Trash in the Apocalypse

The group anxiously surrounded Nik, not knowing what to do with his bleeding arm.

"Use this."

They turned their heads to see Jun handing over a first aid kit.

"If you don't know how to bandage the wound, just wrap the wound and make sure that it stops bleeding. I don't know how to use that, so don't ask me."

"Thank you."

The old man who helped Nik took the first aid kit. Then, quickly kneeled down beside him.

"Do it quickly. We can't stay here any longer." Jun turned around and started butchering the Destroyer's body.

Since looting a dead infected mostly gave essence crystals, with low chances of getting a few random items, he thought that its best to just manually loot it. Of course, he used a Tier 2 Dagger to cut the body of the Rank 1 Destroyer.

By the time he finished butchering the body, the wounded boy was fully bandaged. It seemed like the old man at least knew how to apply first aid.

"Let's go," Jun said.

They walked back more carefully this time, always watching corners that they have not fought infected before.

As they travelled back, Jun rescued a few more survivors, thanks to his ability to see names, who were left behind because they were too afraid to leave their houses. They marched on as their group became more massive, almost outnumbering the combatants to non-combatants ratio.

As expected of a group with a large number of noncombatants, they would scream and cry when groups of infected came charging at them.

The uninjured hardened prisoners fought back wave after wave of small groups of infected. Though there were no casualties within the group, the mental and physical burden for the defenders started showing after more battles. Their breathing became rapid, and sweats were visible all over their body.

All this time, Jun never helped them nor gave them a breather. He just spearheaded the march and killed every infected that came on his way.

When they reached the outskirts of the green zone, they met curious scavengers who couldn't help but gawk at the scene. It wasn't an everyday scenario to see a new batch of survivors coming to the town. Every scavenger groups they passed by, whether alone or in a group, would happily greet them, cheering them up.

It may be because they were given hope that more people could have survived and were just waiting for rescue. Perhaps their families, relatives or someone they know will find their way here or be rescued someday.

That small spark of hope rekindled their will to survive and live for another day in this harsh new world.

It was already past noon when they arrived in front of the Black Haven compound. They started hearing gossips of how a group of valiant hooded masked saviors rescued a large number of trapped survivors this morning. So when Jun's group arrived, a large volume of civilians rushed towards them from all over the place.

Though Jun doesn't remember these people, his prisoners were able to. They remember those faces filled with joy and tears after being rescued, those eyes filled with gratification as they thanked them profusely. When the rescued survivors came over and thanked them again, the warm feeling on their hearts was once again filled to the brim. They were sure that they would happily do this again and exert more effort to train, so they could become stronger.

Afterwards, the people started calling them 'the Saviors'. When they were sent on a mission by Jun, people would happily cheer and greet them when they pass by. Because the people knew that when they head out, they would be helping other people or fighting for the people. Though the populace didn't know that they were only sent out to kill hordes of infected and gather resources for Jun, which he called the Death Squad.

***

After eating lunch with Marianne, chatting with Evo, hearing various strange news from Edward, Jun heads out of the compound once again. This time, he was alone. His 'guards' were sent to train on their own or relax if they wanted to, whatever the choice they made it's all up to them. Jun really doesn't care how they use their time or what they do since his secret about the contract is totally safe. They were bound to the contract and unable to talk or do anything that will compromise it.

He walked towards the east and watched the scenery along the lake. He passed by residential houses and scavengers who warily stayed out of his way. He met some police officers who saluted him even though he doesn't know them. He met people who greeted him, most probably people that he accidentally saved, and he replied with a smile. Well, at least he knows basic manners, just like what the old saying said, "treat others like how they treat you."

After several minutes, he stopped in front of an old motel. It was Old John's motel where they first met him and where they took shelter from a horde of infected. He didn't go inside and instead head towards the garage found on the back of the motel. He opened the dilapidated wooden gate, which creaked as it opened, then raised the shutters. It was Old John's personal garage filled with all kinds of antique junks that he doesn't even know what they are called.

The request he got was to retrieve all of Old John's smithing equipment which he stored here. Well, Jun doesn't really know what they looked like besides the anvil and tongs which he saw on TV shows and internet, so he took them all and stashed them in his dimensional storage.

As he finished loading everything into his dimensional storage, he suddenly felt his body become exhausted and burdened. He stepped backward and felt massive weight slowing him down. He opened his character screen and saw the 'Encumbered' status.

"What is this!? There's things like this!", he thought as he widened his eyes. He opened his inventory and saw that there's still lots of space for things to put on. He also noticed that large equipment took more spaces than usual; for example, the anvil, which took six squares of his inventory.

Considering his total power, he was as strong as three adult men, but having a variety of items and equipment on his dimensional storage made him realized that he might have overloaded his storage, reaching past his total carry weight.

