[1] Apocalypse: Third Rebirth

Chapter 145: MacGyver

I raised an eyebrow at their conviction. "Not ever your lovers, friends, or family?" I demanded. I mean, I was sure that they had top-secret clearance before the end of the world, but that didn't really account for anything.

"No," they said, once again in creepy unison. I looked at Wang Chao for confirmation. I would rather believe what he saw in their heads than what they spoke out of their mouths. At his curt nod, I smiled.

"Perfect," I said with as much of a smile as I could manage at the time. "The plan is to set up a working cell tower here and at a few other key locations around the city. It is up to you two to figure out where those key locations are," I started, picking up my coffee and taking another sip. Letting the taste of the sweet, creamy, and bitter flavors fill my body, I sunk back even further into my chair.

"Not possible," said Jiang Ming Tao with a bit of a snort. Jin Si Cong looked at the man before turning his attention back to me.

"Something to say?" I asked him.

"I can build the tower," he said slowly, "But I don't have any of the tools or materials to do it. Plus with all of the electronic equipment being fried, there is no way to make it work."

"Not to mention, no one has cell phones that they can use, so what is the point?" said Jiang Ming Tao as if I had a screw loose and didn't understand the current state of the world.

I sighed and took another sip of my coffee to perk myself up for what comes next. "You have an entire empty city at your disposal. And even if it isn't completely empty, there are still many ways that you can get your hands on the tools and materials you need. I am sure that given your expertise, you could MacGyver something up," I said, looking at Jin Si Cong.

"MacGyver?" he asked confused.

"Just an expression meaning to use random pieces to create something useful to you," I said, completely forgetting that they probably didn't have the same tv shows that I had growing up.

Jin Si Cong nodded his head in understanding. "I could probably MacGyver something up," he said hesitantly.

"Good," I replied taking a piece of carrot cake out of my space and digging in. I would fully admit that it was not a Breakfast of Champions, but at least it was tasty.

"But that still doesn't mean that we have the electrical components needed to complete that task," pointed out Jiang Ming Tao. I didn't take his questions or statements as a confrontation, I completely understood where he was coming from.

What he didn't understand was the magic of 'moi'.

"And that is where you come in," I said looking at the man beside me. "I will give you every single working electrical component that I have, and I have a good amount, and you are going to see what you can do with them."

"So you expect me to MacGyver too," he said with a slight smirk on his face. "But without power, how would we even know if I was able to get something up and working?"

"I have about 150 solar panels that can join the ones upstairs that the guys were supposed to install," I stared, allowing myself a smirk of my own as I watched his eyes widen at my statement. "You can check them over to make sure that everything is in working order. I think there should be around 300 batteries available to store backup power. Is that enough?" I asked, tilting my head.

"150 solar panels?" Wang Chao asked, a look of confusion on his face. "I think we might have only brought up about 20 of them," he admitted. I hummed.

"I will go upstairs in a bit and deposit the remaining 150. I just didn't see the point of overloading you with them all," I said with a shrug. "Can you work with that?"