Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!



After that exchange, everyone just started dying-laughing but Jesus was having none of it. He actually looked dead serious in his question and he was still waiting for me to give an answer.

I chuckled as I pointed at Kaley, "That's my wife, Kaley. I'm Sky, by the way."

Jesus looked so sullen as he turned to the woman right next to him, "I'm sorry, Meg. I guess you'll be single for the rest of your fucking life— ACKK! DON'T PULL ON MY HAIR! I JUST SHAMPOO'D IT!"

"Stop screwing with me!"

At this point, these two people—whom I don't know what exactly their relationship was—continued to bicker but the rest of their team eventually followed with their own vehicles. They parked somewhat close but they couldn't hide the same expression the two had when they saw the Impreza out in the open.

It's just that that look of excitement quickly faded because they knew full well that their Number 2 guy, Jackie, had already passed away.

With that said, it didn't take long before they approached us as Quinn got in between the two, and their eyes eventually landed on me and my group—the unfamiliar faces. And obviously enough, their eyes stayed longer on me because they perhaps saw me as the one that came out of the Impreza or the one that Jesus jumped on. And to avoid any more awkwardness, I introduced myself and my crew—an action that already went over Quinn's head.

After that, they also introduced themselves—six more people in total—and it unbelievably got quiet for a few seconds…

"..."

"..."

"..."

Until Quinn rolled her eyes and woke everyone up by slamming her palms together and shouting at the top of her lungs.

"SO?! ARE WE GONNA DO MORE OF THOSE MOMENTS OF SILENCE SHIT?! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR TRIP, JES'?! Jesus, am I the only one that cringed from that?!"

Jesus answered, "Well—"

"Not what I meant— Fuck, haaa~ Why don't we all come inside first so you all can have a short break. How long has it been? Two weeks? A month—"

Meg answered, "Two months and twelve days—"

A woman from Jesus' crew named Michelle interjected, "We were gone for that long? Huh."

Then a guy named Brix added, "Well, it was 'that's' fault, remember?"

"Ugh…"

"What was it?"

"We'll tell you once we get inside…"

At this point, even I got curious but I saw Jesus hobbling back to their station wagon and picking up what seemed to be two coolers covered by a few layers of tarp.

I already felt something unnerving just from the way he was looking at them and I never took my eyes off those coolers right until he placed them by the coffee table on the roof we just walked a few flights of stairs on. On a side note, the top of this building was particularly cleaner than the rest of the buildings in this industrial park but still looked like an aftermath of a frat party that turned into an orgy so, 'clean-er' was the word I used.

'Yep, I'm not sitting on that couch…'

Yet Jesus almost dived into it and put his feet up by the same coffee table that had several empty bottles and cigarette butts.

"Can I have some beer?"

Quinn answered, "It's not as cold though."

"Huh?"

"You dumb fuck, look around. Noticed anything different?"

"Eh? Not really?"

Meg shook her head, "A fourth of the crew is gone, and only two— or three(?) buildings are working. I guess it finally happened, huh?"

"What happened?" Jesus asked again before realization struck, "Oh, shit! Fuck… How many people did we lose? A fourth, right? That's… Shit…"

Quinn let out a laugh as she momentarily looked at me, "Actually? Just two."

Jesus, Meg, and their crew couldn't believe their ears, "T-TWO?! JUST TWO?!"

"OH? SO YOU WANT MORE OF US TO DIE, HUH?! IS THAT IT?!"

Jesus tried to push away Quinn's looming presence with a stick he just found, "I-I'm not saying that, but just two— B-But why is a fourth of us gone?! Mauro, Dave, and Logan are gone too. Where did they—"

"Okay, here's the rundown: Mauro's at Sal's place while the other two are sound asleep. But yeah, the gen room is being run by the fourth of our crew that's 'missing', everything happened yesterday."

"B-But… how?! How did—"

At this point, Quinn turned to me and made me relay everything much better than she could but they kept noticing my glances toward the two coolers still unopened and sitting pretty by the coffee table at the center. However, they didn't even address it and just let me finish giving them a recap of everything that happened before they arrived.

But yeah, they lost their minds when they discovered that I was actually a new head for their organization of sorts and I beat Benjie who was a little more than infamous for crippling or killing his opponents "legally".

Jesus started to scratch his head after tying his hair into a messy ponytail, "Shit, we just arrived and this infodump's making me want to drive away again—"

"Again?"

"N-No, not like that but you know, all this is a lot to take in."

"I see. I'm sorry but what's inside those coolers for you to bring them with you? I've seen that station wagon of yours is full of random stuff but you took those coolers with you specifically."

"Ah…" Jesus trailed as he turned to Quinn, "Can I?"

Quinn rolled her eyes, "The fuck are you looking at me for?"

"M-Mauro's not here so…"

"That's not my business. Show him if you want, I don't fucking care."

"Really?" then Jesus turned to me and chuckled before he picked up one of the coolers, "Alright~ Here we go~"

Just from the way those coolers made me uneasy made me think of the worst but let's just say that from the things I've seen ever since it started, what he revealed to us was a little tame even though it was something I didn't expect.

The "tame" things in question were flaps of skin that had different numbers—but all in the same fonts their family was using—but they were wrapped around a finger or two, covered in blood and starting to discolor. Furthermore, the cooler also had ice cubes in them but since I doubt they were trying to preserve the fingers and the skin flaps, I found them to be a little wasteful.

I shook my head, "Ever heard of Ziplock bags?"

Meg chuckled form the side, "Hah! I'm starting to like you—"

Jesus cut her off, "He's married, Meg, Jesus—"

Dave suddenly popped up from behind with Logan, "You found them, huh?"

Jesus' eyes lit up, "Hey, dude! Slept together, huh? That's nice but yeah, I only found most of them. I still have a few names to check off my list."

Logan leaned over to the flaps of skin and pulled out one that had the number '991' on it with a finger missing a nail, "Oh! You found this bitch! Thanks, man! Mauro'll be happy when he gets back!"

I asked, "What did she do?"

"..."

"Logan?"

I thought for sure that Logan was trying to ignore me but he threw me an expression I haven't seen before—similar to Nikolas' creepy smile—and it made my skin crawl as he answered, "Ah. Yes, bro-man-dude, still getting used to seeing you and not crapping my pants but yeah, this bitch just joined to get close to Mauro so she could sell her own drugs from a different supplier. Weird shit, I know— they should've known we had our own sources and we're not gonna make a 3-digit be a middleman for a rival gang."

"That's it?"

Logan shook his head, "You don't understand, she made a few of ours peddle stepped-on shit and it ruined our name for quite a while. We made her stay after making her stop and a brutal DA but she kept on doing that shit on our other outpost before everything you know, ended."

I nodded pensively, "I see," then I turned back to Jesus, "So, that other one…"

"You're really nosy, huh?"

"Yep."

"Hah! Straight to the point, I like it," Jesus said as he lifted the other cooler, "Don't puke though."

At this point, Jesus lifted up the lid but he was looking me straight in the eye as he did it. However, right as my eyes landed on whatever the fuck was inside that cooler, I should've paid more attention to his advice.

What's inside was actually a head of a Sentry that started growing more irises in one of its eyeballs but I got the shock of my life when Jesus lifted up its cracked-open head and revealed more mini eyeballs that were tethered together with fibrous tissue—packing them inside the eye socket—looking like a fucked-up version of those Nerds rope candies when he tried to untangle them.

It's just that the "untangled" parts started to slither back to their brethren before they pulsed a few times and then looked like they were chillin'.