Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Tatiana was the first one to leave the Raptor and everyone gave surprised looks when she came out wearing a cast. Well, Rin and Cynthia gave more than just a surprised expression and they immediately rushed towards us to know what happened.

"W-What happened?!"

"Are y-you okay?!"

Kaley and I vacated the Raptor but Tatiana was already rolling her eyes.

I waved the two off, "You two, can you please escort her to your room? She needs to rest and when I say rest, that means not moving a single muscle. She didn't only break her arm but her ribs too."

Tatiana groaned, "I'm not the one who broke them, it's the--"

At this exact moment, the look on Tatiana's face changed and she trembled all over. Her eyes were wrought in fear and she started losing feeling in her legs. She fell on Rin's arms but Cynthia had to support them both. I gave Tatiana a complex expression but I was the one who supported her upstairs.

'It took root...'

I was about to take her to their room but Kaley insisted that Tatiana would need something to watch to pass the time.

"Okay..."

I laid her in our bed and the look on her face earlier was gone. However, I needed to address what I saw earlier.

I turned to the three, "Hey, you three… can you leave us alone for a sec?"

Tatiana's eyebrow raised, "Oh~ I like the sound of that~ I--"

"No. It's for something else. Please?"

Rin and Cynthia gave me a puzzled look while Kaley and Tatiana just looked at me solemnly when they saw the look on my face.

Kaley escorted the two out and followed after them but I just looked at Tatiana straight in the eye. I was a few steps away from her while standing in a neutral pose though my hands were inside my pockets.

"What are you--"

"You're afraid."

"What? I'm not--"

"You are."

"I--"

Tatiana was brushing me off every single time so I flicked the switch in my head forcefully. Negative thoughts flooded my head and all I could do at the moment was clench my fists hard. Pain seared through my hands as they bled and it was also started to affect my eyes. It just covered the room in an instant and the temperature had never dropped this much. However, I directed everything in Tatiana's direction and I never saw her look more miserable in her life.

'Sorry… I had to...'

Tatiana looked like she was left bare in the cold while a pack of wild beasts was circling around her. She looked worst compared to when the hulking figure was right in front of her and when she started having a breakdown. She was almost hyperventilating as tears were streaking down her face, and her body was trembling all over. Pain from breathing erratically was now secondary since all she could feel was fear beyond everything she had ever felt.

Right when she was about to hit her limit, I withdrew everything else and gave an apologetic look right after.

"Tatiana, I--"

Kaley suddenly barged in but she couldn't take a single step inside. Tatiana was still in shock after what happened but she couldn't look away from me. She was still breathing heavily and I waited in the same spot until she recognized me. She almost threw up a few times but she kept everything in.

When Kaley managed to take a step inside our room, she felt the residue but persisted onwards. I was giving approval internally but she threw me a hateful look.

"W-What did you do?!" Kaley exclaimed before trying to calm Tatiana down. She sat next to her and tried to place her hand by her back but Tatiana wasn't responding and was just looking at me with the same distraught expression.

"We… we just had a class."

"A class?! What kind of class is--"

"Fear. I taught her fear."

"W-What? Tatiana, are you oka--"

Tatiana was the one to cut Kaley off, "I… I need to be alone..."

Kaley shook her head slightly before disagreeing, "N-No! We should--"

"Please… I'm… I'm much better now..."

"Wha--"

I headed straight for the door before calling out, "Kaley, you heard her. She really needs to rest."

Kaley threw me the most confused look she ever could but Tatiana slowly nudged her to leave her alone. I was keeping the door open until Kaley begrudgingly walked past me but I gave one final look at Tatiana before I closed the door.

Tatiana was giving me a complex expression but her body just started going through a phenomenon where it would relax and let out everything after it finally felt safe.

'Good...'

I let out a sigh of relief but before I got to explain myself to Kaley, she went right up on my face.

"Y-You! What did-- What hap-- What?! What was that-- Explain yourself!"

