Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

After having my fill of ticking off Matthew, I pulled out a map and circled out areas from where those people could possibly have come from.

"The best places to hunker down are hospitals, police stations, gated communities, and especially standing DDR Camps. However, our problem is that Quezon City has a fuck ton of those. Pinpointing it just based on that would prove to be difficult so I could only give an estimate for how far could they have driven in for the time that they were away." I explained, adding more circles and markers.

"What's this larger circle for?" Matthew asked after finally calming down.

"This was for if we split the time of just driving straight to their base and getting back here. Take note, we have no information about the state of the streets they were in so it could be much smaller. That's why I added the other circles for taking into account different possibilities." I added.

"And this X?" Kaley asked.

"That's the Veterans Memorial Medical Center. If I ever establish a base in that city, that would be the best starting point if I have a lot of people. It has a huge area for planting crops and walls all around it to protect it from deadheads roaming around. However, it isn't as high as I wanted but the other hospitals have nary such defensive structures because you could just walk inside some of them. In a sense, it's like Iskoh's place minus the river they could use their boats to roam around." I replied.

"Oh, is this the one place you're talking about that's heavily guarded?" Cynthia chimed.

"No, as I said, it's too far and it's right by the larger part of Caloocan. It's right this here, the La Mesa Dam. If you remember the earlier broadcasts, the president sent most of the soldiers available to these kinds of places so they're more or less standing right now. Electricity might still be running in that place without the help of solar panels and generators because of the power produced by the moving water from the dam itself transferred over to the plants." I added.

"Hmm?" Kaley muttered, looking at the map.

"See something else?" I asked.

"Isn't this place where the helicopter came from? Southeast from the Providence Hospital? It's Channel 7 News, right? Could they have come here as well?" Kaley turned to me.

"It is possible too. We just don't know for sure until we start to explore that city." I replied, not adding more.

"Enough talk, we still have a couple of hours left before we leave this place." Matthew picked up my rifle to try using it once more.

Time continued to pass but it was uneventful. Lois and Jared kept a watchful eye with Matthew in case a pack of ferals come by or more people randomly pops up from nowhere. Ibarra and Mikhail would sometimes take shots but they just decided to help with reloading magazines and routinely checking below with Tatiana.

Kaley continued to pile more bodies with me but we had to stop early because the batteries of the drones were critically low. We should've brought their chargers but there wasn't enough room inside the helicopter because of the equipment we brought.

Vera wasn't able to pick up more radio chatter so she continued to help with piling up bodies from the other side of the street. She even gave pointers to Cynthia with accurately judging distance because the wind wouldn't have much of an effect at this place because of the tall buildings strewn about.

'This place is ready for tomorrow… I have mapped out most of the rooms aside from the closed doors from the inside but we'll methodically clear them when the time comes.' I thought to myself before I told everyone to pack up.

We cleaned half an hour early so we could check on the progress of Oscar and the group he brought to Malabon.

I picked up my radio and decided to contact him.

-

*bzzt*

"Old man, you guys still there?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Kid? Yeah, yeah, we're just finishing up on the last fucking wall. I didn't think it would be this fucking tedious! We need to fucking put down the ones on the front side, haul enough bodies from these walls, shoot the ones from the other side, hauling what's left of the walls, then finally burning them in fucking clumps! It's like up and down and up and down!]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"It ain't much, but it's honest work, right?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Cheh, it's like watching porn and you had to flip the tape to the other side!]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"HAHAHAHAHA!!! Tell me, are the ones you watching still black and white?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Wha- you fucking… this is a trap, I could feel it. Anyway, how is it on your side?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Same thing as yesterday but we discovered more people from the other city. We'll talk about it later because we're just about to head in your direction. What street are you guys in currently?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[What? Don't bother. You might attract more in this place and we're just about to head home. Most of our time was spent burning them in clusters so we don't burn the whole city down.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Grab a few things while you're at it."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Heh, already did after we're finished with the second wall. You'd be surprised.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"You got something good? What is it?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[A V8.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"..."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Kid?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"..."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Hah! I'm kidding! I'm kidding! We opened up every place we've come across but this one place was full of fucking Twinkies!]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"What? Really?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Yeah, like the guy from the movies we watched last time. Anyway, there are a few places we should go back and loot but I did found a few guns South of the bridge where you guys discovered those ferals. We encountered a pack feasting on a dead cop and after unloading bullets after bullets just to take them down, we searched the police station just by the corner. Standard issues and all but we should get to work on that DDR Camp you're camping on. The loot there's much better.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"You encountered a pack?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Yeah, you going deaf kid? Five of them all in all but your stories scared the shit outta some of our soldiers so it got peppered before it managed to reach one of us. It's like it got caught between swirling cookie cutters now, looking at them. I wanted to take a crack at them but things just happened fast.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"I see. Then we'll see you back home. We'll be going around another route."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Yeah, just call Johnny so you get picked up.]

*bzzt*

-

We soon ended the call and we flew in a bit of a roundabout, circling through Karuhatan to check the surrounding areas. We still didn't have much progress with locating the other group keeping the streets clear, but we just commended them for fighting the same fight.

On the way, we flew above a cemetery and it was fucking infested.

Rotting bodies were almost on top of one another and seeing them getting riled up due to the noise of the helicopter was something like what happened when we fired a shot at Monumento. However, they couldn't do anything to us and we just flew right past them. All they could do was just follow the noise and get stuck in place because of how congested the place was.

'That's someplace to clear without offering much of a reward besides killing them… It's not like we could bury our dead anymore.' I thought to myself.

When we got to the DDR Camp, standard procedures were placed and the base was just getting ready for sunset. Everyone was free to roam around the premises but once the sun goes down, tight security measures would be placed and only the people tasked with watch duty were allowed to walk around the streets and survey the surrounding walls. Everyone should be accounted for and in case of trouble, a call should be made to address the situation properly.

"What's up! You guys are early! Oscar and the rest aren't here yet!" Allan shouted at us from below.

Allan picked us up from the DDR Camp and we loaded our equipment in the vehicle he brought. Zeus didn't come with him but I heard him barking atop the wall of the compound with Jenny as soon as we reached home.

"Ah~ Finally~ I could get some sleep~" Lois commented, stretching his arms.

"And you aren't even gonna go to Olivia first. Kids these days..." Matthew shook his head, hiding a smirk.

"What? She's in my room." Lois clapped back, seeing through Matthew.

"WHAT?! THE FUCK IS SHE- OLIVIA!!!" Matthew instantly lost it as chaos ensued.