Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Pretty much like every woman in this area, Chelsea looked like she had some Trenbolone Sarmswiches for breakfast paired with some high-stim coffee that had a dash of peptides and some GH. She had bigger arms than Isaac— Heck, even Jose and a few other guys I know but despite all of that, it failed to protect her from a set of rotting teeth that contained whatever the fuck reduced the world population.

With that said, Quinn’s previous words didn’t reach her ears because it looked like her memories were flashing before her eyes even before she was a walking corpse.

Quinn waved her over, “Chelsea, can you hear me?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“I’m sorry to say this but this is it—”

“C-Can we d-do anything about it?! Y-You know c-cut it off or—”

I interjected, “I’m sorry but we don’t even know when you got the bite.”

“W-What does that mean?”

“If we’re talking about cutting part of your leg to try and stop the spread, whatever that has gotten into you through that bite had probably gone through different cycles around your body. And even if we do try and cut it off, it’s just more pain and suffering for the inevitable… What we could only do for you right now is make it… you know, quick and painless.”

“…” Chelsea was just looking at all of us, grasping at straws if we have any other ideas that involved her not receiving a bullet to the head.

I continued, “But aside from that, do you have family? You know, aside from this one?”

“I… I have my boyfriend…”𝑶𝒱𝓛xt.𝐜𝑶𝓶

“We should be calling him over right now to have one final talk and if you have any special belongings that you want to hand over to a certain someone, we can also make it happen—and if by some chance they’re not here, we can hand it over as well…”

At this point, Chelsea broke down crying once more but it didn’t take long before a well-built guy came over, and lo and behold, it was the guy that approached me earlier. He wasn’t here before because he was one of the fellows who didn’t get shitfaced and was tasked with more jobs, but he had never been confused about the situation we presented to him.

However, like Chelsea earlier, our words were just going through his ear and out the other as he was just dumbfoundedly staring at the bite on Chelsea’s body.

“W-What’s going on?! SHE’S BIT?! HOW?! FUCKING HOW?! WE WERE JUST— I THOUGHT YOU WERE ASLEEP AND— FUCKING HOW?! ANSWER ME!!!”

“I-I-I DIDN’T KNOW! I WAS JUST CALLED HERE A-AND WHEN WE C-CHECKED O-OURSELVES FOR W-WOUNDS OR SOMETHING, I-I-I J-JUST FOUND THAT I HAD T-THIS ONE ON MY—”

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP— HOW COULD YOU NOT FUCKING KNOW?! IT’S A F-FUCKING BITE FOR FUCK’S SAKE! HOW FAR GONE WERE YOU?! WHO FUCKING TOOK YOU DRINKING, HUH?! WHO?!”

“I-I-I—”

“YOU DON’T EVEN REMEMBER THAT?! FUCKING SHIT, CHELSEA! I KNOW YOU’RE A FUCKING DRUNK BUT—”

Quinn suddenly stepped between the two, “Asher, now’s not the time to argue. Do you want your last talk to be like this? Fighting? We’ll give you the room so you two could talk about whatever but no more fighting, understand?”

To my surprise, it seemed like Quinn didn’t have to yell at the top of her lungs to make her people obey her commands but what happened afterward was something that boggled my low-EQ head for a good while right until we were burning two more corpses that should’ve been just one.

We were now in front of the huge bonfire that was still burning brightly but I turned to Quinn who was wearing a solemn expression. I didn’t plan on saying anything though she was the first one to speak up.

“That’s their decision, you have no say in that. Ever.”

“I know, but—”

“Didn’t hear what I just said? I said you have no fucking say in that. Whatever the fuck they did—no matter how fucking stupid—it’s their right, we should just leave it at that. Trust me, more people did worse things when they tried to end themselves. They didn’t hurt anyone in the process, unlike a few knuckleheads I could remember vividly…”

‘I thought that’s what they were trying to prevent from happening…’

After hearing that, I just took to myself because even now, I didn’t think that Asher and Chelsea would also make love one last time before offing themselves, bringing back a certain instance that happened in my place only a few days when the apocalypse started.

With that said, it didn’t take long before we drove back to Quinn’s domicile but even though it was close to midnight, Mr. Ng left us a feast, fulfilling his promise to make dinner special.

