Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Out of all the things I would forget to take into account, it was the replica of the bloody smiley pin on my vest used to commemorate one of our fallen comrades, Kristoff. It had been there ever since I put it on and as unbelievable as that would sound, I fucking forgot about it.

But yeah, Kuzma seeing it on me was like an activation codeword for a secret spy of sorts because he lunged at me and demanded an answer right this instant.

Jesus wanted us to be a little discreet with my connection to him from Jonathan but I guess that plan went out the shitter.

And the man himself, Jonathan, who surprisingly had some say in his actions tried to wave him down, “Kuzma! That’s our dear guest! Get off him!”

Kuzma let go of me but kept staring me down as he replied to Jonathan, “B-But that pin—”

“What’s a bloody pin good for?! Huh?! A pin’s a pin! Unless—”

Allie cut in, “Daddy! I think K-Kuzma recognized it from somewhere!”

Jonathan rubbed his chin as he stared at me, “Curious… Well, I don’t want to beat around the bush anymore because I’m curious so can either of you enlighten us?”

“…”

“…”

The two of us didn’t say a word while our eyes were still in a deadlock but Jonathan ran out of patience as he slammed on the table.

“KUZMA! YOU OWE ME YOUR FUCKING LIFE SO ‘FESS UP! WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THE STUPID FUCKING PIN?!”

It took everything for Kuzma to turn his head to Jonathan but then he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down before speaking in a respectful manner, “I-I’m sorry… sir. That pin—no, I’m not even sure if that’s the exact one but I have a friend—”

Then Jonathan’s eyes lit up for the wrong reasons, “Another Russian friend, perhaps?! That’s amazing! That’s— Kuzma, stop confusing me! Does that kid even look a semblance of your heritage to you—”

I cut in before I jumped over this overlook, “It’s a complicated but long story short, we have a… mutual… friend that wears a smiley pin just like this on his vest—”

Then Kuzma turned back to me with a totally opposite expression from earlier, “I FUCKING KNEW IT! T-Then… Are they here?! K-Kristoff and the rest… a-are they here?!”

At this point, I decided to carefully choose my words because the smallest of details about his comrade prompted such a reaction, what more could have happened if I told him that the specific person he was looking for was already dead?

But yeah, I figured that it would be better to show him instead of telling him so I led him along with the father and daughter over to my group who were either in the process of eating lunch or just chilling inside their vehicles.

Surprisingly enough, Tatiana who I thought would be neck-deep in food was actually sleeping and it was probably one of the reasons she wasn’t able to hear the chants of Kuzma’s name earlier.

Everyone else was just looking over the three people I brought over but I took it upon myself to knock on the window to wake up Tatiana.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

“Hey! Sin of Gluttony, wake up!”

No response.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

“I know you’re not a deep sleeper, come on outside!”

There was no response once again, but I did see her move slightly.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

“TATIANA! KUZMA’S HERE—”

Then all hell broke loose.

“WHAT?! KUZMA?!/THAT’S TATIANA?!” The two shouted at the same fucking time.

Before I almost got hit by my Raptor’s door, I managed to jump back and avoid the bloody swing as Tatiana got out—though a little groggy—as she stared down at the figure of Kuzma who was also doing the same thing to her.

Both of them weren’t saying anything for several seconds, the same as everyone else around them, but we were just waiting for one of them to move.

And right on cue, Tatiana’s eyebrows furrowed before she uttered, “You’re bald?”

Kuzma couldn’t believe his ears, “Wut?”

Then Jonathan cut in excitedly, “I TOLD Y’ALL, HE’S BALD! I KNEW IT!”

‘That’s… Nevermind…’

This was the weirdest reunion I’ve seen in a while but the two eventually hugged it out as Kuzma involuntarily shed tears while Tatiana had never smiled so brightly. But to my surprise, Jonathan was the one bawling his fucking eyes out while his daughter Allie was the one trying to calm him down.

“It’s okay, Daddy~ It’s okay~”

“But this is just so *sniffles* touching!”

Then Tatiana chuckled as she let go of Kuzma and took a good look at him, “You’re bleeding! The fuck—”

Allie and Kaley cut in at the same time, “Right! I forgot—/I’ll take care of that—”

And again, “Ah—/You—”

And again, “You should—/Do you want me to—”

And again, “O-Okay!/I— I’ll take care of it, no biggie!”

At this point, it seemed like our 30-minute stay had been extended but there were still a lot of things both parties didn’t know about.

