37 After the Battle (1/2)

3:30 PM – City Mall Bacoor West Wing, TechZone

Inside a store, Mark sat on a wheeled high-back chair. In front of him, it was a long counter table what was supposed to be used when attending the customers of the store. There were six laptops placed in a row on the table. Interconnected cables were lined on the floor. Some cables were plugged into extension sockets while the others were connecting the other five laptops to the one he was currently using with a router.

The screen on the laptop he was using kept switching and every time he did something at the current screen, the screen of one of the other laptops would also change. Mark was using the laptop in front of him as the server and controlled the other laptops by remote access.

What was he doing? Mark was downloading a lot of things with haste, Anime, Offline Games, Softcopies of Novels, Movies, and etc. using the other five laptops. Other people who would see what he was doing would say that it was stupid and unnecessary but to him, these are the few things he would not let go.

He knew that these things would be gone for who knows how long or might never even return as the apocalypse ensued. He was an Otaku after all.

Satisfied with how much he did, he extended his hand upwards and stretched his back. He sat here for about an hour already so his body felt stiff.

Mark looked outside the store. The people who survived the massacre that happened inside the TechZone were proactively cleaning the place.

***

When they finished killing all the zombies in this place more than an hour ago, including the zombies stuck inside some stores, the people inside the closed store voluntarily went out of hiding. There were only twenty-three of them. They had been watching all what transpired inside the TechZone through the gaps and holes on the steel shutters that protected them.

As the survivors stepped out of the store they hid at, many of them found their own places and vomited while the rest had pale faces as they looked around. When they were hiding, what they could see outside was limited and that was why they had extreme reactions after seeing the whole scene. That was just how nauseating the aftermath of the event inside the TechZone was.

It was then that the shutters in front of another closed store were pulled up and fifteen people came out. Surprisingly, the ones who came out were survivors that came from the floors below.

Mark expected it that there were people hiding in that store but what startled him inside was the two people among that group. One was the man wearing a suit and sunglasses before, though the sunglasses were missing now. The other was a man in his twenty's who had a shaggy short hair, raised nose and sharp eyes, wearing a dirty-yellow uniform and black slacks. He remembered that this guy was among the group of college students he saw before, together with Ange and Paula.

When that student saw Paula, he ran towards her and gave her a tight hug. Paula was startled and she immediately pushed the man away. Paula's face really looked bitter and sad. Still, the man did not stop on trying to talk to her. Even if he did not receive any reply.

Seeing what was happening and since the place was already cleared of zombies, he decided to fetch the girls left on the rooftop.

As Mark walked back into the TechZone along with the girls, he could see some of the survivors crying beside some of the bodies while some of them were looking around checking the bodies one by one.

When Reyah followed Mark and entered carrying her daughter, her face immediately paled and she covered her daughter's eyes. She then saw the dead children inside. By reflex, she hugged her daughter tighter as negative thoughts entered her mind. Seeing her reaction, Mark led her to one of the clean stores to sit down and bring her daughter away from the gruesome scene.

Ange also paled when she entered but the pale color of her face turned red when she saw Paula being pestered by the male student. She immediately stood between the two protecting Paula behind her. The male student did not immediately recognize Ange as she came wearing her armor and helmet so he protested and question who she is. When she removed her helmet, the male's face turned pale but he still tried to argue back.

He was then flung away by a single right straight from Ange to his face. If Paula did not stop her, she might have done more than just that.