Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Alexa coming out of my gym like a panda while Isaac coming out of my gym like he had a colonoscopy—both saying not a word of what happened—just confused the people that were left for Phase 3. However, it didn't take long before one of the eager ones decided to knock before I even had the chance to call another participant.

"Ah— Come in?"

Then Chris' head popped out:

"Bro! I— Am I really in Hell Week or not?! I— I did everything you asked! I—"

"Come in, come in. Let's have a nice talk, Chris."

"Uh— O-Okay?"

"Sit down in front of me…"

"Sure…"

In any case, Chris did as he was told and made his way towards me—and as he sat down, he was looking all over, and seemed to be looking for something in particular before our eyes met. And as soon as that happened, he was just staring right at my face, waiting for me to open my mouth.

"Ah— I'm okay, I guess?"

"You mad you weren't included in Phase 1 and 2?"

"Kind of… Yeah, not mad per se but—"

"You and Charlotte are turning 18 next year, right?"

"Huh— Y-Yeah, we are… Why do you ask?"

I let out a smile, "Not to invalidate everything you two had gone through ever since it started and not to use your age as a reason for excluding you from most of our activities during Hell Weel but yeah, I kind of am."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Like Lois and Olivia, we're not forcing you to be adults but you could work your way towards it—like what you and Charlotte are doing right now—but yeah, enjoying the little things in life is important too. It's one of the rules, you know?"

He chuckled, "Zombieland, again? I mean, it is a nice movie and I follow some of them but I don't feel forced to participate you know?"

"Because you aren't."

"I understand that, bro, but it's a matter of wanting to actually do it. Everyone here mostly treats me like a kid while the actual kids treat me like an adult. I'm caught in between these weird age ranges and I'm losing track of how to interact with people…"

"Same."

"Same— Hah? Same? You?!"

"That's just part of life. It happens to everyone though there might be differences depending on their social circles and friend groups. Just ride the wave however you want and don't rush it. It'll surprise you how fast it would go by you even though you feel like it's so fucking slow."

"Oh… I guess— I guess I'll take your word for it… It does feel really slow though… A-Anyway, I'm not one to complain but training feels like a drag right now… I just wanna experience something new to keep it a little more fresh, you know?"

"Really? I thought you incorporated other disciplines in your style besides boxing?"

"I am, I am… What I'm having a harder time with is fighting with people like Brian. I do get it's different outside competition rules but when I try to perform illegal moves, I still have this thing inside my head preventing me from doing so. And if I see other people use it on me? I get more and more pissed and it messes with my rhythm."

"Just means you're one of those lawful good paladins that could never do wrong."

"Are we talking about D&D?"

"Yep. And you better listen. People say it's a boring archetype since they're just plain annoying and have no flaws but upholding the law or what they think is good is a flaw in itself. I'm not telling you to act like Brian—and I could already give props to you because you're trying to go out of your comfort zone, but yeah, what makes or breaks it sometimes are your own beliefs."

"I-I don't get what that means exactly…"

"I mean, you could free yourself with the restraints you put on yourself to reach greater heights or keep them in to achieve the same thing. Different people work in different ways. It's what moves you in the end. You could try different positions to cum or just stay in fucking missionary for two hours if that's your jam."

"Ah— That's—"

"Oops. My bad, I was just giving more examples so you could get it…"

"I think I got it at the last part…"

"You fucking perv, that's what gets you going, huh?"

"N-No! It's— C-Can we talk about something else?"

"Like what?"

"Like… W-What's the purpose of P-Phase 1 and Phase 2?"

"Ah~ Something along the lines of making them experience something near-death so their body triggers their flight-or-fight response to certain situations. I wanted to reach this certain sweet spot with everyone else so they would have the ability to call upon it wheneve they want."

"Ohh~ Like the off and on thing you always do?"

"Exactly."

"I guess that's one of the reasons why you excluded me, huh?"

I nodded, "Kind of. You're a pretty chill guy and I rarely saw you get mad—only when your beliefs or the things you stand for are challenged, though that's a good thing in itself. You have the urge to put them in their place but not to actually kill them to achieve your goal.

It's more akin to letting them know the consequences of their actions while still having the possibility to learn from it and change."

"Huh… I— I don't even know that part but I kind of agree with that…"

"In any case, the thing that I could do also stems from my beliefs and what I really wanted to do with it but unfortunately, it was always driven by negative shit—mostly the intent to kill. Boxers had a toned-down version of it that could come as a crutch for feints but it's paired with physical actions to further give this image of throwing out a phantom punch a certain way."

"Ohh… Like with slightly moving my shoulder or even slightly bobbing my head to overload?"

"Something like that but I just do my thing while staring at you sometimes, right?"

"R-Right… Shit's still frightening… Ahaha…"

"Still, this is just my way of doing things and it might not work for you so this might sound really cringe but you're always welcome to forge your own path. You know, like everyone does.

I'm only doing this to have people similar to me get a slight leg-up and have the people unlike me just have something a little less out of it but yeah, they're welcome to find their own way too even if they're compatible with my methods."

In any case, Chris asked more questions about this ability of mine while I answered to the best of my… you know, ability. Still, even if I doubt Chris would be one of the people to pull it off, he still tried to take in the knowledge I accrued and it'd be up to him as to what he'd do with it.

However, it didn't take long before I went through everyone else except for Tennyson and JP.

My conversation with Seb and Jeremy pretty much went like what I had with Marvin while my conversation with Megan and Cindy was a mix of Nia and Alexa's.

In the grand scheme of things, the Deweys weren't exactly part of the people under my command like the Black Sheeps, the Death Squad, or the people from the Academy—and the other reason I'm prefacing this sentence this way was because the other reason for Phase 3 aside from getting to know all of them a little more was to consolidate the group into one and have them be led by a leader and a vice leader.

Despite me dismissing Tennyson the first time we met to shed light to Lee, he stepped up and took control of his position while Lee simply let things happen before her eyes—and mainly kept invisible—so I pegged him to a leadership post along with JP who had been the same ever since it all fucking started.

While it was true that Marvin—or even Seb—should be in the sub-leader post, I have another task for these two while I have to figure out who to give the more active role between JP and Tennyson.

So yeah, instead of calling them one after the other, I called them both at the same time and JP was the first one to walk in my domicile. Surely enough, Tennyson walked in right after—but really, that didn't mean much in my book though for some people, they take it as JP leading this group already.

'While it's true JP ticks more boxes and I may have already chosen him to lead this group, I wanted to see if Tennyson could also be the leader or if my thoughts were right, the perfect vice leader to lead such a group after much consideration…'

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!