Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I got a couple of chuckles from trying to connect the word 'idea' with the words 'light switch' and 'light bulb', but Unc Zardon looked around before he turned to me.

"Let's stop it there though… Nothing seems to be around here…"

Dong scrunched his eyebrows after also taking a look around, "But why is there still a lot of food over there? Did they hole up in the main house and just use this place as their storage?"

I scratched the side of my cheek, "That's possible. Why don't we mark this house first before moving into the bigger one? Let's just come back here after we clear everything from both houses."

"I agree."

"Okay, boss."

It didn't take long before we made sure that the smaller house didn't have any surprises, and we just marked it and secured it for later. With that said, once we were in front of the main house of the Pineda family, Dong couldn't help but comment on it.

"Boss, remind me. Why is this house so big again? It's bigger than your house– well, not if we combine all your houses together but– you know what I mean, right?"

I chuckled, "Yeah, the Pineda residence had a politician or two in their house."

"So… you mean–"

"Ah– Bad choice of words. They do have family members that are in politics but this house was already built before they ran for government positions."

Unc Zardon shook his head, chuckling, "That didn't explain anything at all."

I almost slapped my forehead, "Right… Let's just say that they're rich?"

"Much better."

"Boss, that I understand. Heh."

We eventually drew closer and once we were in front of their fancy embroidered door, I knocked on it for a bit and we waited for any sort of reaction. However, after doing it for a few minutes and nothing happening, I just pulled out a roll of duct tape from the bag I was always carrying.

"Uhh~ Boss? What are you gonna do with that? You're not planning to seal the doors with that, don't you?"

I shook my head, chuckling, "Just wait and see…"

With that said, I walked over to the nearest window before I taped several strips to cover one fully. The two were just curiously watching what I would do next, but the next thing they knew, I suddenly struck the window with my elbow.

However, instead of it making a loud noise after breaking them into pieces, they all just stuck to the strips of duct tape and made only a crisp crack that was almost inaudible.

Dong couldn't believe what he was seeing and his mind just got blown when I started to peel off the strips of duct tape with glass shards that should've fallen on the ground. After I laid it on the side, he couldn't stop smiling and he even wanted to try it on the other window that was still intact.

I instantly waved him over, "C'mon, man. We only need one access point. I'll just let you do it next time."

Dong was a little unwilling but he relented, "Okay, boss. But tell me, are you friends with a burglar or something?"

"Uh-huh. I'm friends with a guy who stole the Declaration of Independence."

"Wut?"

"Nevermind…"

I shook my head while Unc Zardon was just amusedly watching us, but I eventually pulled out one of my alarms and threw it inside. It started to tick for a few seconds but it didn't take long before its ringing sound echoed from the inside.

My knocking earlier would've done the trick but I just wanted to make sure for a second time.

After a while, the ringing stopped and we just waited for a minute or two with nothing happening. I even tried to take a whiff by wafting the air inside towards my face, using my palm, but it still smelled like nothing.

"Hmm…"

"Why are you smelling the house, boss?"

"Decay. If anything is dead on this floor, we would've smelled it right now."

"Oh, right. What are we gonna do now?"

"Let's just go in but be careful still."

"Alright."

With that said, I easily picked the lock and we carefully went inside. This time, I first looked for the light switch because it was also dark here and I didn't want a repeat of the fiasco earlier, but the moment I found it and flicked it on, the lights won't turn on.

'Just my luck…'

We continued to use our flashlights but when I pointed at the ceiling, I found out that some of the light bulbs were broken. However, there were a few that were still intact but even if I tried to light them up after finding different light switches, they still wouldn't illuminate the area.

"Weird," Unc Zardon commented.

"Could the main breaker be turned off?"

"Oh, right. That's possible."

"Okay, since the stairs are just right across from the door, Dong, you stay here and watch these two places. You can stay by the door but make sure to take care of or radio us if something else comes down. Unc and I will search this floor first before we go upstairs. Clear?"

"Clear, boss."

With that said, Unc and I gave ourselves a tour of the first floor. We checked the living room, the dining area, the kitchen, the bathroom, and the two other areas that were also available.

Aside from a few pieces of furniture being out of place, the living room had no signs of the dead being present. The same could be said about the dining area and the kitchen because the furniture and the appliances were still in working condition, and like the first house we checked, it still had a large number of food items available.

It ranged from canned goods, sacks of rice, different kinds of condiments, dry pasta, sweets, etc.

