Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I picked my radio and set it to the frequency where Bing was in while my group started to pile up the dead at the medium-sized parking area.

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*bzzt*

"Bing a.k.a. Daddy Jackhammer, a.k.a. Mr. Jacked-up 2010, a.k.a. 2010 Takedown of the Year, a.k.a. Mr. Booty 2009, a.k.a.-"

*bzzt*

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[WHAT?! W-W-WHAT THE FUCK?! HOW DID Y-YOU- I mean- Who's Aka and the other-]

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"Heh. Relax, dude. I won't judge ya. Anyway, we just cleared up this place. Are there any other places where uhh- you know… some hidden stash might be located? It could be anything… I'll also bring back anything you might want as a souvenir."

*bzzt*

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[...]

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"Bing?"

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[Are… Are they all dead? Mike, the big guy with the head tattoo. Jen, with a nose piercing and a scar on her left arm. Gina, with the neck tattoo working as a bartender. You have perfect memory, right? You noticed those three?]

*bzzt*

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"Yeah… sorry, man. Want me to take them back? We could cremate them at least. I could also bring back some of their belongings if you have an inkling as to where they are located. Bing?"

*bzzt*

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Bing didn't answer me for a while but then I heard Daisy's voice.

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[Hey, umm… Bing is a little… preoccupied right now- Huh? Check the what? And the- wait… I see… I see… Okay… Where else? Okay, I'll tell him. Hey… Sky, you still there?]

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"Yeah, did he say something?"

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[Bing uh… he told me to tell you to check the under the pole in VIP Room #9, 3rd locker on the right of the dancer's rooms, the bartender's shelf to the left, and all of the mirrors in the restrooms, the manager's office, the dancer's rooms, VIP Rooms, and the bouncer's lounge. He said you'd know what to take back and if it isn't any trouble, he'd want to have their bodies brought back...]

*bzzt*

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"Yeah, tell him thank you and I'll take care of it myself. We'll be back in a few hours, see you soon… And Daisy, tell Jay your group could take a break for now but have someone watch over Bing. He's good friends with Russel and Allan from what I could recall and if he needs someone to talk to, you're much closer to him, you know who he could talk to, or Marisha and I could drop by whenever."

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[Yeah… I know… stay safe...]

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"Yeah, you too."

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I ended the call and then I walked over outside to tell my group to look for the bodies of Bing's close friends from his previous work. It took a while to find them from the dozens and dozens of bodies we piled on top of one another but we eventually put them in sealed tarps so we could transport them back personally. My group was wearing solemn expressions but I still need to go to the places Bing mentioned to check.

Kaley and Tatiana accompanied me while the rest hauled the alcohol we found by the gate for easy transport later. Jared already called the old man so he would appear sooner or later. With that said, the three of us just turned our flashlights on to check the pole on the 9th VIP Room first.

It was placed on top of a two-foot platform and we just pried open the side of it to see what was hidden inside.

Kaley commented, "Is that a shotgun? A shockwave?"

"Close… it's a Mossberg 590 Nightstick… it has a few shells here and oh- why is there a .410 shell in- ah! There's a Henry .410 axe in here as well with a few rolls of cash and some ID. This must all belong to Mike. I guess we'll see more in the other places. Let's check the mirror here too..."

"Mirrors? There are only a few pictures here and there… this must be what Bing is looking for..."

"Yeah, let's all go through them before we leave."

We three took our time searching through the other places Bing mentioned to check and we found more valuables of the owners themselves. The locker simply contained clothes, pepper spray, a diary, and an old dried-up rose acting as a bookmark while the bartender's shelf had a lone metal flask with a leather holder.

Looking at it closely, the letters B, G, M, and J were engraved roughly by a knife but I was sure as hell wouldn't drink from whatever concoction was inside.

From the pictures themselves, we searched the whole area and took all of them. Looking at each one, we recognized Bing and his old friends in some of them from a few years back. Most of the shots were taken inside this strip club and I could barely paint the picture at what happened in some of them. In the end, I just placed them all in my bag before joining everyone.

Oscar and his group were already outside and he's picking up a few bottles that he fancied. Most of them were bottles of whisky and rum but he put them down once he saw me.

"Hey, kid. Those bodies at your Raptor… I heard they were Bing's friends from here?"

"Yeah. We'll be bringing them back to the crematorium or something. I'm not sure how the whole process works even more when we're dealing with bodies like that but we'll make it work at least. Well, let's just see what the big guy wants to do with them first."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we pulled out some of the train cars from the other roads as well since we still needed to haul the bodies away from that area. We discovered more of those tentacle fuckers adding more stuff onto themselves so we'd remove the option for them to do so as much as possible."

"That's good. Just don't forget to block the passages after you're done so we won't have to deal with more things. To be honest, we got a little too much on our plate and I don't want to drop a few more things ongoing so we could function normally."

"Already handled. You might need to have that talk with Harold later in the meeting since Morales will be there as well. In any case, you could drive back ahead of us if you want to start burning those bodies. I believe they take a couple of hours to complete."

"Sure, old man."

My group just packed up and drove back while shooting down each deadhead we encounter. It would be troublesome if they got picked up by our new special but it would be better to lessen the threat of a regular deadhead turning into a feral or even a sprinter. With that said, we weren't still 100% sure as to how they change but it was a better option to take down anything that shouldn't be moving.

It took us a couple of hours to get back but Bing, Jay, Daisy, and the rest of their own group was waiting by Lawrence's outpost. The big guy was just slumped at the truck bed but he instantly ran towards us when he saw us coming. However, Mikhail held him on his shoulder first before I jumped down from the back of my vehicle.

Bing pleaded as his eyes were already red, "H-Hey man… I- I just want to see them, o-okay?! I-It's been a while and- I… please, man! I just-"

I cut him off as I looked at him straight in the eye, "Bing… listen to me, okay? I just want you to be sure. They're not the same as you last saw them and I brought all of their things here. The guns, the diary, the rose, their clothes, the flask, the pictures, and everything. It's all in this bag and you're free to decide what to do with them. I… I just want you to make sure if this is what you want."

Bing was momentarily stunned when he saw the handle of the Nightstick sticking out from my bag and he just started bawling in front of everyone. In the end, Bing still decided to see his friend's faces one last time before helping us take care of them.

It was a short drive to get to the crematorium but we placed all of them in a large wooden container before placing them in the cremation chamber. We light it up for up to 2000 degrees and we wore the proper equipment to do it in. Everyone was just silently waiting while Bing was looking at all of the pictures we took back. He was still crying silently but he would sometimes smile bitterly while checking the old pictures and reading through the diary.

It was almost sunset when we got back with their ground-up ashes but Bing turned to me before walking back to their place.

"We got off on the wrong foot the first time we met but you're cool, man. Real cool. Sorry for crying earlier."

"You did? I think it's raining or something, I didn't notice. A-Anyway, Bing, those shotguns are a little~ rough on the edges. I could polish them for a bit and check the shells if they're still viable."

Bing didn't say a word at first as he just looked down for a short moment before looking at me with a bright smile on his face, "Yeah, that would be nice."