Trash in the Apocalypse

Chapter 15: Alone

Jun noticed that something was wrong when he was unlocking the back door. Usually, he would see a question mark above a stranger's head, and if he knows the person, it would instead display their names.

In addition to that, there were varying name colors, depending on how they think of him, just like Adrian's and Sheila's green names above their head.

Jun nervously opened the door.

The strange feeling inside him intensified, making his heart beat faster. Everything inside the house looked exactly the same the way he left it, the kitchen table with a flower in a vase and the dusty living room that seemed like it hadn't been cleaned for weeks.

"The fridge has food and some drinks. Get some rest, I'll check on my father first." Jun said and then walked towards the stairways.

Sheila and Adrian were making eye contact as if waiting for something. Adrian opened the fridge and took a carbonated drink, twisting the cap and taking big gulps, enjoying the fizzy feeling that entered his throat. When Jun was finally gone, Sheila released a deep sigh.

"You saw it too, right? That notification. He robbed us!" Sheila complained to Adrian discontentedly. Her brows were arching up, making her face appear fierce.

"I think there's a reason why he did that. Besides, nothing was stolen from you.", Adrian replied while munching on a chocolate bar.

"He took my gun!"

"You're lucky you still have that coat rack. He could have taken that too, you know? Letting someone have a gun is quite stupid, and what he did was actually reasonable. If you have that gun, you can just threaten him, or me, and we can only follow your orders." Adrian said.

Sheila shook her head left and right. "No, I will never do that."

"He doesn't know that. And I don't. The best thing that we can do now is to build some trust with each other slowly. I don't know him, and he doesn't know me, but he gave me this knife. It's because he's testing me, and at the same time, he's already trying to prove himself."

"Did you ever notice that he's always taking the most dangerous task. The only time that he let us go first was our fight with those crawlers, which was rather easy. He's taking the dangerous tasks and proving himself as a leader while you're sulking here, talking behind his back." Adrian coldly stared at Sheila. "Let me remind you of something. I chose to follow him, and you were forced to."

***

Jun idly stood in front of the door, while looking down. He's currently observing the changes in Adrian and Sheila's name. Their names changed color practically at the same time, Adrian having a yellow-green while Sheila had a darker shade of green.

Most of what Adrian said about Jun is the truth. Jun was trying to impress his two subordinates and gain their recognition as the leader of the group. Although he made some terrible decisions here and there, he still felt like he did an excellent job overall.

He's not someone with a high intellect, who can solve mathematical problems instantly. Still, when it comes to group behaviors and managing subordinates, he can claim himself to be an expert.

Jun can handle all kinds of people due to the nature of his work. He developed his dominating and confident aura as he ordered and mugged people every day. Now that the world changed and he lacks people, he had no choice but to make do with the limited resources that he has.

Jun couldn't open the door, and he had been standing there for almost a minute. The more he tried to gather courage, the more he felt that his courage was slipping away.

Jun was scared of facing the truth that his father should be inside the room, but there are no floating name tags to be found.

He twisted the doorknob but stopped halfway. He paced around while thinking whether he should enter or not.

A sound was heard inside the room.

"Dad?" Jun called, his voice filled with hope and desperation.

No one answered.

"Dad, you in there? Say something. Please."

Jun was holding on to a sliver of hope, a small chance that his father could be alive, and the skill that he got was actually malfunctioning.

But it didn't.

A loud bang came from inside the room. A durability bar appeared above the door, and it decreased every time it was hit.

Jun holds his head with both hands and mutters to himself, "No, no, no, this is impossible. There are no infected that managed to break into the house, so why? WHY?!"

A bloodied baseball bat appeared on his hand from the void. He then used the bat to tap back at the door every time it was hit. He could feel his throat tightening, hearing the growling sound that came from inside the room.

Tears finally slid down his face. 

For a long five years, tears finally came out of his eyes. He never cried in front of adversaries, and no problems, either financial or social, could make him cry.

Jun himself didn't know that he's actually lonely.

He always longed for the day that his family would finally be together again. He dreamt of it every day, and that's why he looked into his mother's address for years, even though he was left behind.

A crack appeared on the door when the durability reached half, followed by a small hole. The small gap widened and became big enough to allow someone to take a glance at what's happening inside the room.

***

"Why do you think he's taking so long?" Sheila asked, her mouth filled with chips.

BANG! A loud gunshot echoed inside the house. The nearby infected couldn't pinpoint where the sound came from and kept running back and forth outside.

Adrian hurriedly ran upstairs while clutching his knife. He arrived just on time to see Jun lower his hand, which was pointed towards the door.