Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

The guy that Morales kicked down screamed in pain as he rolled all over the ground while the chains wrapped around him rattled.

The chain was long enough to hold down all of them but the ones close to him got yanked down while looking in fear. All of them were acting in unison earlier for their surprise attack but once Morales neutralized the first one, their formation was immediately broken into pieces.

Morales approached the man screaming in pain while the ones close to him were frozen stiff. The man's arm was still bleeding profusely but Morales delivered a kick straight to his abdomen before grabbing his head and making him face Cyrill which was struck in fear.

My group was already used to the violence but we were a little worried about how brutal Morales was handling their prisoner. I couldn't care less about the way they do things but if they wanted to get information out of them, I would've chosen a different approach.

'We'll see where this goes first...' I thought to myself.

"Hey, look closely, okay? Do you recognize him?" Morales turned to Cyrill with a chilling tone.

"I-I-I c-can't-" Cyrill glanced at the guy but he started to stammer from the initial shock.

"Can't what? You don't recognize him or you don't want to cooperate? Look again and don't waste our fucking time." Morales unchained the guy and threw him in front of Cyrill.

'He's working him...' I thought to myself.

The guy was barely wearing any clothing and I could clearly see several tattoos on his person that he belonged to a gang that was rampant around these parts. Looking at the rest of them, they share the same ink but all of them were looking a little worse because of a thorough 'questioning' that might've happened when I and the rest of my team weren't here.

"I-I-I'm sure I don't r-recognize him but-" Cyrill answered, but Morales cut him off before he managed to finish his sentence.

"But? He's gonna die in a few if you take so fucking long. Out with it!" Morales exclaimed, startling Cyrill.

Before Cyrill managed to work up his courage to answer, the guy tried to lunge at him. Cyrill jumped back while stumbling around to get behind the soldier that escorted him here. However, before the guy even got close to the soldier in front of Cyrill, Morales pulled the guy back by grabbing him by the leg and twisting it to a horrifying angle.

Everyone close heard the crunch and we could all see bone coming out from the fracture.

The guy was shaking and screaming from pain as his eyes started to get even more bloodshot while he was trying so hard to grit his teeth to bear with it. The rest of the prisoners were staring in shock and even if the container was open for them to get back and hide, they were all frozen in place, afraid about what Morales might do to them.

Looking at Morales, even if he was wearing a stoic expression, his actions and breathing patterns suggested that he was trying so hard to hold himself back from killing all of them on the spot.

'What did they do then?' I asked myself.

I just waited for things to unfold by themselves and my group was doing the same.

It didn't take long before the soldier where Cyrill used as a shield pulled him back and right in front of Morales. Cyrill couldn't look Morales in the eye while he was also averting his gaze from the man screaming in pain while crying for help.

"Want me to ask again?" Morales asked with an even darker tone.

"N-No… What I-I w-wanted to say e-earlier was the ta-tattoos he was wearing b-belong to the same g-group..." Cyrill stammered once more.

"We're not fucking blind! We already fucking know that! That number 28 in his tattoo, what the fuck does that mean?!" Morales exploded.

"I-I-I don't k-know! I j-just used to b-buy from them! Before! Before! T-That's all I know!" Cyrill exclaimed then he glanced at me, seemingly looking for help.

'Sort this shit yourself for the moment, I wanted to know more as well...' I thought to myself, looking at Cyrill, telling him with my gaze that I wouldn't offer assistance… yet.

On the other hand, Morales was watching Cyrill closely. When he saw him look at me for a brief second, he glanced at me as well before placing his hand on Cyrill's face, making Cyrill face him once more. The guy sprawled beside them was slowly losing strength and if they wanted him to live, they needed to give him medical attention as fast as possible.

However, that wasn't the case. Morales let go of Cyrill but left him with a little surprise.

"Good, now kill him. We'll ask the others after." Morales said as he pulled his knife out and handed it forcefully to Cyrill.

Cyrill was stunned by the instruction given to him and he was just blankly looking at Morales while loosely holding the knife.

The guy that was to be executed didn't even manage to let out another scream because his consciousness was slowly fading away. However, the rest of the prisoners were trembling in fear and crying for help, trying to get a 'pardon' from the president who was silently watching them.

Cyrill was still blankly looking at Morales while holding the knife but Morales threw him a confused look.

"Don't fucking tell me you don't know what to do? I thought I'd given enough instruction? You offered help, right? You've changed, right? You're not using anymore, right? Prove it. Are you waiting for him to turn or something? He'd die anyway and waiting would just make him suffer more. Doing it now would put him to rest much easier. He'd have an easier time compared to what they did with half my team and their people. Wait- Oh~ are you just fucked up as them and actually making him feel more pain? Are you? Huh?" Morales stated, looking at Cyrill.

As soon as Morales mentioned his team, a select few of the soldiers' faces around us turned sour, even the president himself. Oscar and Iskoh were looking the same way and Matthew who was right beside them was trying to know more about what happened earlier. It seemed that Oscar gave him a very brief explanation but the rest of us could more or less surmise what the prisoners did to deserve such severe punishment.

Glancing from above the helicopter earlier, one area of the harbor had some sort of an explosion but everyone who saw it earlier surmised it to be just a simple part of taking over this area. However, judging by the fact there was hatred from the way Morales talked to the prisoners and the way the rest of the people that were here reacted to his small outburst, the small explosion could be the reason.

'I'm just wondering why they waited for us before doing this sort of thing...' I thought to myself.

"I… I-I'm-" Cyrill was breathing heavily but the knife on his hand fell, clanging down a slight bit before Morales turned deathly silent.

Cyrill immediately tried to pick it up but Morales was already stepping on the knife, preventing Cyrill to pick it up. When Cyrill looked up to face Morales, he almost stumbled a second time because of the way Morales was looking at him. It was as if Morales would kill him then and there just by dropping the knife he was holding earlier.

However, that wasn't the case because Morales just gave Cyrill a slight push before picking the knife himself and turning to the man that was close to dying. Cyrill tried to give a few apologies but that was when Morales stabbed the guy's abdomen and twisted the knife when it dug deep.

Cyrill was right next to the guy when it happened and he was frozen in place. He tried to wade his way away but his eyes were fixated on the knife that dug into the guy's abdomen. Cyrill almost vomited at the sight as he slowly turned pale from what just happened.

The guy could only let out a pained whimper as he tried to push Morales' hand away.

Morales wasn't budging an inch, just staring into the guy's eyes. However, this was when the president decided that he was taking too long.

"That's enough." the president stated.

"Understood, Sir. I apologize for taking too long." Morales responded before pulling out the knife and stabbing straight on the guy's earlobe.

The place became quiet when the guy stopped whimpering and shaking all over.

Cyrill and the rest of the prisoners thought it was over but that was when Morales unchained another one and threw it in front of Cyrill as nothing happened.

"Do you recognize him?" Morales continued, casually holding the bloody knife with his hand.