Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

When Oscar finally dialed the last number, the same voice answered and he hung it up and set the Sat Phone down. My living room is back to its silent state and everyone is just looking at each other. Everyone's head slowly looked at me and I stood up.

"I think I need to say something. Well..." I thought to myself.

I made a deep exhale and I said, "Schrödinger's cat."

"Umm, what?" everyone said in unison I saw Kaley slowly starting to facepalm.

"What cat? I thought Rio was our cat here? Did you guys find another one?" Russel immediately said.

"Seriously? You don't know what Schrödinger's cat is?" I asked.

"Oh! Someone here is named Schrödinger? Do we have another foreigner?" Allan chimed.

"No! That's Tatiana's last name! Sc... Schr... that." Bing chimed as well.

"It's Smirnov. Her last name is Smirnov." Aya said as Tatiana pats her head.

"Kaley, care to explain what I'm talking about?" I looked at Kaley.

"Schrödinger's cat, in simple terms, is a... some sort of thought experiment made by physicist, Mr. Schrödinger." Kaley said.

"Thought... experiment?" Rin asked.

"Yep. The cat in Schrödinger's cat is part of the said experiment when you put a cat and let's say... a vial of poison or something dangerous towards the cat inside a box that could either break or not break in a set amount of time. After that, you seal the box completely, not knowing whether the cat is still alive or dead. That being the case, the state the cat is now is considered both dead or alive. Is that about it?" she looked at me.

"Yeah, somewhat. Basically, until we open that box where the cat is placed, our president could both be considered dead and alive. Schrödinger's cat is more than that explanation actually but we'll take a bit from that to just explain the situation. The real thing involves more things than just cats," I said.

"Uhh~ I still don't get it." Russel, Bing, and Allan chimed.

"..." I was silent for a moment just looking at them.

"What?" they said.

"Uh, nothing. Just think of it like this. Until it's not 100%, it's not 100% Not until we see his body buried underground or roaming around biting people, he's not dead. Also, not until we see him in the flesh again, he's not alive. He's both alive and dead. That's the state he's in." I replied.

"He's alive and dead?" Russel asked.

"Yeah." I replied.

"So, a zombie? Alive and dead." Bing said confidently.

"That's different!" I shouted.

"How did it get to this?" I thought to myself.

I made an exasperated exhale and I said, "That's not the point I want you to all understand. In the end, whatever may have happened, we are all still moving forward. It's not bad to worry about things, but don't let it overcome you. I worry too. It's just bad to make worrying make you... weary..." I made a gesture with my fingers pointing at them.

Several facepalms and groans followed though there's a few who laughed out loud.

"Anyway, the president might be really resting for now and somehow, the broadcast for our island group just got coincidentally hacked and got replaced by another one. However, this is looking at it lightly. If it comes down to it, we could also make a deepfake the same as we saw earlier in case things escalate." I explained.

"We're gonna broadcast our own?" Earl asked.

"Yeah, if they could do it, we could also. Besides, what the broadcast contained today was still their progress reports. It never mentioned anything out of the ordinary yet or something outrageous. They could be laying it out slowly we never know until it happens. We just need to be ready when it happens if it does. We don't stop trying to make contact with the president's number though. With the military power he has over there, I doubt anyone could have easily dealt with him. It could be an injury, health issue, and etc. It won't be so easy for someone his age to run this country and at the same time mow down everything with his gun. It would still take a huge toll on someone's well-being if he doesn't watch it himself. I don't want to get everyone's hopes up but I don't want you all to despair either, we need to get that middle ground as always." I explained.

"I don't want to say this but as far as I know, the president living or dying has really no effect on us aside from morale. I know the president is this country's backbone but it's like he said before with the people from Japan: 'Japan is not its land but its people.' Easy as that. Same thing here and same thing everywhere else." Oscar said.

"I'm more concerned with the people who made that whatchamacallit video. If what you said is true that they could be the ones manipulating everything just by making those things, then they have a country's power right there and then. We might need to know for sure if their intentions are good or bad. If you think about it, if you could really make something similar to what they did, we could wrestle control from them and make this place our own. It's something to think about but I think we should still rely on ourselves more rather than power that we might not have proper control over." Johnny chimed.

"Yeah, we could make them but we can't stop them from making those things as well. It would just confuse everyone and all things escalate even more. With great power comes great responsibility." I said but I almost smiled at the last part.

"Bro, did you just?" Jared said, smiling.

"Shhhhh~" I said while placing my finger over my lips. A few people got the reference while Kaley is just shaking her head in amusement.

Everyone finally dispersed and we minded our own business. Their mindset from what we are experiencing today has been somewhat adjusted. Some were already used to it though a few are still trying to keep up. We've all been having talks with each other if we have the extra time but if anyone has any problems inside that they need to talk to someone about, it is always Marisha. She's been keeping the mental state of everyone in peak condition ever since she got here and I thank her for it same with everyone else. I can't keep tabs of everything at the same time so delegating jobs to other people while they report to me what occurred in the meetings solves that problem.

"The people we have here are getting more capable. I hope it continues." I thought to myself.

I went back to my room with Kaley and I headed for my armory. I picked up three boxes and my tools and told Kaley to bring her rifle over.

"Here it is. What do you need it for?" she asked.

I attached an offset red dot sight to her AR-15 while I replaced the red dot that is mounted on my Tavor with a scope and attached an offset red dot sight in a 45-degree angle to the right, same with what I did to Kaley's rifle. The offset red dot sight is still placed on the top rail of the gun and it could be adjusted from 35-45 degrees and could also be placed on the other side.

"Here, try to check it." I said as I gave it back to her.

"Oh, you placed that red dot here... why?" she asked.

"Just being practical. You could look into that red dot instead of adjusting the dial on your scope to a lower magnification each time you needed to. Just tilt your gun a bit sideways and you're good to go. It also helps when you're strafing sideways or at an angle if you're trying to shoot. Cool, huh?" I said.

She started to fiddle with it a few times while I watch her. She'd try to aim with the sights that is newly placed on her AR-15 and would switch back to the scope again. She's trying to incorporate the new movements she would be doing with the small upgrade that she has now. She finally left the dial for her scope to her comfortable position and she finally lowered her gun after a few minutes of practicing.

"Thank you! This helps a lot!" she said, smiling.

"Hmm. You'd get used to it in a couple more uses. I think it would just come naturally for you." I replied.

"The president though, you think he's still alive?" she changed the subject as she removed the sling from her body.

"I really don't know. It could be anything at this point." I replied.

"What do you think the safest place to be in now though? Aside from our place?" she asked.

"Safest place? Our place could do some more work but other than that, I have two places in mind." I replied.

"Hmm? Really?" she asked.

"Yeah. Not just a place though. Countries, two of which are if not the safest, actually not infected." I said seriously.

"W-wait, you're serious. Is there such a thing? I thought the whole world got infected?" she replied.

"Oh! I got through once." I thought to myself.

"We never know though, Schrödinger's cat, remember?" I replied.

"What countries? You said two, right?" she said.

"Yeah. Greenland and Madagascar. That's the safest place on Earth right now." I replied.