Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

As we took a short break, everyone did their own set of tasks before trying to get back on the saddle. Artem created another perimeter around our vehicles while Mikhail led a small group to drag the bodies we put down on the sidewalks. Since no one would be using them any time soon, it was best to place obstructions away from the main roads.

At the same time, everyone did a quick run-up with their gear while I directed Iskoh’s group to cut around the same route I told them to take with their clearing group.

One of them immediately voiced out his opinion, “No! We’re not going to that place!”

Tatiana tilted her head, “Why not?”

“That’s the fuċkɨnġ Chinatown! Do you have any idea how swarmed that place is?! We’ll be dead if we stop moving for a second! We only skirt around the edges to lure some of them away but we never go right in the fuċkɨnġ center!”

I interjected, “Then skirt in the outer edges, I see no problem with doing that. Just call us to tell us what roads are clear to drive through as we discussed earlier. Wait– have you guys drove to the edges of the river? Not the one from your side, the side we are currently in. Is that safe?”

Another person wearing a bandana answered, “Yeah~ We– I– I came there once with another group.”

“Then how’s the situation over there?”

“It’s full of dead bodies but it’s safe…”

Everyone else turned to him with a confused expression, “What?”

“It’s true! I’m not kidding! Let me explain…”

He asked for my copy of the map and he pointed to a place where several buildings were located right before a bridge.

“See this spot right here? When we have first driven here, several roadblocks were placed to keep everything from that side from walking past this bridge. It became a shooting range of sorts since they either got barred from passaged or fall down the river.”

“How?”

“They just kept on pushing against each other and sooner or later, one or two would get pushed off the edge. After that, they either hit their head on the ferries below or fall straight down. It’s a bitch to take them down because most of them sink straight and just make bubbles.”

“So, you leave them like that?”

“No. We clear as much as we could in a day but that place just keeps on refilling more of those things. In a way, it’s better for us to know where they’ll end up instead of them randomly popping out from nowhere.”

I thought for a moment before leaving a few instructions before we went on to business.

Ibarra was the designated driver for our truck while Kaley and Jared were on standby at the back of our Raptor. Artem’s team had the same thing going on as well and we went back by slowly inching forward. And by that, I mean we walk forward the same way while our vehicle was slowly reversing.

We cut down anything that wasn’t supposed to be moving and we encountered a portion of the main herd we were trying to take down.

With the help of our drones, we identified where the main herd was heading and we took the roads that would lead us to their smallest counterpart. We were essentially playing cat and mouse but we were tearing down their comrades one by one. Despite that, we still needed to take down the ones that were inside the buildings we were driving on but it wasn’t like the two towers that gave us a nasty welcome.

Even if Kaley and Jared were at the ready, we opted for taking them down quietly because even a suppressed shot could travel a short distance.

My blade sliced through each one of them but this time I was side by side with Artem.

He was holding two knives like a certain buff character that could allegedly turn invisible by keeping completely still, but his option of stealth was to leave no witnesses. His knife got wiped many times before but once it sunk down to an unfortunate deadhead, it would gleam with crimson.

Those 7-inch K-Bar knives put down as much as my blade did and we led our group forward as we left bodies in our wake.

Each slash I made was precise and flowing like a river while his strikes were sudden and powerful. My moves were planned several steps ahead and he was the complete opposite this time. He wouldn’t stop or slow down until everything in front of him wasn’t moving but once he started a rampage, he’d go faster and faster.

‘Hmm…’

I didn’t put it to mind as much but we stopped in place once a pack of ferals noticed us. They just ran straight from an intersection but they ground to a halt once they saw our group. Needless to say, they instantly changed directions and went straight for us. They all looked so fuċkɨnġ pissed since they went even faster when we first saw them. Their eyes were discolored and almost bloodshot and their mouths were dripping with whatever fluid was inside them.

I didn’t need to give my group the signal because they just started firing when it was still possible. They only had a few seconds before they were dangerously close and we could either face them head-on or try to reset by driving away.

We didn’t have much time to think but Artem and I drew our sidearms and aimed for the ones we could.

Bullets finally rang in the air and the fastest ones got peppered by bullets. Some of them tanked a few shots but they easily rolled over once their critical weakness got nicked. Despite that, their numbers were still dangerously high and some were already in close proximity. From experience, their first move was a fuċkɨnġ swan dive and I got ready.

I instantly took a step back to receive them but Artem took a step forward, a large fuċkɨnġ step forward.

“EAT THIS!!!”

Artem roared as he sent a frontal kick to a feral that leaped straight at him, dislodging all of its front teeth and forcing its neck backward from an ‘assisted’ whiplash. I could hear the fuċkɨnġ crunch because I was so close to him and he followed it up by keeping the head below its feet before stomping down and crushing it into pieces. Its head popped like a watermelon but another feral was right behind it.

Its claws came from both sides as it aimed for his foot but Artem had another idea.

Budmzu aol gimmtw rfail qfrfeut om tae arom val diulv, aol vfrtl juzu aqnfiut gw ovu crasul Azouq jfl vmitare. Tvu qmovuzdphcuz dpċcɨrġ msuznmjuzut ao frt zannut aol lvmpituzl fnfzo gudmzu lounnare mr aol vuft frt fnniware lmqu tmjrjfzt nzullpzu.

I would’ve asked for an autograph there and then but I also had a lot on my plate.

The feral I was about to receive actually stopped at the same exact moment I took a step back but I quickly fired two shots at its head by drawing and firing my pistol from the hip. The first bullet entered its cheek before leaving the top of its head while the other scraped what was left of its nose before it took a portion of its eyebrows. It instantly fell to its knees but another one of these fuċkers came from my side.

All I could do was turn with my hɨps as I slashed horizontally and I took out a portion of its crooked arms before lopping its head with a portion its back. I kicked its torso that was about to fall on me and I squeezed three more shots with my pistol to the ones still coming for us.

We were slowly pushing them back and we didn’t let anything go past us.

The only time we stepped back a few times was to give us a bit more space or to receive more ferals at a time. Artem and I worked side by side with a chaotic synergy because we were taking care of them in two ways instead of one. Nevertheless, it was still super effective because even Tatiana and Mikhail opted to use their firearms because not a single feral reached them.

It caused the number of ferals that came in close proximity to lower even more and we actually pushed them back.

The last three that tried to run away were gunned down by the people behind us and it gave us a short time to wipe our blades and change magazines. We gave each other an approving nod but the motherfucker wore a hidden smirk before jumping ahead of me. I finally thought I had found a worthy opponent and our would-be battle would be legendary.

‘One of these days…’

What we were facing right now was just a portion of the smaller herd coming from another street and not to say it loudly, each of us could do it single-handedly. It didn’t take long before we had to drive on a blindspot to reset but things had started to look better for us.

Wu hmroarput ovu lfqu nfoouzr proai ao jfl fr vmpz nflo rmmr gpo ovu lozuuol immcut lfduz ovfr usuz. Esur ovu omjuzl zfr mpo md gmtaul om ovzmj fo pl frt ovu qmprofar ovfo dmzqut ufziauz jfl guare gpzrut om f hzaln. Tvu mriw nzmgiuq jfl ovfo ju imlo f ovazt md mpz fqqm gpo ju fizuftw hfiiut f oufq om gzare pl qmzu.