Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Kaley and I were looking into each other's eyes though we're not saying anything. Despite that, it seemed that the same thing was going through our heads. We're locked in the same position but Tatiana broke the silence.

"Okay, we still got a lot to do you lovebirds! It's 30 minutes past noon, is it okay for us to leave them here for now?" Tatiana mentioned.

"Yeah, I guess it's alright. I just need to talk to Benjamin for a moment. Could some of you take the hard drives or anything that might contain important information while I'm talking with him? Even hard copies would be fine." I asked my group.

"Sure thing bro. Oh yeah, we could place one here, right?" Jared looked at me.

"You brought one? Sure, the relays we've installed are almost all in our city. We haven't had the time to place one in this Area since we haven't been here much." I said.

"Yeah, Ken has been busy chatting with our tech lady, I just hope she joins us soon." Jared replied.

"Well, if you think about it, the place she's in is definitely self-sustainable or something. We're closing in to two months since this shit started and we never received a call of help from her." I said.

"All I have is guesswork but she's definitely there." I thought to myself.

Kaley and Tatiana followed me around and we found Benjamin in our old computer lab. He greeted us when he saw us coming though the first thing I did was flip the mouse over. Kaley and I smiled at each other while Tatiana was almost having an annoyed look.

"Okay, what's the story with the mouse? Something to do with your love lives, correct?" Tatiana squinted.

"Not really, no. I just- well, we have this teacher who's teaching a subject which he shouldn't be teaching in the first place. I got in trouble for pointing out his mistakes so I did a little prank as revenge." I replied.

"What did you do sir?" Benjamin was listening in.

"Well, it's not really that great of a story, me and my friends stole each and every mouse ball from this computer lab. It's not like the ones we have today, it's the one you twist the cap from below and clean the ball inside if it starts to get wobbly." I replied.

"You didn't get caught or even suspected of doing it?" Tatiana asked.

"Well you don't steal the ones on the tables, you steal the ones in their storage area. He just discovered it a month later that each and every lost ball is missing. In terms of being a suspect, he just suspected everyone. Too bad he doesn't have evidence that points to anyone at all. My friends even forgot that we took them. Only I was the one waiting for that long game. Do you have any idea of holding that information not knowing when he'd notice it?! It almost made me mad!" I exclaimed.

"Did you throw them away or something then sir?" Benjamin asked.

"What? No, they're still in my house. Well, my old house." I casually replied.

"What?!" Benjamin choked.

"Of course..." Kaley facepalmed.

The other soldiers listening were laughing along with Tatiana.

"Do you really still have them sir?!" Benjamin tried to confirm.

"Yep, all 239 of them. I still have some use for them so don't ask." I raised both of my hands.

After that small talk, I told him a few of my suggestions to run this place. Kaley decided to give a small tour of our school to Tatiana so they left me with Benjamin. Rico assigned him to run this place for the moment while they figure out how to distribute their manpower.

What's happening is that half of the civilians from their camps would be sent here and the first order of business would be securing the place. Guards would be posted in each entrance with a schedule and people with a little knowledge of construction will work on the walls and what not. Looking at how their DDR Camp was reinforced earlier, a few people have the know-how and all that's needed is time and materials.

To add to their numbers and to lessen my troubles, I'd be sending people that have complaints about how I run my place here since I can't be bothered with their pre-apocalypse problems for now. Sending them here would be a wake-up call if they haven't figured out that they've been taking all the things they have at my place for granted. They weren't like that before and they started popping up when they started to have some leg room. It would be a problem for Benjamin but I trust that he'll straighten them out.

Aside from that, I bet there would also be people that would volunteer to move here since the presence of zombies at our place is starting to decrease due to the clearing group. I'd gladly allow a few of them but it wouldn't be something that's permanent. I'd allow them to be there in the morning to help with security and a few things but they should come back home before sundown. It's either that or I'll tell our clearing group to rotate the members.

We talked about a few more things and I decided to continue the conversation some other time. I left half the guns and ammo we collected for their use and I called my group over. I'm waiting over our Raptor and they were all actually together. Kaley is smiling at me while Tatiana is carrying something I'm keeping hidden at my place. It was open wide and Alexei and Nikolas were on her side squinting hard.

It's the school yearbook from the graduating class where Kaley and I belong.

"Found him! This is him, correct?!" Tatiana pointed at something and looked at Kaley.

"Yep, that's him alright." Kaley chuckled.

"W-wait a fucking minute, that's impossible! Him?!" Alexei exclaimed.

"I think I'm seeing a resemblance..." Nikolas is thinking hard.

"How did you find bro so quickly?" Jared asked.

"He showed me an old photo before, I just connected the dots and I succeeded." Tatiana replied.

"But he's so… different..." Alexei was still in disbelief.

"Kaley's beautiful as ever though, correct?" Tatiana added.

"Stop talking about me! Check the other pages with the group photo! There's this funny one near the end!" Kaley immediately drove the spotlight away from her back to me.

"Where?! I need to see it!" Tatiana started rifling through the pages.

"Okay! Okay! Time's up! Let's go now! That's me alright! Happy? We need to get back, Vera might be waiting for us with Earl and Juan. Let's just use the first entrance since it's clear already." I started the engine.

They were still busy looking at our old yearbook and I have an annoyed face while driving. Kaley is chuckling everytime the group at the back exclaim when they find another picture of me. We drove outside and we had to remove the concrete barriers and place them back again when we reached the exit of the entryway.

We reached our home safely and found out that Vera is already at the radio station, waiting with Earl and Juan. We tried to go there immediately but my aunt handed us our meals first since we missed lunch with everyone. It's fried chicken covered with curry sauce with chopped potatoes and carrots on the side. Tatiana's bowl is much larger than us since my aunt already knows that Tatiana eats a bigger portion than everybody else.

We quickly ate our meal and we walked to the radio station. Vera is talking with someone on the radio but it's not Ilya.

"Around six feet tall, you say? Russian? Dark brown hair with blue eyes? Hmm, we haven't come across that person yet but we'll keep our eyes open. I'll just tell him your name and he'd know you, right?" the female voice said.

"Yes, thank you. I'll contact you again if we came across someone with the descriptions you're looking for. You said she has a scar on the cheek? Is it on the left one or the right one?" Vera replied.

"It's on the right near her ears. It's about two inches long if I remember correctly. Don't forget, her name doesn't have an 'e' on the end, just Jasmin. Oh! She also responds to Minnie if you call out to her." the female voice explained.

"Roger, we'll also keep you posted." Vera replied.

She made a few more calls and I glanced at the notebook she's writing at. She saw me looking at it and she handed it to me. There's also a map next to her which has a few markings as to where the other two of their team might be. She's already crossed out on the places that have no clue but they're a few marks where there's chance. There's already several pages worth of failed attempts and she's finding more people that need help finding someone like her instead of clues leading to their other team members. Despite that, there was no look of frustration on her face and she's just continuing on without stopping.

Alexei tapped her on the shoulders and pointed at his watch. It's fifteen minutes before the known time that Ilya could contact us and she stopped what she's doing. She switched it to the correct frequency and now we're waiting for the other side's response.

"Hello? Hello? You're… Vera, right? From the team- umm… R-red Shadow Legends? Is that right? Weird name, calling for Ilya again, right?" a deep voice sounded.

I looked at Earl and Juan and they just gave me a thumbs up while smiling.

"Oh boy..." I thought to myself.