Trash in the Apocalypse

An old man appeared on the door. He had a wrinkly face and grayish-black hair.

"Don't kill Harry."

"Hello there. My name's Evo, and this is Jun." Evo greeted the old man before Jun could start a conversation. He learned that if he wants a conversation with a stranger to go smoothly, he should never let Jun handle the talking.

"Hi, I'm called Robin, but the people who used to work here refer to me as Tatang." answered the old man.

Evo nodded.

Instead of thinking of why there is an infected tied up, flailing on the corridor, Jun was more curious as to why the old man hasn't killed it yet.

Since he was able to tie its hands and foot with duct tape, he should have been able to kill it by himself.

The next thought that came to Jun's mind was, could this be legal? The old man should have retired already based on his looks alone, but here he is, wearing his security guards uniform, working his shifts like its the best thing on earth to do.

"Then, what do you want to do with him? Want to make him your pet?" Jun said sarcastically.

"No. I-I just don't want him to die again."

Evo elbowed Jun. "Please ignore him. Do you know this person?"

The old man looked at Henry, who was wiggling on the floor. Though his mouth was duct-taped, it was so evident that he was trying to bite Jun's feet as they watched it eagerly stick its face on his feet.

The old man sighed. "Would you like to come in? I have some coffee and biscuits.

***

Inside the office.

Dozens of monitors were showing the live happenings inside and outside the mall.

Jun watched several infected drag their feet towards the mall's entrance. When they saw how empty the front door was, the infected became idle and stood on their spots.

His group members were almost done with their safety checks and were excitedly looking around the place.

The old man interrupted the two of them. "It's fun since it's a new experience for the two of you. But after a while, it gets too boring."

He handed the coffee to them.

Henry was supposed to be the shift reliever for the old man, Robin.

Robin watched everything that happened since the beginning of the apocalypse through the surveillance cameras of the mall.

Everything happened quickly.

It was the end of his shift, and Henry would be arriving anytime soon when he suddenly felt dizzy. He felt anguishing pain forcing its way into his head. He thought he was going to die due to the extreme pain, but he managed to persevere, then he passed out. When he woke up, the first thing he checked was the situation of the building.

He spoke slowly and exaggeratedly as he told stories of how people tried going inside the mall, climbing the electric poles so the infected couldn't reach them and how people died trying to flee from those terrifying things.

Henry initially helped those injured people but got bitten instead. He managed to distract the infected by shoving it away, causing it to chase other people. He reached the employee's entrance near the parking area but got bitten a lot of times. His body was ridden with bite marks everywhere.

From Henry's understanding of zombie movies, once you got bitten, you would turn into one. He met up with Robin with a burning fever, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He requested to be tied up in case what he thought was the truth.

And it was.

After drinking a sip of coffee, Evo glanced towards Robin.

"You didn't try killing him?"

Robin tilted his head. "I tried. But I couldn't kill him. All this time, I sat in front of those monitors, watching everything that's happening outside. At first, I thought I was lucky." Robin chuckled.

"I'm inside a very safe place that anyone could have ever wanted. But then, something appeared and destroyed that belief. A monster among monsters. Every time it faced towards the camera, I felt like it was staring at me and would charge towards this mall any second now. But once again, I became surprised. A group of young men managed to kill that monstrous being.", he laughed heartily before wiping his eyes.

"Do you know that I was planning to kill my self this morning?" he stared in Evo's eyes, not looking for a response but just to affirm if the other person believed what he was saying.

"After the gunshots ceased firing yesterday and seeing the hundreds of those zombies, I knew. I knew that everybody was dead and I'm the only one alive. I spent all those hours, thinking about my son, my daughter––", Robin suddenly started sobbing.

Jun and Evo didn't need to hear the rest of the story. Evo gave him some water while Jun brought out an Alfonso, a kind of hard liquor, and a shot glass from his dimensional storage.

Tatang Robin took the Alfonso from Jun's hand. He didn't even use the shot glass that Jun brought out and drank a mouthful, spilling some in the process. After taking a swig, he coughed a bit and said, "I should stop smoking. Or drinking. That's what I would normally say, but to heck to that!"

The old man kept on drinking while the two watched them.

With this chatter, they knew that the entirety of the mall was safe and locked down. The only entrance that's currently open was the one where they came from.

Tatang Robin shook his head after drinking another mouthful.

"Are those people your friends?" he said as he stared at the monitors.

Evo replied. "Yes, we know that the place should be secured, but there's no harm in making sure that it really is."

"No, not those people. That group." Tatang Robin pointed to the monitor that shows the live feed just outside of the mall's entrance.

A group of people was fighting several infected. There were five policemen and four civilians. The civilians were an old man who wore a straw hat and three teenagers of two boys and one girl. Most of them were holding shovels while the policemen held fire axes. The group operated somewhat chaotic. The policemen fought bravely in front of the group while some civilians watched in the back. Though it was obvious that they were scared, some civilians still helped with killing the infected.

When the group killed all of the infected, they regrouped and headed for the mall's entrance.