Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Four drones came into view and they entered the same place my drone did when I went for surveillance last time. It was two on the floor we would be barging in and two for the floor beneath that. The purpose of doing that was so we could have an extra pair of eyes on our current floor while watching out for the ones that would come up in case they got attracted. Vera would be the one to check each feed from the tablets and the ones driving them will be responsible for relaying everything detail they saw.

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*bzzt*

"Keep the radio clear, okay?"

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[Understood.]

*bzzt*

-

The rest of our people like Jared, Marvin, Mark, and Artem's other soldiers would be left on the roof for backup, clearing the deadheads visible, and more surveillance because it would be hard to navigate the floors if we made everyone follow us. They were already setting up a spot where they lay all of our equipment down while another group was setting up the lights for more visibility below.

"Are you guys ready?" I asked the group.

I would be coming down with Kaley, Tatiana, Mikhail, Ibarra, and Matthew on the Right Wing while Artem would be leading his group with Bogdan, Kristoff, Katya, Natasha, and one more of his soldiers named Igor would be heading to the Left Wing. The building we were in was symmetrical and we would be spreading out once we came down the stairs.

"Ready." they all responded and even Bogdan puffed on his cigar one last time before setting it aside for later.

"Go quiet as much as possible but don't hesitate to fire or even regroup back on this roof when it goes sour. We could always do it again when it gets too dicey and I don't want to bring dog tags home, understood?" I added, looking at each one of them.

My group already knew the drill and this pep talk was more for Artem's group because we would be operating on different sides, away from each other. However, it was not like they experienced anything different from my group. All I wanted to do was to remind them that they didn't need to throw their lives away just to prove themselves because there was always a way around things.

"Da, got it. You already made us breakfast, and that's already too much for us." Artem replied, removing the rest of the unnecessary items in his pockets.

"A few should watch the stairs too, right?" Kaley suggested.

"And the elevator shaft." Tatiana added.

"Yes, Mikhail's with his own PKM now so-" I was about to continue but Matthew cut me off.

"I'll stay with the big guy. One of you should come with them so the numbers could even out." Matthew said.

"I'll come with you then, would be nice to know them a little bit better." Katya chimed in.

"Then it's settled but I'll have Mark and a few more from his team join you guys." I said then I talked to my earpiece.

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*bzzt*

"We're about to go in, status?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Bodies are littered on the 7th floor but a lot are still roaming around. They were just lying down on the ground but they started getting up when they heard the drones. Five doors are inaccessible but there seems to be movement by looking through the glass panes. A lot of zombies are clumped by the restrooms on both wings, but there isn't much visibility. The same could be said about the 6th floor but I'll say more once you're done with the 7th floor.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Gotcha, split the drones for each team but on the ones below them, have one watch the stairs while making the other one scout around. Don't make the one watching the stairs get too close or it might get shot to bits. Just keep it hovering or nestled somewhere safe."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Understood.]

*bzzt*

-

"Done here, Sir!" Marvin shouted behind us.

"Just drop them down in case of emergency, got it? Jared, watch everything from above, just start shooting anything that's supposed to be dead once you saw us running on the ground. Besides that, watch out for the other side of the road as well." I replied, looking at the climbing ropes secured by the side and Jared setting up in a good spot.

"The elevator car is on the 1st floor, we have more options compared to last time." Mikhail added.

"Okay, let's go." I said as I flipped the lock on the door so we could head down.

As soon as I turned the knob and opened the door, the same fucking smell would assault our noses. It was hard getting used to it and it seemed to be getting worse as the days pass. The flashlights of our guns were turned on because the light coming from the windows was not enough and lights overhead could only do as much.

"NyyaaRrgghh..."

"Kaahrrg..."

"GhhrrKcreee..."

We already heard the noises coming from the ones below and I could barely hear the drones hovering by the staircases.

I took the lead as the rest were following behind me and I immediately saw about a dozen coming for the drones hovering a few feet above them. They couldn't reach them with their fucked up hands missing either a few fingers or a huge chunk of flesh and we made the best of it.

I plunged my katana to the back of the head of someone wearing a helmet then I kicked it down, slashing diagonally upwards, lopping off half the face of someone missing its scalp. It took the deadheads a while to react as I pushed one with my scabbard to the left while I lunged forwards stabbing three more in succession. I almost carved out a deadhead's face off as I stabbed it in its eye because the rest of its flopping skin followed, even when I pulled my blade back.

From my right side, Mikhail swung wide, taking down two in succession, making one headless while the other was cut in half. Artem's group wasn't able to do much because of the space between each corridor and most of my team got the early kills. However, unlike what would happen with Lois and Lawrence, it wasn't a competition between us. Everyone stuck to the mission at hand and no one was fooling around.

My katana got stained with darkened blood and viscous fluids and we were still just by the staircases. We still haven't fired a single shot as the rest of the teams went into position.

"Chuck them down so we wouldn't worry about it later." Matthew said.

I looked behind me and the rest of my group double-tapped the rest of the deadheads and Mikhail was already throwing the bodies off the window. A dull thud would be heard after a few seconds and it gave me an estimate for how high we are just from the sound it produced.

"Go now, we'll be going ahead if you guys are too fucking slow!" Matthew chuckled.

"Relax, we're not on a time crunch. You know the plan on this building: clear the floor then we all meet up back here and head down. We do this systematically until we clear this whole place." I reminded them before we split up.

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*bzzt*

"Who's driving the drone following us?"

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[It's me, Lois.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Okay, go ahead and we'll follow. Stop by that room first."

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[Coming~]

*bzzt*

-

The first room in front of us was barricaded by a few tables and chairs but the windows were completely broken, allowing several deadheads to come inside and wreak havoc. A few deadheads that tried to come in got caught up in the shattered glass, rupturing their bellies, and spilling their guts by the windows. However, quite a few were inside the room ranging from dead civilians and soldiers, making us use our guns early on.

It would take a lot of time to get through the barricade that they made so it would be much easier to shoot them with our suppressed .22 pistols. It wouldn't make much noise and we could head to the other rooms much quicker.

While Kaley and I were shooting the ones inside, Tatiana with Katya and Ibarra started to clear the corridors up ahead while scanning just outside of the other room. Tatiana was taking the lead while Katya turned to be the temporary replacement for Mikhail's absence. As Artem stated before, she was stronger than she looks and she could chuck bodies over the windows quite easily.

"You guys done?" Tatiana asked.

"Yeah, we'd still need to remove that barricade later. I think I saw a weapon crate inside and we might miss something valuable." I replied, reloading my pistol.

"You guys pinching your pennies here? I thought you brought a lot of supplies?" Katya chimed in, almost with a mocking tone.

"Heh, nice talk for a group that only had 228 rounds 7.62s remaining." I clapped back, chuckling.