Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

After a short bit, we three eventually finished and cleaned up before we decided to make some breakfast—food, for everyone. I didn\'t even know what time it was because my watch was in the pile of clothes we left on the floor and yeah, we were just wearing aprons on top of our naked bodies.

With that said, I noticed that Edith was actually adept at cooking and she led Kaley and me to prepare an energizing and filling meal.

Edith commented, "Your knife work is insane! How did you learn to do that?"

"I dabble a bit but I guess a bit of kenjutsu translates to knife work."

"Huh?"

"Oh, right. It\'s just an umbrella term for swordsmanship in Japan. But yeah, it\'s actually easier to cut down humans than to—wait, I haven\'t even thought of how to properly butcher a person when—"

Kaley cut me off, "Can you stop thinking like that while we\'re preparing food?!"

Edith followed, "That… that\'s actually scary…"

I scratched the back of my head, "Right… sorry…"

Then we heard a voice from behind.

"Nothing like some good food first thing in the morning~ Need some help? Tasting, I mean…"

Kaley chuckled, "Is it even still morning, Tatiana?"

"Oh. Right, it\'s probably noon or something…"

One by one, everyone else woke up and followed the smell of food though we strictly made them take a shower first to clean themselves. However, some of them couldn\'t help but "revisit" what we did earlier as they had a quick one with themselves in the bathroom.

With that said, once everyone was ready, we ate at the same time and their eyes just lit up once their tongues had a taste of Edith\'s cooking.

"Wow! This is good!"

"You cooked this, right? Cook for me again when you go to my place."

"Actually, that\'s all Edith—"

"Wait! No! Everyone helped! I\'m a little clumsy so all I had to do was—"

"Hah! Still can\'t accept a compliment, huh?"

"Well… Is it really good?"

"Yep, you\'ll make a great housewife—"

"HOUSEWIFE?!"

"Hey! W-What about me?! I did good, right?! Don\'t lie, alright?! I\'ll know!"

"Oof! Jealousy this early in the morning?"

"Again, isn\'t it noon or something already?"

"Hahahaha!"

"Where\'d my crispy bacon go? You! Food thief!"

"You weren\'t eating it! I thought you hated it!"

"I WAS SAVING IT FOR LATER!"

"T-There\'s more in the oven! D-Don\'t fight!"

"The ones in the oven? I already ate them…"

"TATIANA!"

"What? No one was touching them…"

"I swear to fucking god, I\'ll stuff with all the dildos I could get my hands on—"

"Hey! Don\'t talk like that while we\'re eating!"

"Says the one who could fit several at the same time!"

"Jokes on you I\'m still tight as fuck! I can probably skin a dick if I clamp hard enough—"

"GUYS! PLEASE! WE\'RE EATING!"

"Right, sorry—"

"Speaking about dicks, can we go again? You were pretty tired yesterday and I still—"

"CAN WE STOP TALKING ABOUT DICKS WHILE I\'M EATING THIS FUCKING SAUSAGE?!"

"Eat a dick, Rox!"

"Did you just—"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"That was actually on point, I\'m impressed…"

"I give up…"

Long story short, brunch was pure chaos but I did spend some alone time with Kaley while the rest had already said their goodbyes. While we\'re still here, some of us still had responsibilities in this place and it didn\'t take long before I received a summoning. I thought it wouldn\'t be held until the next day but I guess we were doing it now.

There was a single telephone by the kitchen and it rang the moment Kaley and I were ready to head out and check on everybody.

[Hermano. 15 minutes. You can use your access card to get to floor C-2. You can wait by the lobby and—]

"Can I bring Kaley?"

[What? Why?]

Kaley was giving me a look of concern but I gave her a knowing look before she nodded solemnly, "Is Benjie coming?"

[Yeah…]

"Elsa?"

[Uh-huh… Quinn too. That reminds me… you\'re with her, right?]

"I\'m not her mom, no. I don\'t know where she is now. Is Mr. Alvarez\'s right hand also coming?"

[Alright, kid. I get it. You can bring her, I see no problem.]

"Heh, see you soon."

[Yeah…]

Like a decent human being, Kaley and I went down to Floor C-2 10 minutes before the appointed time. However, we were the only ones there though a bit of refreshments were on the small table by this other door. I thought we\'d actually have the meeting on Mr. Cuervo\'s personal floor but I guess he had made some recent renovations.

