Trash In The Apocalypse

"Shut up. Tie him up!" Carl ordered. His subordinates watched the scene from behind and hesitated. He shouted again, "Tie him up!" and caused the driver to follow him.

"Do you still have a mother?" Jun"s hand were inside his jean"s pockets as he casually asked Carl who menacingly points a pistol at him. "Is she still alive? Because I was looking for mine and I don"t even know whether she"s still alive."

Carl"s ferocity disappeared and he became dazed. The driver who walked forward stopped in his tracks. Matters regarding family has always been something highly valued by the Filipino people. Giving back and taking care of your parents was a must for every child of the family. It"s already part of the culture and someone who disrespects that culture would always be looked down by everyone.

"I need to go back to Taytay and you have to shoot me if you want to stop me," Jun said as he turned around and started walking.

Carl continued aiming at Jun"s back, contemplating whether to shoot or not. Should he forego his values and do it for the mission?

Loved ones? Everyone has that. Nothing personal Jun, I"m sorry.

Carl lowered the pistol and aimed at Jun"s legs, his hands were trembling due to some cold that seeped into his body earlier.

Jun was using Aura (Death) to see what Carl would do. With his reaction speed, he trusts his capability to dodge once due to predictability of the angle of the shot. What happens next were matters he really had no control whatsoever. His best bet was to enter a building to take cover and made plans accordingly.

—

In the commander"s office, a nameplate reflected light from the outside. Brigadier General, Corwin Homes.

All high-ranking personnel were deployed in different areas around the capital city, Manila, to extract the president. The initial plan after communications became available was to strengthen the capital city"s defense with reinforcements. Unfortunately, entry points; national highways and other major roads were clogged up with heavy traffic preventing blitzkrieg operations. The available tanks were already moving at a turtle"s pace but having to fight dozens of giant monsters even made them slower.

Currently, Manila can be entered from three land directions; the North, East and South. While the West was a bay area and has some docking ports, the landing zone could be immediately swarmed by enemies once they notice any big s.h.i.+p nearby. The current plan was to whittle down enemy numbers from all sides before charging in. Paul"s regiment operation shows how worried the higher-ups regarding the president"s safety.

The army distributed limited resources on every possible entry/exit point. The Rotunda Tikling was positioned to the east of the capital and even has a bridge that gives easier defensive positioning for Brigadier General"s troops.

Corwin was known as a tactician, the main reason he was a.s.signed to a defensible area with lesser soldiers. He had to make sure that every day the soldiers go out, they accomplish something of value.

As he was reading through the reports from yesterday"s operations, the mobile phone on the table that remained silent for a long time rang once again. 

Corwin picked the call up after looking at the caller"s name on the screen. It was his old cla.s.smate, Paul Celestine.

He looked at the numerous injured personnel on the report and answered with irritation in his voice. "What do you want this time? You won"t be able to change my mind and you know that, right? I don"t have enough people here."

"Whoa. Did something happen? Nevermind, I don"t need to hear your problems. I heard there was a civilian named Jun on your outpost, is that true?"

Corwin lit a smoke and took one puff before he replied, "How would I know? Maybe, what of it?"

"He"s been acting troublesome lately and I need you to teach the man some lesson."

Corwin frowned for the disrespectful tone his friend had while talking to him. He barely calmed himself down by biting his lips. People like him who were already old and had no backings we"re being eyed by a few alligators on the topbra.s.s. The only reason he wasn"t being touched by ambitious people was his ties with Paul.

He composed himself and asked, "Any reason someone of your standing would bother with him?"

"He dated my daughter."

Corwin frowned, then became infuriated. Someone beat his own son to the dis.h.!.+ He almost blurted what he was thinking on the phone but stopped before he embarra.s.sed himself. 

"Don"t worry, I"ll take care of it."

"I know you will, that"s why I called you. Later."

The call hung up and Corwin could only stare furiously at his phone. What a b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Ego really goes up together with rank!

He remained seated wanting to defy the request but his logical mind urged him to stand up and suck up to his friend. In the end, he could only sigh deeply while thinking in his head: This is why I need more power.

Let"s hope the man"s already gone, that would save me the trouble. He called his secretary in and ordered for the man named Jun to be detained.

