Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Kaley and I just had our handguns with us so I opened the door to my armory after a quick shower.

Kaley's guns were already stored here and she slung her AR-15 over her shoulders. Furthermore, I placed a large pouch to the side of her war belt so she could place all of her extra 30-round magazines for her rifle. It was kinda standing out but it would change the moment I gave her a proper plate carrier.

In my case, I didn't bring my AR-15 because I'd like to try out my new Glock 19s. Instead of just bringing a couple extra magazines for each of them, I brought double just to be safe. I loaded them with 9mm cartridges and slightly changed the setup of my war belt to allow it. It would've been perfectly symmetrical but I needed my wakizashi and my knife.

'Some days you win...'

We were done in a few minutes and we decided to check on Tatiana.

I knocked on her door, "Tatiana, you ready? It's almost time!"

We heard from the other side, "Yes, come in!"

The moment I turned the handle and pushed on the door, Kaley and I saw Tatiana still half-naked. Her back was facing us as she was in the process of lifting her pants up but I caught a glimpse of something entirely different. Her back had multiple scars and she had a huge tattoo that was done roughly.

'Those scars… Wait… that tattoo…'

Before I got a closer look, Tatiana faced us with her bare chest and looked at us nonchalantly. I definitely had a good look at 'those' and even if they're a tad smaller, they were a very nice set. With that said, I got amazed at how fit she was based on her ratio and the contours of her muscles.

Tatiana tilted her head slightly, "Yes?"

"U-Umm… I-"

"Hey! Stop staring at her!" Kaley instantly pushed me away.

Tatiana chuckled, "Oh... Miss Kaley, it's fine. I don't mind, I'm pretty comfortable with my body."

Kaley exclaimed, "That's not the point! Cover yourself!"

After a while, Tatiana finally put on some clothes so I was allowed to step near her door. She was in the process of wearing some Kevlar and I caught a glimpse of her case of weapons.

'An even better set...'

Tatiana had a variety of them and even Kaley's interest was piqued. I had a certain 'style' and color scheme when it came to my weapons and Tatiana had her own. She had an AKM, an AK-47, an SKS, a Benelli M4, an MP-443 Grach, a GSh-18, an FN Five-Seven, and a Makarov. She also had several boxes of ammo, loaded magazines, a dozen RGD-5s, and a variety of combat knives along with the rest of her equipment.

When Tatiana finished wearing her gear, she picked up her Benelli M4, an FN Five-Seven, and one of her combat knives.

"I believe this is enough for the mission, correct?"

"Correct. However, I have another order that you should follow at all times. Don't just protect me, protect her too and everyone else's life in here. In return, we'll do the same to you." I looked at Tatiana straight in the eye.

Tatiana was wearing a solemn expression though a smile was once more slowly forming on her lips. She was looking at us dearly but she sighed and said, "Thank you. I appreciate that but honestly speaking, I would prioritize your life over everyone else here."

"Why? Is there a reason? Is this another protocol?"

Tatiana's expression turned solemn, "Is that really a question? You're the one who runs this place and you want me to treat each of your lives as equal? If you got killed, you know what would happen. I get that you would want to keep everyone safe but when the time comes when you needed to choose over whose life is more important… We'll see if-"

Kaley cut her off, "If what?"

Tatiana continued, "I'm just saying… if-"

I cut her off as I scratched my head, "I know what you mean. It's making the hard decisions, right? To be fair, it's a fucking headache. In my ideal world, I would like to save everyone and I want everyone to be treated fairly and as equals. A life is a life and the moment I decide which one is more important, that's when the idea of being equal to one another is shattered."

Kaley and Tatiana were just looking at me solemnly.

I continued, "Doing that doesn't only mean that I have a 'priority' like you said, but being the person- or the leader to decide those things would make me the life that's more important than anyone. Honestly, it's hard to hold both ends of an ideal view and a realistic view. Finding the trick to do so is fucking difficult and what I just said was a simple analogy. It gets deeper and deeper the moment we put more variables in place."

The two were just staring at me but Tatiana said, "Umm, I was just about to say that if you can't decide on something, even if it's difficult, you won't be fit to be a leader. That's your job and your people's lives will be at risk if you don't come to an answer. Turns out, you have thought of it more than I did… It's always the hard choices and the choices picked themselves decide how good a leader one is."

Kaley was deep in thought as she muttered, "I think I kind of understand what he means..."

Tatiana got interested and replied, "Do tell."

"Hmm~ In simple terms, it's sort of doing your best or deciding to the best of your ability at that moment. Honestly, completely bringing the two views together will be next to impossible and short of being a paradox. However, I think that a leader making a mistake is still a good leader as long as he had the means to fix it. No one's perfect but it's nice to be close to it."

"I think I agree with you..." Tatiana trailed.

I added, "Realistically and frankly speaking, I do think that I'm the most important life in here even if it sounded a little too selfish or narcissistic. Just think of everyone as pieces in a chess game. I'm the king of course while Kaley's the queen. Everyone had their own roles to fulfill on the board but in the end, the king's life is the most important."

"Go on..."

"Even if that statement is true, I'd still hold the life of everyone in my 'kingdom' dearly, especially the pawns if we're still talking about chess."

"Pawns?"

I smiled, "Even if we call them pawns, all of them would have the potential to be other pieces once they reach the end of the board. What I'm gonna say next isn't in the rules of regular chess anymore but if we're talking about someone turning into someone else, one of those pawns might later be a king. C'mon, everyone must be waiting for us."

The two nodded pensively but Tatiana chuckled, "I understand your view but real~ smooth calling Miss Kaley your 'Queen' though. You just snuck it in there, correct?"

"Heh. I meant it- Ow! Kaley!"

"Hmph! Doofus..."