What happened to the two put a little damper on our moods but we accomplished something monumental—clearing the gen room of deadheads—with little to no plan—no, actually no plan at all. If we took everything into account, we lost a couple of people but we prevented more from happening if we didn’t drive all the way at that hour.

It’s just that seeing people choose death as an actual choice didn’t sit that well with me even though I’ve had brushed with that choice once in my life.

I almost forgot that death was always a recurring occurrence in this joint—even before the world ended—and I was just lucky to experience so little of it in my fold.

Chef Ng brought a few more trays of food, “Eat up, alright! I wish you all were here earlier but I didn’t even think that shit would happen. Easy on the dessert, alright? It’s pretty late and— you know what? You’re all adults, I don’t need to tell you shit. But yeah, clean up for me. I’m going to sleep~”

Tatiana gave him a thumbs up, “Thanks, old fox!”

“Don’t… Don’t call me that… Anyway! I’ll be hitting the sack!”

I turned to the tray he brought fresh from the oven, ‘Even dessert? Mr. Ng pulled out all the stops, heh. I guess a brownie or two wouldn’t hurt… It’s probably made with some protein powder too…’

As we were eating, Tatiana was obviously the one wharfing down bite after bite but there was an instance where Quinn was just staring at the tray of brownies Chef Ng brought over. She looked like she wanted to address something but she just rolled her eyes and saw me looking at her.

“What?”

“Nothing—”

She let out a chuckle, “Eat for now, you can eat me later—”

Kaley instantly glared at her with a panicked expression, “Quinn! Not here—”

“What? They already heard us fucking, what’s the point of hiding it?”

Myke interjected, “C-Can I join—”

Quinn instantly shot him down, “No. Stick to your hand.”

Coleen interjected, “He’s that great, huh?”

“Ask Anne,” Quinn let out a chuckle as she turned to me, “Fill up, yeah? It’s been so long since I wanted to clear that place. I’m fucking celebrating!”

“S-Sure…”

“HAHAHAHAHA! DON’T GIVE ME THAT LOOK! Fuck it, you always come through… We’ll just keep everything that we’re gonna do later in our little circle. Also, we have some space for one or two more, right?” Quinn chuckled as she turned to Kaley.

“Of course!” Kaley promptly responded as she brushed her foot on my calves, whispering to me, “Do me first, okay?”

I whispered back, “I can do only you and just let them watch in envy…”

“Hahaha… As hot as that sounds, I also have some plans…”

“Oh?”

“You’ll see later…”

Quinn waved the two of us, “Hey! No whispering!”

“It’s a surprise though, you’ll like it!”

“Hmm~ I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Hey! Tatiana! That’s mine!”

“What? You guys keep talking, I thought you weren’t gonna eat it!”

“Hey! Where did my brownie go?”

“Ah… I also ate it. My bad, Kaley…”

“I-It’s fine…”

With that said, we continued eating but after we had our fill, everyone else did their own thing: either jumping straight to their beds or finishing up whatever work they left behind. However, after a good 30 minutes or so, something felt really~ off.

I was 100% sure that I didn’t have a lick of alcohol because Quinn would definitely serve us some upstairs but I’m feeling a little buzzed and a little sluggish. And to add to that, the paint job on some of the cars and the random graffiti on the walls seemed so vivid and the sounds coming from all around seemed a little… louder.

‘What the fuck is going on…’

And for some reason, I felt like having some chips or anything to munch on even though I was quite full but it didn’t take long before I put two and two together when Kaley ran up to me in a panic.

“H-Hey! A-Are you okay?!”

“Huuuuhh~? What do you mean—”

“Oh god, oh god! I’m so s-sorry! I thought— D’you remember the brownies that Mr. Ng gave us?”

“Yeaahhh? The one Tatiana stole from you—”

“Y-Yeah! The one that— That’s besides the point!”

“Why are you sooooooo worried? It’s just brownies—”

“No! It’s not just brownies! It’s POT brownies!”

“Wut? He cooked them in a pooooot? I thought he used an oven…”

“You— Oh god, how many did you eat?”

“Eat what? Ah! I had two servings of rice, 400 grams of grilled chicken breasts, some mashed—”

“Not that! The brownies! How much did you eat?!”

“I was getting to it, Kaley! Wait— Pot brownies as in— Uh-oh. My time has come…”