Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 146

Chapter 146: Spotted
It only took Rayne and Julian a short while to reach the location where the fight between the red and blue teams had occurred.

They took a few minutes to catch their breath and rest before setting off again.

“So much for avoiding the center of the city,” whispered Rayne. She still couldn’t believe they were spotted from such a great distance, forcing them to take a completely different route than they originally planned.

Julian agreed, then pointed over to the body he had shot, which was lying a short distance away.

“Can you take out the binoculars again? There’s something off about it, but I can’t see it clearly from here,” whispered Julian.

Rayne quickly handed him a pair of binoculars and took out another pair for herself. When she looked over at the body of the fallen red member, she nearly gasped.

“It’s the same as the bodies we found in the city! Their veins are bulging the exact same way!” she said, keeping her voice down.

Julian observed a while longer. “Yeah, it’s exactly the same. It seems there’s more at play here than just simple gang culture.”

Rayne couldn’t help but think of Damien, whom Julian had mentioned earlier. If this was truly related to Damien, as Julian suspected, that would mean his reach was a lot further than she initially thought.

Before continuing their journey, they took the time to observe their surroundings.

“It’s almost evening. Maybe it’s best we wait until it gets dark before we infiltrate the pharmaceutical building,” suggested Rayne. She had night vision goggles in her system, courtesy of Julian, and they would give them a significant advantage.

Julian looked around and agreed but made another suggestion. “Let’s move further into their territory now, while most of their people are out looking for us throughout the city.”

Rayne nodded, and they moved out.

The building they decided to hide in until nighttime was a small, mostly broken structure across the street from the large pharmaceutical building. It was barely large enough for the two of them to fit inside, but it provided good cover from every angle.

They huddled together to wait for the sun to set, using this time to refuel themselves with food and water.

Rayne was feeling chilly from being out in the freezing temperatures all day and wanted to eat something warm, so she pulled out a bowl of wonton soup that she had made earlier.

They quickly slurped the soup and wontons down, eating it before it turned cold. She then pulled out two small thermos bottles filled with hot tea she had prepared earlier and quietly sipped it to keep warm.

Time seemed to go by very slowly, and Rayne began to feel even colder. She pulled out a large armchair, which barely fit inside the space, for her and Julian to sit on together. She then covered them with a small blanket and another small electric blanket, which she plugged into a small portable power bank.

This made the wait much more bearable, even slightly enjoyable. Rayne leaned over to rest her head on Julian’s shoulder, happily sharing a moment with him.

They sat in each other’s embrace like this until nightfall, occasionally getting up to check their surroundings through the small hole in the cracks.

As the sun began to set, they heard the sounds of people walking by, heading towards the pharmaceutical company’s building.

Rayne and Julian quietly watched, getting an idea of how many people they were dealing with. Rayne thought it was strange that those men had been out for such a long time but didn’t appear to be very cold.

The temperatures were still extremely low, and those men weren’t dressed in excessively warm clothing, so this raised another question about how they managed to stay warm.

Her mind flashed to the scene of the bulging veins on the dead body. Could it be that these two things were somehow related?

They waited until all of the people went inside, clearing the surrounding area. Using the binoculars, they looked around, trying to find all of the places where the night patrol was stationed.

Either due to the cold weather or blind trust that no one would dare come close to their territory, Rayne and Julian only found a small handful of guards.

“They have a lot of openings into the building. Basically, any route inside other than the front door should be safe for us to use,” he said quietly.

Most of the guards looked bored, not really focused on scanning the surroundings. This gave Rayne and Julian a perfect opportunity to slip inside.

Rayne just hoped that things would be as easy once they got inside, but considering the number of people she watched walk in, that was unlikely to be the case.

They waited a little longer before packing up all their things and moving forward to infiltrate the large building.

“Let’s go through the side entrance over there,” Julian pointed. He had spent a good amount of time watching the night patrol and calculated that this entrance would be the safest route.

They walked out of the small, broken building and put on the night vision goggles that Rayne had pulled out of her system. The once pitch-black night turned into a bright hue of green, illuminating everything in the vicinity.

The night vision made their short journey to the side entrance very easy, and they quickly found themselves inside.

Once they were inside, they quickly walked down the hall to find the staircase to the upper floors. None of the rooms on the lower floors had anyone inside, so they continued to make their way upward.

On the third floor, they finally saw some movement. There was a barrel fire in what used to be a conference room, along with a few gang members.

They were sitting in conference chairs, eating some dry rations while chatting about the fight from earlier.

“You should have seen those Ice Tigers run like pansies! They’ll certainly think twice before challenging us again!” one of the men laughed.

“It’s just unfortunate that Big Mark died. Cheap move by the Ice Tigers to have a hidden sniper sitting far away,” said another man.

They continued to discuss the fight, mentioning that the sniper was never found.

After eavesdropping for a while, Rayne and Julian pulled out their silent pistols and quickly made their way into the room, shooting everyone in sight.

After clearing the room, they pushed forward, killing the remaining gang members on the third floor.

Rayne looked down at the bodies, noticing the familiar scene of bulging veins on each of the bodies.