Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

As soon as I said that, I left the Director’s room and walked back with Gabby to where Kaley and Andy were leaning on. It was the window where Gabby was stationed though the people were in a different window now because it opened another one to cater to them unlike certain fast food joints or certain stores that only had one cashier open to serve their customers.

But as we were about to wave at the two, I felt someone jumping on my back and I kind of confirmed who it was through the color of the hair strands that went past my peripheral vision.

“Hi~! So, what are you guys up to?”

“Chloe? I thought you said you’d attend classes after we drop you off—”

“Eh~ Ran out of uniforms—I mean, clean uniforms to wear. I tossed all of them to the washing machine tho, they’ll be done in a bit.”

“Huh.”

“What are they gonna do? Deduct some credits? I have plenty!”

Then Mimi joined the fray. She came from the other side and stood by Kaley and Andy so I walked over to them while Chloe was still clinging on my back.

Mimi looked at me as she smiled, “Hey, I’m back! Jesus just drove me from the hospital to get my things—”

I smiled as I put my hand out, “Great! C’mon, hand your ID over,” then I tried to look at Chloe who still refused to climb down, “You too! I just caught a windfall, I’ll be treating you two as well.”

Mimi looked at me sideways, “Why? I’m coming with you when you come back, right?”

I chuckled as I insisted, “You know some good people over here that needs a little pick-me-up, right? I couldn’t possibly meet them all and talk all day so why don’t you do the honors for me?”

“T-That’s very nice of you, actually…” Mimi smiled as she was already tearing up, “Okay! I-I’ll do my best to try and give everyone what they need!”

Then Chloe cut in, “And you’re giving me some, too?”

“Yeah? You can buy anything you want—”

She climbed down from me and looked away, “I-I’m sick of all the things here…”

“Ah— Then… Do you want something from the outside? It’s not a guarantee but we’ll keep an eye out if—”

“R-Really?! Then c-can you look for some nice clothes?! Oh! Wait—”

Kaley cut in while pointing at Gabby who was just standing behind me, “Guys, we can talk about that later… Ms. Gabby’s been waiting for us the whole time—”

“Ah— N-No! It’s alright, actually… I was gifted a lot of credits and a day off so don’t mind me,” Gabby said as she waved us off.

In any case, I still collected Mimi and Chloe’s IDs—just so Gabby could see what ID Number she’d put the credits in—then I asked her to put exactly two thousand credits in the five IDs I gave her. Furthermore, I also gave her five hundred credits—much to her surprise—just because.

Gabby couldn’t hide how happy she was and after all the transfers were done, she promptly returned all of our IDs and gave us a bow as we said our goodbyes.

At this moment, it was time to divvy up the errands I would like everyone to run and they were divided as such:

First and foremost, I gave Andy his ID back so he could procure some gas and some time to rent a generator and one of the privately owned cell sites in the residential areas. It was so he could install and power up one of our upgraded relays that had a direct connection to Ilana, our resident hacker.

Ilana could easily access one of my public servers at home to transfer all of the books we collected so far but it would still take a bit of time because it was still not as fast compared to the speed we had before the world ended.

And yeah, I could’ve made Andy’s life easier by making him go through the university’s communications station and buy some time for use of their towers, but powering it up would need more juice and I don’t want the people here to know of Ilana’s existence yet. Furthermore, I don’t want Allyssa getting showed up by the people stationed at the station by getting around Andy and procuring their own copies, so in the end, it was much better to be a little discreet about the situation.

Secondly, I gave Seb Cass’ ID so he could take the rest of the cadets to the university’s general store which had anything from vegan food products, clothes, and farm tools—I mean, it’s a general store so pretty much anything and everything was in it aside from ‘sinful’ items like alcohol, drugs, firearms, meat, caffeine, etc.

I asked them to pick up food items that would last a bit of time than normal—and some seasonings if they ever had any—and water to fill up our containers, lastly, if they saw anything they took an interest in, they’d be free to buy it with the ID I gave them. But yeah, if the total did go over two thousand, they should contact me first and wait for me to add more credits to the ID I gave them.

Ruben was scratching his head as I was giving them instructions, “U-Umm…”

“Problem?”

“Ah— Not exactly but everything in here is supposed to be fresh, right?”

“Yeah?”

“So, at most… the ones in their store would last only a few days—”

“Not exactly. They do have dried fruits and vegetables—I personally recommend the dried mangoes, and yeah,” I said as I turned to Mimi, “We still have vegan jerky, right?”

Mimi nodded as she was amused by the cadets’ confusion, “Of course— Oh! I’d recommend the vege-tapa jerky if they have some in stock and if you’re looking for good seasonings look for the packs of mushroom powder at the bottom shelf or I’d recommend the university’s allspice though they always are sold out.”𝒐𝓋𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

Megan chimed in, “Can we also try the carrot juice and the soy drinks?”

