Surviving the Apocalypse with my Multiplier System

Rayne nodded and motioned for Julian to bring the man over to the back of the SUV to see the items that she had laid out.

Receiving the signal, Julian turned to the man, "Here, come to take a look at what we have available, perhaps you will find something worth trading."

The man nodded and walked over to see, "Go call your mother over, I don't know if there's something specific she needs", he said to his daughter.

"Okay!", she said and ran into the barn.

The man stood at the back of the car and looked into the trunk of Rayne's car. His eyes widened as he looked at the various pristine items, unblinking.

"What?! How did you get this stuff?", he couldn't help but ask. Out in these parts, it was difficult to find nonagricultural resources, so these things were all considered precious to him.

Rayne smiled, "We travel a lot and scavenge items. This is our most recent haul".

"Wow, this is incredible!", he said. He wanted to look through the bins but hesitated, looking down at his dirty hands.

Rayne noticed his struggle and handed him a bar of soap, "Here, take this as a small gift from us".

The man didn't reach out right away, but after a momentary thought, he accepted the gift.

"Thank you, I will go wash my hands and I will be right back. Please don't leave, I'll be right back", he said and hurried back inside the barn.

He intercepted his wife and daughter on the way inside, "Come with me, let's wash our hands and faces", he said holding the bar of white soap.

"Soap! Where did you find that?", his wife asked looking surprised!

"They gifted it to us. I felt a little uncomfortable touching their items with my grimy hands. I think they noticed my hesitation so they gifted the soap", he explained.

The family washed their hands with the soap, washing away all of the dirt that had accumulated over time.

"Mom, smell my hands! They smell so nice!", the little girl called out. Her face was glowing as she happily waved her hands around.

The man and his wife smiled as they looked at their cute daughter whose face and hands were cleaned up, revealing her bright and smooth skin.

"Let's go, I don't want to keep them waiting for long", said the man. He led his family back over to the car and showed his wife the goods that were being offered for trade.

The woman looked around, reaching out to touch the soft fabric of the clothes and blankets. "Honey, all of these items are so nice...and are much needed", she said in a low voice.

The man understood her implied meaning and nodded, "Very well. I trust your judgment", he replied. He also felt that these supplies were too good to pass up. They had plenty of food here, but when it came to other resources, such as clothing and everyday items, it was a different story.

He thought about how he should approach Rayne and Julian for the trade offer. They had many chickens and eggs, but he wasn't sure if he would have enough to be able to trade for all of these things.

Looking over at Rayne he cleared his throat, "So, um, how many chickens do you guys want?"

Rayne did a little calculation, counting the number of people at their settlement.

"Ideally we would like 20-30 chicks. And at least two of them would need to be roosters for breeding purposes", she replied.

She wasn't sure how many chicks they had, but she knew there were at least one hundred chickens here.

The man looked at her with a surprised expression.

"Is that too many? How many can you offer?", asked Rayne. She was a little nervous that she may have scared them off by asking for so many.

The man's wife answered, "Too many? Not at all, but are you sure? We're trying to trade for everything you have here in the trunk".

"Ah", said Rayne feeling relieved, "Don't worry about that. I am willing to trade for all of these items!"

The woman looked at her with a very happy expression, then turned to her husband, "Darling, go get the chicks ready! Pick out the healthiest-looking ones!"

The man quickly scurried off into the barn to do what his wife requested of him. Continue reading at My Virtual Library Empire

"Well thank you so much! We don't have many places to look for everyday items like these in these parts, so this is very generous of you!", she said with a big smile.

She noticed the bolts of cloth in the back and was excited to sew a few dresses for her daughter. However, it was the soaps and hygiene items that really made her happy.

After they ran out, washing clothing became a lot more difficult for everyone, especially since they spent all day working on the farms or with the animals.

Ten minutes later the man walked back holding a large tray of baby chicks. "Here you are, 30 female chicks and 3 males", he said with a big smile.

Rayne reached out to take the tray from his hand, "Oh wow! They are so adorable!! Thank you!". She watched the fuzzy yellow balls squeak at her as he looked down at them.

While Rayne was busy observing the baby chicks in a trance, Julian motioned for them to begin unloading the trunk, "We accept your trade, these items are all yours", he said with a small smile.

He felt that Rayne was truly generous. If she didn't have her system, this trade would have been very expensive for them.

Thankfully she could simply wave her hand and make a whole truckload of supplies appear out of thin air if she wanted.

The man called over some of the other guys from their group and they began carefully unloading everything from the truck.

There were more items than he had initially thought there would be, making him feel like they really scammed the young couple.

His wife watched as sacks of dried corn were unloaded from the car. "This is perfect! We will have more than enough feed for the upcoming year!", she exclaimed with a big smile.

There were three big bolts of cloth, two were in a neutral linen and white color while the third was a bright red.

She ran her fingers along the cloth, feeling its softness. "Even this cloth is of very high quality, better than most of the cloth our clothes are made of now", she mumbled to herself.

When she was looking inside the trunk, she didn't realize it, but there were three full boxes filled with bar soaps, detergents, toothpaste, shampoo, and even hand cream.

Each of the boxes was thematically packed based on the scent of the products inside, with the exception of the toothpaste.

She could hardly wait to take a bath and clean all of her clothes! They've been using an old-style washing board to wash their clothes, and now it would be even better thanks to the detergents.