Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Several hands raised one after the other and I picked one closest to me. Most of them were easily answerable but it didn't take long before one of our residents raised his hand to ask something that would give me a slight headache.

"Yes?"

"Hello! U-Umm… Hi..."

"Yes, sir?"

"Yeah… My family and I used to live near just by the edge of Balangkas and since from this place to Sir Morales place is pretty much a safe zone… I… umm… we were wondering if we could move back to our old house? I… I visited my old place when I joined the clea--"

I had to shut it down immediately.

"No."

"N-No? W-Why? We could e-easily move--"

"I'll stop you right there. I said no."

"..." He looked extremely unwilling.

Not only that, some residents seemed to have the same idea and they were only waiting for someone to voice it ahead of them. Everyone has been living inside a house with 2-4 families and not everyone could as easily gel with one another. There were requests to transfer to a different house or to one of our outposts but it could only do so much. In simple terms, there was no place like home… especially for the ones that were extremely well-off before it started.

I cleared my throat, "I understand your frustrations but we can't just--"

"But why?! Don't just tell me 'No.', give me a proper reason at least!"

"If I allow you and your family to live in their old place, it wouldn't take too long before others start to follow you or have the same idea. Heck, some people might just pick a sweet house between our bases and call it theirs for fuck's sake."

Another 'family' guy stood up to add fuel to the fire, "And what's wrong with that?! I'm sorry but we've been very patient with living in a cramped--"

Something unpleasant just ticked in my head and I looked at everyone that had the same idea of moving out, "Excuse me?"

He piped down for a moment before he cleared his throat and continued, "I'm sorry but I'm gonna say it. It's been what? Almost half a year before it started? And how long do we have to wait before we could move back to our old place? Before these homeowners in Woodlands could get their home back? When? I've been in every single meeting and ever since you've cleared those barangays, you've just let them rot and only took care of the fishing areas."

Another homeowner chimed in, "That's right! How about the places we poured everything on?! My husband has been acing all of your classes and he could--"

It was then that I started chuckling.

"Wha-- Are you laugh-- Excuse me, I'm talking right--"

I cut her off, "Thirteen Minutes."

Everyone on their side gave confused looks.

"W-What?"

"Thirteen Minutes. That's how long it would take for me to send help if anything goes wrong. More so, if anything goes wrong over here, I wouldn't send a single reinforcement your way."

"But..."

I scoffed, "What? It's safe? Maybe, yeah. It's relatively safe over there, I dunno. It might be a while before you've seen another herd or even a dozen deadheads but they're still fucking out there."

"..."

"The 'reason' I'm not allowing you to go back to your old place is because it doesn't exist now. Did all of you forget? The world just fucking ended a few months ago! This place is your home now! Get it?!"

Some of them looked down but a few were still unwilling.

I sighed heavily, "I'm sorry but it's just the way it is now. Unless everyone here could make their kids run outside without worry, no one's doing this type of relocation. You could either move to a different house within our walls or you could get transferred into another outpost, that's it. Anything other than that is spreading ourselves thin and making it hard for everybody. I don't want anyone getting complacent due to the things we've achieved in this timeframe. Trust me, you guys had it so~ fucking easy than the ones we encountered."

The first guy retorted as he looked at me like an idiot, "And why is that?"

Oscar answered for me, "Because they've been put down or just waiting to. It's not over until we've put down every single one of them. And yeah, we're sOrRy~ because all of you that want to go back to their old place have to 'wait' for longer… we've just been busy busting our ass even before this shit started. We're not telling you that you owe us big time but… you owe us big time. At least have the decency to shut your trap when--"

I cut Oscar off, "Old man, that's enough."

Oscar shook his head, "Cheh. I was just getting started but oh~ well~ Hmm. Let me finish with this then: If you love your place so much, you should've stayed in it in the first place! Let me tell you, do not fucking bombard us with shit like-- eh~ I'll shut up. I'm done with venting for today. It's all~ this meeting is for, venting. Am I right? You guys are just venting and saying nonsensical things, right? Don't do it in our meetings, we have someone for that."

Some of the homeowners that voiced their opinions just nodded awkwardly while a few others just shut their mouths because there wasn't enough support for their agenda or something entirely different.

A few awkward moments passed by and I answered a few more questions that came from our hospital staff. Our supplies were still abundant but we had other matters related to it.

The one that brought up the subject was a BMET in charge of maintaining hospital equipment. It could be anything from Defibrillators, ECG/EKG Machines, Patient Monitors, and etc. What they requested was to either gain more donor parts to fix the existing machines or be able to take more of said machines home.

"You could obviously find them in existing hospitals or clinics but..."

"But? Oh! Do you mean--"

"Yes, sir. I'm talking about the warehouses where they're usually stored. You could find some stored for delivery, repair, and etc. I could try and fix anything as long as we have the parts available but it would always take some time. The best bet we could have is to get some brand-new stuff from those places. Some hospitals have their own storage space but everything runs through the place where we order them first."

"What do we need to get our hands on first? A surgery robot? Those premium CT Scanners? What?"

"None at the moment but the way things are going now, they could be the last of our machines for years."

I nodded approvingly, "I like the way you think. Give Rin a list of what you need and if you could pair it with pictures, it would help the team I'll be sending to retrieve those items. Some of them will be quite big so a few scouts will try and spot them while some of us would try and scour the records we have on hand. It'll only be a matter of time before we get a hit so keep me posted on what's working and what's not."

"Okay, sir. Thank you."

After a while, the meeting was adjourned and the rest of us walked back to the compound.

It was pretty late when we got back so I just did a short workout with a few people. Kaley and Tatiana were present though they decided to stay behind for a little bit more. With that said, I just took a quick shower alone and I heard a few screams combined with laughter from Cynthia and Rin's room.

The door was ajar but I knocked a few times before letting myself in.

"Rin! Behind you! Run!"

"Wha- But my pickaxe! I just got it!"

"It's just stone! Throw it--"

"I'll be missing it for the set!"

"JUST FUCKING LEAVE IT!!!"

"Cynthia! There's a--"

Then the creeper exploded.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~!!! I told you to leave it! I died because I tried to hold them back! How can we defeat the Ender-- Ah-- You're here… Hi! Wanna play?"

My angelic smile started to turn demonic, "Ehehe… You fucking amateurs… Do you guys know Dream? I'm the fucking Nightmare! Pack that shit up and come with me! Time for another lesson!"

"Oh no..."

"Oh no..."

I simply dragged two helpless souls into my den and I showed them my world which was created from the release date of 2011. Not only were the buildings symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing, but sections of them also had Crimson Stone circuits surgically placed to run automatic farms and more.

The two were bowing down my feet after I finished the tour and the look of confusion Kaley and Tatiana gave me when they got back was fucking priceless.

However, their faces turned into fear once they saw my deranged expression.

"Wanna play?"