Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

For building the fence, we gathered a few people. I went with my uncle Zeidrick, Russel, Marco, Jimmy, Malong, Ian, and Stanley to my old house with the materials that we needed. Jay's group cleared the area when we reached it and they started doing their rounds. They were driving with the small pedicab to haul the bodies that they dispatched to be burned in the corner later.

"It's nice having people to delegate work to and the work around here is progressing very smoothly. Jay has a good head on his shoulders and can lead a few people. He suffered casualties before but that is because they don't have the proper tools to protect themselves and fight the dead." I said to myself.

We started working and I saw Jude's head popping out of the terrace in the second floor. He just raised his bowl of ramen when our eyes met.

"Jude! Can you go to the rooftop and offer eyes and protection for my group? They'll be sweeping the small area here while we'll be building a fence here. You can use the gun I gave you in the case now. You still remember how, right? Just shoot the ones in their blindspot or radio in when you see a few. They could handle themselves but we should always have a backup for everything." I said.

"Ok." Jude said without a reaction while he disappeared from view.

"Jude really is chill; I barely saw him with any emotion." Unc Zeidrick said.

"Hah! You've never seen him with a gun yet? You'd like him then. I discovered something from inside him when he found out that I was a member at a few ranges in Quezon City." I mentioned.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Unc Zeidrick asked.

Like clockwork, I heard a suppressed shot.

*psshew*

"WHOOO!" A shout came from the rooftop.

"Who's that?!" Russel asked.

"Ric Flair, no, just kidding. It's Jude, he goes crazy when he holds his gun." I explained.

"What?! That robot dude? What is the gun he's using then? It's super quiet. Much quieter than the AR that Kaley uses." Russel asked.

"Oh, it's an S&W M&P15-22 Sporting Rifle. It uses .22 Long Rifle rounds and suppressed. I bought that gun for him since his body can't handle the recoil of a normal rifle. Lois hasn't seen that yet but he'll definitely like that gun since he like the .22 as well." I replied.

"Oh, the one like my gun, the watermajig? The .22 Long Rifle?" Russel asked once more.

"Walther P22, at least get the name right. It uses the same rounds as yours. It has the tag Long Rifle on the rounds because there's another .22 cartridge called .22 Short. It's the same diameter but the .22 LR is like the name says, long. That gun is suppressed and chambered in a low caliber round so that's why it's super quiet." I explained.

"But I th-" Russel was about to say something else but his dad interrupted him.

"Drill a hole ever there or I'll take that pistol of yours. Less talk, more work." Unc Zeidrick said.

"Oh, fuck. Right, right, right…" Russel grabbed one of the drills to make a hole in the pillar my old house's gate. He made another hold on the other side where another big house was located. It was next to the bakery where Kaley practiced with her AR-15.

We continued working and I became their little jukebox. I sang a few songs while keeping guard and the young ones sang with me. Surprisingly, work production increased while listening to music. I read about that on an article once and it actually worked.

Jude would occasionally shout and Jay's group would bring a pile of bodies every now and then. Every couple of hours, Kaley's group would bring a haul with the truck full of essential items. They never found new people here since they did a run around before at this vicinity.

I grabbed my radio and called Ken.

-

*bzzt*

"Dude, can you do Project Kite?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Sure, going in."

*bzzt*

-

A few moments later, a drone flew over us. When I looked at it from below, I saw a couple of things attached to it. A small speaker was hooked to a small music player and he started to drive it around, past the fence that we were making. The music resounded and it was playing the song that made people have a lot of trust issues.

"...never gonna give you up... never gonna..." it resounded.

I groaned at first but I walked forward. I drew my katana and waited for it to come back.

-

*bzzt*

"Here they come, dude. I brought 6 over, is that enough?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Yeah, that's fine for now."

*bzzt*

-

"Wha- What are you doing bro?!" Russel exclaimed.

"Don't trust me yet? I could do a dozen easily. Just keep on working, this will be a trust exercise." I replied with a smile.

