Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again. - Chapter 402

Chapter 402: Phantom walker.
When Sunshine used that voice, Nimo never asked questions. “Yes ma’am.” She increased the speed of the truck, sensing the urgency in her friend’s body language.

The wall around Busker was almost completed. A massive red gate was the only entrance in or out of the town now. Soldiers patrolled the wall from above and outside the gate.

Every vehicle, except for Sunshine’s was searched and every identity of everyone entering the town was confirmed.

From the gate, it was straight into a decontamination tunnel for five minutes before coming out on the other end into the real town.

It was being rebuilt according to the plans Sunshine had drawn up with a team of engineers. High rise stone buildings which were residences, all in one lane, forming a single community. The rest of the land was for farming. A small portion was for raising fish and live stock.

Some building like the medic bay and school were already complete.

Sunshine wanted to tour the small town but a terrible smell hit her nose. The eager Mr. Reed had torn open the first bag of fertilizer and people were green in the face.

The smell rushed out like a monster_ wet socks dipped in rotten eggs and forgotten cabbage. It spread faster than air itself. It was if the wind was on a mission to spread it everywhere and punish everyone.

Mr. Reed staggered back dramatically. “Mrs. Quinn, what did you bring to our town. THIS IS EVIL! PURE EVIL!”

Another man gagged so hard he sat down.

A soldier rolled around in the dirt, trying to sniff anything but the manure.

Nimo covered her nose with her jacket. “Did something crawl in there and die?”

“It will go away soon!” Sunshine yelled over the gagging chorus. “Spread it evenly. Ignore the smell, the manure is good for the soil.”

One man shrieked, “I am not coming near that filth, it smells like a devil’s armpit.”

People ran in different directions, trying to escape the rotting smell. But it clung to them, it could not be escaped.

Tears streamed down Mr. Reed’s face.

“Stop complaining and running,” Sunshine ordered. “Put on your masks if you cannot handle it. Remember, if the soil doesn’t heal, we won’t have food to eat. Are you willing to starve?”

Still gagging, spitting, and muttering curses, the people stopped escaping. They wore masks and obeyed, getting to work. With every bag of manure opened, someone fainted!

“This is ridiculous.” Sunshine muttered.

And yet, she escaped into her truck along with Nimo.

Carson clung to the truck from behind like he was actor filming a fighting scene in which he was being chased.

“I cannot believe they are abandoning us.” Mr. Reed shook his head, watching the dust which rose as the truck raced out of Busker at the highest speed.

The man sighed sadly and took Sunshine’s place, commanding the others to keep working.

In the truck, Sunshine and Nimo were laughing. They felt like two escaped convicts. Forty minutes later, they reached Hunkerville, still laughing.

When the truck rolled into the town, she expected the registration process to have started but it had not. This made her frown.

Nimo stopped the truck, parking it just behind another Fortress four truck which had thermal bands and computers.

Warren approached her immediately, having arrived two hours earlier. “Suni?” he gasped, wiping his mouth as if she had caught him doing something illegal. “You_ uh_ you’re here? Everything okay? Did someone make a report? Because I told them that we would start soon_”

“It looks like you are not the right person to monitor the registration exercise here.” Nimo said. “What’s with the delay?

Warren rolled his eyes. “Breakfast is the most important part of the day, my men and I did not eat before we left the base. We could not work on empty stomachs, but, we are just about to start.”

Sunshine raised a hand. “Stop, I’m here to see Kent, not monitor you.”

Warren opened his mouth again but didn’t get a chance to speak because Kent had already spotted her. He had been waiting for her by one of the tents the soldiers had set up for the registration exercise.

He stepped away from it, rushing with a frown on his face like someone expecting trouble. His sister Carly trailing behind him with a stern sharp look in her eyes, like a personal bodyguard ready to stab anyone who breathed wrong in her brother’s direction.

“Mrs. Quinn,” Kent said respectfully.

