Trash In The Apocalypse

After picking up the spear, Sheila gracefully and skillfully maneuvered the spear around her body. Her baton skills during her high school days were now proving to be useful.

"What"s going on here? Explain it to me." Sheila said while alternatingly looking at both sides. "You"re colleagues! Why are you killing each other?"

Sheila then turned to Edward, who was glaring on the other side.

"Do you know what"s going on?" said Sheila.

Edward nodded his head and looked around the area. He couldn"t find Jun and Adrian nor their shooters.

The fight was a short one but it would determine who lives and dies today, depending on the outcome of the forest battle.

"I think they betrayed us. That one tried to kill you and everyone just fought each other and almost killed everyone."

When Sheila heard about the situation, she turned towards Toby"s group, then suddenly dashed towards them.

From Edward"s explanation, that man who acts like the one in charge of that group tried to kill her.

The spear danced in her hands like an amateur but it was suffecient enough to deal with people a level below her. Besides, her weapon was system generated and has superior materials than bone armaments.

Her spear would clash a few times before destroying the other party"s weapon. Even if the other party brought out another weapon to fight, it would still break after a few clashes. Sheila never got surrounded since Nik and his squad came to her rescue.

Unlike her wild fighting style, they were a bit conservative since their short swords didn"t have a long reach like a spear. This time, they finally realized that fighting against an undead was totally different than fighting with people. People can think and group up making any attempts to isolate a target, almost impossible.

Just as they were about to collapsed their enemies formation, Toby"s group retreated simultaneously. Before they could react and catch up, a bonespear appeared on all of the enemies hands.

Those bonespears were usually used to thin out a horde and used by the injured squad members to support those in the vanguard.

With the sudden appearance of the bonespear and the target being them, Nik"s squad felt the pressure of being aimed at by projectiles.

"Gather behind me!" Edward suddenly shouted.

A two meter yellow light barrier appeared in front of Edward. It covered everything from his knees all the way above his head. It was tall and wide. Anyone who saw it could see that it was also st.u.r.dy due to its thickness. The only downside was Edward"s continous consumption of energy.

Edward was currently over-estimating the damage output of the other side. He made the thickness based on experience from blocking evolved carriers attacks. Being with the scavenging team, he had to save a lot of common people from the hands of the D-series and H-series carriers. Underestimating was never an option but overestimating would lead future troubles for him if he doesn"t learn to manage his energy consumption.

"Guys, you need to do something. I can"t keep this up for long!" Edward whispered to the people behind him.

Nik felt the urgency from his voice and quickly brought out his own bonespear.

"We"ve got one chance after they throw theirs." whispered Nik.

"Does that happen before or right after I ran out of energy?" commented Edward.

"I think it"s better to release the barrier and use it again after we throw. In that case, we get our timings right, while their bonespears would be blocked." said a man who really didn"t stand out from the group.

Everyone felt that it was a good idea except for Edward, who was shaking his head.

"I hate to break it to you but my energy"s to low to do that. Just think of me as Ka.s.sawin. Every time I use my ultimate, the cost to use it again hikes up. I"ve used my barrier consecutively already..."

"You play that game too?"

"What do you expect? I"m in college and there"s nothing to do."

"I think we"ll be friends. My in-game ID"s FakerPH. Let"s play one game if we managed to live after all this."

"Your name sounds a bit... Let"s just hope you live up to the name."

Suddenly, someone started laughing from the other side. When the two regained focus on where they are, they saw the supposed leader of the masked men on the other side mocking them.

"What? Are you saying your farewells to each other? I can"t believe this." said Toby as he started laughing at the two"s action.

One member on his side seemed to chicken out as he took a few steps back making him the furthest target in case the fight came into a death match.

"I"ll remove the barrier in three seconds. That way, we can get to throw first and dodge early." said Edward.

Everyone, though unwilling, accepted the fact that Edward"s energy was really running on fumes and had to take the risk.

"One. Tw—!"

Just as before Edward finished counting to two. The cowardly squad member on Toby"s side pulled his hand back and aimed the bonespear he was holding.

Edward felt that his mind was being read since that person was reacting in advance. But something weird happened. The cowardly person misfired big time.

It threw the bonespear but instead of flying towards them, it struck the nearest person next to him. The masked man then wielded a short sword and stabbed another one in the back before getting ganged by the remaining two.

Toby unleashed fury upon his lackey and slashed wildly. The lackey dodged perfectly and was doing good when he suddenly tripped on a stone and lost his balance.

Toby took this chance to land a sure hit and aimed at the head. The lackey raised its sword to block but was still late to defend. The tip of Toby"s blade sliced the mask diagonally from the forehead until it reached below the nose. The lackeys sword started its defense from there. Blood was flowing down the mask and dripping from Toby"s sword tip.

"What are you waiting for! Finish him!"

Toby felt weird since earlier. Even though it was five people against seven, it shouldn"t have been that fast for them to get pushed back. Now, he finally realized that someone wasn"t fighting at his best and was actually a rat.

The help he was expecting never came. The lackey he was talking to, didn"t even answer back. He took a slight peek beside him and to his horror, found the man he was asking for help sprawled on the ground with a bonespear on his chest.

He hastily tried jumping back but felt hot sticky fluid escape his sides. He tumbled back and spat some blood as he tried getting up, but his hastiness further slowed him down as the ground he was repeatedly stepping on, got eroded causing him to have unstable footing.

Nik stood a few meters away from him. He remembers that cheeky gaze. That young face that only knows how remain expressionless all the time. But instead of finis.h.i.+ng him off, Nik went to the wounded man while the remaining first squad surrounded him. 

Nik took the mask off and stared at the face behind the mask. It was a face he knew and felt family towards to.

"Hey old man. Are you dead yet?" said Nik as he stared at Bartolome.

Bartolome"s face had a long cut from his eyebrow and went down diagonal towards his left cheek. Nik grabbed his sides and shook his body.

"Hey, old man... Answer me!"

Nik suddeny felt something sticky on his hands and when he looked at it, he saw his hand bloodied. He gently tilted the body and found small bone fragments underneath. It seems like some sword fragment from the weapons that broke earlier scattered on this side causing Bartolome to unfortunately fall on some.

He panicked and immediately turned to Sheila, but before he could even shout for help, she was already beside him.

"You know him?" she asked.

"Please save him! He"s been... uhm, the back! Look at his back! His face had a long cut too. Please save him! I beg you!"

Unlike Nik"s frantic call for help, Sheila calmy diagnosed Bartolome. She cast the basic heal and cure while checking the wounds status. She placed her hand over the face, then after several seconds, placed it on Bartolome"s back wounds.

"He"s going to be fine. The cut on his face might get infected if we don"t treat it properly, the same goes with the wounds on his back. But overall, he should be fine. Well, he"s losing blood, so I have no choice but to do it here. Is that okay with you?"

Nik wiped his tears and nodded his head. "Yes, please."

Right after wiping his tears, he picked up the sword he lay on the side and stood up. He turned to Toby and glared at the man.

"Don"t kill him... yet."

Nik turned around and looked at Sheila confused.

Sheila said. "We need to know some things. After that, he"s all yours."