Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

"Oh, I could make a simple one first. I made one before by using some play-sand and plaster. It could melt a few soft metals but not steel or iron." Anthony replied.     

"Hmm, okay then. Try to make one for now so I could see what it does. Ask Oscar about the materials and he will give you all that you need. Kindly make it at the scrapyard... wait, how is it powered then?" I asked.     

"Whatever you want. It could be powered by wood, coal, or gas. I prefer to use a propane tank so we could replace it easily when we start to make something bigger. I plan to make something as huge as a bucket first to show you." Anthony explained.     

"That's good, do you need more people to help you?" I asked.     

"Uhh, not for now. My dad and cousin will do while my wife helps with the other household stuff." Anthony said.     

"Alright, tell me when it's done. Kaley, Tatiana, Unc Zardon, Mark, Dong, and Jared on me. We'll bring the truck and go get a few water tanks and generators. It's a few miles past the DDR Camp. Get ready in a few minutes." I instructed.     

"Okay, my turn. Jay, Bing, Jo, Aubrey, Jonathan, and Nicole on me. Wait a minute, I'll grab some gear for you." Oscar declared.     

I asked someone to fill the vehicles with gas and we suited up. We double-checked our equipment and made sure that everyone's magazines were full and a round was inside the chamber. After everything was ready, we all rode the truck and headed out.     

"I miss you already guys." I said with a smile.     

"Me too bro, we'll finally get some peace and quiet." Jared said and the group chuckled.     

"Oscar is fun to be with but we always go in guns blazing. It's fun to shoot guns and see their heads blow up but he never has that finesse that you have when we go on runs." Dong added.     

"Yup, he's definitely a loud guy." I said.     

"It's like the difference between a pirate and a ninja." Mark said.     

"Well to be fair, he's really old. His bones would creak out if he started on sneaking around and jumping over walls." I said while smiling.     

"That is true, being old is a bitch sometimes. Well, there's not much difference in my case when I'm younger, heh." Unc Zardon said.     

We started to drive on the highway while we talked casually. There were no signs of people outside, only zombies littered the streets. We finally reached our destination and we saw the stores unlooted. There were a few dozen in front of them so I drew my katana first. The group backed me up when I dove in blade drawn.     

There were three in front of me so I brandished my katana immediately. Their hands were crooked but darkened blood permeated their nails and their jaws were dislocated at nasty angles. The eye of one of them was chewed out and a small portion was remaining inside the socket.     

"Let's go back to basics, shall we?" I thought to myself.     

*slash*     

Southeast to Northwest.     

*slash*     

West to East.     

*chop*     

Finally, North to South.     

They fell after the quick encounter and I looked back. My group was busy taking care of biters on their side. We were in a spear formation where Tatiana and Mark are on my Southeast and Southwest while Kaley was behind me followed by Jared, Dong, and Unc Zardon.     

I controlled the pace well by making sure that our numbers were double than what we were currently facing. However, the case was different for Tatiana and I because we could handle multiple at once. We reached the store after a few minutes of killing all of them in a small perimeter. I immediately headed for the locks while they made a semi-circle at my back, watching out for roamers.     

"Oh, I finally found another difference. We're pretty quick with Oscar while we're a bit slower when we're with you." Jared said with a laugh.     

"Hah! I'm extra careful, that's why. Focus there yeah?" I said then I almost heard the sound effect of my lockpicking skill leveling up from the game I spent hours playing.     

I opened the gate and we drove inside. We closed the gate after to make sure that the deadheads wouldn't accidentally come inside. There were several types of water tanks ranging from plastic, metal, and glass. They came in different shapes and sizes but I checked inside the office first to make sure that no one was hiding, zombie or human.     

There was none inside and all I saw aside from a few stacks of paperwork was a set of keys. It was for a truck that delivered the tanks. It was a 6-wheeler truck though it does not have the horizontal bar that bisects our truck in the middle.     

"Could we take this truck too? We could definitely use it back home." Unc Zardon said.     

"Yeah we'll use that to haul more containers. Take those rectangular plastic ones first that could fit 50 gallons and load all it could carry in that truck. Tie it firmly when you stack them so it doesn't get thrown off." I said.     

"What do we place here then?" Mark asked.     

