Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Explosion
They huddled in the corner of what appeared to be a small post office, peeking out of the window to find the source of gunshots.

They saw a small group of men walking down the street, dragging two women behind them. The men were laughing as they shot the space between the women, causing them to cry out in fright.

“Hahaha! Listen to them crying out like bitches!”, one of the men laughed. The rest of the group laughed along with him until, what appeared to be the leader, stepped in.

“Okay, enough fun. The boss won’t like them as much if they shit themselves on the way there”, he said frowning. He was promised a nice reward if they managed to secure a few beautiful women to present to the boss.

He was worried that if the woman appeared too disheveled it would mask their pretty appearance and make him lose out on the reward.

Rayne watched this scene with horror, it was just like the nightmares she had. She turned to face Julian, who’s gaze was ice cold, watching the scene.

“Julian, we have to help those women. I can’t go back to the bunker knowing what awaits them if we leave them be”, pleaded Rayne.

He looked into her eyes, seeing the desperation and desire to help. Nodding his head, “Don’t worry, we’ll help them…but I can’t guarantee we can avoid bloodshed. Are you okay with that?”.

While he wanted to help the women, he was also concerned that Rayne wouldn’t be able to handle the sight of him shooting to kill.

If it was the previous Rayne who did not experience the nightmares, she may not have been okay with killing the men…even with their evil nature. She would have argued to call the police and let the legal system take over.

However, there was no police or justice system anymore, and letting men like this run wild would ruin the lives of many more women. She knew that if they let these men walk free after releasing the two women, they would just go find two more…”

“I’m prepared. As much as I don’t like the thought of killing anyone, these men will only continue doing these horrible things!”, she said resolutely, pulling out the silver pistol Julian gifted her.

He nodded. “Okay, then let me handle it”, he said, not wanting her to feel the guilt of killing if she didn’t have to.

Rayne felt warm knowing that he was wanting to shoulder the burden. She knew that she couldn’t avoid it forever, especially as time went on and lawlessness increased.

She placed the gun in his hands while secretly holding on to an extra magazine she copied with her system earlier.

While she knew that Julian’s skills were cream of the crop, she knew that anything could happen, and having the ability to reload quickly was vital.

Julian accepted the gun, choosing to use it over his own due to its silent firing ability.

“I’d like to try and get up higher if possible, it would give me a better angle”, he said quietly. Rayne nodded and followed him towards the back of the post office where the stairwell to the upper floors was.

The building they were in was only partially collapsed, exposing only the support beams of the upper floors.

They quickly made their way up the metal staircase to the second floor, which was still intact. Julian found a window which was partially broken, and took aim.

The men on the street had just begun to move towards the back side of the supermarket, dragging the crying women with them.

Rayne panicked slightly, unsure of if Julian will have enough time to shoot before they found cover behind the building. She watched him as he focused his breathing, aiming steadily, then..

Click, click, click, click!

All she heard was the soft clicking sound from the trigger.

“Shit!”, muttered Julian. He managed to cleanly hit four out of the five men, allowing the leader of the group to run behind the supermarket.

“The gun wasn’t fully loaded, I didn’t realize it until just now”, he said, looking slightly frustrated.

Rayne widened her eyes! That was her fault! She was playing with the gun last night, practicing loading and unloading it, and didn’t load it fully.

“I’m so sorry, that’s my fault!”, she said, feeling horrible about her mistake.

Julian shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile. “No it’s not your fault, I should have checked how many bullets there were before I shot”.

The two women on the ground ran away, terrified of the shooting and dead bodies around them. They were frightened, but grateful for the opportunity to escape, running as fast as they could.

“Fucking hell!”, yelled the leader of the group of men. He watched the two women run away, stepping over the dead bodies of his men.

He could tell that his men were clearly shot, but he didn’t hear any shots go off, making him feel slightly creeped out. He peeked his head out from behind the building, quickly glancing around to see if he could spot the shooter.

He noticed the cardboard box of items Julian dropped laying in the middle of the street, then made a guess that there really was someone out there. The leader was relatively smart, else he would not have been promoted to a small-time leader, and guessed that whoever it was…was inside the old post office building.

Before Julian could pull up the freshly reloaded gun, the bandit leader reached into his pocket and threw a grenade straight into the first floor window of the post office.

Julian grabbed Rayne and forcefully threw her towards the back of the building, jumping in the same direction to avoid getting hit by the imminent explosion from the grenade which landed directly below them.

“Get fucked, that’s what you get for making me lose out on my reward”, yelled the bandit leader as he made his way back to base.

He didn’t care much about his men getting killed, he felt they were all stupid anyways.

BOOOM!

He heard the large explosion from his grenade go off behind him.

“Ugh, boss Dillon is gonna be pissed at me”, he grunted as he ran.