Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

While we were taking a short rest, Jared and Lois decided to fly our drones around the DDR Camp while I took out the water canisters we have prepared. Matthew and Ibarra were replacing all our spent ammo while Tatiana offered to wipe my katana down after her bastard sword. The rest were either taking a seat by the wall or inspecting the perfect place we should build an extension of the wall we made.

"We should make the wall as thick as possible. Why don't we just cover the whole road, maybe uhh~ a wall spanning 10 feet or more? We already made one by the entrance of the love hotel, we could just extend it to the other side, right?" Lawrence suggested.

"Hmm, I was thinking of making something a little more complicated than that though." I replied.

"What do you mean?" Lawrence replied.

"Well, those bodies below are not particularly solid, right? Give it a few thousand deadheads pushing against it and it would topple over sooner or later." I explained.

"So, what are we doing then?" Kaley asked.

"I actually had another idea in my head. At first, I just wanted us to create different sectors by using their dead bodies as walls so we could clear them systematically. However..." I trailed as I glanced back at the bodies below.

"However what?" Tatiana chimed.

"It's not guaranteed that they would stay in that shape in the coming days. They're well-stacked now but once the ones that are still moving bumps or push into them, it would be a problem for us. That's why I want the shape we would be making a little complicated than simply a thick strip of dead bodies. Ideally, I want us to make zigzagging funnels." I replied.

The group scrunched their eyebrows but I continued.

"Doing that would partly contain them while only allowing a trickle to pass through like what is happening right before we reached this area when we drove. They would still get pushed to be honest but not to the extent a simple wall does. It's either that or we focus on clearing that mass below for a few days and skip carving a path to Iskoh for the moment." I explained.

As soon as I said that, the group began contemplating what we should do. Being able to set a land route to Iskoh was important but not clearing this area was just a massive horde waiting to happen. However, at the same exact time, Jared and Lois finished recording footage around the DDR Camp right next to us.

"There doesn't seem to be any sort of weakness bro. They just got overwhelmed and the place just got overrun. It's just too big to be handled by the soldiers here even if they're a tad larger than ours." Jared commented.

"Let me see first just in case you two missed anything." I replied.

"Here, I flew to each building while he flew around the walls. I wanted to fly closer but that could be enough for now." Lois added as they handed me the tablets.

"I also checked the backroads surrounding it but they're also filled by the dead and rundown vehicles. It's gonna be difficult to reach this place with the same people we brought in clearing Malabon bro." Jared added as he secured the drones.

"Hmm, it's not always going to be easy though..." I replied then I played the footage at normal speed.

This university that was turned into a DDR Camp could be said to have three main areas which I would just call the front, main, and the back area. Since this university was mostly centered on medical students, they had a hospital of their own right by the front area along with the parking area where most of the military and civilian vehicles were parked. Also, their admin building was also located in this area and the university library was right behind it.

The main area, on the other hand, was where most of the classrooms were located and it was composed of seven huge buildings that also catered for its high school students. All of the buildings were quite close to each other but on the East side was a garden where different plants and even medical herbs were planted. Right behind that garden was where two more buildings which were the dormitories for male and female students segregated by the university's policy.

Lastly, the back area was where the gymnasium, the swimming pool, tennis court, the maintenance area, and a large cafeteria was located. The other facilities were quite easy to explain but the gymnasium and the cafeteria had a few quirks. The gymnasium acted as a complex for their events and such but it also had different sectors for other P.E. subjects. On the other hand, the cafeteria had more than one place where they could order food like different fast food stalls built right by the edges of it.

The only difference it had compared to the past was that now, the walls around had an attempt to be reinforced, and almost every nook and cranny was littered by the dead. Not only deadheads wearing fatigues and school uniforms were roaming around aimlessly but a huge number of them were civilians who took refuge in this place for safety but backfired horribly. The driveway that would lead to that DDR Camp was still filled with the dead and it would take a few streets to get to the part where it had thinned considerably.

'This wouldn't be done in a single day… I want to finish this first but building a land route is important too...' I thought to myself.

"I've rested enough, big guy, come with me and Ibarra so we could start from the bottom floors once more. Kid, just give us a call when you're done with that. I'll look for some cleaning products so we could at least remove the smell from the 8th floor or from every floor. I need some bleach… a lot~ of fucking bleach. The smell is giving me fucking headaches." Matthew said to me.

