40 Information, Relief and Rescue Departmen (1/2)

04:16 PM - Central Business Park, Pasay City, Relief and Rescue Center

In the middle of the Central Business Park, there were a lot of large commercial establishments that was owned by private companies before the outbreak. As there were a lot of people working in the area and the people going to one of the largest malls in the Philippines, the Mall of Asia, the place was lively and the business was booming. But now, there was almost not a single soul in sight in the vicinity of the establishments except for several patrolling soldiers dispatched by the military.

There was a certain building there that was owned by a Telemarketing Company, it was widely known Call Center to many people in the same industry. When the reclaimed area was turned into a massive evacuation zone by the military, the very same building was converted to a service building of the Information, Relief and Rescue Department.

Cubicles where call center agents were using in the previous days to answer calls and inquiries from customers were now occupied by military personnel and volunteers who were in charge of accepting rescue and information inquiries from survivors who were still able to access the internet and calls from landline and private cellular connections.

In one of the cubicles at the corner of the room, a woman in her mid-twenties sat answering a call. She had a dyed brown hair that was tied in a ponytail which complemented her energetic eyes, small nose, thin pink lips and her oval face. She could be described as good looking but still a bit lacking to be called as beautiful generally.

Right now, her eyebrows were twitching as she tried to control her temper as she ”calmly” answered the person on the other line of the phone. Her voice raised a bit that it she even gathered the attention of the other volunteers around her.

”Sir! The rescue should arrive as soon as possible so please wait at your current position, don't make loud noise and keep safe. There are other calls that are needed to be accepted so I will end this call.”

Fully flared up, she did not wait for the person on the other line to talk anymore. She put down the phone which made a loud clacking sound.

She sighed and pinched her nose bridge as she found the work here being hard to deal with.

She was a call center agent that works in this building before the outbreak.

When the outbreak reached this place, many of her teammates and co-employees fell into panic. Even though she was always a goofy person, she was calm when unexpected things happened. With her taking the leadership over her colleagues, they managed to secure the second floor of the building, but it was not without casualties.

As the building had too many glass walls and windows, they could see what was happening outside. To describe it, it was a nightmare. They saw people eating other people, even worse, a father who literally ate his own daughter.

Many of them could not help but cry. They tried calling for help with their phones but never managed to successfully do so. For her though, she was not scared about what would happen to her, rather, she was thinking of what might happen to her family.

The nightmare did not take too long though. The military came sweeping the place of the man eaters and they were also saved. Medics attended to their issues as there were some of them who were wounded. There, she saw her close friend who was the leader of the medic squad.

She told her friend about her worries about her family and her friend told her to volunteer into the military as they were lacking in manpower. Furthermore, volunteers would get incentives such as their families being prioritized during rescue missions.

With those incentives, she readily agreed and was assigned in this department due to being familiar with the place.

Her family was rescued soon as their house was not far from this place but of course, she could not just ditch this work after achieving her motive.

Still, she could not help but think that her friend pitted her into a stressful job.

”Laura, you seemed to be stressed.”

Speaking of the devil, a woman's voice was heard from behind her.

”Just who do you think is the reason huh, Teresa?”

Laura looked at the woman behind her who was wearing military fatigues.

”You should just endure it a little more, your shift would end soon right?”

”I know but these people calling are such stupid fools who think that they are the only people who needed to be rescued.”

”You can't blame them. Everyone is in panic after all.”

Teresa sighed.

”Anyways, what are you doing here?”

Laura asked while fixing her hair.

”My shift just ended so I figured to check on you.”

”I see, so you came to boast about your free time?”

”Is it bad if I want to watch your work?”

”Seriously, you…”

She did not finish her sentence as a chat notification appeared on the computer in front of her.

”There is another one. I just wish that this one wouldn't stress me out.”

”Go ahead and answer it.”

Laura gave a skeptic glance at her friend before sending message on the chat box.

>> ”This is the Information, Relief and Rescue Department, how may I help you?”

<< ”I just want to confirm if you guys would be able to send rescue to us.”

Laura sighed in relief and looked at her friend who was watching behind her.

”It looked like someone reasonable to talk with.”

Her friend said and she could only nod. She had some chat sessions before and all of them are demanding rescue at the first sentence. This was the first time she encountered a calm sounding reply.

>> ”Can I ask what should I call you?”