1 Prelude to Apocalypse (1/2)

9:27 AM, Emilio Aguinaldo Highway, Bacoor City, Cavite, Philippines

”Haaa…..”

Mark climbed up the stairs of an overpass while sighing. He sighed not because he is disappointed or feeling down but rather, he feel too annoyed that he could punch someone and can't do anything about it.

He needed to pay his electricity bill which is due by today. He really isn't the type of person to go out too much and if it's is not for the bill being due today, he would still be relaxing at home. To finish things fast and go home, he decided to go to the distribution office as early as possible making him wake up by 6:00 AM and he left before 7:00 AM.

Due to traffic, it's already past 8:00 AM when he arrived at the office. Lucky enough, there are just four people who came before him. So he thought that he would be able to go home early, but as if just toying with him, no number was called for quite some time.

More and more people arrived as time passed by but not a single transaction was made since the office opened this morning.

Mark is getting impatient but he can't just leave the payment for another day or it would be likely that his house won't have electricity by tomorrow. The other customers also started complaining and asked the staff passing by every now and then.

As he looked around, he noticed the staff getting flustered about something. Many of them are going back and forth as they discussed their work with unnerved expressions.

At 9:27 AM, the issue was finally disclosed to the customers.

”Our apologies but there seemed to be problems with our system. Transactions will get delayed until we fix the issues.”

The branch manager explained.

As the other customers asked more questions, the issue seemed to be on the main office's side making the branch manager unsure of when the transactions would be continued.

Without any other choices left, the annoyed customers left the office while grumbling about the time they wasted while waiting.

The frustrated Mark also left while thinking of checking the office back later in the afternoon. He can't delay the payment for another day after all. But if things didn't go well, he might spend some days without electricity at home and also needed to pay a reconnection fee.

”How troublesome…”

He grumbled under his breath as he walked on the overpass.

Since he needed to pass time anyway, he decided to spend it at the city mall a few blocks away. He might as well play some arcade while at it. He needed to cool his head after all.

Still, he needed to wait until the mall opens at 10:00.