"If you're gonna look someplace to clean 'stains' with the 'smell', this is the place!" Jared chuckled.

"Frequenting here a lot, eh?" Matthew shook his head, feigning disappointment.

I just nodded at Matthew while he was shaking his head but I looked at the sky, the road, and the DDR Camp. I was in deep contemplation then Kaley tapped me.

"What are you thinking about? Do we start firing at the ones below?" Kaley asked.

"I'm just thinking of whether we should continue what we discussed in the meeting with alternating of clearing this area and Malabon." I replied.

"You want to know what I think?" Kaley looked at me solemnly.

"Hmm? Something on your mind?" I replied, curious.

"I think you shouldn't put as much responsibility on yourself, or on our main group for both jobs. The other groups could take care of themselves especially if they're gonna be extra careful like us. They learned from the best and I bet they'll do a good job picking up what we left from Malabon. I could tell that you want to finish this first so we could get ahold of the equipment or any information left inside that DDR Camp, right?" Kaley suggested.

"You're right about that but-" I was about to continue but Kaley cut me off.

"Isn't our primary job to take care of the dead? Also, looking at the map you showed us, clearing this place could also lead us to the road to where we left off in Malabon or another road to Manila but much deeper towards the other cities and away from Manila Bay. Isn't it better to have more routes clear for us like what we're doing with clearing the walls made by the ones latched on the train station?" Kaley continued.

"..." I just nodded a few times as I continued to look around the area from the roof.

"Besides, Iskoh's group is also doing the same thing too so I think we should focus on one thing first or even delegate like we always do on other jobs. Hmm? Why do you keep looking around? Did you see something?" Kaley added but she noticed me walking around the roof.

"You're right… I'm just trying to cook up a plan for how we could clear this area and I might need our cargo helicopter for that… I think-" I replied then Lois cut me off.

"Hey bro, are we gonna start shooting now or what?" Lois asked, slightly impatient after our short rest.

The rest of the shooting group were also looking at me, waiting for me to give the signal.

"Not yet since we're still making the deadheads that got attracted to this place due to the noise die down for a bit more. Here's what we'll do first..." I said as I give a few instructions.

I made Jared and Lawrence stay on the roof while the rest of us would check everything that this place could offer. The food items we found were brought up to the roof to be sorted while the clean sheets, pillows, towels, toiletries, and luggage found on the lower floors were collected and placed on the 8th floor after cleaning this floor thoroughly. However, my OCD kicked in and I actually made everyone clean the stains and the smells off from each floor.

Aside from the usual adult stuff we would find in these kinds of places, we actually uncovered two Colt 1911s and two Mossberg Maverick 88s located in the security room with extra ammo. We also found a couple of short-range radios, handcuffs, nightsticks, a few uniforms, and the CCTV tapes located in the same place.

When Matthew and Mikhail discovered the maintenance room, they found a few tools that could let them disassemble some of the furniture to have flatter planks so we could barricade the doors and the windows better. They redid the same process from each floor and they heavily barricaded everything up until the 3rd floor where a feral might gain entry. We also took the fire extinguishers located on each floor along with the fire axes right beside them.

"Umm- we checked the water tanks and there's more available and it's still clean. Also, there's also a generator below and it still has some fuel left." Cynthia said as she approached me.

"Really? Just leave it alone for now. I wish the feral didn't come from the elevator so we could at least use it." I replied.

"Hmm, we skipped cleaning that place, right?" Kaley added, chuckling.

"Yes, unfortunately. Hey, guys from the clearing group could start to clean ourselves or change clothes because we have more water available. Let's do a proper wipedown on our weapons especially the ones for close quarters." I announced.

"What time is it? The sun is up above I might wash my face or something. Shit, it's actually a few minutes before noon eh? Where's my bag..." Matthew went to the helicopter and excused himself as he was about to walk down the stairs.

"Tell mom I said hi. You're gonna call her, right?" Kaley chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah." Matthew grumbled.

"Bro..." Lois trailed.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"Can we start shooting them now? It's been a few hours already… and I'm starting to think I came here to clean..." Lois commented, trying to stay sane.

"Hmm, it's almost noon. Let's make some food first!" I started laughing as Lois almost pulled his hair out.