Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Jessica and I eventually said our farewells while she looked like sleep was catching up to her, because she only had a short nap when I was taking care of her AFTER I took "care" of her.

But yeah, her shoulders were already slumped and her eyes were already droopy when I closed the door in front of me though she looked like I took off a ton of stress from her back, front, upper, lower, left, right, etc., and she could genuinely smile for once.

It's just that my supposed "Walk of Shame" out of the ATC Area became a triumphant one instead, because not only the guys were giving me the double thumbs up and the approving nod, but the ladies looked like they were hot and looking for seconds.

I just shook my head and chuckled as I went for the door because a little stroke for both my ego and my dick from time to time wasn't a bad thing.

In any case, while I was busy making Jessica "relax" my group had already taken it upon themselves to hand out some stuff we scavenged along the way and some things they brought themselves to score some brownie points.

They were different from the items we also brought as gifts from the six-wheeler, and they came directly from their pockets to somehow remove the notion that we were complete assholes which was technically true in some way.

It was also true that our names were already cleared or should I say, not even tainted in the first place—because Lizzy's name and "testimonies" didn't mean shit because of her notoriety of being a bitch—but it really wouldn't hurt to increase favorability by gift-giving.

"You have people stationed over that gate of yours, right?" I asked "Tim", one of Jessica's assistants who received us earlier.

"Yes, sir. I've already called both ends and they'll let you in and out without question," he replied.

There were no outstanding features on his face besides the cool vest he was wearing but it seemed like he used to have a job as a public servant and he was making use of just that to make everyone's life here a little easier.

"Alright, thank you."

"Thank you as well, sir. My kids loved the coloring books and the fancy crayons! Doing it digitally isn't the same for them so, thanks!"

"Glad to help," then I turned to my group, "Alright. Time's up! Enough catching up with your old crew here, we're this close to one of the best places to take a vacation. Pack up and follow the same formation as earlier! Got it?!"

Everyone responded, "Yes, sir!"

At that point, we drove out from Jessica's airport and made our way to this Korean town of sorts and this strip mall right next to a love hotel before we reached this shortcut gate which was also acting as a checkpoint.

It was manned by a dozen or so people with a mounted machine gun on one of their vehicles because it was sitting at a perfect spot that could overlook several key points around the area.

Though as we were being let in, one of the guards decided to give me a ticket as a joke, but everyone lost it when I took out a few peso bills from my wallet and handed it to him:

"HOLY FUCK! HAH! YOU STILL HAVE THOSE?!"

"Mostly for kindling but it got us out of this mess, huh?"

"Dammit! Get in, sir! Get in! Never thought I'd see that day— FUCK! HE GOT ME BOYS, HE GOT ME!"

'Some chill folks… that's good…'

In any case, if we didn't use this bypass of sorts, it would've taken us a few more hours to reach part of our destination because it only took us 20 minutes of smooth sailing to pass by several municipalities, a techno-farm, parks, and residential areas before we saw the other end of the line.

We could've probably pushed in a bit more and used the actual expressway but we were informed that there was still a wreckage waiting to be cleared further in.

Additionally, the other end of Jessica's bypass was actually just tens of feet before the actual toll area, and we had to drive a bit off-road just to circle around this high school and avoid this large cemetery teeming with the undead.

I wouldn't get started with the smell it delivered when a strong wind passed by, but that was one of the reasons the guards here had a fire going to somehow mask the smell with the smoke. It was akin to lighting up a match while one was taking a huge dump but in all honesty, they should've gone with a bonfire instead.

Don't even get me started with the health implications of inhaling in rotting meat smell.

I turned to everyone present, "There's still a few hours before sunset, we can clear it now—"

One of the guys manning this gate cut me off, "Ah. If you're gonna try it, kindly do it from the other side so they don't migrate over here."

"Not if we clear the whole place, right?"

"That's… For some reason, it replenishes day to day and—"

I had to do a double-take, "Replenishes? Explain…"

He got startled by the sudden spotlight, "W-We are thinning them on a daily basis by use of trap set opposite our direction—even Sir Oscar brought a large group and caused chaos in the same place twice—b-but yeah, it seemed to be a gathering place of the dead hence the replenishing on my part. We tried doing it ourselves with a large group too but nada, they keep coming in."

"Huh. What else did you do?"

"Again, for another reason, it seemed to have a set number of occupants(?) from our observation and if it reaches a certain number, the excess will just move on elsewhere and we'll just take care of the ones who come across here quietly. Wouldn't want to attract a thousand or so of them here…"

"Curious…"

"T-That's what Sir Oscar said too after his second attempt to clear this place but he focused their firepower elsewhere and just told us to sit tight and wait for you to catch on. He said you might have some ideas. We also took footage as he said and covered a few stragglers with paint to see get a glimpse of their behavior.

It is really bizarre but if it's one of those specials, it should've been dead twice over if not, thrice from the times that place was attacked by us and the ones before us…"

"Hmm… But technically~ Your group and Oscar didn't clear the 'whole' thing."

One other dude popped up and said, "Uhh, yeah we did."

"Umm, no you did not."

"Yes, we did!"

"I'm not playing this game— Did you check the coffins or not?"

"Pfft— Ever heard of embalming—"

"First things first, not everyone buried in that place gets embalmed—"

He nodded from the technicality, "That's true but they should've been skeletons by now! That's a different thing!"

"You… You ever heard of the term that says that you can hide a tree in a forest?"