Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

My knife has dug into its scalp and the skin didn't offer much resistance when I slowly pulled it off. However, Kaley was shocked to see what's underneath it. There's a huge chunk taken from the skull and we could clearly see liquid flowing out of it each time the brain inside pulse violently. It's not thumping like a heart would. It is more like random contractions on different directions on what the skull could allow. It's vastly different from Tim's mom since she was still alive when her brain got scattered on the ground. The one in front of us is more discolored and there is like a mosaic pattern of red, black, white and gray on some areas looking at it closely.

I flicked to the side the piece of scalp hanging from my knife and everyone that heard Kaley exclaim walked closer to us.

"Boss, why is part of his skull missing?! The fuck!" Dong exclaimed when he saw the head.

"It's cleanly cut though." Mark chimed.

"This guy must have his brain swelling that's why." I replied.

"Decompressive Craniectomy? That operation then?" Kaley asked.

"Something like that." I replied.

"Craniac- what? Isn't that from Tuber Simula-" I cut Jared off.

"What~?! Hah! No, it's not from that. It's a medical procedure when a portion of the skull is permanently removed to reduce the brain's swelling." I replied, smiling.

"What?! Wouldn't that be dangerous?!" Mark asked.

"Well, after the swelling has gone down, there would be a second surgery to replace it. However, that's not the issue now. Just look at its brain inside." I replied as I shone a bit of light inside.

You could clearly see the texture of the brain inside through the hole and the way it moves. It seemed almost wanting to squeeze out of the hole that was made but the size of it can't allow such a thing since it would be damaged when it does. However, I noticed something when we're all talking to each other.

I started to motion to everyone to stop talking for a moment while I faced it down on the ground and obstructed its vision by dirt. The group is silently and curiously watching me while I do that. The surroundings are silent as well and after I'm done, we're all silently watching the brain pulse on its own.

It produces a squishy sound everytime it pulsed but now… it's slowly getting less frequent after a minute or so of us not making a sound. It's movement is different now compared to when we first laid our eyes on it but it is still grotesque looking at it. Our brains could move to a limited degree but not like what we're seeing at this moment.

When it's not doing anything different, I clapped my hands loudly to see a reaction from the head.

*CLAP* *CLAP*

*twitch* *twitch*

*twitch*

*twitch* *twitch* *twitch*

It must've heard it clearly since the brain started to pulse violently again. After my clap, none of us made a sound for a few minutes again and it eventually reverted to its calm state. I did a few more things like flicking its ear, making zombie noises, blindfolding it first then revealing ourselves when it calmed down, cutting a piece of its skin, making it smell fresh blood and rotten meat, feeding it its own flesh, and etc.

I was fascinated by the results and what I've found confirmed some of the assumptions I have from them. All of its senses are still active but a reaction is made each time it picks up on something specially beings that are still alive.

It could still see from what we surmise but it has a more distinct reaction to seeing humans rather than its own. It pulses violently when it sees us but it still pulses when it lays its eyes on zombies though milder. What I haven't tried is making it see animals since there is none in the immediate vicinity. I first thought it just reacted to movement from just about anything but testing it a few times proves it.

"If it just reacts to movement, it would just end up chasing anything. It's not an observer block per say." I thought to myself.

It still responds to touch but its reaction is the same as simply seeing its own earlier. I haven't tried touching it with objects that have a different feeling like a hot blade, rough paper, or a cold piece of rod against its skin so I have no idea yet if it would do anything different. Removing pieces of it doesn't make much of a difference as its pain receptors must've been shut off after it turned to this.

On hearing and taste, it just reacts to everything. For each sound it hears, it pulses and each bite it makes it pulses without difference too. I don't have any human or any fresh meat to feed it but I think the result would be fairly obvious to even try. The only thing left unanswered on this thing is how could the special ones from the People's Park communicate with each other. I tried different zombie impressions I could just to have some fun and it only gave me the same reactions much to the amusement of everyone.

"Could you stop with that voice?! It's making me remember what you did before!" Kaley exclaimed but she's not upset like last time.

"What? 'NyAaRGH!' is different from 'BLaaeRRgh!'" I replied then she kicked me.

"Ow! What are you gonna do if it actually works?! Hmm?!" I widened my eyes.

"I'm gonna help Tatiana over there..." she left me to kill more zombies coming in from the perimeter.

I shook my head in amusement and tried my last impression, "All your brainz r belong to us!"

Then everyone left except Jared.

"You're having too much fun bro..." he said as I started to check its other senses.

On its sense of smell, it reacted differently with blood and rotten flesh obviously.

"Bro, does that mean we could cover ourselves with their guts or other pieces, like in the show? Some sort of camouflage against them so we could go inside the small stadium in People's Park?!" Jared asked excitedly.

"The fuck are you getting excited with that for?! Unless our skin is covered completely before we apply anything of their bits to ourselves, we'd turn!" I exclaimed.

"B-but in the-" I cut him off.

"Yes, in the show they could. But our skin could absorb everything you put on it through there's varying degrees and I'm not that sure on the specifics. I won't bet on the chance that prolonged exposure of their blood or anything else on our skin wouldn't cause anything. That's why when we go out, our whole body is covered and we clean ourselves thoroughly when we go home. Even the weapons we use gets wiped when we're outside and cleaned thoroughly when we get back to the compound. Even this knife I have here is just for sticking it to their heads and was never used to peel an apple or anything else that goes inside me." I explained.

"Well now that I think about it… I'd rather not have those things spread onto me. The smell is already terrible from afar. What more could happen if it's near my nose?" Jared grimaced.

"Well that's the point. This little experiment with this head here confirmed a few of our general assumptions towards them. Let's burn the bodies here first before we go inside this place to pick what we could use." I replied as I stabbed each head that was partially moving about the pile.

Surprisingly, there was the same exact model from which Heemeyer used parked inside which is a Komatsu D355A. My uncle parked the truck inside so we could place the dozer onto the back of the truck where a trailer was attached. While they were starting to load it onto the truck, I went to their office to check on some things to take back home.

There wasn't much here for consumables like huge stockpiles food and water but the office still contained a few essential items. There's a few first aid kits in the bathroom and in the main office and there's other items like fire extinguishers, water dispensers, electronic devices, repair tools, and several files. There's also a manual for each vehicle on here for how to use it and maintain it. The files here have a few contracts, list of employees with their background, plans, checks, and other paperwork that is not too important. I just took note of their names and how they look just in case I meet them in the future.

On the corner of the office of the owner here, I found a golf bag with several clubs. I figured that I could have some use with it either as a weapon for somebody else or just for leisure so I took it with me. I also found a few trophies inside a display case and I also took them since they were made of precious metals, not like other plastic trophies simply coated by a gold-looking wrapper.

"I could have this melted into ingots back home." I thought to myself.