Trash in the Apocalypse

8:21 AM

"Ughh..."

Jun woke up facing towards the glass door of the bank. The pain was gone, and he can finally move his body. As he stood up, he can't help himself but look at the bank's logo. Producers Bank.

'Am I just hallucinating?' Jun thought to himself.

He can see people inside the bank unconsciously lying flat on the floor. One of them was bleeding in the head; maybe he fell headfirst.

He immediately checked his body for any injuries. Luckily, he didn't get anything major, just a simple after-headache and bloodstains on his clothes.

Jun started looking around. Towards his left, a motorcycle crashed into a tricycle, and both of the drivers were unconscious. A canteen one block ahead got rammed by a car. The canteens staff stood up one-by-one while clutching their heads.

He looked towards the distance. He could only shake his head after taking a full turn from his spot. The only word to describe this scene was chaos.

While taking his full turn, a passenger jeepney crashed into a construction site after trying to avoid a food cart in the middle of the road. It went through its walls then flipped upside down, blocking the entrance of the local cemetery. The ear-piercing shrieks of its passengers couldn't mask the loud boom of the crash while the food carts owner was hanging from the top of the motorcycle, unconscious.

"Help me!"

Jun turned his head after hearing someone yelling. Since he wasn't able to see anyone, he had to walk a few steps forward.

A guy that looked like seventeen to eighteen years old was sitting inside a car, stuck at the driver's seat. He has fair colored skin and a two-by-three haircut.

The car crashed into an electric pole. Between the car's bumper and the pole is a girl in her teens, wearing a simple t-shirt and shorts.

From his angle, he can see her head bleeding. The back of her head is somewhat caved-in while her upper body is perfectly intact. Her lower body is not that unfortunate. Her thighs got squished, including everything below her knees except her dangling feet. The open wound on her knees made the blood continue dripping, showing some reddish-pink flesh and white bone.

An average person would probably have puked or be disgusted seeing a caved-in head, blood, flesh, and some bones. Well, Jun's someone who has done and seen things.

It all started when his mother left home. He hated her for leaving him behind and hated his father for forcing her to go.

He started to rebel and joined local gangs, wasting his youth.

He decided to drop out of school and never told his father about it.

He started hating the allowance money that he always receives from his father.

So, he asked the people he called 'friends' how to earn money. They taught him how easy it was by merely mugging people. He started from kids smaller than him, then made his way up the age bracket. Those days were fun, having 'friends' and a group that has your back. Well, the not-so-good part about it would be when people start to backstab you. BUT! That's another day's story.

Jun opened the car's passenger seat then sat comfortably inside. He started searching the glove box for anything important. 'Nothing, nothing, aha! A pack of cigars! Jackpot! This thing's pretty expensive these days! Nothing best than free stuff.' He took it then shove it in his pockets, crumpling the pack in the process.

"What are you doing?" the guy asked while staring at Jun.

"Taking payments. Can't you see that? I can't help you for free, you know. Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want my help or not? It's just a pack. You should be happy that I didn't take your money. Why? Do you have lots of money?" Jun asked with a soft inquisitive tone.

Seeing that the guy won't answer, he ignored his gaze and took a simple glance on his legs.

"Mm-no. Can't take that off. That leg is stuck there, and you can wait for professionals, or you want me to amputate that, which is idiotic since you can just call a hospital or the police. See you next time, brat!"

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold on!"

"What?" Jun replied irritatedly.

"Don't leave me here, sir. Just try it! Just once! Please! I paid you! You took the payment! Help me! Plea—"

"Okay, okay, just shut up! Why did I even said anything about payments. I could have just taken it for free. Haa..." Jun grumbled to himself as he made his way on to the driver's side.

He opened the car door and was reminded

"Wait here," Jun told him as he went towards the bank.

He noticed a grandma lying on the floor, being surrounded by the bank's employees.

A female employee was trying to wake the grandma by tapping her cheeks and massaging her forehead, while the others were helping other clients.