I lightly chuckled, "Bandages."

Kaley got confused even more, "Huh? What are you--"

It was then that I showed my hands to Kaley and looked over the doorknob. It was covered with my blood but my hands were still bleeding out. It was because the nails that were plugging my skin were taken off when I kept the door open, and the bleeding needs to be stopped before clots could start to form.

Kaley looked like she was about to lose herself, "What is-- I have them here in my-- What's happening to you?! Give me your hands!"

"Here you-- Ow! Be gentle! Can't you see they're--"

"Shut it!"

Kaley was about to cry when she dragged me to sit down on the staircase that would lead to the 3rd floor. Coincidentally, Rin and Cynthia were hiding in the same spot, unsure of what to do but also curious as to what occurred inside. It was because Tatiana and I were just left alone for a short while before Kaley barged in when she felt something, and both my hands were bleeding profusely when I came out.

I just gave them a brief explanation but they were confused and just in the same boat as Kaley was.

Cynthia asked once more, "Fear? You taught fear?"

Rin added, "Can you even--"

I chuckled lightly, "If you don't believe me, don't-- Ow! Kaley! Ease on that alcohol! You just need to wrap them before--"

Kaley glared at me as she squeezed my hands, "Isn't this the time you provide us with your long monologues?! You always do them when this kind of thing happens, right?! Why the indifference now?!"

I tried to scratch my head but opted to rub the side of my head with my sleeves, "Hmm~ It's really hard though..."

"Really? There's something you can't explain?"

"No… It's just the nature of it… It's like the old times when you just smack the back of your TV when it's acting up and it just works. I don't fucking know why that's the solution but it does it."

Rin looked at me suspiciously, "Right..."

"Oh! Like blowing the cartridge of my old 64!" Cynthia suddenly had a thought.

"Right! We know it just makes it worse but it fucking works after blowing on it, right?"

Kaley grumbled, "You kept explaining other stuff but it's far from what I saw! I never saw Tatiana like that but after whatever you did to her, she said she was fine?! How would looking like that be fine?!"

"I told you already, I taught her fear."

Rin was still confused but she asked, "So… teaching fear meant… scaring her? You actually scared her?"

I nodded a few times, "In a sense, yeah."

Kaley shook her head then she said sarcastically, "In a sense? Really?"

"Well, something stuck with me after… after my parents died. I haven't been fully honest but when it was still fresh, I can't even look at a person holding a knife and I'd just relieve everything that happened in my head. It took me some time to lessen it to just simply flinching or just sweating nervously but that wouldn't sit with me. I need to turn that into something I could use or control rather than something that could debilitate me. And what's scarier than a person with drugs in his veins wielding a knife?"

Cynthia joked, "Kaley holding a knife?"

"Hey!" Kaley grimaced but the rest of them started laughing.

I chuckled, "Close, but this was something that happened before."

Rin grew curious amidst the laughter, "But what is it though?"

I smiled as I turned to Rin, "It's the person who broke my Tachi."

Silence filled that corner of the staircase but it was more because of curiosity. Kaley knew a bit about my pseudo-family while the other two knew almost close to nothing. They know that my Tachi was missing from my rack but they never knew that it was actually broken. However, it seemed that my one-sentence answers weren't enough.

Kaley looked at me with a menacing aura, "Okay, now's the time to give us a complete answer."

"Haa?"

"You keep on leaving us with this cliffhanger answers and it's starting to tick me off."

"I need my hands first."

Kaley started to get headaches, "What?"

"I need my hands! I'm about to tell a story and I need gestures to be able to do it proper-- Ow! Kaley! What if I forget everything?!"

"YOU NEVER FORGET ANYTHING! EVEN TROLLING AMIDST A SERIOUS CONVERSATION!"

"I mean-- If you put it like that I--"

"JUST TELL US THE STORY!"

When I finally got my hands back, I sighed before opening my mouth, "It's about time I tell you guys about Aoi..."