Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Tennyson disagreed, "We still made noise earlier, that doesn\'t count. Or at least I think it doesn\'t. It could\'ve been the slower ones that didn\'t make it as fast or the ones further away."

Isaac rolled his eyes, "You really wanna disagree with what everyone says, huh?"

"Just giving out possible options, no harm intended."

"Haaa… You\'re pretty stiff… Loosen up—"

"How about no?"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Sure… Suit yourself, buddy…"

In any case, we still put the coolers inside the ice cream truck\'s working freezer and we had it delivered to Iskoh\'s Main HQ. And it was then that we took the time to clear the streets of our mess and loot the surrounding buildings for anything worth a second look.

And yeah, aside from the few surprises we encountered, nothing much followed after aside from picking where everyone else left off from keeping the streets clean.

While it was true that it felt like we were trying to mop the floor while it was flooding, we just had to keep going and going and going until there was nothing left.

And yeah, not everyone who ventured outside and tried to do the same thing as us had enough resources or even manpower to have several burn piles from handling the dead so it was up to us to clean up for them because decaying bodies\' random-ass particles in the air was already a no-no before the world ended, how much more diseases could we contract now?

\'I mean— it\'s not really airborne or anything or else we\'d already have everyone turn from a whiff…\'

Then I turned to my group, "What have we uncovered from the shops?"

Marvin answered, "Almost every corner here is a hardware store though we scored some really nice tires. We loaded most of them on the truck where we put the mine cart though Ashley found boxes and boxes of clothes from this thrift shop. Should we haul it too?"

"Go ahead," I said before turning to JP, "How about you?"

"Well aside from the couple of shotguns we got from the guards on that bank, we found seven pistols, three shotguns, and a rifle from that barangay hall over there along with their drives and some important records from their archives. Oh— We found three boxes of instant noodles and a cart of canned goods in that PC store too."

"Tennyson?"

"We got a bit of everything else but we took all the car batteries from all the auto shops we broke into plus some random knick-knacks for our vehicles."

"Eden?"

"Same-same, honestly. We followed after Tatiana so we mostly picked up casings and other stuff we had to dig through the corpses— I mean their belongings. Some phones, makeup, IDs to identify them— Oh! Some clean sheets too and some thick boots for hiking! We got them from that drive-in hotel by the corner near that bank."

I nodded a few times, "Alright, alright, I wish we could take everything from here so let\'s continue helping Morales with the next station. It\'s much closer so we just do our thing and skim from the shops or any other places we can loot shit from, good job, everyone. We\'ll divvy up the pile later but don\'t get your vehicles too heavy or encumbered, alright?"

With that said, once we arrived by the Tayuman Station, aside from competing banks at every corner, we came across a block where several buildings of DOH(Department of Health) were along with a few public or private hospitals only a building or two away from each other.

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In addition, several pharmacies or shops that sell OTC medicine or other medical supplies were present—though partially looted, but still, a scavenger\'s wet dream.

However, out of all the places to break into while clearing the streets of the dead, Quinn had to park us right in front of this powerlifting gym she spotted from god knows how away and decided for it to be our spot where we\'d put in our perimeter.

"Seriously? A gym?"

"Why not?! And excuse me, that\'s a powerlifting gym, StudMaster 6000, not one of those commercial gyms with casual lifters! We\'d find all sorts of good shit in that— HOLY FUCK!"

"What now?!"

"You\'re kidding me, right?! Check the fucking driveway! That\'s a fucking— THAT\'S A FASTBACK, DUMBSHIT! WE HIT THE FUCKING JACKPOT!"

June had to cut in, "W-What\'s that? You talking about that old car?"

Quinn couldn\'t believe her ears as she stared at June like a fucking idiot, "You\'re lucky I fucking like you, or I\'d be putting all the Olympic bars we find in that gym AND UP YOUR ASS!"

"I-I\'m sorry! I-I don\'t know much about cars!"

"START NOW! THAT\'S A FORD MUSTANG FASTBACK! AND WE DON\'T CALL THEM OLD! WE CALL THEM CLASSICS, RIGHT?!" Quinn shouted at the top of her lungs as she turned to me.

I chortled as I gave my support to June instead, "It\'s a \'67 model so… you know…"

"Blah, blah, blah~ You\'d still stick your dick in it given the chance—"

"Hah?! I\'d fuck YOU in that car, not the car itself!"

"THEN LET\'S FUCKING CLEAR THAT GYM SO YOU CAN FUCKING DO IT, PUSSY!"

"If that\'s just transmogrified, I\'ll—"

"What? English, buddy?"

"You know, what if it\'s just a body kit to make it look like one? It somehow looks off—"

"You— AH, FUCK! IT IS! THE DIMENSION ARE ALL FUCKED! LET\'S JUST— FUCK OUTTA HERE ROTFACE! WE\'RE BUSY!"

Quinn never hit a deadhead so fucking hard that she ripped its head out of its socket and sent it a block away as the rest of its body was still upright. However, as impressive as it was, the ones that came out of the powerlifting gym didn\'t take too kindly to the noise we were creating.

One by one, larger-than-normal deadheads came walking out awkwardly but as soon as each of us looked a few inches down, the disappointed look we gave at their leg gains was fucking miserable.

Everyone thought we\'d be in for some trouble but Kaley and Jared instantly busted up one of these gym rat— no, gym flamingo\'s knee caps and their top-heavy body collapsed on themselves.

"That\'s just fucking sad."

"Their legs?"

"What do you think?"

"I mean— they probably hadn\'t worked out in a while—"

"YOU— PFFT! HAH! FUCK YOU, GET BUSY SO I CAN SEE WHAT WE COULD DO WITH THIS FUCKING FAKE!"

"Leave that car for a minute— Fuck it, I can take care of these fucks alone anyway."

In any case, while my main group spread on each side of the road to create a perimeter, I dove in as Tatiana followed behind as my spotter.

My first victim was another chicken-legged schmuck who instantly lost a foot of height—as I took care of its legs—before it toppled to the back for easy pickings. After that, my second victim ate my cold blade beginning from its chest to its throat before I twisted my blade to the side and cleaved half of its pectoral muscles as I pulled my blade out another way.

It was already a surprise that these fucks retained some muscle but unless they were as rigid as Hulkers, it was just a few inches or centimeters of dead flesh that I could easily cut through.

But yeah, we thought it\'d be a difficult encounter but it seemed like using their twig legs to get out of their safe zone took everything from it and they couldn\'t even lunge or so much move past 2nd gear. One sudden juke I performed caused one wearing a muscle tee that stuck to its body like a wet burger wrapper literally broke its knees and tumbled down for an easy downward stab.

Furthermore, their turning radius was fucking worse than a five-ton truck because as Tatiana dove into three deadheads and aimed for the one in the center a bit further back, the other two took approximately ten seconds to complete a turn—and each of us took them out before taking care of the other ones.

"That\'s what happens if they don\'t do leg day—"

"Enough jokes, there are serious lifters inside. Can you see them?"

"Ah— Fuck."

Because as we peered inside the broken stained glass of this gym we saw a handful of deadheads that definitely looked like they took gear before they succumbed to something that would grant them the curse of eternal death.

"Are they—"

Tatiana shook her head, "Not a chance."