Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 417: Search for Paula.
Ten registration points were spread out through the town. Food stands and fires for cooking were lit. More supply trucks rolled into the town, accompanied by the kids’ squad in their swat gear!
As Sunshine watched people gape at them, she could not help shaking her head. She had long resigned herself to their determination to make significant contributions despite their ages.
It was impossible to miss the looks of admiration from other children their ages. She had a feeling that Ariel would be getting more applications soon.
He saw her, smiled and waved.
She waved back at him and took a sip of water.
"You better have more unwanted children wherever you got little Aladora from." Nimo said as she joined her by the truck.
She opened the door on the driver’s side and hopped inside, sitting while facing outside. Sunshine moved and stood between Nimo’s legs that were swinging.
"We both know that the odds of finding the missing children alive in this apocalypse are really low." Nimo added to her previous words.
Sunshine sighed. "They don’t need to know that Neems. Without hope they will live like shells. Some might even make drastic decisions. But who is to say that they will not be reunited with their children two, three or seven years in future? Do you remember Natalie Bennett’s story?"
Nimo rested her hands on Sunshine’s shoulders. "How can I forget? She used to sit two rows behind us. Went missing on her way to school at the age of twelve and Babel city was turned upside down. Mom would not let me walk to school on my own until I graduated high school."
Sunshine recalled the missing posters. Natalie’s face was in all the papers. It was on the news every night for a year and then once a month for the following six years. Her parents had quit their jobs and spent their savings and time searching for her for seven years.
She was finally found at the age of eighteen. Her aunt had sold her to a childless couple overseas. A retired detective happened to be on vacation on the island when he saw her and grew suspicious.
He poked around, used technology to age up Natalie’s pictures and solved the case. Her parents had arrived on the island before DNA even identified her as their missing daughter.
The reunion had been all over the news.
"Sometimes, it can take a while." Sunshine said softly.
Nimo squeezed Sunshine’s shoulders. "Not every story has a happy ending."
"I know." Sunshine took another sip of water. A dark scowl marked her face.
****
In the drift lands of the Javed desert, the sun arrived quietly that afternoon, its pale light crawling over dunes that never stayed in the same shape for more than a day.
The wind carried sand like soft whispers across the settlement, but no one paid attention to the beauty of the desert anymore. Not when superhumans were still falling from the sky like shooting stars, and not when the mutated animals prowled restlessly beyond the fences, riled up and ready to attack the moment the watchers dropped them.
The people of Javed had lost too many lives to those beasts_ bones buried in sand that shifted too often for graves to hold names.
If not for the grain silos and water reservoirs, that could not be moved, most people would have abandoned the settlement long ago, including Heath and his family.
Inside one of the houses that smelled of alcohol and dust, Arwin was lifting weights. His body was finally healing, his mind finally clear.
That morning, during a quiet, somber breakfast, he had lifted his head and announced in a steady voice that he was leaving the desert to search for Paula.
The spoon had slipped from his mother’s fingers and clattered softly. His father had been unable to hide his disapproval. He had tossed the knife onto the table with a sharp clink and glared at him.
"You are still harboring that dumb idea! I already lost one child. I will not lose another!" Heath’s voice had cracked at the end, revealing something raw beneath the anger.
But Arwin had snapped back immediately, leaning forward, eyes blazing. "It’s funny, isn’t it? How you have all given up so easily. But Paula_ she’s, my twin. I know that she’s alive. I feel it in my blood, my heart and spirit."
His mother had inhaled shakily, her voice soft and trembling as she reminded him that there were too many things that could go wrong out there, too many beasts, too many watchers, too many hostile superhumans, marauders, hungry angry people, too many unknown territories formed. She told him he would be dead long before he found Paula.
Arwin had clenched his jaw and reminded them he was a superhuman_ one of the best if you asked him. His ability was still growing, and his body could withstand injuries normal humans couldn’t.
And then he shared that he was not going alone. Eric Rudolf, superhuman that had been grabbed from Westbrook Mountain was going with him. He had recognized two of the watchers and told him they were always in Westbrook.
His father had scoffed loudly. "That’s it? That’s your grand plan? Just the two of you are going into the wilderness towards the mountains that are thousands of miles away?"
But Arwin had continued on, sharing that Alena was joining the expedition as well, plus two other superhumans dropped from the West, picked up from different places.
His determination had won over his father’s anger. For once, his father had given in and allowed him to have his way with something. He had even offered help in the form of twelve mercenaries.
They were some of his best battle-hardened desert fighters who had survived the worst mutated beast assaults and knew every dune like the back of their hands.
And not just that, he had offered cash too. A heavy reward to anyone along the way who provided information and helped bring Paula home alive.
His mother had wiped her eyes with the corner of her scarf, trying_ and failing_ to hide her trembling relief and fear. He could still see the sorrow in her eyes. She was already grieving him, in addition to grieving Paula. To her, they were both dead.
And yet, she had touched his face gently, as though memorizing the warmth of him. "Come back," she had whispered. "Please... both of you come back."
His father had not been as emotional. He had stayed where he was, sitting at the table and clutching a fork. He had looked on with a mixture of pride and terror. Losing Paula had broken him in ways he didn’t know how to show. Yet he forced himself to finally nod stiffly, giving approval through clenched teeth.
Arwin put down the weights and exhaled loudly. It was not that he was not afraid, because he was. But he could not take another day of sitting around, wondering where his sister was and watching his mother cry.
He put his weights in his bag and took a shower, probably the last for a while. After dressing in lighter clothing, he grabbed his bags and stepped out of the room.
Two hours later, weapons were checked and bags were stuffed into armored jeeps. Eric Rudolf adjusted the straps on his back, his blond hair catching the sun, eyes narrowed on a campus that was pointing in the West.
Next to him, Alena stretched her arms, flames flickering briefly under her skin, the sign of her unstable but powerful ability.
The other two superhumans from the West stood silently beside them, one tall and quiet, the other nervous but determined. They were both women, the taller one named Lauren Grant and the nervous one Madison Clarke.
Lauren was a hydrokinetic, she controlled water and Madison was an atmokinetic. So far, all they had seen her do was control clouds and fog.
Heath placed a firm hand on Arwin’s shoulder_ just once, just long enough to say everything he couldn’t voice. Arwin nodded, trying not to let the moment break him. Then, without another word, he walked to one of the cars and settled behind the wheel.
One by one, the others found places in the cars. Altogether, fifteen cars were leaving whatever safety the shelter had been providing.
As the team drove out into the shifting dunes. The desert wind rose around the cars like a low warning, and the mountains far away looked small, unreachable, almost imaginary.
