Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

At that moment, Ella quickly withdrew her hand placed over my arm as she greeted the kids with an energetic, "Good Morning!", and helped them wake everybody else upstairs. Funnily enough, the kids' job was somehow delegated to her because they all started to play with Zeus—but one look I gave him while he was belly-up made him follow Ella so that the kids could continue their jobs properly.

"GOOD MOOOOORNING!"

"Wakey~ Wakey~!"

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! THE FOOD'S READY!"

"WOOF! WOOF!"

"Keep knocking! They'll wake soon— Oh, hi! Good Morning! Mom said the food's ready!"

In any case, it didn't take long before we all gathered at the same spot and was having breakfast—but our trainees/cadets/"Death Squad" in question were dreading the eerie smile Oscar was wearing while he was getting himself some coffee.

Other than that, Johnny looked like he wanted to revisit the conversation we had yesterday though Rin and Vera looked like they wanted to have a brief talk with me as well.

"Shoot. I don't mind while we're eating—"

Vera cut in, "I'll start then, the people from the dam called and they said they'll be visiting in a few days. They said it's an independent check-up on the independent line we got here and—"

Tatiana chuckled as he looked at me, "Some trouble laying pipes? Pfft…"

Vera shook her head, chuckling, "Uh-huh, riiight… Anyway, they're also requesting a small bump of food from the usual and some more bullets if we could. They said they've prepared appropriate trading items and information but the reason for those requests is they've just liberated a town and they had an influx of a few hundred people left and right."

I thought for a bit, "We can agree to that but ask them if they want to send some of them over here. We can shoulder a bit of burden—for lack of a better term but, we could always use an extra pair of hands."

Vera nodded, "Alright, I'll tell them that once I'm back in the Broadcast Station."

Rin then took her turn, "About bullets, while you're away, I've uhh… I've done the usual sorting, tumbling, and everything—including loading only pistol rounds and shotgun shells to Sir Oscar's liking but looking at him now, we might need to uhh— get busy in the workshop for at least a day.

I'm also reading on the press to make our own casings since I've set aside the ones that are wearing down but aside from that, when are we umm… opening up those other stored rounds? It would help with the materials rotating around if—"

"Nah. We'll stick to what we can still use and find in the wild still— and since we're making our own casings now, we should avoid using the ones we had stored for the same reason. Those are for emergencies."

"I see… In regards to other materials used to make them though… We've been receiving materials here and there but is there a way we could make them independently?"

"Not a chance— at least not right now."

"Ah— Why?"

"Well, aside from the tons we still have in stock, we're still relying on traders and scavengers who don't know anything to do with them—but you're right, I'm still figuring out a way to gather raw materials to start making them by ourselves.

However, an easier method is a step above those traders and scavengers is to have them gather the specific materials we are looking for and we've just made contact with the place that has an overabundance of them."

"So, we're just gonna wait for them to come back with everything?"

"Nah, we're doing both."

"You mean—"

"I mean, why choose one or two methods if you can do all of them? But yeah, I'll help you make them in bulk today but I'm looking for another workshop-worthy area that's away from everything else at the moment. Do you have anything in mind? Something with an open field to test explosives would be good."

"U-Umm, are we gonna start making explosives t-too?"

"We did a few times but it IS irresponsible to make them this close to everyone else even if we're that careful. Accidents can still happen, you know? But yeah, I'm assigning another expert on that and he'd be in charge of that workshop instead of me."

"Who— Oh! Bogdan?"

"Yeah~ The motherfucker didn't even tell me he could make napalm. So aside from explosives, he'll also be in charge of developing incendiary shit for our use. I'd hate to say it but sometimes, clearing them out one by one could be tedious and we'd sometimes need to resort to fire and explosion."

"I see. We'll set up a meeting once they come back."

"That reminds me, where did they go, anyway?"

"Right, umm~ if I remember correctly, they set off to shave off dregs from LRT Line 1 until they reached Iskoh's— I mean Mayor Iskoh's spot but they're keen on taking care of the ones in the backroads while Iskoh's clearing group takes care of the squatter areas. The President might've cleared a large group before but there's still a lot of them to take care of…"

"Do they have someone local with them?"

"Yes, they've brought Mark's group with a few other soldiers from Sir Ferdinand's camp they're familiar with so it's all good."

"Alright, if there's nothing else, once we finish this food… We'll let Oscar do his thing while we do our own. I would've wanted Alexa to work with us but she's part of Hell Week and we don't have anyone else that has good hands—"

Then the one who completely went over my head due to her size cut in, "HOLD UP! WHAT ABOUT ME?! I HAVE GOOD HANDS!"

I never facepalmed so hard in my fucking life, "Right, I completely forgot about you. We aren't loading cannon rounds right now but I'll call you—"

"YOU FUCKING PRICK! JUST BRING ME WITH YOU! I'M TAKING A BREAK FROM ENGINES TODAY!"

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