Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

A few days prior to the shot, we made a fuck ton of preparations. Not just the shot itself, but that was what I focused on.

What we decided to do about the cult was to kill the ringleader from a great distance. I was always perplexed as to why people in movies always take out the big boss at the end even if they could from the first five minutes. However, training to shoot far, which could be called long shooting or just simply, sniping, would take a lot of time and training.

A few beginners I met before the world had gone to shit was more focused on equipment and the calculations instead of just actually shooting the gun. It would take them a lot of time just to calculate the steps they should take and they were forgetting that in the real thing, you wouldn't have a lot of time to do such things.

I was discussing the plan to my group but I had a thought.

"You would only have one shot, one opportunity… hold on… I better stop thinking of that before I get to the spaghetti… fuck me! I'm hungry now. Dammit!" I thought to myself as we were in the middle of preparations.

"Bro?" Jared was looking at me weirdly.

"Stop spacing out!" Kaley was shaking her head.

"Where do I go again?" Oscar added.

"We would be here." Mikhail pointed at the map.

"Okay, what do we have prepared again?" I asked for the items we needed.

"The items are packed but everyone needs another run-through of the whole plan." Rin replied.

We had to have the right gear and information for the job.

First what I needed was the map. I asked Rin and Darelle's group to make a map like what I did before. However, they took it a step further. They made a scaled replica of the area that spans for five kilometers with cardboard cutouts. They first based it on the actual maps that we have on hand and they slowly changed it according to the data they have from their scouting mission. The church we would be hitting was right at the center of it and everything was made perfectly.

The whole diagram was like the pair of people made trying to drive through time using a DMC DeLorean.

In the future, I would have them make the same diagram for our territory but I would include Ken and Kris in the picture so we could have a 3D Model digitally made.

We picked out the place where each and every one of my team should be and last but not the least, where Jared and I would be.

We chose a hospital.

The next thing I needed was a partner, or should I say, a spotter.

Kaley was a great shot but I needed someone with more expertise and someone I've been dragging to outdoor ranges a lot of times. That was why I took Jared with me. I could bring Kaley as well but I had a different job prepared for her.

While a sniper should have the ability to execute its roles alone, a second set of eyes on the battlefield was critical. Both the sniper and the spotter should have a great understanding of each other's abilities and responsibilities for great effectiveness in certain situations.

On a regular day, the more experienced one should be the spotter but in our case, that one shot had to count and I should be the one to pull the trigger. We wouldn't have the luxury to go back on the drawing board once that bullet came out of the barrel if Jared missed. A shot correction could take a few seconds but our target would have already taken cover if the shot missed the first time. I could guide Jared in what to do but this shot was that special and I just brought him so he could learn from seeing me in action.

Seeing someone how to do things was more effective than someone telling you how to do things.

The thing that I wanted Jared to learn was to let go of the unnecessary equipment he had on hand. Yes, his Kestrel, laser range finder, DOPE, ballistic calculator software, and etc. could help in some way but the time it would take to figure it all out using those items was just too fucking long. A long shooter would need to have figured that all out when the time comes especially when the window of opportunity was limited.

After getting Jared as my spotter-ish, I needed a gun that could reach far and hit hard.

Sitting in my armory was a Barrett M107A1. It was an all-black 29-inch anti-material rifle, chambered in .50 BMG. It had a monopod for added stability at the shoulder, a lightweight and adjustable bipod, a thermal cheek guard, a 10-round steel magazine, a cylindrical muzzle brake that could accept a suppressor, and a 6.5-30x60mm scope.

I wouldn't use it at full magnification but we never know when we would get to use it.

I had an old M24 which Oscar also gave me but it was not the right tool for the job.

I retold my group the rest of the plan while Jared and I went into position, a couple of days before Sunday. We rode a small boat and followed the river that would lead us to our nest. The spot we picked was the roof of a hospital which was in front of a factory and we could see the church in all its fucked up glory from this spot.

To reach that place, we only needed to walk a few meters on foot while hauling all of our equipment. We made sure to kill as little as possible to make it look like no one was occupying the hospital we were in. We used the emergency exits to reach the roof which was a spiral staircase that connected to each of the floors of the hospital. I made sure to block all of those doors that we encountered even the elevator door on the roof.

We set a little nest on the roof and we continued with our preparations. I set the Barrett in a proper position but Jared was looking at me weirdly.

"Dude, are you wearing an adult diaper?! Hah!" Jared closed his mouth to not laugh out loud.

"Yep, you should too. I brought extras." I replied.

"Fuck you, no way!"

