Chapter 736: Activating Sleeper Cells.
Both women turned to the bird. "Why are you here and why are you screaming traitor?" Sunshine asked.
Zulu raised her wings in dramatic fashion. "Brother Nico and I have dibs on all marriages in the base. They must be officiated by us, and I get to sing the song to the couple’s mandatory first dance in the office of the judge. What gives, Neems. You totally broke the law."
Nimo rolled her eyes, picked up a pillow and threw it at the window. Zulu flew off, screeching traitor as loud as she could.
Nimo didn’t look guilty at all as she turned to Sunshine again. In fact, she crossed her arms and cocked her head. "Suni, I’m just borrowing a page out of your book my love. Or did you forget that you married Hades without saying a single word to me?" She had not got the chance to wear the ugly bridesmaid dress either. And now that she thought about it, why had they both opted for an ugly bridesmaid dress? The thought made her wince.
"That’s_ that’s different!" Sunshine spluttered, waving her hands around frantically. "My situation was complicated! Even I do not know how it happened! I woke up married, remember?" At least Nimo had got the opportunity to wear a wedding dress and say her vows, while in love with the man she was marrying.
"And my situation isn’t complicated?" Nimo retorted, though her eyes were twinkling. "Sunshine, look outside. The world is literally ending. We’re living in an apocalypse. If we waited for a formal ceremony with a three-tier cake and a seating chart, we’d probably be waiting forever. Who knows when the world will be normal again? Dwayne and I decided that today was as good a day as any to promise not to die alone."
The two women locked eyes. For a moment, the friendly tension was a physical weight in the room. Then, a tiny snort escaped Sunshine’s nose. That was the catalyst. Within seconds, both of them burst into hysterical laughter, the kind that makes your stomachache and tears leak out of the corners of your eyes.
"We are a silly duo." Sunshine said, lowering herself to the carpet. "Total disasters. What were we thinking with that ugly bridesmaid dress idea?"
"We were ten Suni. We had no idea what we were talking about." Nimo laughed, wiping her eyes. "But we married two men that happen to be friends. I call that a win because we can be together forever. We won’t have to take planes to visit each other or something like that."
Sunshine sighed, her laughter dying down into a warm, nostalgic glow. She pulled Nimo’s hand downwards, inspecting the ring properly. "I never imagined this for us. When we were kids, playing with those veils from your mom’s closet. I used to think that we’d have a double wedding at a cathedral with thousands of lilies."
"I know," Nimo said, a soft smile playing on her lips. "I always thought I’d be the one marrying into a massive fortune. I told you I wouldn’t marry a man unless his bank account had more commas than a grammar textbook. And you? You were the romantic. You were going to marry for ’pure, unadulterated love’ and live in a small three-bedroom house with a picket fence."
Sunshine snorted. Somehow, things had been reversed. She married for money and Nimo married for love. Although, things had worked out for her and Hades, so, there was nothing to complain about.
Nimo chuckled, shaking her head. "Look at us now. Somehow, our roles changed. I married Dwayne because he makes me feel safe in a world that isn’t, and you... well, you married the literal King of the business world. Talk about a power move."
Sunshine, waved her hand, pulling two bottles of champagne from her space, along with glasses and nuts. She tapped the carpet, inviting Nimo to join her. "Things changed Neems, I fell in love with my husband. I love that man just because he exists, even when he’s being a stubborn, brooding statue which frowns on some of my decisions."
Nimo laughed, reaching out to take the glass Sunshine offered. "I know you do, Suni. And I have never been happier for you....for us. It’s just funny how life works out, isn’t it? This is not what I thought our lives would look like by now. I was supposed to be climbing the ladder in the army, and you were supposed to have invented some super car by now that would make us both rich forever."
Sunshine snorted.
Nimo lifted her glass high, the liquid sparkling in the dim light. "A toast. To us. To surviving the end of the world, and to actually loving the cutest men we have chosen to spend it with."
"To our husbands," Sunshine echoed, clinking her glass against Nimo’s. "May they always know how lucky they are, or may we remind them with very loud voices."
They sat there for a while, sipping the crisp, bubbly drink and talking about nothing and everything_ Dwayne’s clumsy proposal, the way Hades looked when he was trying to be romantic but ended up being embarrassed, and the strange comfort of having a partner when they went to bed, unsure of what tomorrow would bring.
But outside the cozy walls of their base, the atmosphere was far from celebratory.
***
The watchers were on the move. Pink had a dark orb in her claw that seemed to glow with a sickly red hue.
The light from the orb began to travel, spreading like a silent, ghostly fog over Fortress Four. It didn’t care about walls or locked doors. When that light fell on specific people, their eyes seemed to go blank.
They were the sleeper cells_ men and women who had been living ordinary lives, but suddenly awakened. Their eyes turned a flat, milky white, looking like marbles dropped into milk. They didn’t blink. They didn’t breathe. They just stood there, waiting for the signal to ruin everything.
At the main gate of Kingsbridge, Sergeant Adeline Crood was mid-sentence, telling a joke about a mutant chicken, when the light hit her. Her mouth snapped shut. His eyes went white.
"Hey, Adeline? You, okay?" Raydon, asked, leaning against the gate controls.
Adeline didn’t answer. She moved with the stiff, jerky grace of a puppet. She reached out and slammed her hand down on the emergency manual override. The massive, iron-reinforced gates groaned. Gears that hadn’t moved in months began to grind, screaming in protest as the heavy doors started to slide open.
"Adeline! What are you doing?" Raydon yelled, jumping up. "Close it! The scanners are picking up movement Adeline, stop!"
Raydon grabbed Adeline’s shoulder to pull her away, but it was like trying to move a statue. Adeline just kept her hand on the button, staring into nothing, ignoring the frantic shouts of her comrade.