Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again. - Chapter 387

Chapter 387: Choosing sides.
Zulu squeaked triumphantly, did a full spin in the air like a victorious gymnast champion, and shot upward. “Excellent. I will inform the others of my new family status!”

“What others?!” Sunshine called after her.

“The animals on this base and my fans of course. I am their representative here, so it helps us all if we have a voice in the ruling family. That said, I will be bringing the demands of all the mutated animals to you. You can tell the quack animal experts to stand down.” Zulu replied before disappearing behind a tree.

Sunshine rubbed her temples. She was dreading those demands before the list was even brought to her. If the rest of the mutated animals were anything like Zulu, they would be a handful. Worse than humans.

She groaned, regretting her choice for a moment. Sunshine was certain that she would be feeling some of that wrath from Lisha, as Hades had mentioned. Perhaps she needed to avoid her cousin-in-law for a while.

When she returned to the house, she barely looked Lisha on the eye. “Time to go,” she whispered to Hades.

He put down the small saucer which had half of a cake slice left. “Already?”

Sunshine was already gesturing at the boys to start moving. “Yes, we should go before Zulu decides to return and say something to Lisha about the deal we just made.”

A corner of Hades’ mouth lifted instantly in a grimace, “Yeesh, with the way the bird was taking shots at Lisha tonight, I would say they are at war. Don’t tell me it made you choose sides.”

Sunshine’s eyes narrowed. “I had no choice, it knows what the watchers are planning.” She hissed. “You are responsible for making Lisha understand our helplessness.”

He drew his head back. “Why am I getting in the middle of this?”

“Because you are my husband and Lisha’s cousin.” She pinched his waist. “If there are sides to take, I expect you to firmly take mine just as I am taking Zulu’s.”

He frowned, pushing her claws of pain away. “This means you are making me side with Zulu too! Must you murder your husband? Bob will decapitate us all right after he eats Zulu for breakfast.”

She rolled her eyes.

Everyone finished their goodbyes, packed leftover desserts into containers, and finally headed home. The children were half-asleep by the time they walked through the front door.

In fact, Castiel and the White were already sleeping, snoring loudly like they were competing on who could outdo the other. Sunshine carried White to bed and Hades did the same for Castiel.

Ariel and Earl staggered over with barely enough energy to remove their shoes. Both collapsed immediately, leaving their parents to help them out of their clothes and tuck them into the bed.

Sunshine kissed each of them on the forehead, brushing hair off their foreheads, her heart softening as she watched their peaceful faces. Hades did the same and they turned off the lights and left the room.

Hades immediately struck up a conversation a curious expression. “So,” he said, voice low, “what information did Zulu provide to warrant us siding with the obnoxious demon from hell?”

Sunshine exhaled. “The watchers. She said they’re planning something big.”

Hades straightened immediately. “What kind of something?”

“She wasn’t fully sure,” Sunshine said, taking him with her into the Space. “An attack by something called fever wasps.”

Hades frowned deeply. “That sounds… frightening. Ordinary earth wasps alone are scary.”

“Exactly.” She snapped her fingers once. “Now imagine alien ones.”

Hades grimaced again. “Just when we thought that things would get better because the sun will be friendly for a few weeks before scorching us!” He frowned, “They are not like locusts, right? Could the watchers be coming after Busker?”

Sunshine’s eyes widened. She hoped not but with the watchers, one never knew. They had just started cultivation of grains in Busker; nothing could go wrong there.

She looked at Hades and said, “I am going to introduce you to a helper of mine. I call it system. Don’t ask any questions, just take notes. I am going to be busy for a few more days fixing things beyond the door. If I am not around, you need to take charge and handle the fever wasp situation in case of an attack.”

Hades nodded firmly. For some reason, he was nervous. He had always known that Sunshine had a mysterious helper. He had seen and heard her speaking to that entity everyday occasionally. This felt like an important moment.

“System,” Sunshine said out loud, “I need any information that you have on fever wasps. We need everything you can find—history, biology, patterns, strengths and weaknesses.”

Hades opened his mouth to say hello, but he ended up blinking in shock when he saw a screen appearing in the air.

[Processing… searching… cross-referencing all known entities… accessing old data from contaminated regions…]

“What is this?” He whispered to her.

“You don’t need to whisper.” She told him. ”

Sunshine and Hades exchanged a look. Whenever the system took this long, it meant one of two things: either the creature was extremely obscure—or extremely dangerous.

She had compiled notes with images of all the creatures she remembered from the apocalypse, mutated and mutant. They were three books in total. She handed one to Hades and took another. “I don’t remember fever wasps, or maybe I know what they are but under a different name.”

Hades nodded. sitting on the floor to start perusing through the book. The trouble they had was that some mutant beasts attacked some places but not others. With the difficulty in communication, information had been scarce, so Sunshine wasn’t a knowledge bank on all things apocalypses.

“If only Zulu had got a description.” Hades muttered. He pointed to a drawing of an insect that looked like a bee with a glossy exterior, serrated mandibles, a barbed stinger and large compound eyes. “What about this one? The stinger.”

Sunshine shook her head. “Stingers arrived with the darkness. Unless there is a change, it is not it. We should first concentrate on mutant insects that appeared in the scorching heat.”

He continued to flip through the book, “This one, named Burrow.” He found another with potential. It was insect with a build similar to a wasp. It had short wings and drill shaped mandibles.

Sunshine tilted her head from side to side. “Could be it. They looked like wasps and had the ability to dig beneath shelters and collapse bunkers from below. It took humanity two months to figure out water was their weakness. Until then, we would just smash them as hard as we could.”

Hades nodded along to her recollection slowly. The stories she told always fascinated him. But he had a sudden thought that made his fingers drum against the open page. “The word fever. Are there insects you can think of that caused a fever?”

Sunshine pursed her lips. The only fevers she knew of were those caused by the mist, red disease, ordinary illness, infections and weather conditions. None from a specific insect bite.

There was a ding sound, and they both looked up.

[Fever wasp or Blightflare. They are insects found in the scorch lands of Pyrexis.]

The image appeared on the screen.

Hades turned to Sunshine, inquisitive. She shook her head, not recalling coming across anything like that. They both closed the books which proved useless.

[They move as a swarm, targeting leaders, crippling command structures by incapacitating them with fevers. They are drawn to warmth and swarm around heat sources like bonfires, generators and bodies with predatory intent.

They have sacs which contain venom that reacts immediately after one is stung. The pain is described as comparable to molten metal entering the bloodstream.]

Sunshine swallowed hard. “That sound painful.”

[Within minutes, the body temperature of the infected spikes. Survivors reported fevers rising past 60 degrees accompanied by delirium and violent shivering. It is followed by incoherent babbling. If not treated in forty-eight hours, it leads to organ failure and death within four days.]

Sunshine pursed her lips.

Hades said carefully, “Why do I think the watchers looked for something that would aim for you specifically?”