I approached one and sliced horizontally. The figure lost its hairline and it flopped on the ground while I went for the other one. It had its arms up at first but an 'X' slash did the trick, making it lose them. I thrust my blade forward to finish it after dismembering its hands. Two more were coming side by side so I walked diagonally towards them so they would be in a line when they reached me.

I circled around them first since the 5th one is much closer to me. I took care of it first with a diagonal slash from below. The blade sliced cleanly from its ear. leaving its scalp. Black and curdled blood fell off and it made a plop when it hit the pavement.

*psshew*

Jude fired a shot towards the 3rd one that was beside the 4th one so I took care of the 4th one by bisecting its head in half. I held the katana with both hands and struck down. It went straight through and my blade started to go diagonal when I was at its torso. The last one got sniped by Jude so I just wiped the blood from my katana. I made an upward nod to Jude and he disappeared to the other side.

-

*bzzt*

"Dude, send in a few more."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Okay dude, wait a bit."

*bzzt*

-

The building guys were wary at first but after a few times of doing the same thing, their worries of them diminished by a whole and they were able to work normally. Russel would get carried away and would almost pull his pistol out but a simple glare from his dad would make him stop.

Oscar's group came back after a few hours and he was grinning from ear to ear. He showed me a flash drive as he drove by me. My eyes lit up and I gave him a small salute.

"Give that to Ken, he knows what to do." I said.

"Sure thing, kid. Oh yeah, I found a Makarov and a Smith and Wesson in the hardware store! Hah! Those pistols are mine!" Oscar exclaimed.

"Really? Still found more than you though. I'm getting tired of being at the top old man. Get those numbers up! Those are rookie numbers!" I joked.

"Bah! Just let me celebrate my discoveries!" Oscar drove off but he grumbled and flipped me off when he was far.

"What are you guys talking about? Is Project Fishing a game copy?" Russel asked.

"Hah! No, it is the records for everyone in the DDR Camp here. Tie that to fishing and...?" I trailed to wait for him to answer.

"You're gonna make them all fish?" Russel replied with a confused look.

*thunk*

Unc Zeidrick sunk a knuckle at the back of Russel's head and exclaimed, "It's for recruiting people!"

"Oh~ why though?" Russel said while rubbing his head, almost unaffected.

"I planned to have different people with different occupations here. I like what we have here but it wouldn't hurt to have more with a particular set of skills." I replied.

"Like what?" Marco chimed.

"Now? I'd love to have old man Kaiseki here first and foremost. He's from another country though so it's a stretch. I sent an email to his son though and I'm hoping that they're already on their way here. He's a blacksmith and he could make us a lot of things. Aside from him, I'd like a few specialized doctors too like dentists, physical therapists, nutritionists, surgeons, and so much more. I'd also more people like Charlotte and people like Derek who could take care of animals." I explained.

"How about more people that can fight though?" Russel asked. His mouth was moving but this time, his hands were moving at the same time.

"Why? I'm basically the Army." I said as I made an exaggerated pose.

"Hah! Good answer." Marco chuckled.

"To be honest though, we have lots of people here that could fight. We actually have a few that served in the military and have firearms training. I could say that we pretty much covered the bases on people that we need but you're right, we still need more soldiers to secure this place in the future." I concluded.

They screwed the last bolt in and we now have a single-layered fence made. It was a temporary measure as always and we'd upgrade them to huge and thick metal ones in the future. They opened and closed it at first to test if it would snag on something but it was obstruction-free.

"We might need to dismantle a few motorcycles..." I muttered as we head back. I looked at the fences and I want to have an option to open and close them even without someone present below.

"Hmm? I had the same idea as you. We could make the gate both manually operated and machine operated to remove the risk of someone opening and closing the gate outside. One of your engineers can hook us up with that since I don't know how to do that. I'm slowly learning watching Raphael work though and I'm learning a few things everyday. Oh yeah, you're making something right? I'll help you." Unc Zeidrick said to me.

"Oh, right. I could probably prepare them first before lunch starts. I'm gonna find the hole saw in the workshop." I replied.