Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

As Tatiana and I made our way down, I brought Marvin and Isaac with me before we went to the main entrance of this love hotel. Obviously, since Oscar brought them here yesterday, there wasn't much— or anything, really, on the first few floors aside from the ones stuck or locked in one of the rooms tightly shut.

Isaac commented, "Really weird how they kept the same theme for every branch, huh?"

I chuckled, "Don't out yourself like that—"

"Ah, fuck— I'm a lonely guy, alright?! Forget I said—"

Marvin cut us off, "Something's in the kitchen, sir—"

Tatiana took the lead, "Breaching—"

*BOOOM*

Easily blowing out the locks with a 1 oz shell load, Tatiana pulled the thick door for Marvin to come in with his spear—and even though it had the disadvantage in tight spaces, as long as he used it to just thrust, he'd be okay.

But in addition, he had long upgraded his spear to a detachable one like Ibarra's—and in a secondary addition, he was clearing the corners in a textbook manner which was something Tatiana commented on them long before that they should improve upon.

As that was happening, Isaac already vaulted over the counter to manually unlock an even thicker door—that acts as a pseudo-airlock before reaching the steps to the rooms above—while I was watching all of them within an arm's length just in case.

On that note, I heard the sound of blades entering flesh and it seemed like Marvin took care of an indentured cook while Isaac took care of a receptionist that locked herself in one of the rooms and died of starvation.

"Kitchen's clear, sir."

"Over here as well— The door's open for ya, it's made sure to be soo~ clean, so good. Heh."

I rolled my eyes, chuckling, from hearing this hotel's tagline, "Stop messing around, aim that 88 up since you still aren't used to that tachi. You still can't aim for shit either but that 00 buckshot's the way to go in situations like this."

"Hai, hai~ Wan't me to break this glass divider for another escape route?"

I nodded as I turned to Tatiana, "Yeah, and— Tatiana, pry open the elevator door. Marvin, back her up."

"A'ight/Roger."

In tight spaces like these, we had to have more entrance/exit points—but the trick was to make sure that those passages wouldn't surprise us when it came to use them. In addition, another sub-goal while clearing this love hotel was to make sure the elevator's location was confirmed and the inside was free of surprises.

It was still a very sore spot for Tatiana's group but it was just one of those ways to keep everyone else safe.

But yeah, we soon discovered that Artem and his group had just finished clearing a floor and the rooms available but I still ordered mine to keep the same pace while reminding Artem of the elevator sub-goal.

-

*bzzt*

[Roger.]

*bzzt*

-

Isaac cut in:

-

*bzzt*

[Remember folks— not to out myself or anything, regular and deluxe rooms only have one door to the room itself while the premium and the executive rooms have two.]

*bzzt*

-

And as soon as Isaac gave out that valuable piece of info, a string of messages, roasting, mocking, and chastising him flooded in but it was all in good fun. The guy outed himself for the sake of everybody clearing these rooms who definitely weren't in the know and Artem's thanks to him made everyone settle down.

But yeah, as we made our way to the second floor, the smell of rot and decay just became stronger because of the poor ventilation—though I had Isaac guard the stairs—Tatiana prying open the elevator door again—as I made my way to the corner that would lead us to the secondary entrance which was closed off by the steps to the train station.
Your journey continues on empire

'Ah, fuck…'

The first thing I saw was a congealed slab(?) of deadheads that melded together after being stuck together for god knows how long but the thing that left the most impression was that they looked like someone ate a bunch of fish and didn't bother turning them over.

It was because their whole posterior chain was chewed up to the point that their organs were dangling down but the rest of them in front got stuck in the barricades that were supposed to protect them.

Looking at what was left of their clothes, it didn't look like it was this place's uniform so I assumed these were people who tried to make this place their own but all sorts of shit happened that turned them into that.

So yeah. I easily dispatched them with my blade but I heard several wet footsteps before my group started blasting.

"YOU ALRIGHT?!"

"YEAH! JUST UNLOADED ON THESE FUCKS! STAIRS ARE STILL CLEAR!"

"Elevator's clear— and here too. No passenger, luckily, so are we gonna start clearing the rooms?"

I waved Tatiana off for the moment, "Nah. Not yet— Lemme call the boys over on the other side first. Let's just let Artem do their thing above."

With that said, it didn't take long before Ruben forced open the entrance to the other side—so we could place the barricades and the bodies I took care of somewhere more accessible—before I had my current group break into each room and see if we'd get lucky.

It was getting rarer and rarer to have supplies out in the open so let's just say we're taking chances on these rooms made for quick relief.

And we actually did find a stash in one of the closest executive rooms next to the fire exit. In addition, another set of barricades was placed between this room and two others—before the hallway splits—and I'm very sure the six or so people I cleared were the owners of those rooms kept away from everything else.

"BRO! JACKPOT! I FOUND IT! ME!" Isaac exclaimed, waving us to run over to him.

"What did you find—"

"THIS 20-INCH DILDO— HOLY FUCK, IT'S HUGE! AHHHH! WHY'D YOU CUT IT OFF, CINDY?!"

"STOP FOOLING AROUND!"