Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

As the three turned to each other, Ms. Ng was the one who first looked at me and gave a reply:

"Very well, it's only proper for us to give you a general idea of the territories we occupy but do understand that even if we're in a would-be alliance, we can't just divulge everything. However, do know that we'll give our word that what we're telling you after this will be the absolute truth. Is that acceptable?"

On that note, not to copy what they did— no, we totally fucking did, the four of us looked at each other for a moment before I replied:

"Very acceptable."

"Then—"

"But do know our 'generous-ness' would greatly vary from the solid information we'd get."

Mr. Guzman asked, "What does that mean?"

"I'll tell you straight. We were generous enough to give this place a solid top-up and a mutually beneficial partnership that hopefully lasts a lifetime, but do know that as much as we love a harmonious relationship with our neighbors, it should be a give-and-take relationship, no?"

"We do understand that—"

"Then again, we'll give you some stuff we have in excess but we're wondering how we could mutually benefit each other. With this place, it's plenty obvious that having people in the medical field is indispensable—and don't get me wrong, a pair of hands is a pair of hands but what I'm asking is if you'd have anything else that might sweeten the deal for ya?"

"We…" Mr. Guzman paused for a moment before he turned to Ms. Ng, "Should we?"

Ms. Ng glanced at me before she took a few seconds to ponder while looking straight at the coffee table, "I… Hmm…" And after a few more seconds, she turned to me with a regretful smile as she opened her mouth:

"Unfortunately, don't take this as an offense and us a little mistrusting of your desire to obtain more valuable information from us— but as you've established yourselves as people, decent people, who had no ill intentions towards us or any other group who'd be willing to sit down and talk like civilized men and women, please do understand our intent to withhold such information to ourselves… as of this moment currently."

I let out a smile: Continue reading at m|v-l'e -.net

"So you're saying what you're keeping between yourselves is that important we need to show our hands first? Is that it?"

"That's..."

"That's what it sounded to me, no offense."

"I— N-None taken…"

"None taken as well. And it should be a given, honestly. We're the new kids on the block, you should be that careful in revealing sensitive information about yourselves. Besides all you know about us is that we're generous people and had control of three major spots in this area."

"..."

"Look, one of the reasons you might be wary of us is that there are other people who braved the waters just to get to this little archipelago of ours. And for some reason, whatever bullshit they spouted planted something in anyone who heard them speak so now, people like you guys are deathly afraid of us.

Then again, we ARE dangerous and we HAVE the means to deal with a few hundred or even a thousand people in less than an hour—fuck it, a minute, if we so wanted but we didn't. Aren't we here to hash things out and talk like civilized folk?"

"..."

"But yeah, you're very welcome to keep your secrets because we all have them but do be careful when you hear random shit about people you never met. It can be true and it can be false but what's important is getting it right by getting all the facts straight. And by some chance you come across those people, do give us a call and we'll take care of them.

We don't need people who sow discord just for a night's rest, a hot meal, or whatever the fuck they requested for a 'friendly' warning…"

Mr. Blanco glanced at the two before he exhaled with a smile:

"I dunno about you two but we should tell them. We've been in close contact with this place for years and if they vouch for them, that's good enough for me." ṝ₳NỐ𐌱Εs̩

"..."

"..."

"Tell us what?"

From then on, Mr. Guzman and Ms. Ng looked at each other for a moment before they both let out a sigh. After that, Ms. Ng turned to me once again with a difficult expression:

"There's this… There's this group we have in contact with further south, in the municipality of Morong. A few days in between the arrival of the ships in the Marine Base, we've received word that they just took in a group of mixed foreigners speaking about the horrors they faced and the warning we should all heed."

Oscar rolled his eyes, "So you fucks just believed them just like that?"

Ms. Ng shook her head, "It's not like we believe everything we hear but that group's just as tight-knit as ours and they have no reason to lie to us. In addition, not everyone from that fishing vessel survived and only a few were lucky enough to live past the malnourishment, injuries, and whatnot but who just pops out of nowhere to say those things in their dying breaths?"

I nodded, "There's merit in that logic, sure, but that's why we're also trying to clear from our side. It's not like the US Navy were the only ones who took to the waters because the dead can't fucking swim, no?

In addition, what I wanted to accomplish is to have a recorded statement from all these people trying to smear dirt in our name— because I'm not sure if you know but there are other groups who made it into our soil but chose to dock somewhere else. They could be talking about another group entirely and we just took the blame because we're the most eye-catching."

"We're… We're not aware of that…"

I continued, "In any case, we'd like to ask for that same favor because if you have contact with more people further south or further north—anywhere along the coast, honestly—we'd like to know what were the exact descriptions of the people or the ship or vessels that did those things to them.

Because in a few days, the Admiral will go back to the US with a portion of their group and they could easily take care of them with their weapons. We just needed to know where should we direct their cannons, metaphorically speaking."

Oscar added, "Because honestly speaking, if WE were the ones who did it, there'd be no survivors. They'd all be sunk into the bottom of the ocean and there'd be no chance in hell they'd be able to safely dock somewhere else. It's a conspiracy against us if anything. Why'd they have to spread around? So we can't track them with our fighter jets? Please."

"That's… Alright, we'll get into contact with our allies and we'll inform you of what we uncover. Is there anything else?"

At that point, it looked like a huge rock was taken off their boots as they were able to converse more freely but yeah, their living situation was the same as everyone else that was surviving currently.

And with how we dealt with the most populated area of this region, we basically saved them a ton of bullets and solved a lot of their problems because their focus would fall on rebuilding and making connections with more people or further solidifying them.

And to my fucking surprise, they had some unconventional protein source that they've been taking advantage of—which was totally not human meat, by the way—and let's just say that it came from the zoo only a few miles south of their main base location.

Quinn exclaimed, "Crocodiles?!"

I chuckled, "You haven't had them yet?"

"Only alligators."

I chuckled, "Tastes the same, honestly. Leaner meat too, I might add…"

Tatiana turned to Mr. Blanco with a sparkle in her eye, "W-What else do you have in stock?!"

Mr. Blanco scratched the back of his head as he looked down then back at us, "Of course… We also had alligators, ostriches, frogs, possums, kangaroos, the list goes on… The caretakers of the zoo did try to keep them alive as much as possible but we're now only left with ostriches, crocs, and frogs because those were the only ones that caretaker could confidently, you know, take care of."

Mr. Guzman chuckled, completely surprised about our reactions, "We did capture a few pheasants and some quail for their eggs but crocodile eggs are too weird for me, texture-wise."

As this was happening, I failed to notice the eerie smile Mrs. Dewey was wearing and we realized too late when Mr. Dewey cleared his throat to bring attention to it. But yeah, it seemed like they were trading way back then and they didn't know the kind of meat they were receiving in exchange.

I chuckled, "Oh, you guys are fucked."

Mrs. Dewey turned to her daughter's prospective husband, "Care to explain more?"

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