Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Vanishing Pancakes
When Anna began to draw blood, she noticed that the color was off from what you would normally expect. Typically, the blood would have a bluish-purple tinge, but the blood in this body was bright red— even brighter than a living person’s.

“This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she mumbled to herself. She knew there was certainly something off about this.

“Can you show me where the other bodies are? I want to examine them as well,” she asked one of the members of Alpha Team who had come here earlier.

He led Anna to the street in front of the warehouse store, where the other bodies lay. Anna bent down and inspected the other three bodies, finding similarities between them all.

“This is certainly something. I won’t know for sure until we get back and I can run a few blood tests, but this doesn’t seem like a disease,” she stated, giving her initial opinion.

Once Anna finished, she, along with the rest of the members of Alpha Team, packed up and set off back to the base.

—

Rayne woke up late the next morning. It was already early morning when she finally left Julian’s room and went to sleep.

Laying on her bed, she smiled brightly, thinking about her time with Julian yesterday. They had so many different topics to talk about, and she felt like she had learned a lot more about him.

She got dressed after taking a shower and got to work, busying herself in the communal kitchen area. Today, she decided to make a large amount of pancakes— some for herself and extras to freeze and reheat later.

As she finished mixing the batter and pouring it carefully on the hot griddle, she realized that it had been oddly quiet this morning. Usually, Noah would have come by for his third cup of coffee by now, but she didn’t see or hear anyone.

Shrugging her shoulders, she continued to focus on cooking, and a while later, she had a few tall stacks of pancakes. Walking over to the table, she sat down to eat her portion while it was still hot. She took this time to allow the other pancakes to cool down so that she could package them properly and place them in the freezer for later use.

“Oh, I forgot the syrup!” she said and quickly looked around before opening up her system to take out a bottle of natural maple syrup.

Just as she began to eat, Julian, Noah, and Ian came running into the kitchen.

“What smells so good?!” asked Noah, sniffing the air. Ian looked around the kitchen, spotting the steaming stacks of pancakes, and quickly walked over to fill his plate.

Julian saw Rayne sitting at the table and came over to sit beside her. “Good morning! Wow, these look amazing. We practically ran up from the lab once we smelled the delicious scent.”

“Good morning!” smiled Rayne. “So you were all holed up in the lab! I was wondering where everyone went.”

“Yeah, Anna came back from the city with blood samples, and we were in the lab running tests. I also have made progress on the box. I’m pretty sure I will be able to open it today,” said Julian. Once Noah and Ian filled their plates, Julian stood up to get a plate for himself.

Everyone joined Rayne at the table, passing around the maple syrup and enjoying the food.

“Hopefully Anna will be able to isolate the anomaly in the blood sample,” said Ian. He was very interested in what could have caused this strange change in the bodies.

“She said she was almost done. I’m sure she’ll have news once we’re back,” chimed in Noah. He looked over at Julian to see if he had anything to say but noticed that Julian was too busy enjoying the pancakes.

He looked over at Rayne and smiled. “You probably already know this, but he’s a total foodie. Whenever we had business meetings, I always had to make sure that wherever the meeting was held had good-tasting food.”

Rayne looked over at Julian and smiled, holding back a laugh. “Oh, really? I knew he enjoyed good food, but now I’m picturing a whole different picture.”

“Oh, and don’t even get me started on the poor waitresses who fled the room as if it was about to explode. Julian always had a knack for scaring them away,” laughed Noah.

Julian lifted his head and frowned. “Hey, I didn’t do anything! It was the waitresses who just stood there and stared at me after delivering my food! If I was into having people watch me eat, I’d be a mukbang content creator!”

Rayne couldn’t hold back and started laughing, infecting everyone with her cheerful mood. Even Ian laughed, picturing his boss as an internet mukbang sensation.

After Rayne finished eating, she went over to wash her plate and utensils before dealing with the extra pancakes she made to freeze. Looking over at the plate, she realized there were no pancakes left! The three of them ended up eating every single one!

Shaking her head, she resigned herself to her fate and made a double portion for later.

“Hey Rayne, would you like to come down to the lab with us?” asked Julian as he got up to wash his plate.

“Oh, sure! I’m very curious about what the findings are,” she said, happy to have been invited down. This would be her first time venturing down into the lower levels of the bunker, and she was excited to see it.

After Ian and Noah cleaned up, the four of them set off to the laboratory in the lower floors. On their way over, they walked by the armories and utility rooms. Rayne excitedly looked around, eager to see more of her design in the flesh.

When they arrived in the laboratory, Rayne spotted Anna hunched over, looking into a microscope.

“Well, any discoveries?” asked Ian. He walked over to Anna’s side and watched her as she examined the sample under the microscope.

Without looking away from the microscope, Anna answered, “Yes, I’ve basically confirmed that this is a synthetic substance, so that rules out a natural disease. It’s most likely some sort of drug, but I still haven’t identified what the drug does to the body. I also can’t isolate the substance from the rest of the blood sample due to how it lodges itself into the blood cells directly.”