Trash in the Apocalypse

Some of the scouting group witnessed everything that happened. They stared wide-eyed at Jun.

"Did you see that?"

"I saw it! It was awesome! It made my heart race, and I even felt something crawl on my skin!"

"What do you think? Should we follow them?"

"Eh? But shouldn't we stay with the police? Isn't that better?"

"They don't have guns. And look! That group seemed to know what they were doing, unlike these people. They even managed to kill that... that giant!"

"Lower your voice. Look, the policemen are now looking at you."

***

The plaza was already cleared, and the stragglers were being dealt with by the others. Some police officers and civilians have leveled up in the process of defending and clearing the plaza.

Jun brought Edward to the innermost part of the safe-zone. He saw Sheila leaning on the rough stone statue, unconscious.

Jun runs back to the Destroyer to do what he had to do. It would be tragic if the Destroyer reanimated while he was worrying about his group.

He saw Adrian about to loot the body, and he hurriedly stopped him. Adrian stopped and didn't ask why; he just stepped back and guarded the area.

Jun didn't loot the Destroyer's body, nor did he extract its essence into a crystal.

Jun borrowed Adrian's knife. He knelt down and started cutting the infected's flesh on its arms.

Jun started from the shoulder joints. Because he wasn't knowledgeable about how to cut or where to cut, it took him a few minutes before he could cut off one of its arms. When the body shook and showed signs of reanimating, Jun would stab it through the eye. He then moved to the next arm.

Though he tried not to show it, the stench and rotten skin really made him want to vomit. In the end, he at least manages to hold himself back and cut off the remaining arm.

When suddenly, Adrian, who was idly standing beside him, raised his M16.

"Hands up. Stay where you are and drop your weapon."

Jun looked up and saw a fat man walked towards their direction.

The man has a plump face, making him appear cute. Though he looked like that, he's already in his mid-thirties. He's wearing a dark red apron and had no hairs on his round head. He had a huge smile plastered on his face the whole time.

The fat man halted when Adrian pointed the rifle on him. He glanced at Adrian then turned back to Jun. He said, while retaining his wide smile: "Having trouble cutting up something?"

Jun smiled back. "Yeah. This one's pretty tough. I don't know if you can handle it."

"I saw that you were able to cut the upper limbs, so I don't see any reason why I can't."

Jun motioned for him to try, and the man chuckled before continuing to walk forward. He ignored and passed by Adrian, who was pointing a gun at him.

"I want all of the bones inside its body. Don't damage them." Jun said.

The man replied indifferently: "Okay, you're the boss."

He noticed someone stood beside him. It was Evo. "I didn't know that you like torturing yourself."

"I don't. I'm watching for research purposes. I might find something useful in this."

The man paid no heed on their conversation and started butchering the infected. He started on the legs, and sparks fly every time the butcher's knife hit the infected's body.

"How did you cut the arms again?" the man asked Jun, seemingly embarrassed.

"I dug the knife through the armpit, then slowly circled through the arm."

"That's right! The soft and tender areas, the joints too!" the man hacked at the infected's groin. "Wow, this zombie is too weird! Its skin is so tough." the man took one of the legs to spread it over. Jun pulled back, dragging Marianne away.

As Jun stood up, he noticed that Adrian was still wary of the newcomer and so he decided to introduce the two of them.

"Adrian, this is Mike, our new cook. Mike, this is Adrian, a master thief."

The fat man, Mike, who was happily chopping at the infected's legs, suddenly stopped. He looked at Adrian as he said, "A thief? I lost a few of my knives. A thief probably stole it." he stood up and glared at Adrian. "Right, a thief stole it! Of course!"

Mike looked like he was about to tackle Adrian any time soon.

Jun knew that he messed up.

Some members of the group would prank Mike just to see his reaction. They would hide some of his knives, and Mike would always make a scene every time. The problem would be solved when they blamed the thieves for stealing his knives. They would return the knives later, saying that they recovered the item when they found the thief who stole it. Every time they pranked him, he would request to meet the thief, but the members would always stop him from doing so.

Jun quickly intervened. He wasn't paying attention since it was a casual introduction, but things just have to escalate.

"Mike, calm down. He's not that thief, okay?"

"If he's not it, then who?"

Jun turned to Adrian. "Do you know thieves that operate in our area? Around the Central Plaza?"

Adrian furrowed his brows. "Of course, I know someone. That place belongs to you guys, so I steer off it. What's his name again..." Adrian thought for a bit, then snapped his fingers. "Richard! That's the name! But isn't he a member of your group? He always brags about it."

"Fvck." Jun thought as he smiled wryly.

***

The matter was solved after Mike cursed Richard a few times. Jun managed to calm him down by threatening him that if he doesn't, he would be fired and wouldn't be able to cook anymore. Mike doesn't like cooking. He just loves the feeling of slicing or butchering something. Mike has some mental issues, and he acts like a child. A kid who was transitioning into his rebellious period. Every kid goes through that stage, but Mike stayed there and didn't grow up.

After severing all of the infected's limbs, Mike defleshed the arms and legs, then collected their bones. Jun got eight small bones.

It was the bones of a three-meter tall giant, and the shortest one that he got was at least 2 feet long while the longest one was three feet. He stored the harvested bones into his dimensional storage.

Sheila finally woke up, thanks to her skills that hastened her time of recovery. The first thing she did was to help the injured. Edward was still unconscious and received Sheila's Minor Healing and Cure.

The plaza was in a mess, scattered dead bodies piled up on the sides of the firetrucks. The infected on the area came out of their hiding places: street corners, alley, and buildings.

After ten minutes, there were no more infected rushing towards the group. Unless they were trapped or locked inside somewhere, they should have followed the loud gunshots towards the plaza. The group looted the dead bodies and regrouped at the statue. The injured were tended, and now they were resting.

Lieutenant Cedric approached Jun.

"Thank you for helping us. We could have all died without your help."

"Okay," Jun replied coldly.

He wanted to take the pistols that he lent them but hesitated. In the end, he didn't take them back. They will run out of bullets soon enough, and those guns would become useless.

Jun walked towards the statue. He was very intrigued by its ability to create a safe-zone and give refuge to the people.

He placed his hand on the statue.

[Teleport Portal]

[Durability - 345/1000]

[Set this Portal as Home?]

Jun accepted the prompt, then watched as a wisp of light came out from the statue. That orb of light flew inside his chest and disappeared.

As everyone gathered around him, Jun had to explain what happened. All of them interacted with the statue and set their Home Portal.