Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 153: Column of Light

After receiving the notification, Jun quickly emailed Evo to gather everyone back at the compound. He doesn't know what it meant but he had a feeling that it isn't good. He started channeling energy on the teleport rune inside his body, which made the runes expand and circle around him.

The next thing he saw was the bustling plaza filled with people. These were the people who haven't joined a faction and would like to be on their own. These people were ambitious ones that liked being the head of the snake than the tail of a dragon. 

After his vision returned to normal, he quickly ran out of the plaza and went to Black Haven. He could see Bernard anxiously pacing around the toll gate's entrance. When Bernard saw Jun running, he quickly raised the toll gate and welcomed him.

Bernard asked with concern, "Is there something going on? This is the first time you called for a meeting after a long time, so everyone's a bit worried."

"Let's meet with everyone first."

Jun continued walking while he spoke. Bernard felt that something was wrong and quickly closed the toll gate.

Jun was a public figure in town and almost everyone knows him. Even some of the newcomers already heard about him and managed to take a few sneak peeks yesterday. With his fame, his action managed to get some individuals confused and interested. A few shady people ran back and reported Jun's weird action to their superiors.

Lieutenant Cedric has been missing since last night. Though everyone could infer what happened, they couldn't do anything without proof. A new head of the police force was elected. A fiery individual who uses action to prove his words, Executive Master Sergeant Paolo Canlas. He was loved and venerated by the people since he was the lead officer on every rescue operation. He was a rank below Lieutenant Cedric and was never a favorite because of his fierce attitude. He had a good constitution showing how a model officer should look like coupled with his short hair. His eyebrows furrowed as he listened to the report. It was true that Jun wasn't acting like his usual self but this doesn't mean or prove anything. To calm everyone, EMS Paolo Canlas ordered everyone to remain on standby as he payed a visit on Black Haven. Though this would delay their rescue operation for today, a few minutes wouldn't hurt for everyone's peace of mind.

On the Frontier's side, Alday Ruan received the same information on the way out of their headquarters. He didn't do anything special and just ordered his men to pay more attention on the matter. Afterwards, he started leading everyone towards the east. Every time they ventured out, they would bring some unaffiliated groups of people to train with them. Usually, they always head north-east by following the national road but this time they chose to go east, towards the center of the town. There's still a bunch of carriers on the area that can be used to train people. Besides, he received information that Black Haven tend to go downtown almost every afternoon for a few days now. He wanted to investigate whether there was something interesting to be found down there.

After Jun explained his interpretation of the countdown, everyone's face darkened. He simply explained his pure thoughts about the matter. What does a countdown mean? It means that something will come when the allotted time ends. But that wasn't the end. According to the notification, it was only the first wavemeaning that there's several waves after that!

Jun looked around and noticed that a few people were missing. As he tried to recall whom were missing, four people came in while laughing. He turned around and saw Huwan leading the group, followed by his friends. That's right! His personal guards weren't here. He then remembered that they said something about recruiting people last night.

"Were you out?" Jun inquired.

Huwan nodded his head and handed him a sheet of paper. "Nik and Bartolome stayed behind to babysit the new recruits." After handing over the paper, he noticed that everyone's face was pale in color. Though confused, he didn't ask anything and said, "This is the attendance sheet for the new recruits. Most of them were newcomers and doesn't even know how to fight. We taught them a few things and sent them for a simple dry run. There's also a few interesting individuals there. These people probably waited for this chance to join Black Haven instead of the other factions."

Jun subconsciously scanned the names after it was given to him. His brows knit together forming a frown before his eyes widened in shock. At the same time, the countdown timer ended causing him to stiffen up. He gulped and looked around the area but couldn't find any anomaly on sight.

On the northern mountains, a large rat ran furiously with reddened eyes. Behind the large rat were dozens of large rats forming a huge swarm that ran after it. There numbers easily reaching the hundreds, but the flowing rat tide wasn't stopping.

The same was happening on the cemetery. The barrier that stopped the regular carriers out vanished, freeing them. Just like the large rats, these regular carriers have frenzied red eyes as if they were mad. They ran out of the cemetery as if they have a destination in mind. They ran over cars and were headed towards the broken bridge.

On the Lakeside Marina, Gilbert was admiring the commercial boat tied in their docks. He was given ownership of the boat for some reason, Jun only said that the owner doesn't need it anymore. He was planning on how to effeciently setup fishing farms when he suddenly felt unease. He then noticed a bright column of light that reached into the skies from the west .

Nik who was at the frontline saw everything with his own eyes. A tower of light strike down from above and crashed on the ground. He immediately knew that something was wrong and he shouted as loud as possible for everyone to go back.

The scavengers, who were a bit slow to scatter to loot, saw the whole event. When the light dimmed, a large group of carriers were left behind for everyone to admire. Most of them have no skins, showcasing their twitching musles which only served as a further catalysm to increase people's fear.

The quick scavengers who were ahead of everyone to disperse and find loot, the ones who clearly aims to join Black Haven's Elite Scavenger Squad, could only see the column of light from the alleys. When they heard the amplified voice of their instructor shouting for them fall back, these quick witted people instantly realized that something bad was happening.

Nik wore his wireless earphone and quickly tried to call for backup. However, no one responded to his calls and was forced to stall for time. The new recruits noticed the horde of regular carriers on the distance. They were immediately frightened and ran back to safety.

Nik and Bartolome stood their ground as they watched the new recruits passed them by. Their only goal right now was to stall for time, so everyone could get out of here alive. They already gauge the enemy's strength and they knew that they won't die unless they unfortunately get surrounded.

Nik held a reinforced stout shield on his left hand and a steel golok on his right. The stout shield has additional steel plating on the center while the steel golok was a simple broadsword that has a thin, sharp blade with dull, thicker behind.

Bartolome stood beside him and geared himself up with the same items.

This are the new products made by Old John. Since there was no rush to mass produce Tier 1 and Tier 2 bone weapons, he gave that task to his apprentice and focused on Jun's requests. At first, he practiced making shields with only common wood as materials. When he got the hang up of it, he started using the slightly rare hardwoods, then further modified them by reinforcing them with steel. That's the reason why there were two type of shields distributed to Black Haven right now.

After fighting hundreds of skirmishes with the carriers, and having experience with the cemetery and the mines, Nik held his sword on his left hand and threw a Bone Spear at the dashing carriers. With their numbers it was impossible to miss, but the question whether the spear could kill them remains.

The bonespear traveled in an arc and hit a random carrier in the chest. It slowly dropped down to the ground and got trampled by the others behind it.

Nik watched the scene and immediately tensed up. "We're in trouble. The bodies don't disappear, which means they could resurrect and we need to finish things quickly." But Nik knew they wouldn't be able to do that. The horde of carriers easily numbered around the hundreds. And that's even their minimum number.