Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 145

Chapter 145: Red vs Blue
After settling the trade deal, Rayne and Julian followed another member of the Ice Tigers towards the city. They walked a few blocks down the road when their escort stopped.

“This is where our territory ends. When you’re ready to leave, come back this way, and we will walk you back out. Oh… and one last thing, be careful if you run into the Blood Skulls, there’s something wrong with them,” said the man before walking back.

Rayne pulled out her map and marked their current location so they could find it more easily later. Turning to Julian, she asked, “What do you think he meant by that?”

Julian shook his head. “It could be anything; the only way is to head over and find out.”

They began to make their way to the west side of the city, where the Blood Skulls were located.

Rayne kept Molly’s warnings in mind and tried to avoid the central area where most of the conflict seemed to happen. They pushed forward down the streets, which were littered with toppled buildings and abandoned vehicles.

There was an eerie silence in the city, making it feel even colder than it really was.

“It seems too quiet; it’s giving me goosebumps,” said Rayne quietly. Something was telling her that it wasn’t safe here.

Julian was also tense, constantly observing the surroundings. They ran from building to building, doing their best to stay in the shadows of the broken structures.

The route they chose circled around the center of the city, avoiding the direct middle.

They entered what used to be a large parking garage and climbed the broken concrete slabs up to the second floor. From here, they had a slightly better look at the large area around them.

Rayne pulled out her map once more and then pointed toward a building in the west. “That over there must be the pharmaceuticals building.”

She pulled out two pairs of binoculars and handed one over to Julian. She carefully scanned the surrounding area to see if she could spot anything of interest.

“Look there, farther down the road,” said Julian quickly.

Rayne looked over and noticed a scuffle. She counted eight men locked in a temporary deadlock—four of them had a blue armband, and the other four wore a red one.

She assumed that the people with the red armbands belonged to the Blood Skulls, while the others were Ice Tigers.

“There might be more than just the eight on the ground. It’s most likely why one side didn’t attack full-out yet,” analyzed Julian.

Rayne continued to observe them with her binoculars. They all held cold weapons, mainly daggers and knives. It looked like they were arguing with each other, but she was too far away to hear what was being said.

Just then, something must have happened because the eight men on the ground began to fight. They fought fiercely, aiming to kill. Rayne watched as they swung their knives at each other while continuing to argue.

“Who do you think will win?” she asked Julian.

He was also watching the fight and assessed the situation. “The blue team seems to be a lot more organized and proficient with their knife skills. However, there’s something strange about the movements of the red guys…”

Rayne continued to watch, trying to pick up on what was strange. She noticed that all of the men on the red team were very physically buff. They all looked like longtime boxers and even seemed less affected by the freezing cold temperatures.

Another oddity she noticed was that they seemed to ignore pain very well. Whenever someone on the blue team would land a hit, cutting a man on the red team, the injured red team member would act as if nothing had happened and continue to push forward.

“It’s almost as if they ate a whole bunch of painkillers before the fight,” said Rayne in confusion.

Due to this strange phenomenon, the blue team, which originally had the upper hand, was now close to losing.

“Should we do something?” asked Rayne. She wasn’t sure if it was smart to intervene since she wasn’t sure whose side to take.

Julian continued to observe the fight, noticing that the blue side was slowly being pushed back. It seemed like they were trying to retreat while the red team did their best to cut them off.

“Can you take out my sniper?” he finally asked.

Rayne was stunned at first but quickly did as he asked. She watched Julian quickly set up the sleek sniper rifle with a long zoom scope attached.

She did her best to minimize her presence so that he could fully concentrate on the shot, and a few moments later, she heard the soft sound of the bullet being fired.

Lifting her binoculars to her eyes once more, she noticed that the bullet cleanly hit one of the red guys, causing the rest of the red team to scatter.

She tried to follow their movements before Julian yelled, “Drop down!”

Her body moved on its own as she fell to the ground, only to hear a bullet whizz by.

“Fuck, they found us! How? We’re so far away, and the gun had a silencer!” said Rayne. The adrenaline was coursing through her veins, causing her heart to beat quickly.

Julian was in a similar state on the ground under the sniper rifle. “We need to quickly get out of here before they catch up. We would be at a major disadvantage if we had to fight head to head with a group of them.”

Rayne crawled over and stored the sniper back into her system, then crawled down to the ground floor of the parking garage with Julian.

As soon as they made it behind cover, they quickly ran to a new location. As soon as they made it inside the adjacent building, they heard movement in the parking garage they had just been in.

Rayne couldn’t believe that they had already made it to the parking garage. She continued to climb through the broken buildings with Julian, heading toward the pharmaceutical building.

Their pursuers were still hot on their trail simply due to the number of people searching for them.

After they noticed that Rayne and Julian were no longer in the parking garage, they all spread out and began combing through the vicinity.

Luckily, they assumed that Rayne and Julian would run further away from the Blood Skull territory and sent most of their people to search outward.