was a room full of vulnerabilities.I walked to the hallway closet and pulled out the heavy tool kit Jason had borrowed and never returned. I didn't need him to return it anymore. I knew where he kept it in his trunk. But I had my own spares.I began to move with a liquid grace that shouldn't have belonged to a human body. I wa

The knock came before I'd even decided what to do with Jason and Cami still standing in my kitchen. Three raps. Even. Unhurried. The knock of someone who already knew I was going to answer.[Intervention: LUS spoofed the request.] The system hummed in my marrow. [Strategic Placement initiated. The Dividend has arrived early. Don't waste the opportunity, Host.]"Dividend," I repeated under my breath. Something in my chest went tight and warm at the same time, the way debt does right before it turns into profit."Are you expecting someone?" Jason asked. There was an edge in his voice now, thin and territorial, the tone of a man who had lost his footing and wanted it back by any means available. It was almost funny. An hour ago he'd shoved me into the street. Now he sounded like a man guarding a door that had never belonged to him."I wasn't," I said. "But I think I am now."I opened it.Ronan Vance stood in the hallway looking exactly like the man from the future and nothing like him at

The front door didn't just rattle. It groaned as the wood began to splinter under a weight that didn't care about physics.[Warning: Hostility at the Threshold,] LUS whispered, the voice now a low, predatory purr. [Asset 'Ronan' is prepared for traditional combat. Recommendation: Exceed expectations. Finalize the Wraith Pulse calibration.]I didn't wait for the door to fail. I didn't wait for Ronan to give the order. I stepped forward, the obsidian knife held low, and pulled the deadbolt myself."Audrey, wait, "I wasn't waiting for anything anymore.The door swung inward, and the thing in the hallway lunged. It was the neighbor from 4C, a man who'd once complained about my music being too loud. Now he was just a geography of gray skin and unhinged hunger.Ronan raised his handgun, but I was already in the arc.[Wraith Pulse: ACTIVE.]The Flash hit me, but this time it wasn't a memory of death. It was a blueprint of the kill. I saw the heat signature of the creature's core, the fragil

The ER entrance was a graveyard of abandoned gurneys and shattered glass. The sterile, fluorescent hum of the hospital was punctuated by a wet tearing sound coming from the ICU stairwell.[Warning: Elite Entity Detected.] LUS snarled, the red text bleeding across my vision. [Class: Abyssal Guardian. Level: 12. Strength: 45. Defense: High. Siphon Resistance: 85%.]"Ronan," I breathed, sliding to a halt behind a triage desk. "It's not a Stalker. It's an Elite."Ronan was already down, his rifle steady against the desk's edge. "I see it. My system's flagging a hardened core. Conventional rounds won't crack it fast enough." He glanced at me, his eyes cold and clinical. "We have to link. Dual-System Overload. It's the only way to bypass the resistance."[Synergy Proposal: Synchronized Strike.] [Cost: 50% Stamina.] [Requirement: Direct Physical Contact with Asset 'Ronan'.]"Do it," I said, reaching out and gripping his shoulder.The contact was like touching a live wire. My Wraith Pulse did

The hospital didn't just go dark. It died. The hum of the backup generators gave one final, mechanical wheeze before the surgical wing was swallowed by a black so thick it felt like velvet.[Warning: Emergency Power Failure.] LUS's text flared a violent, emergency red. [Acoustic Signature Detected: Hive Horde. Proximity: Imminent. Objective: REACH THE GARAGE.]"Don't move." Ronan's voice came out of the dark, low and dangerous. I heard the snick of a tactical light being mounted to his rifle. A beam of white light cut through the gloom, revealing a hallway that was already beginning to crawl with gray static."I don't plan on it," Thorne's voice was too calm, too close. I felt his fingers brush my arm, sliding down to my wrist. He wasn't grabbing me for safety. He was counting. "Pulse is 110. Pupil dilation suggests a shift to the ultraviolet spectrum. Audrey, are you seeing the ledger again?"[Dividend Synergy Alert: Competitive Proximity Detected.] [Dividend 'Ronan' (The Shield) and