Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 123: Underwater

Jun stared at the continously swarm of carriers falling into the water as they tried to catch the boat. Big splashes of water rhythmically rose up every other second.

Though they were safe for now, they actually don't know for how long.

Jun turned around and observed the boat they were on. It was a commerical wooden boat designed for public transport. Jun knew that there were several island in the Laguna Lake but haven't rode one. This would be his first time riding one.

"Anybody know how to operate this?"

Jun looked around and found someone shyly raising their hand.

"I-I don't know how to, but I saw the operators use a bamboo pole to navigate out of the docks."

Jun pondered why would the boat operators use a bamboo pole to navigate when they could just turn the engine on. Then, reality struck him. 

Boats can go in reverse but not the way a car does. Driving a boat in reverse require practice. Also, the boat must be a modern one with a good propulsion system.

But this is a wooden motorized-boat made for passenger transport. For the operators, it was enough as long as it can move.

Jun looked around and found a long soggy bamboo on the left side of the boat.

Jun picked up the bamboo pole and the surface felt rough on his skin. He plunged the end of the pole into the water and felt the end hit the bottom.

"Turn on the engine." said Jun towards the man who raised his hand earlier.

The man ran towards the operators seat and felt baffled as he stared at the apparatus in front of him. There were only three things on the apparatus, a small switch, a black round button and a lever.

Jun forcefully pushed and caused the boat's slight turn.

With the momentum of the earlier push and this push, the boat was now turning adrift with its bow slowly facing towards the wide open waters.

At the same time, he heard the boat's engine came to life.

"Now if I do this, it should get us going." said the man as he operated the lever.

The boat jolted and slowly moved forward. The man on the steering wheel shouted in glee as he successfully operated the boat.

"Is this you're first time driving a boat?" said Jun.

"Yes, sir! I live on Kalinawan, so I usually ride this, but this is the first time I'm driving one."

"That's good then. You'll take this boat back to the Lakeside Marina after we got off later, okay?"

"Yes, sir!"

Jun strode towards the man and took over the steering wheel. Yes, a steering wheel. It was a common black steering wheel that could be found on almost every car. With the past experience of driving on land, he skillyfully got them out of the docking area.

On the distance, Jun could still see the boat where the woman who waved at them rode. He had no plans on following them, but it was nice to know that there are people alive on the islands.

The boat anchored down ten meters away from the docks. They have to move a bit further from the docks in case any Hunter got any funny ideas of jumping on board. Atleast with this distance, they have enough reaction time to react.

Jun stood in front of everyone and said, "Here's the plan."

He felt like a school teacher seeing that everyone looked up to him while they were seated. Also, having several masked men staring at him felt a bit weird.

"We'll wait until every last one of them to fall into the water. Afterwards, we rush to dock and sneak out of here. You can take you're masks off for now."

All of the masked men nodded their heads and complied. Though this isn't the first time they took off their masks, this is the first time they were able to see each others real faces since there were two different batches of death slaves.

Jun turned towards the islander who had fairly white skin. "Right after everyone gets off, you hurry and take this ship towards Lakeside Marina. Then, go back to the camp and tell Bernard about what happened here. Also, tell him to remind Marianne that I'll be a bit late for our dinner date."

Jun was only allowed to venture out today since he plowed the paddies this morning and promised a dinner date on the evening.

The man slowly nodded his head even though he didn't understand what he really meant. In his head, he just have to follow his orders and everything should be fine.

With everything in place, all they have to do is sit down and wait. Everyone sat down on the passenger seats and closed their eyes to rest.

Jun sat down on the bow of the boat and watched numerous carriers fall into the water. By his side was Nik, also watching the scene.

"You're sister. I don't know if she's in good hands or not."

Nik turned his head and frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

"That old man who adopted her? He sometimes doesn't think straight and seems to like deciding things abruptly. Like an autistic person."

Nik faced forward and continued watching the stream of humanfalls.

"Why are you even telling me this? Never thought that you cared about other people's life."

Jun chuckled. "That's true."

Jun pondered over the reason. Is it because he pities the two of them or was actually envious of them?

All kinds of people presented itself to Jun as they tried lunging towards him. Students, porters, vendors. Most of the carriers were civilians in casual clothing and there was barely any uniformed officer to be seen.

"Wanna hear something funny?" said Jun as he watched people continously fall into the wter.

As if bored watching the scene, Nik entertained Jun and replied. "What is it?"

Jun opened his hand and on his palm layed a small round pebble. "I have five of these. If I used this earlier, we could have outrun those chasers and hid somewhere else."

Nik stared at the pebbles and shook his head. "I don't think so. Those stones barely lasts three second. Even if you used it to stall for time, we would still encounter other groups in the area. That means the ones behind us would catch up and we'll be cornered."

Jun pondered and gently nodded. "I guess so."

"You should stop acting like this. Its not your fault that we're in this situation. It's bad luck leading to another one which brought us here. Though I didn't see those Hunters when they traced our steps back to the plaza, I saw them work as a group in searching the place. If anything, you're decision might have saved us."

Jun chuckled and shook his head. he then muttered to himself, "Am I being consoled by a kid?"

Right then, the splurging noise of water stopped and Jun stood up. The cluster of carriers on the docks were now gone. Though he could still see some wandering carriers in the distance, it shouldn't pose a problem.

"Everyone get ready, we're moving out."

***

Jun was the first to jumped off the boat since he was already there. Nik followed after him with the rest on his tail. He took one last glance on the islander and saw the man nodding his head as if saying he got his message.

Since there were lesser carriers now, the group breezed through everything and reached the dock's entrance in a short time. They then managed to sneak towards the huge parking lot of the public market without attracting any attention from the distant main road.

The docks and the church could be seen from both place since they could be found at their exact oppoite directions. The only thing that helped them avoid detection was the distance between the two.

The public market parking lot was littered with parked cars and has barely any carriers around. Some cars were ready to leave but failed to do so. Some cars had broken wind shields while other cars failed to close their doors, probably resulting to the owner's death.

There were only few carriers on the parking lot, but there were some remaining on the entrance of the public market. The carriers noticed them and dashed towards them as if it were the first time they saw live people. This time, even though they are in an open space, they weren't outnumbered. Without being totally outnumbered, the carriers were easily dealt with by the group. 

The boat didn't leave incase something went wrong. Having a place to retreat would surely make everyone feel safer. The islander made sure that everyone would be able to safely get out of the docks before driving away.

On the bottom of the lake were numerous carriers struggling to float up. Most of them were slowly walking underwater trying to follow the hull of the boat. The boats wake created noise and bubbles underwater which attracted the fallen carriers.

Though the boat was getting further and further, the carriers didn't give up since it was the only thing that created noise underwater. Amongst the numerous carriers, some started to float up after several minutes of waving their hands around.

Normal people would have drowned for staying that long underwater. When they drowned after having their lungs filled water, bacterias from the gut and chest cavity would then produce gasmethane, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxideand would slowly make the body float.

Most of the carriers that floated were those people who wore light clothing. Those who wore heavy jackets and the like stayed on the bottom of the lake, idly preserving their energies.