Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

After an hour or so, everyone had finally gathered by the gate where I torched a certain professor’s precious ride—but just to himself—though the friends I’d be leaving in the meantime were present except for a select few: Chloe, Dr. Lopez, Ron, and Allyssa.

The first two had solid reasons for not sending us off but we did a proper goodbye when Dr. Lopez treated the few scratches I sustained from throwing myself on the ground. And for the other two, they had their own issues to deal with but I did leave my school ID to Mimi which she clutched like her life depended on it.

She was in tears as I was saying goodbye, “S-Stay safe, a-alright? Y-You better come back! You promised!”

I smiled as I ruffled her hair, “Yep! Just don’t forget about the things I just told you about, alright? If anything happens, give me a call—but if I don’t answer, call the numbers on the sat phone I gave you, and don’t hand it over to Ben because he’ll definitely sell it for a slice of cheese—”

Ben cut in while shaking his head, “C’mon, dude~ You’re not gonna let me live that down, huh?”

Cass added, “Cut him some slack, alright?”

“Nope! Well~ This is it, yeah? These goodbyes are pretty stupid because we’ll definitely see each other in a couple of weeks—or maybe even earlier, so just be ready to drop anything and everything in a drop of a hat, alright?”

But as we were about to set off, Andy creepily slithered in and whispered like he was dealing drugs, “Bro…”

“What?”

“The thing uh… You know, the thing you promised me?”

“What thing?”

He couldn’t believe what I was saying, “Y-You know! T-The thing!”

“Ah~ Right. Clean your fucking mess of a room!”

“W-Wut?”

I rolled my eyes as he didn’t get it the first time, “Clean. Your. Mess. Of. A. Room. And. You. May. Find. Some. THING. Over. There! Get it?!”

“Oh— OHHHH! LOVEYADUDESEEYOULATERBYE~!”

Completely ignoring how Andy beat Eminem or Ez Mil for a second there, I gave everyone a farewell upward nod as I waved them goodbye before I rolled up my windows and asked the guards to open the gates for us.

And as they did, the guard who assisted me earlier gave me a subtle nod as well but I bet he’ll be shitting his pants when he discovered that I gave a sneaky deposit into his account.

With that said, Jesus and his crew were the first ones to head out before we followed, and we all adjusted our radios to the same frequency as each other’s.

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*bzzt*

“Mic check, mic check… Everyone on Channel 777?”

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[C’mon, are you making fun of me or what?]

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“Hey! I’m honoring you, don’t you like this number? You had it tattooed on ya!”

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[HAHAHAHAHAHA! Jesus, just admit that—]

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[Hey! 777 is another one of ours! I’m just number 7, alright?!]

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“Don’t you believe in the Holy Trinity?”

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[The what now?]

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[Fuck you, I wanna be mad but that’s clever.]

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[What are you two talkin’ about? Are you not hearing me?]

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“You know, the father, the son, and the holy spirit— Read the fucking bible if you want to learn—”

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[Where would I even find one?!]

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“Dude, we just came from a school that probably has a million copies of them! You could’ve tripped on one the moment we got in!”

*bzzt*

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[Ha. Ha. Funny, dude.]

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“If you really wanna know I still have the whole thing memorized like that movie. Alright: In the beginning—”

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[Stop! Stop! The hymnals are still ringing in my head! Stop this madness!]

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[HAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU GUYS SHOULD’VE SEEN HOW MEG RECOILED WHEN SHE HEARD YOU— STOP! OW! IT’S FUNNY! NOTHING TO BE EMBARRASSED ABOUT!]

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[Is this how everyone does things on the road?! Please, if you’re gonna mess around, let me drive in front—]

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[Haaa… The moment he gets on his pwetty whittle Waycowt~ Boo fucking hoo! We know how to multitask and make things fun, Mr. Bilbo!]

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[What did you just call me?!]

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[Jesus, it’s Balrog! Not Bingbong—]

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[I heard it’s bblblblbblblblbl—]

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[Alright! I get it! I’ll shut up!]

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[HAAAAAAAAAAAAA! THEN HE GETS MAD! LIGHTEN BADA-BING BADA-BOOM! You’ll have plenty of time to assert dominance! Just not here! HAHAHAHAHAHA!]

*bzzt*

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In any case, I could only imagine what’s it like inside JP’s Raycolt right now because I’m pretty sure that his passengers were definitely walking on eggshells. But yeah, we were back on our current seating arrangement in my Raptor though Meg was sitting on the back with Isaac and Jose.

