Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

We're about to leave the DDR camp here but I saw Ferdinand hurrying to approach us. He ran towards me and he gave back the containers which are cleaned properly and stacked together nicely. I was surprised to see it squeaky clean and almost all of us looked at him weirdly.

"What? Is there a problem sir?" he was confused.

"Nothing. Just keep doing what you're doing and we'd get along great. Thanks for cleaning them. I'll come back here in a bit since I would be installing something for better radio coverage. Remember I told you about the radio station at our place?" I replied and then we drove back home.

"Better not to tell them about our other friend yet." I thought to myself while my group acted like it was nothing.

"Okay sir, understood. Just drop by and install it to where it is needed." he replied.

Oscar, Tatiana, and Jared went home to rest while Kaley and I picked up the relays to be installed on the places I mentioned earlier so we brought out one of our vehicles instead of my Hayabusa. While I'm placing the items needed for installing the relays and a few other things on the back of the truck I would be using, Raphael approached me.

"Dude, I'm about to finish the D-Max tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, do you have other projects for me to work on? I have more people that could help so the work is much easier." he asked.

Raphael is now teaching a few people a bit of what he knows since he took his sweet time building up Oscar's SUV by himself. Now, there're a few people helping him work on the D-Max so time consumed on a single project is reduced significantly and the people he's teaching would be learning essential skills. It's mostly vehicle-related and about mechanical parts and how to use certain tools for which job and not just their rusty old all-purpose screwdriver for just about anything.

"Now that you asked me, I want the 6-wheeler, the 4-wheeler, the cargo truck, the armored van, the sedan, the minivan, and the... oh, I think that's enough for now. I wanted everything to be modified for what we would be doing for People's Park. I don't want to pile a lot just a few, so-" I was cut off.

"A FEW?! THE FUCK?! THAT'S TOO MANY!!!" Raphael exclaimed.

"What? You have more people now! You already finished working on Oscar's SUV and your Raptor. You don't need to plan them as much and you only need to repeat the same thing with only a few modifications since their sizes are different." I explained.

He hung his head low in defeat but he looked at me seriously, "You're really sure about doing that? Plans don't always go 100% dude."

"I know, I've already worked out 14,000,605 outcomes in my head and the odds are a million times on our favor compared to those guys fighting the purple dude." I replied.

"Fourteen Mil- What? Wait, Isn't that Th-" I cut him off.

"Shhh... it's the purple dude, purple dude. Be careful! We might get demonetized!" I joked as I suddenly looked around.

"Did you lack that much sleep dude? Hah! Better sleep a few more hours since you're slipping!" Raphael laughed.

"He really does, you won't believe what he said earlier in the camp... the soldiers were more surprised that he leads us rather than what he said. Good thing Oscar explained things..." Kaley was shaking her head. She started to tell what happened and they burst out laughing.

"C'mon! I'm the one surprised that you're still surprised with what I said! The time you've been with me would have you at least half-expecting that I would say something like that!" I defended myself.

After a few back and forth, he eventually agreed to fortify and modify the rest of the vehicles after they're done with the D-Max. Kaley and I went outside once more and it's nearing the time for the 'broadcast' that we know is not the real president. Even if it's still a deepfake, we still watched it for any inconsistencies, signatures, flaws, or anything really that could be evidence that it's a fake one. The first one was saved and being analyzed by Ken and Kris in their free time to spot things we might have missed when it aired the first time.

"If we started to find a hint of such things that a normal person could notice, we'll keep those at hand in case the broadcast took a turn for the worst." I thought to myself.

The first stop was the DDR camp once again to install one of them in the rooftop of the hospital among their antennas that is at the highest point. I secured it tightly and made sure it is just nestled in the middle to feed my OCD. I smiled after looking at it and Kaley was simply amused at my eccentricities.

After installing the relay, I placed small cameras that are battery powered to the rooms where the other cult members are placed. I used those kinds since it would take too long of a time to install proper CCTVs in this place and even if there're existing ones throughout the whole hospital, it would make their power source give out since they don't have what we have.

All of the cult members are still alive for the most part and you could see a lot of them still struggling to break free from the objects that are keeping them in place. Their wrists are bloody from the constant pulling and chafing and all we could hear are muffled shouts of despair. They're still keeping at it though even if some are just in short bursts. Bob on the other hand is keeping quiet the whole time ever since he woke up as reported by the soldiers. What the six don't realize is that even if they successfully removed those restraints, there's also the door and the soldiers that they needed to go through barehanded.

"What are they gonna use to get through? Thoughts and prayers? At least Bob has come to terms with it, I think." I thought to myself.

Despite that, I still reminded the soldiers watching them to be careful just to be sure since it would be dangerous to underestimate desperate people. I asked them to use non-lethal force if they could since I still wanted to see the results of what I did. They still have those kinds of equipment in stock and I guess they were used to keep the unruly people inside in order when it was still early, much more when their situation on food got worse.

I'm looking at the loose brass casings near their feet and I wanted to pick them up so bad.

"I should think of a great way to get those without them knowing that I could make use of them to make more. We're in a partnership but I want to still keep a few things secret from them. If they somehow get to know that I could reproduce bullets, next thing that would happen is they would want a share of that too. I guess in the future I could, hmm... but I want to know what's their situation on bullets first before I make any offers." I thought to myself.

Looking at what they have here, they mostly have .223s, 12 gauges, .45 ACPs, and .50 cal. They're using similar loadouts and there are very few guns that uses a different kind. We then said our goodbyes after we're done and we drove to the Public Market to install the next one.

"You held yourself back there didn't you?" Kaley chuckled while I was working.

"Hah! If I could, I would've taken them all. Makes me wonder how much do they still have. I want our relationship with their group to turn out great but as always, we need to be sure just in case. It's not just our food that's making the situation stable but our hidden number of bullets too. The one who has more will have the final say if things don't go the way we wanted it to." I replied.

"I noticed that some of them are using non-issue guns too." she said.

"I guess they're from their scavenging runs. They would always take the guns of the people they took in and never gives it back even if they go out like what happened with Juan. That takes away the force multiplier from the people that they took in. Like what we do at our compound at newcomers on the earlier week... wait." I suddenly had a realization.

"Hmm? What?" she knew something was up.

"Newcomers." I replied.

"..." she was giving me a pensive look.

"Is that how they did it at Woodlands?" she asked.

"One of the only ways possible. They would only take their, guns, right? I could be wrong but it's a start." I replied.

"But, not all of them would be though. I felt nothing when you did your work on the ones who deserve it but I don't feel that we should do the same thing to them if one might be innocent." Kaley said solemnly.

"Well, you and your mom could always talk to them as a start. We're just going to check if my hunch is right. I don't go around doing that to each and every one we need to get information from, you know. Hold on, wait, wait, wait, I have another idea. We might need to visit the DDR Camp again and Woodlands after this." I said then I grinned from ear to ear while my eyes are gleaming brightly.