Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 509: Missing wives.

A rainbow colored shardling leaped into the air, almost taking Amber’s nose off. But Sunshine pulled her away at the last second. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"You know, they are kind of cute, these shardlings." Nimo commented.

"Like puppies, if they could chew through stone." Leah laughed.

Meanwhile, Sunshine was eye level with Amber, their faces inches apart. "Hey, is my message clear? Stay away from my family. You don’t get to pretend that you care. You lost that privilege when you chose the bottle over them. They don’t need your gifts or apologies. What they need is peace. And I will make sure they get it, even if it means killing you."

She lowered the rope, dangling Amber over the lake once more. "Consider this your one and last warning. If we find ourselves back here again, I won’t stop at dangling."

Just as Sunshine was about to haul Amber back onto the dry ground, the water erupted. A massive shadow surged upward, bigger than any of the fish. The shardlings turned, fleeing to another side of the lake.

Leah bit off the head of the bear and kept the rest in a compartment on the exo suit that would keep it frozen. "There is something else in the lake."

"Gee, thanks for the warning, Leah." Nimo rolled her eyes. It was obvious that there was something else in the lake.

The monstrous shape broke the surface, scales glistening, jaws wide enough to swallow a small car. The shardlings continued to flee in terror.

"It’s just a crocodylus." Leah said, unbothered.

Nimo frowned. "Just a crocodylus! You say it as if it’s just a house lizard. The threat just got an upgrade."

Amber screamed. "Pull me out. Pull me out."

The crocodylus locked onto her, eyes glowing with hunger. The beast jumped up at once. Amber screamed.

****

The apocalypse had a way of making people lose their loved ones. But Fortress four was a safe place. Husbands were not supposed to lose their wives within that territory. Children were not supposed to lose their mothers.

Three men found themselves colliding in the most unlikely of ways.

Hades, marched out of the command center in the first wall, with three boys trailing behind him like ducklings. Their messy purple hair stuck out like a sore thumb, making them look like tiny punk rockers. They were loud, restless and full of questions.

"Dad, we should issue an amber alert. How else are we going to find mom if she was kidnapped?" Ariel asked, his voice carrying a heavy dose of impatience.

"We will find her," Hades said firmly. "She was not kidnapped, you saw it on the camera footage, your mom left the base willingly."

"But she is yet to return." Earl whined. "Why would she go anywhere without telling us? She is not the type to just vanish."

Behind them, Castiel and White licked ice cream oblivious to the tension.

At the same time, Dominic was just about to enter the command center with his daughter Ala. She was currently levitating five frozen popsicles, spinning them like a circular shaped crown around her head.

"Ala," Dominic warned, "Put the popsicles away. We are looking for your mother."

"Mom is fine," Ala replied confidently. "I know this because we are connected. She is very excited right now."

Dominic sighed. "That’s not exactly reassuring." Lately his wife got excited for two reasons, Ala was one. The other was violence.

The third man was not a husband, but he was a concerned resident whose relationship with Nimo was still undefined. He was even more determined than Hades and Dominic. So much so that Major Elio flew him out of the watchtower and dropped him on the ground with a harsh glare. "The watchers did not take Nimo."

The three men who found themselves in the same place looked at each. There was a moment of awkward silence. Dominic eyed Hades, Hades eyed Dwayne and Dwayne eyed the stone ground.

"You looking for someone?" Hades asked Dominic.

"My wife." Dominic replied. "Leah."

Dwayne cleared his throat. "Nimo missed our morning run. She did not show up for breakfast or watch duty. She’s gone."

The realization hit them all at once. Their wives or in Dwayne’s case, the woman he loved--had vanished together. They may not have left the mountain at the same time, but they had probably gone to the same place.

"Suni went to Westbrook." Hades said. "Did the rest head there?"

"Yes," Major Elio replied.

The men set out together and began combing Westbrook. They questioned guards and anyone that worked night duty or left their house at dawn.

Warren and Hadrian traced the women on the footage that had been captured. Finally, they found them sneaking out of the base from the tunnels.

It was Warren who called Hades and asked him to put the phone on loudspeaker. "Your women did a great job of evading most cameras. One caught them anyway. They paid a visit to Amber’s house with weapons.

Then, they headed into the forest with Amber. We have accessed the footage from some drones and found the path they took. Looks like they were headed in the direction of Shardling lake."

The three men froze.

"What lake?" Dominic asked. "Are the shardlings the mutated fish."

"More like small sharks with piranha traits." Ariel replied. "I should have known that mom would do something like this.

"She is going to feed Amber to the fish." Hadrian said slowly. "I knew this would happen; I just didn’t think it would be this soon."

The men’s jaws dropped.

Dominic rubbed his temples. "Of course. Of course, Leah would be involved in this. A trip to the death lake and a hostage that is hated by all three of them. Sounds exciting."

Dwayne whispered, "Nimo...." He glared at Hades and Dominic. "Are your wives insane? They are superhumans but Nimo is not. One bite from those shardlings and she could die. I cannot believe that they talked her into this."

Hades rolled his eyes. "Nimo is a grown woman, nobody talked her into anything Dwayne. If anyone was talked into this, it was my Suni. She was not violent until super soldier and angry wind goddess showed up."

Dominic scoffed. "Angry wind goddess! Whose wife walks around with a hammer and whose wife is obsessed with acid grenades?"

Warren and Hadrian remained quiet.

The guards helping in the search also remained quiet.

"Hey, you three lovesick men. Are we going to the forest to track down your runaway wives or not?" Major Elio shouted from above. He was already in his exo suit and eager to leave the bubble. "I can see all the way to the lake. They are fighting a crocodylus."

The three men gasped. The last time they had fought a crocodylus, it had taken a dozen people at the same time. How could three women take on the task alone?

"Mobilize the squads, we are heading out." Hades bellowed.

Ariel got his walkie-talkie out to mobilize the kids’ squad as well. They were going to rescue his mother. Not Amber. The crocodylus could eat her. Sunshine was the one that needed rescuing or helping.

Ala sighed, her popsicles spinning faster. "You are just going to annoy them."