Corwin stood up against his will and made his way downstairs. Now, he just has to give some punishments and everything should be done. Every step he took shook his self-esteem, so he hypnotized himself that he just wanted some food from the cafeteria and he could casually visit the rebel interrogation rooms while bonding with his soldiers.

When he exited the building and walked out the door, he saw a commotion in the middle of the road. A soldier was pointing a gun at a civilian. He listened to their conversation and found it funny. The soldier was being out-cla.s.sed in speaking of justice and love.

All of a sudden, the soldier aimed lower and fired. The next series of events happened in a flash.

The civilian"s body swayed and successfully dodged the gunshot.

Jun turned around with unimaginable speed and brought his body low to the ground. Then, he lunged forward while twisting his body trying to evade the next successive shots.

Due to the order to capture Jun alive, Carl couldn"t shoot randomly since that might cause Jun"s death.

Jun didn"t know this and when he got close to Carl, he took the opportunity and punched him.

Carl blocked with his free hand but was still sent flying. He skillfully tumbled to recover and landed on a kneeling position, followed by aiming the pistol forward. He felt the force from Jun"s punch and his self-preservation instinct kicked in.

Jun summoned a bone spear together with his round s.h.i.+eld, then lowered his body into a squat, so he could protect most of his body.

Carl stayed at Binangonan for a few days. Upon seeing the bone spear on Jun"s hand, the first thing he did was to raise his hand in surrender. Unlike Jun who had a s.h.i.+eld that could probably block his shots, he had nothing on himself to defend from the bone spear.

As he continued to wonder what would Jun"s decision would be, a commanding voice sounded from the side.

"Stop."

Everyone turned around and saw the commanding officer of the outpost watching from the side.

"Detain him."

Carl became happy with the sudden change in the situation. He stared at Jun mockingly when he noticed that Jun pulled his hand back as if he was going to continue throwing the bone spear. "He"s not crazy, right? Doesn"t he know that a General just ordered for him to stop?! Wait, does he even know..."

Carl couldn"t finish his thoughts as he rashly jumped to the side. The bone spear missed but Jun didn"t stop. He took his war hammer from his dimensional storage and swung it around him, preventing soldiers to get close to him.

Seeing his att.i.tude, the soldiers were forced to take their rifles out and surround him. Jun could only stop since he had nowhere to go.

"What are you lot doing? Didn"t I ask you to detain him? Why isn"t anyone capturing him?"

To everyone"s surprise, the outpost commander wasn"t looking at Jun, he was facing towards the soldier who almost got speared to death.

"In times of calamity, a soldier is the citizens final line of protection. To dare threaten someone instead of helping them—what a disgrace! Lock him up!"

Carl was confused. His subordinates too. Everyone is confused.

Corwin recognized Carl once he saw him. One of Paul"s lackey. Well, at least now, he could let some steam off with a logical reason.

Jun eyed the middle-aged man with curiosity. He noticed that the man seems to be in power and could decide things here in this outpost, so he decided to listen for now.

The only bad thing he noticed about the man was the gleam in its eyes as he stared at his war hammer. His hand holding the war hammer tightened a little and his instincts revved at peak condition in case things went weird again.

Corwin was staring at Jun"s weapon because it was something uncommon. The war hammer was very unique looking and unless someone was a big fan of cold weapons, it was impossible to chance upon it. The first thing that entered his mind was the Chosen Ones, the ones who received the system together with additional features and hidden quests. They have high potentials and could grow stronger quickly if allotted the correct resources.

There were Chosen Ones among the army and the topbra.s.s keeps their name cla.s.sified.

His mind was working like clockwork trying to formulate a plan to get on the man"s good side. Although letting off steam was good, Paul would surely become unhappy when learns of the news. Having some ace up the sleeve would be good at this time.

"I apologize for what happened, but at the same time, I can"t let you go for attempted murder."

"You saw it, right? He tried to kill me first. It should be self-defense, not attempted murder."

"He was raising his hands, an act of defeat. According to the code of conduct, he should be taken as a prisoner."

"Fvck that. He could have killed me!"

Corwin sighed. "Youngsters these days... so troublesome.