Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I facepalmed and the rest of my group had the same expression while Jay's group were dumbstruck at what happened.

I checked Bing while drool was flowing down his mouth and I surmised that he was only unconscious. I grabbed the same bottle Oscar let Tatiana sniff when I knocked her out and Bing woke up after a few seconds. He spat out a tooth while he looked at it in bewilderment.

"What happened?" Bing asked while I was shaking my head.

"Don't get up yet. You just got knocked the fuck out. Good thing your jaw is still intact." I replied.

"It still hurts... what the fuck..." he said.

I almost rolled my eyes and said, "I did warn you though."

"I thought you were kidding... I didn't even see it happen... Ahhhhh~ my jaw hurts." he said.

I offered him my hand to get up after a few minutes and we finally drove home. We passed by Mr. Chang's residence again but no one was outside. You could only hear a few people having an argument and nothing else. The pile of rotting bodies was now in the process of getting reduced to cinders and I was happy Mr. Chang followed my suggestion. Kenny decided to ride with me on the sidings of the truck since Bing was on the passenger seat with Hannah since his head was still wobbly.

"Hey!" Kenny grabbed my attention.

"Yo!" I replied.

"You look really cool." Kenny said.

"Well you look awesome with that helmet, where did you get it from?" I asked.

"Oh! Dad gave it to me earlier. It's kinda big though..." he replied as his eyes were getting covered by the helmet.

"Aww, he's so cute Sky! How old are you?" Kaley exclaimed.

"I'm 6 now, how about you? Are you 37 now? You look like one." Kenny replied without an ounce of worry.

*thunk*

I smacked his helmet really hard while I felt the heat emanating from Kaley that almost burned my skin.

"Want us to die here kid?! This is a way to die!" I tried my best to speak to him telepathically.

"What was that for?! It's loud when you knocked on it!" Kenny shouted.

"I'm just testing if the helmet is really strong. It really is strong, I bet it could block a meteor!" I said a white lie to protect ourselves.

"Little shi- little kid, I'm still very young, okay?" Kaley replied with a scary smile while the rest gave amused expressions.

"She's scary Sky, how old is she? Is she a witch?" Kenny said nonchalantly while Kaley stared at me menacingly.

"She's very young, the same age as me. Also, you don't ask them about their age, okay?" I said to Kenny while whispering the last part.

"Oh~ Why do we not ask them their age then? She asked my age though... I think old people get mad at that. Oh! She's pretty old then? Maybe 47? But you're not 47, right?" Kenny asked again innocently.

"You're really trying to get us killed here, huh?" I just accepted our fate as to whatever happens.

"I'm 25! Happy?!" Kaley exclaimed and she huffed while I gave a helpless smile.

"Cool." Kenny replied innocently.

I was close to laughing from Kaley's expression. It was a mix of helplessness and frustration.

"Don't argue with a kid yeah? You'll never win." I said.

"He's looking a lot less cute now..." she replied weakly.

"I don't look cute! I'm cool! See this helmet?! It blocks meteors!" Kenny exclaimed.

The banter continued and we also passed by the Pineda residence after we drove through the elementary school.

"Right, I forgot about this one. It's almost 4:00 PM though and I need to teach a class later. Hmm, I'll do it tomorrow; my head feels itchy damn it." I said to myself.

We reached the compound and the group I brought was shocked.

"From this gate here up to the end, is a safe zone. Welcome guys." I said.

"You cleared all this?!" Daisy looked at us.

"Yeah, took us almost a week." Jared replied.

I saw the tanker parked outside the gate and it was facing the fence.

"Hey bro! We finished loading the containers with diesel and there's still light from the sun. We could head to the gas station now for a quick refill. There could be leftover supplies in the small convenience store too." Russel said.

Kaley and the rest guided the new people inside first.

"What about the broadcast though?" I said.

"It still replays right?" he replied.

"That's true, I remember Ken recording everything from the start, he got the first broadcast from the replays. I think we could watch it at the meeting. I guess I'll just teach a class today at the gym and take a break from gun training. Let's bring one more person with us yeah?" I concluded.

