Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Chapter 1058 I’M A RANGER, BABY~~~ 2 – Location, Location, Location

Before I even had the chance to finish my sentence, Kaley, Tatiana, Jared, and funnily enough, Nikolas disappeared from view the moment I asked to borrow their planes for a bit while almost everyone present couldn’t understand why. Unc Zardon and some of my workers were chuckling because they were the ones who knew what was up but they never put on their seatbelts that fast or ever while the truck was turned off.

But yeah, Moses couldn’t believe his eyes when he discovered I had a PPL(Private Pilot’s License) that allowed me to fly a helicopter and in this case, a single-engined plane like the Cessna 172 right next to this Cessna Skyhawk I was already eyeing the moment we parked.

“C-Can I fly with you, sir?!”

“Sure, since Kaley looks like—”

Quinn cut in, “I’m flying with ya, too! How come you never told me you could fly a plane?!”

“I told you I could fly a heli, right? With a PPL, depending on my training—”

“How the fuck could I have known that?!”

“True…” then I turned to my group, “There’s room for one more. Who’s coming?”

As we waited for the last sacrificial lamb—err, I meant a uhh~ a passenger… I discovered that this Moses fellow was enrolled and was saved in this very school by Jessica and the moment they decided to make this place an outpost to be a supplement to their airport in Pampanga, the guy stood up to the plate because this place just meant that much to him. 

However, he desperately needed an instructor to continue his studies and even though they had an older gentleman who could do just that, they couldn’t just use the fuel for airplanes just to practice because I already made the deal with Jessica for everything to belong to me.

But since the stars aligned for him at this very moment, he wouldn’t pass up the chance to learn because the motherfucker almost brought a whole camera setup just to see me at work.

“You can only bring one camera and you need to really, really, really secure it, okay?”

“O-Okay?”

“Good.”

With that said, Lucas won the rock-paper-scissor tournament to decide who gets to ride with me but Megan used her backup revolver not to shoot him but to trade for that very spot and it just worked for both of them.

‘Unbelievable…’

But yeah, I did mount a couple of cameras on the plane to get some footage from up above—instead of just having some quick fun—and everything went swimmingly well just as we took off from the runway before all hell broke loose.

“I’M A RANGER, BABY~~~!!!”

“Huh— Sir? Sir?! SIR!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH—”

“HAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU CRAZY FUCK! I’LL KILL YA WHEN WE GET DOWN! HNGH! YOU’RE SO FUCKING DEAD, YOU SON OF A BITCH! HAHAHAHA!!!”

“THEN WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING THEN?! I ALREADY PEED MY PANTS!”

“This plane is well-maintained, Moses. Good job! Everyone brace for the Gs!”

“WHEN DID THEY TEACH YOU THIS IN FLIGHT SCHOOL?!”

“ROLL THIS PLANE ONE MORE TIME AND I’LL— I’M GONNA PUKE—”

“ARE WE FLYING UPSIDE DOWN?! HEEEEEEELP!!!”

“ISN’T THIS FUN, GUYS— Moses? Did you pass out?”

“…”

“HE ALREADY PASSED OUT FROM THE FIRST LOOP, I’M SO GONNA CHOKE YOU OUT TO DEATH WHEN WE GET DOWN!”

“I-I-I SHOULD’VE KEPT THE GUN— NO, I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING— AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Just imagine a plane moving like the most hellish roller coaster you’ve ever been on but the ride’s going much, much faster and the more you scream, the faster it goes. It’s been a while ever since I’ve flown the helicopter that was on the top of my house but a plane like this was much more fun to maneuver.

But yeah, after that 5-minute flight that felt like an hour to them, Moses had to go to the infirmary, Quinn was just waiting for the feeling in her legs to come back before murdering me, and Megan needed to have a change of clothes. Funnily enough, it didn’t deter the boys from asking me to fly them as well—which I obliged—and even if the second batch came out in a much worse state than the first one, the third batch still wanted to have a go.

So once again, I established myself as the group’s psycho but it didn’t take long before Moses recovered so we could have a proper discussion:

Obviously enough, I learned that Eric and Jane were the leaders in name for this outpost but Moses had the bulk of the responsibilities but half of the power. Everything he decided on needed to be run through either of the two leaders but I’m gonna be a little partial for the one mistake they did before our arrival.

In any case, they were very receptive to my tips and suggestions but Moses got a little defensive when we got to the topic of the distance between their checkpoints and this outpost:

“Sir, it looks like the distance is quite short but have you taken into account the turns you’d have to make just to get to this place? Furthermore, anyone that would try to attack us would definitely use the shorter route instead of the drawn-out one—”

“Moses. Look, that idea of yours is genius but the distance is still way~ too short. Was this place even attacked? By people, I mean… Jessica does have enemies…”

“N-No… sir. J-Just biters.”

“And how does Jessica do it over on their side? And how many checkpoints does she have before you reach the main base? I know you only have 50 or so people in this joint, and before you say anything about the Angat River as a natural barrier that covers two sides of your base, I’ve also taken it into account because you should have more eyes further out so the people here would be safer…”

“I… I know the risks b-but I wouldn’t want them to get written off just so we could be safe… T-They should be able to get here as fast as possible so we could defend together…”

I let out a deep sigh, “Look, this is one of the harder decisions when you’re managing your camp and it comes with putting your people in such situations.”

“But—”

“They fucked up by jumping into cover instead of abandoning their post but that comes with the job. Again, it’s a case-by-case basis because there are cases where I could be right and could be wrong but aside from moving away your designated checkpoints, you’re already on the right track. All you have to do right now is to improve on it. Take a look at the traps you laid out for example…”

“W-What about them, sir?”

“Since when did you change their placement? I’m talking about the blockades and the smaller ones too.”

“Location— What? Why— Oh. Oh! That’s… I didn’t think of that!”

“Are you beginning to notice the pattern?”

“I-I do…”

“You see… The big traps could stay as is but even though it’s gonna be a pain for all of you, wouldn’t it be harder for people who’d try to case this place out if you switch things once in a while?”