We had a little moment there but we eventually headed down to meet with everybody. They were already wearing their gear but I double-checked them myself. I looked for loose straps and whatnot but the most important one was having a bullet in the chamber. It would only take a second to do it but that second of racking your slide in an emergency could mean life or death.

"I'll repeat myself: We will be heading towards the canal system but before that, we would need to clear the squatter area and the last stretch of houses in between. Yesterday, when we started firing at the covered court, nothing came up from the squatter area. That could mean that the sound didn't carry that far, the zombies are all gone, or some of them might still be stuck somewhere."

I continued, "As I said earlier, we need to be careful once we enter that area because we'd have to watch out for more than just regular deadheads because of the way those shacks were built. One wrong step and we might end up to where the rest of them could possibly be stuck, understand? We'll be passing through 15-20 shacks from each side and after that is the last stretch of houses before the canal system."

Jared interjected, "What if we meet people? There are three more houses with their lights on, right?"

"Then we'll talk to them and bring them in our fold. If they do anything stupid, we'll react accordingly. Maximum tolerance but maximum vigilance. Anything else?"

Oscar rested his SPAS-12 on his shoulder, "Blah! Blah! Blah! Let's head out already!"

"Then let's go." I just shook my head as everyone chuckled.

We started to head outside while the rest continued with their assigned tasks. It took us a short while to reach the radio station and Tatiana kept on keeping close to me. We didn't encounter a single deadhead as we walked forward but the fucking smell of decay said it all. Each gust of wind gets fucking worse as we drew closer and closer, but we eventually reached the squatter area.

There weren't any walkers, biters, zombies, or any other deadhead in the immediate vicinity but we could definitely hear their faint growls. Some of them seemed fairly close but the idea of going in each side with just three people sounded fucking stupid right now. Their numbers seemed far more than the ones we took down last time so I decided to draw them out with the alarms I took home from the supermarket.

I just twisted on their handles and threw them a fair distance away. We could still hear the faint clicking noise but everything changed the moment they started ringing.

Not even a few seconds have passed when we heard the faint growls getting louder and louder. Doors rattled, windows creaked, tarps rustle, but most importantly, they started appearing one by one. It was more than I imagined and it reached far more than the answer to the ultimate question. The wind blew once more and I swore I would've vomited everything if I didn't have a strong stomach.

Their bodies were ridden with multiple bites and their blood had already dried on their clothes. Some had broken bones and exposed chest cavities but the worst were the ones that still had their organs hanging loosely from their abdomen. Some of them were still in the middle of eating their breakfast but they chose to have it to-go. Nevertheless, the body they were feasting on was walking with them so it wasn't much of a problem.

They haven't noticed us yet but the moment those alarms wore off, they would definitely come for us.

"Kid? Kid! Are we gonna go or what?! Let's just follow the other plan! We could do this!" Oscar called for me.

"Other plan?!" Arnel started getting hysterical.

I shushed them down as we slowly backed away. After getting a fair amount of distance away from the herd, we crouched down for a short change of plans.

"I'm sorry for not discussing this earlier but it's very easy to follow. We'll start shooting them from here but we'll do it while slowly backing away, maintaining this distance. We'll do it even if we reach the covered court but as long as we don't take down the ones that are close to the ledge. If that happens, their bodily fluids would definitely contaminate the waters and we would have a useless fish pond."

Oscar added, "We're not in a hurry but do make sure to aim first before pulling that fucking trigger. This isn't a competition but I'm sure as hell taking down more than all of ya! Let's go! Let's go!"

Everyone got fired up but the first ones to shoot as the alarms went off were Kaley with her AR-15 and Jared with his M70.

They bored holes through their heads with different speeds but a semiautomatic would obviously be faster. Despite that, Kaley was still getting used to her rifle so there would always be a little bit of delay after each trigger reset. On the other hand, Jared was handling his M70 as smoothly as it could be but he still had the disadvantage of low magazine capacity.

After a short moment, the sounds of their suppressed shots still attracted the herd as their rotten heads turned to us one by one. The active ones started running with a bit of speed and in an erratic manner. They were making a small beeline while ones that were slow were forming small clumps as they moved. The rest of us still hadn't fired yet but I drew my pistol and started shooting the ones that were closer.

I shot three down and said, "Don't panic. Let's retreat a few steps and remember the trick, alright?"

We started retreating but that was when Oscar and Tatiana started firing as well. We started whittling them down as we stepped back and planted our feet. All this was happening while Jenny was bringing the rear for any surprises. Any runner that came close would get their heads to bits by Oscar and Tatiana's shotguns and the shell loads they were using. However, the group we brought still hadn't fired a single shot.

"THE FUCK ARE THE REST OF YOU WATCHING FOR?! THEY ALREADY HEARD US, FUCKING SHOOT! KID! I KNOW YOU COULD GO MELEE BUT THEY'RE STILL TOO MANY!" Oscar exploded.

"I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I KNOW MY LIMITS! GUYS! AIM FOR THE ONES MUCH CLOSER! KALEY AND JARED WILL TAKE CARE OF THE ONES AT THE BACK!!!"

Our shouting roused the dead from the distance but it woke up everyone who was struck from fear. Seeing a herd up close scared the fuck out of them so a little bit of shock therapy of shouting could work with the people that got shocked. They started aiming for the dead before shooting, but most of them would still miss their shots. It was absolutely understandable but the same couldn't be said for the experienced ones.

We rarely missed our shots due to experience and we were slowly holding our ground.

Bodies started piling one after the other in a line as intended, and everything was going smoothly for the most part. We'd shoot and reset the position if they got too close but then it happened.

Three figures slowly emerged from the back and they stood still for a few seconds. However, each of them took a running stance and they all sprinted towards us at break-neck speed.