CHAPTER 67: THE WANDERING MIST.

Sunshine nodded.

"What is it?" Lisha asked. "I found it in a most unexpected place and decided to share it with the world."

While Sunshine and Nimo were both astounded, Nimo was the first to put it in words. "You posted this!"

Lisha nodded. A lot of people had a habit of underestimating, thinking of her as nothing more than a foolish blonde doll faced woman from a wealthy background. They did not realize that she was one of the smartest people in most rooms. She had graduated first class with honors in Information technology, specializing in software engineering, systems design and cybersecurity fundamentals.

She could build code and crash servers but she chose to play the lazy rich girl just because she could. Now that everyone was being forced to step up, she was putting her skills to work.

"I hacked into the national security data base and found a lot of videos that the government is scrubbing off the internet and hiding." She threw her hair back smugly, a proud expression settled on her face.

Once again, Sunshine and Nimo traded impressed gazes. Lisha Quinn was more than her smile, long nails and enthusiastic fashion diva.

"If you want to see more, I can show you before I share them with some friends that will put them out for the world to see." Her nails tapped the screen as she scrolled. "This mist has been showing up in a lot of places, mostly small towns and people are dropping dead. The government has managed to keep a lid on it and declare a media ban." Lisha scrolled upwards. "Here are the videos of the only survivor walking out of this mist at Fort Slide an army base or something like that." She tapped play.

Nimo had heard the stories and wished she had witnessed it in person. This was almost the same so she watched with maximum attention.

"Zoom in." She instructed Lisha.

Lisha did as told, focusing on the man walking out of the mist.

"So these are the burns that just disappeared after Carson was taken to the hospital?" Nimo’s gaze shifted to Sunshine.

Sunshine was was less attentive as she had seen multiple people normal and superhuman, walk through the mist. This to her was like watching someone walking out a mall on a normal day.

"Carson. Is that his name? Do you know him?" Lisha raised two questions, inquisitively gazing at Nimo.

Carson’s story was not Nimo’s to tell so she did not answer the question. When Sunshine remained equally silent, Nimo figured that she felt the same way. The less people knew about Carson, the better.

"I heard something about it from some friends from Fort Slide. That is where I was stationed. Could you bring up the lady’s video again?" Nimo gave the best answer she could think of and changed the subject.

They re-watched the video and Lisha found more that followed up after the mist faded. Soldiers had climbed aboard and taken the woman away.

"Secretary Ceaser has her, I am sure of it! She must be on a dissection table as we speak." Nimo spoke through pursed lips. "What ability do you think she awakened?"

Sunshine let out a soft murmur. "I don’t know, I can’t tell from the video. She looks like she in a daze, probably because her child has just died. Things will be really bad for everyone around her when she gets angry. Superhumans with rage are very dangerous, especially those with nature related abilities. Hopefully, she will take out Secretary Ceasar and save a lot of people grief."

She broke away from the cocoon of three and decided to head home. While others worked on the suits, she could assemble more weapons. Sunshine had this feeling that she might cross paths with Secretary Ceasar. If that happened, she needed to be ready.

Nimo ran after Sunshine and threw an arm around her shoulders. "You forgot to tell us that the mist moves! Like it leaves one place and goes to another."

Lisha fell into step on Sunshine’s right side. "It moves!" she said in a squeaky voice.

Sunshine placed her hands inside her pocket. "I did not forget in fact I included it in the brochure and it can be found in the small book Owen wrote about the mist from some of the stories I told him. If you go to the library, you will find it.

The mist is a wanderer, it moves with the aid of air currents. The Southern areas will be the ones most affected by it but it will come to us as well, just not as thick. The trouble is the mist which moves with people, on their breath, especially in cold weather. That kind of mist is the one which infects people like a plague." She explained.

It was what had infected the town where Carson’s sister had been. One infected person had infected another and another and in the end, the entire tow was taken over.

"So what do we do?" Nimo asked.

"Masks and drugs. Unfortunately, we need to go into the mist to get the mutated herbs which make those pills. In the end, we need the mist to survive." leaned towards the fingerprint scanner and placed her hands down.

It scanned once, confirmed her identity and the doors opened. She walked in and Nimo followed but Lisha did not. She headed back to the communications room to share the message on the importance of masking up with the world and the base.

"Any news on Alfred?" Sunshine asked her friend as they waited for the elevator to open.

Nimo’s eyes deflated and her body settled into a sudden stillness. "I told him to wait but he says that he is taking a flight back tomorrow, all I can do now is hope for his safe return."

Sunshine’s heart succumbed to guilt and she opened her mouth to come clean. "Nimo..."

The elevator opened but alarms went off in the compound at that very moment and both women run back outside.

"Unknown vehicles approaching, drone scans have detected a large number of weapons." A voice anxiously reported through the radio.

Sunshine and Nimo quickly jumped into a car and drove to the first gate.

A team of armed soldiers was standing outside the gates, weapons turned on cars whose engines had stopped running. One group was already inspecting the cars, using dogs to sniff for explosives and other dangerous things.

The dogs were antsy, desperate to get back inside and they were barking and growling, walking in circles.

"This is Gate Bravo, Sergeant Abrams reporting, We have three civilian vehicles asking for entry-license plates 2Z9-KPX, 1G8-JNG and 0Z7-LML. The van is loaded with weapons, drivers appear to be non compliant but have not responded with hostility. Situation unknown but potentially dangerous. Request immediate backup and lockdown procedures. Over."

Sunshine walked out of the small gate with a gun and mega phone. "You have ten seconds to identify yourselves or we start shooting."

One by one, those in the trucks stepped out, they seemed like ordinary people, women and children mostly. The man in the front vehicle stepped out and lowered his mask.

"I am here to meet Hades Quinn." The man spoke loudly.

"Poncho?" Sunshine lowered her gun.

Poncho lowered his hands but raised them again when a soldier grunted. His eyes however remained on Sunshine. "Thank God I found you Mrs. Quinn. Sorry for dropping in unexpected but I need some help. Not for free of course."

"Pull the gates." Sunshine ordered motioning for the cars to drive in.

The longer they stood outside, the more exposed they were. Once inside, the group was taken to the information center where Hades found them.

"Poncho?" He was surprised just like Sunshine had been, to see the arms dealer. "What the hell are you doing here?"