Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

We reached the compound and we parked the vehicles first and we left them there for now. I saw in the corner of my eye James waiting for Russel with a wooden suitcase that is fashioned to be a chessboard. Her grandmother held his other hand and led him to the pool area to eat.

Russel stepped down from their vehicle and I nudged him.

"Hey, that kid is already waiting for you. He any good?" I asked.

"Pssh! Been teaching him for only a few times. He got the basics down though. I'm still not good as you though, you crazy fuck." He said while smiling.

"Heh. You're the one in the varsity in chess, I'm just a simple businessman." I grinned.

"Businessman?! Hah! I was in the varsity till highschool! When you beat our mentor, I lost interest in competing! Who simulates every move that might happen?! I do it too, but not to your extent! You simulated everything from the start to finish! Who does that?!" he exclaimed.

We were going back and forth and we heard a shout from behind.

"Little shit, where the fuck did you hide?! I was looking all over for you!" Zeidrick from our back shouted.

"Dad! Dad… ehehe… just helped Oscar… you know… we're near the gas station…" Russel stuttered.

"Uh-huh~? Why didn't you bring the tanker then huh?! Want me to take that gun you sleep with everyday?" Zeidrick threatened.

"Hey, hey, hey… dad… just need to take a bit of a breather okay? The pace we're moving at is too much…" Russel said weakly.

"He's right unc take it a bit easy, those who runs fast…" I was about to complete an old idiom but…

"Yeah and those who hide from work will get his gun taken!" my uncle immediately created his own.

"I give up. You two handle it yourselves…" I said jokingly.

"W-w-wait! Uhh, hmmm. Oh! Oh! A w-well regulated military… b-being necessary for a free country its security the right of the p-people to keep their pistols and shit shall not be infringed upon!" Russel exclaimed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" I immediately burst laughing.

*THUNK*

"What the fuck was that?!" Oscar exclaimed while sinking his fist to Russel's head.

I could almost hear Johnny's facepalm from the pool area.

"What in the hell was that incantation?!" Zeidrick was shaking his head.

"It's the 2nd amendment, right? Anyone?" Russel tried to find his allies.

"Far from it! Where did you read in it that says 'pistols and shit'?! Is that a revision I didn't see?!" Oscar exclaimed though he was about to laugh hysterically.

"Dude, the 2nd amendment from the US constitution is 'A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be fringed upon.' Get it right yeah? Besides, we're not in the US." I said while smiling.

"Forget about it, just don't disappear like that. Tell me if you're about to do something so I'll know where you'll be going." Zeidrick reminded Russel as he nodded a few times.

We all went to the pool area and I sat down besides Kaley.

Today we have meat stew with carrots and potatoes. The sauce is thick and it being poured over piping rice made me drool a bit since it's always fun to eat after a hard day's work.

"Oscar, bring the group to Jollibee later and get the remaining items from Puregold. I'll reload our ammo later so I won't be present." I said as he nodded.

After we ate, Kaley bid goodbye and they rode off while I called Rin over. I thought Matthew was gonna watch me work but he decided to accompany his daughter for the supply run.

"Hey, come with me. I'll teach you something new." I said to Rin.

"Hmm? Okay, sure." She replied as she followed me to the workshop.

"Okay, we're gonna start fresh since you were not one of the people that attends my gun class." I started.

"You're gonna teach me how to use guns? Tatiana has been teaching me how to operate some of her guns too." she replied.

"In a sense. But what I'm teaching you is how to reuse these things." I said as I showed her the buckets of casings and shells that are empty.

"I need you to be able to identify each caliber by sight as soon as possible and here's a caliper to check the measurements of each casing. Here's a reference for the exact measurements for each and I would like you to separate each one here to the corresponding bin to where it belongs. I already have something here prepared before so just drop them in and I trust you'll do a good job on it. So far, I think we have a lot of 9mms and a few 5.56s in here. However, is you see any dents, cracks or any deformity, separate them already since I have another use for those things." I explained as she browsed through the book that I gave her.

"This… this is a lot…" she trailed as she starts to flip through the pages.

"This is just a start. I won't let you digest everything in a single day but try to read that from time to time. I'd also like you to come to my gun class so you'd be familiar with how to shoot them." I instructed.

We wore gloves first and other protective equipment and then we started on sorting a few of them.

She then started to grab a handful in the bucket and she started to sort them by look and feel. After that, she used the calipers to measure each one and look at the reference book to double-check.

"Umm wait, why is the three of these the same diameter but the others are much longer? Does that mean these are all 9mms?" Rin asked.

"Not exactly, the shortest one is the .380 ACP, it has the same diameter as the 9mm though it's shorter. The other one is the .38 Special and is the longest one among the three here. This .38 Special is used by the revolvers not the pistols that I always use. Some of them have the same diameter but different case lengths and it doesn't mean that they are all 9mms." I explained.

"I see… you call each round by caliber, right? Is that from how the dimensions of the… the casings is, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, somewhat. Though they are similarities between a few of them like the three that you picked up, the rounds I use is called the 9x19mm Parabellum or Luger to differentiate it from the other rounds. I just call them 9mms to make it shorter since it's a mouthful. There's a lot more similarities but I don't want to bog you on that. Let's focus on a few first for now and we'll expand at a later date." I explained.

"I see… okay then." she replied.

She also found the similarities of the .223 and the 5.56, same with the 7.62x39mm and the 7.62x51mm and we made a small discussion.

"So, this are the rounds that Kaley used on her rifle before? This is bigger compared to the 5.56 that she uses now. And this one is what Tatiana uses for her pistol, the 5.7, right? I might need to make a note for each of these. I can't remember each of them right off the bat though this is exciting." Rin said as she adjusts her glasses.

"Don't worry, just take your time. You'll get used to it sooner. Okay, now that we're done, grab the container where all of the casings for 5.56 are. We'll start with those first." I said as she placed the container on our table.

"What do we do now?" she asked while still writing on her notebook.

"We clean them first." I said.

"Clean them?" she asked.

"Yeah, we use this thing here." I said as I showed her an apparatus for tumbling the casings in. It looks like a container with sand inside. I have the rotary ones and the vibrating ones.

"These things here that look like grains are what we call the 'media' these things would polish and clean them though it would take a while of tumbling until they look brand new. These media could be either made of corncob, walnut or these steel pins right here." I explained.

"How long does this 'tumbling' thing work then before it's finished?" she asked.

"It could take a few hours depending on how you want them to look. I would usually leave them on for 4-5 hours. Thirty minutes or more if I want to use them badly or if it was not that tarnished." I explained.

I then grabbed all the 5.56 casings that we have on the container and it numbered a few hundred. It's because I already have used casings placed here before this thing started. Also, the ones Kaley and I used before along with what Allan is also using. I threw each one in the tumbler and they started on rotating around with the steel pins.

"Okay, while that's doing its own thing, let's start on the 9x19mm casings." I said.

"It's... this here, right?" she asked as she picked up the container containing it.

"Yup, that's it. We have a lot more casings of those since those are also what some of the guys uses. Same routine, check each one first so we could sort them and place them on the other tumblers." I instructed as she nodded.

"This is gonna be a long~ afternoon." I thought to myself.