Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Vera still has bed hair and her eyes are partially closed. She signaled me to wait for a moment as she took a few sips of coffee. A faint smile formed on her face after doing so and her eyes opened up a little. I was about to speak but she signaled me again to wait a moment. I can't complain since I know the feeling so I made coffee for me and Kaley and sat down next to her. We're just sitting there without speaking though we're enjoying the morning coffee with everyone. She finally finished her cup and she actually waited for us to finish ours before speaking.

"Okay, now that we're done with that, what did you ask me again?" Vera asked while Alexei is shaking his head.

"It's about Ilya, Rin told me that you made contact. Let's contact him again if we could, you said that there's a schedule?" I replied.

"Yes, I could contact him again for you around 2:00 PM. He told me that he's taking care of a lot of farm animals over there in the morning. He mentioned that it numbers more than a hundred different animals over there, is that place special or something?" Vera asked.

"We'll contact him at that time then but let's try a bit earlier than that. Historically speaking Padre Garcia was a founded cattle market in 1952. After years passed, it started to grow significantly compared to its other neighboring municipalities. Now- well, before this shit started, it used to have auctions every Friday in its huge market for different kinds of farm animals. Be it cows, carabaos, horses, sheeps, goats, chickens, and etc. they have it. There's also this soup they always make in the early morning made from different cuts of meat." I explained.

"I remember that! I've been there a few times actually." Kaley added.

"Really? Have you been in one of the auctions? It's a very busy day there when it happens." I said.

"Yep, I came there with mom and dad. It was when Olivia was much younger. I doubt she could remember that sh-" then Olivia cut her off.

"Hmm? What happened when I was younger?" Olivia asked, about to return a plate.

"Let me guess, she stepped on a landmine? Heh." I interjected.

Kaley started to nod and chuckle while everyone around us was left confused.

"What are you talking about? Landmines?" Tatiana asked.

"That's just what the residents there call it. Like I said, when it's Friday, a ton of people will be gathering in Poblacion, one of the barangays in that municipality. It would sometimes reach a thousand animals being auctioned off and it would last until sundown. What comes with a ton of animals is a ton~ of poop. It's not like they're concentrated on one spot, it's actually everywhere! It's hard to spot one since the paved roads were really narrow and dirt is almost covering everything." I explained.

"It really is like that. To make the long story short, she stepped on a landmine so big it reached up to her knees. I'm not sure if she's 3 or 4 at that time but she was really small. Mom had to give her a bath. Good thing we have dad's RV before then." Kaley concluded.

Olivia was so embarrassed and she immediately left the scene. We let them finish eating first then we started our usual jobs after hearing the rest of Rin's report. She gave me a notebook which contained the summary of everything else that's happening in our place.

Jay, Mark, and Dong are leading separate groups to clear an ample amount of the dead outside while bringing resources on their way back. They each have their separate vehicles, teams, and routes to operate in and there's no mishaps so far. We've arranged it so that they wouldn't overextend their runs and they would close off places that could be closed off. They've been steadily making progress on the backroads but not as much on the main road where Mark is at.

Our doctors and other medical personnel inside the compound are making rounds inside first before proceeding to Woodlands and lastly to the DDR Camp. Records are kept and everything is running smoothly for the most part. They're keeping close watch to the elderly as always and the ones without family inside the compound or Woodlands were moved to the DDR Camp Hospital to be closely monitored in their own rooms.

Bing, Russel, Allan, and surprisingly, Mikhail were well liked by the kids and now they've been designated as their morning sitters after their lessons though Mikhail would sometimes get dragged by Oscar for runs with some of our trainees.

The lessons taught by our teachers differ each day and aside from academic lessons, practical lessons were also being taught in conjunction. Lessons were properly selected for the corresponding age and aptitude of the person. Not just the kids are welcome to attend the lessons even the adults that want to learn are welcome. They would sometimes play my survival videos I made before or work with some of our specialized workers so they could learn a thing or two.

