Chapter 196

196 Foxes Among Foxes
Chapter 196 Foxes Among Foxes
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Theresa led Charlotte in a swift climb up the building. As soon as they reached the upper floors, a horde of zombies swarmed to the base of the structure, screeching and howling. Some of the child zombies were even hurled upward, clawing madly at the second–floor windows.
Inside, four or five middle–aged men and women greeted them warmly as they entered the apartment.
“Welcome, welcome!”
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen new faces around here.”
Theresa wanted to get a sense of the situation in this area, so she asked, “How many people are at your camp? Do you know how many other survivor camps are nearby?”
Before anyone could answer, a voice cut in.
“Are you… Charlotte?” The only middle–aged woman among them turned to Charlotte with wide–eyed surprise.
Charlotte froze at the sound of the voice, staring carefully at the woman before her. “Ms. Lisker?”
“Yes!” the woman exclaimed with delight.
Charlotte quickly turned to Theresa. “Theresa, that’s my old manager from before all this, Ms. Lisker.”
“Oh, one of us–that’s great. Susan, you entertain them for a bit, alright?” one of the middle–aged men said smoothly. He gave Susan Lisker a look and motioned for the others to follow him away. A sharp glint flickered in his otherwise shrewd, controlled gaze.
Susan immediately stepped forward with a friendly smile, pulling them over to sit down. “I really didn’t expect to run into you here, Charlotte! You were such a great worker–I never wanted to let you go. I was actually worried about you after the apocalypse started. So, where are you staying now? What brought you here? What about your family?”
Faced with her warm barrage of questions, Charlotte turned silently to Theresa, who spoke up instead. “Ms. Lisker, is it?”
“Yes, that’s me. And you, sweetheart? I saw you on your way up–you were cutting through those zombies like they were made of butter. You’re amazing! Where’d you learn to fight like that?”
Theresa didn’t smile at the compliment. Instead, she zeroed in on one detail–it meant Susan had been watching them for a while already.
Without a hint of suspicion, she casually took in their surroundings. They were in a second–floor lounge area. A sliding door led to a narrow corridor packed with room doors. Beyond that lay a first–floor open–air garden, though the snowstorm had long since wiped out anything that might’ve been growing there. Supplies were clearly tight.
She glanced at the men stationed near the glass door–none of them had revealed a thing so far. Meanwhile, Susan had spent the entire time trying to gather information from them.
“Oh, I’m not that great. It’s the blade that’s sharp.” Theresa smiled, taking the katana from her back and
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Chapter 196 Foxes Among Foxes
setting it down. “Anyone could do the same with it.”
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Susan’s eyes lit up the moment the weapon hit the table. “Wow, this is a beautiful piece. Mind if I take a look?”
“Go ahead.” Theresa pushed it toward her. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on.net
Charlotte stared, utterly thrown. Since when was Theresa this easygoing? Letting someone touch her weapon?! Normally, if anyone got that close without clearance, she’d have decked them. That’s just basic buffer zone protocol. No buffer zone, no survival. No wait– that’s not it. No buffer zone, no survivors left standing.Seriously, though, what the hell is she up to?
Across from them, Susan practically vibrated with excitement as she grabbed the katana. “I’ve got to really take a look at this. By the way, do you two have any companions?”
“No. Just the two of us. We ended up here by accident,” Theresa replied.
“Oh, don’t worry, we didn’t mean anything by it,” Susan said quickly, all eager reassurance. “We just figured if you had anyone else with you, we could try to bring them in too.”
Theresa’s smile deepened. Oh, please. Trying to play mind games with me? We’re both old foxes here.
That wasn’t an offer of help–it was fishing for how many teammates we’ve got.
“Well, since Charlotte knows you and you seem like a trustworthy person, I’ll just be honest.” Theresa suddenly wore a pained, heavy expression. “We actually escaped.”
Charlotte’s eyes went wide in shock.
“We came from a small camp not far from here,” Theresa continued solemnly. “The administrator there was a monster. He abused every girl he could get his hands on–none of us stood a chance. We worked to the bone every day and still had to put up with his gang of animals. Charlotte and I couldn’t take it anymore, so we ran.”
Charlotte stared at her, dumbfounded as Theresa spun an entire sob story out of thin air. Um … Theresa? Did you just switch to a Danielle Steel script?!