*10 minutes later*

"Are we on the right floor?"

"Maybe everyone\'s running a little late…"

*15 minutes later*

"Yep… we\'re in C-2… checked the floor number thrice…"

"Uh-huh…"

*20 minutes later*

"Shouldn\'t we check-in and see if we\'re—"

"I\'m gonna give them a nice~ talking to once they all arrive here…"

And like fucking clockwork, we finally heard a soft ding before the elevator door opened up. I had already written a fucking speech to reprimand everyone from being late but I stopped in my tracks when I saw Benjie\'s ugly mug.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Benjie was the first one to crack, "Edgelord, no one\'s here yet?"

"Edgelord?"

"You\'re not the only one who could give fucking nicknames."

"Fair. We\'ve been here a while. So, to answer your question—"

"Fucking pieces of shit, EVERYONE\'S ALWAYS FUCKING LATE AND I ACCOUNTED FOR THEIR LATENESS! HOW CAN THEY FUCKING DO THIS EVERY FUCKING TIME!"

I actually thought that Benjie would fucking trash the whole lobby but he just sat on the farthest stool and just grumbled to himself. For a moment, I thought he was putting a curse on everyone who was fucking late but our attention was directed to the soft ding of the elevator.

It only took a short moment before we saw Mr. Alvarez walk out of the elevator—with his personal bodyguard—but he gave me, Kaley, and Benjie one look before pinching his glabella and sighing heavily.

"I guess we\'re early this time, we\'ll come back later—"

"Wait a fucking minute! Where the fuck\'s everyone?! We\'ve been here for almost an hour!"

Mr. Alvarez let out a chuckle, "Hah! First time?"

"You can\'t be serious…"

Benjie grumbled from the furthest part of the room, "Everyone\'s fucking late and if I leave, I get chastised… Fucking pieces of shit, handing out summons and being fucking late those fucking…"

Mr. Alvarez scratched the side of his cheek, "That kid\'s got a point. Don\'t worry, they\'ll all be here soon. I actually thought we\'ll hold this tomorrow but I got the call from my drinking buddy, so here we are! People here can\'t adjust that fast to change in plans, it\'s pitiful! Pitiful, I tell ya!"

"There should be a rule or something to shave the mustache or leave a bald spot in someone\'s head when they\'re fucking late…"

"Hah! That reminds me, how many gold coins do you have in total? You can totally make that rule if it passes!"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously! It\'s just too stupid of a rule to pass but I guess it could do wonders if it\'s implemented, no?"

"But… how does that work?"

"The what?"

"Passing rules? Honestly, no one has briefed me on all of their usages."

"Ah. I see, I see. Hmm~ It has been a while since we got a fresh new head but if we\'re talking about passing absolute rules… our whole organization could pass up to ten in total. We follow them to the dot but it gets expensive depending on the situation."

"Can you give an example?"

"Hmmrghmm~ I\'ll give the easiest one. You remember the number 1 rule here?"

"No killing while inside the premises?"

"That\'s the one. If you want to abolish that and replace it with another— Hmm, can you give a guess as to how much it would cost? Just for fun?"

"Hmm, 10,000 coins or something?"

"Hah! How about a million!"

"A million? Seriously?! How many coins do you have to win to get to that point?"

"Heh. Don\'t forget our guy\'s the one who introduced that system way, way~ before we grew to this size. So, he got that first rule for free. And since everyone was in agreement to that rule, each head supported it and decided on that value. Cool, huh?"

"Is anyone even close to a million coins?"

"Hah! No one\'s even close to 10,000, kid. Think of it as displaying something like an~ umm… a diamond-studded rolex in a shop but your shop is in the slums. You could definitely try to buy it if you have the cash but you\'ll soon find out that it\'s actually not for sale."

"I don\'t understand."

"If someone wanted to overwrite a rule, other heads could also oppose it. Let\'s say, I wanted to abolish the don\'t mess with my car rule for 1,000 coins, someone or a collective could match it or give more to the house to keep it instead, further increasing the amount of coins to try and rewrite it."

"I see… Wait, is that rule real or is that just an example?"

"What? That\'s the first rule I put down! No one\'s fucking touching Eleanor!"