Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I woke up in the early morning spooning Kaley while a blanket was the only thing covering us. Kaley was still fast asleep though I managed to catch a glimpse of the AR-15 from Palmetto that I gave her, right next to my AR-15 from BCM. A quick and obvious idea popped into my head as I slowly made the smallest possible movements so I wouldn't wake her up.

However, she quickly pulled me back as I heard a soft chuckle.

"Where are you going? What time is it?"

"Just gonna prepare a little something. Oh, it's a couple of hours before sunrise."

"Hngh~ you almost always wake up this early, huh?"

"Force of habit, heh. Get some more sleep, I'll be quick."

"Hmm~ We said that yesterday and we did it for hours..."

"Hahaha… well this would take a few and I want to do this right. Let's just say that you'll receive a hardware upgrade."

The moment I said 'hardware upgrade', Kaley sprang up from the bed with an excited look and she ran to the armory still naked.

"Why am I so lucky?" I thought to myself.

"C'mon! What are you still waiting over there for?!" Kaley exclaimed,

"Put some clothes on first!"

"Why?! I'm fucking you after we're done! Or while we're doing it!" Kaley giggled.

"I want a striptease later so put at least a shirt and some short on!" I was shaking my head in amusement.

"Hah! This early?! Whatever you say, hehehe~"

"Yeah, yeah. Comb your hair though because you looked like your head's been licked by a cow."

Kaley caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and she quickly disappeared to the bathroom.

We eventually put on some clothes then I looked for one of my high-end AR-15 style rifles like my BCM from the shelves. I took out a fancy case where the words 'LWRC International' was imprinted on. When I removed the latch, Kaley and I instinctively inhaled. We looked at each other before we burst out laughing then I pulled out an IC-Enhanced 5.56 from LWRC International.

It was still an AR-15 style rifle and it was only called different because Colt owned the name AR-15 respectively.

I was about to place a few attachments similar to her old setup but I had a different idea when I looked at her. She was right beside me so I simply laid the rifle back on the case before I slid it in front of her.

"Hmm?" Kaley looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"You know how a gun works now, especially an AR-15. You won't be building one from scratch but I think it would be the best decision to let you work on it yourself. I'll be giving supervision so just ask away if you have any questions." I replied as I also placed the rest of my tools in front of her.

Kaley was staring at me for a moment before a smile formed on her face and she said, "Oh~ acting cool now, are we? It's working but I don't need sUpErViSioN~ Why don't you go back to bed and get some more sleep, eh? I can do it myself."

"Kaley."

"What?"

"You don't have any idea how hard I am. Please don't talk like that casually, okay?"

"Pfft! AHAHAHA!!!"

Kaley rolled up her imaginary sleeves and got to work. It had the same barrel length compared to her old one but everything else's quality jumped by a very significant amount. An AR-15 from Palmetto was still great and I wouldn't mind arming my group with it but there was always something better out there.

The only thing stopping me from arming everyone with a high-end rifle like my BCM and her LWRC was the price points for each of them. It eas easily four to five times more expensive not even including the attachments we would be placing on each of them.

What Kaley did was that she tried to imitate what I did with my BCM. The thing that differed was the positioning of the attachments because the handguards we were using were different. Not only that, the upper and lower receivers of her rifle had a gray-metallic finish compared to the all-black rifle I was using.

Kaley had a wicked smile when she was done with her new setup and she immediately pounced on me for our earlier agreement. I was down for the count and good thing I have more than an hour to bring back my lost energy. From our talk yesterday, she seemed to let go of herself more when we were together and there was something different from the way she smiled.

Even when we went outside, Tatiana and the rest noticed it first before her new rifle.

"Kaley, you're glowing! Did you use a new product? Tell me!" Cynthia exclaimed as she started to pinch Kaley's cheeks.

"N-No… I still use the same-" Kaley got embarrassed though she was still smiling.

"I know what she did, definitely, 100% sure." Tatiana nodded a few times.

"Hmm? Do you know? You don't even use anything, just soap! Unlike me..." Rin was pouting.

"Did you now? Tell us." I was smirking but I didn't know we fell for her trap.

Tatiana just paused for a while before saying, "You definitely ate her holes until mor- Ow! Rin! That hurts!"

"..." Kaley and I were gobsmacked though it was partially true. We just waited for things to calm down but it wouldn't.

"Stop joking around!"

"I'm not! Look at how happy she looks!"

"Umm… does that really happen?"

"No! It doesn't!"

"You'll never know until you try! Hahahaha!"

"Argh! Tatiana!"

"Don't believe me? I'll do that to you later!"

"..."

"Hah! You became quiet! You know you want me to, correct?! HAHAHAHA!!!"

"We're heading down..." Kaley and I slowly sneaked away.

"I'll be coming with..." Cynthia followed.

Tatiana and Rin soon followed though they stopped bickering when they were within earshot of everyone in the pool area.

We were already in line for the plates and the smell of fried rice topped with toasted garlic in the morning was heavenly. It was paired with scrambled eggs with chopped vegetables and there was a table in the corner for coffee or hot chocolate.

Oscar finished early with Jomarro and Mikhail and they were getting ready to drive back to the Intercity. Unc Zardon and Lois were also taken by Oscar along with a few of Marvin's team. Matthew and Johnny on the other hand just started to walk outside the gate, heading for the DDR Camp and Woodlands next. They check on everything around first for anything that might give us trouble.

All the other groups finished eating but I was finally approached by Unc Zeidrick, Raphael, and Anthony.

"Here." they threw us a set of keys for the two Raptors and Tatiana's HUMVEE.

"It's done?" I asked with a smile.

"Yep. I see you've brought a Hummer and a Hilux, eh? We'll get to that as well but I heard Oscar also brought back a V8 engine with the transmission?" Unc Zeidrick asked.

"Yes, yes. I dunno what he might do with it though Lois was suggesting to make a sleeper car." I replied.

"A sleeper car? Why? Can't he see how cool the things we make are?" Raphael asked, confused.

"Wait, what's a sleeper car?" Kaley asked.

"It's like, let's say, a stock Civic but you upgrade all the performance parts without doing anything to the exterior. It would have a few advantages going out but there would still be disadvantages. I guess it'll depend on what you want to do with it." I replied as she nodded pensively.

"Umm… I still don't get it..." Cynthia chimed.

"Okay, let's say we make one. Aside from the obvious performance boost it could get, the only thing advantageous with that is the passengers could be covert and it would blend in, not making everyone who sees it want to steal it or something. Aside from that, I couldn't think of anything at the top of my head." Raphael replied.

"I still think it would be better to place it on the vehicles we already worked on." Anthony added.

"Is there a problem with not doing anything with the exterior?" Cynthia asked.

"The problem being is what we mostly do to our vehicles are upgrades to the exteriors for the passenger's safety. We make custom bumpers, the rails on the windshield and the other glass parts, tire protection after installing tubeless tires if they're available, and even mounting a gun or two. Doing that ensures the safety of the people riding it but there's the disadvantage that it's hot on the eyes. It stands out too much so we need to be wary of potential attackers." Unc Zeidrick was scratching his beard.

"Wait, there are still ways to reinforce it from the inside, right? Like your Charger?" Kaley added.

"Oh, you're talking about the roll cage, right?" I said then Kaley nodded.

"Heh, just thank us later, okay?" Raphael chuckled as they took the keys for the other vehicles.