Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again. Chapter 89: Acid rain in the soil

Owen’s sister Julia was in charge of monitoring the environntal changes in the greenhouse. She was a botanist, and she had a small team of fifteen people that worked with her on this task. The team was deliberately small because Sunshine wanted to keep out greedy hands and eyes. One needed to pass three security check points, a drone with facial recognition and a biotric scan before reaching the gardens.

Most of the plants were grown in pots or sacks on wooden boards that were above the ground.

There was a section of the greenhouse however where crops were grown in the soil. And that was where trouble was. Julia was the first to notice sothing strange with the soil.

First was the unnatural shimr which looked like morning dew mixed with so oil! She put on a weather absorbent under suit, covering her nose and hands too. Then she scooped up so of the soil to take a closer look.

That was when she realized that on the surface, water was pooling in the soil!! Acid rain had made it into the base even after every precaution that had been taken.

She sent out an alarm and called her team in to examine every section of the green house. There were six sections in total.

The team started cataloging changes to the plants in the soil. So had started shriveling, others had changed in various ways: Spinach leaves had curled and so had thorns.

Mint leaves had changed color and expanded, shadowing the neighboring plants.

Most of the strawberries were on their way to ruination. The fruit was no longer red but dull brown. The toxic fruits would have to be thrown out before soone ate them.

The pineapples were forming spiral patterns which they did not have before. Whether they were toxic or not was unknown.

The botanists noted down all of the changes and took pictures. Sunshine had long told them that so plants would mutate and remain edible, but others would turn poisonous and toxic. Those were the ones that needed to be disposed of imdiately.

"How did this happen?" Doctor Peach Trellison asked, holding on to the mask that was covering her nose.

Julia looked at Doctor Peach, the resident soil agronomist. "I don’t know. It is soil and soil soaks up water, so I guess so of the run down from the mountain found its way here. The bigger question should be what are we going to do about it?"

Another botanist looked at Doctor Peach. "You are the soil expert; how do we fix it?"

This problem was also in another section of the base, the indoor grassland where so sheep had decided to take a walk and help themselves to so breakfast grass. They were the first to discover the problem in that area.

The grass which was usually fragrant and soft was turning brittle and bitter. So of it was sharp and it pricked them. Too afraid to walk across it, they bleated so loudly that soldiers outside were attracted to the area.

Major Elio was one of those on patrol and he walked into the protected zone with a frown. "What the hell is going on?" He bellowed.

He saw confused workers and a vet trying to coax the sheep to walk across the grass and return to their paddocks.

The sheep just bleated and looked at the vet with eyes that said, "You try walking on the sharp grass and see if you like it."

The vet looked at Major Elio and shook his head. "Sothing has them spooked. We are scanning the grass for threats." He pointed the drone that was hovering above.

"Sergent Nimo co in." Major Elio spoke through the walkie-talkie.

"I am listening major." Nimo responded.

"We have got a problem at the animal farm, co with the president if you can." He answered.

"I am coming over." Nimo answered.

Without delay, Major Elio demanded that the animals be cleared from the paddocks.

Major Elio looked up and around, searching for a place that was strong enough to hold a rope. If they passed above, they could carry the sheep out.

"We need to air light the sheep sohow without stepping on the grass directly." He said to the others.

"How?" A soldier asked.

"Think we can fit a helicopter in here?"

"Maybe a pulley."

"This would be so easy if Spiderman was here."

All the soldiers looked at the one that ntioned spiderman with frowns or ridicule.

As they were pondering on that, so workers rolled out a carpet over the grass and coaxed the sheep away. They were taken to a decontamination zone imdiately for caution.

"A carpet!" Major Elio exclaid.

The vet nodded. "Sotis, the easiest solution is the best one."

Nimo arrived with Sunshine whom she picked from the school at the children’s school.

"Everyone would you please step back!" She shouted loudly, brows knitting. "We have received word that the acid rain is eating its way through the soil." Sunshine shared. "I guess the grass has mutated sohow."

Upon hearing her opinion many took further steps back.

"That can happen?" Major Elio asked.

Sunshine’s gaze shifted to him and then naturally to his boots. "Look at the soles of your shoes Major, the tips had already started lting before you backed away."

Major Elio and everyone else that had stepped on the soil or close to it looked at their shoes and gasped. They had co close to losing their feet!!

"Suni how is this happening?" Nimo asked. "It seems like having the shield is not enough. What are we going to do?" Lines of worry were deeply marred into her forehead.

Sunshine ran fingers through her hair. "The soil here is more porous, allowing the rain to perate faster. The more compacted one will not be affected." She explained.

She crouched by the edge and plucked a blade of grass with a gloved hand. It had small spikes and felt stiff. The base was yellowish, showing signs of wilting. She lowered her mask and sniffed the soil. The scent was no longer earthy but tallic, like rust mixed with crushed tals. It slled like most of the world at this ti.

The sll was faint though which ant the damage was not extre.

"Will it stop here then?" Major Elio asked, folding his hands.

Letting out a weary sigh, Sunshine clucked her tongue. "I am going to look for a solution, if I cannot then all we can do is close this section off for a while to prevent any accidents."

"We should start checking all the other areas around the base with soil just in case. I will lead the teams myself and make sure that no spot is missed." Nimo said, patting her friend’s shoulder. "We should probably check the walls as well just in case. Heck, let’s just check everything."

Nodding for she was in agreent, Sunshine sighed again. "Good thinking, this is why you cannot let your guard down in the apocalypse. You are never truly safe."

She thought about the strawberries and other herbs that had been ruined. What a loss!

But another thing worried her. If acid rain had made it through the soil, what about mist?