Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

From then on, we should’ve ended the call but I insisted more on learning what type of infected they fight on a day-to-day basis. Because aside from their increased activity and general ability while basking in the sun, I’ll swear that Japan falling was an inside job if it was just because of that.

[Now that you mentioned it—we almost forgot about that, didn’t we?]

"We could’ve ended the call on a high note but this shit is important, no?"

[Yep. So yeah, people might call them differently but the ones we know of are the Idols, the Hikikomoris, the Tengus— Wait, the Tengus are more like the traits almost every infected here shares but I said the word ’almost’ since it’s maybe around 1 in 10 of them. You following?]

"I know what Tengus are—legendary creatures commonly depicted to have long noses, but— OH! Fuck. You have deadheads with a heightened sense of smell?"

[You catch on quickly but it’s to the scent of humans, not their base sense of smell.]

"What?"

[Ya know, blood, piss, shit, BO, whatever the fuck that smells like human, there’s a good number of the dead here that could sense ’em. If it comes from animals, they’d ignore it. They just know it’s from humans for some reason.]

"Huh, there goes using public toilets."

"The ones we have here don’t have any of those and aside from a few ultra-rare specials, almost all of their senses are dull aside from their hearing. It seemed like the only thing that works as usual or it’s heightened since everything else is doing poorly. Wait— there’s one thing a small number of them could sense too but I’m not sure if you believe in that shit."

[Just tell me and we’ll see if it applies here.]

"Killing intent."

[Hah?]

"That feeling you’d get from your wife if you forgot to defrost or thaw the chicken—"

[Oh, shit! That?!]

"Yep."

[Huh. I think I’m aware of that since the Commander does this thing with his eyes too but I swear I heard this civilian base from the mainland encountering one that sent shivers down their spines. Could it be the same thing?]

"Killing intent coming from the dead? Could be— but sending it and feeling extreme fear has a very thin line separating them."

[I mean— it’s hard to fully identify or even quantify as a trait since it’s not tangible but it was reported to be the complete opposite of an Idol, mind you.]

"Hold up, I kind of figured out what a Tengu is but an Idol? I need more definitions on that PLUS whatever is the opposite of it is called. Isn’t that just a Hikikomori or I’m just 1 for 3 right now?"

[One for Three, sorry.]

"Then enlighten me."

[Alright. Idols are these very frail-looking infected—which are just of the female gender—that are usually followed by a horde of infected of the opposite gender while keeping a safe distance.] ṟἈɴộΒЁŝ

"Then the Hikikomoris?"

[They are infected that would generally be found indoors, usually beside an open door or a window—or even a hole—because they still crave sunlight. They were reported to not attack anyone and anything that’s outdoors but once you step foot into their territory, they’d fight tooth and nail to defend their home.]

"I see, we have something similar to those too… But the opposite of Idols, what do you call ’em?"

[Ronins. Basically the one reported was a lone wanderer that’s been avoided even by the dead, for some reason, and aside from sending off waves of killing intent, they hit like a fucking truck despite their normal size.

Because you see, from the reports I’ve read from that civilian-operated base, with their limited ammunition, they’d always try to finish things with their handheld weapons, and let’s just say that it ended in disaster. Luckily—]

"Luckily?"

[Listen. Let me finish, alright? Despite their own ’camouflage’ that could blend in with their own, you can easily put it down with a round that has high velocity. It’s not like the Tanks reported in the home country that could take a few.50s before going down.]

"So a.22 wouldn’t work, obviously?"

[A.223 would but a.22 short? Not a fucking chance.]

"Hmm~ So there’s still a bit of armor despite it looking like a normal zomboid?"

[I don’t wanna be definite about it but I heard similar reports pretty early on in the apocalypse of the same thing happening. Not a lightly-armored one per se but a regular-looking infected that could hit like a 10-wheeler.

It caused unexpected deaths because they were part of a pack before too—and were getting cleared by a few dudes with knives, hence the sudden deaths—but the report I got the from civilian base was pretty recent, so take from that what you would like.]

"I see. Just a case of something evolving backwards then?"

[What? Oh. I guess you can call it that. It gained armor but lost its sneaking ability since its friends started avoiding it like the plague.]

"Exactly."

[But who knows what it could be a few more months or years along the line?]

"Hah? Why would you think that?"

[Because realistically speaking—]

"I know, I know. I was just— we really should have more groups clearing the dead. They can make more of them faster than we can reproduce. It only takes them one bite while we need 9 months and at least a decade plus change to have one of ours combat-ready.

We even have what we call here ’Stitchers/Puppetmasters’ since they could reassemble parts of dead people into working soldiers for a time—we recently discovered that they have working pods too and it’s just… eugh."

[What?! That’s— That’s fucked up. I heard India has zombies that needed to be burned or else they’ll rise up again—albeit more groggy, it was rumored to have cell regeneration despite decomposition occurring at the same time.]

"And where did you hear that from?"

[We have military bases all around, kid, what did you expect? We recently lost the one in yours too but we sent the big guns to get it back—though I heard you had a huge help in that. So yeah, thanks for that. We owe ya a lot. Who’s the current CO of the military base over there again?]

"Mitch Davis— I forgot his current rank since it’s been given out like hotcakes pretty recently."

[Heh. They’d do that if they’d pay us the same or even less with more work. Same with every other company.]

"That’s shockingly true—"

[Holy shit, we’ve been talking for more than an hour— my wife’s gonna kill me! Talk to you later, kid! I’ll send you the list tomorrow too— and don’t fucking forget my order, alright?!]

"Yep! I’ll even make it in front of ya!"

[Sweet! I’ll fucking count on that! Add a rack of ribs in front of that too!]

"A’ight! See you in a month!"

[Cool!]

At that point, I would’ve wanted to know more about their human threats but we still had a lot of time before our oncoming departure, and I could already feel a disturbance in the force from behind my roof’s door.

The funny thing was, I would’ve welcomed anyone in our circle who would’ve come and sucked my dick while I was on the phone, but nada. Still, I made a new friend on the phone and another enemy to boot, so all in all, it’s a pretty balanced conversation.

But yeah, all the valuable information I heard from both officers was still stewing in my head and I needed some time to process, categorize, and eventually store each one permanently in one sector of my brain. And most of the time, all it would require was a moment but this time, it might need a good night’s sleep.

However, it just wasn’t possible because I was still worried about Eikiji and the Kadena Airbase’s consumption of produce supplemented by bone meal made from the living dead.

’I need to forget for a moment first

And with that thought in mind, right as I opened the door to my room, surprisingly enough, a movie was playing and everyone was enjoying their own bucket of popcorn.

The smell of butter was just permeating in the air, making it cozy as fuck with the cold wind and the dim lighting, but once I sat in between Kaley and Quinn who saved a spot for me, I was given this popcorn bucket with a hole at the bottom.

With a knowing smile, I just placed it over my lap for the moment, but it didn’t take long before my shorts were thrown on the other side of the room while someone’s soft hand was already stroking my shaft up and down.

However, once I "parked" the bucket of popcorn on the right place—despite a few spills dropping down to the sides, everyone just acted as is while Kaley and Quinn started to take from my bucket piece by piece instead.

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