She was sharing some of the things they managed to buy from the general store and it did have a few interesting items that people pawned off in exchange for credits.

But yeah, we still spent ten or so minutes driving down a steep road just to be a good distance away from the university because it was a fucking large area, it was akin to a small or medium-sized city without the required population count for it to be classified as one.

I could’ve spent more time in it to make sure that my old professor hate his fucking life, but I got plenty of shit to do than to satisfy myself with petty revenge.

And after driving close to an hour, we passed by two abandoned strip malls, several auto shops, and a large factory that produces a variety of sodas but we didn’t even bother checking them out because almost all of them were picked clean by the soldiers on patrol and random survivors we passed by where some of which were actually living in them.

It was not in our plans to strike up a conversation with these groups living in these parts but the way they were guarded from seeing us told me that they didn’t feel particularly friendly towards the De Leon Family or the military.

And since we looked like a culmination of both, we weren’t gonna waste our time poking a beehive for a couple of cans of soda.

But after passing through an exit/entryway for an expressway, it became pretty obvious that we’d be exploring the PVE or maybe even the PVP area of sorts because of the smell that was beginning to get stronger and stronger.

I didn’t think that being in the university would completely erase that smell from our noses but the scent of decaying corpses had been the norm for a while so in a sense, it was more our speed.

Then Jesus gave us one of his commandments:

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*bzzt*

[Alright: Listen up! The dead are the dead but the living are the ones we should be wary about. Most of them won’t bother us if we don’t bother them but if someone’s trying to rush in with a brick or a Molotov cocktail, we either speed off or shoot them on the spot. The place we’re strolling in is a little hostile but with our numbers and the little bit of rep we have, they just might let us go. If not, better safe than sorry.]

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*𝗈𝗏𝐥xt.𝓬𝞸𝕞

[I’ve sent some of my men in these parts and they’ll probably recognize me once I switch over to our designated frequencies—]

*bzzt*

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[I believe you, Baron, I do. But sometimes, some of your soldiers do interpret your orders differently and in a different radio frequency than what you told them. I know we’re cool with some of them but vigilance at its highest, alright?]

*bzzt*

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[A-Alright… I’ll keep that in mind…]

*bzzt*

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With that said, we drove into this small township of sorts where its biggest highlight was a huge mall that was barricaded to shit where some people were standing above wooden platforms to see over their deterrents. Some of them were even present on the roof but we can see another group searching corpses for supplies and whatnot while another was lounging atop a couple of buses where music was blasting from a crappy stereo.

It looked to be an area occupied by mostly civilians but luckily enough, they just watched us drive past them without any issue.

In any case, after going a few blocks forward, we passed by several bus stations and smaller general stores but the undead we were seeing were the only ones stuck among the barricades or under crashed vehicles.

I could clearly see Jose scanning around with his rifle in hand at the back, while Kaley and Tatiana were ready to roll down each of their windows in case anyone tried to get the jump on us.

‘Seems chill, so far…’

But yeah, for some reason, the public markets were always the source of infestations and in regard to this area, their public market had two stations for public transportation vehicles namely: for jeepneys and for tricycles.

I didn’t mention that particular detail without reason because since these stations needed a lot of space to operate, it made the public market a much bigger area to contain the dead. Not to mention, they were located further in and there was now a ramp-like wall of undead keeping most of them in, trickling a few here and there to bother the survivors in the immediate vicinity.

If I was living close to such a den of potential specials, I would’ve mobilized several groups for this disaster waiting to happen but I’m guessing they weren’t as armed as us to clear the whole area. However, JP’s voice had once again echoed through our radios and he sounded more pissed than usual.

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*bzzt*

[These fuckers…]

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[What got your panties in a bunch this time?]

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[I’ve sent groups to clear this place before and I was told it was done but—]

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“It’s gotten worse?”

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[Y-Yeah… I’ve given them rewards too and— I gotta send a report to my dad—]

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“You could do that now or WE can do it later.”

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[What do you mean?]

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“I mean… It’s a few hundred zombies—700 tops. We can do it in an hour or so if we don’t burn them but if you’re so inclined to tell your father about the mess you made—”

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[Mess I made? Excuse me?]

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“You’re in charge of the people who told you that this place is clear and if you handed them the rewards without definite proof, that’s also on you. I know how your place works. But wouldn’t it be better to send two reports of what you discovered and what you did to take care of the mess?”

*bzzt*

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