Joseph Orlando

Chapter 49 - Teaser!

Hello, my friends! Chapter 49's teaser is here! :-) Unfortunately, I had an elderly relative suffer a bad fall, go into hospice, and then pass soon after this month, so my normal timeline is a bit askew given everything that suddenly needed to happen, including days off work, relatives traveling ...

Chapter 48 - The Village People

“200 yards out, to the right of that corporate art in the square,” I directed her quietly. “The walkers who look like they were part of a Village People cover band or something. I really wonder what their story was right before they died. It’s probably really interesting.”

“I-I ...

Chapter 48 - YMCA, by the Village People

Of course, I've heard the songs my whole life, but have you ever seen the music videos for these popular songs?  I know I haven't.  Enjoy!

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I continued to take out the rest of the Village People, though the black motorcycle cop was curiously missing. Wonder where he had...

Chapter 48 - In the Navy, by the Village People

Chapter 48 - Macho Man, by the Village People

They really leaned into the beefcake imagery.

Chapter 48 - The demographics of Atlanta circa 2010

At this point in the timeline the Atlanta metropolitan area alone had a 2010 population of approximately 5.26 million. The population of Earth was around 7 billion. Without my ship’s sensors to scan the surface, I had no idea of the exact number of walkers now roaming the Earth endlessly, hunti...

Chapter 48 - Effective range of the 5.56mm NATO round

There was something simple and beautiful about all this. A man and his rifle. Sure, I was using a scope, an advanced optic system by most measures, but this wasn’t Star Trek level technology. I wasn’t transporting a bullet through space time to reach my target. This was truly skill based. Sen...

Chapter 48 - Fact Checking the CDC's emergency plan as seen on the show

During the writing process, I confirmed the CDC really does have a lot of dangerous biological samples on hand, but if containment failed would they really blow the place up?

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Was there anything left in the man’s soul worth saving? Or was he a hollowed-out husk waiting to die ...

Chapter 48 - Breath Control and Why It's Important in Shooting

Patreon refused to go to the link I consulted; it's below:

https://www.nrafamily.org/content/basics-of-shooting-breath-control/

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She took another shot and this t...

Chapter 48 - Is match grade ammunition worth it?

Opinions may vary widely on this one.  For the purposes of my story, especially with longer-range shooting where Gothic is going for head shots versus torso shots, it's definitely worth it.

Chapter 48 - What is match grade ammunition?

Like anything else, you get what you pay for.

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As the clouds in the night sky slowly moved to allow the moon to bathe the dark area in soft moonlight, I squeezed the trigger. A loud clap was the only sound to be heard as the suppressed 5.56-millimeter match grade ammunition was...

Chapter 48 - How to accurately aim rifle

I consulted a lot of shooting manuals during the writing of this scene, but I also wanted to link to an article that would be easy to follow when I realized that many of my readers might be from countries with far stricter gun laws than in the US.

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“Can you help me?” Lori as...

Chapter 48 - What is anaphasic energy?

I actually made a brief mention of anaphasic energy another time in this fic.

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“I have been here for quite some time, B’Elanna,” T’Maz unrepentantly replied, showing no empathy for her pain. “The captain has made it clear that Q is preventing transport to the surface. I...

AAG - Chapter 48!

Chapter 48 is here my friends! :-)  Our time in the Walking Dead universe is rapidly coming to a close. We have a couple things to finish but then we're moving on.  Enjoy the chapter!  And as always, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support.  Without it, this st...

Chapter 48 - Teaser!

I still have several scenes left to write and no clue where to reasonably cut the chapter off yet, so chapter 48 will probably drop Sunday or Monday night.  In the meantime, enjoy this little glimpse of the chapter.  Feel free to speculate on where things are going :-)

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Chapter 47 - More suppressor shooting

Chapter 47 - What is the Surefire Suppressor?

The only thing I cared about was that all of his equipment looked in good condition and he had stuff I wanted, including something that I had hardly expected to find, a Surefire suppressor that I’d only seen Special Operations Command (SOCOM) operatives use.

Thankfully, this suppressor---...

Chapter 47 - A suppressed M4

I watched a few videos to get a sense for what this thing could offer.

Chapter 47 - What is the IOTV and why was Gothic excited to find one?

With little care for the corpse of this man, I quickly stripped him out of his tactical vest, the standard IOTV, and from the weight of it I could tell that the vest had the ceramic ballistic plate inserts inside, providing protection against projectile penetration. The attached holders for spare...

Chapter 47 - What is the M4 Carbine?

As we walked around this horror show, not only was I looking for threats, but I was also looking for useful supplies and I hit the jack pot at a .50 caliber machine gun emplacement. Thankfully, the soldiers here were carrying the standard issue M4 carbine which used 5.56mm NATO cartridges, which ...