Mimi’s eyes lit up, “They’re really good for you! You should try them!”

I nodded, “If you’re not that picky about the taste but just buy enough for today… It wouldn’t last long on the road.”

“O-Okay! Everyone set?”

“Let’s go~”

“Guys, I promise you, there’s this huge pair of penguin statues by that store! We just forgot to take a picture with it!”

“Yeah, yeah~”

With that said, the final ID to be handed over was given to Jesus and his crew and the task I was meaning to give them was a little special and a little personal.

It wouldn’t mean as much to any other person at the moment but if they were successful in getting that special something for me, I’d definitely be fucking grateful.

Jesus thought I was punking him, “You… You want me to get this?”

I nodded with delight, “Yep!”

“Dude, we have tons of this in—”

“Nope! Not that one. I really~ really~ want you to bring that one in particular by the school entrance. Bonus points if you manage to convince the owner to come with you.”

“Okay?”

“You should probably bring Jose and Isaac with you as a front man—no offense coz you know, tattoos and shit—”

“I get it, I get it… But where are you guys going?”

“Umm…” I glanced at Kaley and the rest momentarily before he cut me off.

“Forget I asked, see ya later~” Jesus just shook his head as he chuckled before he led his group away.

With that said, my goal was to head to the hospital and somehow get a general idea of their current situation and finally unburden Mrs. Lopez with Mr. Lopez because from what Mimi told me and what Chloe added to her statement, their situation was more than fucking spicy and I couldn’t wait to see Lopez’s reaction when we drove in with his daughter.

But yeah, we took a detour for some more personal reasons, and we ended up in a place where certain types of machines were running in bursts after small adjustments.

Mimi was confused as fuck as to why we drove into this place while Chloe didn’t take long for her to realize what Kaley, Tatiana, and Quinn were smiling about.

Chloe leaned in from the back, “It’s a sex thing, right?”

I didn’t even try to lie, “Yep. It’s their idea though, not mine…”

“Sure~ Oh! Do you want me to wear mine, next time?”

“Next time?”

“Yeah! Once you guys… you know…”

Mimi cut in, “Why would you need clothes for having s-sex?”

Quinn cackled as loud as she could, “You’re so innocent, it’s adorable~”

“I-I’m not! It’s an h-honest question, alright?!”

Tatiana added, “You see, Mimi, asking that question is already proof. Don’t worry, you’ll learn more soon enough…”

Mimi tried to go down swinging, “I-I know more than what you think, alright?! I even know about b-blowjobs and a-anal…”

“HAH! SHE SAID— AS IF THAT’S— HAHAHAHA!”

“MIMI, STOP! YOU’RE GONNA MAKE ME WANT TO EAT YOU UP!”

“U-Umm—” Mimi never looked so panicked as she turned to us, “H-Help?”

Kaley waved the two down, “Don’t tease her, alright? She was really great yesterday…” then Kaley turned to me, “So… Do we just go in or do we have to—”

Mimi answered while she was pouting cutely, “W-We can just go in…”

Chloe tried to cheer her up as she turned to Kaley, “You can tailor our professors’ clothing here too since they also have the standard uniforms on display. Don’t worry about the sizes… They have ready-made ones but they can do customs after checking your measurements first… Because you know…” she trailed as she glanced at Quinn for a moment, “P-People come here w-with big… h-huge… r-ridiculous s-sizes… and they’d make you comfortable with it and they do it pretty fast!”

Quinn smiled even more, “That’s what I’m talking about! I barely have enough clothes that fit! Tailor-made is the way to go unless I want to air them out in the open…”

Chloe then asked something she’d lose a few years of her life, “Quinn… I-If you don’t mind me asking… H-How… U-Umm… B-Big are they? I-If you don’t mind?”

Quinn scratched the side of her cheek as she gave herself a squeeze, “I’m not really sure… It’s been a while since I’ve checked…”

“Ah… But—”

Quinn squeezed herself another time, “But yeah, the last time I measured them… I was around 46KK but now it feels like I’m 48NN… somewhere around that ballpark…”

‘Probably where she got her nickname…’

Hearing that thought in my head made me do it, “Ah, so that’s why you don’t call yourself Quikk but Quinn…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Pfft….”

“Thanks, Tatiana! You’re the breast— I mean, best— Ah! Ow! WHY— Help! HAAALP! NOT THE JEWELS! NOT THE JEWELS! I STILL WANT TO HAVE KIDS! AHHHHHHHHHH!!! STOP! MY SCAPULA! MY BIGGUS DICKUS— AHHHHH!!!”

In any case, let’s just say I got beat up for saying the worst dad jokes I could think of at the moment and I was tasked with guarding the truck while the ladies went in and got their clothes made for them.

I had to down a painkiller or two because they somehow hit harder than usual but it was well deserved and well fucking worth it.