"I should've gone to the Pineda residence earlier but gas is more important for the group now." I thought to myself.

I was about to ask my uncle to come with us but I remembered that he had just got his kids now. I'll give him a break for today and ask somebody else.

"Hold this for a minute yeah?" I said to Russel as I handed him the guandao.

"This looks fucking sick bro. I remember dad likes this sort of thing, I'll show this to him in a bit." Russel said as he tried to wave it around.

I decided to call Tatiana over and we drove the tanker back in the gas station where Russel used to work at. We saw a few deadheads roaming inside and we drew our melee weapons. I sunk my blade into their eye sockets and removed part of their skull so we could load our tanker. It took us a few minutes but a number of them were now on the curb getting surrounded by flies. Russel grabbed a pump and he started to load the tanker again.

"Why is there more coming from the right way than the left way?" Tatiana asked.

"From the right side onward is where most of the large cities were centered. The left side on the other hand is where most of the rural areas would be located. If you drive a bit on the left, you would reach the Bulacan Area which is still a province and it has less population compared to the urban areas. I believe this started in the cities too. How long will this take Russel?" I explained then looked back.

"More than half an hour. We need to get the good stuff, not the bubbles." Russel replied.

"Bubbles?" Tatiana asked.

"You know, it's a gas station trick. You could pump it to maximum speed to fill up a car the fastest way but there will be a lot of foam when you do that instead of the red liquid that the gas actually is. I do that when I have a prick as a customer." he explained to Tatiana.

"Hmm, that's good to know. I never knew that." Tatiana said as she nodded pensively.

"Dude... what happened on your trip? I saw uncle with Kenny and Hannah, did the others... die?" Russel asked solemnly.

I then told him the story of what happened in Mr. Chang's residence.

"I almost turned out like Cyrill, right? I was mad at you for beating me up that time but now I'm thankful for it." he said.

"Hah! Good thing that beating you up worked. That guy is too far gone compared to you." I replied.

I remembered another story from back then but it's not important right now. What I was looking at on the horizon was something we need to be worried about.

"Another sprinter." I muttered.

Tatiana and Russel heard me and they tensed up.

"Don't even try to shoot it. We're at the center of the gas station, not inside the store like last time. We could cause an explosion if we unloaded one here. Just keep the pump inside the tanker and get inside the tanker dude. We'll deal with this one with melee weapons." I said.

"H-hold on! One of those things broke Oscar's shotgun, right?! We could still move away!" Russel exclaimed.

"No time, we need to learn how to fight this thing up close and personal. Tatiana, don't block yeah? Just dodge and slice." I said.

We walked forward, away from the truck and we saw the sprinter saw us. It suddenly changed direction from the highway towards the gas station that we were in. It was running at an incredible speed but the turn it was making was not smooth due to the speed that it was running in. I walked past Tatiana so I could meet it first and I slowly drew my blade. Its head locked on to me and it came straight like a bull. It closed the distance in an instant and it swung its hand towards my neck.

The air was sliced.

I took a step back but I swung my blade from the right to the left to match its swing.

My blade reached its arm.

A piece that belonged to someone fell to the ground.

I managed to chop its arm off then it plopped when it landed.

"NnnYYaRHHH!!!" it screamed. But due to its momentum, its charge was still pushing its body forward so I dodged by diving on its right side. It tried to turn but it could not and it was now headed to Tatiana.

I saw Tatiana spinning downwards and sweeping the sprinter's feet. It spun in the air when it was tripped and it fell facing down. The noise made when its skull hit the pavement was horrifying but it was still alive. It was stunned and it lost its momentum so Tatiana drew her knife and stabbed it in the back of the head.

It was about to get up but it was not able to.

The blood from the knife was dark and sticky and it was almost curdling to form little chunks. Tatiana wiped the blood off and she sheathed her knife.

We both nodded at each other and Russel went outside the tanker with an excited face.