Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

We were silent for a few moments but Irene excused herself so she could inform the other entrances about what happened personally. Jared said he'll stay at this entrance for a couple more hours before he turns in. I looked at the lamps the guards were using and it's just burning silently while illuminating a small radius of the road and the entrance.

"See you later dude." I said to Jared before taking our leave.

We reached the roof of the convenience store once more and Alexei is talking with Vera through his Sat Phone. I could barely hear her voice but the gist of what they're talking about is just a summary of what happened at our side.

"Hey, you guys done? What happened over there?" Alexei asked.

We told him what happened and he's shaking his head after hearing it.

"It's bad enough we're in this situation and now sick fucks are having the time of their lives." he muttered.

"Did Ilya tell you two about his decision?" I asked.

"Yeah. I just said fuck it but Nikolas is having a hard time accepting it. To me, I'd rather have him alive like that or dead somewhere in a ditch. At least when this thing is over, we'll know what they're feeling is real or not. If yes, then fuck it but if not, we know where to pick him up." Alexei replied.

"He's here as a detachment of some sort so we'd still get some info and an added protection for this place. He's really head over heels over that lady and I think she's a sweet one. We heard a few of his stories at the beginning, want to hear a few?" Tatiana asked.

"Ah, not those again. I'll head back there and keep the peace if anything happens, you three alright here?" Alexei interjected.

"Sure." I replied.

"You're just annoyed he took down a few DDR Camps alone, correct?" Tatiana chuckled.

"A few?" Kaley looked back at her.

"Whatever. Shit, let me grab a pack of smokes first." Alexei went back to his bag before saying goodbye.

"You said he took down a few camps?" I asked as I sat at the edge of the roof.

"What happened was..." Tatiana began to tell the rest of the story.

Tatiana said that Ilya was dropped at a resort near Batangas and it was by the bay located Southwest of where we are. The bay is enveloped by land, almost forming like a crescent shaped moon where the body of water is at the center. The shore has different tourist spots because of a few resorts and water parks built specifically. There's also ports that house fishing boats and huge vessels for transport of different cargo. It's like the pier where Iskoh is at though the difference is this place is located in a rural area and there's huge companies where their main business is fuel. However, a huge fire is billowing from that place as Ilya mentioned when he arrived. It will be hard to tell if the ones close-by are still in working order or everything has already blown up by the chaos.

The resort he was dropped off to was already gone and one of the reasons for that is that there's a huge cruise ship that crashed at the lighthouse where the resort was nearby. It seems the cruise ship has been carrying a ton of tourists which are already infected. He had to get away from the huge swarm of the dead first and find the nearest DDR Camp as fast as possible. Being in unfamiliar territory, he had ups but mostly downs at first. The nearest DDR Camp he encountered was already overrun with the dead and it continued to be that way for several municipalities.

"I thought he cleared a lot of them?" Kaley asked, lying to her side inside the tent.

"Correct. He made sure to clear each camp he encountered and take all the supplies that were left inside. The mission given to them was more dangerous than mine so they were handed more weapons than I do. However, even if that's the case, that amount wouldn't be able to last long and that's why he cleared each camp he encountered to replenish his equipment. It was a gamble but it paid off the first few times." Tatiana replied.

"First few times?" I asked.

"Well, he said that after several days of either blowing up heads or lopping them off, you'd think that there would be no end to them. He's keeping his head in check by talking to our group through his Sat Phone but when it got destroyed, that's when he started to slip little by little. He's fine now but he said those are times when he felt so alone. Only seeing dead bodies or hostile people almost pushed him to the brink." Tatiana said.

"His Sat Phone got destroyed, you say?" I asked.

"Well..." Tatiana continued.

She said that he was ambushed by a random group when he was putting gas on his HUMVEE. Even if the outside is mostly bulletproof, if one of the doors is open, it's all for naught. A bullet made its way across his Sat Phone and his way of communicating with other people vanished. Most of the camps he cleared had dead soldiers carrying long range radios but that's it. Despair added when he found one but it's shot up like the one he has. It's very hard to find devices like that especially in the rural areas.

"Damn, so all of you are given HUMVEEs and a few other things when you're dropped here, right?" Kaley added.

"Yeah, using that Ilya then zigzagged through different municipalities and towns for anything he could use and to continue his mission. His run came to an end when he encountered a camp with several hostile soldiers pretending to be a normal one. Even the residents were in cahoots with those soldiers and he fell to their trap. His HUMVEE was taken and everything else inside it and he was taken as a prisoner. He got out but he needed to remove a few bullets inside himself while the ones that captured him were still in pursuit." Tatiana continued.

"How did he manage to escape them?" Kaley asked.

"It's easier said than done but he managed to turn it around. He first killed his pursuers in the woods one by one at night then he came back to the same place to kill everyone in their sleep. The unfortunate thing is that the HUMVEE was no longer there and a small number of the people who hoodwinked him are still alive somewhere. He stopped coming after the camps after that to regroup first but he ran out of supplies. He's just running on fumes and was about to die of his injuries and hunger. He said that he's just limping around to find a spot to die but he just woke up with a roof on his head and a hearty meal by the bedside. The only thing left on him was his shoes, pants, and his dog tag but what's important is that he's alive." Tatiana faintly smiled.

"Well, let's be on the lookout just in case we encounter that group. I doubt they'll ditch the HUMVEE so that would be one of the clues. Let's just say that it's a side mission of sorts and whether we stumble on it or not is up to luck. I usually finish all the side quests first before having a go at the main quest but this time we just have a lot on our hands." I added and Kaley's rolling her eyes from my statement.

A cold breeze passed by us and the sound of the leaves rustling from the trees followed. I rubbed my hands together for a little bit of warmth and I saw Kaley inside covering herself with her blanket. Tatiana pulled a candy bar from her pockets and she offered Kaley a bite. She agreed to bite a chunk off to wash away the taste of the rich soup earlier.

"Ilya chose a great place to settle in. It's cozy too." Tatiana said.

"What? Cozy? It's cold~" Kaley shivered.

"It really is cold. Although, It's a great feeling for a breeze to pass by and not smell of the dead. We'd only achieve that back home when we kill a huge number of them." I replied.

"Well about that temperature, I'm still used to the cold." Tatiana added.

"So..." I trailed.

"So what?" Tatiana and Kaley said at the same time.

"The cold never bothered you anyway- Ow! Kaley! Don't throw your boots at me!" I exclaimed.

Kaley started to laugh heartily and surprisingly, Tatiana did the same.

"You know that movie?" I asked.

"Well, when Olivia would come to visit Rin, they'd drag me to watch a few films. A few taglines stuck so here we are." Tatiana was raising both of her hands.

"Hah! Then Nikolas should do that with Ilya's situation… let it-" I was about to finish the joke but several more items came flying towards me.