Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Into the City 2
(A/N: Big THANK YOU to Chibi_Wolf38 for the Dragon and all of your support so far! I dedicate this chapter to you!)

After he finished talking, everyone split into pairs and walked out of the gas station, heading in different directions.

Rayne paired up with Julian, while Noah went with Ian. The remainder of Alpha Team split into pairs and went on their way.

“Okay, looks like our direction is east. Let’s find a way around this gas station,” said Julian as he looked around, watching the other teams choose their directions.

“Okay, I’ll be right out,” replied Rayne. She walked around inside the gas station building while Julian went outside. After making sure he wasn’t in her line of sight, she quickly took out a bunch of random non-perishable food items and water bottles, throwing them into some of the empty display shelves.

She planned on continuing this trend as she walked around the city, hoping those in need would come across the supplies.

After she finished tossing supplies around in less obvious places, she hurried outside to meet up with Julian.

“I think I found a path through the rubble,” he said as she walked over. Their direction was past the toppled building, which was blocking the road. “We’ll have to do a little bit of climbing, but it looks doable.”

Rayne stood beside him and looked at the path in front of her. They would have to climb up some of the broken concrete slabs from the building and through a window. Once inside, they just needed to make their way through the tight path and out the window on the other side.

Rayne nodded and began to climb up the side of the toppled building, with Julian following right behind her.

“Watch your head, there’s an iron bar sticking through the ceiling,” Julian quickly pointed out before Rayne climbed into the window.

“Ah, thank you. It’s pretty dark, so I didn’t see it,” she thanked him gratefully.

Julian scanned ahead to see if there were any more hidden objects that could hurt her before he let her continue. They made their way through the tight openings left between the chunks of concrete, even crawling on the floor at one point.

It took them about 15 minutes to make it through the fallen building. Rayne was fully covered in dust by the time she saw the light from the other window. Carefully, she climbed out and began to dust herself off when her feet finally touched the flat ground.

Julian followed her lead, wiping the dirt off his arms before continuing down the street.

They continued to explore the empty street, looking for anything of interest until they came across a relatively intact street.

This was the oldest part of town and had the shortest buildings, allowing it to somewhat withstand the earthquakes. Most of the windows looked like they had been blown out from the hurricane or by scavengers trying to get inside.

The pair walked into what used to be a small corner store to see if there was anything left inside. Most of the shelves were empty, with only a handful of rotten fruits still lying on the front counter. Julian walked toward the back of the store and picked up a small lighter.

“Well, at least we won’t go back empty-handed now,” he joked, showing off his find to Rayne. She rolled her eyes at his jokes and walked toward a part of the store that had the most rubble. Bending down, she pretended to flip over a cardboard box while throwing random snacks on the ground.

“Ah, look! There’s some snacks here!” she announced, trying to sound cheerful. Julian walked over and saw the small pile of chips, crackers, and jerky lying on the ground.

“Oh wow, great find!” He bent down and picked out a sturdy cardboard box, filling it with the snacks Rayne found. Julian carried the box out of the store. “I think I see an electronics store across the street. Let’s check it out.”

Rayne quickly threw a few more bags of snacks around the store on her way out. “Okay, coming!”

The electronics store was relatively untouched. Only the big-ticket items like laptops were gone, leaving all sorts of random PC parts and accessories.

Rayne watched Julian grab a few different cables, hard drives, batteries, and even a DVD player off the shelves, placing them inside the cardboard box with the snacks.

They continued to look through the shelves until Rayne saw a figure run by from the corner of her eye. Turning around, she noticed a little girl run into the corner store she had just been in.

“Hey, Julian, I think I saw a child run into the corner store just now. I’ll go check it out,” said Rayne as she quickly jogged across the street.

Julian watched her jog across the street and shook his head. This girl can run headfirst into danger and not know it.

He carefully placed the cardboard box on a flat shelf and walked across the street to the corner store.

Meanwhile, Rayne caught up with the child. She looked like she was around 10-12 years old and was covered in dirt. She was currently rummaging through the toppled boxes, collecting some of the snacks Rayne had thrown around earlier.

When Rayne walked in, the little girl hid behind a shelf and tried to be as quiet as possible. Rayne felt sad that this young child was so frightened and slowly walked over.

“Hi, my name is Rayne. What’s your name?” she asked, standing on the other side of the shelf that the little girl was hiding behind.

The girl didn’t answer right away, but Rayne could hear small shuffling movements. Rayne pulled out a large chocolate bar from her system and held it over the shelf.

“I have this big chocolate bar. Can I share it with you?” she said sweetly. A few minutes later, the little girl walked out from behind the shelf, standing right in front of Rayne.

She looked so pitiful that Rayne wished she could just dump all sorts of toys and goods into her hands right then and there. She handed the large chocolate bar to the girl, squatting down to meet her at eye level.

“Here you go. Now can I know your name?” she asked, smiling.

Just as the girl was about to open her mouth to introduce herself, Julian walked in. The little girl was quickly startled and ran behind the shelf to hide once again.

Julian noticed that it was indeed just a child and that he had scared her. He turned to Rayne and said, “Um, I’ll be outside. Yell if you need anything.”

“Okay, sounds good,” smiled Rayne, then turned to the shelf where the girl was hiding.

“He’s gone. You can come out,” she whispered.