Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 175: Joining Forces

"Hahaha, look at this guy. If you think you're going to fool anyone with that kind of lie, atleast make it sound realistic. You traveled alone and you're saying that you killed one well equipped group from the Brotherhood? Then let me tell you this. I can kill hordes of rotters by myself and would only get in trouble if there's mutated rotters around."

Reena mockingly said to Jun.

Jun ignored him and only looked at Lolita. "Do you have any pictures of Marcus? Or do you know where I can find one?"

Reena wanted to burst forth in anger upon getting ignored by Jun. It was only because she knew that it was her that has a problem with Jun while the man was professionally trading for information.

Lolita replied in a hurry, so her friend wouldn't have a chance to talk.

"Well, Marcus has been a barangay official for more than 10 years. He was able to renovate his old house to his dream house after his years of service. You can easily find it after you reach Uno Supermarket. Just turn right, then you will find a red painted house if you walk for a bit on Col. Guido Street."

"Thank you. That's all I need, do you have any information that you want? If not, I'll pay with what I think is the right amount of information." Jun said.

Jun waited for Reena and Lolita's answer. He was anticipating whether they have some brilliant question in mind when a serene voice came from the side.

Lourdes joined the conversation and asked Jun, she said, "Are you really planning on killing Marcus?"

Albeit being surprised, Jun easily composed himself and answered, "Yes."

Lourdes said, "How confident are you?"

"As long as I get close enough to reach him, his death is guaranteed."

"Then let me help you."

The two stared at each other, and neither of them looked away until both of them confirmed that they were true to what they were speaking.

"If Lourdes is helping you, then also count me in." Mellissa said without raising her head from the book she was reading.

Lolita turned to Reena and finally found her giving a sigh of 'acceptance'. Reena glared at Jun and said, "I'm only doing this for Sis Lourdes. If I find out that you're only talk with no actions, then I'll be the first to smack you!"

Jun later found out that Lourdes' husband was caught trying to gain the Teleport Portal's Rune and was killed by Marcus to warn the others.

The information exchange became an impromptu meeting due to the weight of the target operation.

Jun's plan to finish his quest became easier as he gained some helpers along the way.

The meeting tackled about how the operation would go, and how to achieve it.

The first thing that they had to do was to introduce each other to themselves. Everyone gave basic introductions of themselves including their skills that they were comfortable of sharing.

Jun learned that all four women only had 2 skills until now. There's a possibility that they haven't tried controlling the energy manually, so they couldn't learn skills.

It was understandable since Jun was only able to think about the matter when he met Edward, who could control energy to protect any part of his body.

As Jun's mind wandered about Edward's wondrous ability to control energy, he suddenly thought of a good idea for Edward to improve.

Lolita Alvaro, 24 years old, a psychologist. She shared two of her skills, the first was called Stimuli Control. The skill can make the target feel random things after physical contact. The effect could be decided by Lolita. Her second skill was a utility type called Relaxation, it could cancel any effect from any stimuli.

Jun didn't point out that she probably has more skills like the illusion that she summoned last time and remained cool. Since things were like this, he also won't reveal all of his skills. Not that he was planning to do so in the first place.

Reena Zaragoza, 31 years old, a surgeon. She had two skills, Precision Cut and Intuition. She demonstrated Precision Cut by slashing a surgical knife on the edge of the table. The place where the knife passed had an empty gap that has smooth sides. The skill adds hit accuracy and attack strength when activated.

Intuition basically gives her sense some boost. She can somehow feel whether what she was doing could result in something good or something bad. It was also because of this skill that she was irritated ever since the first time she saw Jun.

Every time she used the skill, it would tell her that going against Jun would not result in something favorable. She repeatedly tried the skill but still couldn't change the feeling of danger that she feels. She felt like if Jun saw her as annoying, he would just kill her without batting an eyelid.

Mellissa Mariquina, 22 years old, a registered nurse. Her skills were Disinfect and CleanUp! Disinfect uses energy to remove bacteria from wounds with additional increase in resistance and faster skin, muscle regeneration. CleanUp! removes any tangible obstacle in the area then turns it into a cool breeze of refreshed air.

Jun became surprised when he heard about the Disinfect skill, but instantly became disappointed when he was told that they already tried using the skill to remove the infected debuff and failed.

Jun suggested that she tries once again when the skill levels up in the future and Mellissa agreed.

Lourdes Damian , 32 years old, a pharmacist. Her skills were Search and Examine. Search allows her eyes to see the item she was looking for. She needs to think of the item and the item would be surrounded by a bright outline. With the outline, she could easily pinpoint important items when scavenging for food. Examine allows her to gain deeper understanding about an object. Both were utility skills that served their group to stay alive even when food was becoming scarce.

Jun introduced himself and explained Rob, Threaten and Sprint. After his explanation, they moved on to the next important topic that they have to discuss.

Now that they have a basic understanding of each other, they can formulate a plan on how to kill the Big Bad Pig, a code name to Marcus to prevent the Fortune Teller from feeling their intense hatred about the man.

After an hour of sitting around, they were able to make a simple plan. Everything would be executed tomorrow night since it was Marcus' birthday tomorrow.

A party for the elite group was being prepared on the Angono Municipal Gymnasium.

Dusk came and magically invited for darkness to come. The once empty street started seeing signs of people.

It became common knowledge that carriers were less active at night, which caused a lot of scavenging trips to occur at night. If once was careful and know where to look, they could easily and safely reach their destination.

The danger zone has always been the highways, since evolved carriers could move with ease around open areas. People used alleyways and small streets to traverse the surrounding houses.

Jun stopped by at the intersection of the Uno Supermarket and the Flea Market. Through his enhanced sight, he could see people watching him from the second floor of the Uno Supermarket.

He turned right and followed the Col. Guido Street. On his left was the once bustling Flea Market, now devoid of life. On his right was a two-storied strip mall, which is an extension of the Flea Market. The whole first floor were stores for rent while the second floor were apartments.

The metal shutters of the stores were already destroyed and everything that could be looted was already taken. The things that remained were the useless things like patch of woods and rusting tools.

After several convenience stores, he passed by a looted bakery shop, a small private school and a pizza parlor. The authorized sweepstakes office was forcibly broken in. Some people probably thought that having money was a good idea.

After following the instruction to keep on walking until you see a red house; he passed by several retail stores before actually arriving in front of the said house. The travel was quite peaceful even when a few carriers tried assaulting him. Jun just killed everything that jumped on him, then moved on.

Jun stared at Marcus' house. It was truly a dream house even for someone like Jun. The house he lived on before this was way smaller than this one.

The house was coated in deep red almost close to the color of blood. A small yard with a patio could be seen behind the iron fence that reached upto an average person's waist. The black garage gate could easily measure for five meters.

Jun entered Marcus' house and searched for things that could help identify him. The house looked like someone lived here for some time.