CHAPTER 114: THE NAKED MAN.

Sunshine led one team, and Major Elio went with her. Nimo led another and Jae led the third. O’Toole was the one in charge of those that remained behind to keep an eye on the cars and their surroundings.

At this moment, in the villa that was in the middle, Boris Kipling a former analyst for a major company was sitting at the table with some individuals, preparing to have lunch. Lunch was fresh bread and beef gravy.

He was with his family, and five bodyguards that were carrying weapons. They were standing the windows, observing the guests that were almost upon them.

"Mr. Kipling, there are some people outside approaching the villas!"

"What!" Boris Kipling’s face turned ugly shortly after he exclaimed. "Who is it? Are they survivors that are coming to loot supplies?"

The bodyguard shook his head. "No Mr. Boris, it doesn’t look like ordinary survivors. They are dressed like army and are moving like that. They are also armed."

Boris relaxed and laughed. "Ah, they are soldiers. It seems like the government has found a way to move about in the acid rain and they are rescuing people." His eyes darted to the blood stains on the walls. "We should move and make sure that they don’t notice anything out of the ordinary."

As the soldiers kicked their way in, the residents in the house rushed to the living room and hurdled together like they were so scared. The bodyguards even hid away their weapons.

Boris Kipling raised his hands as he walked towards the entrance confidently. "Don’t shoot, my name is Boris Kipling. I am an analyst that used to work for the Department of Defense six years ago. You must be here to rescue me."

Major Elio started to wonder where he had heard the name. Sunshine sniffed the air like a bloodhound.

Major Elio took out the picture of Alfred. "Has any of you seen this man?"

While mumbles of "no" went around, Sunshine coached her gun and pointed it at Boris. "This house reeks of human blood. What is going on here?"

The soldiers that accompanied Sunshine raised their guns as well. Boris’s bodyguards drew their weapons, and one fired at Sunshine.

She fired her weapon as well and a burst of gunfire mixed with screams followed. All of Boris’s bodyguards fell to the floor and their blood started pooling together.

A window crashed as the soldiers lowered their weapons. To their surprise, Boris had managed to escape the gun fire, and he was making a run for it in the acid rain.

"Son of a gun!!" One of the soldiers grunted and his body finally registered the pain of being shot in the chest.

Sunshine was making a run for the window meanwhile while Major Elio started questioning the people that were left in the villa.

Suddenly, Sunshine sprinted from the house and run outside. Her urgency drove the soldiers to follow her as she started firing her weapon.

"What the hell!" Major Elio bellowed when he saw Boris running without melting in the acid rain. He was naked! Smoke was rising from his body as if he was being steamed.

"He is a superhuman." Sunshine shouted even though she did not need to.

"Why are we chasing him?" Major Elio asked her.

Boris leaped over a dead log in a dramatic way, fell to the ground and rolled away. His skin burped as he stood up and he continued his escape. The number of soldiers chasing after him doubled.

Even though they were shooting, none could get a clear lock on his body as it was pouring off thick steam that obscured the real man. Even Major Elio’s super sight was not giving him the advantage in this chase.

"Get back here you soggy meatball." Siegfried yelled.

One of the soldiers laughed. "I don’t think that he is going to do as you say. What I don’t understand is why he is Olympic kind of fast."

Sunshine decided to involve her hammer. One hit would turn Boris into a human patty. Before she could hurl it out, Boris dropped into the ground, disappearing from the surface.

When the soldiers stopped where he disappeared, hey found that it was a sewer filled with acid rain. However protected they were, they still hesitated to follow Boris.

"Do we keep going?" One of them asked.

Sunshine shook her head. "No need, he has the ability to self-detoxify, and we don’t. Besides, we don’t know why he was running but if I have to guess, he murdered the original occupants of the villa. Either that or he has some other reason to run which we don’t know of."

"I almost had him." Elio kicked a puddle flinging rain upwards. "Now what?"

"We keep going, Alfred is not here." Sunshine withdrew her hammer and backed away from the open manhole.

They run back to the villa and discovered that it was indeed as she suspected, Boris and his men had killed the original residents and occupied the house. His family did not participate but they were aware of what had happened.

According to his wife, they were on a vacation and living in one of the wooden villas before the meteors fell. Afterwards, they sought shelter and help from the family in the villa. To preserve the food, her husband had the original occupants slaughtered in the night while they slept.

"You are lucky 911 doesn’t exist anymore." Siegfried told them.

"Let’s go." Sunshine ordered.

Major Elio frowned. "Are you sure? We are leaving just like that...." He looked at Boris’s family. "They could have participated."

Sunshine looked at the three women, two teenagers and a toddler. As ruthless as she was, when need be, she was not going to slaughter them.

Besides, would killing them bring back to life the original residents?

"We have places to be and a time limit. Let’s move out." She bellowed.

They joined Nimo and the others who were already waiting for them by the cars. They also had no news of Alfred either and they were more interested in the man that could walk in the acid rain.

"Is everyone okay?" Sunshine shouted over their voices.

The medic checked on everyone that had taken a bullet to their vest. There were no serious injuries, so they climbed into the vehicles and moved on.

"Do you think he will be back?" Nimo asked Sunshine as the cars started to move.

Sunshine nodded. "Oh yeah. His family is here so he will be back for them. If he does not value his family, I am sure he values the supplies he has collected here."

Nimo tilted her head, eyes looking skeptical. "I don’t know. He can walk in the acid rain so he can go anywhere he wants. Do you think we will ever meet him again?"

Sunshine didn’t know but she had a feeling that they would.

"For once, I actually hope that Ceasar gets his hands on a superhuman." Nimo mumbled.

Acid rain continued to pelt the ground hard, and the cars sped away noisily. Philip Harg opened his eyes for the first time that day.

Where they left, a head popped out of the sewer and one naked man jumped out with a smirk on his face.