Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

"HOLY SHIT, BRO! THAT SHIT WAS LIKE THE MAJOR LEAGUES!"

"Huh? Major– I don't know where you got that from but what's the status on the tanker?"

"Ah– A f-few more minutes, I guess? We'll be good to go by then but– WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE EXCITED HERE?! FUCK! THAT FUCKER'S FATE WAS SEALED!"

"Take it easy, man… heh."

"C'mon! That fucker speeding up scared me even if it wasn't coming for me!"

I chuckled, "Well, good thing it didn't leap in the air and do that flying knee shit… But yeah, what's dangerous about those sprinters really is their speed. Especially when it gathered enough momentum and charged straight for us without our notice."

Tatiana added, "Much more if we encounter them in tight spaces and dimly lit areas."

"True, but pivoting is its weakness… and look at its feet," I said as I pointed at its soles.

"Hmm?"

As the two leaned forward to take a closer look, I crouched down and used my knife to reveal the area I was pointing to.

"See? The constant running burned through its shoes and the flesh from its feet got mangled. We could almost see the bone if it weren't for the floppy bits and the other stuff that got stuck inside it."

Tatiana nodded pensively, "So, if we set up a trap or an obstacle at a blind angle…"

I finished her sentence, "That'll work wonders and we probably start with the road that leads to our fenced gates."

"I agree."

Russel interjected, "Wait– If they kept running at the same speed, will they sliced into bits if they tried to run through the fence we got? Will they?"

"Hmm~ I don't think so."

"Why?"

"Bones. Besides, our fences would give out first the way they were installed. The only thing that'll ever happen if they were fastened so fucking tight and the ones coming for it were coming in as fast as they could."

"So, we need to replace the existing gate in the future?" Tatiana asked.

"Yeah, but the chain-linked fence is good for now. But when we do, I'd prefer something similar to the gate we had on our compound. It'll take time and resources to make it, but it'll be fucking worth it."

Time continued to pass and Russel kept checking the tanker while Tatiana continued to stand guard below him. While that was happening, I was picking off several stragglers that I lured over so that we'd have less to deal with in the future. After checking their person for any trinkets I could make use of, I threw them over the pile we made earlier.

'189… It ain't much but it's honest work… The more bullets saved, the better…'

I was about to lure the ones further back but then I saw Russel trying to wave me over.

"It's full?"

"Yeah– but why are you clearing them one by one, bro? You even took care of the ones that are already further out. Trying to get some practice in?"

"Something like that. The less of them out there, the safer I'd feel going back. We need to prevent herds from forming as much as possible. One or two deadheads left alone could be a cluster tomorrow if they met up with other deadheads roaming around…"

"Oh! Like in 'The Pacing Unliving'?"

"Yep, like that series. If it was me, I'd be assigning a group to go outside and to just take care of stragglers to avoid unforeseen incidents that could cause a life. Good thing we met with Jay's group since I have the perfect job for them. The more we dispose of these fuckers, the lesser the chances of a herd roaming the streets."

"But it would be cool to fight at least one of those herds at least once…"

"You little shit– Do you want me to beat you to death? You're not motherfucking Chuck Norris for fucks sake. If that ever happens, I'd send you solo with nothing but a kazoo. Hear me?"

"Ahahah... I'm just joking, bro… chill…"

After a bit, we finally drove home and the ride back was uneventful.

I still contemplated stopping by the Pineda residence once more but I stopped myself. I could be missing something important by postponing our visit, but we still had far more important things to do than to relieve an itch that was trying to take over my head.

It was the same situation with Russel stopping himself from checking out the convenience store in the gas station because he was tasked with filling up the tanker and making sure that no spillages would occur so we could come back next time and maximize till the last drop.

The moment we arrived, we just parked the tanker at the same place it was in earlier and once I checked my watch, it was a few minutes before 5:00 PM.

We still had a full hour before sunset and I just discovered from Allan that some of us were at the court and decided to play some basketball. It was because they discovered that we wouldn't have the gun class today so they maximized the space available.

Some of them didn't even go there to break a sweat but to just leisurely hang about.

With that said, when the three of us came to check on them, they were in a heated 5-on-5 game and Alex was dominating everyone with her skills and height advantage. Jared was the only one that could guard but he was getting blocked by Alex's other teammates.

The people watching were cheering as loud as they could and I saw Kaley waving me over when she saw us walk by. Daisy was right next to her and it seemed that their attention was focused on something else.

The moment we reached them, Kaley gave me a strange request.

"Hey, can you remove your jacket?"

"Huh?"

"Ah– Just to see your tattoo! I told Daisy about it and she wanted to see it!"

"Okay, sure..."

Once I did, Daisy's eyes lit up as she approached closer and leaned over to check my arm. She even folded, twisted, and turned my arm different ways at some point to get a closer look and it was kinda amusing as to how serious she was about checking it thoroughly.

After she was done, she just excitedly nodded a few times before turning to me with a bright smile.

"It's a masterpiece! Where did you get it done?!"

"Ah– oh, in Japan."

"Japan?! I knew it! Who– Did he use a pattern?! How did he do it?! What tools did he use?!"

"Ahaha… I'm pretty close with an old man there and he was the one who gave it to me. Oh! He didn't use a pattern and he used thin bamboo to ink it all…"

"Bamboo?! That fucking stings!"

"Yep, hurt like hell…"

"But still, it turned out like this!"

