Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Jomarro looked at me thinking that I would say what I said with a funny face or I was just cooking up the time to give a proper punchline. However, I was not and what I said earlier was genuine. Like my friends and other colleagues, I've sent numerous emails to tell them about what was about to happen. Jomarro was not one of the people that believed me and now I could safely say that his days were literally numbered by the number of supplies he had left for him and his people.

"Did you turn deaf and mute now?" I said when he was just staring at me.

"Hmm." Jomarro's face turned solemn.

"What do you mean by 'Hmm.', huh? Just give me an answer already so I could decide what to do with the supplies I came in with to trade!" I widened my eyes from his lack of energy.

"Cheh, how about my rice?!" Jomarro glanced at the few thousand sacks on his shop.

"No." I replied.

"What do you mean by that? No? What does that mean?" he started scratching his shoulder.

"It's OURS now." I said with a Russian accent that took Tatiana and Mikhail's attention.

*National_Anthem_of_USSR.mp4 suddenly played in the background*

"What the fuck did just happen?!" Tatiana and Mikhail exclaimed.

"I think a car with a stereo passed by, weird..." I trailed, scratching my head.

"Impossible..." Tatiana was shaking her head.

"TURN THAT FUCKING COMMIE MUSIC OFF OR I'LL MOTHERFUCKING TURN IT OFF WITH A SLUG!!!" Oscar shouted from outside.

"I'm sorry! We just found this cassette outside!" a voice replied.

"..." everyone else.

"A-Anyway… isn't it the same?" Jomarro went back to our previous discussion.

"The same what?" I replied.

"I'm just placing all of my items in a different location and I'm worthless after I ran out of things I could give you." Jomarro was still against the idea of going to my place.

"It's all gonna be up to you if you still wanna keep on sitting on your ass all day. Instead of what you're doing right now, you could learn a lot of things from everyone at my place. You're great with animals, you could learn animal husbandry officially or even actual agriculture to complement your knowledge with rice. We've secured a place where we could start building rice paddies though I'm planning to also plant corn on that place." I started.

"This..." Jomarro was still hesitating.

"I also teach classes every now and then so you could learn a thing or two about defending yourself. Well, it's not just that, we have people with different kinds of skills and knowledge and they're willing to teach everyone that wanted to learn. It's not the end man, we're just starting again with a little more difficulty. We know how to grind and we'll just keep doing what we do before when we ran our businesses solo at first." I explained.

"Where do I even start? I'm finding the start really difficult. Mike and the rest could help you and even Elaine does a fantastic job of keeping the records in order." Jomarro looked at his old picture where he was still buff.

"Heh, that's why I'm here, remember? First things first, you'll get your old body back with our help. It's always best to sculpt your body to an optimal shape so you would be able to perform more movements and actions compared to our old ones. After that, you'll decide for yourself on what to do next. You could follow my earlier suggestions or try every path available to you. How about it, deal?" I offered my hand for a handshake.

"W-Wait a sec, before my belongings turn to our belongings, I have one thing I want you to do for me. And I want this thing done before I order Mike to fill the truck you've brought to what it could carry." Jomarro looked at my extended hand first before looking into my eyes.

"What? As long as it's not too stupid, I'll do it." I replied.

"I want you to take me to my house. I've left a lot of my belongings there and even if I'm not sure that they're still there, I'm hoping they still haven't found out the stash I've hidden with the other valuables I have. I know I'm not the most agile one but I'll move when you tell me to move and run like hell when you tell me to run like hell. If you smell any kind of trouble and it would be dangerous to proceed, then we could go to your place though I wanted to try again in another time." Jomarro stated his request.

"Jomarro, sorry but that is a disaster waiting to happen. Why don't you just tell me where to look for and I'll even show you footage from a camera as to what transpired over there. I'm sorry but I would like to avoid risks as much as possible." I replied.

"Forgot the place where I live?" Jomarro raised his eyebrow.

"Forgot that I never forget?" I replied.

"You won't be able to enter if I'm not there." Jomarro raised both his hands helplessly.

"Is it even standing? You know the law doesn't exist anymore, right?" I replied.

"Just let me come with you! I'll never leave the car we would be using unless you told me to!" Jomarro exclaimed.

"Now you're being unreasonable. Give me a good reason I'll take you-" then he interrupted me.

"You fucking know the reason. Look around here and think hard." Jomarro looked into my eyes.

I was taken aback but I did what he told me. I glanced around his office and it took me a while to completely understood. I sighed heavily and then I shook my head helplessly.

"Fuck it, fine. However, if you do something stupid, I have more than a thousand ways to disable you, understood? Don't test me now or I'll blow a hole in your foot with a .22, got it?" I sternly said.

"Deal you little shit." Jomarro scoffed as he was the one who extended his hand.

"Deal." I smiled as I extended my hand as well.

Then both of us shook hands and the people behind us were confused about the thing Jomarro made me think about. Jomarro grabbed a packed bag and then he put on a new shirt. Surprisingly, he was in possession of a larger than normal soft armor and a Mossberg 500. He saw me look at his getup and he chuckled.

"You thought you're the only one packing eh? Bought this from one of my customers." Jomarro chuckled.

"Heh, not bad for a start. Remember once we're out there, my word is fucking law. You don't follow what I say, it will be all your fault when something happens to you." I reminded him.

"Yeah, you little shit. I can't believe I'll follow orders from a kid who I saw shit his pants when he was here with his dad." Jomarro was shaking his head.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go now so my team could still go home before sunset." I replied while Kaley and the rest looked at me while holding their smiles back.

"We could still go back before sunset? We took six hours to get here, right?" Kaley nudged me when we walked back to where Oscar and the rest were.

"You're right, it would depend on how long we would take on Jomarro's place so we better move fast. Well, we always pack supplies for an emergency so if anything happens, we're good." I replied.

Before we left for Jomarro's house, I told Oscar to take the reins while Jomarro gave instructions to Mike to load our trucks. Besides, Jomarro, I was with Kaley, Tatiana, Mikhail, and Jared in Oscar's SUV. Lois wanted to come but I tasked him with staying with Oscar and Unc Zardon.

"Oh yeah, kid. I have a few things to tell you." Oscar tapped me before I entered his SUV.

"Yeah?" I said as I placed the keys in the ignition.

While we were busy talking with Jomarro earlier, Oscar told me that he walked around the near shops to check on the items available. I was told that the majority of supplies were food and medicine and the ones the owners wouldn't let go or expensive were guns, ammunition, and fuel.

"That's great. Bring Lois with you to go around every single shop so we could have the best deal. Bring Unc Zardon too because he knows more of the other owners compared to me. You don't know they might give him something extra with a good deal." I replied.

"Sure kid, stay safe." Oscar nodded.

When we exited the Intercity, the cargo truck and the military jeeps were on the way as to where Jomarro's shop was located. Oscar must've radioed them in because Mike and the others needed to load them while the items for trade we brought would be stored in their place for the moment.

I drove the SUV near the bridge where we sniped a few irregulars waiting on the lotto outlet. I took a left turn and we started to drive a road that was starting to get narrow. We passed by small houses stuck together and we went under an overpass for the expressway.

There were fewer bodies than I thought initially but I was proven wrong.

Bodies from the expressway above started to free fall on the hard asphalt where we just drove past and they were starting to form a small hill.