Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System

They continued to work their way through the city. All of Damien's men were causing chaos in their own ways, while forcefully taking everyone's supplies.

One of the teams found a small settlement of people living in a half-broken apartment building.

The leader of this team was a very meek-looking man who contrasted highly with all of the buff and built men around him.

"Boss, I estimate that over 50 people live here", one of his subordinates came over to give a report.

The meek leader looked at the building and smiled, "Perfect".

He was different from the other leaders who liked to storm in and take everything by force. He enjoyed convincing people in other ways.

"Bring my megaphone", he ordered.

The subordinate quickly went off to the trunk of their car to retrieve the megaphone.

"Here boss!", he quickly handed it over.

The leader took the megaphone and walked over to the entrance of the apartment building. Many eyes were watching him from inside, curious about what this man in a suit was planning to say.

"Ladies and gentlemen. I am here on behalf of the government. We are here to help you move to our new shelter, please listen carefully!"

Everyone inside quickly walked over to their windows while whispering amongst themselves.

"Who do you think that is?", said one younger woman.

Her mother walked over with sparkles in her eyes, "We're saved! They finally came to save us!", she looked over at her daughter, "Didn't you listen, he said he's from the government!"

"Mom, anyone can come over and say something like that! How, can you trust him?"

"Look at him! He's wearing a suit and, ks weak and, easiis ly bullied. I highly doubt a thug would look like that", said her mother, waving her hand around.

The woman frowned and looked at all the other men who arrived with this 'government' worker.

"Maybe they're hired guards? I must be overthinking it"

Outside the leader lifted his megaphone once more.

"Our newly constructed base has housing, food, water, medical care, and many other facilities. This is your only chance to join us. Spaces are filling up fast!"

Everyone inside quickly scrambled to begin packing, they were worried their spot would get taken by someone else.

"Hurry up and pack! Imagine if that witch of a woman down the hall took our spot!", the young woman's mother shouted from her room.

The young woman hesitated but finally stood up and went to her room to pack her things.

-

Outside one of the subordinated walked over to the leader, "Boss, you're so smart. Making them willingly come with us."

"Of course, why bother threatening them and potentially causing complications when we can just get them to walk over themselves? Be ready, when they come out help them load their things into the cars", the leader said with an evil glint in his eyes.

After a few minutes, people began to trickle out of the building with bags and other supplies. The leader 'kindly' motioned for everyone to load their belongings into the cars.

The young woman watched this scene from her window. She paused her movements and held on to the shirt she was about to pack.

"Mom, I don't think these people are from the government", she said.

"What do you know? We need to hurry up or else someone will take our spot!", she yelled from the other room.

The young woman threw her shirt on the floor and walked over to the kitchen where her mom was tossing all of their food into a bag.

"Mom, follow me to the window and watch what's going on!", the young woman urged.

After seeing how insistent those men were about loading everyone's belongings into the cars, she knew something was wrong.

Her mother sighed but after seeing her daughter's adamant expression she finally gave in.

"Fine, I'll humor you, but if we miss a spot I'm going to be really angry."

They both walked over to the window and looked down at the swarm of people. It was just as he daughter said, no one was allowed to carry their own things.

Everyone's items were loaded into the cars by the sketchy looking people, while the government official was standing by the side, smiling at everyone.

"Think about it mom, if such a magical place existed we would have heard about it by now. Or at least knew something was in the process of being built."

Her mother paused and continued to watch the movements outside.

"Hmm, you're right. There's something off about this situation. I don't like how they're just tossing everyone's items into one big pile in the back of their cars", her mother said.

From the angle of their apartment, they could see farther back to where the cars were being loaded.

"If they planned on returning our items back to us then they would at least clearly mark who's items are whose.", the young woman said.

Her mother was finally convinced that this situation was off.

"Should we go tell them? Where do you think they're bringing them?", she asked.

The young woman thought for a moment, "No. It's too late for that. They've already begun to move and pile into the vans. If we were to go out and try to convince them to stay those people might hurt us."

Her mother froze, "You...you don't think they'd go as far as hurt us, do you?"

"Mom, look at the world around you. Look at what they're doing now. They're blatantly stealing everyone's resources. Of course, they're willing to hurt us."

She pointed to one of them men who hovered around the meek looking man in the suit, "And look at that guy, he definitely has a gun in his pocket."

Her mother quickly closed the curtains, "Hurry, step away from the window. We need to stay hidden!"

They both took a step back and took a seat on their small couch. They were both sweating from the heat and from fear, but they didn't move until they heard all of the cars leave.

The young woman walked over to the window and carefully peeked through a tiny slit between the curtains.

"Are they gone?", her mother asked quietly.

The young woman nodded, "Yes, all of the cars have left. I wonder if anyone else decided to stay".

Just then they heard a soft knock on their door.

The young woman walked over and looked through the peephole on their door.

"Who is it?", her mother whispered.

"It looks like the elderly man from the end of the hall", she replied, then carefully opened the door.

The old man was bald with a long white beard. He looked at the young woman and nodded.

"I'm glad to see at least one other person saw through their schemes. I tried to stop the others, but they all just called me a senile old man", he said.

The young woman frowned, "Is it just us who stayed behind?"

"From what I've seen so far, yes. I'm going down to the lower floors to see if there's anyone else".

After saying goodbye he walked over to the stairwell.

The young woman watched him walk away and quietly closed the door.

"Well? What did he say?", her mother asked.

"He said that so far, we were the only ones to stay. He also tried to stop the others but no one bothered to listen to him."

Her mother gasped! "What do we do now? I feel like we're completely on our own now!"

This was what the young woman was worried about. She knew that majority of their small community left so their way of life would be very different now.

While the old man looked like he was mentally sound, she wasn't sure how much physical labor he would be capable of doing.

"Mom, I don't know how much longer we can stay here", she finally said.

"What do you mean? Why not!?", her mother trembled.

"Finding any new resources will be really difficult now. We've already exhausted all of the nearby supplies and we no longer have groups who can go farther out. What we have now is all we have left.", she explained.

-

A few minutes later the old man returned.

"I just finished checking and it really is just us left. We can take turns scavenging everyone else's apartments for any supplies that anyone may have left, but we can't stay here long", he said.

"What do you suggest we do?", asked the young woman.

She felt that if he was smart enough to see through the scam, he could come up with a good idea on how to survive.

The old man silently looked at her for a few minutes.

"Our only real way of surviving is to move. We need to find somewhere outside of the city if possible. There are too many threats and too few recourses left."

The young woman nodded, agreeing with his assessment. She turned he head to look out of the window.

"Now the only question left is: where do we go?"