Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

It was chaos for a few seconds but once everything calmed down, it was decided to actually wait for Mauro’s decision once contact has been made. However, Jesus was still too excited to be able to build a Woody with his own two hands, he was trailing behind me like how a deranged junkie would follow a dealer that had a bag of dope with holes in them.

‘I thought Isaac following behind me was already creepy… Tatiana did too at first but they weren’t looking at me like this…’

In any case, it was totally understandable because aside from a few exceptions, most of the dream cars people wanted were still obtainable by simply liberating an auto shop, driving into a rich neighborhood, or like what I did, fashioning a body that would somehow make it look like the car they wanted.

For example, lowriders had a certain niche in a particular culture but station wagons—especially a Woody—had a… a… for a lack of a better term, a more particular niche amongst car enthusiasts.

It’s within a niche of another niche so even though the Woody was famous in its own right, the number of people that love them—much less own them, was much lower than the people that adore lowriders or something similar. Not to mention the insane price tag an original Woody would have, owning one just for shits and giggles was fucking impossible.

In my case, I had almost an equal love for muscle cars and tuners but the number of people that had the same sentiment as me was more than twice—fuck it, ten times the actual number of Woody enthusiasts.

But to get out of this rabbit hole, let’s just say that Jesus’ taste for cars was unique among his family.

Isaac eventually nudged me, “Bro, that guy’s still following behind us…”

“You’re not included?”

“Huh?”

“I’m just trying to see the view and you’re trailing me like you’d get some insights just from me walking!”

“I was just—”

Jesus interjected while he was rubbing his palms together like a shady businessman, “My guy, is there any chance you’d trade the Woody’s blueprints for something else?”

“I already told everyone: no head, no blueprints—”

“I ALREADY SAID THAT I’LL SUCK YOUR DICK, WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH—”

I suddenly had the urge to kick his shin and I acted upon it, “DIFFERENT KIND OF HEAD!”

To my surprise, Jesus not only endured the pain coming from his shin, but he also kept a straight face as he tried to argue with me.

“C’mon, my guy! I’m not the one in charge here! But do know that I’ll swing the vote in your favor if it ever comes to that! Well, you already had Quinn’s favor so that’s half the battle already but I have more pull because I was the one who actually found it—”

“By the way, you haven’t answered me.”

“Hmm?”

“Where did you actually find it?”

Jesus was about to answer quickly but he had a thought, “How did you and Quinn happen though? Does your wife know?”

I rolled my eyes, “Are you gonna answer my question or are you gonna answer with another question?”

“Ah—”

“Fuck it, I’ll give that one to you. We fucked and we liked it. There. Are you gonna answer mine now?”

Jesus’ eyes had never been so round, “R-Really? You two…”

“Yep.”

“Huh. B-But how— before that, you know? You should’ve done something?”

“And~ I’m getting duped, see ya later—”

“W-Wait! I’ll answer! I’ll answer! We came upon it in this hot spring we used to frequent… It’s actually the owner of the place—he was… it was still intact—the body’s still whole among other things, I mean—when we came upon it and we had to redirect a large horde away from it and put up a trap to burn them someplace else.”

“Again, where?”

Jesus looked at me weirdly before realization struck, “Oh! I see, I see… It’s actually close to this huge-ass university in Cavite wait— I think it’s more in Tagaytay… we had to drive down this narrow up-and-down passage, you know. It’s one of those natural hot springs that aren’t that famous to begin with and only a few people know about—and the family who owned it didn’t even bother to get the word out and was just satisfied with their customers and shit…”

As he tried to continue his story, I tried to pinpoint the exact location with an internal map in my head—plus my own experience being close to the area while I was still in college—but unfortunately, the place was something even I have heard of or ventured to. I even tried to remember if I saw some signs in passing but there was never a match occurring in my head.

I would have to have been a local in that certain barangay or a tourist that wanted to experience everything in that area but unfortunately, I was neither of those and honestly, I wasn’t that keen on going out at that time in my life.

With that said, it seemed like Jesus was telling me the whole truth just for me to give in to his requests because I have something that he could only dream of having. But as luck would have it, it seemed like the place was a little isolated so I instantly thought of something that Jesus and I could somehow work a deal on.

I cut him off as he tried to provide more random information, “Jesus.”

“Yes, child?”

𝑶𝓋𝑳xt.𝗇𝓔t

Isaac almost choked from the sudden response, “KeK— Fucker…”

I shook my head as I chuckled, “Good one, Father. Anyway, you said that it’s a natural hot spring, right?”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“Is it the only one there or are there any other natural hot springs that are closer?”

Jesus started to think as he rubbed his chin, “Hmmrgh~ Well~ There are a few but they’re a little too much, you know? The smoke from those yellow stuff would sometimes make my eyes watery but the ones we frequent have them just right. Oh! There are a few spots where it’s kinda irritating but it’s still tolerable— and only a few people come and go so it isn’t much trouble, we just avoid it and pick the best spot.”

‘Well, we should start somewhere…’

I let out a faint smile, “Great, can you take us there tomorrow? You’re not busy or anything, aren’t you—”

“N-No! I’m free all week! I’ll bring the whole crew so you and your guys will be safe— Ah, I’m not saying that you can’t protect yourselves, you know… Ahaha… I’m just saying that we know the area quite well and that’s a huge advantage, right?”

“Right. It’ll be perfect since we’ll be visiting somewhere close and I’ll need a proper tour guide.”

“It’s perfect! We just cleared the area and there won’t be that many zombies around. I’ll be the best tour guide you ever had and I’ll make sure that you and your crew will be able to relax for the whole day without any interruptions!”

I waved him off, “That’s great. But we won’t be there the whole day though—”

“Right! I forgot, you can’t just soak in for the whole day without passing out, hahaha… A-Anyway, I recommend us to drive outside maybe around 4 in the morning so we’ll be there around 5 or 6. It’s really great around that time, trust me.”

“Alright.”

“Great! Will that equal the blueprint perchance?”

I let out a wicked smile, “We’ll see—”

“C’mon, my guy! Argh! You got me by my balls here! What else can I give you?!”

At this point, our conversation had once again gone back to him begging me for the Woody’s blueprints but little did I know that someone close was listening in. For a group of gearheads and gym rats, I didn’t even think that one of them knew what I was actually going for.

And it was none other than the Queen herself.

“Looking to get some sulfur on the down low, huh? Why don’t you just go for the volcano close by?”

Jesus turned around to see Quinn who had her hands on her waist, “Sulfur? What?”

Quinn completely ignored Jesus as she stared right back at me, “What? Cat got your tongue? You’ve worked Jesus pretty well, giving you valuable info like that, but luckily I wanted to get my pussy licked and I was just about to get you and here we are!”

I waved her off, “It’s not like that—”

“Then tell me. Are you making what I think you’re making or do you really wanna just soak for a bit and cool off— I mean… not cool off but you know what I mean, right?”

Jesus interjected, “Alright, what the fuck are you two talking about?”

At this point, a few were already wondering why we were huddled away from them so I just shook my head as I gave Jesus an answer:

“We’re making gun— no, just straight-up black powder.”