"Place the 100-gallon ones and choose the polyethylene ones. Forget about the metal ones for now since they would rust over time. Let's get the easiest one to load first and we'll load the metal ones and the glass ones at a later date." I said.     

"Polytele-what?" Dong asked.     

"The plastic ones, sorry." I explained.     

"Speak the common tongue bro, we're normal people here." Jared said while laughing.     

"Heh, fill everything up. We'll come back for the generators later." I said.     

"How about these containers though? They look like the ones where Russel puts gas on." Kaley said in the corner.     

"Where?" I said as I walked near her.     

"Here." Kaley pointed on a pile covered by a tarp.     

"This is good, we'll come back for these things later. They are all the same size and color too. We could definitely fill the apartment there with these containers filled with gas. The other containers there are starting to vary in size making it waste space in stacking them." I said while I mulled over what to do.     

We loaded the trucks and we securely tied it so it won't fall off when we hit a speed bump. Aside from the containers we also found a few thick tarps, jacks, ropes, and a toolbox that contained a few things. We grabbed what we could carry since it wouldn't hurt to have extra stuff lying around.     

"Everything is ready, shall we go now?" Unc Zardon asked.     

We headed back after dispatching a few on the way out. We got several of those 50-gallon tanks and the 100-gallon tanks. I was driving the smaller truck we found in the store and the drive back would be a few minutes.     

The soldiers from the DDR camp never seemed to mind us when we went back the same way. They just assumed a pose when we came the first time.     

"Where do you think they get their food?" Kaley asked.     

"Probably from the helicopters and the stock from the hospital and the school. They're probably well-stocked since we've never seen them scavenge for food. Well, we could be going to different places and we just didn't notice them." I said.     

"Hmm, they could still have a lot of food even if their numbers are way more than ours. They are easily a few thousand. They might be rationing them strictly, unlike us." Kaley said.     

"Maybe." I replied     

"I'm sure my group hasn't noticed that our portions are getting smaller. We're conditioning all of us in a way they won't notice immediately. Oscar and my aunt are the only ones who know. We'll tell them when they're already used to it." I thought to myself.     

"It would be cool to have a helicopter." Jared said.     

"I'd like a mobile suit instead or the Iron Tuxedo." I laughed.     

"That's like the robot thingy, right? What is the Iron Tuxedo? Another parody?" Kaley said.     

"Yeah, something like that." I smiled.     

"Well that's impossible to have." Jared said.     

"Hah! If Japan or US actually make a working one, we'll head there immediately." I said.     

"Hey, what else do we need from our place then? Realistically speaking?" Kaley asked.     

"Oh, after the barn is finished, I'd like it to have more animals like pigs, sheep, horses, and ducks since we already have chickens, cows, rabbits, and goats." I said.     

"No, I mean equipment-wise." Kaley explained.     

"Oh, equipment huh? After we get plenty of what we have here, I would like to grab those mobile dental vans and clinical RVs from PLV." I said.     

"Oh, the ones parked on the side where I went to school?" Jared asked.     

"Yeah, those vehicles. When I went to rescue Allan, I saw a few still there parked near your school. Your school is also near the fire station, we could probably get a fire truck as well. I hope nobody got to them yet." I replied.     

"Oh! There's the police academy close there too, we could probably get a few guns there." Jared said.     

"That's good, we could always have a lot more. I hope that place's still intact, most of the police probably grabbed for themselves a few guns when this thing happened." I said.     

"Right, I hope there could at least be a few left there. I remember seeing an MK14 EBR when I glanced at the people there having a small lecture. A few of them were carrying one when they patrol too." Jared said.     

We reached home and we unloaded the containers.     

"Russel, ask a few people to grab a few of this and place the 100-gallon ones at the back wall behind the pool area, in the basement, and at each house. Contact the other families and tell them to grab their own and start to fill them with water. We'll be coming back with those containers you fill with gas later so you could empty the tanker. Oh, cover those clear ones with a tarp so they don't form algae." I said.     

"All of them?" Russel asked.     

"Yeah, all of them. Fill it up yeah?" I said.     

"Okay~" Russel said as he stretched his back.     

"Are we bringing the 6-wheeler again?" Unc Zardon asked.     

"Of course, let's fill it up one more time and we'll fill the other one with a few generators." I replied.     

"It's like we have the whole world now." Unc Zardon replied.     

"Hah! It's like we have a blank check." I said, smiling.