He decided to throw out some metal bars, wood planks and logs that he stored for when he might actually need it. The items kept falling out from the vortex beside him and dropped down to the floor.

Before he could even finish unloading all the unnecessary weight, he heard rustling sounds from the sides. He turned around and saw a sleeping bag with someone squirming inside it. It looked like the person inside just woke up as they made several stretching gestures.

Jun ignored the person and finished unloading all the excess weight until he felt his body lighten. At the same time, he noticed that the person inside the sleeping bag still hasn't gone out.

"Hello there. Sorry for disturbing your sleep, but you see, I couldn't really help it since I need to unload some shit. By the way, this is my friend's garage, so I can let you stay here for a discounted price or you could choose to rent some rooms upstairs. What do you think?" Jun said hoping to start a conversation. He doesn't really care about rent, he just wanted to make some small talks.

But the other person didn't reply.

He furrowed his brows as he armed himself with a short sword.

"Man, I really hate to do this today. Can you talk? I really hope that you talk, I just ate my lunch, so I want to take things leisurely for some time. Well, I'm not easily disgusted, I just... haaa."

Jun walked forward and opened the bag using the sword;s tip. The zipper broke due to the tips sharpness and Jun decided to cut open a part of the sleeping bag.

After making a small cut, the arms inside revealed itself. It was dried and skinny while showing black veins that coiled around its arms. The corners of the nails were purplish-black and has wrinkles on it.

He cut open the part where the head is supposed to be and saw the dried up face of a man. He couldn't tell its age due to how dry his skin was, but taking a guess by looking at the body size and figure, the man should be around his early twenties.

At first glance, he already felt that something was wrong with this infected, but he couldn't pinpoint what it is. Afterwards, he noticed its eyes that were staring back at him. Unlike the usual infected that he meets, the colors of the man's eyes were black!

"Did he die while sleeping?" Jun thought.

Never the less, an infected is still an infected and infecteds gives out EXP's. He stabbed the man in the head and he leveled up. Jun decided to start investing in his Endurance, which visibly increased Health stat. If he has to explain how he thought things worked, 1 Endurance equates to 20 Health and every level up grants 10 Health. That's the only plausible explanation he could think of.

[Jun Reyes][Profession - Thug][Level - 4]

[Health - 560][Energy - 110]

[Title - Thug Life]

[Power - 28][Endurance - 26][Speed - 15][Wits - 14][Cunning - 14][Charm - 16]

[Stat Points - 0]

[Trait]

-[Brave]

-[Iron Guts]

-[Strong]

[Skills]

-[Threaten - Lv.3]

-[Rob - Lv.2]

-[Execute - Lv.3]

-[Melee Weapon Mastery - Lv.2]

- [Blueprint Creation - Lv.1]

-[Howling Rage Lv.2]

-[Sprint - Lv.Max]

-[Time Perse - Max]

[Description] Activate to stop time temporarily. Drains 1 energy per second. Large movements drains 5 energy per second. Cooldown: None. [Tip] Recasting within a short period of time increases energy drain.

As he slid the blade out of the man's forehead, he heard footsteps outside, followed by an anguished wail of a woman. He turned his head to see a woman ran towards him and hugged the body. her clothes were dirty, filled with blood and other things that she might have rolled into. The grey question marks above her head told Jun she meant no harm to him.

Jun was going to loot the body, but decided not to after watching how sorrowful the woman was. It was probably someone related to her for her to act like this.

He slowly backed off as he felt guilty about what he did. Not because he killed an infected, but because he made someone felt pain by losing someone they loved. Normally, he wouldn't care about this, but today, he felt emotional. He placed stacks of food and bottles of water on the table. He didn't apologize nor ask for forgiveness as he left the garage.

After he was gone, the woman stopped crying. She pulled the body out of the sleeping bag and dragged it outside carelessly as if she was pulling something worthless. The body dropped on solid ground, then the woman sat beside the body.

"It's fine, Sam. Though you died for real, I'll find some other use for you. Maybe I can sell you for some points. Don't worry baby, I'll make sure that I'll be able to maximize my profit off you."

The woman giggled as she naughtily touched the dead man's chest. The black eyes slowly turned yellow as it lay down under the sun. Several minutes later, the wound on the forehead finally regenerated and the man started to moan as a sign of reanimation. The woman stabbed him in the head and chopped him up into pieces, storing him in her dimensional storage to be sold later as goods.

That same night...

A pretty girl seductively posed on the streets of Black Haven. Some ignored her while others gawked at her. She waited and waited as she observed everyone passing by. When a slightly chubby man passed by, she said, "Hey pretty boy~ Wanna have some fun?"