Furthermore, when Unc Zardon checked the fridge that had no electricity running through it, he found several cans of beer, a stack of sodas, and a lot of imported chocolate from the freezer. They have a separate freezer for their meat and fish products but they were just too fucking sour and spoilt to be taken back.

On a lighter note, we found a wine rack with dozens of wine bottles, but Unc just gave them a glance before moving on. I spotted a few that were a little bit on the pricey side, and I made a mental note of making sure that we take them home.

With that said, one of the two areas was just a small room for various tools while the other area led to a basement.

Going down, we discovered that it was a laundry room that had a few washing machines, dryers, and various cleaning agents like detergents, bleach, fabric conditioners, etc.

The last place we checked before going up was the bathroom and aside from finding a few hygienic products, we also found a basic first aid kit that also had a few OTC drugs for coughs, burns, fevers, etc. Like earlier, we didn't take anything yet and we just made a mental note of what to take later.

We went back to Dong carefully watching the stairs and he just told us there was no movement whatsoever.

"Okay, let's head up then."

When we reached the 2nd floor, we discovered that there were four rooms in total and they were all children's rooms. It had certain differences with each kid, and we still found an abundance of clothes, their smartphones, their tablets, their laptops, their toys, a shelf of their snacks, etc.

Unc Zardon wasn't showing it but we seemed to be thinking of the same thing.

Unless they were all trying to hide from us from the 3rd floor, why were all their personal items still here? If they didn't want to meet with us, they should've told us off the moment we tried to hop over their gates or they should've made themselves known because we didn't come here for a hostile takeover.

If anything, I'd also welcome them to my fold and even provide what they needed even if they wanted to stay in the same place.

'This is really weird; we really should've come here the first time I noticed something was amiss…'

Seeing that there was nothing to do on this floor, we eventually made our way to the 3rd floor but we only found two doors left and right.

Dong whispered, "You think they're here, boss?"

"Only one way to find out, get ready though. Last floor, could be anything behind these doors."

As soon as I said that, we all raised our weapons for anything that might suddenly pop up.

We decided to open the door to the left first but the moment Unc Zardon turned the doorknob, we discovered that it was just a large meeting room.

It had a long table with chairs and other equipment for conducting online conferences and at the far end was another room separated by a glass partition. With that said, there was no one inside but I saw a piece of paper on the table.

'Hmm…'

I asked Unc Zardon and Dong to guard the door to the right before I walked over to the room at the far end and picked up the piece of paper.

The first thing I noticed was that there was a handwritten message and I just started to read it:

[To anyone that might stumble upon this house in the future... please... just do it for me. There's a gun inside the safe behind the painting and– Please, I can't pull the trigger... they're my f-family. WHY?! WHY THEM?! WHY WAS I SPARED?! WHY?! THIS IS UNFAIR! I NEVER FUCKING ASKED FOR THIS! WE NEVER DID! WHY! WHY! WHY! I'm just– please… just do it for me. Whoever you are… Please, don't leave them like that...]

Looking at the note itself, I could see a few dry splotches that seemed to have come from tears falling down on the paper. Furthermore, the writing itself started to become incorrigible towards the end but it was still readable nonetheless.

I could only imagine what the person here was feeling as they were writing this note but my gaze was slowly turning to the door we haven't opened.

If this note was accurate, there could be 5-7 deadheads waiting on the other side of the door for us. I didn't even try to get the gun behind the painting because the ones on our person were enough. However, before we even tried to breach the door, something was fucking off.

"Wait."

"Hmm?"

"Hear anything?"

"Huh?"

"Quiet down. Do you two hear anything?"

"N-Nothing… I hear nothing."

"Me too…"

"Exactly."

If there were zombies on the other side of this door, we should've at least heard some banging, snarls, or sounds of furniture getting knocked over. However, the only ones making noise were us with our talking and our footsteps, and the whole place was just fucking quiet.

I stopped Unc from trying to turn the doorknob as I pressed my ear right next to the door to listen.

"Hear anything, boss?"

"Nothing…"

"Then–"

"Shh…"

As I thought, it seemed the place was empty but then I started to knock.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Hello?" I called.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Hello~?" I called again.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Hello~? Is someone inside?" I called one last time to be sure.

The three of us just looked at each other and decided to finally open the door, but the moment we saw what was inside, we almost opened fire.

'The other type…'

We saw seven zombies inside the room but they were standing completely still, and six of them were staring right at us. The other one was just looking through the window but the curtain was blocking its view. They had several bite marks on their bodies but the blood on their clothes and on their skin was already dry and black.

