A siren pulsed. A warning about the group of people at the wall was shared by all information centers and residents were urged to remain calm as the situation was being handled.
Sunshine stood in the watchtower that was closest to the gate, observing the outside world through camera feed provided by a camera in the observation window of the gate.
Outside the wall, fifty people that were covered in raincoats and jackets were clamoring to be allowed inside. There was an intercom on the wall through which the soldiers had been communicating with the outside crowd.
"Heads up." Nimo walked back into the room and stood beside Sunshine. "I was wondering who would be so crazy to demand entrance so arrogantly and it turns out that some of them are your in-laws."
Just after Nimo shared this, the intercom crackled. "I said that I am Damien Quinn, this is my cousin’s base. The land belongs to our family. I demand that you open these gates immediately."
Sunshine pushed a button and spoke into a microphone, "We know who you are Damien, and you are not welcome here."
Damien recognized the voice--Sunshine, his cousin’s wife. She was the one that married Hades and convinced him to move out here. The two of them had conspired to send the rest of them out to death while they built a secret shelter out here.
"Oh, so it’s the maid that Hades married that is refusing us to step on our family land?" Nora, Damien’s wife scoffed. "Unbelievable!" She rolled her eyes to the dark clouds. "We know that it’s you Sunshine the maid." She hissed into the intercom. "And we’re not leaving. In case you have forgotten, you are not a Quinn."
The other Quinn’s behind Damien and Nora stirred, clamoring that Sunshine invite Hades out. They were not strangers like her, they were family. Hades would allow them into the shelter.
Hades arrived right on time to hear that statement and clicked the button, saying into the microphone. "My wife is Sunshine Quinn, and she has every right over this base as I do. In fact, she built this base, and she is the one that protects everyone that lives within these walls."
He reached out and took Sunshine’s hands, interlocking their fingers. It was very strange how he felt the need to protect her for every hurtful word that drew a line between them. They were one. They were family and the people outside, they were strangers.
Damien stepped closer to the wall, beneath the camera and he looked up. "We are your family, Hades. Are you really going to leave us out here to die? She is an outsider, a servant. We have been with you all your life. We have crawled through fire and hell to get here Don’t you dare hide behind those walls as your family dies out here. Open this gate, come out and face us."
The gate remained locked.
"Family?" Hades laughed, voice colder than ice. "When news of the bankruptcy of my company was revealed, you all left. The day you left you said that I was no longer anything to you and you called those that stayed with me fools. You broke grandpa’s heart, and he fell ill. My mother cried and even begged some of you to stay even if you had taken money.
But you snubbed her and laughed in our faces. Now you return to seek a family reunion!! Have you no shame? There is no family for you here, you are not welcome. My wife’s decision is mine. Go away."
"You lie Hades!" His uncle Aven responded. "This is not just your land. Remember that it was our family land once and my father gave it you to build a resort that you never finished. Yeah, maybe you bought more acres to expand it but this is Quinn territory, so we all have rights to it."
"You should have read the contracts that you signed before you took a chunk of me from me after freeloading for so many years." Hades sneered. "Did you all really think that I am a sucker? That I was giving you all this free money for nothing? You have forgotten my identity in the business world."
"You bastard." Aven bellowed.
Only now were they realizing that he had conned them. The cunning wolf of the business world had extended his claws to them.
Ambrosia, Aven’s wife touched the gate, trying to force it open manually. Someone from the behind fired at it and at the watchtower. But the bubble swallowed the bullets like it swallowed all the meteors.
More people rushed to the large gate, clawing at it and screaming. Damien and Aven stood still, hoping that the crowd would succeed in pushing the gate open. Some tried to climb the wall, others threw rocks at it and many cursed.
"What do we do?" Nimo asked.
Sunshine said quietly, "Let them try their best, only when they realize that it is all for naught will they give up. The Quinn’s especially, they will only give up when they realize that we will not be showing them mercy."
Nimo folded her lips, but she felt the urge to ask the question on her mind. "Are you two sure about this? They are family...your family. Have you considered the thoughts and feelings of the rest of your family?"
Hades gripped Sunshine’s hands. "They made their choice and now we make ours. They have showed up here with a crowd of over forty violent desperate people. If we let them in, can you guarantee the safety of the rest of the residents?"
Sunshine nodded. "They betrayed us when the world was safe. They will be the very first people to betray us if something goes wrong on the base. People like them will not hesitate to sell your children in order to feed themselves."
Hades added quietly, "We will not reward betrayal just because the world has fallen apart outside."
Sunshine leaned her head on Hades’s shoulder. As expected of the man she had chosen to bet on in this life. The wolf was the wolf; he had not lost his claws just because those people were blood relatives. When she thought him an idiot for handing money to the betrayers, she didn’t realize that he had a plan.
A man so dependable and crafty , He was just her type. A smile curved on her lips, and she slipped an arm through his.
Their eyes remained on the camera feed, watching the hopeless struggle outside. As Sunshine had said, the survivors were determined not to give up. They camped outside, trying every trick in the book, going back and forth between force and diplomacy.
Some tried emotional blackmail, holding their children up to the cameras. Every time that happened Hades almost surrendered, but Sunshine remained cold. She had seen these tactics in the apocalypse.
Marauders would use children as bait. If you went to help them, you would be stripped of all you had. If you fell into the hands of starving individuals, you would be eaten. The very children you went to rescue, feasted on you.
"Stay strong." She whispered to him.
Three hours later, Damien decided to change tactics. If they could not go through the gate, then maybe they could try digging a trench and going under it.