Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 110: Travels

On the main east road that leads to Black Haven, a group of eleven people, made of one woman, three children, one young adult and six middle-aged men, were huddled together as they traveled.

Each men held one short sword as they warily advanced forward. It was already well-known by the survivors that the surrounding area has already been cleared of carriers, but it wasn't general knowledge for Gilbert and his friends.

They were fighting for the marina since the start and have never ventured out. Knowing nothing about the current news or events, they walked cautiously along the way.

A group of three teenagers were walking towards them and Gilbert could heard them speaking to each other while chuckling.

"Must be newcomers."

"Yeah. Let's greet them."

The two men in front raised their hands as they greeted him while the lady at the back followed after them.

The lady behind the two stepped forward and greeted first.

"Hello there! My name is Priscilla, these two are my friends Sam and Kevin. Are you guys recently rescued? I knew how hard it was to survive and I'm really glad that many of you survived. We too were rescued by Black Haven, so we knew how you feel. But don't worry, your safe now. The surrounding area has already been cleared of dangers, so the streets are a bit safe. You can go to the City Hall and request some basic assistance package, then towards the Black Haven Advertisement Bus for things like news and jobs. There's also a hand-drawn map of the cleared area on the statue at the city hall plaza. There's also a mercenary band hanging out at Veronica's PUB if you want something done when you don't have the power to do so. And"

"Priscilla, I don't think they're interested or in actual need of your blabber. Can we just move on? What if other scavengers get all the valuable loots" said the man with a pair of glasses.

Priscilla rolled her eyes and turned around. "This is the exact reason why you can't get a girlfriend even though there's a lot of available at night."

Priscilla bade goodbye and the three of them moved on.

After the three teenagers left, the feeling of cautiousness vanished from everyone and they traveled more freely. Some even started chatting while the kids started to fawn about and pointed at every broken car they passed by.

Helena spoke to Gilbert. "Do we go to the City Hall? Maybe the mayor can help us."

Gilbert shook his head. "No, we're told to look for Bernard, so that's what we're going to do."

"We could atleast look around first, then go after, right?" suggested Helena.

"I already caused enough trouble for everyone. I'm sure that the man would allow us some free time to go about." replied Gilbert.

"If you say so. Let's hope that they're not hiding something."

Gilbert led his group onwards and he didn't even have to ask for directions since everything was pretty obvious. According to the young lady earlier, there's a place called Black Haven Advertisement Bus where you could find jobs and read news.

"It should be that, right?" Gilbert muttered to himself as he watched the crowd of people in front of a bus parked parallel on the street. He never really went into the said place and was only accommodated on one of the abandoned houses a few blocks away.

He noticed that people come and go to different directions after reading some leaflets pasted on the bus. Curious, he went and read some for himself. The topics he read where news event that happened for the past few days and some job hiring and scavenging groups recruitment. After reading only a small part of the pasted leaflets, he instinctively knew that this should be the said Black Haven Advertisement Bus.

Gilbert felt sure that this was Black Haven, so he walked forward. He then noticed people coming and going into the mall, so he followed them.

"Please stop!" shouted an old man who wore vest and long sleeves even though it was already almost noon. "Are you guys new here?"

"Uhh, yes... How did you know?" said Gilbert.

The old man smiled. "Only two people could come inside if you're on the same group. And do you have your credit points card? Only people that has a Black Haven credit points card could shop here. If you haven't registered for a card, I could help you. We have here a list for items exchange rate and there's a minimum of 100 CP to be able to get a card."

"Actually... Mr. Reyes sent us here to find Mr. Bernard. Can you help us find him?" said Gilbert.

The old man raised his eyebrows after hearing Gilbert speak, then scrutinized him seriously.

"You're speaking to him. How may I help you?"

***

A large group of people arrived at a bank's intersection. It was Jun's scavenging group. They have long passed the bridge area and has fought a few carriers along the way.

Jun glanced at the bank and the grocery store on the other side of the intersection. It has been less than two weeks since everything started, but nothing seems to have changed. There were some signs that the grocery store became someone else's hideout due to the various parked cars outside that served as blockade on the parking lot.

Well to be honest, it was a good place to set camp if you don't mind the fact that there's only one way to go in and out. Having only one door to defend gives more security while having more risk of being cornered since you couldn't escape if overwhelmed. If they're strong enough, they could destroy the second floor windows and jump on the nearby roof to escape. Though, that would would create too much noise since most of the roofs were more than twenty-five years old with accumulated rust.

The group took the left turn and walked for several seconds before passing by Sheila's family clinic. Jun was reminded of Sheila's father and so he asked: "How's your father by the way?"

Sheila answered as they walk. "He's doing fine. He set up shop on the plaza square. He actually wanted to offer his services for free, so that the people could have some health care. I tried convincing him to work under Black Haven, but he insisted not to. Well, atleast I managed to convince him to accept payments, if food are considered money then he sure is getting paid."

After their small chat, they reached Jun's house and he bade goodbye to the group. He sent most of his death slaves to follow the scavenging group as support since they would meet up with the other community and only ordered the top five of them to stay.

Nik and the four top ranked death slaves waited outside the gate as Jun entered the house. They systematically patrolled around the house to make sure that no surprise ambushes would happen. They already learned their lessons after skirmishing with herds of carriers for a few times. They just come when you least expect it and in great numbers. Nik patrolled alone while the rest grouped up into two's.

On Jun's side, he looked up around the direction of his room before he could even open the front door. He then entered and gazed around the living room. It was still the same empty room like how it was when he left while the kitchen appeared more barren than the last time he saw it. Looters must have scavenge everything that they could use from here since he mostly took food from here.

He slowly climbed up the stairs while making loud stepping noises. Scrambling footsteps could be heard even before he could reach the front of his room and yet he ignored it. When he opened the door, he could see the curtains by the window being blown off by the wind. The bed was littered with empty junk foods and the room appeared like someone has been living here for quite a few days.

Jun naturally doesn't care about what happened here. He's okay with it since he already abandoned this place for some time. If this place became home for someone else, he would be glad. He ignored the floating question marks inside the closet and walked towards the table beside his bed. He opened the second drawer and looked for something but something seemed wrong. He then opened the rest of the drawers, but still couldn't find the thing he was looking for.

Anxious, he angrily made his way towards the closet and opened it forcefully. The doors swung wide open and a frightened teenage girl huddled on the closet corner welcomed him. She had a long black hair and a fair skin that could make any men wanting her.

"How long have you lived here?" said Jun.

The girl glanced at him but then covered her eyes with her hands, to not see him.

"Hey! Answer me!"