Chapter 13: Robbing the Bank
Jun pierced the eye of the infected, stopping it from making noise. He pulled back his makeshift spear then aimed at the last infected's head. With a single thrust, the spear crushed its forehead.
A small black hole appeared beside him, and he shoved the spear inside. He grabbed one leg from the two infected, and hurriedly pulled them inside the gate.
While he was doing all this, Sheila finally managed to calm herself and was now observing the situation.
She still looked pale, but the fear in her eyes earlier has now changed into confidence. Although she was scared, the sole reason for her vomiting was due to the sensation of the skull getting broken.
She may have been a nurse, but what she usually does on her work would never include bashing people's heads.
Adrian, on the other hand, was doing a perfect job. It's like he just needs to know the basics, and he would naturally know what to do.
After looting the first infected, its body turning to stardust, he then lunges at the second one. Knowing that he doesn't have enough time since a group of infected was madly running towards them, he chose to copy what Jun did and pulled the infected's body from its leg.
After he got inside, Jun immediately locked the gate. Sheila then began looting the bodies that Jun brought inside.
Jun squat down beside Sheila, the iron-cast coat rack already in his right hand, standing tall vertically. "I know that you're not used to this yet. But I need you to adapt quickly. The world is changing, and it's your fault if you get left behind."
She shivered slightly, hearing Jun's gentle and warm voice. It was advice filled with concern and worry, giving her a creepy feeling that raised the hairs on both her arms and back.
Sheila slightly lowered her head and responded with a nod.
The group of infected finally arrived. Counting their numbers won't be possible since the forefront runners were blocking the sight behind them.
Instead of being discouraged, Jun felt elated. He noticed that there were only seven running infected, mainly composed of those who had broken and severed arms. They might be infecteds who crawled out of the overturned jeepney. He just needs to disable their movements, and his group should be able to do the rest.
Using the gate as a barrier, tanking the infected's every hit, Jun chose to kill those infected who had complete upper limbs, while disabling those infected who had single or no arms at all, for Adrian and Sheila to kill.
When the first wave of infected was dealt with, the leftover group was still ten meters away.
When he saw that the last batch of infected was crawling slowly, Jun courageously opened the gate. The group of crawling infected have missing or crushed legs, making their movements slow and predictable.
Jun turned to Sheila and swapped his makeshift spear for her baseball bat.
"Use this one. It has a longer reach, so you don't have to go near them. You should stab them through their eyes, it's soft, and the rack should be able to pierce through. Just add more force than you would normally do."
"I don't usually stab people in their eyes," Sheila replied anxiously. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before walking forward.
Jun faced Adrian on his sides, and said, "Your priority is to level up, I don't know how many infected you need to kill but try to get as many as possible. Also, help her if she's in trouble."
"Okay," Adrian replied. As he strode forward, he tilted his head, then teasingly said, "You're acting like an overprotective boyfriend. Do you like her?"
Jun just smiled and shook his head as he knelt and started looting the corpses.
After watching the shimmering stardust fade into thin air, he stood up and surveyed the area.
Adrian and Sheila were now looting the infected that they have killed. Their fight with the group of infected was a one-sided slaughter.
The crawling infected couldn't reach Sheila due to her using a weapon with a long reach, allowing her to get some easy kills for herself.
On the other hand, Adrian fought with strategy. Although he had a short-ranged weapon, he used his swift movements to go behind the infected and stab them in their heads, killing five infected in total.
Sheila managed to kill four infected and now has a resolute look in her eyes. It seemed that she finally gained the courage to fight for herself. She was looking left and right cautiously while looting the bodies, making sure that there's no infected in her vicinity.
After looting the bodies, they met up with Jun, who was standing in front of the bank.
"What are we doing here?" Sheila asked impatiently.
It's not a question of why they were at the bank, but a question of why they were standing still in front of the bank.
Jun smiled and replied, "I'm thinking of robbing the bank."
***
"Mr. Manager, my old friend, why are you looking at me like that?! I just want to take a peek inside the vault. Aren't you a bit too stern? I gave you a precious item, and you can't even give me a simple favor. Okay, look here, I'll make some concessions, so no one gets hurt."
"How about I go inside the vault for one minute, you guarding outside, and I will leave with whatever I can carry? What do you think? I only have these two small hands of mine, so I can't probably take everything with me even if I wanted to." Jun said to the old manager with a tone that sounds like he was the one being taken advantage of.
If you look around the area, Adrian was holding a knife towards Pablo's neck, who was currently kneeling on the floor with both hands raised in the air. Sheila was unwillingly aiming the pistol at the civilians huddled on a corner of the bank.
The plan that Jun managed to crop up was to rob the bank forcefully. Entering through the front door and robbing the bank with brute force, Having the element of surprise made him think that the plan will succeed.
Adrian thought the opposite.
Since he knew that he couldn't change Jun's decision to rob the bank, he decided to commit fully and help with planning.
Adrian was a master burglar. When robbing someone, he first accumulates knowledge on what he can get and what he would have to risk.
He knew that Pablo had a gun, so walking inside the bank while shouting, 'Hands up, we are robbing this bank,' would inevitably fail. They might even die from being shot since robbing a bank shouldn't be a minor offense.
The goal was to rob the bank, and the risk is dying from being shot. With that goal in mind, Adrian made a simple plan.
Sheila walked in front of the two while walking inside the bank. The people's attention focused on her, and their anxious expressions seemed to have calmed down.
Jun walked towards Pablo. "Where's the old manager? I need to ask him some questions," he said sternly, not being polite at all.
"He's upstairs, trying to contact the main branch and local authorities. The phones don't seem to work, though. You've got a new friend?" Pablo said, glancing at Sheila.
"Not really. We found her outside, so I decided to bring her here. You should talk to her. I think she's wounded." Jun replied as he climbed the stairs.
Pablo watched Jun climbed the stairs, deliberating if he should stop him. Before he could decide on an answer, a gentle voice sounded next to him.
"Can you help me? I think my back got scratched." Sheila said, while looking worried.
"Yes, I can help you. Can you tell me where it hurts?" Pablo said as he moves towards her back. When he arrived, he noticed that there wasn't any cut on her back. Before he could raise a question on why isn't there a wound on her back, a cold metallic feeling came from his neck followed by an apathetic voice.
"Don't move or I'll slit your throat."
Adrian's voice was not loud, so no one should have heard what he said, but everyone isn't blind. Almost everyone was now looking at them, not knowing what to do.
When the door got breached, they thought that they would all die, but Jun and Pablo managed to defend the place.
Afterward, Jun left, and Pablo explained the probable reason that those infected might be attracted to sound, and if everyone remains quiet and cooperative, the bank should be temporarily safe.
Knowing that screaming and shouting will do nothing good for them, the people chose to be still and just watched the situation unfold, resulting in the current situation now.
With no other option and with the 'reasonable' proposal that came from Jun, the manager grudgingly accepted. He opened the vault and stepped to the sides, letting Jun go inside the bank's vault.
"I knew that you're someone with a good heart!" Jun happily said as he passed by the manager. "You should start counting only when I got inside, okay? Ready, set, go!"