Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Hearing Terry's curious glance that had a twinge of excitement, I just stared at him without saying anything before he eventually got the message and fetched the people who were staring me daggers earlier. It didn't take long before the same five people walked in slowly—totally different from what they were earlier—and funnily enough, they couldn't even maintain eye contact.

However, even without eye contact, I could clearly see some of them clenching their fists, gritting their teeth, etc., a few ways to tell me nonverbally that they weren't happy with their current arrangement.

In all honesty, I was just here to talk to Terry about my sketch and ask Rosie for a deal with her flowers, and as thuggish as this may sound, if these people couldn't accept their loss, pay what they were due, and still act out against the people who were feeding them and keeping them alive, they should be taught a valuable lesson.

I said loud enough for everybody in the hall to hear:

"Look at me."

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Met with silence coupled with not following what I said, I just gave them another chance as I repeated myself:

"You five kept on leering at me earlier, look at me."

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"Last chance."

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At this moment, Logan, and even Kuzma were ready to break some fingers to prove a point, but they were lucky enough to see Kaley pull Nancy and Rosie for cover as I suddenly threw a stun grenade right in the middle of the five who were still looking away.

*BANG*

If they heeded my words, they should've seen it coming to protect themselves somewhat because the moment I opened my eyes and unclogged my ears, all of them had never looked so miserable as they were on the ground, eyes shut tight, and covering their ears—though one was already bleeding through them.

In our case, Kaley and the rest were safe and sound and the same could be said for Seb and Terry, relatively speaking, because they were brought to cover by Logan and Kuzma. Granted a flashbang or a stun grenade was non-lethal, but it could still cause blindness or deafness—even injuries in worst cases—and they didn't even know what I threw over—so the best bet was to always take cover.

But yeah, hurling a light grenade over to these five gave me the reception I wanted as a couple of them were definitely staring daggers straight at me, but they never expected me to bridge the distance in the blink of an eye as I enveloped them with murderous intent.

From the outside perspective, it might look like I was simply crouched down and mad-dogging one of the guys in his mid-20s with my chilling visage, but I already had enough control of it to encase a small area and condense it to the point that anyone inside it would be hard not only of breathing but also moving.

In any case, I gave this kid a faint smile before speaking in a normal tone:

"When I tell you fucks to look at me, you look at me. Understand?"

"K-Kch..! H-Ha— Ha… Hah K-KUk— Hnnk!"

The kid couldn't even let out a proper word as he struggled to breathe.

But yeah, I withdrew whatever I had on them so we could finally have a normal conversation, but the lady to the right straight-up peed herself as tears streamed down her face. She wasn't able to move a single muscle earlier and the moment she was finally able to breathe, everything just relaxed all at the same time.

The other girl with them took a deep breath before trying to appeal to my good side:

"P-Please sir, w-we apologize… I-If I-I can just take her to the w-washroom and g-give her a c-change of clothes—a-after mopping up this floor too, w-we would be more presentable to talk in your p-presence—"

I shook my head as I stared her down, "Then who's fucking fault was it that she pissed herself, huh?!"

"I-I—"

"Was looking at me that hard?! Isn't the normal way to talk to people to look them in the eye?! You fucks were glaring at me earlier, right?! Where did the fucking angst go?!"

"W-We sincerely apologize! W-WE—"

"Your name's Shirley, right?"

"A-Ah— Y-Yes, sir…"

"So, Shirley… do you talk for them or not?"

"P-Pardon?"

"Was the question that difficult? Do you talk for them or not? I know I'm kind of a genius and geniuses could probably count up to five but aside from you and this dude who could only speak the language of getting a dick stuck in his throat, no one seems to be speaking their mind!"

"I…"

"Newsflash! I called you here so we can talk! You'll never get this chance again! Do you wanna spend your precious time airing your grievances or do you want to help her clean up instead?"

"I-I was just—"

"You're good, Shirley, but I'm talking to them now," then I turned to the three—no four, who still hadn't spoken a single word, "If none of you fucks reply in five seconds, she'll be the ones speaking for all of you at this time moving forward. Five… Four… Three—"

Then the three guys stood upright and spoke just loud enough for everyone to hear:

"W-We apologize, s-sir!/ S-She doesn't speak for me, sir!/ I-I can speak for myself, sir! Apologies…"

"..." I simply gave them a dissatisfied look before turning to the girl who peed her uniform:

"How about you? Are you gonna join Dumb, Dum-Dum, and Dumber or are you gonna let Shirley speak for you? Again, you are wasting my precious time, and if you wanna spend that time cleaning up while Shirley cooks up a deal for you, be my guest. So, how's it gonna be?"

Then this girl named Tania spoke for the first time, "J-Just… Just kill me—"

But I laughed at her face as I threw one of my knives in front of her, "Wanna die? Why don't you do it yourself?"

"...!"

"I've killed a lot of people but I don't do it by whim, it's either complicatedly calculated that they needed to die or in most cases, self-defense. If you want to die so much, you can do it yourself or to take an example in my book, grab that knife and try to kill me for real, I'll give you the honors and lop your head cleanly… The same goes for all of you actually, fuck around and find out."

'Or talk… Like what I've been saying multiple times…'

At that moment, there was an unbelievable tension in the air as the three dudes looked like they were deciding to take the plunge and take me out to at least have some form of revenge but the nicknames I gave them would be the ones etched on their gravestones if they actually acted upon it.

However, the person with whom I intended to use the knife just stared at it before bawling even more, not knowing what to do in this situation.

There were a lot of people who told me to end them or they wanted to end themselves but 99% of the time, it was just something they said out of emotion while the 1% wouldn't even tell me stuff and simply handled it on their own.

But yeah, it seemed like Dicksucker or Dum-Dum wouldn't be their spokesperson because Shirley picked the knife up and handed it back to me gently:

"Sir… There's no need for this… We do apologize for the earlier offense and we'll gladly take punishment for it but with all due respect… I-I'm asking f-for a little bit of understanding for Tania's c-compromised position… I-If you'd just g-give me five minutes, w-we'll m-meet up with you over the gazebo in the gardens with some tea and b-biscuits… I-I'll guarantee that it w-won't be poisoned in a-any way a-and we'll be more presentable…"

With that said, she looked sincere and surprisingly enough, firm on her stance, for the most part, and since all they've done at this point was look at me and not look at me while I lobbed a stun grenade at them and put their psyche in unbelievable pressure, I gave them a short break.

"T-THANK YOU, SIR! W-WE WON'T TAKE LONG!"

"I'll be keeping track," then I turned to Rosie and Terry, "I'm sorry, but, where's the gazebo again?"

As I said that, Rosie was still in shock while Terry couldn't contain himself:

"R-Right this way, brother! Follow me! Everyone too! Please! Right this way!"

In any case, as we followed after Terry who was basically skipping away, I slowed down to let Rosie keep up because it seemed like she was still enduring the pain from the branding on her ankle she received last time. She did look apologetic when she realized I was deliberately slowing down for her but she made it easy for me when she offered me one of the things I came for:

"My dear guest, I know the Rivas Family had a greater variety of flowers compared to mine but would you care for a flower from my collection for your wife? She did save me from the explosion…"

'That's… I'll just roll with it…'

I chuckled, "A flower for saving your life? Isn't that a bit—"

She suddenly looked flustered, "A-Apologies… What I mean to say is that I'll gladly show you my collection and whatever the lady touches, it'll be hers. I do have unique ones I spliced myself but there are ones I also dyed—but if you're considering ones that you could admire for longer, there are ones we encased in resin…"

Then I went for the kill:

"Oh? Can I have a bouquet of Juliet Roses?"