Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

"He actually was faster than Chris to volunteer. Heh." I thought to myself as I saw Chris just in the midst of standing up.

I looked at the kids but they're giving a different expression from earlier.

"Why are you guys looking like that?" I asked them.

"W-we didn't catch you! L-L-Lois has no ice cream at home!" Aya said as the rest nodded.

"Hah! Same rule applies with everyone. If you managed to catch at least one of us, I'll give you what I promised earlier." I said then their eyes gleamed again.

When Jared gave the signal, Lois picked the optimal way and he started on shaving the time second by second. He got caught on the 3-minute mark since he started on making it harder on himself by going on difficult routes. Him trying to climb the wall made him stumble for a moment and Kenny managed to touch his heel.

"YEAH~!" Kenny shouted.

"Shit!" Lois cursed but he's still excited.

Chris was about to go next but the timer flew at his direction. He was about to say something else but he just made a sigh and sat down.

"Watch and learn little bro." Jared said as he started to stretch his legs.

"Hmph! I just wanted to try something cool." Lois harrumphed.

"Yeah, try that when an actual zombie is trying to reach you." Jared replied with sarcasm.

"Yo! We get our ice cream now, right?!" Kenny approached me.

"Yeah. You all get a scoop of the best ice cream in the world. But..." I trailed.

"But?" he tilted his head.

"The more people you catch, the more scoops you have." I said.

His eyes almost widened in excitement once more while Kaley elbowed me in amusement.

"Go!" Chris shouted.

Jared was more cautious than Lois and he only made bold movements if the success rate is high. He easily cleared the 5-minute time and he ran circles around Lois to annoy his younger brother even more. The kids we were babysitting and training with us has almost infinite energy. They were fine from all the running and I only noticed them getting slower on the last half of the chase but easily overcome by the temptation of the greatest reward on their mind.

Each person took their turns and a few of them got caught by the kids. Only I, Kaley, Jared, Chris and Alex were the ones able to evade the kids by making use of the terrain or just simply speed. Chris and Alex would break-off when the kids start to get closer and would only make use of the barricades if that's the only choice. Since our bodies were faster than the kids by a few notches, we took advantage of it easily. Chris has more explosive power with running straight while Alex made long strides since she has long legs.

What surprised me is Kaley. She tried to follow my route and she modified it to suit her body. The modifications she made are minute but it helped her greatly. She was focused the whole time and she would slip inside the window by a simple jump then she would follow it up by climbing to a ledge so the kids would scatter in different directions and would take a bit of time to find her again.

"I think I'll make a few restrictions next time to raise the difficulty." I thought to myself.

I made everyone take a small breather and we gathered on the bleachers.

"Okay, great job everyone but tell me what you did to achieve your results. Our lesson today was a bit different since we moved first before our small lecture." I said to them.

"It was fun!" One of the kids said.

"Of course, it was! You guys are great!" I replied then I looked at the adults for their answer.

"I remembered what you said before that you'd plan in your head to where you place your foot before making a step." Kaley said.

"Yeah, and?" I replied.

"I thought we would be starting a bit small at first but the added challenge of having the kids chase us made me think faster increasing the difficulty. I think I saw... routes?" she hesitated on the last part.

"Nice. It worked." I thought to myself as I made a faint smile.

"I on the other hand started to freeze up since I blanked out when too much was going on. I wanted to go to a certain place but the kids were already there." Charlotte chimed.

"Same." Esther said.

"I have a few ways where I think I could go to, but the ones where I wanted to go, I think I can't reach yet." Jonathan said.

They each told their own experiences from the small exercise and then I started to give a few pointers on my own.

"The main thing that I wanted you to learn from our exercise is what Kaley said, routes. In my case, I could imagine several routes in which I could go to and those routes could branch out a few more times either joining the existing routes or creating new ones. Freezing up in the middle is the most dangerous thing that could happen and choosing a bad route is more preferable than not moving at all in this case. Imagine a swarm of sprinters chasing you and you stop moving, it's already over before you stop and think about where you could go next." I explained.

"But what about in my case?" Jonathan asked.

"That's why we always train our bodies. I had that feeling before when I watched a movie and would try what I see from it and fail miserably since my body is different from theirs. Now I could perform almost all of what I wanted since I have control of my body by training it every single day. Have you been visiting the gym?" I said.

"Yes, I do. Been visiting there as often as I could." he replied.

"Then you're already working on a solution. Just keep on doing it and you'll get there." I said as he nodded.

I told them we would be repeating the same exercise but they got confused when I gathered all the kids away from them. We huddled in a circle and I started on whispering a few more instructions.

"Okay, another addition to our special training. What I wanted you all to do is that some of you hide in a few corners but don't stay in it for too long. Try to surprise them and go on a different direction if there are two of you going in the same way. Can you all do that?" I told them.

"Ooh~ that sounds fun!"

"My head is woozy..."

"I'll try my best!"

*nods*

"Me too!"

"Okay~"

"What's in it for us? More ice cream?" Kenny asked with excitement.

"No." I replied.

"What?! But it's not fun with no reward!" he exclaimed quietly.

"Not more ice cream but... sprinkles." I said while moving my eyebrows up and down.

I don't know what happened but I think the power level of the kids I'm talking to went over 9000.

"Kids are scary when they've joined forces to achieve the mission." I thought to myself.

I was the one holding the timer now and then the kids moved.

I can't believe how the motivation of ice cream and sprinkles made them work like a unit. The same people that got caught before got caught again and even in a much faster rate and only Jared was the one not caught since he started to climb on higher places where the kids couldn't reach him. Kaley was caught off-guard by Aya hiding on the other side of the wall patiently while Alex blanked out when she found out the kids moved differently from before. I was watching everyone in amusement and we continued on for a few more rounds.

We stopped when I noticed the kids are getting tired by the constant movements and it's bad if they start to get fatigued and get sick from it. I brought out the towels from my bag to wipe themselves off and I placed the dry ones that are left to their backs. I made them hydrate after that and we packed up. We made our way back while I carried Kenny with my shoulders as we started to walk slowly towards our compound. The machine-guns are mounted and you could see the belt of ammo just by the side of it and several more cans for backup.

I opened a few tubs of different flavored ice cream for everyone and I brought out the chocolate sprinkles I promised as a reward for them catching the others.

"We should do this every day!" they all said.

"With the others you could. We might be on a few runs but you could play in the course as long as you wear your equipment, okay?" I told the kids.

"Oof, we will be out of ice cream if we do this every single day!" I thought to myself.

"Okay~" they all said in unison.