A New Dawn

Ashes fell down from the sky.

A long sleeping volcano erupted from Albay.

The streets turned gray due to the accumulation of ash falls.

Plants died buried down by piles of ashes.

Some regular infected mutated. The mutated infected have blazing veins that burned their skins. Their eyes were ablaze as they look for sources of energy. Most of the time, they stare at the sun to absorb its light, but when its night time, they rampage with flames circling around their bodies and flying out from their hands. They don't look for food and just destroys anything that angered them. A store that has a noisy roof got burned down, a rustling bush, and a car that has a triggered alarm.

A lot of changes were happening because of the ashfall.

After a few days of non-stop ash fall, the plants showed an unprecedented growth rate. Wild trees that were only a few years old grew rapidly to its mature age. Some old trees grew bigger and wider, looking like an ancient tree that has lived for centuries. Infected who got caught in their roots were contaminated and mutated into weird infected that could control the earth. They used the soil to break free from the roots that entangled them. They made spikes rose from the ground then cut through the roots.

On a lagoon, the clear blue waters that it used to have was gone and was replaced by grayish color. Infected that were in contact with the water started to gain control of its powers. The mutated infected would scream but instead of a shrill scream, water would come out like it was fired from a firetrucks hose. The water would easily reach ten meters away from the infected.

A hanging infected on a building was being pushed back and forth by the wind. It fell down to the ground head first and died.

***

It's been a week since the world has changed.

Even now, the world is still changing.

The ash fall finally subsided and people could finally go outside.

The first and second days were the times when the fall was heavy. People wouldn't go outside to scavenge, afraid of becoming sick. On the fourth day, the ash fall became weaker and some groups decided to try their luck.

They regretted it.

Fighting on a dusty roadside with nothing but scarfs on their faces was proven to hard to fight efficiently. Every time they swung their weapons, ash particles would scatter along with the wind and would enter their eyes, making them unable to see their targets. Their eyes felt irritably itchy, so they scratched it, resulting in infections.

Though they hated and regretted it, they still continued scavenging.

Jun's scavenging groups were better armed with eye goggles and dust-proof full-face masks. They wore black motorcycle masks that cover their entire heads that only showed their eyes.

When the ash fall finally stopped falling from the sky, the father and son farmer duo became the happiest. They collected the piles of cooled ashfall by the road, the sidewalk, the roof, and almost everywhere they could find them. It took them a lot of time and needed a lot of helping hands for the work to be done. They plan to use them as fertilizers.

After a few days, the first potential customers finally arrived at their front door.

Two police officers warily came towards the toll gate when they saw the huge words on the bus that said, OPEN FOR BUSINESS. The two officers inquired where to buy face masks. They were allowed entry and was told to go to the Exchange booth. They saw a few pages of paper on top of the counter. It was the list of tradable items with corresponding pictures and descriptions. The pages were laminated to make them durable and last longer.

They traded two hundred essence shards for credit points. It's the whole stash, with a few in reserve, after working and killing infected for the last few days. They received a black card that had a simplistic design. They were thought how to use it and immediately became awestruck when they operated it themselves.

They became shocked when they were informed that the card was manually made. The hologram that floated in front of them seemed surreal. Though they were used to seeing the menu interface when accessing their basic information, an item that you can interact with seemed rather fresh to them. They looted weird looking objects from dead infected and they could read some items description, but they never found any item where they could interact with it.

"If you want to embed a name to the card, we can do it for 10 CP. Having a name on the card makes it more secure and easier to find when stolen. Since we can distinguish who owns it, you can inform us and we'll freeze the card. "

"No, it's good."

The officers declined and entered the market area. There were rows after rows of stalls on the parking lot. The first stall was managed by a middle-aged woman.

Gina smiled warmly. "Do you need anything?"

A police officer smiled back and approached the stall.

"Do you know where we can buy face masks? We're having a hard time breathing some fresh air these days."

"I know what you mean. Thankfully we have those so you can probably get some fresh air soon enough. Go to the third stall on the third row, miscellaneous medical supplies should be there."

The officers thanked her, then moved on. As they traveled, they noticed how clean the place was despite the recent ashfall. There were a few spots that still have some ashes, but over-all the place was clean.

They stood in front of the third stall and saw a young lady still wiping the counter-top with a wet towel. The lady noticed them and stopped cleaning for a second.

Jamie smiled. "How may I help you?"

"We want to buy some face masks."

"Okay. It's 5 CP per piece. How many do you need?"

"Why is it so expensive?"

"Please don't buy it."

"Give me ten."

Jamie taught them how to pay using the cards. After the transaction, the officers once again felt awestruck about this item.

***

Jun stared at the unknown flower in front of him. It has five petals and radiated purple light.