Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

At this moment, Allyssa was at a loss about which path to take from the fork I presented to her but I broke off the tension when I pointed at the clock which was 15 minutes to 7:30 AM.

“Earliest class is quite close, no? Or they changed the time—”

“Wha— It’s that time already?! Where’s my— ARGH! I’ll eat on the way! Ron get me my— Thanks! I need to take a quick shower before—”

It was a little comical to see Allyssa scramble for her things but she stopped in her tracks when she was about to run past me by the door.

“Umm…”

I just let out a faint smile as I took another sip of coffee, “You got plenty of time, alright? Always trust your gut.”

She looked at me momentarily before looking on the ground and eventually walking past me as she muttered, “I-I know… I’ll have an answer by then.”

“Great.”

With that said, we have a few hours to kill before departure and I chose to divvy up a few tasks among the crew so they get to sightsee for a bit if they wanted to take some pictures like Lucas and JP. However, in order for some of the tasks to be completed, an ID like mine was required so I also asked my friends to accompany them because they pretty much had nothing else to do.

But aside from Andy who was even willing to go to lengths just to get his own firearm, Ben and Cass looked a little miffed because it seemed like this was one of the few days off they had to be together.

I rolled my eyes at the two who looked like they definitely fucked the whole night away, “Can’t you just give me your IDs?! I can transfer a few hundred in each of them so my guys could go for errands.”𝒐𝓋𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

Cass looked a little worried, “Who’s gonna hold mine? Once you apply to transfer your credits over to ours, word will come out that you have thousands upon thousands of credits and it’ll be crazy—”

“We’ll be fine, don’t worry—”

“It’s not you we are worried about, it’s us! Word will definitely spread that I have hundreds of credits in my ID and I’ll be hounded by people for scraps and whatnot! Some might even steal it from me!”

I waved her off, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. As long as they’re not the president, the elders, or the directors, I’ll be able to work a deal around them. Besides, I can just send them some too like shush credits or something. Right?”

Cass shook her head as she let out a sigh, “You rich people and your ways to spend them…”

“So, can I borrow yours?”

“Fine…”

With that said, our first stop was one of the oldest buildings in the university and its main purpose was to process students’ enrollments, billing, transfers, etc. though some rooms were still used as classrooms or offices for tutoring, meetings, and some club activities.

It was pretty obvious that we caused quite a commotion when we drove in with our convoy but I didn’t pay them much of a mind when I fell in line at the window that processes students’ credits with four IDs in hand.

I was right next to this freshman-looking kid who for some reason was shaking in his boots but I just gave him a faint smile as Kaley and Andy caught up to me.

“Why’d you go here on your own? You said you’d show me around more, right? This building looks old… and smells old…”

“Ah. Sorry, I’m so used to walking around alone here that I just went straight for the—”

Andy cut in, “Dude, I love the attention we’re getting but this is crazy! Everyone’s looking at you, dude! You’re like a rockstar over here!”

“Really? I didn’t notice…”

“I didn’t notice, my ass— you’re always like this, you know? Always oblivious about the best parts of youth!”

Kaley scoffed in agreement, “Trust me, he seems to be not that oblivious but the Mimi thing happened and it started all over again…”

“Hah! I was told, I was told… You two… You’re together, right? Maaan~ I love Mimi to death but you two, you two are just like *chefs kiss* I dunno the right word but it works! Really~ really~ works!”

‘I guess he wasn’t told about the rest that happened after that… goodness gracious…’

Kaley let out a smile, “Thank you! That’s really nice to say!”

Andy scratched the back of his head, “Maaan~ I guess everyone’s looking over at you too, huh? You model or something? Ah— I don’t wanna sound like I’m hitting on you or anything it’s just I just say what’s on my mind—”

Kaley started chuckling, “No worries, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

In any case, it didn’t take long before it was our turn in the line and as it usually was, a working student would be manning this station and they’d always look so grateful the first year then would look like a certain squid that was a cashier in a fast food joint who knows how to play a clarinet, mostly.

