Trash in the Apocalypse

The mall was closed since things started out very early in the morning. There were no cars in the parking lot, but a single motorcycle stands out. A black Kawasaki Barako that old men like to use.

The mall was an inverted-L, and the empty space was the parking lot. It's small compared to the chain of SN Malls throughout the country, but considering the size and spending power of this small town, this two-story mall should suffice.

Adrian took a transparent slime from his dimensional storage. It was the item that he got from the Random Weapon Crate. Its called "Slime" with no attack damage but has high corroding properties. It's a trapping type of weapon that will stick to something when you got to close to it.

Adrian had to feed it some blood before he was able to hold it up. It's a weapon, but he hasn't even used it for fighting since its only the size of a fist. It's too small to envelop a regular infected, but it could be used to trap their feet since the slime is super sticky.

Adrian placed the slime on the metal padlocks. There were eight padlocks, but they only destroyed two, which is the minimum to raise a single shutter.

The corrosion was so quick that it only took two seconds to dissolved a hardened steel padlock.

Jun raised the shutters, causing loud creaking noises followed by loud banging sounds. These shutters make too much noise!

His group looked around to see if any infected would rush towards them.

Nothing.

The members relaxed after they entered the building. The place was dimly lit by lights on the ceiling that were placed five meters away from each other.

Jun pulled down the shutter so that no lucky infected could follow them.

"Where do we go?"

Evo asked Jun as he surveyed the area.

"We will check every room and any place that could hide people. The place is locked down, but there's no harm in securing the area. We'll divide the groups with the same arrangement as earlier. Let's get this done before nightfall."

***

The group jointly searched the first half of the first floor. They searched the three food stores in the area. After making sure that the surrounding was safe, they divided themselves into their groups.

Adrian leads his group while using stealth, making sure that he can see any threat before the threat could see his group. They were tasked to search the first half of the second floor. The place had an arcade, a hardware store, an appliance store, a Japanese second-hand retail store, and a pathway that leads to the comfort room.

Edward's group searched the other half of the second floor, which is the Department store. It was spacious and had different items, such as clothes, beds, bags, shoes, and other supplies. There's an escalator that leads to the first floor in the middle of the department store. His group was so relaxed as they chatted and searched. The women in his group were already eyeing beautiful dresses that they like. They used their voices to call out any infected that might be hiding. If there's an infected that rushed at them, they were confident that Edward could take care of it. But seeing the neat displays surrounding them, they doubt it.

Sheila's group strode towards the supermarket at the end of the first floor. They need to search for the second half of the first floor. There are an activity area and a pathway to the comfort room. Further inside, a department store signage was hung on the left while on the right was a doughnut shop, followed by the baggage area, then finally the supermarket. Marianne, who was grumpy about not being able to join Jun's group, used her Broadcast skill to tell the world about how Jun's being cold. The loud sound echoed to the second floor where Jun's currently at.

Evo, who was beside him, teased him.

"Your girl seemed unhappy."

"Stop that."

"Don't you even consider it?"

"You know I can't. It's trouble."

"That's true. Her family is indeed trouble." Evo sighed, then grinned widely. "...so you were considering it!"

Evo's laughter was so loud that the group could hear it on the first floor.

Everyone's chattering reverberated in the empty mall.

With their assigned tasks being close to completion, setting the mall as their home base was now in the palm of their hands.

Jun and Evo headed to their destination.

If there were any place that would have people, it would be the security department, where guards were always stationed.

Jun knocked on the door.

They could hear some moaning from the inside.

The two of them readied their weapons. Jun had his shield and club on his left hand while he held the doorknob. Evo raised his M16, aiming at the front.

"On three," Jun said. "One. Two. Three!"

Jun pushed forcefully after twisting the knob and rushed inside. He took the club on his left hand and blocked anything that could lunge at him with his shield.

He advanced forward but stayed to the sides so that Evo could have some shooting space.

Someone was tied down on the floor and has duct tapes covering his mouth.

It was a security guard that clearly turned into an infected.

They looked around and saw five offices in a single row to their right. There's a wide corridor that serves as the walkway for all of the rooms.

There's a turn at the end of the corridor, which could lead to a dead-end or a group of infected.

"Try not to fire. Let's do this slowly and quietly." Jun said.

Evo nodded and stared at the end of the corridor. The looming feeling it gave as he watched the far end gave him some shivers.

Jun and Evo trudged along the walls and walked towards the infected. Evo aimed at the head, but before he could shoot the infected, a voice came from one of the offices.

Someone was looking at them through a small opening on the door.