CHAPTER 108: ELIO SEES ALL.

The Fortress four team was having a smooth sailing journey so far, no dangers had been encountered except for the occasional slipping of tires on acid-slick gravel. Every time it occurred, hearts palpitated in fear but once they overcame it smoothly, they would make jokes and laugh.

Siegfried was making only dirty jokes, and he was always the first to chime in after every slip. One such slip had just happened, and Nimo was preparing her ears to listen to something stupid.

"So did you guys hear about the rookie who..."

Major Elio groaned. "Siegfried, come on. We have ladies listening to this and we don’t want them listening to filth."

"Since when are you all about girl power?" Siegfried replied.

"Since his wife gave him a daughter." Corporal Jae Mitchell replied. "I was not there for the baby shower, but I heard he got dizzy as soon as he saw pink balloons."

"Will you all keep your eyes on the road. We are not safely hidden away behind the walls or inside the bubble. Anything can happen out here." Elio warned them through the channel. His eyes were fixed on the road ahead and he was tired of counting bones.

O’Toole let out a laugh filled with excitement. "Lighten up Major, think of this as an adventure."

Acid rain hissed against windshield and evaporated.

"Meteors ahead." Major Elio shared through the channel. "Everyone should follow carefully and Siegfried, no racetrack kind of maneuvers. This is not a need for speed movie."

O’Toole freed one hand and patted the Major’s shoulder. "Relax Elio, we have madam president and her badass guns."

Elio did not relax; in fact he just became even more tense. Sunshine was one single person; she could not be relied on to be everywhere and control everything at the same time.

Major Elio let out a loud sigh his eyes sliced through the glass, seeing farther than most scopes could register.

"Shit!" He cursed loudly, raising the walkie-talkie to his mouth. "President Sunshine come in."

Sunshine appeared from the space upon hearing a distressed call.

"Yes, Major I am here."

"The road up to Wescott town is half eaten." He placed binoculars over his eyes so that O’Toole could not question him about how he knew that. If his friend asked, he was planning to lie that these were special binoculars gifted to him by Sunshine.

"I see collapsed bridges half a kilometer away. There is also movement, multiple animal shaped creatures." He reported.

His words prompted O’Toole to squint his eyes and look harder and yet he saw nothing of what Elio described.

In the other cars behind them, it was just the same and it did not end there. The comms officer that was manning the drone which was flying just ahead of the vehicles was also confused.

"What the hell is he talking about?" Phillip Harg asked.

"Are you guys pranking us?" Siegfried asked.

As they ventured further ahead more slowly, mist appeared. It seemed to be coming up the earth after it was burned by acid rain.

Sunshine did not have Elio’s eyesight, but she was coming to a conclusion that these were no ordinary animals moving about in the acid rain. It was watchers or mutated animals. If they were mutant monsters, they would be attacking already.

"Suni you do not think that they are...." Nimo swallowed deeply, her words trailing off.

"Mutated animals, yes I do, we should take a detour. There is another route that is longer but perhaps safer." Sunshine suggested.

Nimo’s free hand massaged her gauntlet, inside was an old Polaroid of her and her brother taken when they were younger, she wished that they had spent more time with him in these last few years or taken more pictures at least. But they had both been too busy. They would see each other five times a year, mostly on holidays and they would talk maybe six times a month.

As Sunshine shared a warning for everyone to be on high alert for mutated animals, Nimo tried to figure out why she had grown apart from Alfred.

The rain intensified as they neared the first forest ridge a winding stretch of warped road weaving through a dead sunflower field. They had been on the road for three hours now.

"It’s raining much harder outside of Westbrook." Nimo commented.

Nodding, Sunshine agreed. "I think it is a side effect of the mist. More mist means that you feel the disasters more intensely. Maybe I am wrong, I don’t know. It could also be the meteors. The more there are in an area, the worse it is." She inspected the devastation through the binoculars.

The cars turned and drove through a dead pine field. All the trees were gone but one, a mutated tree that stood taller than the mountains nearby.

"I don’t think pine trees are supposed to grow that tall." Major Elio commented. His eyes were glued to their surroundings. Pools of steaming acid water had collected in holes in the field, and it was bubbling softly.

"Obstacle ahead." Elio alerted them."Collapsed tree branches ahead. They have not melted but they just collapsed and turned black. I don’t know if the vehicles are strong enough to push through."

Sunshine tapped her comm. "All vehicles stop. Let us first assess the situation." She told them.

Two of the soldiers in the truck at the back stepped out with synchronized precision, reacting from muscle memory. Upon standing under the corrosive down pour and recalling what king of mission they were undertaking, they swiftly scrambled back inside.

Another that was judging them with his eyes was already preparing a decontamination hoarse. Sunshine was focused on clearing their path that she did not see the two soldiers make a mistake.

Sunshine knew there were two ways to deal with the obstacle ahead. One was to use the dragonoid and have them explode in a fiery, radiation mist and the other was to use her power. If she froze the trees, she could shatter them to pieces like glass with ease.

While using her powers seemed to be the easy option, she was not eager to share it with everyone just yet.

Sunshine opened the door of the car and stepped out, dragonoid in hand. Her mind was made up.

"What are you doing?" Major Elio’s voice came through the walkie-talkie.

Sunshine did not reply.

Nimo jumped out of the car as well. She had to watch Sunshine’s six in case something jumped out of the blurry mist ahead.

Major Elio cursed and he stepped out of the car as well. His eyes widened as soon as he looked at the mist. "Something is coming, an animal, and it is very fast."

Sunshine raised her gun. Even without Elio’s warning, she could hear the heavy footsteps on the ground. Her ears had been sharpened by the apocalypse which she lived through. Whatever was coming had four feet and it could growl.

Mutant or mutated, it was one of those.