Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Hearing Artem's words, I just replied promptly before I pulled my TX-22 and shot down several deadheads one after the other. As soon as the lead projectiles punched through their heads, their bodies were like puppets that got their strings cut off as they plopped on the road unmoving.

With that said, their bodies acted as small obstacles to make the ones straddling after them trip and fall, slowing their advance by a considerable amount. Furthermore, the unlucky ones got trampled to death by their colleagues whose only goal was to draw blood with their bloody claws instead of helping them up.

'Well… I'll be shitting my pants if one of them actually helped one of them up...'

After a bit more time, It didn't take long before we blanketed part of a block with dead bodies and it was like spreading some fucked-up spread like mayo with pimiento on a piece of bread.

The only difference was that the 'spread' was just about the right amount to fill the 'bread' we put up beforehand. Even if we do it badly, we'd have plenty of room to maneuver to not make the 'fillings' overlap to the side of this fucked up sandwich.

-

*bzzt*

[Turning in 30 meters, bro.]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Gotcha. Make gaps on the midline!"

*bzzt*

-

The short conversation quickly ended before we heard several suppressed shots from .22 caliber guns used by the people riding on the back of the truck. They were mostly 10/22s that Jared and Lois would use for thinning out dregs while Kaley would use our AR-Style rifle chambered in .22 LR.

The sound of their guns was barely noticeable not only due to their suppressors but also due to the speakers continuing to thump endlessly.

They continued shooting until the ones in the midline would be able to swing their elbows freely without hitting one another, but the midline was expanding the further we took a step back. To counter that, simple adjustments were to be made by our shooters and it included proper pacing and making sure they weren't shooting at the same target or targets that were too close to each other.

I left it to them to decide which part of the midline they would tackle and it seemed to be going smoothly, mostly.

The problem we were having with them right now was pacing because we'd sometimes wait for targets to walk up instead of us continuing to put down deadheads at a steady pace. It should be the other way around because the plan was for them to keep the deadheads coming for us at a steady pace instead of us putting down whichever deadhead that they let go of.

Despite all that, it was easily fixed by a simple callout.

-

*bzzt*

"Kaley."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[Hmm?]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Let the two handle it and keep watch on the other side."

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

[O-Okay...]

*bzzt*

-

*bzzt*

"Thanks."

*bzzt*

-

With Kaley kinda reluctantly sitting out and doing something else, our 'factory line' started to work as intended. Everything started to work seamlessly as time went on but once everything was over, we had to do more than just exhume the remains of Amy's mother.

Once we stepped foot inside the two cemeteries, we discovered that there was something else thumping than our speakers.

It wasn't as dangerous as one might think but the uneasiness it brought was close to disarming a bomb.

This incident wasn't brought out when the clearing operation was happening because Artem and the rest only discovered when the speakers were turned off.

From the way the remains at this cemetery weren't buried six feet under the ground, we could fucking hear the deadheads that were too weak to smash through or dig out of their final resting place.

It was one dull thump after the other and it was the only white noise I wouldn't lull myself to sleep.

There were a few graves that were obviously broken out of but they were either taken care of by Artem's group or us who made a fucking blanket out of dead bodies.

However, despite the tension in the air, I had to fucking say it.

"This is gonna be one hell of an unboxing video--"

I wasn't even done speaking when I was cut off by everyone close to me.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"WHAT THE HECK, BRO?!"

"Oh god, what happened to you the three days you were gone..."

"The fuck are ya numbnuts talking about? He's always like this! I'll be surprised if he didn't say it in the first place..."

"True..."

I just waited for everything to calm down but as bad as it sounded and looked, we really needed to do some fucked up 'unboxing' to clear this place out. We weren't gonna leave a single deadhead alive until they were sprawled on the floor and unmoving because we fucked up once before… we weren't gonna let it happen twice.

Everyone was still against it at first but since Mikhail was the one that had access to a big-ass hammer, he just shook his head before swinging down.

He easily broke apart a grave where a knocking deadhead was residing in and the rest of the guys present put it to rest almost immediately.

The deadhead they took down only needed to sneeze to fall over but a knife came at the side of its head before it stopped moving altogether.

We continued to put more down at the same time by acquiring sledgehammers but there were still a few questioning what the fuck they were doing. Nevertheless, their hands still moved and it was all that mattered to me.

"We're going to hell..."

"We're IN hell… how worse could this get?"

"Imagine this was a NICU..."

"Jesus fucking christ..."

"Been there, done that… Honestly, the NICU's much worse..."

"How..."

"The mother's the coffin..."

"And you need to take down both..."

"Okay stop..."

"Collaborate and listen..."

"Dammit!"

This 'unboxing' operation was tons of times easier than our clearing operation so we had time to make conversation and fucked up jokes with each other. It could sound extremely offensive to some groups but doing this type of this was just one way to cope. Everyone here had been through some shit and a little dark humor wouldn't hurt.

After close to two hours, we finally secured the remains of Amy's mother while a huge pile of the dead was being burned right in the middle of these cemeteries. Smoke was still billowing nonstop but to keep the fumes to the minimum, and to burn them as fast as we could, we just added more fuel we could spare.

It was the choice of taking more time than using more fuel, and even if we had all the time in the world, we wouldn't want to spend it staring at corpses turn to cinders while inhaling smoke.

After making sure that everything was accounted for, everyone else packed up and head home.

I was just chilling while I was driving my Charger home with Kaley on the passenger side, and even if I was awake for more than three days, I feel energized about what we accomplished. However, I was starting to get worried about losing control of myself whenever something so fucked up happens.

I always preach about having perfect control but this aspect of mine I couldn't even get a proper hold on.

Call me a control freak or whatever but these 'blackouts' needed to happen less or never.

Granted my body would still move as I would've wanted it to, but letting it just move on its own doesn't sit well with me. Sooner or later, I might just end up acting out based on emotion, doing something irreversible that could hurt everyone.

I was deep in my thoughts when Kaley called out to me.

"What are you thinking about now? You've been quiet for a while..."

"Ah-- Oh… I-- It's the blackouts… I hate it when it happens..."

"Oh…"

"It's always something bad--"

"No, it's not."

"Hmm?"

"You know... when we were cleaning guns this one time. You just kept doing the same motion over and over until you grabbed my hand and--"

"Ah! Right, right… I forgot… I guess I'm out of it today… I guess it's not all bad..."

"Hmm~ Wanna talk to mom about it? She might be able to help?"

"Maybe."

"Just ring her up if you wanted to. She's busy especially now but she'll definitely make time for you."

"It's alright, as long as someone doesn't make me mad… I'm good."

"Is that the trigger? What about that one time?"

"Hmm~ I dunno… Maybe that time, when we're cleaning guns, is just a trance-like state. I was just doing the same thing over and over. This time, I drove out and did a lot of stuff… I'm not even sure if I remembered all of it… Wait..."

"Hmm?"

"I'm wearing my bodycam the whole time...."

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