CHAPTER 130: LOST HOPE.

Major Elio was the first to see it from a distance, a snake with feather and glass like skin. It was the as long as the hallway itself and dragging its swollen belly on the floor.

"Snake, weird fucking snake incoming."

Sunshine turned where he was looking and yelling. "Everyone move back, get uncle Patrick out of the hole." While she was commanding others to fall back, she was racing ahead.

She did not want the snake to reach them as she planned to freeze and smash it. The trouble was, her soldiers were not listening to the command. They would not let her run and face the mutated snake on her own.

Elio and some of the others were running after her. Sunshine didn’t waste time waiting for them. She flung her hand casually and the acid rain which had gathered on the floor swept over the head of the snake and froze it immediately.

With her hammer, before the others could reach and see the ice, she smashed the head into little pieces.

Neither the soldiers, nor the snake understood what had happened, only Major Elio did.

Major Elio tugged on Sunshine’s arm. "There is something here, I don’t know what or where but I can feel it watching us. We have an injured bleeding man, hungry mutated animals and mist in here. We should go."

His instincts were telling him that if they did not leave now, most of them would not leave at all.

"I agree." She said slowly, looking around because she could also feel the eerie eyes watching them. "Its probably a mutated snake, one with intelligence. It will remember us."

Major Elio felt chills crawling up his skin. To be remembered by a mutated snake, that did not sound pleasant at all. "What happens if it remembers us?"

"It hates us and hunts us to death." She told him.

She would have gone after it if she was alone, but she was not. The safety of others had be considered. As they turned and left, Patrick was hauled up, groaning in pain.

"How bad is it?" Nimo asked nervously.

Kerri injected him with a tetanus shot while O’Toole mashed a croast leaf and another soldier worked on stopping the bleeding.

"Its deep but not severed," Kerri told Nimo "He needs to get to a dry place so that I can examine the wound closely. Right now, he is at a risk of acid rain getting into it."

"Go now." Sunshine barked at them. "The rest of us must finish the search. And someone get those scavengers to reveal if Alfred was here or not."

The team split up and those searching moved forward weaving through the half collapsed back wing. Every corner was another gamble.

They came across a meteorite fragment that still glowed faintly, it’s heat warping the air. There was a mist coming from it, the same mist which turned humans superhuman, killed others, brought sickness and provided passage to mutant monsters.

"Crap, the mist is not a good sign." Sunshine alerted them. "We should turn back, the rest ahead is a dead end anyway."

They walked in another direction and found two scavengers standing over the bodies of three civilians. One more was picking through their clothes, searching for valuables.

One looked up grinning. "You should also strip or you will join them. If you don’t we will throw you into the snake pit."

They didn’t smile for long as O’Toole shot them dead on the spot. Not a single person said a word.

Time was running out, Sunshine could feel the building shifting, groaning with each movement. She didn’t know when but she knew this whole place would sink soon.

Finally in what was once had been part of the pantry, they found a trail: muddy footprints, broken furniture, two dead snakes and crumbs on the floor.

A man sat in the corner, weeping. In his hands was a knife which he was holding to his wrists like he was about to cut himself.

"Hey." O’Toole barked.

The man looked up with a dead look in his eyes and said, "I have nothing for you to steal and if you are going to shoot me, then do it quickly. You will be saving me the trouble as I am about to end it all anyway. I cannot live in such a world." He said to them.

Nimo let out a shaky breath and showed him Alfred’s picture. "Have you seen him?"

The man squinted. "Alfred."

Nimo’s heart skipped a beat.

The man continued. "I met him here, we hid inside the underground basement with the others when the meteors fell. After that, some left while others remained behind. We thought this place was safe but it is hell." Softly he added, "The whole world is hell.

"And this man...did he stay or leave?" Nimo asked with little patience.

The man shrugged. "I do not know."

Nimo’s voice cracked behind her. "What do you mean you do not know!" She shouted at the man, frustrated.

Sunshine opened her mouth to say something_ but Nimo stepped away, shaking her head, tears streaking the grimaced of her face. "We have risked everything! our lives and for what? For an I don’t know! My uncle might lose his leg and Philip could die for an I don’t know!!"

The silence that followed was heavier than the collapsing walls.

They had nothing. No Alfred. No answers. Overall, the trip had been a waste of time.

They heard more growling from animals.

"We cannot stay here for long Nimo, we have to leave. He is not here." Sunshine patted her back.

Nimo did not move at first, she just stood staring at the hallway as if willing her brother to walk out of it. "Damn you Alfred." She kicked nothing but air.

They began to walk out of the hotel with fewer bullets, and injured man and a growing hole where hope used to be.

The team stumbled out of the ruined back wing and some of them went to the back of the truck which was a temporary medic bay with two patients. Patrick’s leg was being treated and every once in a while, he whimpered.

Nimo was still looking back at the hotel with burning eyes like she was accusing it of failing to reveal the whereabouts of her brother.

"Are we leaving that man behind?" O’Toole asked.

Sunshine replied, "He has been living in that hotel for too long. We don’t know how much mist he has inhaled."

O’Toole wanted to ask what they would have done if it was Alfred. Would Sunshine have said the same thing? He sighed. What did he know? He was just a soldier and she was the leader of the base.

They started climbing back into their vehicles and something stopped them. A deep, groaning roar, like earth was yawning.

They all turned in unison. The Majestic pearl shuddered, dust blowing from shuttered windows. The back half, the last part still standing sagged inward, its rusted beams twisting before snapping with sharp, metallic screams.

"Bloody hell." Major Elio murmured.

Nimo sat frozen, her face pale. She had a little hope after they found Alfred’s pocket watch. But now her lips trembled as her hope was buried with the rest of the ruins.

Sunshine walked back to where Nimo was still standing outside their vehicle and firmly grasped Nimo’s arms. "Neems, there is something I have been hiding from you and now it is time for me to come clean."