Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Purple Shirt
“We’ve got everything from sushi to fast food. There’s steak… oh! The fried chicken from earlier! As well as various soups, salads, and sandwiches. Pretty much anything you can think of,” she said happily as she scrolled.

Julian watched her tap and move her fingers in the air. “Are you clicking on something?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“Hmm? Oh right, you can’t see it. Yeah, it’s basically like a holographic screen filled with icons of all the things I’ve stored,” replied Rayne.

“Damn, that’s so cool,” muttered Julian as he watched her finger move up and down. “Umm, how about that burger you had? It smelled so good.”

“Sure thing! Coming right up!” she replied cheerfully, clicking on the icon of the burger meal.

A moment later, a paper bag with fries and a burger appeared in her hands, the smell wafting from inside the bag.

“Wow, this is incredible!” he exclaimed, accepting the paper bag. He took out the burger, feeling the warmth through the wrapper. Even the fries were still perfectly crispy!

Rayne watched him happily. “It took me several trips to the fast food restaurant to get those perfectly crispy fries!”

“You know? This place used to be my guilty pleasure. I would sometimes sneak away from Noah’s gaze and treat myself to a burger just like this one,” he said, sharing one of his own secrets.

“Haha, well now you can have it whenever you want!” giggled Rayne. “Oh, and I promise not to tell Noah either!”

Julian ate the burger while Rayne continued to scroll through her system, giving him an idea of the types of items she had stored over the past year.

As she scrolled through her miscellaneous folder, she came across the small black box that she took from Dillon the night she met him in the club. She tried opening it, but it wouldn’t budge, so she gave up and forgot about it.

“Hmm, I still don’t know what this is,” she said, looking at the icon of the small box.

Julian ate a few more fries, then turned to look at her. “What is it? Maybe I can help.”

Rayne took out a copy of the box and showed it to Julian. “I’ve tried opening it a while back, but the lock seems special. The material of the box is also unique. I was unable to break it.”

Julian took the small box from her hands and inspected it closely. It reminded him of something he had seen before, but he couldn’t remember what.

“I feel like I’ve seen something similar a long time ago. Once we get back to the bunker, I’ll tinker with it to see if I can get it open,” he said, handing the box back to Rayne.

She threw it away via the system trash bin and opened up the folder with the men’s shirts. She had cut open Julian’s shirt earlier and wanted to find him a new one.

“Pick a color,” she said playfully.

“A color for what?” asked Julian, noticing her playful smile.

“It’s a surprise. Just pick a color!” she said again.

Julian looked at her curiously. “Hmmm, I pick purple!”

Rayne giggled at his choice. “Okay, one minute!” She scrolled through the thousands of men’s shirt options, pulling out a short-sleeve purple t-shirt with an image of a cat on it.

“Here, it suits you perfectly,” she giggled, handing him the shirt.

Julian looked at the lazy white fluffy cat and the deep purple color of the shirt. “If I had known it was for a shirt, I would have said black or grey!”

“Sorry! You made your choice! Plus, I think the cat is cute,” answered Rayne.

Before he resigned to fate and put the shirt on, Rayne walked over to make sure the bandages on his back were still okay.

“Okay, it looks good. Nothing’s bled through,” she said with a sigh of relief.

“By the way, shouldn’t we radio the team to let them know we’re okay?” Rayne reminded him. It had been well over the 3-hour mark they agreed to meet back up in.

Julian quickly fished out his special phone/radio and typed in the password. Soon, a number of messages flooded his screen.

[Boss, where are you? Is everything okay?]

[We’re coming to look for you. Please reply if you’re okay.]

…

Julian quickly glanced over the numerous messages from Ian and Noah, then pushed the radio call button to call Noah via satellite.

“Hey Noah, it’s me. I’m okay. Had a small incident with a local gang of some sort. The building we were in collapsed around us, so we’re stuck.”

Julian explained the situation in more detail, telling him where they were located. Once he finished, he hung up the call and put his phone away.

“Noah and Ian are on their way now. I told them our location. We just need to sit tight,” he told Rayne.

She smiled, happy that they were finally going to get out of this predicament. “Well, while we wait, is there anything you’d like to do? I can pull out a laptop and we can watch a movie or something.”

Julian laughed. “You really are something! Here we are, stuck in a fallen building without a care in the world! Yes, let’s watch something until they get here.”

Rayne pulled out her laptop and an external hard drive, pulling up a random movie. She sat comfortably in Julian’s embrace, watching the movie together with him.

It took Noah and Ian about an hour to arrive with the members of Alpha Team.

When Rayne heard their voices approaching, she quickly stood up with Julian and put away all of the extra things she had taken out of her system earlier.

“Boss, are you there?” Noah’s voice sounded from the street.

Julian walked over to the small hole in the wall. “Yes, we’re in here. I think we can try to move some of the debris on the backside of the building to make a safe clearing.”

Hearing Julian’s orders, the Alpha Team members quickly walked to the back of the building and got to work moving bricks and building chunks.

Rayne assessed the situation from the inside, pointing out places they should avoid touching in order to prevent the building from falling apart more. She was very familiar with weight distribution and building integrity, allowing her to easily spot the places with the most weight-bearing loads.

“Avoid moving anything next to this pillar. It could cause this whole back wall to collapse,” she said, pointing to a spot in the middle.