Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System - Chapter 83

Chapter 83: The Box
Julian’s expression turned serious. If this truly was a synthetic drug, he could almost guarantee that this was somehow tied to Damien. He was the only one that Julian knew who could develop a new drug with such a strong reaction in the body that it fused itself into the cells.

Ian looked over at Julian and saw his thoughtful expression. “Boss, I think this is somehow linked to Damien.”

Julian nodded. “I’m almost certain it is. The real question now is: What exactly does it do?” He stood there, quietly thinking of all the possible things this drug could do. It clearly affected the body heavily, but the effects could be anything.

Rayne was also deep in thought. She wondered if this drug had anything to do with the apocalypse and was also curious about its effects. For some reason, her mind kept going back to the box she took from Dillon. Her gut was telling her that it was somehow related.

“Julian, how about we try to open the box? I don’t know why, but I feel that it’s somehow related to this,” she said quietly, trying not to disturb Anna.

Julian looked over at Rayne curiously. He wasn’t sure how the two could be related, but he was close to opening the box anyway. “Sure, let’s go see if I can get it open.”

They walked over to the other side of the lab where Julian usually tinkered with new weapon prototypes. Rayne noticed the box surrounded by various tools on his workbench.

Julian sat down and picked up a small tool that reminded Rayne of a long metal toothpick and began to tinker with the lock. Rayne sat down on the small stool beside Julian and watched him work quietly.

Although she couldn’t tell if any progress was being made just by watching, she heard Julian’s mumbles saying that he had almost got it open.

He worked quickly and efficiently, and about twenty minutes later, Rayne heard a soft click!

“It’s open!” announced Julian, happy with his work.

Rayne leaned over and looked inside, noticing a small glass vial that was securely fastened inside the box. It held a crimson red, powder-like substance that was so vibrant that it gave off a soft glow.

Julian carefully picked up the vial and inspected the sand-like powder inside. The color alone made him feel like Rayne was correct about it being related to the anomaly found on the bodies.

“I think you’re right. This might be the substance that caused the change in those men. If this truly is the drug, you have helped progress the investigation hundred-fold.”

Rayne had mixed feelings. She was glad that the box could possibly solve the issue of figuring out what caused such a change in the men’s bodies, but she was also worried about the effects of the drug. She also couldn’t understand why Dillon would get involved in such an illegal business.

Julian handed the vial over to Rayne and leaned in to whisper, “Could you step out and store this? I want to begin running tests, but the sample amount is so little that there might not be enough.”

He felt a little wrong asking her to use her ability for him, but this could possibly reveal what Damien had been working on these past few years. He desperately wanted this information.

Rayne noticed his pleading look as he asked her and wondered why he seemed so desperate. She, of course, didn’t mind storing this small vial at all. If anything, she was very happy that she could be useful!

She nodded and gave him a small thumbs-up, carefully taking the vial from his hands. While he asked her to step outside, Rayne was confident that she could store such a small item in the blink of an eye.

She turned her body so that only Julian could see the vial in her hands and quickly gave the mental command to store and take out the vial. It happened so quickly that even Julian, who was watching the vial in Rayne’s hands, didn’t notice that it vanished for a split second.

“Here,” she said, handing the vial back to him. She noticed his confused expression, wondering why she didn’t go out to store it and just handed it back to him.

Giggling lightly, she took her other hand and handed him a second vial, showing him that the task was already done.

Julian was even more surprised to see her pull out a copy. “So fast?!” he said quietly, not believing his eyes. He was sure that he was watching the vial in her hands intently, but even so, she was able to store it so quickly!

Rayne nodded happily. She found the feeling of surprising Julian a lot of fun, proud of her mental ability.

Julian took the two vials and walked over to the other side of the lab where Anna and the others were.

“Anna, I believe I may have found the substance in its pure form. Are you able to run some tests on it?” asked Julian, presenting the two vials of red powder.

“Boss! How did you find this?” asked Ian with wide eyes. He never would have expected his boss to be so resourceful.

Julian didn’t want to involve Rayne too much, so he just shrugged off Ian’s question. “That’s not important right now. We need to figure out if this is indeed what’s responsible and what it does.”

Anna looked over, studying the vial intently. “Boss, I can try my best, but at the end of the day, I’m a doctor, not a chemist. If we can, I would highly recommend that we find a chemist to run the tests.” While she had extensive medical knowledge, she was not someone who dabbled in synthetic drug production and wasn’t very familiar with the process.

Julian frowned, but knew what she said was true. He couldn’t expect her to be able to do all of this on her own, and finding a chemist would be the best option. The only question left was where to find them.