Carly nodded stiffly, eyes sharp as knives.

Sunshine waved Warren off. “Back to work.”

Warren obeyed reluctantly, craning his neck like the curious neighborhood gossip as he walked away.

Sunshine followed Kent and Carly toward the tunnels, not wasting a second on chit chat.

As they walked, she looked around the town which she had never set foot in ever. Hunkerville had been busy since the bubble went up; the buildings that were partially collapsed were being rebuilt, new lamps were lined up along the road.

There were hills of soil and rocks everywhere but they were being cleared away. The entire place smelled faintly of metal and damp earth.

As they entered an underground tunnel, Carly began explaining. “The miners were digging a new tunnel when they found something glowing in the dirt wall. Gilly_ the miner_ touched it. It electrocuted her or something and she flew backward. Smashed her head against the wall.”

Sunshine scowled. “Did she die?”

Carly shook her head. “We thought so. She collapsed. No pulse. No breath. Eyes rolled back. She was stiff like a door nail. Honestly, I even started thinking of whom to give her fur coat_”

“Carly,” Kent muttered. His sister could be sidetracked sometimes.

“Well, she asked!” Carly replied defensively.

“I didn’t ask about fur coats,” Sunshine said, amused.

Carly cleared her throat. “Right. Anyway. She did not die, even though I think she should have. The whole thing was weird. Five minutes after Doc March declared her dead, she sat up screaming. “Gave all of us a fright. The devil…”

“Kent took over. “And then it got more weird.”

“How?” Nimo asked.

“Her shadow moved.” Kent paused his feet for a moment and looked back at Sunshine and Nimo.

Sunshine was taken aback. “Moved… how?”

Carly swallowed. “It stood up. Without her. Like… like a person made of darkness. It’s the devil I tell you.”

Sunshine’s eyes widened. It was no devil, it was Phantom walker. She knew the ability well from her past life. Phantom walkers could command their shadows to act independently_ mostly for spying, sneaking around, or distracting enemies.

Not the strongest ability, but incredibly useful.

Some people called them the true mist walkers because they could go in and poke around without being harmed in any way.

“She is not a devil, she awakened,” Sunshine said. “Something triggered it.”

Kent nodded. “That’s what we thought.”

Sunshine took a breath. “I want Gilly and any other awakened superhumans here to join the squads. We need trained fighters. But it’s optional.”

Kent smiled slightly. “You’ll have more volunteers than you expect. Many here would fight for Fortress Four just for a piece of bread, a little meat and some porridge.”

“Good,” Sunshine said. “All fighters get benefits. Food, supplies, housing priority and money.”

As they reached the abandoned area of the mine, she stopped talking. The stone was impossible to miss. Half-embedded in the ground, glowing blue like a heartbeat. Pulsing. Alive.

Nimo pushed ahead of Sunshine and squatted down. “So if I touch it…”

“No,” Sunshine shouted, but Nimo had already pressed her palm to the surface.

Nothing happened. Nimo sighed dramatically. “Of course it refuses to work when it is my turn.”

Carly snorted. “Gilly had a fever a week earlier, all the signs of awakening. Maybe the stone sped things up and it doesn’t do anything for ordinary people.”

She had touched it too, secretly. Nothing had happened.

Sunshine stepped closer. The stone was identical to the one from Busker_ another piece of the fallen prime core. How had it fallen so deep underground?

Her mind raced. “These are two pieces now,” she whispered, “are there other pieces and where else did pieces land?”

She instructed the siblings to leave, she would take care of it.

Carly seemed unwilling but Kent pulled her away. He wanted nothing to do with the stone. If more people knew what it could do–if it could do what they thought, there would be trouble.

He wanted a peaceful, quiet Hunkerville.

As soon as they left the chamber, Sunshine acted quickly. With a flick of her hand, she transferred the glowing prime core chunk into her space.

When she stood up and turned around, she blinked. There was one person she had not known had come with them: Carson Warnock!