Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Cold Snap 2
Ella was startled at his suggestion. “You want to plug in the space heaters at Rayne’s to test them?”, she asked. She didn’t mind her parents tagging along, she just wanted to use the flat iron and watch TV shows.

After securing the new matching sweaters, Ella went home with her father to prepare for the sleepover at Raynes.

She burst through the door and skipped over to her mother’s side, “Mom! Guess what? We’re going to have a sleepover at Raynes tonight!”, she announced before running to her room to find her flat iron.

Her mother looked over at Reginald in confusion, “You let her go?”.

Reginald walked over to sit beside his wife, “Only because we’re going with her”. He then pulled out the sweater he bought for her and handed it over lovingly.

“Look what I bought for you”, he smiled.

She took the sweater from his hands and immediately noticed the high-quality wool that it was made out of. Inspecting it further she found the discrete logo on the sleeve and gasped!

“Honey! This is a very well-known high-end brand! How did you get this?”, she looked at him with a surprised expression.

“We got lucky, the market was selling them. We bought one for each of us”, he said happy that his wife liked it.

At this moment Ella came out of her room, “Hmph! He made me buy mine myself! He only cares about you Mom!”.

Her mom smiled and pretended to scold her father, “Reggie! How could you? She’s our only baby, we need to spoil her”.

Reginald folded immediately in front of his wife’s complaints, “Yes, you’re right honey, I’m sorry”.

Ella rolled her eyes at her father. Her mother had him completely wrapped around her finger. She carried a small duffel bag of things over excited to head over to Rayne’s.

“Are you ready? Let’s go!”, she urged her parents.

Her mother stood up and packed some of her art supplies. She had just started sketching a landscape to use as a reference for a future painting. “Give me one-second sunshine, I’ll be done shortly”.

Reginald went to his bedroom closet to retrieve the space heater that he wanted to test. He also packed a small bag of clothing items and went back to the living room to meet up with the ladies.

“Okay, we’re all set. Let’s lock this place up and head over”, he said.

The walk over was quiet, many people were walking down to the forested area to pick up sticks and twigs to light fires which left the main walkway areas feeling deserted.

When Ella finally arrived in front of Rayne’s door she pulled out the small key that Rayne gave her. After placing the key in the lock, Ella realized that there was a lot more heft to the lock than their door.

“That’s odd. The door looks exactly the same as ours, but the lock feels very different”, she said and opened the door.

The door itself also felt a lot heavier but Ella shrugged it off thinking it was just due to the uniqueness of this building. She walked inside seeing the clean and familiar interior and ran straight over to the sofa, sprawling out on it.

“Ah its so comfortable! Dad we need to try and find a sofa like this!”, she said happily.

Reginald didn’t reply but took this request to heart.

Ella’s mother walked in and felt a little awkward being in someone else’s home without the owners being there. Reginald noticed her behavior and nudged her forward.

“It’s okay dear. They asked us to be here, we’re doing them a favor”, he said lovingly. She smiled and felt slightly better, walking to sit down on the sofa beside Ella.

While Ella was fiddling with Rayne’s laptop, trying to pull up a TV show, Reginald was unpacking the space heater he brought over to test.

After taking out all of the packaging he plugged it into an outlet and soon a gentle warmth could be felt coming out of the heater.

He clicked through the settings, turning on the highest one and felt a very strong heat begin to come out.

“Nice, looks like it works great”, he said happily. He put it back on a medium heat setting and went over to join his wife and daughter on the sofa.

Since the sofa was on the smaller side, the three of them huddled together while watching the TV show that Ella picked out.

They binged watched until late into the night. Ella walked into Rayne’s bedroom to grab some of the blankets that Rayne offered earlier and brought them back.

During this time Reginald readjusted the sofa into a pull out bed, setting it up for his family to sleep on for the night. Once Ella came back with a stack of pillows and blankets they all huddled together and fell asleep.

Later that night Ella woke up to the sounds of screaming coming from the outside. As soon as she woke up she felt that something was off, it was freezing.

She quickly leaned over and shook her mother and father awake. “Mom, dad!! Hurry wake up”, she yelled.

Reginald woke up right away but her mother was still sleeping. Ella noticed her mothers pale skin and blueish lips and began to panic.

“Mom! Mom! Wake up!”, she shook her more vigorously, only stopping when her mom finally opened her eyes.

Reginald quickly jumped out of the bed and pulled the space heater closer to them, putting it on the highest setting.

“Dad, that’s not enough. Check their bedroom to see if they have another heater!”, urged Ella, shivering under the covers.

Her mother leaned over and hugged her. Ella could feel the icy skin of her mothers body, making her frown even more.

“Mom, here, get under more covers, you’re too cold”, said Ella, placing majority of her blanket over her mother.

Ella got out of bed and put on as many layers as she could before putting on her warmest winter coat.

The people outside were still screaming and crying, making Ella curious enough to poke her head outside to see what was going on.

Many people froze to death in their sleep. Most of the people who were in their tents were the first to die, sparing only those who were huddled around the fires.

Even those who lived inside of the apartment units weren’t spared as majority of those people only had blankets to keep them warm.

The base’s leaders realized that that the temperatures dropped to record breaking numbers and sounded an alarm throughout the entire base, hoping to wake up as many sleeping people as possible.

Unfortunately, it was already mainly too late, as those who were asleep, froze to death in their sleep already.