Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Chris couldn\'t even look at me properly and the pain he was feeling was taking all he had just to breathe normally. His face already grimaced five different times before it switched to begging, but each passing second was chipping away at his sanity. We\'ve seen him cry, laugh, and get mad all at the same time in the past minute, and he was so close to his breaking point.

"PLEASE! PLEASE! JUST STOP THIS! JUST STOP THIS! WHAT DO YOU WANT, HUH?! FINE! I\'LL TELL YOU WHAT YOU WANTED TO HEAR! IS THAT IT?! HUH?! YOU SICK FUCK!"

"I dunno what I wanted to hear until I hear it. I\'ll know if it\'s bullshit though, I\'ve spent enough times around--"

"I GOT NO CHOICE, ALRIGHT?! YOU HEAR ME?! I GOT NO CHOICE!"

"That\'s too fucking broad. If--"

"JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANTED TO HEAR AND I\'LL SAY IT! PLEASE! PLEASE! JUST TELL ME~!"

"I thought you already have something--"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU FUCKING CUNT! I\'LL SEE YOU IN HELL, YOU SICK FUCK! ALL OF YOU! I\'LL SEE ALL OF YOU IN HELL, FUCKING COUNT ON IT! I-- PLEASE~~~! I CAN\'T EVEN FEEL MY LEGS-- FUCK~~~! I\'M ABOUT TO BURST! PLEASE! I\'M REALLY ABOUT TO-- FUCK! FUCK! FUCK~!"

Chris flung his head all over, trying to smash his head against the concrete to distract himself, but he\'d just scrape his head by the plastic ridges of the drum or hit his chin on the concrete he was in. The tears, blood, spit, and snot that came from his mouth, eyes, nose, and a few cuts in his face were just mixing under his chin and his neck, but his mouth was agape, letting bits and chunks flow inside.

There was extreme satisfaction in brutally killing someone in just a few seconds but doing something like this was a little hard to describe.

It wasn\'t difficult to do it to the person who deserved it but as their whole existence gets chipped away in any manner that I wanted it to, something intangible gets deducted, added, or even replaced in my own psyche. It could be part of my conscience or my morals but there was more to it than that.

Sometimes, it was just better to let your body move on its own and wake up when everything was over.

Despite all that, we got to get our hands bloody-- bloodier than all of the human scum in the world so that everyone else could rest easy.

"I\'M SORRY! I\'M SORRY! I\'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING! I\'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, JUST LET ME OUT~!"

After a while, it didn\'t take long before Chris spilled everything he could for a slither of a chance that we\'d actually help him.

He told us about Pops\' little operation that allowed them to get fat stacks of cash for every \'visit\' and even more when someone actually wanted to take one home permanently. It was obviously very lucrative as they were able to fund a few projects, and this condominium was just one of few.

Everything just changed when the world ended so they were stuck with a lot of \'product\' with no one to sell it to.

All they were left to do was keep them alive in hopes that they would one day find sick patrons but sampling their own products was always a given for them, blood or not.

From what I was told, they either came from paying off shady orphanages or just simply impregnating \'service\' workers and just giving them money to keep the \'by-product\', eventually keeping it after nine months. They sometimes resort to kidnapping but it was a bit too \'loud\' or a little too eye-catching.

But one of their most twisted ways was using their \'product\' to breed more \'products\'. The only problem with that was the delivery after the wait, but they got someone to do it for them. The same applies to getting a \'quack\' to cut off part of their limbs.

This place just became a little secret between certain members of their current group and they were definitely more of them in their own base. Fortunately, the group of people from the younger generation I just talked to was already handling them. They gave me another call at one point and we just exchanged a bit of info.

I told them that Chris was nearing his final moments and the rest of the \'products\' were still alive while they told me that they\'d bring what\'s left of the place they took over. They didn\'t tell me as much but they have other plans for the people who were actually innocent.

Currently, they were on their way back to this place, waiting to see what awaited Chris.

The only thing on my mind right now was what to do with their creations and how in the hell did this group discovered that these people were doing such things.

\'Only one way to find out...\'

After some time, we saw a small convoy heading for us and it was the same group I was talking to earlier. They came in with three bikes, a sedan, a pickup, and a delivery truck, and the rumors I heard about them were actually true.

Once they parked right in front of us, I got a closer look at their actual group.

\'Just nine people? Could be more but… Nevermind...\'

First and foremost, they had real firearms but they couldn\'t be bothered to even use or properly hide them. I saw a few rifles and shotguns sticking out from their vehicles but the only ones on their person were usually sidearms aside from their \'quiet\' arsenal. Slingshots, bows, and crossbows were their thing based on the reports.

Secondly, almost all of them were around the same age as Cynthia while a few were around the same age as me.

They all had this \'tactical/skateboarder\' getup where they\'d wear soft armor covered by a jacket or a hoodie while the jeans or the baggy shorts they were wearing were complimented by a war belt, a leg holster, and some expensive name-brand sneakers like retro Jordans and the like.

