Chapter 19: A base in the making.
In her last life, Sunshine had not been lucky enough to be one of those that sought shelter on Westbrook Mountain. When the apocalypse came, the Quinn family had split into groups.
Some remained at the manor, like Hades. Of course, this meant that Moon also remained at the manor. Hades’s, parents, his children, some of his cousins and his grandfather had headed for Westbrook. Sunshine did not know if they made it.
The Quinn family had a safe house in Colonado state and that was where Sunshine, Cassius, Warren, Joy, some aunts and uncles and some servants had headed. It took their group six months to reach there by foot. By the time they arrived, half of them were dead.
The safe house was already occupied and everything had been looted. The journey had been made for nothing.
From what she heard in whispers, around the fourth year of the apocalypse, some of the Quinn’s that made it to Westbrook had been lucky enough to live.
In this life, she was betting on Westbrook Mountain. Right now, it was abundantly alive. Despite the harsh weather of the previous months, green crowned its gentle slopes. Half of the mountain property belonged to Hades. Sitting on it was a big manor built from honey-hued granite and basalt stone.
It was supposed to be turned into a resort, but Hades changed his mind, and it became the family countryside property. It was flourishing with an orchard that was well cared for. The water that was used in the orchard came from a natural spring which bubbled out of the rocks that fenced off the property.
Further up hill and behind it were the Westbrook woods, vast and wild, home to secrets and wild animals, big and small. Villagers that liked to hunt or forage for century old herbs occasionally dared to take trips inside. Most of the time, they just took what they needed from the edge.
Tucked discreetly behind an undergrowth, lay a natural reservoir. It was a key source of water and food to birds and the animals which dwelled in the forest.