Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

While it was true that I still had other decent shooters with me like Ibarra, Tatiana, and even JP and Seb—who were with us at the moment like Brownie and Brian—even I went back to my pistol and katana to join Tatiana in the rear and just ordered Ibarra and JP to provide backup with their M16/AR-15 while Kaley was trying to reload.

Even so, Kaley's mechanics allowed her to do a full reload in a fraction of a second if she didn't have to replace the mag and put it back in her chest rig—meaning, just letting it fall down—but as of this moment, there were a few clusters appearing from the far end or the other side of the street we were in.

"Can I shoot at them? Haven't had much practice with this one," Seb asked with his AR-15.

At this point, most of us were voluntary sitting ducks as Kaley was making a wall of corpses with JP and Ibarra at the front. It would've been a better idea to head to the other end of the road right about now but it would have been a waste for the opportunity the barrel of napalm provided as those burnt corpses wouldn't even need so much as a lead projectile to the head. Discover stories at empire

Because most of the deadheads Kaley was putting down were either Sprinters or Runners because the ones who were a tad slower would just crumble down after layers of their skin got toasted as its insides got cooked from the fire.

But yeah, once Seb started to pick off the ones further back, it was pretty obvious I'd been making them do melee work too much or he'd just need a little more confidence. While it was true he'd hit his targets dead-on 70-80% of the time from 100 meters away, he'd have some trouble with realigning each shot for a smoother transition.

Then I heard June's voice on the radio:

-

*bzzt*

[H-HEY! THE ONE ON YOUR SIDE'S ALMOST DONE FOR! I CAN SEE EVERYTHING FROM ABOVE! WE'RE JUST CLEANING UP HERE TOO! THERE'S STILL MORE COMING BUT I-IT'S NOT AS COMPARABLE TO THE ONES WHO PICKED UP THE SCENT OF WHATEVER ATTRACTED THEM HERE!]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Alright, alright, and on Artem's side?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[We got two barrels of napalm here, brother-man, what do you think? They're all just running to their deaths!]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Forget I asked…"

*bzzt*

-

But yeah, this must've been the most stupid shit to do at this point but I started pickup up casings off the ground and putting them in the pouch where I had Bogdan's barrel of goodness. Even if I was given weird looks by my current team, especially Brownie, I quickly shut him down by picking the casings instead.

"REALLY?! NOW?!"

"It's an order, shut up."

"BUT— AGH! I DIDN'T EVEN SAY ANYTHING!"

"Uh-huh. Still, it's an order. Pick everything up."

"F-Fine…"

"Here's the pouch…"

"Alright… Dammit…"

Slightly bullying the new trainee aside, I still kept a watchful eye of the surroundings despite our drones flying overhead—but looking back at the stomped at corpses and the bodies of the horde we somehow attacted, it seemed like this "bait" or "lure" of sorts only had a set time where it could be in effect.

But yeah, we'd still need to be sure about our assumptions so after everything settled down, relatively speaking, I thought of two ideas where the first one was already fucking stupid while the second was more stupid and probably more dangerous than the first.

"Umm… W-Why are you emptying our cooler? Don't you—" Lee asked.

I turned to Ruben, "Empty your cooler too, put everything in ours."

"W-What for— Nevermind, sir— Just a sec."

JP cut in, "Samples, right?"

I chuckled, "Points to Slytherin! Yeah, we'll fill one with those babies' remains—since we didn't have the chance last time but the second will be umm… let's just say a scavenger hunt of sorts. It's a low chance but if we go in the buildings they were in we might get luck and find some live ones—"

Tennyson had to argue, "While they're still clearing the station?"

I waved him off, "We had too many people at the same spot. Why do you think we're here? The mine cart was too effective on the rails once the dregs from the station platforms cleared off. Add to that the pitchfork buff. But yeah— Wait, you're right… But… It's not like we can just leave them there— Hold up, I got a better idea…"

As surprised as Tennyson was for being right, I pulled up my radio once more to contact Iskoh.

-

*bzzt*

"Sup, Daddy, you there?"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[...]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"I know you're there you fucking asshole, answer me!"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[...]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Jesus fucking christ— I can see Jude right fucking behind you—"

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[What the fuck— No, he's not— OH SHIT! JUDE THE FUCK ARE YOU—]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

*bzzt*

-

In any case, after Mayor Iskoh took a few to calm himself down, we got a special delivery from their side and it was in the form of a punk-ass ice cream truck. The fucking ice cream truck looked like it came from Twisted Metal or just straight up from Quinn's Family because it had all sorts of spike attached to it and a DIY metal blade from a bulldozer.

But while it was still in transit, we had our group spread out while I came inside one of the buildings with Tatiana, Brownie, and Lee—starting our search for an alive dead baby.

From the top of my head, it could've been the noises they made when they saw us—and even though we didn't hear a cry the first time this sort of attracting phenomenon happened—it was a matter of the term, "If a tree fell in the forest and anyone wasn't there to hear it, did it make a sound?"

However, we might've just found the reason of the abundance of babies in this joint and something in between them.

"What. In the actual. Fuck…"