Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 106: Water Stride

"Helena!" shouted Gilbert as he watched the woman run towards the shoreline in a straight forward manner.

The woman called Helene turned her head and saw Gilbert with a bunch of odd-looking people. Despite that, she immediately changed directions quickly heading towards them.

The water surface behind her had numerous ripples of water chasing after her. A shrill scream came further behind followed by a splash of water that reached one meter up in the air.

"Ready your spears!" Jun shouted.

Helena ran as fast as she could, but the weight of the two children weighed her down.

Gilbert rushed forward and take a better angle when she was just ten meters away from them.

A figure lunged out of the water like a flying fish. It flew towards Helena at an angle and yet it was struck by a harpoon filled with howling wind. Gilbert reloaded his last harpoon onto the gun and kept his gaze below the water, looking for any threats that might follow. Weirdly enough, the trails and ripples of water disappeared until his wife reaches their side.

She slowly sunk down from the water surface after reaching them. Gilbert immediately hugged her

and took his children from her grasp to lighten her load.

"Thank the Lord you're okay. I'm so worried. I thought for sure that... that..."

"Say no more, we're back on your side now." Helena hugged Gilbert for a few seconds before looking worried. "We need to get out of here. That monster must be very angry."

"What do you mean?" said Gilbert.

"Monster?" said Jun.

Helena turned her head towards her husband, then towards Jun. "There's one unique monster among them. It can control the water and has intelligence. It can give orders and plan them. We need to get out of the water first!"

"Okay. Retreat towards the houses!" Jun ordered.

The group inched closer to each other as they retreated towards the houses. After several seconds, one death slave sunk down causing a commotion for everyone near him. The person next to him quickly dove down to his rescue while others heightened their senses for any more threats that may come. Seconds later, two people showed up; one looking annoyed while the other was embarrassed.

"Sorry, I stepped off the walkway..." said the man as he smiled wryly under his mask.

After that scene, everyone carefully watched where they were stepping on. It increased their awareness of the surroundings while increasing their focus under the water. They reached the housing area safely and gathered on Gilbert's house where most of the people were held.

With the addition of almost twenty new people, the house became cramped and most of them had to stand on the first floor to give further space for the others.

With finally having time to talk with each other, Gilbert and Helena brought their children on the attic as they catch up on in each other's stories.

Jun who was watching the scene couldn't help but ask, "Can you teach us that water-walking skill you've got?"

Jun's action would be considered rude even before the apocalypse and right now. In the Philippines, it was considered rude to cut in someone's conversation, especially if they were older than you. You could get scolded or worse ignored for the whole conversation while marking yourself as someone immature.

Never the less, Helena smiled and said, "I'm sure you already know this, but my name is Helena and this is my husband, Gilbert. I thank you for coming to our rescue. Thanks for your timely help, I didn't have to die. Not one of us needed to die anymore. Regarding your request, I can teach you since it was quite simple. Just gather energy on the sole of your foot and that should do the trick."

"Wait. Isn't that basically Sprint?" Jun blurted out.

Helena tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what the man in front of him was saying.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think that it was simply like that. We already learned a skill with the same usage conditions, so it didn't cross my mind that they might be the same. I'm Jun by the way and this are my subordinates. You can call them by their numbers." said Jun.

Gilbert and Helena stared at the numbers on the masked men's shoulders. Though they don't understand why they were called by numbers instead of their names, the two of them just ignored the matter.

Jun was the first to try the water-walking skill. He easily gathered energy on the sole of his foot, then tried stepping forward. He felt some resistance from the water and so he tried again. After two more tries, his feet brought him higher and so he stepped up using his other feet.

[Congratulations! You've learned Water Stride!]

[Water Stride]

[Description] Allows the user to walk on the surface of the water. Drains 20 energy upon use. Additional 1 energy per 10 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes. Passive increase of 20% movement speed when submerged underwater.

"It's almost the same," said Jun. "This one just cost more energy to use. You sure got lucky that you were able to reach us before your energy ran out."

Helena nodded her head. "I sure was. Having two kids on my arms increased the energy consumption. Thankfully I increased my max energy before running for our lives."

"You increased your max energy?" Jun dumbfoundedly stared at Helena since he couldn't believe what he just heard. He tried and look for everywhere for a method to increase his energy but still ended up failing. And now, in front of him, someone claims that they increased their max energy at their own will.

"Well, to speak clearly, I ate some fruit and that increased my max energy. Would you like to see it?" said Helena.

Jun nodded his head and so Helena took something from his dimensional storage, a green circular fruit that has a smooth surface sized more or less two inches.

Jun scanned it through his eye but didn't see anything.

"Can I see it?" Jun said as he laid out his hand in front of him.

Helena hesitated but still handed over the fruit.

[Energy Fruit]

[Description] A fruit from the rare tropical plant found only on lands that have a high concentration of energy. When consumed, increases max energy by 100 points and restores energy to full. The effect would be halved for every consumption of the fruit.

After reading the description, Jun handed back the fruit. His action surprised Helena and most of his subordinates. They were sure that he would claim it as his own since they kind of know how he operates. They didn't know that Jun doesn't like stealing. He mostly does things like mugging for fun.

Jun turned towards Gilbert. "Where're my seeds?"

Being reminded of the seeds, Gilbert turned to his wife, then turned back to him. "My wife has it. As per our agreement, we'll only give it to you after you killed all of those monsters and brought us to safety."

"Okay. Are you guys done?" said Jun towards his water striding death slaves. They have been practicing ever since the start on how to balance their body on the wavy waters.

"Yes, sir!" the death slaves unanimously answered.

"Good. Let's cook some fishes up."

After Jun and his subordinates left, Helena tugged at her husbands shirt.

"What seeds? We only have one, remember? The one I planted on that small island." Helena said flustered.

Gilbert stared back at her filled with uncertainty. He said, "Let's hope that they're good people."

***

Jun and his subordinates reached the place where they met Helena safely.

At first, they moved carefully and trudged along the walkway while searching for any signs of large movement from the water.

When they reached closer to the end of the walkway, they saw two carriers on a small island. The mutated carrier forced the regular carrier to channel its energy towards the plant. The regular carrier became thinner as it poured its energy out. When it finally runs out of energy, its body disintegrated into shimmering stardust.

The plant which received the energy of the carrier bore two green fruits. The mutated carrier took one fruit and ate it. It raised its heads up towards the sky as if savoring the moment.

When Jun noticed that it was going to eat the other fruit, he quickly brought out his M16. As much as possible, he refrains from using the rifle since he was already running low on bullets. He only uses it when under extreme situations or when he really needed it.

Jun used Time Perse to stop the time. He was about to fire when the carrier slightly turned its head. Not a huge movement but he was sure that he saw that the carrier slightly turned its head and even moved its eyes.

Jun felt confused! He thought that it was absolute that time would stop after activating the skill. He felt worried, troubled, and irritated. What's happening? Why?