Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 169

Chapter 169: Bag of Bricks
A few days later, at Damien’s base.

“Boss! I found a woman who fits your description!” said Cal as he sat down at Dillon’s table.

Dillon looked up and checked out the young woman who stood beside Cal. She had very soft features and crystal-clear eyes that made her look like a lost doe.

“Good, she will work,” Dillon replied before turning to the woman. “What’s your name?”

The woman bowed respectfully. “Hello, my name is Katrina. I’m a level 3 leader from Leader Mai’s team.”

Dillon nodded; a level 3 leader meant that she had been part of the organization before the world went to hell.

Dillon motioned for her to sit down so they could discuss the specifics of the upcoming mission.

“So you just need me to go in, get on their good side, and convince them to look for their son?” Katrina asked once more to make sure she understood the scope of her job correctly.

“Yes. You’ll go with Cal and pose as siblings/friends/whatever you want,” said Dillon. All that mattered to him was that they find where Julian was hiding.

They went over the plan once more and got up to attend to their business. Before everyone left, Dillon turned to Cal and Katrina. “Don’t rush things. Make sure they’re fully on your side.”

“Yes, Boss!” Cal called out, while Katrina bowed her head respectfully.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the government base…

“Leader Ace, how much longer do you think we’ll have to wait in this line? We must’ve been here for at least half a day already,” complained one of the men in Ace’s car.

“How the hell am I supposed to know?” Ace snapped. He had been waiting in a long line for hours today, and there was still a long line of cars in front of them. At this rate, they’d be lucky to make it in today.

One of the other men sighed, “Why can’t we just drive in. If anyone gives us trouble, we’ll just shoot them”.

Ace placed his hand on his forehead, I’m with a bunch of morons.

“The mission is to blend in, not start a war, genius,” he sighed, regretting his earlier decision to bring these guys with him.

They waited in line for another three hours before they made it to the first checkpoint.

“Listen up morons, I’m going to need to all to pretend to be mute. I’m the only one who’s going to do the talking”, Ace said. He did not trust that they would not say something absolutely off the wall, resulting them a denied entry.

The others in the car all bobbed their heads, not saying a word. The car pulled up and a guard walked over to their car.

“What brings you here”, he asked without much emotion.

Ace took a deep breath and managed to squeeze a few tears out, “Oh sir! You wouldn’t believe it! My brothers and I are on a run! Bandits took over our home, killing and pillaging! Even my poor grandmother wasn’t spared and got taken as the bandit leaders woman!”.

He dramatically swept his hand across his face, acting as though he had just experienced the worst situation imaginable.

The guard sensed that Ace was a little off and glanced at the rest of the men in the car.

Seeing the guard look at them, they bobbed their heads once more and didn’t say a word.

The guard scratched his head. This bunch looked like a group of baby birds waiting for their mother to come back and feed them.

Ace continued weaving an elaborate, over-the-top story, even mentioning how he nearly lost his arm in a fight to make it here.

The guard, exhausted from his twelve-hour shift, couldn’t be bothered to listen to more of the story.

Passing them off as slightly “not right in the head,” he cut Ace off mid-sentence. “You’re here to register as residents, right? Pull over into that parking lot and wait in line to get your resident cards.”

He pointed to the adjacent parking lot, which had an even longer line than the one they had just come through.

Ace looked in horror, realizing there was yet another line they had to wait in. He quickly thanked the guard and drove the car over to the next parking lot.

As soon as he pulled away, one of the men couldn’t help but say, “Leader Ace, I’m really sorry about your grandmother.”

Ace felt like pulling his hair out. He didn’t know where he found these guys. A bag of bricks would have been smarter than these guys combined.

He silently pulled into a parking spot. “You guys take turns standing in line. I’m going to take a quick nap. Wake me up when it’s almost our turn.”

“Yes, Leader Ace,” they said, bobbing their heads.

Ace rolled over, closed his eyes, and the others played rock-paper-scissors to decide who had to wait first.

Ten minutes went by, and they still couldn’t determine who lost and had to go first. Ace felt like punching a wall. He quickly sat up and pointed at each of them. “One, two, three, four, and five. Now go! Rotate every thirty minutes.”

After sorting that out, he turned back to try and sleep.

After two hours he woke up, glad to see that they seemed to be following the order correctly. “How far in the line did you guys make it?”, he asked and adjusted his seat in the car.

The four of them looked at him with giant question marks. Ace could feel the blood vessels in his forehead popping. He aggressively opened the car door and stepped outside.

He walked over to the middle of the line, trying to find the one guy who was holding their place in line.

He slowly made his way down the line after not finding the familiar face. Frowning, he continued to walk farther and farther back.

“Surely the line doesn’t move this slowly?” he mumbled to himself. It wasn’t until he reached the very end of the line that he realized what was going on.

He approached the familiar man, doing his best to hold back his anger. “Why are you all the way back here?” he asked with a trembling voice.

“Well, Number Three came over to the car and told me it was my turn to wait, so here I am. Is something wrong, Leader?” the man asked in a confused tone.

“What’s wrong is that you guys are going to give me a brain aneurysm!” Ace shouted.

The man frowned. “Is that painful?”

Ace took his place in line. “Go back to the car and call everyone over. Make sure you lock the car and bring me the keys.”

Ace felt like if he didn’t specify the instructions in high detail, they’d end up locking the keys in the car.