Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I've seen that move several times already.

There's this way a person speaks where they remember all the details of something that happened that has got to do with them or someone they know. It's not like when I explain to people everything that's on my mind or remind them of something they forgot which is almost exactly similar to what he did. There's a very subtle difference and only people that have heard enough bullshit could tell it apart from the real thing.

If you try to call them out, they have the perfect response to everything and they have already prepared their answers beforehand. Their body language for example is that they never break eye contact and they're speaking in a much faster tempo than how they usually do it.

The only way you could catch them red handed is through solid irrefutable proof or catching inconsistencies with what they're saying. If you'd just hear it from their mouth and you're not there or you've just read it from a novel while the author hides a few stuff so there'd be some mystery, you'd think that they're telling the truth.

Everyone's eyes have now shifted towards me and I'm staring at everyone back.

"Questions? What questions? Isn't my story enough?" he looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Whatever you say is nothing but the truth of what happened, right? That doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to challenge your story. If people kept on believing what anyone else says without question, liars would be ruling the world right now." I replied.

"So you don't believe everything that I said?" he asked.

"Not 'everything', there's a few details you might've missed and I simply wanted some clarifications." I replied.

"Okay, then. I'll answer everything." he folded his arms.

"I'm not gonna drag this out so I'm gonna drop everything else on this table. If you manage to have a perfect response for each of them, I'd give you everything that I scavenged earlier and you could punch me as hard as you can, deal?" I smirked.

"...deal." he paused for a moment and he seemed to be in deep thought.

I then grabbed my backpack and I laid down a bag that made sounds of metal when I placed it on the table, a thick logbook, and a few stacks of cardboard-like lengthwise papers that had several timestamps punched on them. The crowd was curious with the items I brought out the same with him.

"First question, do you know the guns that the soldiers used?" I looked at him.

"Umm, I don't know a whole lot about them but they all look like that." he pointed to Cruz and Mike carrying their M16s.

"Great. They don't have anything like this or that, right? Exactly like what Cruz is carrying. You've seen it with your own eyes, right? Just the stock ones not like what the president is carrying." I said after pointing at the attachments on my own rifle.

"Yes. I'm sure they don't have those. I've seen it clearly, how they murd-" I cut him off.

"It's okay, you don't have to repeat your story. I could remember everything and apparently you do too since you have this perfect story amidst the 'chaos' you're talking about earlier, right? Glad to see one like me." I smiled and he grew slightly nervous.

"So what does that have to do with my story?" he's pursing his lips while his wife can't look me in the eye.

I then opened up the bag I laid earlier and I dumped everything inside. It's a few dozen spent casings that Nikolas and I used which is for the 7.62 and the 9mm. I then pulled out one 5.56 and one 9mm from my magazines and I told Nikolas to pull out one 7.62 from his magazine as well. I lined up the casings neatly on the table for everyone to see.

"Kid. What is this about?" Rod asked.

I then gave a quick course.

"This is a 7.62 round that the AK-47 Nikolas uses, this is a 5.56 round that my Tavor, those soldiers guns, and Rod's M16 uses, and this is a 9mm round that my Maxim 9 uses. Now let's match the corresponding cases that I collected." I started as I placed the spent casings behind the corresponding pile they belong to.

The moment I finished, most of the residents were staring in confusion while the soldiers, my group, Rod, and Iskoh were giving dark expressions.

"Wow~ Would you look at that. Makes one wonder, huh? Why is it that there's no 5.56 casings among them? Huh~? I'm pretty sure someone with a photographic memory like you said that you 'saw' soldiers shooting everybody last time. Did I perhaps hear wrong? Or perhaps you 'saw' wrong? You could check it yourself if you like since I bet we could find a set of calipers here though just seeing them is pretty obvious, right?" I said with a mocking tone.

He was taken aback and his wife started to tremble in fear.

