Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 115

Chapter 115: Government Lab
Julian placed his arm around her, hugging her. “Don’t worry, I won’t let it anywhere near you,” he whispered.

Kia took the pistol out of the holster and slowly lowered her window. She aimed for the snake’s head, but when she finally shot, the bullet missed, hitting its body.

The giant snake quickly reacted, coiling its body and hissing in anger. It shifted its body to move at very fast speed, ramming into the van.

“Quick! Shoot it again! I don’t want that thing inside with me!” cried Percy. He was squatting on his seat, ready to jump out of the van if he had to.

Kia lifted her pistol and aimed once more, this time trying to hit its body as many times as she could.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

She shot the pistol three consecutive times, hitting the snake’s body each time. Unfortunately, this didn’t kill the creature, but caused it to slither away into hiding.

“No, it’s going inside the laboratory! Why couldn’t you aim better?” cried Percy. He didn’t want to go out knowing that an angry python could be lurking around any corner.

Julian was also disappointed in the turn of events. He quickly realized that just because someone was on the guard team didn’t mean they were fully trained. Kia’s display of marksmanship was very poor, in his opinion.

“Let’s go. The snake got hit a few times; it might bleed out to death,” said Julian from the back seat.

Kia and Kenzo got out of the van, followed by Julian and Rayne. Rayne wasn’t happy, knowing that the snake survived, and clung to Julian like a koala.

Percy was so scared, he was practically crying. “No, no! I don’t want to get out of the van! I’m going to stay here!” he cried as Kia tried to pull him out of the car.

“Fine, stay here. Just don’t regret it when it slithers back here for you,” she said, turning away.

“Okay! I’ll come! Okay! Just don’t leave me,” he quickly hopped out of the van.

The group slowly proceeded forward into the government lab. The entrance looked like any typical modern-day lobby area, with marble floors and a sleek, clean design. The only difference was that past the lobby, there was a checkpoint set up requiring a keycard to proceed further inside.

“Great, how do we get past this chain-link fence? We don’t have keycards… not that they would help us now,” cried out Percy.

Rayne shook her head. When he first introduced himself, he seemed like a ruthless bad guy, but after spending some time with him, she felt like he was a bit of a pansy.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out a pair of bolt cutters. “Well, looks like these finally came in handy!” she announced, acting like she’d had them the entire time.

“Oh, you came prepared. Good job,” said Kia, approvingly.

Rayne walked over to the chain-link fence and began snipping the chains to cut out an opening. The bolt cutters were new and of good quality, making the process quick and easy.

A few minutes later, she finished, making a decent-sized hole in the fence for them to walk through.

“Let’s hope this guy is here so we can hurry up and head back,” commented Kenzo. After his incident with the lioness, he became much less talkative and a lot more nervous. Rayne felt that if it weren’t for the large amount of supplies he’d acquired from the supermarket, he would have mentally snapped already.

The group walked through the main corridor, checking the various rooms on the way. Rayne noticed that this lab was pretty much fully intact, just empty.

As they made it to the end of the hall, they found themselves at a two-way intersection.

“It looks like we’ll need to split up,” said Kia. “Kenzo and prison boy, you’ll come with me. The lovebirds can go down the other hall.”

“No! I don’t want to go with you. You suck at shooting!” cried Percy, still wary of the potential lurking danger.

“Shut up and start walking,” Kia grabbed him by the arm and began walking down the hallway on the left.

Seeing that Kia’s group chose the left corridor, Rayne and Julian turned to walk down the right corridor.

“Should we really have split up like this?” asked Rayne nervously. She couldn’t shake her fear of the snake from earlier, feeling on edge.

“It should be okay. Kia did enough damage to it that I don’t think it will show itself. But if it does, I’ll be ready,” smiled Julian, showing her the pistol in his hand.

They entered a large room that was filled with different kinds of fancy scientific equipment that Rayne didn’t recognize. She walked around, looking carefully.

“Do you think I should store any of this? If we do find the chemist, will he or she have the proper equipment to analyze the substance?” asked Rayne.

Julian thought about the small lab at the bunker and nodded, “Yes, it’ll probably be a good idea. I don’t think the lab at the bunker is equipped for chemistry experimentation.”

After hearing the okay, she walked around and began to store the various lab equipment around the room. They continued through the rooms until Julian lifted his hand, indicating Rayne to stop moving.

“I smell something burning,” he whispered and crept forward.

Rayne focused on smelling the air, picking up the faint burning scent.

They quietly proceeded down the hallway, following the burning scent.

“It’s coming from inside this room,” whispered Julian. He pulled up the pistol, ready to shoot if he had to.

Taking a deep breath, he quickly pushed the door open and pointed his pistol inside.

Cough! Cough!

“Please don’t shoot me!” coughed a middle-aged man. He had just finished grilling a piece of meat and, just as he took a bite, Julian stormed in, startling him and causing him to choke on his food.

Julian lowered the gun and stared at the man. “Who are you?”