Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

It didn’t take long before we were back on the road but as we made a turn to this budget 7-Eleven of sorts, we came across this cemetery that had this ramp of dead bodies from the inside which the dead could use to walk over and get to the main road. It was probably formed due to the design of the metal fences the cemetery had because I’m gonna assume that the survivors who used to protect this place before used spears or something along those lines to thin the herd that formed inside.

But yeah, we can’t just leave a potential flesh golem so as I made Artem and his group gather the walking dead over to the far end of the road using their vehicles, I made the cadets and the trainees use the fuel JP and Brian siphoned to light up the corpses even though they weren’t stacked up properly.

We can’t just take the time to make a small mountain out of their rotting bodies but a little bit of extra fuel would probably get to them or most of them.

I then radioed Artem:

–

*bzzt*

“We’ll circle around to meet with you. You done with that batch?”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[Just finished. Found a relatively untouched vape shop here though, wanna loot the place for trading later?]

*bzzt*

-action

*bzzt*

“Sure.”

*bzzt*

–

I wouldn’t pass on luxury items such as vapes because I categorized them at the same value or even more as cigars or cigarettes for the younger folks, but #2 was already a little too excited about getting his hands on one. However, one mention of the basic training I was putting them through made him pick out the flavors that had no nicotine on them but I would still prefer for him to straight-up quit his vices.

It was just a little hard to do it at the moment because as soon as we crossed this small-ish bridge to get to this gas station we saw from a distance, we encountered two more vape shops right next to a dental clinic.

–

*bzzt*

“Who told you fucks to park your Raycolt over there? We’re going for the gas station—”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

lightsΝοvεl ƈοm [It’s for trading, sir! Trading!]

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

“Uh-huh. One more shit like that and I’m gonna trade you for more competent soldiers—”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[Sir! With all due respect, we are cadets and we’re still learning so we’re bound to make mistakes, and that gas station’s probably dry at this point in time. Wouldn’t it make more sense to head to a place where we could actually grab a few things we can use— I mean, trade?]

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

“…”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[S-Sir?]

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

“You were really about to convince me there but that slip-up just cost you and your team. We’re now heading over to that church to ask for forgiveness—”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[T-That’s not even the same one in our—]

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

“Who fucking cares? We’re robbing the place—”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[S-SIR?! A CHURCH—]

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

“You’d be surprised at the amount of shit they receive for free. I’ll bet you that bag of mods and flavors in your pack we’re gonna score at least two cases of alcohol in that joint.”

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[HAH! FUCK IT! I’LL GIVE YOU MY WHOLE CUT IN EXCHANGE FOR ALCOHOL!]

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

“You never get down, don’t ya?”

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[Heh. You still gotta know me better, sir!]

*bzzt*

–

With that said, we definitely robbed this small-ish church that used to promote a not-so-well-known religion they invented themselves but the look on the cadets’ faces when we really did find a few cases of alcohol was fucking priceless. However, it was communion alcohol and didn’t taste as good as the commercial ones but a bet’s a bet though I just made #2 owe me a favor instead of giving me his “cut” which was a huge, huge rookie mistake.

I didn’t even think we’d get to loot as much stuff on the outside—contrary to Brenda’s statement of us taking everything—but I realized that it was a matter of couldn’t get to these items instead of not finding any items.

We were definitely much better equipped even compared to this country’s soldiers and add in a loot goblin like me that could probably sniff a loose round from a distance, the ratio of items we’d take back from each scavenging run would definitely be skewed in my favor.

But yeah, it didn’t take long before we entered a residential area of sorts which nary had a shop we could loot and at this point, each house we decided to enter was just a mystery box of Christmas gifts or coal. However, one indicator of whether the place was good to break into or not was to check out the vehicle or vehicles parked in their driveway and just seeing which model it was—not to mention the stickers it had on the back—could give us a general idea of what lives they were living before the world ended.

–

*bzzt*

“Just pick five good houses before we get off this place, alright? We don’t have all day!”

*bzzt*

–

Granted some of them were already broken into or burned to the ground, but just taking the vehicles themselves and finding out they had a gallon or two of gas was already a good find.

It’s just that we found another Tacoma in very, very good condition and Quinn never looked so dead inside when I asked Ibarra to start it up for me.

A good majority of the people we brought couldn’t understand Quinn’s aversion to a free truck because with the amount of free shit we were bringing in with us, we’d either need a trailer or a new vehicle to store them. Furthermore, it wouldn’t hurt to get into Jessica’s good graces even more because even if we give her gifts without expecting her to do the same, deep down, she’d be compelled to just agree to whatever favor we ask of her later.

It wasn’t an attempt to guilt-trip her in any way but we can’t just roll up to her place with a bunch of shiny things without giving her a small cut.

‘We did procure them from her territory after all…’