Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 179

Chapter 179: XXXL
Back at Rayne and Julian’s apartment, Julian pulled Rayne into his embrace.

“I promised Noah a small gift earlier. You wouldn’t happen to have a pack of condoms in that magical system of yours, would you?”, he asked with a smile.

Rayne giggled, “I sure do. What size?”.

Julian thought for a moment, “Hmm, let’s do a size smaller than mine!”. He couldn’t have Rayne thinking that Noah was bigger than he was!

Rayne burst out into laughter, “Okay, okay. One size smaller than XXXL, got it!”, she teased.

“You forgot one X on that”, Julian said, pretending to be offended.

The two of them laughed until they heard a knock on the door.

“Here, give him this”, said Rayne, handing him an unopened box of condoms. Julian walked over and opened the door.

Before Noah had a chance to say anything, Julian tossed the box over at him, “Good night! Oh..and don’t bother me too early tomorrow morning”, he said, giving him a certain look.

Noah caught the box and looked to see that it was a box of condoms, “Hey are you sure you don’t need these for yourself?”. He tried teasing Julian a little but it didn’t work.

“Nah, she likes it raw”, Julian flashed a victorious smile and turned to head back inside, leaving Noah standing there speechless.

Back inside Rayne was already in the shower, getting ready for bed. She was very pleased with the progress they made and felt like she could now begin to brainstorm the details of the base.

—-

On the other side of the base, Ace was curled up on the rough plank of plywood he called a bed. His face was pale and wet from the sweat his sick body had been producing, despite the cold temperature.

It only took him and his group two nights to catch whatever disease was going around in the building.

In fact, almost all of the people who lived in this large, open building were sick and coughing.

The extremely poor hygiene practices, combined with the freezing temperatures, created a perfect breeding ground for all sorts of bacterial infections and viruses.

“Boss, we need to report our status today,” coughed the man on the neighboring bunk.

Ace’s head was pounding, and his body felt like it was on fire. He regretted volunteering for this job when Dillon had presented it to him and Cal.

At the time, it had felt more exciting, like something out of an action spy movie, but now he realized it was nothing like he had imagined.

“You go reply,” Ace said, coughing. He couldn’t fathom moving right now, let alone getting up and driving for a few hours.

To make things worse, all of them were equally as sick as he was, so he couldn’t even order them to go in his stead.

“It’s fine. Hopefully, the boss will arrive soon,” mumbled Ace, closing his eyes once more.

—

At the safehouse…

“Mom, are we finally leaving today?” Layla pouted. She’d been dying to go find her brother, who was rumored to have hoarded unrealistic amounts of supplies.

Although her mother had promised they would go seek him out, starting from the government base, it had already been a few days, and they still hadn’t left.

“Baby, you know that your father is concerned about the killer,” her mother said, patting her gently.

Layla rolled her eyes. “Mom, if he’s alive, that means there was no killer!”

Mrs. Barclay’s eyes widened. “You’re right. What if he somehow knew? And pretended to be dead so he wouldn’t have to share his resources with us?”

Her hands trembled from anger. This son of hers never once put them first, going as far as faking his death to get away from them.

A part of her wanted to strangle him! If he hadn’t become so successful overnight, she would have cut all ties with him long ago.

“I’m going to speak with your father right now. Get yourself ready! We’re going to retrieve what’s rightfully ours!” she proclaimed and scurried off to the neighboring room to speak with her husband.

Her husband was a quiet man who easily gave in to his wife’s requests.

“Honey, we need to leave today! I just spoke to Layla, and she has a good point. Since Julian is alive, there’s no killer! He most likely faked this whole thing just to keep all the supplies to himself!” she cried out.

“HE DID WHAT?!” Mr. Barclay shouted, slamming his fist on the table. His originally pale face turned red from anger.

“I don’t know what I did wrong to deserve such an ungrateful son!” Mrs. Barclay cried, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Her husband sat for a moment before suddenly standing up. “Yes, we need to find him! He dares ignore his family in these difficult times? I will teach that boy a lesson myself!”

Mrs. Barclay quickly dried her eyes. “Yes! Yes! Let’s go and find him! Layla’s been going almost a week without her protein drink!” She hurried out of the room to get ready.

Thankfully, their safehouse had ample supplies, including warm clothing. The family bundled up while the servants packed their essential items for the journey.

Katrina looked at this scene and smirked. “They have no idea how nice they have it here. Julian must have taken extra care to ensure they could live like kings for a long time after his ‘death’. I don’t know many other people who can still employ servants,” she whispered to Cal.

He watched silently, agreeing with her words. Not even his boss, Dillon, had a dedicated team of servants… and these people were calling their son useless and ungrateful.

Layla walked over to the two of them. “I’m sure you’ve heard, but we’re planning on heading over to the government base. You’re welcome to join us if you want.”

Before Cal could say anything, Katrina smiled and shook her head. “Thank you for the invitation! I want to check a few more places in the city before heading there. We will meet up with you in a few days.”

Layla shrugged. Fewer people meant more space for her items in the car. “Suit yourself.”