Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

What Terry told me could've been just an imaginative version of what took place or as I said before, a rambling of a drunk kid—but one thing stuck to my mind:

What fucking experiments was this witch in the mountains was doing to gain the dead's powers?

Sure, it was as nonsensical as his other statements but one thing's for sure, the bitch— I mean, the witch probably experimented on live people as much as she did on the dead to somehow understand them. But still, I highly doubt someone who based their healing magic on the "dark arts" or realistically speaking, something they just came up on the fly for a few pesos would be able to understand something that killed off more than 90% of the world's population.

There's a small, small chance that she could stumble upon it like the chances of a chimp typing randomly at a keyboard and somehow producing a famous composer's magnum opus.

In any case, I relayed to the group Terry's confessions and there was a mix of reactions.

The ones who were like me simply chuckled and shook their heads while the ones who were on the religious or spiritual side of things were a little perturbed.

"W-We… We should check it out right?"

"Yeah… How long are we staying here anyway?"

"A week at most… could be shorter…"

"Then what?"

"I'm debating going to another place much closer that's unfamiliar or something farther that's familiar to me."

"And where is that exactly?"

"To the Garcia Family or to the rural province of Quezon which is on the other side of the map from Cuervo Heights. I kinda need to check up on my other Uncle's place. They're probably safe-ish out there but some people do be crazy and I'm one of those people…"

"Huh… A-Anyway… That's probably just hokum, right?"

"What is?"

"The story of the witch?"

"I mean, it wouldn't hurt to check it out—"

"We really should… Like first thing tomorrow…"

"I don't care either way but I'd like to hike up a mountain… There's probably a trail that would lead us to the witch… or signs of her presence if she's actually real."

"We'll talk to Terry tomorrow once he sobers up and we'll take it from there."

"Alright."

"Who's Terry again?"

"That dude with the curly hair about to get— yep, that guy. He needs to effin' sleep."

On that note, it was nearing midnight and most of our guests weren't allowed to go back to their estates but were very welcome to stay the night.

Their rooms were already assigned to them but there was still fear in their eyes when they discovered that a maid or a butler would "attend" to any of their requests and would stay outside their door for the duration of their stay.

If I were in their shoes, my greatest fear would be waking up with a blade pressed against my throat and discovering that everyone else was dead before it pressed past the point of no return.

I can understand what they're feeling right now but they also have to understand that if Sal wanted them dead, she wouldn't go to these lengths because the ones she deemed to be irredeemable were in the sack—their heads at least—their henchmen brought earlier, and in the ones still pending delivery.

But yeah, it didn't take long before we went back into our own rooms and continued where we left off.

Let's just say we didn't go ham on it like Edith did with Nancy and morning came in the blink of an eye.

With that said, we were woken up by the smell of coffee that Nancy brought over but I did catch her eyeing "me" suspiciously just as I was about to completely open my eyes.

"G-Good morning! L-Lady Edith asked me to bring you all some coffee and this here's our special brew—"

And as expected, the coffee was as amazing as waking up with four naked ladies staring at my hard-on, and they definitely opted for the "cream" before taking the coffee completely black.

We did enjoy the coffee briefly as Nancy told us that our guests were safely escorted to their homes plus their new housemates.

To my surprise, it was still 7 in the morning but it seemed like everyone in this region wakes up way early—around 5 in the morning—and they were already served breakfast and briefed once again for their new arrangements.

'There goes asking Terry for more info…'

But yeah, Sal made sure to show the completed deliveries of sacks I mentioned pending, further increasing this imaginary hold she had on their necks.

In any case, breakfast was already prepared for us and we were sent down to their actual dining hall which was a floor below the main hall from last night. Despite its smaller size, it had a better view of the flowers outside and it was more comfortable eating sitting down at a long family table with everyone.

Sal obviously occupied one end of the table while Edith and Elsa were to her left and right, then it was just me sitting right next to Edith and Mauro next to Elsa. And of course, Kaley was sitting to my left though I didn't care much who was sitting where after that.

Then Sal glanced at me and Mauro before opening her mouth, "Kid, I won't mind the tardiness since you and your crew are new but Mauro, you better wake up earlier than this, alright?! We're living around farms, so waking up at five should be normal! If you fuck late in the night you'll wake up late in the morning!"

Elsa interjected, "Auntie, we're just about to eat, can this talk about our honeymoon activities go later?"

"Haah?! Elsa, eggs, sausages, eggplants, and cucumbers are in front of me, what would I think about?! And who's fucking sipping coffee like that?! Be a little quieter!"

Quinn raised her hand, "Pfft… That's me, my bad…"

Sal rolled her eyes, "At least that cup's getting more action than me—"

Edith and Elsa said at the same time, "Auntie~ Please, stop!"

"HAH! Just messin' with y'all. Anyways, fuck grace, let's eat!"

With that said, everyone dug into the breakfast Lisa and the other chefs made for us and it was as amazing compared to the dinner last night—but I'm gonna say breakfast was better because breakfast foods were just more appetizing and appealing to me for some reason. But yeah, anyone could eat everything for breakfast since it's just a matter of choice.

We finished eating breakfast in an hour but as soon as we did, Sebastian strolled in wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, work trousers with suspenders, a straw hat with bug nets for his face, safety boots, and a multitool belt. He also had cut-resistant gloves hanging by his pockets and the only thing missing from his getup was a fucking pitchfork.

Furthermore, he was resting a break-open shotgun on his shoulder, and slightly camouflaged by his belt was another strap full of shotgun shells that appeared to be 00 buckshot.

"Ah… It appears I woke up too early for the tour… I'll wait outside…"

'Didn't we decide on the time last night?'

Sebastian left almost as soon as he came in but Sal couldn't hold her laughter for too long as she slammed her fist on the table.

"BAHAHAH! You kids need to apologize to him later… He did wake up at 4 in the morning to prepare everything for the tour but all of you were still asleep when he was ready. He IS totally out of his mind to do it in the early morning because you'd only see shit but it's been a while since we had a lot of guests. He doesn't show it but he's excited…"

"For real?"

"Yeah! So… *clap hands loudly* get on it and let the maids clean this up! Don't go too far and bring plenty of water— Oh! Bring some of our homemade ranch too so you can dip the lettuce on it when you get to that place! It's the first one after the flower garden!"

In any case, once we got back to our rooms, we discovered that we almost had the same clothes prepared but the most surprising thing was that there was a shirt for Quinn's size. She almost beat me up when I laid down on the bed and used it as a blanket but the bigger surprise from that was instead of Elsa, Mauro was much more excited joining this tour because let's face it, the man had his limits.

However, Jesus decided to stay back and spend his time with Lisa but that wasn't our business.

But as Sal stated, after walking past the flower garden and then some, we came across these four huge greenhouses running a hydroponics system where one of them had a fuck ton of lettuce growing in several floors/layers of pipes that easily beat what we have at home.

Sebastian turned to us with a smile, "Please. Try it without the ranch first…"