"This- THIS IS A FUCKING SETUP! I KNOW WHAT I SAW! YOU COULD SIMPLY NOT PICKED THOSE 5- WHATEVER THE FUCKING BULLETS YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! IS THIS HOW YOU OPERATE AT YOUR PLACE?! FUCKING SETTING PEOPLE UP SO YOU COULD DO WHAT YOU FUCKING WANT?! WHY ARE YOU EVEN PICKING THOSE CASINGS AND I FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO NOT FIRE A SINGLE SHOT FROM THOSE FUCKING GUNS!!!" he bellowed.

*chuckle*

I started to laugh for a few moments but I stopped myself when he shouted again.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LAUGHING?! DOES THIS LOOK FUN TO YOU?! IS THIS HOW YOU GET OFF YOU PSYCHO?! MAYOR IS-" I cut him off as I slammed the table.

The casings and the bullets on the table got jumbled and some of them fell to the floor. I'm smiling like a devil when I look at him.

"Why we didn't fire a single one of those bullets? Easy. Because we can." I said.

"THAT ISN'T EVEN A PROP-" I cut him off again.

"Want a proper explanation? I don't want to waste bullets on some of them so we killed our way with melee weapons. The only time we fired our guns was when we encountered those sprinters and when we encountered a group of gang members in which I fired three shots with my pistol that uses 9mm bullets. I never made the soldiers fire a shot from their M16s since it's not suppressed and it would attract more attention than what I wanted. Rod's soldiers have suppressors on their guns but we never really needed to fire them. I've killed thousands of them already and the normal ones are pretty much a nuisance in small numbers." then I took a breath.

"You could check our mags if we used a single one and match it with the inventory of this place. That will be proof that we never fired a si-" he cuts me off.

"THAT'S DOES NOT EXPLAIN OR EVEN PROVE THAT YOU SIMPLY DIDN'T PICK THEM UP!" he shouted.

"Why wouldn't I pick them up? Brass is a precious metal and why am I doing a lot of explaining? You have one more thing to explain to me before the people here understand the whole situation." I smirked.

"WHAT?!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"You're not even there." I simply replied.

Silence. Complete and total fucking silence.

"W-what?" Iskoh was flabbergasted.

I threw him the logbooks and the attendance sheets for the canteen.

"Mr. Mayor, kindly check the name of Kiko Palomares." I said.

Iskoh immediately checked the attendance sheets and he frowned immediately when he saw that Kiko's name is not among them.

"MR. MAYOR IT'S TRUE THAT I'M NOT IN ATTENDANCE BECAUSE I'M TAKING A DAY OFF BUT I CAME TO OUR CANTEEN THE MOMENT I HEARD VIOLENCE REPORTS ON THE NE-" I cut him off.

"Wow~ You've really prepared a speech, huh? You're lucky there's no CCTVs there or you wouldn't have the luxury of shouting at me. However, it's a good thing that I took all I needed to prove you wrong. Check that thick logbook please. There's a few blood stains on it but the relevant part is still readable. That's the records for anyone that comes in and out of the gates of the whole place. Everyone is required to write their name in when they come in and come out but surprisingly, he's not there too. Can you turn invisible or something? I bet those guards wouldn't let anyone pass even if you're a worker there since everyone's name in those attendance sheets are also on that logbook." I looked back at him.

"This… I- THEY WEREN'T THERE WHEN I ARRIVED!!! I RUSHED IN AS FAST AS I COULD-" I cut him off again.

"Seriously? Why don't you stop talking for a moment and let the real person behind it talk? She's just crying there the whole time while you're blabbering about things that didn't happen. Let me tell you something, there is only one truth." I said.

All eyes shifted to Teresa and Kiko was trembling in anger. The people listening in to our conversation seemed to have already decided by themselves as to who was telling the truth. Their confused faces earlier were now replaced with either clarity or bitterness because after all, they've been living with the said persons and their view of them suddenly changed. Kiko was about to lash out again but the mayor had other plans.

"I've heard enough." Iskoh said with a dark expression.