Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

All of us were just watching the tablet closely, checking for anything that might shed light on what we were witnessing or even waiting for the right moment the 'something' hidden underneath decided to show itself. Each upward and downward movement from the surface of where we were looking would make us try and breathe as subtle as we could, almost trying to mask our own presence.

In a sick sense, it was like we were imitating what was happening and we were trying to go slower than it could.

Kaley and Tatiana's question earlier didn't earn a response because a few moments as they said that, 'it' moved. It didn't move abruptly from one place to another but it seemed to have just adjusted its position with the tiniest of movement.

We only discovered it because the severed head right in the middle of the elevated 'mound' of corpses had shifted in place, making it tilt its head even more, giving us a closer look at the maggots wriggling out of its nose and its mouth. A few of them have fallen off, changing its meal to what seemed to be a quarter of a decaying torso.

It stopped advancing after that and it just continued to heave up and down, giving us more questions than answers. We were waiting for what it would do next but it seemed to have its spot. We would be here for a while if we continued to observe it but Lois called us from below.

-

*bzzt*

[You seeing that, bro?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Yeah, can you fly your drone closer? I want to see if it would react to that."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Ah- sure...]

*bzzt*

-

Lois ended the call with some hesitation but we soon watched his drone approach the 'mound' inch by inch, weaving back with each advancement, hoping to avoid whatever may come after it. However, despite the precautions and speculations on what may have happened, there was nary a response from the mound but the ones that were stuck right on the thicket of it tried to reach for our small surveillance device.

-

*bzzt*

[Nothing bro. Shouldn't it be just a few deadheads getting stuck underneath? It's the only answer, right?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"It's possible."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Possible? That's it? That's all you got, bro?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"The fuck is wrong with you today? Unless we take down everything from this cemetery and dig that shit up, we wouldn't know."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Ah, I thought you figured it out already. My bad, do you want me to fly a little more around? See if the same thing is happening in some other places?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Sure, go ahead. I'll check around the perimeter then go back to this spot to see if moved again."

*bzzt*

-

I made my drone fly a fair distance away from the two cemeteries and it somehow confirmed Tatiana's report. A few stragglers that would somehow end up in the garbled radius around the cemetery would change direction, heading for its demise. However, it wasn't 100% accurate because some would just scramble through where they were heading to.

'This is weird~ as fuck...'

I was about to fly my drone back to the same spot when I noticed something peculiar from the corner of my tablet. I had to hover my drone in place to see them much clearly but as soon as I saw the ones approaching, I made it land on a safe, hidden spot before shushing Tatiana and Kaley. The moment they saw my eyes, they knew something was up and we started running downstairs.

"Why are we running down?!" Kaley exclaimed in a hushed tone.

Tatiana was keeping quiet but she was waiting for my response.

I had no time to explain what I saw from the feed and I was 100% sure Lois didn't see it. We had to run down as fast as we could and maybe even try to drive away if possible. However, what I witnessed would definitely come for us and I wasn't sure if we would be able to outrun them.

I already had the liberty of witnessing them in action a few times and I was sure as hell wouldn't face them in this type of situation. We were sitting ducks the moment they caught a whiff of us and we had to strategically retreat.

'Shit! Shit! Shit!'

As soon as we reached the three, I snatched the controller from Lois' hand and made his drone fly away from us.

"Bro?! What g- mmfHpH!" Lois tried to lash out but Tatiana covered her mouth.

I said with a grim tone, "Mikhail, turn the engine off but be ready to get it running the moment I tell you to."

Everyone was confused as fuck but I had to fly his drone as far as possible and look for a suitable target. Every second counted and the timing had to be right but there were a lot of variables to be taken into account. They were about to reach our area but I saw a closed parking lot a few meters away.

I was counting the seconds on my head, predicting their pathing and calculating how fast they were moving and how far they could probably accelerate before I made Lois' drone crash onto the vehicles right by the parking lot. I picked a spot where it would hit one and ricochet off to a few more so the chance of it triggering the alarms was high.

The drone we were using had an audio feature but seeing the flashing lights from the feed, I immediately backhanded Mikhail to serve as the signal.

"GO!" I mouthed as he turned to me.

Mikhail turned the engine on and he stepped on the gas, accelerating at great speed and crashing through the gate in front of us. I was looking back the whole time with my rifle raised and I didn't let up until I heard the sounds coming from the other tablet.

'This is trouble… We need to take care of them as fast as possible but… not at this moment… not yet...'

The rest were just staring in shock from what they witnessed but they still haven't seen what I have seen from the other drone. I wouldn't dare to try and bring both of them back as of this moment, but I knew one thing has happened when we were progressing our own, they were progressing as well.

Before the feed from Lois' drone cut off, the last thing we saw was a few dozen ferals swarming the parking lot, missing the majority of their heads. Some only had their jaws intact while some were just broken and hollowed out. Furthermore, a select few seemed to have gotten their necks ripped out with their heads but they were moving the same way their original counterparts were, maybe even faster or just more… randomized.

Their bodies were disfigured to the point they looked like a certain ring-lover but their muscles were thick and robust despite the several chunks bitten off. I saw one leap for several feet and the way it landed told me it was packing some weight. However, the worst of it all was the one trailing behind them.

No one had seen it besides me and everyone except for Mikhail was eyeing the other tablet in my hand.

I just sighed and rewound the footage for them while I kept on checking behind us to see if we were followed.

"What the fu-"

I thought Lois would swear at first but it was Chris.

What they saw from my tablet was a tall figure consisting of congealed body parts in its upper torso. Several arms and legs of different lengths were hanging out and five long, and twisted tongues were coming out of its, for lack of a better term, its weird orifices. I couldn't call it its mouth anymore because it had several smaller tongues and disjointed fingers right by the base of the openings.

I would've taken a shot if it wasn't for the buildings blocking us or the uncertainty of what may happen once I shot it. Even so, I wasn't sure if it would go down if I hit with what seemed to be its heads because it had the same number of heads as the number of the long muscles located in its mouth. It looked like a fucked-up, upside-down squid that grew legs and was used to scrub the sewer where pieces of rotting corpses were being dumped.

'Let's just hope it's only one of them out there...'

As soon as we were in a relatively safe spot, we took a small breather and I reviewed the footage over and over. At the same time, Kaley contacted the others near the area and the soldiers that belonged to Morales' group to warn them of our discovery.

After a while, I took a deep breath and said, "Okay, let's head back."

Chris and Lois breathed a sigh of relief as they said, "Finally..."

"No, we're going back to the church."

"WHAT?!"

"Heh, just kidding. It's almost sunset."

"..."