Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 640: Asylum for grain.

Sunshine stared at him. She had spent her life making hard, often brutal choices, and she prided herself on being the toughest person in the room. But Carson? Carson was a different breed. There was a vacancy in his eyes when he talked about feeding people to monsters that genuinely frightened her.

He meant every word he said, and he would do it in a heartbeat if she gave him permission. In a way, he reminded her of a wild dog on a leash that obeyed only its owner.

"We’ll see about that, Carson," she said, her voice a bit more breathless than she liked. The Vita E and coconut bean supported energy was running out. Her body was truly--truly tired. "Information first. Execution later. I need his tongue intact before you give the rest of him to the wolves or shardlings."

"Fair point," Carson shrugged, looking almost disappointed. "I’ll go start the interrogation."

Sunshine watched him walk away, then let out a long, shaky breath. She stretched her aching shoulders, feeling the weight of the exhaustion pressing down on her. Even her legs had a tremble, like they would give out at any moment. "I need a full week’s sleep," she muttered to herself, turning toward the vehicle before Paula blocked her path.

"We need to talk." She said, voice dripping in urgency.

Sunshine groaned sadly. There was a childish urge in her to sit on the ground or roll around while crying. But she was the leader of the fortress. Keeping up appearances mattered.

As Sunshine looked at Paula_ really looked at her_ that idea of sleeping for a week popped like a soap bubble in a dust storm. "You have that look that I do not like," Sunshine muttered, crossing her hands with a resigned sigh. "That ’I’m about to ruin your evening with a catastrophe’ look and I would give you a million dollars to change that look right now."

"I am sorry but what I have to say cannot wait," Paula said, her voice dropping into a register of pure urgency. She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes darting toward the shadows on the ground, trees and everywhere as if the very walls had ears. "We need to talk. Now."

Sunshine leaned back against the truck, crossing her arms. "This is not the face of someone who just reunited with her family. You look like you’ve seen a ghost, or worse, a mutant"

"It’s my father," Paula blurted out. The words came out like a physical weight, dropping into the space between them. "Heath Burton. He’s... he’s lost his mind, Mrs. Quinn. He doesn’t want to live in the Drift Lands anymore since the land is dying. He wants this Fortress. He wants it and everything in it."

Sunshine felt a cold ripple of regret wash over her. She closed her eyes, exhaling a breath that tasted like grit and disappointment. She thought back to Arwin and the broken-down cars. "I should have let Arwin go back in those rusted-out heaps," she whispered to herself. "I give people a bit of tech, and suddenly everyone wants to be the King of my base." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She opened her eyes and looked at Paula, seeing the sheer terror vibrating through the young woman. Sunshine reached out, tapping and then squeezing Paula’s shoulder with a firm, grounding grip. "Your father is never taking this Fortress. I’ve survived the watchers, the storms, and almost two years of my husband’s bad cooking every once in a while. Heath Burton is just another name on a very long, very crowded list of people I have yet to disappoint."

"You don’t understand!" Paula’s voice rose, her fingers trembling as she reached out to grab Sunshine’s sleeve. "My father... he’s not just talking. He’s making plans and he always gets what he wants. He’ll make alliances, he’ll raise an army, he’ll burn every village between here and the Drift lands if it means getting what he wants. He’s willing to kill innocent people, Mrs. Quinn. He would rather burn this place down than lose."

Paula hesitated, her breath hitching in her throat. Sunshine’s eyes narrowed, her posture straightening into something predatory. "And?"

"You have to save my brother," Paula whispered, tears finally spilling over. "Arwin... he’s a hostage. My father is keeping him back there because he refused to support him on this."

Sunshine frowned, the name hitting her like a dull blow. "Arwin? He’s holding his own son?"

Paula nodded frantically. She had only pretended to go along with her father’s plans because she wanted an opportunity to return and warn Sunshine. She also wanted to save her mother from her father’s madness and the Drift land.

One thing Heath was right about, that place was not worth living in anymore. Hopefully, Arwin would hang in until they returned and rescued him.

Sunshine wasn’t even surprised. In a world where people had resorted to eating their own pets_ and occasionally each other_ a father locking up his son was practically a Hallmark card on the immorality scale. But it confirmed one thing: Heath was ruthless. And ruthless people required a very specific kind of handling.

"How many men does he have?" Sunshine asked, her mind already shifting into tactical gears.

"Mercenaries? About fifteen hundred," Paula said.

Sunshine whistled low. "That’s a lot of payroll for a man living in a dust bowl."

"And Superhumans too," Paula added. "Most of the ones the Watchers dropped... they didn’t leave. They stayed. They liked the treatment my father gave them, I guess."

Sunshine rubbed her temples. Fifteen hundred mercenaries and superhumans. "Fantastic. A private army and a bunch of guys who think they’re gods because they can lift a truck. How is he even feeding that many people? Unless they’ve discovered a way to eat sand and ambition."

"The government grain silos," Paula said, chewing nervously on her lip. "He found them and took control of them when the apocalypse started. In fact, he made preparations before Moon Raine made her predictions. They’re massive, Mrs. Quinn. Huge silos filled with grain from before the apocalypse. He’s sitting on a mountain of food and controls it. Calls himself a grain king." She looked up at Sunshine with pleading eyes. "You can have it all. All the grain, all the supplies. All I want is asylum. For my family, for the innocent people at our base... just let them come here, to Fortress Four."

Sunshine nodded once, a slow, deliberate movement. The gears were turning now. "If the grain is as much as you say, we aren’t just talking about survival. We’re talking about feeding millions. Of course I want it."