Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Kaley and I were now looking at Ilana with Tatiana and she just looked solemn before using her palm heel to strike softly under her jawline. We were all looking curiously before she spat out a fake tooth and pulled out a small memory card.

Tatiana faintly smiled, "I guess I'll need to search you more thoroughly later..."

Ilana shook her head, "Where else could I hide more stuff?"

Tatiana chuckled, "You have more teeth, I could start knocking out each one."

I waved them off, "Relax, you two. What's in the memory card?"

Ilana replied, "I can't even understand a tenth of the stuff I found."

"Can't you ask your other team members? You know… from 'that' other group?"

Ilana looked somber, "I'm not a member… I know some of them b-but… everyone just went dark… I could barely obtain a proper foothold in this country and it has gotten even worse when only select places have power… The relays you've set up helped a bit but we need to start making those cell towers work themselves… it's the only way we could get to better speeds and reach further distances..."

"It's kinda further in my plans but we'll look into it. It's not like it's our only problem here. Anyway, can I see what's inside it now? We'll talk about that later."

Ilana fidgeted, "Here… please… j-just..."

I turned to Ilana, "Just what?"

"Just… try and watch everything… most of the files are redacted to some extent but the… the videos are a little too… just watch it..."

The first video I played seemed to be footage from a hidden camera.

It had no audio and the quality wasn't that great but it was enough to recognize people at the right distance. However, most of the people from the footage were wearing masks and all we could see were their eyes that were almost devoid of emotion. The first few minutes were just a group of people talking in a small circle before they proceeded to board an elevator that brought them down to the lower levels.

I kept looking at the background to note some sort of marking I could recognize but it was like they were walking into the same room over and over. They met with more people wearing the same attire but the scenery changed after they walked into a hallway that had the walls changed into a large aquarium. It was also filled with a single type of jellyfish and it looked very familiar.

'Isn't that?'

I was still deep in my thoughts when the video suddenly ended.

Kaley turned to Ilana, "Wait, what? That's it?"

Ilana shrugged her shoulders, "Yeah, that's first of many… some of them don't even make any sense. I just copied everything because I think it had to do with what we're facing right now..."

I was just about to voice my thoughts but I was more pressed with playing another video.

I just clicked on the next file and it had audio this time. However, the camera position was too obscured to even see anything from the first few minutes.

Ilana tapped me, "Turn the volume a little higher."

"Okay. I'll bring it back to the top too."

"Suit yourself."

My eyes were half-closed as I listened to the audio but all I could hear was water sloshing. It was like that for a while but we heard something different.

[O-Oh g- go- *bzzt* fuc- my- shit! *KRR* I'm so- *bzzt*]

Everything else was unintelligible but the footage suddenly became clear as day. A sea of corpses seemed to be floating inside a large vat but the color of whatever fluid or muck they were on was a mix of bile, blood, mucus, acid, and etc.

Bodies were regularly getting dropped from the large opening and those were the only times that the footage gets clearer. However, a certain type of noise was getting carried over from each time a body gets thrown and the large opening gets accessed.

Kaley turned to me and it seemed we got the same thought.

"A-Are those farm a-animals? I c-could hear a pig-"

Kaley was still in mid-sentence before something in the large vat started moving. We could see how the surface of whatever the camera was on form a small wave that caused the camera to sink a little deeper. The distorted voice of the person continued to ring out but it got quiet after a few seconds.

The camera just sunk into the bottom of the vat before the video ended.

Ilana commented, "If I remember correctly, that one is a live broadcast… It got too distorted just to get a little bit of the actual audio out but despite that, it's still gibberish. There are a few more that I-"

Tatiana interjected, "I get that but what are they doing in this one? Are they feeding those corpses to the animals? Don't they die when they take in tainted meat?"

I looked down and muttered, "No… this could be the phase where it's just being spread around everyone and everything or… a different kind where it doesn't affect animals at all… You've seen some of the reports, right? What we have here is different or slightly similar to other countries… Some are active depending on the time of day while some just straight-up turn into something else..."

Ilana scratched her head, "I don't get it… if everyone has it, how come some of us are still alive? Are we all just immune? The ones that are left? B-But… I'm getting confused the more I think about it..."

I shook my head, "No. Hmm… How do I explain this… A virus going around places doesn't just stay the same… When it goes through different hosts… don't quote me on my wording on this but when they replicate, copying errors or mutations could occur depending on several factors, and that creates different strains... For example, the only way we could get the common cold again is if it's a different strain from the one that our immune system had already fought and won over."

Ilana was staring at me, "You mean we could get the same sickness even if the virus is different? L-Like… no… wai-"

"You're kinda getting it. My group talked about this before… if our scientists ever created a vaccine for one strain, it's possible that it wouldn't work on the other strains… What do we even got currently? We got normal ones, sprinters, slurpers, sentries, ferals, and the other specials we rarely encounter plus the irregulars..."

"C-Can't we just make one for each of them?"

I rubbed my glabella, "Ilana… there wasn't even a single report that's close to making one. How are we gonna start making several vaccines? In my opinion, the way to do it is to create something that could precisely predict how it would mutate and counter everything it has to offer. Not entirely removing it but living alongside it… balancing it. That's gonna take some breakthrough in my honest opinion. Like I said before, our only know cure is bullets. There are more ways to take care of them but you know what I mean..."

Kaley asked, "B-But… isn't it also possible that we weren't even infected in the first place?"

Tatiana asked, "What do you mean? We've already witnessed people turning once they died in their sleep, correct? Doesn't that mean that all of us had it already?"

Kaley fiddled with her fingers, "I m-mean… that's true as well but… there could be people that aren't even infected..."

I nodded pensively, "That's true but we never really know how it got transmitted to everyone… or most of the people around... yet still remained under the radar. One theory could say that it was programmed to have no symptoms for a time right until the final moment. Hmm~ I think it's enough thinking about possible theories… let's just check the other videos… This one is next?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

As soon as I played the third video, it wasn't what we expected at all. We first thought it would be someplace obscured and hidden but looking at the general surrounding, it seemed to be a daycare center. However, something was fucking amiss the moment the child caretakers appeared. They were wearing the proper uniforms as they were looking over the kids either running around or just sleeping but fear was deep-seated in their eyes.

'What the fuck…'

It wasn't because of the guy in the lab coat watching from the back, the outline of high-powered rifles from the other side of the glass door, the undecipherable graphs on the whiteboard, or the weird food they were feeding the kids and eating themselves.

It only took a moment to realize it wasn't a normal daycare center because every single child they were taking care of looked like the same person.

Kaley muttered, "Wh-What's going on?!"

Tatiana was silent as Ilana but their faces looked extremely disturbed.

I replied, "I d-don't know..."

It could have easily been dismissed as one of those cases where a mother would give birth to a lot of children at the same time but this wasn't the case. We were still processing what we are seeing in our eyes but two of the kids started bleeding out from all of their orifices before dropping dead.

Three more kids followed after them but they convulsed and trembled before collapsing on the ground, deep lesions tearing through their faces. Only one more kid followed after the first five but it just died in its sleep before a pool of blood formed under its body.