Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again. - Chapter 333

Chapter 333: Not the boys.
[You are welcome, host.]

The response from the system was unexpected. It was impossible to tell if it contained sarcasm or honesty. Sunshine chose to ignore it.

“What are these?” Townsend whispered, hesitant to swallow the pill.

“Something that will keep you alive when Helena spits at you like a snake or releases her toxins. I don’t know if you have seen someone that has been poisoned by her, but it is like radiation and hot lava competing over who will cause you the most pain at the same time before death finally has mercy on you. There are many ways to die in an apocalypse and that is not one you would ever wish to experience.”

Her words terrified him into gulping the pills down quickly. His mouth was mostly dry, it felt like the pills were chocking him and yet he forced them down against all odds.

The tunnel was narrow and dimly lit. The deeper they went the colder it became.

“Why did you come with me?” Sunshine asked him. He was a corrupt man, selfish too. She would have expected him to be hiding with the other humans or looking for a way off the base.

“My odds of survival are greater with you than out there.” He told her, candidly.

She laughed and suddenly stopped. The goggles had detected heat signatures ahead of them.

Four of them.

Townsend tried to go around her and she stopped him, holding back his arm while shaking her head. He obeyed immediately his breath quickening.

Sunshine adjusted her goggles, reading the faint thermal outlines ahead. The four figures were of one adult and three children. The door at the end of the passage must have been sealed because they weren’t moving at all. And she could hear some pounding.

Sunshine inched forward, pulling out a nullfire gun. Her voice echoed in the tunnel, calm but as sharp as a blade.

“It’s over Helena.” She touched her tool belt and got a small square shaped device that looked like a remote control. When she pushed a button, light was emitted from it.

The silhouettes flinched like vampires suddenly receiving warm sun after thousands of years underground.

Then Helena’s voice slithered through the metallic walls of the tunnel. “No, it is not Sunshine.” She stepped into the faint light, her long blond hair, matted and wild. Her eyes glimmered a sickly green.

The three children stood before her, trembling. She held one of them close, her arm wrapped around the boy’s neck. The other two were girls and they could have made a run for it, but they were too afraid. They were sobbing loudly, begging for help.

“One move.” Helena hissed. “And these little worms die.”

The children cried louder, and the boy stretched his arms out to Sunshine.

Helena laughed. “Louder honey, cry louder so that she can the message loud and clear. Do not resent me if you die…it is the fault of that lady over there.”

“They are just children Helena, let them go.” Sunshine said, voice tight.

Townsend spoke from where he stood, behind Sunshine’s back. “Helena please! It is not too late for you to do the right thing. We can all walk out of here alive and free if you just put down the gun and let the children go.”

Helena’s lips twisted. “Free!! Do you think that I am sucker? They threw me out of their base for speaking the truth. As if that was not enough, they ruined my marriage and poisoned me. Between me and Suni here, there is a feud that will only end if one of us is dead. Do you finally get it Townsend? You should not have followed her; you will die here today.”

Even as she spoke, Sunshine saw it through her visor. A faint shimmer leaving Helena’s skin, the poisonous dust floating in the air.

[Host, venom particles detected in the air, extremely toxic to humans.]

Sunshine grabbed Townsend’s arm and shoved him backwards. The mayor stumbled coughing. “See! Green smoke is rising from her skin; she is releasing the poison!”

“You….” Sunshine started.

She heard footsteps, Townsend was already bolting through the corridor and shouting. “I’ll get help!”

The air had grown thick quickly, shimmering faintly of green as Helena’s poison spread. The children began to choke, eyes watering, gasping for breath.

“You know….” Helena started, gun pressing hard against the back of the boy’s head. Her voice was almost giddy. “This would have been so much more fun if it were those Quinn boys that you pretend to be a mother to. I cannot deny that I have not dreamed of storming your nice little apartment and releasing my poison until it choked you all. It would have been the greatest pleasure to see the look in your eyes as they dropped dead one by one, writhing and screaming for you.”

The words hit Sunshine like a blade in the chest.

The surge came before she could think, a controlled blinding fury burst from her fingertips. A bolt of electricity, pure and golden, shot from her index finger and tore through the tunnel. It struck Helena square in the chest with a deafening Crack!

The force hurled her backward, slamming into the wall. Her scream chocked into a gurgle as lightning danced across her body, burning through her flesh and bone.

Sunshine struck her again and again. The smell of charred flesh filled the tunnel. When the lightning faded, Helena slumped lifeless on the floor, her skin blackened and cracked, her expression frozen in shock. Smoke coiled from her lifeless body.

Sunshine’s hands trembled slightly as she whispered, “You should never have spoken about my boys.”

The children ran towards Sunshine, but they were weak, struggling to breathe and move. She dropped to her knees beside them and comforted them in a gentle voice. “It’s okay, everything is going to be okay.”

She pulled out small vials of red fang syrup, uncorked them with her teeth, and poured the liquid into their mouths. The girls coughed, their breathing easing immediately. But the boy lay limp. His chest barely moved.

“Come on, come on…. ” She muttered, placing her hands on his chest to start compressions.

“System scan him.” She ordered. “Breathe. Baby, breathe.” She tilted his head gave him a breath, pressed again.

[A cell charging fluid could help.]

A syringe and vial appeared beside Sunshine. She injected the contents into the boy’s arm and continued compressions. But he did not show signs of recovering.

She kept going until she heard footsteps. When she tilted her head to the right, she saw a familiar face. Townsend was back.

Wide eyed, he gawked at Helena’s charred body. “That is Helena, right? What in the_ she looks like a burnt turkey!”

Sunshine didn’t answer. The boy suddenly gasped, a sharp inhale that made her freeze. His chest rose and fell rapidly. His eyes fluttered open gently.

“Mom…” he whispered weakly.

Sunshine exhaled in relief and pulled an oxygen enabled mask from her bag, fitting it gently over his small nose and mouth. The faint hiss of air filled the silence.

Townsend suddenly squealed and pointed at Helena. “Her finger twitched,” he shouted.