Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I was looking at their expressions after I said my piece.

They were all looking at each other with a difficult expression while some of them were breathing almost heavily. The girl whose mom I shot was sobbing in another lady's arms. The other lady was trying to calm her down but the girl wouldn't stop. A guy wearing a cap from their group saw me look at the two and he tried to get my attention.

"Easy now. You know what just happened, she just can't stop crying like that." the man said.

"I know. So, is your leader gonna call them out or not? The thing is, I still have a lot of fucking things to do today. I don't want people stalling for time." I said as I looked back at the man in the middle.

He was still hesitating so I pulled out a grenade from my pouch.

They flinched when I casually threw it in the air and caught it after.

"You know what this does, right? This thing makes people such as yourself decide faster. I want them to come out with their hands in the air. Any sudden moves from anyone, I'll throw this at your feet. Okay, 3… 2-" I was cut off right as I caught my grenade the second time.

"Okay! O-Okay! Hey! Come on out! It's gonna be okay! Trust me!" the man looked behind and called out to the rest of his group.

I saw seven more people come out and I looked at them.

"Hmm." I thought to myself.

We did the same procedure of checking them and now they were all gathered in the same spot.

"Are you sure that this is all of you?" I looked at the man again.

"Y-Yes..." he replied though I glanced at the others' reaction.

"As I said earlier, we're gonna tie all of you up first and we'll do our business. Line up one by one." I ordered them.

Mikhail came down with a rope and Tatiana helped him tie each of their hands and feet together. It's harsh but I even ordered them to tie up the girl who was crying nonstop. She tried to struggle but Tatiana was having none of it. When Tatiana saw that Mikhail was grazed, she gave each of them a kick after she was done with tying them. I made them all lay prone near the barangay hall while Lawrence guarded them.

"Okay, then. Jared, Lois, bring out the drones. Do a quick sweep first and we'll see if their leader is telling the truth." I said.

The guy kept on telling me that no one was left inside but I don't give a fuck about what he was trying telling me. I'd rather waste time than make a mistake of believing the enemy. It took a while making them hover to each space but it was mostly clear. There were a few houses where the windows and doors were shut so we needed to go there personally.

I made Mikhail and Tatiana follow me to the houses while Jared and Lois would still drive the drones up above in case anyone tried to sneak past us. Kaley was designated as a lookout on the roof while Matthew was designated as a lookout from below. Unc Zardon made one of the buses start but it would be driven later.

The three of us went to the nearest side first and we breached each door while following our protocol for checking each room carefully. While we're at it, we decided to 'borrow' each item we see lying around. There was not much going around in these areas but we took what we could.

Most of the buildings here were houses aside from an elementary school, a polytechnic college, a vocational school for fishing, a small dock, and the barangay hall.

Walking around, we discovered that they made a little fence to block the entrance towards the little side road that led to the college and vocational school. We surmised that they were staying in this area so we were extra careful in case an idiot suddenly popped up. So far, none came up and we found more items in this area.

We found loose rounds, electronic gadgets, spent casings, pocket knives, radios, dried fish, feeds, canned goods, gas cans, car batteries, and a few hidden low-caliber guns.

Tatiana and I found three M1911s and five Glock 17s from a single house with several spare magazines and rounds. There were more items here compared to the other houses and we took them all. It included luxury items like alcohol, cigarettes, medical supplies, and food items placed on large mylar bags. The rifles and shotguns were all collected earlier because those were used by the people we killed from the short skirmish.

"This is that guy's house, correct?" Tatiana said.

"Yeah, I guess he's still living the good life. I wonder if his people know that he had this much stored for himself." I replied when I saw a picture frame with the guy's ugly mug.

"Hey, can we take that one?" Mikhail said, looking at the garage.

"Hmm, of course." I smiled.

We came back driving a Raptor but it wasn't modified like what we had back home. All of the items we took were loaded on the back of it and we parked it near our shot-up 8-wheeler. We started placing the loot on the 8-wheeler because I would make Unc Zardon go back home with Lois. One of the reasons was because of the broken windshield and the other was that the truck was almost full after loading it all combined with the items we got earlier.

I planned for us to just go back home after this but finding another working vehicle made me change my mind. I would lose two people from doing this but we just needed to be extra careful.

"H-Hey! That's our-" I cut the guy with the cap off.

"Your what?" I asked with a mocking tone.

"After you killed my people, you're even gonna take our supplies?! And my truck?!" their leader bellowed.

"Yeah, after you tried to rob us and kill us after, you have the balls to talk back?" I replied with a smile.

"How fucked are you in the head?!" he bellowed.

"A little, yes. How about you?" I asked back.

He was speechless.

