Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

After that call, I placed my radio down, and then I walked to the passenger's side of my Raptor. I opened the door and let myself in as I gently closed it behind me. Kaley was still asleep on the driver's side of my Raptor but she slowly turned to face my side, letting me see her sleeping face. However, I almost screamed out loud as I caught a glimpse of Tatiana's face from the rear-view mirror, grinning wickedly through the glass from the truck bed.

"What the fuck?!" I mouthed at her as I shook my head and did the hand thing that Italians do.

Tatiana and I started to have a back and forth with our hands but Kaley eventually woke up.

"Hmngh… Hmm? Hey… I-I fell asleep..."

I turned to Kaley and said, "Did you try and stay up all night?"

"Yeah… I… Are you… Are you okay?" Kaley had a tinge of worry and concern in her eyes.

I just looked at her until a full minute had passed.

"Sky?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"What? You didn't get it?"

"Get it? What?"

"Huh. Interesting..."

"Huh? What do you mean, 'huh?'"

"I guess you are really not a psychic. You would've known what I thought of already if you're one."

"What are you- Sky… it's too early… I guess you're really okay..."

"Hmm~ You could just be purposefully hiding the fact that you are one by not using your powers just this once to remove suspicion. Ow! Kaley!"

"Can you not while I've just woken up? Wait… who are you talking to earlier?" Kaley turned around to see Tatiana still wickedly grinning from the truck bed. At that moment, Tatiana gestured by pointing at me and Kaley before making her fingers go back and forth through the hole she made with her other hand.

"You two are unbelievable..."

"Hey, you're in a relationship with one. Who's the unbelievable one now?"

"Hngh~ Let's just… they're coming, where are we headed?" Kaley started to scratch her head but she saw Jared and the rest coming out of the main office with their equipment. However, Morales was present with them and they were all waking the same way towards us.

"We're about to go home. I guess Morales wanted to know what happened with me and Jameson Lim."

"..."

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'll just… tell you later..."

"Huh? O-Okay then..."

I went out of my vehicle to face Morales.

Morales' fists were even more bruised compared to the last time I saw them but his expression was still the same way despite the cuts made from his fight with Artem the other day. He opened the warehouse door and glanced for a brief moment while Jared and the rest loaded our equipment inside our vehicle.

Morales closed the door and turned to me, "Had your fill? You took your sweet time, didn't you?"

"And you? I guess you applied more force than necessary."

"No, Garbo Marcelo is still alive."

"What?"

"I'm gonna take my time with him, the others too."

"I guess I'm not the one taking his 'sweet time', eh?"

"Hmm. Did you find anything? We could trade info, filter the bad ones from the good ones."

"Yeah, come by to my place later before sunset. We'll discuss it at length but for now, continue securing this place. If you need anything, give me a call and I'll see what I could do."

"For now, I'll need a portion of the guns collected from Jameson Lim and Garbo Marcelo's people."

"Sure, I'll add a bit more for your troubles."

"Troubles?"

"Renting your warehouse and one of your trucks to me and giving me Jameson Lim. You already know that I'll be taking your people for a while, right?"

"My people?"

"Donnabelle, Imelda, the asshole Castro, and etc. Did any of them turn?"

"Ah, the asshole turned. Only him. The rest are doing fine and showing no signs anymore."

"Good. We'll be going on ahead then."

"Yeah."

It took a few moments for everyone to gather by the entrance but we eventually left the port with our vehicles. We encountered two groups clearing the dead and fishing out the multitude of bodies from the fishing areas and the smell was still fucking horrible. It was one thing to catch a whiff of it and it was one thing to bask in its ambiance.

They made use of a couple of dump trucks to haul everything in one place because burning submerged bodies by the road wasn't a good idea. Not only it would be a herculean task to set them on fire, but it would also prove difficult to traverse that part of the road if they were placed by the roadside.

It was because the road was only a two-way passage that would go for a few kilometers and going off the edge would lead straight to the fishing areas filled with viscous muck. Adequate space for maneuverability was always preferred and having just the right amount of space wasn't the norm anymore.

"Want me to shoot a few?" Kaley asked.

I shook my head as we drove past them, "Nah, just let the ones wading through to approach the edge so they would be easier for them to haul."

After a while, we encountered more soldiers killing their way through a small herd and that was when I let Kaley and the rest let loose. Ibarra and Mikhail were guarding the people on the truck and we just drove away after putting down every last one of them. The soldiers simply thanked us when we left more ammo for them and we continued on the ride home.

"Pick all of the casings off the ground!"

"Y-Yes, sir!"

It took us a while but we were now parking inside the DDR Camp built on the hospital at home.

I walked over to the people by the truck, "We're here, our doctors will give you all a simple checkup and you'll be assigned your rooms to rest. After that, you'll be given the rest of your basic necessities and you'll have a talk with my wife's mother. She'll find ways to help you and even hear out your troubles without any judgment. All I could say for now is to cooperate and we'll see what happens next."

"T-Thank you, young man..."

"Thanks!"

"Is this place real?! They have everything! A court and even a flower garden!"

"Thank you."

"Wait, is that Iskoh?!"

I let Ferdinand's soldiers take care of them while the rest of my team drove inside the compound. I gave each of them the day off but most of them decided to get back to work at noon. However, Artem and his team decided to get back on it as soon as possible.

"Any place you could send us?" Artem approached me.

"There's a lot of places that Darelle have scouted and haven't had the chance to visit personally. Talk to him and get some info about those places and I'll let you decide which places you could hit with your team. If you need a refill with your supplies, talk to me, Rin, or Oscar and we'll see what we could do."

"What's the priority though?" Katya chimed in.

"As of now, it's still clearing the roads to the City of Manila. Aside from that, getting more samples from the ones latched on the train station in Monumento, taking down the 'walls' made by those things, and making proper contact with the people from the City of Quezon. We're swamped with a lot of things to do and I couldn't just send the normal rabble to those places. There are other works to be done here but we're more suited for work outside, right?"

"Obviously, we signed up for this shit," Bogdan added from the side.

"What are your plans then?" I asked.

Artem casually pulled out another hot pocket and said, "Anything, really. I work with you now, da? I trust you could send us to better missions."

"And better equipped!" Bogdan added once more.

"That. Especially, that." Kristoff nodded several times.

"Okay, how about this?"

I proposed a plan to do an expedition that would take a few days to accomplish. It would be like the people from our DDR Camp based in my high school were doing but on a different scale. I would equip them with better gear and supply them generously while they would come back with fruitful results and most of all, accurate and detailed information.

However, the risk level was higher because their nights would be spent outside and they would have the option of securing a safe area to lay their heads on or sleep in their vehicles. Aside from that, their supplies and equipment should be maintained properly because the only way they could get more was to scavenge for more and it would involve some luck.

"That sounds great, what's the destination then?" Artem nodded a few times.