Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Once I refilled my mags and wiped down my equipment, I moved over to the pile of items my group collected from the dead—but while we were on the topic of pillaging items from the dead—there were a few things to look out for once we have a horde-sized group to pick from:

The most obvious ones were obviously the bags they had on their person, secondly their pockets, then checking if they were wearing any jewelry, and lastly, their shoes.

We could uncover almost anything within the size of the bag we took from the person—same thing with their pockets, obviously—and while the only advantage for jewelry is trading or for a chance of identifying another person if it was an engraved ring, checking their shoes was a different story.

A good pair of military boots could go a long way but we can't just sneeze at the mobility provided by sneakers or some other basketball shoes, but other than that, there were also people who'd sometimes sneak in a few items in their socks or just by their ankles.

'It's almost always a lighter paired with a smoke or a very small knife tucked in for emergencies.'

It's just that the challenge for looting footwear from the dead was cleaning them and even if the person who used to wear them wore socks, it was still a fucking struggle to clean them and have the mindset to actually try them on.

There were also cases where a shit was possible to be looted but they were mostly used as rags or cut into small patches to repair clothing.

In any case, moving onto the larger side of things to loot from, aside from the block where the two flour mills were located, we discovered three car dealerships, a Puregold branch, a Dutyfree branch, a small botique, a shoe store with the check logo, some other generic minimall, a hardware store, and a place that sold glasses.

We'd have to explore more so I could fill up the internal map I had in my head but this place used to be the central hub for ships so there should be more mills that produce things other than plastic or electronics.

'There was a mention of a steel factory too…'

Megan nudged me, "Where does that path lead?"

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"That's to the other end of the expressway we used last time and the road on the opposite end would still be the Freeport Zone though going a bit further would lead us to the airport. I would've tried and reclaimed an airport for our own use if it was any other day but we gotta clear up the path to the expressway first to save us a bit of time driving around the residential areas.

There's a lot of places here suitable to be turned to farmland too but we don't have enough people to go around. The trick is to always start small but this place just— it has so much potential… an even better starting area compared to my compound if you have all the right tools…"

Kaley chimed in, "Don't get too far ahead, alright? You know what it does to your head."

"Right… Right… Thanks."

After some time, we began to form a perimeter around the exit of the expressway—which was much closer to Artem's side—and then started to pull the wrecked cars to an open spot.

Granted there were still deadheads either trapped inside their cars or the expressway itself, but it was easy enough to get them out of the way after getting their vehicles out of the way.

It took us a few hours to fully clear the exit of all the cars we needed to either tow away or hotwire because they survived the wreck, but there was one side effect coffee could give to people, especially when they were right next to a volatile cemetery.

"THAT'S THE LINE, BUDDY! ONE MORE STEP AND WE'LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"

"Don't wanna shoot the guy that brought you coffee, alright?"

"OH SHIT! IT'S HIM! HEY! PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN YOU FUCKS!"

The guys from the other side were so wary of the noise we made earlier—they were up in arms the moment they laid their eyes on us—but they all breathed a sigh of relief the moment they saw my ugly mug.

"Easy, alright? It'll be a bit of work—and the people here will help you—but do protect both entrances at all costs. This expressway is a godsent."

"They cool people?"

"We don't have a lot of oil here, so probably yeah."

"Huh?"

"That's… You know— Nevermind… We all committed atrocities either way so…"

"I still don't get it."

"It's fine, it's fine…"

"Need any help?"

"Sure. We can share the loot and we could probably bring some of the vehicles here to act as temporary walls before making a proper gate for this exit."

"Then we'll get right on it! There would be coffee, right?"

"Heh. Of course, of course."

And this time, there was more loot to go around because this wreck was just unclogged at this moment and these ex-people in their cars didn't even manage to use the items they brought for their survival.

We found clean clothes of all sizes, assorted medicine, food that either expired or was still safe for eating, mineral water which was unfortunately stored incorrectly, a few camping tents, assorted blade and blunt weapons, a crossbow and a few bolts, a slingshot, boxes upon boxes of ammo, seven handguns where two were revolvers, three rifles, and a shotgun.

I just couldn't believe these folks didn't even try to go out of their way to loot some of the vehicles much closer but I guess they were just afraid to attract the horde right behind it if they made a lot of noise.

In any case, we came back to camp an hour past lunch and again, I couldn't believe no one even prepared some fucking lunch.

"I'M NOT COOKING EVERY SINGLE TIME, ALRIGHT?!"