"You've been pretty honest... well, for the most part. You said there were no more people there and there wasn't. However, how come you have no children or even elderly at your camp? I doubt they could quickly make an escape using the boats without our notice because those kinds use loud motors. That girl is somewhat of an exception but she's already working, right? I even killed a boy with the same age as hers because that boy was shooting at us. What happened to those who are… let's just say for a lack of a better word… useless? Tell me." I looked back at him.

"You don't have any idea about our situation here!" he exclaimed.

"That's why I told you to tell me, right?" I crouched down in front of him.

I rolled him over and he started to tell me a sob story that they were in a losing battle when it all started. He even cried on the spot but the others were wearing difficult and varying expressions. He told me that this barangay hall was supposed to have a DDR Camp stationed on it but no soldiers came. They had to defend themselves with all they got but the children and the elderly were the first ones to die.

He said that they barely managed to survive and they've been doing the same tactic ever since because they have no choice.

"Did that really happen?" I acted like I was feeling it.

"Yes! Y-Yes! I-It happened! We've… we've been s-struggling..." he started to cry again.

"Okay, good. You in the cap, you asked me earlier if I'm not gonna kill all of you, right?" I looked at him.

"Yes, y-yes sir. I-I'll do anything!" he exclaimed, ecstatic from my words.

"Good! That's really good! Tell me about your situation here." I asked him the same question I asked their leader.

"S-Sir?" he was confused, the same as the rest of them.

"Tell me about your situation here. I want to hear it from the start as your leader said." I said with a tone slowly getting grim.

"B-But he..." he trailed.

"Yeah, he already said his piece. I'm making sure that what he said was the truth by making all of you say your version. If what he said was the truth and you've also been in here since it started, I guess that you won't have any trouble saying the same things, right?" my face was already devoid of emotion.

"I-I-I..." he stammered, the same with a few people.

My group already smelled the bullshit coming from this group's leader because we've seen that face all too much from corrupt politicians. It's the same excuses, the same tactics, and the same facial expressions. These are the types that would give up the moment they think that they lost but would definitely have plans if they managed to get out. I could just as easily ended their lives but I want to know if they were all in on it or not. Judging from their reactions, not all of them were in on it from the get-go. A select few were given no choice in the matter while that leader and the rest of his cohorts whose faces were displayed on the barangay hall made the choice for everyone.

I was about to speak up but the lady earlier who the girl embraced spoke up.

"They- They trapped us all in here! They said the other places were already down! We had to- We had to do this kind of things to-" she exclaimed, crying tears of anger and she was cut off.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" their 'struggling' leader bellowed.

"It's that easy eh?" I thought to myself.

The two sides were immediately revealed and a vicious back and forth happened between them. It was between the eight that went out including their leader and the seven who followed. The girl was not included because she was still crying nonstop.

Technically, they're still in the same group that did those atrocities but also technically, those seven didn't shot at us. This was a fucking gray area because they still killed everyone that came close. If I didn't decide to come to this place, there would've been more victims or a strong group like ours would've killed them all already and taken their stuff.

"YOU SENT THEM ON RUNS WITHOUT ANYTHING TO PROTECT THEMSELVES!!! YOU KILLED THEM ALL!!!"

"I'M NOT WASTING OUR PRECIOUS RESOURCES TO A BUNCH OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD DIE ANYWAY!!!"

"SO YOU'RE FINALLY REVEALING YOUR TRUE SELF, HUH?!"

"FUCK YOU!!! THE STRONG SURVIVE YOU BITCH!!! YOU BENEFITTED FROM IT SO DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE A GOOD GUY!!! WE'VE ALL DONE SOME SHIT!!!"

The shouting match was halted when I slammed the head of the leader to the pavement. A couple of his teeth fell off and his nose was bleeding.

"Release one of those seven." I looked at Tatiana.

My group was in disbelief especially Matthew because he was about ready to kill all of them. However, they respected my decision though it wasn't what they thought would happen next.

"What's your name?" I asked a guy wearing a bandanna. I was a bit older than him and he was rattled. The rest of his side was confused as well as my team.

"J-Joseph sir." he stammered.

"Okay, pick one of them but leave Freddie." I said to him much to everyone's surprise.

"YOU FUCKING KNOW ME?!" he bellowed.

"You have no fucking idea." I lied because I only knew his name from the barangay hall. However, he was staring at me like an idiot, trying to figure out where we might've met.

"S-Sir? W-What do you mean p-pick?" Joseph was confused.

I looked at Joseph dead in the eye before I pulled out my knife and handed it to him, handle first.

Joseph was looking at my knife like an idiot at first then realization struck. His eyes scanned over the eight and his eyes turned blood-shot. He kneeled down in front of the guy with the cap and he stabbed him on his back.

Screams followed but he didn't stop.

Joseph was crying the whole time but the guy's body was already unmoving. My knife already passed through that guy's body multiple times and Joseph wouldn't stop stabbing down.