Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

With a clearing operation as large as we were about to get into, a few things needed to be prepared just so that everyone could come back home in one piece. We could have all the resources to throw at a problem but a proper plan to tackle it was the most important one.

Part of it involved the location and/or the terrain.

As big and as infested those two cemeteries combined were, they still had walls high enough to keep the dead from pouring out in every direction. Even if these two places were separate, their walls were meeting in the middle.

And it made things much, much easier.

Even if there were a few that could as easily climb or jump over them, the majority still needed to weave through their rotting brothers and sisters just to get out in the open. Furthermore, those specials wouldn’t just sit around and idle by when we’re preparing to receive them so almost all of them were shot down before we began our operation.

With that said, the entrances available were exactly four.

What we did was we closed off three entrances and certain parts of the streets outside so when they start to pour out, they’ll be straddling on a custom ‘walkway’ where they’ll all be put down one by one. Even if we missed anything, all they could do was just go around a single loop until a bullet finds their head.

It would be difficult to keep everything from going the way it was supposed to, but parallel the walkway we put up were checkpoints and our roaming groups watching on standby. They were placed there to make sure no 3rd party would be able to interrupt our main group once we started and be the backup if there were any spillage involved.

Everything else was set accordingly and the only thing that’s left was the music.

I pulled out my radio and gave the signal.

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*bzzt*

“Pick something good, Juan! Hit it!”

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[Got it, man!]

*bzzt*

–

Everyone else just heard a short scratch and a click before the speakers we mounted on the truck started to buzz ominously. However, everyone with me almost fell off once the music started popping off.

[BABY DON’T FORGEEEEEET~~~ ME~~~ AND I PROMISE I WON’T FORGEEEEET~~~ YOU~~~]

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*bzzt*

“WHAT THE FUCK, JUAN?!”

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[MY BAD! MY BAD! HERE IT–]

*bzzt*

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[BITCH! LASAGNA~! BITCH! LASAGNA~!]

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*bzzt*

“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE–”

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[DAMMIT! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! I’M SORRY–]

*bzzt*

–

The tense atmosphere instantly dissipated after several stumbles of finding the right music to accompany putting down deadheads, but it was immediately replaced with something else when the bass started thumping on a steady rhythm.

At the same time, the people I assigned to fly the drones overhead were reporting that the dead in the cemetery were starting to swarm at the entrance. Furthermore, the ones from the far edge of the cemetery were starting to head in our direction and all we needed to do in the meantime was to wait.

I pulled out my radio and talked to the three groups waiting by the closed-off entrances.

–

*bzzt*

“You guys know the plan, just come in when the majority is outside. Bring down anything that didn’t get attracted and your goal is the first entrance. Listen to the people manning the drones so you won’t get blindsided, alright?”

*bzzt*

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*bzzt* 𝗇𝑶𝓋ℯ𝑙𝓃𝓔xt.𝑐𝒪𝐌

[Gotcha.]

*bzzt*

–

*bzzt*

[Yup.]

*bzzt*

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*bzzt*

[Loud and clear, sir.]

*bzzt*

–

As soon as I put down my radio, we started to see through the entrance a swarm of deadheads in various states of rot coming in at different speeds. Almost immediately, the putrid and abhorrent smell that wafter over us when the wind blew almost made us gag, but I was the first one to jump down with Mikhail, Cynthia, and Ibarra.

From the time I was gone, Ibarra was actually discharged and was allowed to be back on the field. As long as he doesn’t get hard on the field which was totally fucking doable, he’d be fine.

With that said, he’d be the one floating on the sides with Cynthia while I’ll be taking the helm with Mikhail. He’s back with us but I decided to make him take baby steps. The last thing we would want was for him to injure himself and be down one person we could trust our backs to.

Oscar waved over Ibarra, “You sure you could get back on the saddle?”

Ibarra nodded as he gripped his spear tightly, “Yes, sir. I’ll stay on top of things.”

Oscar cackled, “Hah! ‘Coz being in the bottom sucks, right?! Right?! C’mon! Someone support me here!”

Everyone present tried to contain their laughter for the sake of Ibarra but Ibarra couldn’t help but chortle at what Oscar just said to him. Nevertheless, he looked more pumped than ever because doing nothing for the past few days would take a toll on someone physically active.

With that said, the four of us advanced while our shooters were on top of our running vehicles. They’ll be in charge of putting down any grievous threat from afar and aside from me, they’ll have the authority to make us fall back from our advance cause they’ll be seeing the bigger picture.

“Fan out! Fan out!”

As soon as I said that, we gave each other ample space to swing our weapons without needing to worry about hitting anyone else, but we were taking two steps back after a single step forward.

I swung down to lop off a walker’s head with its right shoulder before I stabbed forward to a freak wearing a pink tutu.

My blade entered from under its chin and made its way to the top of its head, but I twisted my blade as I pulled it out to lop off the crooked arms a deadhead to my side was about to swipe me with.

“Back! Back! Back!”

I could as easily put it down in one swing but the crowd behind it was starting to get denser and denser. We needed to juggle this horde as best as we could because even if we could loop around and try again, it’ll be easier if we didn’t have to be careful about tripping over their bodies.

The purpose of our walkway was to be able to face these freaks in a linear fashion so that the end result would be a blanket of dead bodies for easy cleanup. There were a few more reasons for doing it this way but the main reason was just to do things efficiently.

We should be spending less time cleaning up the mess we made than making the said mess in the first place. Part of the reason we would take our time in clearing operations such as this was the cleanup afterward. It was much easier to sink cold steel in a crawler’s head than to carry it over a pile right after.

With that said, the ones having an easier time were Cynthia and Ibarra because the motion they needed to do for a single strike was a basic thrust. They were using different types of weapons but the ‘piercing’ damage was the same.

They’d just leave their victims with holes in soft parts of their rotting bodies and they’ll be relatively safe because of the distance between their spear or their rapier.

Compared to Mikhail and me, our motions for our strikes were completely different because from the class I taught before, a few more things needed to be taken into account. Nevertheless, the amount of stuff we could do with our weapons made it a little bit more fun.

I can also do thrust attacks with my katana but only Mikhail could ‘hook’ or ‘pull’ someone with the notch from the bottom blade of his axe.

Granted he could as easily swing it once and kill a few but in order to do that, he had to have more targets in place.

At one point, the swarm chasing after us were dense on Ibarra’s side so he swung his axe horizontally without using much force to drag the majority that was coming at Ibarra over to his side. After that, the grip he was using on his axe changed then he wound it up once before lopping off several heads in one stroke.

All of them just tumbled on the road before it was either stepped on or kicked off by their comrades but Mikhail was far from being done.

Making use of his ‘hook’ the second time, he latched in on a deadhead’s body before throwing it across the swarm coming for us so the ones in front would stumble and fall down.

He didn’t necessarily kill a bunch in one stroke but he brought us more time to keep our blanket as thick as it could be.

We continued doing the same thing over and over until we reached the 10-minute mark and then I heard Artem’s voice on the other side of our radio.

–

*bzzt*

[We’re coming in.]

*bzzt*

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