Chapter 223: The watchers were playing!
Warren was sure that the horsemen were mentioned somewhere in the bible. Or perhaps it was something he had seen in a fictional show. "I am sure that it was somewhere, the four horsemen of the apocalypse."
"I am going to goo....." Lisha started and stopped. "I forgot there is no more internet, and we are all stuck somewhere between the stone age and modern world."
"I am telling you," Warren started with a confident voice, "There are four horsemen on the apocalypse somewhere."
"That is the bible. How do you not know these this?" Rori tossed because.
Hadrian started shuffling a deck of cards. He looked at his mother and replied, "It’s because Warren always sleeps in church. And as soon as he became an independent adult, he stopped going to church."
"This apocalypse has no headless horsemen." Sunshine shared.
"If it did, they would be zombies." Lisha with certainty as if she had researched the subject.
As Sunshine accepted a card from Hadrian, she clarified for those who still had fantasies on the apocalypse, "No head less horse men, no zombies. No biblical or mythical creatures of any kind. Just mutant and mutated monsters, food scarcity and superhumans fighting for territory. Although the red disease does kind of make those affected look like zombies."
Lisha raised her head. She was quite sure that if they looked like zombies, then they were zombies. Maybe they just weren’t the flesh-eating kind of zombies. A zombie apocalypse made more sense than whatever the hell they were living in now.
Loud popping sounds came outside and everyone went still.
"Girl bubble." Lisha said in a terrified voice.
Those who were quick rushed to the window, terror in their eyes. All over the base, it was the same thing. Some people were running inside, and others were running outside.
When Sunshine looked at the bubble, she realized the watchers were the ones causing trouble. They were playing or jumping up and down on the bubble as if it was their private bouncing castle.
"Day, get the gel team to apply more before one or all of those watchers fall into the base." She said into the walkie-talkie.
The watchers really confused her. Their actions were unpredictable. Did they think this was their playground?
"I need a smoke." Hadrian whispered.
Lisha sighed. "What is the deal with those things? Are they deadly or not? We are in here, trembling at the sight of them and they are bouncing in snow on our sort of roof!!"
"Oh, do not doubt their deadliness or cunning." Sunshine told her. "I am always reminding everyone not to talk to them or provoke them. Just let them be because they are unpredictable."
One by one, they moved back to the living room center and started a new card game. Rori went to the kitchen to bake a cake.
More Quinn’s showed up to play games and eat, laughing until it clocked 9:00 p.m.
The kids were already yawning, and Dido Quinn was already sleeping on the soft carpet near the fireplace. The adults, however, were still in game mood. They were playing truth or dare, sniggering like college kids.
Sunshine had opted to drink one too many times and she was on her way to intoxication.
"We better get going, it’s getting late, and the kids should be in bed by now." Hades said.
His cousins let out the loudest disgruntled noises, they were still having fun.
"You are buzz kill cousin." Warren slurred and hiccupped. "The night is still young."
Hades tapped Warren’s back. "When you get a wife, you will understand why happily married men go home early."
Everyone burst into laughter.
Sunshine carried Castiel while Hades carried Earl who was fast asleep. Ariel took Sunshine’s hand, and they wished everyone a good night and went home.
It was straight to bed for the kids and business for the two adults. Both of them wanted Augustus’s business ended. Dinner had passed and Sunshine had not received the ashes she was promised so she was going to get them in person.
As the residents of the base locked their doors seeking comfort in their beds, the leaders entered the police station which was guarded tightly.
"Good evening, sir/ma’am." The soldiers greeted, remaining in their positions.
They nodded in response. Major Elio led them through the reinforced door, straight to the torture chamber which was in the basement of the station.
It smelled like blood, which told the story of Carson’s efforts to pry Augustus’s mouth open.
Hades felt his stomach coil tightly, a sickness creeping up his throat. If asked, honestly, he did not want to see a man being tortured but he had no choice but to follow and support his wife.
She was strong and he needed to be the same. His queasy stomach was not allowed to ruin the dependable image he had cultivated.
"I have to warn you; it is gruesome in there." Major Elio warned.
"Open the damn door." Sunshine ordered. She had seen worse things before.
When the steel door opened, and gust of still cool bloody air struck them. They could hear Carson loud and clear, threatening Augustus.
"The truth is, there is no good ending for you but, we may come to a compromise if you give us something useful." Carson paused, he paced from side to side, a knife gliding in-between his fingers. "Of course, I do not mean that we will let you go but we can keep you in here in the prison, food will be given to you once a day. What do you say?"
Augustus spat on the floor. "Go fuck yourself."
"Ah! I cannot do that Augustus; I like to fuck women."
Sunshine’s jaw dropped. She associated Carson with his sister Anna the nun, so his bluntness caught her off guard.
Hades moved to the observation room, where they could watch the last minutes of the interrogation in a more peaceful environment.
The two soldiers that were watching became more alert when Sunshine and Hades appeared.
Augustus’s figure was clearer on the monitor. He was slumped in a chair, his body nearly unrecognizable. His skin was a map of cuts and bruises, streaked with drying blood. Strips of tattooed fresh had been curved away, leaving raw wounds. His head dropped forward, sweat and blood dripping on the floor.
"All that and he still has some fight left in him." Hades stated.
Major Elio let out a deep sigh. "Unfortunately."
"Carson looks exhausted, it is time to wrap this up." Sunshine folded her hands.
Major Elio mentioned that thirty minutes remained of the time Carson was given.
Carson disappeared for half a minute and returned. He moved around slowly like a predator around its prey. In his hands he held a canister that was silver in color, with bold stretched letters that read: LIQUID NITROGEN. There was a hiss as he tested the nozzle. He was smiling, eyes glinting with madness, or perhaps with the certainty of a man who had broken many before.
"You know," Carson began, his tone almost conversational as he strapped on protective mask and goggles. "Once, I had a terrorist in my hands. He would not talk, and someone high up decided to invite the mad doctor to help. Have you ever heard about him?"