Marvin, the appointed leader of our trainees, along with every trainee is rotating between jobs which could be guarding the entrances, going for runs, or clearing the place with Jay and the rest. They rotate on a schedule with our real soldiers and the place they would be guarding at would be different each time so they would be familiar with every nook and cranny of our place.

There's plenty more in the notebook like our full inventory, logbooks, requests, complaints, suggestions, and what not and I've read through each one of them. We're slowly getting there but we still have a lot to work on.

"Thanks Rin. Everything is excellently documented as always." I said as I handed her notebook back.

"Well, thank you. It's nice you understood them since Oscar and the rest are kinda having trouble with it..." she gave a sigh of relief.

"Hah! Well, we're kinda dealing with something on our head so we understand each other in that department. Anyway, I don't know when, but our tumblers would be fucking busy when Avalos and Honassan gets back. I asked all the spent casings they have among other things and I bet that would be a boatload. Don't worry about the materials since they'd be sending that too and we'd get a small percentage of it." I replied, smiling.

Rin got excited at the thought and I eventually led my team outside for a run since we still have plenty of time before making contact with Ilya. I decided to head towards the DDR Camp in Meycauayan to bring some of them to scout around my old highschool.

I have the Raptor ready and my team today is composed of Kaley, Jared, Tatiana, Nikolas, and Alexei. We're carrying the same loadout and Kaley's glad that she's carrying her AR15. I just kept the Shockwave Oscar gave me inside the Raptor just in case I need to be T-800 again. In Nikolas' case, he asked me if he could keep the AK47 I let him borrow and I agreed. We said our goodbyes and we were let outside the gates towards the main road.

Driving for a few minutes, we encountered Mark's group clearing a small group of the dead in a corner further out though we just waved at them before moving forward. Jared dropped a few before leaving them completely and Mark radioed in to tell Jared to stop stealing their kills. I immediately noticed the huge difference in the density of how much of those bloody figures are roaming around compared to Manila. We're like high-level characters visiting the starting map of a game.

"Just need to watch out for those fuckers who killed Cruz and the others." I thought to myself.

I was driving the Raptor and Kaley started to shoot down the ones in front. She's making a path for me to take so we wouldn't stop, kill, and burn them to the side so our trip would be a tad faster.

We passed by the same road as the last time we've been here and I could notice subtle differences. There are several bodies on top of one another on the pavement that are surrounded by flies. They're in the process of decomposing and fat maggots are swimming merrily in their abdominal area. Most of them are near some of the shops that were forcefully broken into and the ones who killed them did a very sloppy job. They didn't even bother to burn them while they looted the shops. The chunks of flesh scattered on the ground and the walls near some of it are already blackened and a few seemed to be starting to coagulate.

I decided for us to stop for a short moment to burn them and take care of the few following us.

We added a couple dozen bodies to the pile we're about to burn but I told everyone to pick the few chunks or dismembered parts too. Jared thrust his cavalry sword inside a head and he started to inspect it. I saw him tilting his head so I started to approach him.

"I have gotten used to seeing rotting corpses but the smell really puts me off..." Kaley said behind me.

"Bro… what the f-" Jared muttered and I saw Kaley looking in the same direction.

The moment everyone looked at him, he kicked the head off his sword as fast as he could. The head rolled over to the pile and it's now sideways but it's facing us. I looked at it and confirmed it's really dead but Jared still has disgusted expression.

I was about to ask him what he saw but several little spiders crawled out of its mouth and scattered on the ground. Some of them almost covered the entire head and their little little legs were moving as fast as they could. A few started to climb on the pile of corpses and it went inside a few holes that were made by maggots eating up the corpses body.

I surmised that several eggs were probably laid inside that head and they had just hatched or it already hatched for a time and they're just using it as a temporary nest. Looking at it closely now, it's not just the mouth where they're coming from but also from the ears and nose. It's a horrifying sight for someone afraid of things crawling in different directions.

I thought that was all of it but some of the head's teeth fell off and little maggots started falling down.

"Umm, I take back what I said..." Kaley grimaced at the sight.