Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

At this point, the two began recalling more details from the incident and told me about what happened though I still felt that there was something they weren't being completely honest about. However, at the end of their statement, the two looked at each other solemnly before Sheepy nodded—making Dax let out a sigh before turning to me:

"Alright… We've told you all sorts of details but we did exchange some rather… unsavory words with that fucker, TJ. While it's true we sustained injuries like this, we managed to throw one or two punches but we're just too weak to do anything about it. I'm not sure what you'd do about that information but you trusted us, and now we're trusting you to do you're thing…"

Sheepy nodded, "Whatever the fuck it is you're gonna do…"

I chuckled, "That puts a damper on things but do know I'm also hearing his side of the story and I'm gonna gather as much footage I could with the help of a few people. Just do know that this will take a bit of time—"

"How much time?"

"A few days, a week at most. If all else fails, I'll make sure you're far away from them or vice versa."

"Fuck it, that's the most help we received from anyone."

"I mean— you fucks are still recovering here and Tesla along with his family members would be sent to work in this place. That means that if he wanders around here more, that TJ, he'd just be digging his own grave. Get me?"

"Yeah…/ Mm-hmm…"

"So sit back a bit and recover for the meantime and I'll do my thing."

In any case, I am getting tired of being like Dr. Phil for everyone else in Phase 3 and the ones who followed after though I had one more bout of talking after since Artem and his group managed to lock down all the standalone stations with Morales and his crew.

The only ones left were the two other stations connecting to the other train lines though there were a few problems that we needed to work out before tackling them.

So yeah, once we got back and had dinner, we gathered everyone involved and decided to hear from them first with Artem walking up to the front.

"Dobryy vecher— Good evening, everyone. I rarely speak in front of people like this but we have both good news and bad. First the good news: as you've heard, we've cleared this LRT Line 1—I meant the stations that aren't connected to the other train lines—completely.

It would need a human's touch to get into those stations or a rather agile undead but not the normal ones we try to clear off every single day."

Matthew cut in, "So, what's the bad news?"

"We've received strict orders from Nyebo to not enter those connecting stations without a proper plan but he didn't say anything about sending a drone in. It's what he'd do if he's there so we did just that. There's this other thing that we also did but it could wait—"

I, "Nyebo", also cut in, "Can we hear that other thing first before the bad news?"

Artem nodded, "Sure, it has to do with the Legarda, Recto, and Tutuban Station from LRT Line 2 and Magallanes and Taft Avenue Station from MRT Line 3.

Since we're in the area and have enough time to spare—and with the help of the people from the Mayor's side—we decided to clear the succeeding standalone stations and the outer surface of the connecting stations from those two other lines namely the Recto Station and Taft Avenue Station."

Matthew turned to me, "What's he talkin' about?"

I chuckled as I gave Artem a nod of approval, "He basically used a tourniquet on those other stations so we could focus on it when it matters."

Oscar cut in while scratching the back of his head, "I do know what a tourniquet is but I'm gonna need a little more than that, Kid? Was it a good thing?"

I nodded, "Of course, it's a good thing. As you can see D. Jose Station is connected to Recto Station while EDSA Station is connected to Taft Avenue Station hence the names. So, what they did is they went after the stations after those two so we could focus more on these connecting stations tomorrow. I thought you fucks spoke English? It's both our second language and—"

"Ah, shaddap! You two put the word station in every sentence and it confused me! I think I get it?" Oscar nodded as he sat down.

Matthew asked his previous unanswered question, "That's the other piece of news, right? What's the bad news?"

Artem then pulled out the drone footage they got as he took a few steps away from the screen, "This is the bad news. I'd like to call them pods."

Everyone else asked, "Pods?"

As the video played from three different drones, Artem made us focus on Drone #1 but the footage on Drones #2 and #3 were just as important. It gave everyone the general layout of what it looked like currently even if some of us knew it by heart due to commuting to and from work before the world ended.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It was because aside from those pods we hadn't seen yet, flesh barricades were all over the place, altering the area's known pathways. We'd have to prepare more than just firetrucks and pitchforks for this run though coordination with everyone else was paramount.

However, once we saw a glimpse of what Artem was talking about, one of the things I fucking feared about came true when these fucks had developed the ability to create more of themselves.

'Hold up…'

Everyone else was already thinking of nicknames to call this new type we haven't even seen yet because so far, all we've seen are these non-uniform pods where new deadheads spawn—but a person with my eyes or someone else with a physiology degree or a gym rat—would notice some muscle inserts were off and the length of each limb was fucking off as well.

In addition, there were some creations that had extra limbs or missing one or two—and yeah, some of them weren't even in the right places most of the time.

It brought me to the time when we were in Manila and had to procure oxygen tanks but we came across a station—where we sent a couple of drones armed with C4—that was a nest for a much bigger, singular, pod… unlike this one that had several smaller pods spread together.

And one other thing that I remember from that time was that we found severed limbs, torsos, and heads and that could've been the start of what we were seeing right now.

Still, whether they were puppets or not—or another version of them—meant these fucking meat bags were still continuing to evolve as we continue to find more ways to take care of their kind.

However, the footage wasn't even halfway done when Artem forwarded it a bit and we began to question whether they were breeding pods, sleeping pods, collection pods, or a mix of those things in between.

It's because we saw these collection pods either swallow a wandering deadhead and/or a deadhead choose to take a nap in it with its dismembered friends.

We haven't had enough footage to go by but we did see a few pods deflate/inflate after rewinding the footage Artem caught many, many times. And yeah, they hadn't even had footage of where the thickest parts of this fucking flesh wall were and a good number of us just wanted to blow the place up.

If I didn't want to take home at least a few samples to study I would've agreed to just went Samurai on it and burn that motherfucking place to the ground but yeah, bullets were the easiest solution but we gotta know what the fuck's going on to completely wipe them out.

So yeah, it was almost midnight when we all decided to call it a night—and only the elite players were present plus our new squad—and we were all up in the gym for some good lighting and using the large mirrors as an impromptu whiteboard.

What we first did was figure out mostly the new pathways created for us and ways we could make it more advantageous for us—and what followed was everyone's loudout for the incoming siege of just the connection station between D. Jose Station and Recto Station.

We decided it would be best to handle them one at a time, focus all our forces in one spot, and have several backups at the ready in case things went south.

And of course, I'm feeling a little more confident because aside from the young junkies getting cleared by our doctors, Mikhail and Alexei were also cleared for their gunshot wounds, mostly.

Their doctors said to wait a few more days but they were already itching to stretch their bones and fight with everyone in full gear.