"Yeah… Anyway… Daisy, you said you're a tattoo artist, right? How long have you been doing that for?"

"Yeah, I've been doing it for five years. Right– Anyway, Kaley and I chatted for a bit earlier and she said she might want to have something similar to yours– but I haven't seen it yet so– that's why she asked you to remove your jacket… Anyway–"

Russel cut her off, "You're a tattoo artist?! Can I have something done?!"

"Ah– s-sure... Do you have a design ready or do you want me to improvise?"

Russel was about to answer her question but one of the players wanted to get subbed out and he jumped at the first chance to start playing right away. Not only did he interrupt our earlier conversation, he also left everyone hanging.

"I'm so sorry, Daisy. He'll probably even forget that she asked you for one…"

Daisy chuckled, "T-That's fine… At least we'll be back on topic… Ahaha… So, Kaley… looking at that design, do you want something in the shape of a dragon or do you want it to be a serpent or something different? Do you want it to be holding something and do you want it to be in the same pose as that one? Oh! How big do you want it? If it's your first one, I suggest something small…"

Kaley just got barraged with a ton of questions and she turned to me for help.

"W-What do you think?"

"Me? Well, it's your body that's getting inked so make sure the one you're getting is something you're prepared to look at for the rest of your life, like me. Once it's there, it's there. It'll be a pain in the ass to remove it, especially now."

"You think you're so smooth… 'like me'... heh. But I want something like yours though… There could be minor changes but I want us to match if you want?"

I was just about to answer honestly but Daisy waved her off.

"Kaley, I've been doing this for years but I… I may not be able to reproduce the same quality as that… It may look like it was inked normally but if you look closely, there's a lot more going on than it looks. I don't even recognize the techniques used to make the scales look like that– and even the claws– heck the head looks like it would jump out of his arm any second! And doing this without a pattern and with bamboo? Damn, the person who did this must've been in the business for years!"

I chuckled nervously, "Yeah, you could say that…"

'If they only knew that he's a great… nevermind…'

Daisy continued, "I wish I could train under him one day but I'll continue to refine my technique to reach that level… I could refrain from doing something permanent but if I get my hands on some blackening shampoo, I'd–"

"We have a few dozen of those actually."

"Really?! That's great! I could start practicing with other people first and I'll tell you when I'm ready!"

"It's a deal then! I'll trust you with it!"

"Thank you!"

We were still in casual conversation when the people on the bleachers started losing it.

"OHHHHHHHHH~!"

"DID ANYONE FUCKING SEE THAT?!"

"GET FUCKED!"

"HAHAHAHA!"

When I turned my attention to the court, Jo was on the ground while Jared was already dashing forward for a quick layup. He probably broke Jo's ankles from a nasty crossover and he took advantage of the situation.

"CLEAR! CLEAR! CLEAR!"

When the ball was cleared, Jo threw a fast break towards Alex on the opposite side of the ring where no one was guarding her but Lois. Lois tried to block her but she was just too fucking tall. She could've dunked it if she wanted to but she just laid it in the basket.

On one side of the court, Rin was keeping the score with Olivia and Zeus while Bing was keeping a healthy distance away.

'Is he afraid of dogs?'

With that said, the scoreboard would look a bit different because each basket just counts as 1 point and it was just a race to reach 22 points in total. There were no time limits or anything of the sort, but it would be gentlemen's ruling for fouls.

The game concluded with Jared's team winning by a point. They wanted to play another game but they noticed me watching on the side.

"Bro~ we finally beat Alex after two tries... You weren't kidding when you said that she was on the varsity team…"

"Two tries? Oh, so you just tired her up?"

"We're going for another round, wanna join?" Jared avoided my taunts.

"Maybe next time, I'm teaching a CCW class at the gym right about now. I'll teach ten people today though a few could watch to gain some insights."

As soon as I said that, a few of them gave excited expressions and Rin was among the few. They all followed me when I started to walk back to the compound while the ones who wanted to play ball stayed behind. I was walking side-by-side with Kaley and Zeus though Tatiana was always walking a few steps behind, but Rin was walking alongside her.

While we were halfway to the compound, Kaley nudged me.

"I'm finally getting taught how to use this tanto, huh? Why just ten people though?"

"Yeah, it took a while... I only said ten because I wouldn't want a crowd of beginners stabbing each other in the eye before they got to learn anything." I said jokingly.

"Wha– You'll make them use bladed tools? Stop lying, do you have those wooden things lying around?"

"Hahaha… yeah, I do have different sized bokkens lying around."

The moment we arrived, I asked the attendees to head to the gym first while I prepared a few things.

First things first, I switched the rest of my offensive gear to just my katana and my wakizashi. I fastened them on my hips and I secured the rest of my guns back to my armory. After that, I took all of my bokkens lying around in my room and brought them all up in the gym.

When I arrived, I saw Kaley, Mark, Dong, Jared, Rin, Chris, Jay, Bing, Lois, and Alex along with a few onlookers. I thought some of them would continue to play basketball but they chose to learn something new.

"Gather around… Okay, let's have a small lecture first. What do you think is the most important thing in regards to wielding weapons? Not just blades such as the ones I have on my hips but just in general? Be it fighting barehanded, shooting guns, or using close-combat weapons? Speed? Power? Or something else? Hmm?"

Everyone was just looking at me but Chris was the first one to answer.