Furthermore, they were mixing up the accessories they were wearing like having weaved paracord on one arm as a bracelet or a watch with a leather strap combined with plastic embroideries that would look like carved bone.

However, one of them was wearing something that could be mistaken for a fashion choice.

A woman in her early 20s with a tight ponytail was looking at me with a faint smile but I couldn\'t help but notice the leather guard she was wearing on her left arm that looked like a handmade vambrace. Looking at her a bit more, I discovered that one of her gloves wasn\'t a regular open-finger glove but actually a finger tab just made to look like one. And lastly, over her chest rig was a chest guard hidden in plain sight because the colors and the fabric just mixed together nicely.

These three items were protective gear for archery and she was probably the person I was talking to fairly recently and the one that shot the arrow that killed Pops.

It\'s just that I felt she was just their spokesperson and not their actual leader.

\'It\'s probably that guy with that demon mask...\'

Standing right beside her was a guy who was as tall as me and he had wavy hair almost covering his eyes, but he was as expressionless as Jude. His eyes were first fixated on the array of bodies we laid out but he soon looked at Artem before his eyes landed on me.

Both sides were just checking each other for the moment but the girl next to him just shook her head before breaking the silence.

"You guys are too quiet~ I\'ll start. I\'m Tracy, you\'re Sora, right?"

"Actually, it\'s Sky--"

"I know, I know~ There must be a story for that but I think Sora fits you better. Let me introduce everyone..."

I easily remembered their names but the guy in the demon mask acting like a fucking bodyguard was named Malachi. He was silent most of the time but once he opened his mouth, everyone was caught off-guard.

His voice was just so fucking deep, I almost felt my earwax fall off. He was a little unnerving but there was something in him that made everyone else in his group follow his every word.

Tracy waved me off, "So, where\'s the last one?"

"Up there."

"Hmm?"

It was then that I pointed my finger to the sky and they all saw a large drum hanging from the highest point of this construction project. They could faintly hear someone screaming with all they got but he was just so high up to hear anything intelligible. However, I turned on my radio so they could listen in and hear the words clearly through the radio I left inside that drum.

-

*bzzt*

[YOU SICK FUCK! I\'LL-- I\'LL-- LET GO OF ME! PLEASE! PLEASE! I\'M BEGGING YOU-- PLEASE! HAHAHAHA!!! I\'LL SEE YOU SOON AND I\'LL SLIT YOUR FUCKING THROAT-- No, no, no, no… Am I gonna die? AM I GONNA DIE?! PLEASE! LET\'S JUST TALK ABOUT-- I\'LL FUCKING KILL YOU AND YOUR BITCH, YOU STUPID FUCK!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! I\'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!!!]

*bzzt*

-

Malachi turned to me with his expressionless face, "Why\'d you brought him there?"

I replied, "I poured cement up to his neck and he wants to get out. He doesn\'t want me to use the drill and he doesn\'t want Mikhail to use his hammer… This is one way, right?"

Malachi let out the faintest of smiles, "Hmm."

Tracy muttered, "Can I do the honors? I just pull on that knot, right?"

I turned to their delivery truck, "What\'s inside that though?"

Tracy almost slapped her forehead, "Right! I almost forgot! Rex! Rex! Drive that under that thing! It\'ll be great! Just make sure you park it properly! Wait--"

I cut her off, "You didn\'t kill all of them?"

"Why\'d you ask? You left one too..."

"That\'s fair. How about this..."

I leaned over to Tracy\'s ear and as soon as my words left my mouth, her smile grew wider and wider. She was almost shaking from excitement and it didn\'t take long before we piled up each member of Pops\' circle right at the point where Chris would drop down.

All of them were still putting up a fight but a couple of heavy strikes on their knees and their elbows with a hammer kept them in place. They still kept wiggling in place but they had no chance to leave that spot alive so they resorted to incessant begging. It was as if they all had a piece memorized to say when they got caught because it was just like a repeat of what Chris was spewing out.

The noise was just so unbearable but Malachi shut them up by breaking one motherfucker\'s jaw with a rock. They just started pissing in their pants and it just mixed with the blood coming from the open fractures in their bodies.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

It didn\'t take long for Tracy to release the knot keeping Chris in place and the drum he was in just came down with such speed. His last words were just an elongated version of \'AH~\' before he crushed the people below him.

A loud fucking thud resounded from the impact and it came with sounds of bones shattering in a million pieces that would make anyone cringe or grimace. Screams came from the ones that survived it but our fucked up wrecking ball had a fall worse than the egg who sat on a wall. His head was completely mangled due to the angle he came in and it was just leaking everything he stored at that point.

He would\'ve survived a second drop but aside from his head looking like a deflated balloon, the way the concrete he was in cracked made him look like one of the worst fortune cookies I ever saw.