Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 168: Threats Everywhere

Jun was walking in the middle of the road with no care to his surroundings. Ever since the condominium incident, he chose to stop giving chances when others clearly did not care about him. Anyone who showed slight signs of malice would become his quest target.

The repeatable side quest that he got was overpowered, and at the same time cruel. He still chatted with the voice in his head and even named it with a dog's name. In the end the voice told him his first name, Yetu.

Yetu always wanted to chat as if he was bored whenever there was a dull moment. However, he never divulges any kind of information to Jun.

The only useful information that Jun managed to force out from Yetu was that there were other people who received his blessings. Jun also made a deal with Yetu to exchange informations once in a while. 

Jun arrived at the municipality of Angono after several days of travel. Most of his time were used by searching for working vehicles. The worst thing about clogged highways were abandoned butchered cars. There were always missing parts like tires, sparks plug and even the vehicles engines were missing. 

He heard several cries of help right after he entered the town. On the distance, he saw a convenience store being sieged by dozens of carriers.

He ignored the call for help but approached the carriers with his bonehammer in hand. He swung the hammer left and right which maimed most of the carriers to the ground. He then used short swords to stab their heads.

Jun only wanted the experience and not the loot. If he wants to loot the bodies, it would take too much time. Salvaging them for resources isn't even worth the time alotted to the work needed. By stabbing their brains, it would take longer for them to reanimate.

By the time Jun got inside the convenience store, most of the carriers were already dead. The remaining few that were standing were the ones that came from the back office and employee only area.

Jun ignored them for now and started shopping some goods. Most of the shelves were empty, except for the school supplies section. The store was basically robbed of everything except the pamphlets that were scattered on the floor, showing discounts and weekly featured items of the store. He then went and searched the cashier's area and found unused condoms scattered on the ground. He opened the POS machine which caused a loud sound that attracted the carriers attention to him.

He was delaying killing those carriers because there was someone on the other side of the door. The question marks were black in color which after numerous trial and error, Jun generally accepted as anywhere from disappointment, disgust, or fear.

Based on the situation, the man on the other side might be fearing for his life since someone powerful enough to actively kill carriers came.

The metal push door's durability bar shown above it, just entered the red area. Meaning that it could break any time soon.

The carriers on the backline looked around and found Jun. They dashed around the shelves and made their way to him. He walked forward and grabbed the first carriers neck and broke it. He then threw its body towards the following carriers. The dead carrier flew sideways and were caught by its fellow zombies, causing them all to fall down.

Jun jumped and landed on their heads causing cracking sounds to echo in the area. The carriers that were hitting the door suddenly fell forward as the door pushed open, inwards. The black name moved somewhere and hovered in that area.

He had no intentions to meet the person but he was here to restock on supplies. He killed the carriers by the door and search for the stock room. Unknowingly, as he searched further, the question marks were getting nearer. It looked like the two of them had the same goals for coming here.

He stood in front of the door with the black question marks on the other side. Before he could open the door, an apologetic feminine voice came from the other side.

"I'm sorry for trespassing on your area, but please let me go just this once. I'll never do it again."

Jun didn't answer and just analyzed the situation. From the little information, he learned that there were already multiple powers that divided the town. It seems that the other person thought that he was one of those people and was now trembling with fear on the other side of the door. He was about to correct the misunderstanding, so they could communicate further when the door suddenly opened.

A woman wearing a blue cap that hid her face, came out from the door and tackled him. Jun didn't budge even when he got surprise tackled. When he was about to grab the woman, he suddenly felt energy enter his sides as he became tired and sleepy.

When the other person felt that Jun didn't even budged, she abandoned any thought of trying anymore and quickly ran away. Jun regained his senses a few seconds later, but the woman was already gone.

He shrugged it off as a weird encounter and entered the stock room. Jun laughed as he stood at the door, the room was already cleaned up to the last piece of goods. That's right. Scavenging is supposed to be like this. First come, first serve.

With a bit of salt, Jun walked out of the front door and continued his journey. He always walked on the middle of the road to attract every carriers towards him. 

But this time, other humans spotted him as their targets. He became complacent after traveling several barangays scot free. Unlike barangays who mostly had single storied buildings with the rare multi-storied ones, this town, Angono, is a 1st class municipality with mostly two-storied buildings by the road side.

Jun hid behind a toppled van as he got shot at, then used Time Perse to get a third person POV of the area. Safely hiding behind the van, he found his shooter on the third window of the second floor of a three storied building. Two teenagers hastily ran down the emergency fire stairs and inched towards his position.

On one of the shops in front of him, he saw a familiar head, wearing a blue cap, staring at him from the window.

When the woman saw that Jun noticed her, she quickly ran towards the back entrance of the shop.

Jun hurriedly ran after her and entered the shop through the window. Just as he barrel rolled on the floor, a shot was fired and the window's glass shattered.

He was shot three times, and all of them missed. Jun thanked the heavens that he wasn't the only one gifted with bad aim.

He stood back up and quickly followed the black question mark.

As he entered the kitchen, he heard a loud shriek come from the outside. At this time, the question mark changed color and became white. Jun became hesitant whether to continue following her, but he felt curious as to what was happening.

He carefully opened the back door and saw the blue-capped woman struggling to fight with a carrier. She got overpowered, resulting to her neck getting bitten. Blood spilled from the wound as her body lost strength. The carrier started feasting on her with gusto.

Jun blinked twice and noticed an eye symbol on the ground. He stepped outside to inspect the symbol, only to witness it be shattered as soon as he stepped out.

The carrier and the woman blurred, then disappeared to thin air.

Jun became flustered. He was immune to illusions, so it was impossible that what he saw was an illusion. Just as he was about to kneel and inspect the ground, he saw the blue-capped woman staring at him on the corner of the alley.

The woman was in shock seeing her skill easily neutralized. With fear in her eyes, she ran without looking back.

[Side Quest received! Absorb the Brain.]

[Absorb the Brain]

[Description] Absorb the Brain.

[Rewards: Unknown]

[Failure: None]

Jun quickly stood up in surprise. The Brain? Jun pondered a bit on the matter and realized that the woman was also like him, a special individual.

But why is this happening?

Jun had nothing against her except for that one time that she tackled him, and that weird scene earlier. He ran towards the next corner to follow her and ask some questions, but the woman has already opened the fenced gate and walked out of the alley. When Jun arrived at the gates, he saw the woman running back with haste.

Jun raised his hand and told her, "I mean no harm. Can we please talk?"

The woman ran back to the alley and shouted back, "Lock the gate and run!"

Jun felt confused but he quickly realized what she meant when he saw a horde of carriers running towards his direction. A few Destroyers and Hunters could be seen mixed on the crowd as they killed carriers that were blocking them.

The empty street was immediately filled with all types of carriers known to him. He quickly locked the gate and worn his cloak's hood. He started running and followed after the blue-capped woman.