The hot rays of the sun shone at its brightest.By the roadside where the explosion occurred, pieces of burnt bodies where scattered everywhere. The place would be tranquil if it wasn"t for the insect noises, reminding everyone of how peaceful the summer can be.
A malnourished stray dog pa.s.sed by and ate some of the burnt flesh. The dogs body have a skin disease and some patches of fur were missing. The dog happily ate the cooked food when its body suddenly jolted and fell to the side. Its whole body shook and it started wailing pitifully. The strange scene continued for less than a minute. When the stray dog finally stopped convulsing, its body visibly have totally received a ma.s.sive changed.
The stray dogs physique greatly changed. The size of its body grow a bit bulkier and fles.h.i.+er compared to its earlier malnourished state. Its paws grew a few inches larger while its nails appeared sharper. The fur grew back on some empty patches and all of its hair reflected the sun healthily.
The stray dog stood up and looked around. The place was safe and so it ate a mouthful. As it chewed, the dog started to shook its head as if it ate something disgusting. It spat out the mashed flesh then stuck its tongue out. After recovering, the stray sniffed the ball of mashed flesh. It pulled its head back, then turned its head to eat another burnt piece. The same thing happened and the dog spat out the chewed meat. It sniffed every piece of burnt flesh and finally lost interest. It left disappointed as it looked for other food.
After some time, a fragile-looking old man appeared on the street corner. He unstably walked along the road filled with roasted flesh and felt disgusted by the scene. He stared at the pieces of flesh, then shook his head. He went towards the convenience store and stayed there for safety.
Time pa.s.sed and the sun was already on its descent.
Shadows were already appearing on the streets, on the poles and under the cars. The tranquil road became bustling when a group of seven people appeared. Three of them wore police uniforms while the rest wore civilian clothing. They cautiously advanced forward, watching every corner for blind spots.
As they felt confident that the place was safe, the group finally moved freely and started scavenging the convenience store. It didn"t even took long as most of the items were just shoved into their dimensional storage.
The group left the gas station with eight people. The group found someone hiding on the stockroom, surrounded by empty packages of boxed lunches.
After a few hours while the sun was on its last ray of lights, a white van pa.s.sed by. It drove carefully around overturned cars and swiftly on open highways. A few minutes later, they arrived at the city plaza square. The door opened and its pa.s.sengers alighted one by one.
Jun was also seated on the pa.s.senger seats. He got off the car after Edward and Sheila. A brownish bullmastiff came out following after Jun. It rolled around as if it was happy of finally standing on firm ground. After its little celebration, it sat straight beside Jun while scanning the area. It barked when a man got off the drivers seat and walked towards them.
"Are you sure that you"re not going with us? The government should be able to provide food and shelter."
Sheila who stood by the side couldn"t help but roll her eyes. Inwardly, she thought poorly of how the government reacted to the apocalypse.
Jun smiled and replied. "We"re good. Thanks for helping my dog. He"s a bit troublesome when he gets hungry. I"m sorry for the troubles my dog gave you."
The two bade farewell and the group divided into two. The bullmastiff barked twice as if saying its goodbyes. The man turned around and replied with a wave of his hands.
"Takaw! Let"s go!"
Jun walked the remaining distance towards the mall. They didn"t use the car and took the chance to exercise a bit.
The first thing they saw was the mazes of car along the road. As they approached closer towards the mall, they were greeted by Jorge and Emma, chatting on top of a bus. The toll gate opened via remote control and the three entered the parking lot.
There was a huge tent on the left with a red cross logo. On their right was rows of wooden stalls that looked exactly the same from the ones inside the mall.
"Its cool right?" Emma said. "They took the stalls from the mall and set it up outside. To be honest, I"m not really fond of the "selling" goods idea but I"m excited meeting and talking with other people."
Edward and Sheila checked a few stalls. The stalls were simple square boxed up stores that has an over-the-top counter and some cabinets for storing supplies.
Edward stopped by the Currency Exchange stall. He scanned the list of goods were printed in front with matching pictures of the item.
An essence shard is equivalent to five credit points while a canned food was priced at ten credit points. He thought the price was reasonable since killing a regular infected is quite easy. But he doesn"t know that there was a long debate before the price of an essence shard could be settled. Some thought that the price was too low for the risk of dying. All of those who believe that were silenced by Evo. He told them that they weren"t running a charity and he preferred if there were less people buying their food supplies.
Though a farm that should be sufficient for the groups consumption is being made, it would still take some time before they could reap the benefits.
A gallon of drinking water was priced at twenty credits while clothes ranged from twenty to fifty credits. The clothes weren"t priced highly since it wasn"t something essential.
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While the pricing of goods happened, Evo hoped that their planned economy would go well, so people could live stable lives. Thus, making the economy stable and profits would finally come in.
When people become stronger and have stable lives, they would then strive for a better life. To become stronger, they needed something that will help them become someone above the rest.
At that time, the essence crystal would finally show its worth.