Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Mikhail and Tatiana were riding with me in my modified Raptor while the rest of Artem's team was using Tatiana's Humvee. I discovered that Tatiana only knew a few stories while Mikhail had the first-hand experience with Morales in the beginning.

"He's the officer assigned to us when we arrived in that place." Mikhail answered.

"In short, is he the one assigning you guys missions? The suicide runs?" I asked, looking at the rear-view mirror.

"Yes and no."

"What do you mean?" Kaley chimed in.

"Ah, at first, trust and communication was the issue so we weren't given a lot of orders to begin with. It's almost always guard duty while we're sending our status and bits of information to Russia. It's been like that for a while until we were asked to clear a town with Morales' team and other officers." Mikhail started while Tatiana was keeping quiet, listening intently.

"And then what happened?"

"As always, we were just supposed to hold one part of the road until another group arrives from the other side but the group didn't. Vera tried to contact Morales at that time but there was no response from their side. Well, it just happens that we received an SOS from the group that was supposed to come up a while ago."

"Where are they?"

"Their numbers were only a sixth from when they started and they were pinned by the dead and the rebel forces- what did they call themselves again? N- NPE?" Mikhail was scratching his head as he turned to look in my direction.

"It's NPA." Jared answered.

"The New People's Army, the bastards." Ibarra answered as well.

"Ah, I remember Vera telling us about when she talked with one of the soldiers." Mikhail added.

"NPA, the New People's Army. It's been a lot of trouble dealing with them even before it started and it's hard to get them all because they're situated in the mountains and forests. Aside from that, a few powerful groups had connections with them, and- Anyway, you get the picture. In short, a group of rebels that rose to power ever since he was elected president. You can't believe how ridiculous it got with them." I explained.

"Huh? Wait a sec- how did that? I thought they're enemies?" Tatiana got confused.

"You guys are familiar with how ruthless our president is when it comes to dealing with his enemies, right?" I replied.

"Then the NPA is actually with the president? Why did they attack the other group?"

"No, you got it wrong. When the president was still the mayor of Davao, his own militia, DDS, has been fighting off that group. They actually had the upper hand but the NPA just got a sudden boost when Rod got elected and his hold on Mindanao lessened even more when he got situated in Luzon. I'm just speculating but it could be the doing of the previous president and our vice president currently. Aren't you guys wondering why she's missing? They're supposed to be working together, right?" I paused as we turned a sharp corner.

"Nah, that's their doing bro, I'm sure of it. Who the fuck else would do it besides the opposition? Ever since she became the vice president, all she did was bitch and moan about the president's actions while doing nothing except photoshoots and whatnot." Jared added.

"That is true… a lot of press cons just to complain..." Ibarra trailed, nodding a few times.

"So, she's not dead?" Tatiana asked.

"I dunno, we haven't seen her since but if she's still alive, she won't be on the president's side, that's for sure. We'll talk more about this but what happened next in your story? I believe I cut you off with this stupid political talk." I waved them off.

"Ah- you're right. Well, Nikolas and Artem got into an argument on whether we try and save them or just continue to follow orders. You see, the place we're guarding isn't exactly zombie-free, and leaving that point will also endanger the other groups so… we did both. Vera called reinforcements on our side and as soon as they arrived, Artem took half of our team with him and one soldier from your side as a guide."

"And Nikolas?"

"We stayed and held that place with everybody that's left until they came back with what's left of the group and a hostage to boot. That guy tried to kill himself a lot of times but Artem gagged him to avoid biting his own tongue off while dislocating the bones in his body. We could say that everything went smoothly for the most part but changes started happening after that." Mikhail replied.

"What changes?"

"We started getting sent in the frontlines but our supplies and equipment would barely get replenished and the intel is barely a page to tell us anything. There was also a time we were told to hold a small town until reinforcements came but the rebels would come up first ahead of them. It all sounds fishy from the get-go and we were starting to question Morales' direction. Remember when the president started executing other officers?" Mikhail continued.

"Wait a sec- you're going too far forward. When Artem and the rest rescued the pinned soldiers, what did Morales said about them? They were unresponsive on comms, right?" Kaley asked, turning back to look at Mikhail.

"Everything checked out after that because Morales and the other soldiers with him were preoccupied with a herd while evacuating civilians. It just got so chaotic and we couldn't even understand half of what they're saying because they were mostly speaking in your language." Mikhail explained.

"I see, what are you saying about the officers getting executed?" I brought back the subject earlier.

"We found out that the soldiers we rescued were supposed to die that day. They were part of the ones that started a coup and Morales thought we had a part in it by rescuing them. It was already been going on a lot of times already and it was too late when we realized it was just a huge fucking mix-up. A lot of lives were already lost before it was resolved with violence." Mikhail continued.

Everyone was just silent.

"We're not even sure if everyone that really had a part in it got executed by the president but it definitely threw rifts with the ones that remained, especially with Morales and Artem. You see, we've rarely lost people when Artem's in charge but we were following the direction of someone that thought we were on the enemies' side. And that's not even including the power struggle between the other nations present in that place. Artem had no choice but to ask the president for a favor." Mikhail concluded.

"You guys getting sent here to get Ilya and the rest?"

"Yeah, we'd rather be with the rest of our team but you happened. To me, this was something I never expected. I don't know how our feeling of depression when we got here turned around when you started beating us up out of the blue, heh. That's all I know, you could ask Artem or the others about what happened when we left… they could give more details than just a few things they talked about yesterday in the house." Mikhail chuckled, looking at me.

"I see, heh. Thanks for the story, I guess I'll get to know more later."

We dropped by on the outpost where Lawrence was in charge to tell them about the new changes. It got mixed reactions from everyone but a proper explanation and the guarantee that we would send more soldiers to guard this place quelled their worries.

At the same time, we saw Lawrence wearing jumpers and boots, learning to farm. Cyrill and Borris were also present, trying to help around the area with gardening and taking care of some of the animals. Lawrence saw us gawking at him with a cheeky smile but he immediately ran to the president's side to give a proper salute.

"Sir!" Lawrence exclaimed, covered in dirt.

"The fuck are ya doing? Remember that you enlisted 'cause you can't grow even fucking weeds? Everything dies on ya, forget farming for now and do what you do best! Change and ride the fucking truck at the back! Bring your gun too!" Rod yelled at Lawrence.

"Y-Yes, Sir!" Lawrence ran back to his quarters in a hurry.

"Are the ones dismantling the barricades done?" I turned to Matthew that just got off the radio.

"They're still in the process of doing it. We called them late, it would take some time. We could drive the same route for now and use that road on the way back. What do you think?" Matthew suggested.

"It'd be dangerous to traverse it if our people haven't cleared it yet. Let's have the soldiers on the jeeps wait on it and use that road to clear a path? We're doing it anyway so let's make Mark's group assist them. Suggestions?" Oscar added.