They never moved, they never took a breath, and they never did… anything at all.

They just… stared at us.

With that said, the room they were in was a fucking mess and the blood that sprayed out from their bodies was comparable to a Jackson Pollock painting. However, it was at this moment when we started to get a whiff of decay and rot, but the shock of seeing them this close was enough to make us forget about the smell.

'Was the one I felt last time the one by the window?'

Dong took a step back, "The fuck… are they the other type? The ones–"

"Yeah. It's fucking off-putting seeing them this close."

"W-What do we do? We s-should kill them now, r-right?"

"Wait a moment. I'll call Oscar first," I said as I pulled out my radio.

-

*bzzt*

"Old man? This is Sky, copy?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Kid?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Can you contact the president for me? We just found seven of those that are standing completely still in the Pineda residence. Ask him if he needs more samples."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Ah– A-Alright, I'll call him. It'll be a while though.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"That's fine. We'll wait."

*bzzt*

-

While we were waiting, I took the time to go back to the room to get the gun behind the painting.

I discovered that it was a Model 19 revolver that was sitting inside and it did have a box of ammo along with the keys to this whole place. However, looking at the size of the safe, there seemed to be a lot more valuables stored inside but the person who wrote the note must've taken them away.

That was when I found a family picture that fell under the desk and by process of elimination, I figured out the one that survived.

'Karen Ann Pineda… Where did she go though?'

I started to look through the files available but to my surprise, I heard Oscar's voice in a matter of minutes. I thought he'd take at least an hour to contact the president but it seemed like he got through quickly.

-

*bzzt*

[Kid, he said that they have enough samples. Besides, we're too far.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Okay, I'll dispose of them then. There's still an unknown risk of these things being here if we left them alone."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Sure, kid. Go ahead.]

*bzzt*

-

I put down my radio and I walked back to the two who were still guarding them with arms drawn. We know that they wouldn't move an inch but no one was willing to let their guard down. Furthermore, no one had stepped a foot inside the room because it might trigger something that may or may not happen.

With that said, I relayed to them the news and they just wore solemn expressions.

"Do we just kill them here then?"

"Hmm, we kill them outside so we'd have less work cleaning them up. Let's cover them with blankets and we tie them up just to be sure, and we'll just stab a knife on the side of their heads."

"Can't we just leave them here?"

"That'll be risky. We're not even sure if they'd stay like that forever. Remember the videos? Who knows? They might move around in a few days and start infecting people."

"Yeah, that's true…"

"Shall we?"

I was the first one to walk inside the room but I noticed something peculiar.

I thought I was seeing things but their eyes fucking followed after me.

I should've been out of their field of view but they were now side-eyeing me when I tried to look for a blanket. I even started to walk back and forth to see if they would still follow and they fucking did. However, the moment I walked towards their blindspot, their eyes just snapped back to Unc Zardon and Dong.

"What the fuck…"

The two saw what was happening and they tried to do something weird.

They walked inside but they moved in separate directions and their eyes just split between them and looked at them at the same time. Their pupils could look in different directions like a chameleon but no one felt like it was awesome like from watching animals from the discovery channel.

Chills just ran down our spine every time their eyes moved erratically.

"This is really fucking weird, boss. Is it safe to come closer?"

"You can try approaching from the back but I'll ready my rifle just in case."

"O-Okay…"

It didn't take long before we managed to cover all of them with blankets and tie them up, but it was just fucking weird to see zombies cosplaying as Casper or someone from a hooded order.

It was easy enough to bring them down since we basically pushed them down the stairs because no one would carry them step by step.

"Bro, what the fuck?!" Jared exclaimed when he saw us bearing gifts.

"Long story, no subtitles."

"No, no, no! Tell me what the fuck are you doing?!"

"Fine. Remember the still ones from the broadcast?"

"Yeah?"

"We just got seven of them."

"WHAT?! We're not keeping them, right?!"

"Fuck no. We'll kill them here."

Jared breathed a sigh of relief but Dong was still in disbelief from what we just witnessed.

"You should've seen their eyes."

"Their eyes?"

Dong began to tell them the story while Unc and I brought them outside. Jared and the other two still couldn't believe what Dong just said to them but I suddenly had an idea pop in my head. We already had a name for the one that could run as if it was late for school so it was only proper to think of a name for this one.

"I think we'll call them Sentries."

"Sentries?"

"You know, the way they follow you around. They don't move their heads though, just their eyes."

Nicole interjected as she had goosebumps, "Thanks, I hate it."