CHAPTER 81: ACID RAIN ARRIVED.

After a brief conversation with Hades, Sunshine finished preparing the sandwiches. She was just putting them away when the lights suddenly flickered and died at once. Sunshine raised her eyes and rushed to a window. If the power was out, there was only one explanation: acid rain.

The solar power that they had invested millions in was supposed to kick in immediately, but it did not and this worried her. Something had gone wrong, and it needed to be fixed immediately.

As she was rushing out, Hades was rushing in through the door. They nearly collided.

"The power has gone." he confirmed.

"I know," she answered. "I am rushing out to check the control hub. We installed solar systems with automatic tracking and battery backups. The system is not supposed to fail."

Hades followed her down the emergency stairs to the basement where the control hub was. They switched on torches and huge charged lights which allowed them to take a look at what the problem was.

"System analyze." she said.

The system did a quick scan.

[Fried transfer relay, use a manual override or install an Automatic bypass.]

"Automatic bypass." She answered.

A manual override would mean climbing up to the roof or exiting the base. Those were not good options at the moment because she did not know if the bubble would hold up against acid rain.

While she was communicating with the system, Hades was flipping switches with a frown on his face. He had no clue where to begin with the fixing.

"Can you fix it?" He asked Sunshine.

Sunshine nodded. "Five or six minutes. You should go out and show your face for reassurance. People are about to be panicking."

Hades looked around. No matter how good the lighting was, this was a basement and basements were always creepy.

"I will be fine. Whatever is hiding down here is probably more afraid of me than I am of it." She laughed.

Her hands were already busy, pulling out wires and cutting others.

"I don’t like this." He said in a wary voice.

Sunshine rolled her eyes. "Hades, I lived outside in the last apocalypse. I hunted and I was hunted. This basement is very safe compared to the things I experienced. Now go and ensure that the fortress is not set on fire. Keep an eye on the bubble and notify me if it fails in any way."

He was unwilling but none the less left because they both had duties to fulfill. While she was fulfilling hers, he would do his.

She was right as always. Outside, residents had gathered, most were hurdling nervously like chicks in the rain. Some were hugging their jackets and others were covering their children with blankets.

Lisha was so relieved to see Hades that she nearly hugged him. "Mouthquake is causing trouble again in the second wall. If we are going to throw someone out, I propose that we begin with her. She complains about every little thing that happen."

The lights suddenly came on. Everyone noticed because the information center lit up and the screens came to life.

Hades quickly moved over and announced the temporary loss of power but urged everyone to remain calm because it was being fixed.

****

Meanwhile, Damien and the other survivors had found their way to the gate outside the next base which happened to be Jon’s. Jon had only managed to get two walls completed and the third one had been abandoned halfway.

The survivors found their way past the third wall and reached the second one. Just like Fortress Four, Jon’s wall had mostly similar security measures. Cameras above and armed men with weapons.

Before the survivors reach the gates, the armed men started shooting through small holes in the wall. Five survivors fell to the ground, dead. The rest turned around and started running. This base was not meant for them.

But there were others. This mountain alone had seven bases. Someone was bound to take them in.

"I think we should first give up on the bases." Damien said. "There is a village somewhere on the mountain. I remember because we visited it once. We should go to the village first. We will find our way into one of these bases sooner or later."

He had become the leader of the group somehow. They all followed him with their hearts beating rapidly.

Jon watched the camera feed until the survivors faded away. Then he grabbed his wine and returned to the table to join his friends and family that were enjoying a game of poker.

"You will never believe who just showed up here seeking shelter. Damien fuckin Quinn."

Jon’s brother Silas looked up, blowing thick cigar smoke in the air. "Hades’s jackass cousin that is always talking shit about him."

Jon nodded. "The wannabe who was always claiming that he is a better businessman than Hades but could not come up with a single business plan unless he stole what Hades threw out."

"He must be one of the Quinn’s that took a chunk of money and abandoned the Quinn family when rumors of bankruptcy were swirling." Someone said.

Jon’s grandfather said, "Those Quinn’s are too soft. If the sell outs were Kingsley’s we would have fed them to sharks as soon as they started acting entitled without contributing to growth of the family coffers."

"But I must give Hades Quinn credit." Jon said as Trevor lit a cigar for him. "He did not let them onto his base even though they are family. A traitor in good times cannot be trusted in hard times."

"Here, here." Someone slurred.

Jon winced. "If they go to Cory’s base, they will die immediately. He planted landmines outside his wall, all the way down to the road. Any survivors showing up there will not make it back down the mountain."

Back at Fortress four, Sunshine had finished fixing the problem with the solar power and earned herself a few points.

She was now looking up at the sky through a pair of binoculars. A thick mist was covering the sky, not the same mist as the deadly one but the mist which appeared before acid rain started in her last life.

It shimmered like morning dew and assured her that the apocalypse was going on as expected, there was no other change to the order of the disasters. The rain was coming down in drizzles now and it would be in that state for around a week. The acid rain had not poured down in showers that resulted in floods. It had been slow but deadly, increasing slowly until it came to an abrupt halt.

"The power is back." Nimo told her.

Sunshine looked at her friend briefly and looked at the clouds again. "It will be on and off for a week at least and then completely off."

"Why?" Nimo asked.

"Acid rain." Sunshine pointed to the cloud of mist in the sky above. "Small drops that eat away at metal and eventually cause shorting and well...." She made a sound of something electric being fried.

"Is there no hope of patching up what it ruins?" Nimo asked

Sunshine shook her head. Patching was not enough. Nobody had the resources to patch up daily and even if they did, when the volume of the rain increased, everything would just crumble.

"It is going to eat away at the world and corrode all it touches and turn everything green toxic. I hope the soil in here survives. If it is infected, we won’t be able to grow crops for a very long while."

She closed her eyes briefly and recalled the scene in her last life when the acid rain came. People had blisters on their skin, rashes and swellings. They looked inhumane but they were not infectious. But secretary Ceasar had called for a mass cleansing. If you saw such a person, you had the right to kill them.