Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Before I asked that question, I forgot that one of the major reasons that Japan was nuked was because of the deadheads spread and its propensity to evolve once they began eating each other. In some twisted way, it'd benefit the living if they had more live victims instead of cannibalizing their own kind.

But yeah, Lieutenant Sanders was more than happy to share detail of their type of infected though the most common trait of their kind was their high activity while in the presence of the sun—or from their own experiments, straight-up UV Rays.

"Have you tried blocking out the sun and seeing their reactions?"

[We did something like that but the effect varies and it's not instant.]

"What effect are we talking about?"

[Hmm, I'm not the expert but with each infected's body's decomposition varying from being to being, how agile they are plays a factor on that.]

"Ah~ They move quite well but if their body is decomposed or damaged enough, it doesn't matter in the slightest. But if we compared it to an infected that's recently turned?"

[If that's the case, they could run, jump, vault, or do anything that a normal person could do while adrenaline is coursing through their bodies. The weird thing though is that we noticed in recent months that the rate of decomposition had gone to a crawl. If we're talking about how a body normally decomposes, they should be sludge by now.]

"Wasn't it known that any sort of living being in contact with the host containing the virus would surely die? What if microorganisms that help in organic breakdown are affected as well?"

[We thought of that too but why didn't it happen early on?]

"Hmm. I mean— they are the ones responsible for the body's decomposition from their secretions but what if they had some sort of resistance to it early on?"

[Hah? You mean resistance to the virus? That's insane.]

"How could they have resisted in the first place early on? They shouldn't have decomposed if they were already eradicated. And also, aren't we all infected? What if they've been trying to resist it in some way but the virus had already evolved to counter whatever it was they're cooking."

[That's… It's all fantasy land, you know? We don't even have enough scientists here to check that theory. We sent almost all of them all around the globe, we don't have the means to do more research.]

"Or a working government."

[You just have to rub it in, huh? The military is running things mostly because bullets do AND still work, and we have the edge on that. Funny how things work differently around here.]

"It was said that they're the only cure too…"

[It looks like it from the way things are going.] Discover more stories at empire

"Hey. Some of the scientists over there were sent here so… I thought you sent them all to us but that should be for the better. Anyway, do you have specials that are a step above the normal dregs—besides the buff from the sun?"

[I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for but their bodies make for great fertilizer—]

"WHAT?! YOU— WHAT?!"

[Chill. It's pretty weird, I know. But a farmer here brought over things he grew on his… you know, farm… and I've never seen watermelons that big and sweet. Before you say anything, we would've been dead now if it was dangerous because everyone here took a bite out of his harvest. Not just the watermelons but all the produce he brought over, we sampled.]

"Fuck— Hold up, hold up, hold up… How— I— That's so—"

[I had the same reaction too but it's not in the way you think, alright? He didn't just chop up dead zombie bodies and sprinkled them on his crops. He obviously dried them up real~ good before he crushed them into powder and sprinkled them like bone meal. Tell you what, I damn near shot the old dude but everyone here started doing it on their crops and it works.

I dunno if the same thing could work on your side but this shit is legit. We ran several tests before and after eating it and all it saw was that we were eating well.]

"This… I—"

[Look, it does sound crazy but this shit is the only good thing that came out of this shitshow, so we'll damn make use of it as much as we could.]

"..."

[You still there, kid?]

"The… The kid who umm… The kid who kept stealing shit from your place, you think he stole some of that food too or nah?"

[Hmm~ Tough to say but if he could steal shit from us, he could still shit from that old farmer. The oldie could barely pull his rickshaw, it's a miracle he got here to trade in the first place.]

"Fuck… I-I see… That list you said you'd make… Can you uhh… Can you send it to me by tomorrow? I-I… I have a lot of shit to prepare before our trip too so it'd be b-better if I could get a handle on that."

[Kid…]

"Yes?"

[You know that fucking runt, don't ya?]

"..."

[Heh. That's a yes in my book.]

"Fine, I do know the kid but whatever he do, I'd request you just do nothing if you ever caught him. Just keep him in one of your cells until his family looks for him or when we arrive. And for the things he stole, I'll do my best to replace it all and add a little top-up. I apologize in advance."

[Hmm. Done.]

"Huh?"

[What do you mean, 'huh'? I just said that it's done. What more can you ask?]

"Just like that?"

[Just like that.]

"Huh."

[Huh, indeed.]

"For real? You ain't gonna ask me to spread my cheeks and lift my sack when we get there?"

[HAH! I'm happily married, unfortunately. Besides, you ARE the Admiral's guest. But if you insist on rewarding me, I'd like to take a gander on that.]

"Anything. Shoot."

[Heh. I'd like a bucket of spicy chicken, a wallop of mash with gravy, hashbrowns, fries, a bowl of soup, a tray of brownies, and a liter of fucking Coke. That's what I want and I want them hot, except for the liter of Coke since I want that bitch ice-cold.]

"I can give you a liter of ice-cold Coke with rum if you'd like?"

[Kiiiid~ You better fucking stop or I'll really make you spread your cheeks and lift your sack when you get here, alright? But yeah, you really should stop worrying about that kid of yours and figure out if our thing here could work over on your side.]