Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Hearing Captain Ignacio’s proposal, I didn’t think I was really needed but let’s just say that there was an order in things that Admiral wanted us to do business. But at the same time, there were just things that could be delegated to other people instead of looking for me every single time.

But yeah, it seemed like with the overabundance of aquatic resources everyone else forgot that we could farm them instead of heading out and catching them every single time.

Both options were easily doable though one played an active role while the other was a more passive and time-consuming one. In addition, building natural fish ponds flew over everyone’s head because Subic Bay was supposed to be a tourist spot, so most of the fish ponds built on the water were someplace else.

Captain Ignacio just had the realization, “I… I— Huh. I suppose that’s one option. Still, we’d need people watching over them and feeding them.”

I nodded, “That’s very true but as you’ve said, you need boats and fuel for the easier thing and you do know how valuable fuel is. It’s much cheaper to make fish food than to trade in fuel every single time you go out, right?”

“I—”

“Here’s another suggestion, we can still hand you some for a few trips but wouldn’t it be better if we handle the bulk of fishing while we have your group take care of some of them?”

“What do you mean?”

“The people over at the Main Harbor have fishing vessels that could go further out and catch more fish at a time so we could hand over maybe— a portion of our catches to you as a start. You’re free to do whatever you want with them but farming them by constructing fish ponds is the way to go. You’ll have your own supply in due time and we’ll save on fuel costs.”

“That could work but…”

“Problem?”

“Not exactly but taking handouts—”

“Those aren’t handouts. Investments mostly… We aren’t even making you do much since we’ll be constructing fish ponds of our own and preparing each fish by smoking, curing, etc., and I was thinking, since you have access to a zoo, would you be willing to take on farm animals?”

Mr. Guzman answered enthusiastically, “O-Of course! Ah— Apologies.”

I shook my head, “None taken,” then I turned back to Captain Ignacio, “What do you think? Alligator meat is good and all but nothing beats chicken or any regular ol’ meat we’re used to, no? Again, we’ll take care of our own animals here but since we’re already sending some to the Deweys, I think it’s fair to send you what we could also spare.”

Captain Ignacio sighed, “I’m not really sure why you’re doing this—and I’m very happy, don’t get me wrong but—isn’t this a little too much? What would you even have us do in exchange?”

I looked at him solemnly, “Do you want the honest truth?”

“Of course—”

“The truth is, we don’t need any of you.”

“…! That’s… U-Umm—”

“And I’m not joking about that. With the things we accumulated and the territories we occupied, reclaimed, rebuilt, etc. We’re pretty much set—relatively speaking and compared to others—and we could focus more on the dead and how each person is living together.”

“…”

“I don’t mind going on runs myself and it’s actually pretty exciting for me but now, the bulk of what I did these past few days was manage people and our resources. A little boring, sure, but I get the job done. And other than that, the most important thing to do next was to talk to you guys and other people like the Deweys and bridge a connection, why?

Because not only is it the right thing to do but also the next step once we secure ourselves. I did say we’re set but we shouldn’t deny Murphy’s Law, no?”

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong…”

“Exactly. And with that said, having to work with more and more people is all sorts of trouble as well but if you do it right and be fair on all accounts, the percentage of anything going wrong will get less and less. We can obviously strongarm all of you to a losing deal but we didn’t. It almost got to that because of how Mr. Guzman spoke to us earlier but it’s water under the bridge, right?”

Mr. Guzman almost choked on his drink, “A-Ah, if you say so but I do apologize for my a-actions earlier…”

“Taking that for example, it’s true that some people might be inclined to take advantage of the situation but in essence, we do have the power to fuck shit up and straighten that crookedness maybe hopefully due to being on your last straw.

It’s true that the Admiral will leave with the Eisenhower tomorrow as well but you don’t wanna fuck with us even if we lost that trump card—because we can afford it, the same with the valuable resources we’re giving away…”

“…that’s… we would never—”

“In short, why don’t we all just get along where I’ll be nice and you’ll be nice to me back? Is that even difficult?”

“I-It’s not… Pretty easy, actually…”

“So why is everything so fucking difficult?”

“…”

“I’m still taking Mr. Guzman as an example but do know we’re over it, okay? I’m just prattling on just because. But yeah, I might’ve forgotten about the world ending and turning everyone to pieces of shit but if you’re talking with me and needed a favor, just be fucking nice about it and tell me straight up so we can figure out what to do, alright?

Also, thanks for the 45-pound plates, Quinn’s very happy with those…”

At this point, everyone was stunned but a few of them started to look down in shame, especially Mr. Guzman. I actually wouldn’t put it against him for acting that way, because I’d probably do it as well, given the chance—and shamelessness should be part of a negotiator’s repertoire but yeah, it was just a case of wrong place and wrong time.

In any case, our silence was broken by the sound of Quinn repping out 585 pounds for reps in her ass-to-grass squats, and it was making the submissive folks feel a certain way.

But yeah, everyone in the bar shared a couple more drinks as I poured them, and it was the beginning of a new partnership between people. Captain Ignacio and I finalized more shit and specifics on both ends—listening to Mr. Guzman and Ms. Ng’s inputs—and it was decided that they bring more people in here for training in exchange for the same number of people to bolster their forces.

It was pretty much the same arrangement we had with the Deweys except they’d all stay here unlike June and the rest.

I wished I could’ve talked to some of their cadets or other people in training in person, but we’ll just see what tomorrow will have in store for us. But yeah, it didn’t take long before Ella came in with Jennifer, but she looked like she wasn’t in the mood for talking. However, her face quickly lightened up when we met eye-to-eye, but it quickly went sullen again as Jennifer approached from behind:

“Hey…”

“Yo, something wrong?”

“Hmmp… Nothing, Dad’s just calling for you, he said they’re leaving early tomorrow, they wanted to talk.”