Mineta X Trash Can Novels & Stories

But I did. He's still letting my words sink in when I turn, and head out the door with Jenaya trying to keep up pace. Outside, I spot a trashcan along the corridor. I stop, take the bag off Jenaya, walk over to the bin, and toss it in.

The automated waste-disposal trucks from the neighboring city of Oakhaven didn’t care about pack politics; they cared about the industrial refuse that a high-functioning pack produced. I reached the staging fence just as the dull hum of a heavy engine vibrated through the soil. My vision was beginning to blur—a side effect of the Liquid Silver—but I focused on the large, lead-lined bins waiting at the edge of the neutral zone. These were for hazardous medical waste, designed to block the chemical signatures of experimental shifter treatments. To the pack’s infrared sensors, a lead-lined bin was a blind spot. To me, it was a carriage.

I asked in my not-so-hospitable tone. “I’m expecting a guy from Whitevale at any minute. If you’re selling something, you can fuck off.” He stepped to the side as I breezed past and threw the trash into the can at the side of the house. I had to cram the lid down to compact the mountain of bags we’d accumulated over the passing week. Mostly the twins’ diapers. Trust the apocalypse to land on our doorstep now, right before the garbage collection date. He cleared his throat, oozing self-confidence. He wasn’t intimidated by me, and I found that rather interesting.

I am not sure what is her new job since I’m not a talkative person and that is not my business anymore. People mostly come around four to five in the morning for breakfast. We are located near the mall and an enterprise. “Hey, Mel. Can you take out the garbage? I forgot to do it earlier,” Janina asked. “Sure.” I stand and quickly went out. The breeze is cold, I should have put my jacket. “Where are you going, Mel?” the security guard questioned, Pablo. “Oh, I’ll dump the trash.” “The trash can is full so you will walk ‘till the end of the street for the another trash can,” he informed.

I was planning to ride out those last days in peace, detached and unbothered, but no—Betty just had to bring the drama. She shattered my dad's urn. The ashes spilled everywhere, but it wasn't enough for her. Nope. Her cat strutted in, did its business right on the remains, and Betty? She had the audacity to grin. "Daphne, look! The ashes make great litter for my cat!" And just like that, all the grief, the rage, everything I'd been holding back exploded. I just grabbed the baseball bat behind the door and swung. The crack of impact was satisfying, but Betty's scream? Even better. She stumbled back, pale as a ghost, scrambling to get away.

As I entered the kitchen and pulled the popcorn out, I realized the trash needed to be taken out, "Dime!" I shouted to her "Can you make the popcorn? I need to take the trash out," I asked as I grabbed the trash "Ok," Dime answered as she entered the kitchen "Thanks," I said as I walked out of the kitchen with the trash. I was walking down to the community trash bin when I noticed a bike sitting near my truck, a bike I didn't recognize; I walked over to the bike to see if I could find the owner but I had no luck, so I went back to the community trash bin to throw away my trash,

This shortcut—through the woods behind the Commons Trailer Park—was quicker. But smellier, way smellier. The air reeked of bad milk and old piss. Mounds of bulging white plastic bags dotted the ground, some split open like alien egg sacs, spilling out their moldy contents: greasy food wrappers, rusted and slimy tin cans, diapers and other junk dissolved into unknown gray mush. Enough to make anyone blow chunks if they stuck around long enough. “Gee-zus. Stinks here. Why we doin this anyway? What’s the deal?”

Until someone showed me the way to the canteen. Along the corridor he kept opening the trash cans and he only found them empty because the cleaning staff had taken them to the shelter. Some of the young men who accompanied him came out to follow Mitchel. At that time, he headed for the first floor and saw a middle-aged janitor pushing a cart. Immediately Mitchel pushed the old man down and his head m then he began to approach the trash that made him drooling. Coincidentally, the trash he saw now contained special non-medical waste. So what was there was leftover food, packaging and even diapers for both adults and children.

"Do you want to take a look?" The minty scent on him grew even stronger, and my face heated up unwittingly. Without waiting for my answer, he unlocked the screen himself. Jared's message appeared brazenly in the empty chat window. "Gabby, my wedding will be at Bellat Hotel. If you're willing, you can come be a bridesmaid. As long as you know your boundaries, we can still be like before." I recognized every single word in the message, but I couldn't fathom how Jared had managed to string them together into something so shameless.

“Thanks. You’re too good to me.” “Ten minutes!” Nessa calls after me as I head for the storage room, pushing open the door on the other side that opens into the employee locker room. I pass the rows of lockers and the large bathroom, bound for the exit door in the back. Cold air hits my face as I push it open, my eyes stinging for a second as they adjust to the bright light of the sun reflecting off the snow. I wrinkle my nose at the smell of garbage- and it’s definitely not a rogue this time, but the big blue dumpster that sits near the back door, black bags overflowing out of the top. Monday is also garbage day, and it’s clear that it hasn’t been picked up yet.