Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd In The Apocalypse!

Chapter 1346 Alright, old man, who the fuck are you?!

with the ratio between soldiers and civilians, the arrangement mrs. cecille made sounds amazing actually because from what my people told me the brief time they were here, there was a divide between them and it was between houses that acted as homes or barracks for the soldiers.

while it doesn't sound too bad on paper, there were three-to-five families living in one home while there were soldiers—almost the same number—cramped inside one living space.

though this place was a fortress, if we were talking about numbers, it was a little smaller than woodlands and their total number was a fifth of mine in my main hq. in that case, i haven't even touched on the critical weakness of this place and it was that they weren't too keen on building outposts that much.

i said it before, mr. garciano poured all his time, people, and resources into maxing out tierra del sueno homes, and not only did it make everything else in the vicinity hosts for infestations, the viable outposts before—which were former ddr camps—were left to rot since no one was actively manning them.

and remember, i did use the word "cramped" earlier—and there were already mentions of having the soldiers move someplace else—so to mitigate that other problem, we picked four select spots from their city that were evenly spaced and fairly defensible.

in addition, it'd also serve as a good point to monitor the movement of not only the dead but also the living—good or bad—and it'd allow some breathing room for this place's residents.

but mrs. cecille has some concerns, "i-isn't that—"

i cut her off with a chuckle, "a star? oh! hah! are you talking about a pentagram?! it does look like one if we connect it like this..."

"y-yes, isn't it a little—"

"satanic? nah, ma'am, it's straight-up satanic, if you ask me—though i really don't believe in any of that shit, sorry. but yeah, if you're that worried, we can have a smaller outpost built further up this elevation so we could also have a backstop from our only blindspot. still, i know the people from la mesa dam, and they'd have to go through them first before they get to you in this route."

"i-i see... we were visited a few times before and their representative mentioned building exclusive pipelines straight to our area since they're trying to shut down the main ones because of leaks."

"that's true. it's because the original ones are that old and have been repaired so much, it just makes sense to have new ones installed which were a cut above the rest."

mr. garciano cut in, "yes, and we did provide the materials used for their construction."

"ah, i see, i see... then we have to thank you for that, then. while we have a ton of storage, that doesn't mean that it wouldn't run out. there are other ways to get clean water but the way we have been doing it in the past is still the best one. less work for us too.

rain collectors, water-purifying tablets, and just straight-up boiling them could do the work but they just pale in comparison to a huge-ass dam."

with that said, even though we picked out four— no, five spots to have soldiers and other willing civilians to move over, we collectively decided to do things one at a time because one, it just made sense doing that, and two, there's a thing called that's an adjustment period—and even though it would kind of conflict with mrs.

cecille's idea of having some soldiers move into some of the homes, everyone else would appreciate the gradual free space they'd have individually.

and of course, mr. garciano was still worried about this place's security once they started dividing up the soldiers that would remain here in the future but the supplement of us marines guarding this very place calmed him down a bit.

i chuckled, "need i remind you that you have too much of them, and having at least a few hundred outside wouldn't hurt. it'll also solve some of the problems you're currently facing. and yeah, you'd have to feel out the difference gradually and i assure you, it'd be great for everyone."

"if you are in trouble, we'll do what we can. but if we suggest you do something for yourself that could help your chances of living just by a small amount, you wouldn't do it? i'm just asking you to walk a few steps a day and we're having this problem, are you planning to have the soldiers carry you on their back when it's an emergency?

look here, you have cars and all—and it's an exploit of sorts, but how can you reach those exploits yourself when you can't be bothered to do one simple thing—"

"i said i have asthma! can't you get it, kid?! i need help!"

"..." i just stared at him in silence.

"w-what?! answer me!"

"it's like talking to a fucking wall... fuck it— sure, how many inhalers do you fucking need? do you have a nebulizer at home? are there any more conditions we have to look out for?"

"now that that's solved—"

"fucking dipshit, i'm obviously just fucking with you. it's great you have a nice conversation with me because when the shit hits the fucking fan, everyone here knows who to avoid. having a condition doesn't make you fucking royalty we'd have to serve from each of your beck and call. thanks for outing yourself, really."

"that's— what can't you understand?! i'm sick and i need help! end of story!"

"and i'm just telling you to fucking walk ten steps a day and add another one the next over and over, could that cause a fucking attack?!"

your next read awaits at empire

"ten steps wouldn't!"

"then what's the fucking problem?!"

"i said, i have asthma! is that too hard to understand?!"

at this point, it was taking everything for me to not gun down this dude in his 50s, because not only was he wasting everyone's time, he was shouting like he wasn't even out of breath but the notion of exercise fucking terrifies him, he was willing to have this sorry mental gymnastics with me that i was so fucking done playing.

and yeah, i thought that all this time, this type of people would've kicked the bucket but it seemed like the virus didn't want him at all or he was just that lucky.

so i had to ask:

"alright, old man, who the fuck are you?"

"hah?!"