Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

The first thing we did was show everyone the spud boxes we would be teaching them to make. It looked like an upside-down table with potatoes growing inside the wooden frames while the legs were replaced by wooden studs.

The rest of my group just watched or walked around the area while Oscar, Charlotte, and Chris stayed behind.

Jerry, one of Morales' soldiers asked, "I thought it was supposed to be a box? That's… that's more like a table, right?"

I replied, "It is, yes. However, the plant has only grown so much so the frames we made haven't been put in yet. The higher the plant goes, the more frames we put in until harvest. When it comes, we just unscrew from the bottom and carefully take everything out. You could use some of the potatoes you harvested to be planted again so it could go on for as long as we can."

Romeo, another one of Morales' soldiers interjected, "Can we start now? I'm kinda curious how this works. Can we just use any kind of seed potato?"

Charlotte replied, "U-Umm… excuse me… you could but it's recommended to use the late varieties… T-That's the one we have planted one the couple boxes here."

Romeo looked at Charlotte with surprise before asking, "Can I know why?"

Charlotte replied once more, "U-Umm… it's because once we stack them up… the late varieties could produce more tubers in each layer. W-Well… we're not supposed to be picky at this time but the early varieties would just yield fewer potatoes. We have a few early varieties at home but they're not placed in these spud boxes..."

Romeo nodded pensively with the rest of the soldiers that offered help.

I took their attention, "Okay, let's start preparing the materials first. For starters, I want four 2-inch by 2-inch by 33-inch studs, twelve 21-inch by 2-inch by 6-inch boards, and twelve 24-inch by 2-inch by 6-inch boards."

Jerry groaned, "That many?"

Oscar chuckled, "That's just for one spud box, boy. Furthermore, you're gonna need 96 pieces of 2.5-inch wood screws to hold them together."

Jerry's eyes widened, "That many?! Can't we just use nails?"

Oscar shook my head, "Nope. Did you forget what the kid said earlier? We need to unscrew them for each harvest so that we could use the wood that we used to make them. If we use nails, we might damage the frame when we start to pry them open. If you're that lazy, you could start looking for a drill so you wouldn't complain when you power through with a screwdriver."

Jerry shrank down, "I'm not being lazy… J-Just surprised. We already have a drill here, what do I do?"

I instructed, "Wait for them to finish cutting up the 24-inch wood boards then drill 2 holes on each end, exactly ¾ inches away from each corner. Doing that would position the screw to go into the center of the cut side of the 21-inch boards. Once you're done, screw two of the 24-inch boards together with the 21-inch boards to form the frame like the one we have here."

Jerry nodded, "I-I see..."

Charlotte added, "P-Please do that five more times so that we would have six frames for each box. We wouldn't be able to use all of them at the same time but it's better to have them ready so the measurements are all the same."

Romeo raised his hand, "Umm, these studs go in the inside, right?"

Charlotte nodded, "Yes. All four would go inside, copying what we have here..."

Everyone else started working on their own spud box but Houston we have a problem. I wasn't sure who cursed these motherfucking soldiers but all of their measurements were way off. They even had their own rulers, measuring tapes, pencils, and etc. but I was sure they weren't trolling me. I thought I could endure seeing them be off by a few centimeters but this madness had to stop.

Oscar already disappeared from view when I pulled out a whip.

I made it crack loudly before screaming, "EVERYONE OF YOU FUCKING STOP! WE'RE DOING THIS THE RIGHT WAY OR IT'S THE LAST THING YOU'LL EVER DO! GIVE ME THAT PENCIL!"

"OH GOD~ OH GOD~"

"NOOOOOO~"

"MOMMY~"

"HELP ME~~~"

"STOP CRYING OR I'LL JAB THIS PENCIL IN YOUR FUCKING EARLOBE, YOU FUCKING HEAR ME?!"

I spent a few hours whipping everyone to shape until it was noon. I heard cries, groans, screams, and final words but I didn't fucking care. I made sure that each and every spud box we produced were the same sizes and it really paid off in the end.

We made 48 boxes in total and we placed them in one corner of the port where the sun could shine the brightest. Everything just fits perfectly including the other two that we brought and it almost brought a tear to my eye. With that said, the soldiers gave respect to Charlotte and Chris since they were the only ones that manage to avoid my wrath.

I gathered everyone in a circle, "So, can't you see the greatness we could achieve if we're fucking accurate? Hmm? Anyway, enough about that. Just keep everything here watered and just add more soil and a frame each time it grew. With that said, you could make more spud boxes on your own but I'll fucking check it… very thoroughly."

The soldiers just exclaimed with tears in their eyes, "Yes, sir!"

I nodded with a devilish smile, "Good, good~ Well, look at the time. It's already noon! Good thing we brought lunch for everyone! C'mon! You'll all be able to make some of these if you take care of them properly."

They all asked at the same time, "W-What is it?"

I just smiled once more and we brought down a large pot of potato salad with eggs. It was simply made by mixing together some mayonnaise, yogurt, pickles, vinegar, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper with chopped eggs, potatoes, celery, and onions.

It was supposed to be eaten as is but rice was just something that couldn't be taken away easily. I served each of them a bowl and the tyranny I gave them earlier was already forgotten. With that said, some of them were actually crying while they were eating.

I chuckled, "What's wrong with you guys?"

"This is too good!"

"There's flavor!"

"There's complexity!"

"It's not just boiled with salt or just added in whatever they call a stew!"

"Praise whatever that granted us this blessing!"

I looked around, "So... there's no one to handle the food here, eh?"

Romeo answered, "Yeah… it's just left to whoever is available since our cooks here are still adjusting. Well, you send us some food sometimes so it's all good. We can't complain all the time since it's more or less the same back home."

Jerry added, "We got more servings over here too. Back home, we're happy to get two meals a day. It's just that there are too much people to feed in Davao… we're just estimating and conserving for the worse. I heard it's stable right now but it's pretty bad when it started."

Chris interjected, "So you guys were really down bad over there? I guess we're really just lucky..."

Romeo replied, "Not all the time. We get a small cut every time we bring back resources but we don't have the tools or even the knowledge to cook something like this. That's why we're really happy every time you send us food. We got to taste some home cooking and some we haven't even tasted back home."

We talked a lot more while having some lunch but I eventually let Chris and Charlotte on the care of Morales' soldiers since they helped quite a lot with our small project. With that said, our group traveled to the City of Malabon but this time, we were going towards the City of Manila.

It was because we needed to establish a safe route between our cities and the only way to do that was to kill several hundreds of the undead until they thin out.

The only problem we were facing was that the number of barangays we needed to clear before getting into Iskoh's territory was just too much. One example was that the barangays between the City of Malabon and the City of Manila weren't even named properly, they were just given numbers. It would take a lot of manpower to clear the roads since not only they were infested, they were the area where the ferals would lurk and would sometimes even form packs.

That caused the march to get staggered even more, requiring only large groups or elite units to handle the task.

Oscar tapped me, "Are you sure you're gonna continue using that M2, kid? It's fine if we're in this area, you know?"

I shook my head, "Nah, I think it's fine. I think we need more stopping power if we need to you know… stop them. Heh."

The two of us just started laughing before groans and pity laughs followed.