Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 132

Chapter 132: A New Lead
When Rayne came back home she noticed how sparkly clean all of the floors and walls were. She smiled thinking that Julian must have put in a lot of effort to erase any signs of the scuffle from last night.

She walked towards the bedroom to look for Julian and found him fast asleep on the bed.

He must’ve been worried about me last night and couldn’t sleep well.

After making sure that he was covered with a blanket she quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.

She walked back into the living room and began to place the furniture back around the room. This time she also took out the most basic-looking dining room table since she was expecting guests over tonight for dinner.

After everything was set up she took a seat on the couch to decide what to make for dinner. She wanted to treat the Soto’s to a nice meal, but she also wanted to keep it realistic.

She thought about it for a few minutes and decided on a chicken and rice dish. Rice was a relatively common staple food right now since it has a long shelf life and she already told Ella that she managed to secure meat.

Walking over to the small kitchen area, she took out a package of fresh chicken thighs from her system to marinade in spices.

Just as she finished making preparations Julian woke up and walked out of the bedroom.

“Oh hey, you’re back”, he said groggily. He slowly made his way over to where Rayne was standing and peered over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

“Mhm, sleep okay?”, she asked as she rubbed the spices all over the chicken.

“Yeah, I didn’t even realize I fell asleep. I just laid down after cleaning and the next thing I know I’m awake”, he said yawning.

Rayne smiled, “I’m glad you got some sleep. You did a great job with the cleaning, thank you”.

“What time will our guests be here?”, he asked.

“I told Ella around 5:30 pm, but said they were welcome to come a little earlier if they wanted”, she replied.

Julian nodded and went back to the bedroom to get changed.

After Rayne finished she decided to go for a walk around the base. She was curious about the progress of the dormitory building and wanted to see if it would get finished anytime soon.

She told Julian her plans and walked outside. The air was chilly making Rayne feel cold even when she stood in the sunny spots.

She zipped up her jacket and continued to walk towards the sports field where the construction was said to happen.

It took her about 20 minutes to arrive, and she noticed that most of the framing was already finished.

Taking a closer look, she noticed that the quality of the construction was pretty bad, but it was still much better than living in a tent.

There were many people huddled together in the sunny spots of the base, trying to keep warm.

One man was trying to start a fire inside a metal barrel but seemed to lack matches or a lighter. He was rubbing two twigs together, hoping it would somehow catch fire.

“Are you stupid? How is rubbing those two sticks together going to start a fire?”, walked over another man, laughing.

The man with the sticks paused and looked over, “But…but I saw them do this on TV before!”.

“Haha! You clearly weren’t watching. Just casually rubbing two sticks together isn’t going to do shit for you”, he laughed once more.

“But I don’t have any matches or a lighter. What should I do? I spent all morning collecting this wood from the nearby forest”, he asked, feeling dejected.

Rayne watched this scene and felt bad for the man. She put on a hat that covered most of her hair and wrapped a scarf around her face. “Hi, I have an extra box of matches”, she said in a lower voice and tossed the man with the sticks the pack of matches.

“Oh thank you! Thank you!”, he said happily. Without waiting any longer he quickly lit the match and used it to light the kindling in the metal barrel.

A few moments later a small fire could be seen glowing inside of the barrel.

Many more people walked over to try to warm themselves and soon there was a small crowd surrounding the barrel.

“Someone, go get more wood! We should keep this fire going around the clock!”, someone suggested in the crowd.

“Good idea! I’ll head over to the woods now!”, another person replied.

This set off a small chain reaction where people would go into the forest and collect fallen branches to keep the fire going.

Rayne stood quietly near the crowd, observing how the situation unfolded when she heard a bit of gossip that piqued her attention.

“Karen, did your nephew ever make it over here?”, asked an older woman with grey hair.

The woman named Karen scoffed, “No, that useless boy knows nothing outside of his little science experiments. He wouldn’t survive a day out in the wilderness, I’d be shocked if he could even manage to make it out of that city”.

“Oh was he still in that northern city?”, the other woman asked.

“Yeah, ever since he left to attend university there he never once left. I haven’t seen him in years. I only got the usual monthly letter with money inside, everything else I didn’t care for”, answered Karen.

“Oh if he sent you money, he at least had a decent job right?”, the other woman asked curiously.

“Yeah, something like that. Last I heard he was working for that major pharmaceutical company, developing some new weight loss drug”, said Karen dismissively.

Rayne couldn’t help but butt into the conversation.

“Excuse me, did you say your nephew was a chemist?”, she asked politely.

Karen turned to face her, “What’s it to you?”, she asked with a frown.

Rayne reached into her pockets and pulled out a small packet of hand warmers, handing it to both women.

Karen smiled at the gift! “Yes, yes! He went to university for chemistry if I remember correctly”, she quickly answered.

“Ah thank you. And the northern city…was it City R by chance?”, asked Rayne. The only university city she knew of that was in the north of the country was City R.

“Yes, that’s the one! Are you familiar with it?”, asked Karen.

“Ah yes, I had a friend who lived up there. Thank you for the information”, said Rayne before she turned to leave.

Both older women were too preoccupied with the hand warmers to pay any more attention to Rayne, not noticing how overly excited Rayne was about the news of her nephew.