Most of the people were already awake, some were clutching there head, and some were leaning on walls. The one that Jun saw earlier with a bleeding head was already bandaged but still unconscious.

In a corner, two middle-aged women started to gossip to pass some time.

"What do you think happened to that grandma?"

"I don't know. I guess the grandma just got too dizzy earlier, or maybe it's just because of old age."

"I see... Oh, she's awake, look!"

Jun overheard them talking while looking for the guard on duty. Naturally, he turned his head to look at the grandma.

She had lots of wrinkles in her forehead, and her body was so thin. The employee who was tapping the grandma on her cheeks was now showing a wide smile.

While everyone was merry, Jun saw the guard come down from the second floor. He had a robust body and the regular hair cuts that most guard has a clean crew cut, just like Jun's hairstyle without the star-patterned design on the sides.

Jun explained the situation outside, and the guard agreed to help.

***

"What do you think? Can we pull him out?" Jun asked the guard as they stood beside the car.

"Let's talk to him first. Hi, I'm Pablo. What's your name?" replied the guard.

"Jake, my name is Jake. Can you please help me? Please..."

"We'll get you out in no time. Just calm down and take deep breathes. Can you move your legs?" Pablo asked, which Jake eagerly answered.

"Yes! Yes, I can. But I can't feel my left leg..." he started speaking cheerfully, but his voice trailed off in the end.

"Okay! Let's just try it once. And we'll think of other options later if we really can't." Jun proposed impatiently. He was supposed to be mugging people right now. Wait, no, that's wrong. It should be earning money from side gigs. Yeah, that's right, that sounds better.

On their first attempt on pulling Jake out, he started shouting and even cried for her mother. On the second try, he started wailing. On the third, he just sobbed with his hands covering his mouth, dry tears already on the sides of his eyes. They got him out on the fourth attempt, which should have been a happy occasion, but Jake was unconscious, and his legs were a bit... Let's just say they don't look pretty.

Pablo wanted to stop on the second attempt and suggested that they should try something else, but Jun insisted on just pulling him out only because this is taking too much of his time!

They slowly put him down on the asphalt road. Pablo ripped the pants on the wounded section then started applying some first aid.

A moment later, a loud shriek came from the bank. Jun stood up and turned his head while Pablo just turned his head. He then hurriedly bandaged the wound and ran back to the bank.

Since Jun felt like he'd done an excellent job of helping him, he decided to search the backseat, which took less than a second since there's nothing there. There's still the car trunk, though. But before that, he first looked around and surveyed the surrounding.

It's still early in the morning, and most of the major establishments in the area are closed. Only the entangled vehicles on the road and a few curious people were wandering outside. There were even some good-hearted ones that helped with assisting injured individuals.

When he was sure that no one was paying attention, he crouched down and was going to search Jake's pockets when he noticed something floating from the bandaged wound.

It was a circular green-colored plus icon.

He became confused about what this floating icon is. Somehow, it seemed familiar. He got curious and tried grabbing it, but his hand just passed through.

He then tried tapping the icon, but nothing happened.

When Jun rested his hand on top of the bandage, something finally happened. The green-cross expanded, and a screen interface appeared. He removed his hands from the bandaged wound, and the screen immediately disappeared, replaced by a floating green-cross.

"Wow... what the heck is this?" Jun said in muffled breaths. 'So I'm actually not crazy. I see these strange things because these strange things are real!

Like this pack of cigarettes. It has a gray question mark icon in the middle of the package.'

With his sanity proven, he placed his hand on top of the bandaged wound, and the screen appeared again.

This time, Jun examined the contents on the screen.

[Left Leg - Badly Injured](Bandaged)

[Description] The injury will heal naturally after six days and 23 hours.

- The user is unable to run.

- Reduced walking speed.

- After healing, apply permanent debuff 'Leg Trauma.'

[Leg Trauma]

- A state where the leg is not working efficiently, +5% slow

- A doctor can cure this through rehab