Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

The moment the upper half of that fucking Bouncer hit the floor, there was this three seconds of silence before Mikhail's roar shook the surroundings.

It was just a liberating feeling just to let loose and break things after recovering from an injury—and having a large target to boot—and even Artem who he stole his kill from didn't even care as he was just happy that one of his boys came back in the best way possible.

It was a mutual kill, if anything, because Artem had already worn it down from the back—just enough for Mikhail to land the final blow.

At that point, it only took 20 minutes—maybe 30 minutes to completely clean up this floor, and it even allowed Morales' team and the rest of ours with them to join us, letting us take a few minutes to catch a break.

Still, Artem's group was keeping a close watch on the staircase we still hadn't ventured and I gave them strict orders not to ascend it—though sending over a drone to scout once more or to have sacrificed was fair game.

Morales then pointed at the big corpses my group was cutting up just to fit into the entrance or have easier time transporting:

"Those big ones again, huh? I thought they were hard to cut?"

I waved him off, "They just looked like that one but they're different. More of a shock value than anything. No honor, too."

"Hah?"

Oscar cut in, "You got time to take a closer look at the pods, kid?"

"Would it take long?"

"You're just lookin', right?"

"Sure…"

While the old man had already secured samples for the president AND the Admiral, we were free to do what we could with the leftovers, and their other group was also busy cutting them off from the flesh carpet.

And upon closer look, these pods looked like the most fucked up version of kinder eggs but it was mostly a human's torso that got deboned and inflated not by air but various mystery meat products stuck inside it.

However, it had a certain elasticity to it, allowing it to have grown deadheads plus extra live inside it for a while or to incubate, farm, or whatever the fuck—producing deadhead byproducts that we just faced earlier.

I wasn't exactly sure about their purpose to this because a Stitcher could pretty much do the same but let's just say it removes the surgical aspect of it as it was akin to mushing up clay pieces together, instead of sewing up two pieces of fabric.

And the arms and legs of the deboned torso?

They acted as the tether for the meat carpet and the old man told me that once they were ripped clean off, they start to shut down as their random pulsing starts to stagger and stagger.

"So that fucking carpet's more than aesthetic?"

Oscar shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe. We're not exactly sure how but it's safe to operate on not touching anything without any PPEs on. Kinda like real life, no? Seems obvious but most people take it for granted."

"Fuck me— So if some drunk idiot fell on that shit, it's fucking over for them?"

He shrugged his shoulders again, "Again, maybe. I'm not sure if it's used like blood vessels—to transport blood, nutrients, or whatever the fuck—but these fucks are starting to affect the environment. We can always lay down one of our enemies on there and see, ya know?"

I ignored his last remark, "Haven't they already?"

"I mean— That's true, I guess… Anyway, kid, what now?"

I looked back at everyone else still taking a short rest, "Hmm… Let's give everyone maybe 10 more minutes before we finish this run."

"Just the strip mall above, huh?"

"Yeah, and the other connection station further out. Ah— It's for another day, I suppose but that after we clear that other one, it means we have the LRT Line 1 to ourselves plus extra. It's almost a straight shot between Morales and Iskoh's own territory but if you can't be bothered to fight dregs on the way, it's just the way to go.

Just imagine what we could do with this transport system in the future? Collect dust, for example…"

"Hah! I guess that's true, too… Unless we built something around this LRT Line or have an actual outpost build on top of it."

"Hmm~ I mean— this place is a good contender."

"What about the other connecting station?"

"It's closer to Iskoh's place and we want something in between his and Morales' outpost. And I just have the people to rotate around this outpost in combination with Iskoh's and maybe Morales'"

"You talking 'bout the Russians?"

"If we're not doing any major runs, I'll place some of them here with the younger generation. They'll be the main players aside from giving them some people to handle logistics and whatnot. Turn this station of a cozy pad as soon as we take care of what's above—"

And while I was still in mid-sentence, Tatiana came in with a disturbed expression, telling me to come over to where Artem and the others were and fucking put on my receiver. It was because I turned it off while I was looking at these dried-up pods with the old man and it was just dangling by my ear, making me only hear static and short buzzes.

But yeah, as soon as I put it on while making my way towards the group, June was talking to Marina about the footage they took last time.

[You sure this is the place?]

[Yeah. It's right before— That's the drone we were using— It's melted but—]

[B-But where's the rest of the… you know… the thing?]

[The drone?]

[N-No, silly! T-The rest o-of the meat walls! I-I thought this place was s-supposed to be congested!]

I cut in using my receiver:

-

*bzzt*

"It's just a guess but since they released a lot of minions, it might be because those meat walls were just holding them in before?"

*bzzt*

-

[You mean they were giant pods?]

-

*bzzt*

"I'm just guessing here but it's not like those walls or curtains didn't contain deadheads. The pods are just one of their… you know… Pocket Monster Centers…"

*bzzt*

-

[Hmm...….]

-

*bzzt*

"But what else is up there?"

*bzzt*

-

[Take a look yourself, aside from those walls, curtains, or carpets… It's empty.]

-

*bzzt*

"What?"

*bzzt*

-

[It's maybe the truth or their Broodmother just escaped. Through the vents, I mean.]

-

*bzzt*

"I guess we'll see personally, then."

*bzzt*

-

From then on, as we brought a smaller group to hose down our path to the stairs, I brought my main group with me as Artem brought his—and this strip mall of sorts just looked like it won the most grotesque and most fucked up Halloween decoration of the century.

It was like it was pranked by college frat guys but instead of toilet paper rolls, strips of flesh and whatever amalgamated or congealed flesh were used to cover everything.

And yeah, this place seemed like it used all its people before bouncing out because at the furthest end of the strip mall was this empty space where there was evidence of something sitting in the middle of these flesh mound and got off to escape in either of the vents above.

It was akin to someone taking off their headphones after 12 or so hours of gaming and it would tend to leave this indent that looked very unnatural.

However, none of us here could accept that our prey escaped our grasp—and it took maybe 10 minutes for Bogdan to fill up the vents with gas, and with everyone else's approval, light it up and blow that motherfucker to smithereens.

It was because we could clearly see where the vents would end from above and unless whatever inside it had escaped through other means, it still hadn't exited the proper way.

One explanation was that it couldn't move as fast because it had to have shed its unnecessary parts just to fit into the vents, and it had to literally crawl through that winding path, mostly, just to save itself.

So yeah, everyone was already watching from a safe distance when Bogdan made use of a small-ish remote explosive just to ignite the gas—and it was just a glorious display of fireworks to top the day off.

Capturing the motherfucker would've been an added bonus, but at this point, unless each of us could start fitting onto those small vents and somehow had the mobility to use our hands to grab onto it, the shit was just impossible at the current moment.

And even though there was a saying that when there's a will, there's a way, we can't just risk that motherfucker escaping and nesting onto another secluded location—but our problem now was to see if we actually got that motherfucker.

-

*bzzt*

"Someone get me that RC Car under the seats at the back."

*bzzt*

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