Early morning of the eighth day since they landed here, news was given to the almost 39,000 survivors that were rescued from the desert.
[Good Lord...]
Mitch looks outside the window from his hospital bed; the rooms are shared, 10 beds in each room, still not so close and not so far.
Doctors came a few minutes ago and delivered the news: the new world environment caused their poisoning.
As they are now, there is no problem, even though they require periodic treatment, but if they went out, it got complicated. They had basically 2 choices:
1) A special surgery to help their bodies create a core, a small crystal close to their hearts.
2) Have a deeper process in their DNA; this is an option for many, but some of them are the only way to survive, mostly for those with genetic problems or who have suffered cancer or heavy injuries.
Both have the secondary effects of prolonged life expectancy, which will help clean their bodies from ethera, with dedication, they could use the energies to improve themselves, and with the energy they had affinities, they could manipulate at will.
Some immediately jumped in a happy mood, mages! They could be mages; their eyes were brightened with illusions.
But the second has a deeper meaning: it will modify their bodies.
Some people suddenly scream: mutants!, and the doctors had hard times explaining the reality of life to all of them: from a scientific point of view, all humans are mutants.
That's part of Darwin's evolution theory in the practice: more sun means more melamine means more darker the skin is; better diet and exercise improve growth; food, environment, mental health; everything has to do with improvement of our bodies.
Mitch kept thinking what to do; his retirement was approved after years holding him; he didn't care; his wife died of cancer 6 years ago, and his sons are kind of strangers after a life being apart; he loves them, but it just like that, at his 61 years old, the big change he was preparing was being an expat somewhere in the tropics.
He looked to the side, and there was a young black boy, barely 20's; he was from one of the fishing villages that got involved in this disaster.
[Dek, are you ok?]
Mitch lifts his hand, and the OK hand sign is universally recognized.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The young man nods; he speaks English; their trip to Motherland was worthy of a movie.
The fishing villages in the place he used to live were transported; he was the elder of 9.
The battle for living was becoming dire as fishing resources were taken by fishing ships. When the storm hit the coasts, their village was hit by hurricane winds and darkening skies.
All of the villagers went to the only stone buildings in the outskirts of the village; the villages around and theirs used one of the buildings as a warehouse, but they evacuated inside the strongest building, a military bunker. The facilities were the remains left by past wars and armies in the fighting for control of this African corner facing the Atlantic Ocean.
After the Indonesia tsunami, the village chiefs took the decision to remodel the site, keep it clean, and provide supplies they got from international or foreign government aid agencies and the UN. They successfully had some place to take refuge.
The families from other villages were arriving at the old bunker used as shelter; the insides were being filled with 6,400 women, children, and men.
Some last-minute incomings, and they close the main doors.
After time of hearing waves crashing the coast, the bunker vibrates strongly every few minutes after hits were heard from outside.
They all heard the howlings of monsters in the skies.
In the outpost inside the top of the bunker, was Dek shift to be on the whachtout; the villages had a rotation system of volunteers; Dek could see the seas with giant waves and thunders in different colors; he truly believed this was the end of the world; the civil band radio and 2-meter radio the government gave them to coordinate or call in emergencies cases were noisy; no communication could be held; the operator looked at him and the village chiefs seated in the back of the room around a big table and asked if he could turn off for a few hours as protection; the radio waves spectrum was in chaos; the chiefs nodded.
The storm suddenly came more intense, lighting illuminated all in the outside, and Dek was horrified to see high in the skies apocalyptic monsters of legends fighting, a tsunami wave was in the way of the bunker, and Aman, one of the chiefs, came quickly activating the emergency close of the metallic cover, falling and blocking the windows, then a purple light could be seen as the cover fell and locked.
Inside the sealed bunker, the lights went off, they awaited the impact of the tsunami wave, never came, the air reserves they had are precious, and with the bunker over the limits, they are worried.
Someone turned on a mini flashlight and asked if everyone was fine, then he asked Pascual, the radio operator, if he could check the electric breakers panel.
Pascual lit another flashlight and exited the room.
Dek remembered there's emergency electric lamps and went to one of the cabinets; he then brought one out and turned on, illuminating the room.
After a few minutes later, the lighting systems started to work again, and Pascual came back to the room.
They keep waiting and no sound can be heard outside.
They went to a side room, and one of them turned on 4 32' screen monitors; this was connected to a cheap camera surveillance system they used to watch the buildings; no clues of being hit by a tsunami wave.
Outside, everything looked dimmer with yellow and blue lights.
They looked at each other and went to open a side door.
They were in the middle of flat rocky areas with enormous sand dunes circling them.
Some of the watchmen climbed the dunes around just to be discouraged.
Desert dunes as far as the sight can reach.
In the 5th day, or at least they counted as the sun went up and down, hot in the day and cold at night, in the night they closed completely the refuge, they had solar panels and installed some outside, the radio operator kept trying to send signals from the different devices, but no answer came, they are worried about food and water, they had rationing, and they hope it can last 60 days, but people start to get sick.
In the night of the 6th day, a radio communication answered the radio operator.
It was on the marine band frequency.
Pascual sent the watchmen to look for the chiefs; the other side identified as "Summer Field City State."
They didn't know what was going on but sure they needed help quick, and they sent the SOS.
Nobody thought why the other side could talk back in English or their tribal language. A few hours later, and the cold night was getting worse, 3 volunteers launched Bengals to the high sky.
After 20 minutes or so, intense lights in the sky illuminated the area. From the sky, several vehicles landed close, and full armored warriors and battle Exosuits came out, following each other.
Now at the present time, Del raised his hand:
[Doctor, can I take the second option?, Is there a contract I need to sign? I need to be stronger.]
Mitch thought about what the boy had just said and raised his hand:
[Doctor, can I do too?, please?]