Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

"Sure. Come with me. Tatiana you too." I said to both of them as we headed upstairs to my room. Kaley is also with us while my other friends started to explore the compound to search for a house they could live in or other rooms that they may want to bunk into. Earnest and Earl gave back my pistols and Kris returned the revolver that Juan gave him to me.

I opened the armory once more and Kris's eyes brighten up.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT DUDE~! HOW MANY GUNS DO YOU HAVE?!" he exclaimed.

"A fucking lot." I grabbed a Kimber 1911 for Kris and a box of baby shotgun shells for Tatiana with the special shell holders.

Kris almost cried tears of joy while he held it up like a lost relic while Tatiana is confused on what she received.

"I still have spares, what are... what? Baby shotgun shells?" she said as she read the label.

"Yeah, those are smaller slugs. You know how to Quad Load, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. But what is the purpose of this thing? I could do it with the normal-sized ones." she asked.

"What? Quad Load?" Kaley grew curious as well as Kris.

"It's better to show you since you never use shotguns." Tatiana said as she turned the Benelli M4 sideways as she slid the 4 slugs in a fluid motion after grabbing them from her belt. She managed to load them much faster than placing each shell one by one like a normal person would.

"Cool huh?" I said to the two watching.

Kris tried to do it but he failed miserably while Kaley tried though it's not as fluid as what Tatiana did.

"Yeah, but what are the baby shotgun shells for?" Tatiana asked again.

"Some of the people we have here still do it the normal way, this thing could be a starting point for them to transition easier. Some of them have small hands and can't grab the four slugs in one hand like you. The only people that I could see do it flawlessly is Oscar and Matthew though I developed something that I want you to work on." I said with a grin.

"What?" she asked.

I placed six baby shotgun shells on the shell holders and her face started to grow curious.

The length of my hand while stretched could grab six of the baby shotgun shells since three of them in a single file matches two normal slugs perfectly. I did the same motion that she did and the only difference is that I loaded six in the chamber while she only loaded four earlier.

"Hexa Loading?! It's actually possible?!" she exclaimed.

"Yep. Much harder to do though than Quad Loading and you can only do this with baby shotgun shells. This borders on the impossible since you need to have a fine control of your body to do it. Keeping the baby shotgun shells in the middle from slipping off is the only challenge I encountered though your flexibility could make up for it. This is a Sky Ishiyama Original." I explained with a smile.

"But dude, there would be less power from that right? Since the powder charge is small compared to the normal ones." Kris chimed.

"Yeah, but six dead zombies sounds more pleasing than four, don't you think? A .22 could kill one easily what more could a shotgun do yeah?" I said as he nodded pensively.

"Tatiana, this is just something on the back burner and I don't want you to attempt this thing when we're outside if you still haven't mastered it. At least normally Quad Load or Triple Load as a start using these baby shotgun shells first that's why I gave you those shell holders." I explained.

"Can Oscar or Matthew do this?" she asked.

"No one has done it yet except me. If you managed to do it, you'll be the second one. Oscar tried but he could never do it and I haven't shown this to Matthew yet." I replied to give a her a challenge.

"Oh? Is that so? How about you Kaley? Want to try it as well?" Tatiana looked at her.

"Nope. I don't like to use shotguns too so I'm not that interested." she replied as Tatiana shook her head helplessly.

"Why am I so lucky to have someone with the same weapon preferences?" I exclaimed proudly.

She smiled faintly then Kris's eyes started to scan around the armory.

"Sky! Can I have one of these extending batons?" he asked.

"Sure, just take one." I replied.

"Nah, I'll take two. I studied Eskrima for a bit and the wooden sticks we use is not as heavy as I liked. This could be a good substitute. Besides, I think I'm not suited for the katana since the things you taught me earlier just went over my head. I'll stick to what I know." he replied as he took two.

"Right, I almost forgot. Keep using that FN Five Seven Tatiana since you're the only one using that round except for Andrew. Reloading them won't be much of a problem and you'll have all the ammo I have for your using. It also makes reusing some of the cases not too hard on the 9mms and the 5.56s." I explained as she nodded.

We eventually dispersed and Tatiana took a few people interested in her class while Kris moved to the room where Olivia and her parents were before with Juan, surprisingly. Darelle and Trisha decided to just stay at their camper for now though it is now parked inside the compound while Earnest and the rest found a house which is next to Arthur's house.

I brought Kaley with me to the kitchen as I asked her to help me prepare all the ingredients for what we would be making. We cleared the kitchen counter first as I prepared ingredients for what we would use first for everything before we started on cooking it all at the same time. I would ask for Kaley's help for anything and she would gladly oblige since she wanted to learn how to cook.

We would be making Pirozhkis, Beef Wellingtons and a Strawberry Shortcake. Just take it as a cheat meal for the work we've done and for the stress that accumulated. I even asked Aya to tell her mom that Kaley and I would be eating separately for tonight with the others.

My aunt on the other hand prepared something that would also take a bit of time since it would take a while to boil the bones for the broth that she's making. While I wait for the dough to rise on what I'm cooking, we multi-tasked and went to other things that we're supposed to cook. I started on the chopping the cabbages for the filling for the Pirozhkis while Kaley on the puff pastry for the Beef Wellington.

We'd chat reminiscing our past as the time slowly goes by and while we wait for the cake to cooldown so we could place the icing on it. Placing it on the freezer helps a lot while I opened the can of strawberries in sweet syrup and while Kaley is watching the time for the Beef Wellingtons. I was finally placing the icing on the cake while she fries the Pirozhkis to golden brown after I rolled the dough for it while she placed the filling inside.

It's all chaos in the kitchen but it is controlled since we have different stations for which we cook everything separately but it is starting to get really messy though we pulled through. We're staring at our work and we high-fived.

"Finally done!" I exclaimed.

"How did we even finish cooking everything at the same time in that timeframe?!" Kaley added.

"Hah! It's fun to let loose sometimes without using much of an order to things. If I do it the normal way, it would take several hours and we pulled it off in a bit over 2 hours only. Let's call everyone." I said as I picked up my radio.

Kaley and I brought the food on the rooftop as we set a table for everyone. They saw the spread and Oscar with Matthew drooled over the floor.

"C'mon you two old dudes. Wipe after yourselves!" I said as I handed them the utensils.

We six ate happily though Tatiana almost devoured every Pirozhki that she saw on the table.

"She really has a huge appetite..." I thought to myself.

"Oh yeah, I brought the water filter that you told me Sky, what does it do with Vodka?" Tatiana asked as she raised them with both hands.

"Pour half of it in there." I said as everyone grew curious.

Each of us took a shot each first while we waited for it to fill the bottom. When it did, I poured everyone another shot and they gave surprised expressions.

"The fuck..." Oscar trailed.

"This is freaky bro, it feels much smoother." Jared said.

"Hah! Cool, huh? It tastes like it's the more expensive type yeah?" I said.

"What do you think Tatiana?" Kaley asked.

"This is really good!" she exclaimed as she downed another shot.

"Yeah, I noticed you pick the cheap ones so I let you get the water filters that they sold over there. It has charcoal filters that gets rid of some of the impurities that would make it taste better though it wouldn't beat the top shelf ones." I explained.

I glanced at Matthew and he's all red. He's not speaking and I think he's trying hard to just sit down.

"Is he drunk already?" I thought to myself while smiling.