If I heard things correctly, it seemed like Kuzma owed Jonathan his life, tying him to this place, and in our case, let’s just say that there was a lot more that we had to unpack, a bit of tl;dr-ing, skips, or montages of people speaking without sound was in order.

But first and foremost, Kaley cleaned the area of Kuzma’s most recent wound while Tatiana handed him a small bottle of vodka.

Let’s just say that Kuzma had never smiled so wide as he downed it in a few chugs and he’d rather have one more than receive some anesthetic before Kaley tried to stitch his wound close.

Kuzma needed a total of six stitches by his eyebrow but in all honesty, he very much needed a hot shower first because as much as I didn’t want to be rude, he fucking needs one, and his other injuries needed a second set of eyes and a clean environment so he doesn’t get an infection.

All of this was happening while Tatiana and Kuzma were catching up—the happy times, initially—but I took it upon myself to give them a bit of space as I took Jonathan and Allie aside for negotiations.

“Jonathan, Allie… I’m prepared to fix the rift between you and Mr. Cuervo—”

“Hold on a second, I know where you’re getting at but you do know he owes me his fucking life. I don’t mind letting go of him eventually—”

“No. Not eventually, he goes with us today. That’s the reason I took both of you aside—”

Allie cut in with a smile, “Thanks for considering me!”

“Y-Yeah, you’re part of the team. No worries. But as I was about to say, Kuzma and Tatiana, they belong to a special ‘Russian’ group that’s under me, so it’s safe to say that he’s my subordinate. And before you say anything, someone’s life is always deemed to be priceless but we gotta be realistic about the situation.”

“Go on…”

“As I said, I’m gonna mediate between you two and Mr. Cuervo—granted you sincerely apologize for what you did—and I’ll give you twice—no, thrice the gifts I had on the duffel bag—except for the empty pill case and pet rock, of course—and I’ll talk to him about incorporating what we just witnessed earlier to one of his event nights.”

“…”

“Jonathan?”

“Oh. You’re done?”

I chuckled dryly, “You actually want more?”

“Well, yeah? Of course, I want more! Incorporating the sport I created into his event will be nice but how are you gonna replace my fighter? Honestly speaking, he’s the best one I got, and if I give him away, I’ll only have one of the games to my name but I don’t have a participant! That doesn’t seem fair, don’t you think? A life’s a life but he’s worth more than one, no? Realistically speaking.”

“…”

“Kid? Are you still there?”

I scratched the back of my head before I tried to dig for more info, “How did he owe you his life anyway?”

“Hah! Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“I do, actually. If you’d like to do so, kindly—”

“HAH! KINDLY, HE SAYS!” Jonathan roared in laughter before smacking me by my shoulder a few times, “Kid, listen. I’m just playin’ with you and you’re earlier offer’s enough.”

“What? Seriously?”

“I just wanted a shot and for the first time since the world fucking ended, a young boy such as you could bend Cuervo’s will and change his mind on things. Fuck it, you were even crowned the new head, right?! You see, that’s my dream right there but those fucking bastards wouldn’t even take a second look at me because… b-because of plenty of fucking reasons but anyway! How about this? I know you’ll be back to Cuervo Heights soon enough so could you let Kuzma enter the games under me a few times or until he snags a win so I could make that bastard’s silly mustache quiver for just a little bit?”

I chuckled as I held out my hand, “Shake on it?”

“FUCK YEAH! Ah— Wait a sec—”

“What is it now?!”𝗈𝗏𝐥xt.𝓬𝞸𝕞

Jonathan couldn’t look me straight in the eye, “U-Umm… It’s about D-Dave’s car… S-Shit… H-He’s gonna fucking kill me if he knew what h-happened to it…”

Allie cut in, “Ooh~ We totally forgot about that, Daddy! It’s gonna be worse compared to me pegging you!”

‘Wut???’

But Jonathan nodded seriously, “I agree… What—”

“W-What did you do to it anyway?” I leaned in because he was trying to make himself smaller and smaller.

Jonathan looked at me like he was about to tell me he ran over my dog but his mouth opened when he placed his hand over my shoulder, “W-We… I… I cut it in half and turned it into a sofa—”

“YOU DID WHAT?! JONATHAN! DAVE’S GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT?! D-DID YOU SAVE THE ENGINE AT LEAST?!” Jesus roared in shock as he was about to have a heart attack.

Jonathan shook his head, “I-I have no more u-use for it so I threw it away—”

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Quinn suddenly popped out of nowhere ready to commit bloody fucking murder.