Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I started to mess with the doorknob but as soon as I was about to withdraw my lockpicks from it, a loud slam came from the other side of the door that almost made me jolt in surprise. Kaley immediately raised her rifle and pointed it against the door but several more slams and knocks came after the first one. Katya and Ibarra turned around as well but they got confused when I ran back to the entrance.

"Where are you going?!" Katya exclaimed.

"Just a sec!" I shouted back.

It only took a few moments when I came back with a small concrete barrier just by the parking area.

"Wha-" Katya got even more confused.

"It's a barrier.." I flatly replied.

"I- huh?" Katya was about to inquire but Kaley waved her down and just whispered to trust me.

"First time?" Ibarra added, smiling.

"Good one." I chuckled as I placed the barrier against the door.

The door still needed to be pushed to gain access to it so I turned the knob and applied pressure right until a finger comes snaking out. As soon as it did, more and more followed as elbows and arms appeared, competing with the bodies still pushing on the door itself. There came a time when the hands got crushed and bone jutted out because of the pressure but the door gave way when enough hands applied enough leverage to make it open fully.

The moment the door swung open, the bodies inside spilled out and tripped on the barrier I placed right by their feet.

I was just wearing a blank expression when I started to stab their heads one by one. I still needed to avoid the ones that followed but it was definitely easier because it was like picking up trash using that pointy trash picker. Kaley followed my actions while Ibarra pulled the ones to the side.

"This… this is like cheating..." Katya commented when she joined in.

"Heh, never underestimate the power of tripping up deadheads." I chuckled as I stabbed the last one.

The room we just cleared seemed to be a lodging area where a lot of bunk beds were just built by wood and nails.

'They made this then...' I thought to myself.

Instead of seeing clean sheets, each and every bed we laid our eyes on was stained with darkened blood or small chunks or parts of their rotting bodies. The smell was so horrible because there was no ventilation aside from a small exhaust fan at the corner of the wall.

"There's a few still inside..." Kaley muttered as she pointed to the floor.

We saw a few bodies laying on their backs but most of their body was eaten off. One of them had the rest of its limbs chewed up while the other was disemboweled, chest cavity ripped open. I couldn't identify which one is which anymore but the deadhead choking horribly was definitely chewing on what was left of its mangled tongue.

"Can't they identify friend from foe?" Ibarra asked.

"They do but sometimes, they really do get 'hungry' for a lack of a better explanation." I replied.

We continued to clear the first floor room by room. We made sure the pathway was clear of obstructions before we proceed and we made sure the windows to the right were open just for another escape plan. We couldn't hear a single gunshot from upstairs and the same was happening on our side the closer we get to the end of the hallway.

It didn't take us long before we reached their armory and it had a decent amount of guns available for the taking. Most of them were M16s and Glock 17s, which were the standard issue for the military but there were some 1911s, M24s, AKMs, Remington 870s, and etc. in isolated places but the ammo for them was not as many compared to the standard issue.

The ammo cans we found weren't as filled as I thought but factoring in the number of soldiers and other people tasked with security in this place we took down, and the other places we haven't checked yet, we were bound to find more hopefully. However, we found a few crates filled with grenades and mortar shells and they were definitely going to our emergency stashes.

Aside from guns, we found a ruined manifest of the numbers of people here and it exceeded a few thousand. Most of them were in the dormitories in the main area but a lot of the elderly and the people who had diagnosed illnesses were placed in the hospital just a few meters behind the barracks. I couldn't find a single working computer in this place even if we already had electricity running but I took the hard drives to check them once we go home.

'I hope there's at least something on these hard drives. Most of the paperwork here is ruined...' I thought to myself.

"Are we gonna take the guns now? There's a few in each room, even from the first one." Katya asked.

"Let's clear this whole place first before we do anything else. It's not like they're going anywhere." I replied.

"Hmm, we could take the bullets, right?" Kaley interjected.

"Well, that's… sure. Let's leave it by the guys on the jeep to act as another supply point." I replied.

"They don't have a lot of 5.7s, that's for sure." Tatiana suddenly popped from behind us with Brian and Carlo.

"You guys done already?" Kaley asked, surprised.

"Yeah, seems like everything upstairs headed down when we made noise. I took a few down but I could count them with my hands." Tatiana replied.

"Okay, one of you drive one of the other jeeps in the parking area towards Artem's group. After that, stay with them and form another supply point. The one left with us will drive another jeep aside from the ones we blocked the driveway with to act as a walking supply point and turret for emergencies. We'll leave the rest of Marvin's group here for the moment but they will join us after we clear the hospital by the corner. After that is the library and dorms." I instructed as I looked at Brian and Carlo.

"I'll do it." Carlo immediately volunteered.

"Okay, here are the keys." I replied then we took action.

Brian and Carlo took a jeep each and headed to their specific spots. Brian just made the jeep nestled by the Escalades drive a little bit forwards to save a little bit of time. He just transferred the ammo cans on it to the other jeep while my group placed a few of our newly looted equipment from the barracks to both of them.

When we walked outside the barracks, Matthew wasn't there. However, I saw him looting several magazines and guns from the ones we threw over the windows and the others sprawled on the ground from a far corner. Another guy was holding a sack in front of him as they were making their way to each of them.

"Don't forget the casings!" I shouted to annoy him.

"Bah! I know! I know! I even took the ripped ones!" Matthew was too focused on looting to even care.

"Check the ones in the barracks too because we're heading to the hospital now!" I continued to shout.

"Wha- I'm coming with you!" Matthew bellowed as he left the guy carrying his burdens for him.

I left the same instruction to Marvin while my group continued to move forward. We still haven't burned the ones we killed so there were a lot of bodies waiting to be cremated by the driveway. They mostly had stab marks and broken necks and there was a lot more right now because Marvin and his group took down a few that got too close. However, a few select ones were located a bit far from where they were parked and they were either shot down by Kaley or Max.

The hospital we were trying to get into had a separate fence of its own aside from the wall covering the whole university so it had a lot more bodies stuck between them and a lot more materials to rip off for safety. It was because a few metal parts were sticking out and stained with their bits and one scratch especially in the wrong spot would win a bullet with their name on it.

A few hands were also sticking out from a few chinks from the makeshift wall they made and the flesh on their arms were either scraped off from trying to push in or chewed off by the ones on our side. A few already had several fingers missing but the ones that are left weren't looking good as well. They were kinda curling to try and reach us and the skin falling off wasn't helping to make them bearable.

"Park over there and just reverse by that spot. Watch out for the trees on the back too." I said to Brian.

"Are we going in now?" Matthew asked.

"Let's clear the perimeter first." I replied, drawing my blade once more.

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*bzzt*

[Bro, can you check that dumpster?]

*bzzt*

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