"I'm not asking. Wear them because we're gonna be here for a few days. We need to be ready when the time comes. Our eyes shouldn't leave that spot."

"Sure..."

"This shit stays with us, literally..."

"I'm starting to regret this."

"..."

"Bro?"

"Hmm? I'm peeing, be quiet."

"Fuck no, I'll hear it!"

"Shh… don't be quite as loud."

"..."

"Good. We would be here for a while so you know what to do first?"

"Well, you've placed the Barrett in an optimal and stable position where you could also lie prone. What we need to do next is to check the range."

"Good. How far are we?"

"Wait a sec… 3… 3 kilometers on the dot… dude… are you fucking serious about this?! This is more than thrice the distance I know you could shoot at!"

"The 1000 yards was years ago, people improve. For the plan to work, there's no other way."

"What? No other way your ass! I've seen several backup plans in case you missed!"

"C'mon! I'm hyping myself up! Can't you be the moral support! You're my spotter for fucks sake!"

"Spotter?! You've got our roles reversed dude! I should be the one shooting for you!"

"Can you?"

"No… not yet..."

"..."

"I'll get better as well."

"Pfft! Noob."

"Fuck you dude!"

"Hah! Didn't I tell you to keep quiet? It's night time too so we need to be extra careful. Good thing we didn't encounter those ferals."

"Ferals?"

"You know, that roided up sprinter we encountered at the City of Manila."

"Oh… where Cruz and the others..."

"Yeah, never forget them."

"..."

"Hey."

"Bro?"

"Keep talking. We would be here for a few days."

"Heh, shouldn't I be checking the windage?"

"Windage?! Forgot who you're talking to?! I can fucking see and feel it!"

"No way bro, there's supposed to be a trick you're not telling me! The fucking wind's transparent for fucks sake!"

"It's a gift, I tell ya. I could also see and feel the atmospherics. The temperature, humidity, station pressure, and etc. Fuck me, I could also feel the Earth's rotation! I could calculate everything! Even taking into account the Coriolis effect!" I said half-jokingly.

"I wish Kaley was here so she could act as your polygraph test. Is there really such a thing?"

"There's always a trick on how unexplainable things work. Most of them could be explained by experiencing them yourself but reading the wind is much simpler than it looks. You just needed to mess with your scope for a bit until it gets blurry and it displays wavy lines."

"What?"

"To go into detail, what I learned from an experienced spotter before was to take off the scope from your rifle and look at your target. After that, adjust the focus two-third of the way until it gets blurry. When that happens, try to see the target through those lenses. You'll begin to notice wavy lines with different patterns according to windage. That's how you could 'see' the wind. Feeling it on the other hand is a matter of experience."

"What? That really works?"

"Yep."

"How about the other things?"

"Well, now that we got a few days of waiting, I'll tell you all about it. Don't forget you're in charge of making all our food and watching out for threats. I'll just be nestled here but I'll take a few breaks right until that day. We need to know what they were doing when it's not their day of worship."

"I knew it. You brought me here as a babysitter. Tell me again why you didn't bring Kaley? She would do a better job than me."

"Well, I could talk shit to you and you wouldn't do a thing. My aim might get muddled up if I try to tick her off."

"Then why don't you stop ticking her off!"

"What? Are you crazy? It's fun."

"So I'm here for an anger management class? I fucking knew it."

"Well don't forget I'll be imparting my knowledge to a noob. Better record what I say with your phone or you'll forget it! You have no idea how much I spent on those classes abroad!"

"Dammit, why didn't you bring me then?!"

"I'm on a budget and you're still going to school."

"Budget my ass, wait- didn't Oscar pay for every class you took in the US?!"

"Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"I give up."

"Do you have any idea how much actors charge for signatures at Comic-Con?! Don't forget about the stuff they're selling over there!"

"..."

"Hey! Talk to me! It's getting boring out here!"

"I miss the days when you were just holed up in your room..."

"Hah! There's always that one day in the year where I always do that..."

"Oh, right! It's really close! Right after..."

"Yep."

"Heh."

Jared and I accompanied each other for a couple of days until that fated day. It was honestly pretty boring because we were only watching that same fucked up church from morning until evening every single day. When it was 00:01 AM on Sunday, my alarm went off and I got into position. I never left that spot right until the last moment.

I mentioned that it took fucking long to calculate for the perfect shot but if you did it and add past experiences. It would hit the target 100% of the time.

We were now back right when I pulled the trigger.

The 750-grain bullet made its way and after a few seconds of it traveling to the target, a blood-red puff of moisture and mist replaced the figure on my sights.