And at this moment, it looked like we were being served by a sophomore who looked like she still had more life than most working students.

She looked surprised from seeing me, “U-Umm… H-How can I help you?”

I let out a smile to ease some of the tension, “Hi, I’m an alumnus but I still have leftover credits from when I used to be here—”

“Oh! No worries, we get that every time. What year?” Her eyes had a certain twinkle in them as she looked at me.

“2014.”

“2014?! Wow~ That’s a… No worries, the university guarantees that it’s still possible to use them even if it’s from the 90s, the 80s, or whichever year we were established. So… are you planning to use them for something right now or—”

I cut her off as I leaned close, “You see… Umm… I may have a few more credits than normal, as I was told… so… c-can I please… please ask you to remain calm and keep this transaction a little discreet and if you do… I’ll be glad to share some of them with you… Is that fine?”

She suddenly looked over her shoulder before looking back at me, “U-Umm—”

I leaned even closer as I looked her straight in the eye, “Can I ask what’s your name?”

“U-U-Ummm… My name… I-It’s Gabriella… B-But you can call me G-Gab or E-Ella…”

As this was happening, Andy had already moved out of the line to laugh his ass out while Kaley was giving me love taps with her elbow because it seemed like I was rizzing the fuck out of this attendant. However, if that was what it would take for her to keep quiet, I’d go along with it for as long as it would take despite the cringe going through my whole body.

I smiled brightly as I kept direct eye contact, “How about Gabby? That sounds cuter, right?”

“Y-You saying I’m cute?” She blushed for a short bit as she cutely made her long eyelids flutter.

‘Oh god, the fuck am I doing with my life? Fuck it…’

I chuckled, “Maybe? I can’t stop looking at those eyes of yours…”

Gabby just started to get redder and redder, “U-U-Umm… A-About that ID of yours—”

“Oh! Right! I almost forgot… I would very much like your assistance in transferring 30% of my remaining balance evenly to these other IDs. I have the letters required for the two of them and one of the owners is here with me to confirm. Is that okay?”

She calmed down for a little bit, “Oh! If you’re the owner of the ID that we’d take from, you don’t need the other IDs present. Only the other way around—”

“Oh~ I see! I didn’t know that! Thanks!”

“Y-You’re very much w-welcome…” Gabby smiled as she started to twirl her side bangs as she kept on stealing glances at me, “Oh! But I’ll n-need your ID first so—”

“Here,” I smiled as I handed it over to her.

“Thank you, M-Mr. Ishi— You’re Sky Ishiyama?! YOU—”

Before Gabby started to get even more hysterical, I probably morphed my face to try and tell her to keep it down. I probably got close to beating Jim Carrey with the number of facial contractions I tried to get my point across and luckily enough, we only got weird looks due to me looking like I was begging for scraps from their point of view.

But yeah, it took her a few moments to calm herself down but she almost had a heart attack when she swiped my ID on their scanner and saw the numbers on her monitor.

“A-A-Ah—”

I tried to remind her about our deal once again, “Keep it on the down low, alright?”

Gabby was shaking as she muttered under her breath, “F-Fifty—”

I thought I heard wrong as I leaned over and whispered, “Fif— You mean around t-twenty, right?”

Then she twisted her small monitor and showed me the number 5 right next to four other random numbers, “T-Then what am I seeing r-right now?!”

“What the fu—”

“You have no idea you have this much on your—”

At this point, it seemed like we garnered more attention than I would’ve because one of the older employees who was also a teacher of some sort approached with the oh-so-everlasting Karen persona:

“Why’s this transaction taking too long?! You’re—” then she stopped completely when she saw what I had on the monitor, “A-Ah— Stay right there, I’m calling the director… Hannes! Hannes! DIAL THE DIRECTOR IMMEDIATELY!”

‘Fuck!’