Chapter 252: About the snake.
"So what do we call you?" Warren asked lightly. "Steel man. Iron man?"
"Just Greg." He answered.
Some people laughed.
The laughter that came broke the mild tension. But deep beneath, nobody relaxed. They all knew that Greg had some questions to answer. Like where he had been all this while. After an intrusion by a marauder, they didn’t trust anyone that stumbled into the base looking for help.
Sunshine personally did not like the man. He had panicked and made a stupid mistake. Instead of dying, he was lucky to awaken and the first thing he did upon returning was to abandon his old base and upgrade.
Her reason for keeping him around was simple. She wanted to know what he had seen on the mountain. After that, she would ask Elio to keep an eye on him.
Greg exhaled, visibly tired. "There is something more important that I have to tell you." He started.
Sunshine raised an eyebrow. Was Greg going to answer her unvoiced questions? What a pleasant surprise. "Go on."
Greg swallowed, his hands tightening. "I thought I was dead for sure but somehow, I woke up. I was being dragged away by something...."
"The snake?" Warren chimed in. "Was it the snake?"
Greg blinked continuously. "You know about it already!"
"Tell us what you know first." Hades told him. "What did you see? Where was this snake taking you? How big is it?"
"Big....very big, A giant....it was huge, bigger than anything living I have ever seen in my life. It was not normal. It had thousands of tiny legs, like centipede but longer and sharper." His face looked nearly green, like he wanted to vomit at the memory.
A murmur rose, rippling through them. This was the first they were hearing a detailed description of this creature.
He continued, his tone darkening. "I did not really know what was happening at first because I was disoriented. It took me a while to realize that I was wrapped between its tail and no matter how I struggled, I could not escape.
The more afraid I was, the tighter that tail seemed to wrap around me. Then, instinct took over or desperation. Frankly I cannot explain how my first change happened. My body turned to metal before I knew it and I punched it hard enough to cause some damage. The tail loosened and I got free. Then I run without looking back." He sighed. "I don’t know how long I was running for or where I was heading to. I got lost a few times and made it out of the forest in the morning."
Silence remained in the room for a while as they digested his story. All the pieces fit together nicely and there was nothing to doubt about it. Greg was lucky to be alive.
Warren leaned forward and suddenly slapped the table. "This is it!" He shouted.
"This is what?" Hades asked, already not liking what Warren was going to suggest. His cousin always preferred the easiest yet most dangerous ways of doing things.
Excitement blazed in Warren’s eyes. "We find the snake, Greg’s metallic punch makes it unconscious and we chop it’s head."
"What if it just grows another head." Sunshine asked.
Sister Anna made a sign of the cross. "It can do that! It sounds like a beast from hell."
"Some mutated animals can regenerate." Sunshine told them.
Warren however was not giving up anytime soon. "Then we chop it to pieces thousands of them. Double kill, triple kill, penta kill."
Some people were not familiar with the terms he was using. Hades was rolling his eyes and Hadrian was scowling.
Sunshine let out a weary sigh. "Warren this is not a video game."
Her tone silenced him immediately. She stood slowly, her expression thoughtful, but her eyes, beneath the calm were worried.
"It attacked a random person," she said quietly. "Someone it did not mark or had a grudge against. If that is the case, then it followed us in search of shelter and this means the other bases are not as safe from its attack as I thought."
Knowing the nonchalant nature of the billionaires, Hades said that he would send a warning to the neighboring bases. "They needed to be on the look out and come out of their base less often. They don’t have any real business here anyway."
There was a collective nod.
"I guess we can end the meeting now." Sunshine declared.
Hades rose from his chair. "That is it for today, let us get back to our individual duties. When we come up with a plan to defeat the snake, we will open up the topic again. Keep this under wraps, it does not leave the room."
Father Nicodemus clapped calling for their attention. "Do not forget to convene tonight at the church."
"Father why? What is happening?" Sunshine asked.
Sister Anna smiled. "It is St. Michael’s day."
Sunshine was confused.
The priest explained further. "He is the patron saint of protection. I know that faith is weak in the apocalypse but belief is important. Those of you that can make it to mass, please attend. It will be very inspiring to the people if they see the faces of their leaders there."
"We will try not to let you down father." Hades answered.
Sunshine was already recalling her last trip to the church. It had not gone very pleasantly.
Chairs scraped softly as they stood. Sunshine turned to Lisha before leaving. "Register Greg into the system, he is to be given the privileges that our superhumans enjoy."
Greg raised a triumphant fist. "Thank you ma’am."
Lisha nodded, smiled at Greg and motioned him to follow her. "You are going to enjoy your stay here. The more battles you engage in to save the base the more privileges you will receive....." her voice echoed as they walked away.
Sunshine stood up, for now she had a person that she had not met yet. A person that happened to be a superhuman.
"I am going to check on Nusra." she told Hades.
"I will go see Morris about all the possible hiding places for the snake and marauders." He looked at Elio. "I will take him as well."
Nimo waited until the couple separated to approach Sunshine. "To the medic bay I guess?"
"Yeah, I want to check on Castiel." Sunshine replied.
Nimo offered to drive, on the way she told Sunshine about Nusra. "Her power is super hearing."
A frown came to form on Sunshine’s brows. "Really? Another one I don’t like and yet I must co-exist with."
Nimo laughed. "You have to accept the good and the bad."
"Do I have a choice?" Sunshine asked. "I am hungry again."
She waved her hand and took two burritos from the space, giving one to Nimo. They talked and ate until Nimo parked the car outside the medic bay in the inner wall.
Sunshine went to Nusra’s room first. To her surprise, Alfred was there, reading a book to Nusra very loudly.
"Do you ever rest?" Sunshine asked him.
Alfred smiled. "More than I am actually used to." He closed the book. "I need real work."
Sunshine turned to Nusra, greeted and asked how she was fairing.
"As you can see, I have one leg now." Nusra forced a smile on her face. "I guess I got the wrong superpower. My hearing is also messed up."
Sunshine knew exactly why this was happening to Nusra. It was because of the resonance shields that they had planted all over the base after finding out about Tracy Kingsley’s super hearing abilities. "You still have your abilities but there is a a super human like you next door that was eavesdropping on us so I put up resonance shields to block her."
Nusra sighed in relief. "So I am not totally broken, good to know that I am still useful." She looked at her leg and smiled sadly. "I am not sure I want to be helpful, however. The last people I helped left me for dead."