Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Hearing that, I looked for Kaley and told her I'd be away for a while and she gave me a quick peck on my cheek as Jennifer and I made my way to where the Admiral and the others were. They obviously made the ATC room our strategic room of sorts, but I discovered that not only Mitch was present with the few other higher-ranked officers but also Bartow.

To my surprise, it was because the two were being promoted, Mitch to Captain and Bartow to First Lieutenant—alongside others who had gone a rank or two as well for staying behind and holding the fort.

'He looks like he recovered fast…'

The hardass actually gave me a mocking glance when walking back to his seat while holding his new rank given to him, but it kinda lost meaning when everyone was getting promoted left and right.

In any case, I do respect the ranks people were in but since I was in a special unit, my name and unofficial title carried the weight instead—and it applies to all the different groups I've interacted with.

But yeah, when my turn came, I received more than a handshake and a new patch to sew onto my uniform, and it involved a Chinook, a US drone, and a five-man unit that should only answer to me and me alone.

However, those rewards were contingent on keeping Ella safe and other fatherly things that Ella wasn't amused about and requiring me to give a weekly report on everything that was going on concerning this place and his people.

In essence, it still felt like I was given a babysitting job instead of those incentives—with Ella being the actual recipient of those rewards—but with my current relationship with Ella, I'm pretty sure she doesn't give a fucking damn about those rewards and simply wanted to be her own self and do her own thing.

'It's not like a fashion designer had a use for those things so yeah…'

"Look, these promotions may have been more special or significant if you received them before the world was taken over by the dead—and if you did something that warranted it—and it might look like we were handing them away like it's nothing but do know it is THAT special and significant to receive them.

I may sound a little contradictory right now because I became Admiral after a lot of us were lost—and since I had to fill bigger shoes—but it was for the same reason that it holds that much weight…"

"..."

"The sacrifice our brothers made for us to get to this point should not be wasted on useless thought that this was simply for a morale boost or something along those lines but back to the very reason we filled up that sign-up sheet to wear these very colors. And I'm gonna be perfectly honest, the benefits are quite good if I say so myself—but aren't we supposed to get that much or even more?!

Of course, we are! We're serving our country goddammit and those fucks out there are preventing us from doing and receiving what we're supposed to!"

'This speech took a turn…'

"And again, I'm just being perfectly honest to all of you… I could be that rousing or patriotic to lit a fire in all of your asses but there's a limit to what it could do. Believe me, I've done that plenty of times initially—it does work but not at this time… And I specifically chose not to do it.

But what I'm trying to say is… we can say fuck it to everything that's going on around us and move on with the world but that shouldn't stop us from doing what's right and fighting for what our family, friends, and especially, what we, ourselves, deserve."

"..."

"I may have a few TV Dinners rotting in my trash can at my probably looted home but I chose it to get like that—not those things that forced us away from it! If something's going to rot at my house, it'll be to my own choosing, not to whoever that fuck's responsible for this shit! Am I right?! It should be on OUR terms, not theirs! Pfft… Dammit, I'm not really good at this public speaking, huh?"

At this point, a few chuckles and snickers were happening as the Admiral began laughing himself, but yeah, his actual thoughts seemed to have gotten across to everyone else and I preferred it more to baseless gusto and shouting empty promises.

Words were just words in the end but being genuine while delivering it could carry something intangible that could benefit the person hearing it.

With that said, they resumed our talks by reconfirming their plans of departure at 4 AM and their route to the state of Washington. To be honest, I didn't think that half of us were needed in this meeting but I, for one, wanted to hear their plans before hitting the hay.

It was then that I discovered that an even larger number of their evacuees were residing in Hawaii—but yeah, it was pretty obvious to choose an even closer archipelago than ours before going someplace else to unload their people.

However, my eyes and ears definitely perked up when I heard about Kadena Air Base, which was a US Air Force Base located in the City of Okinawa, in the Okinawan Prefecture, and even though it was miles away from where my other family resides, it was good to know that they were doing their own part in tandem with the JSDF.

It's just that the Admiral had no plans of sending a detachment over there or even dropping by to see what's up like they did with us any time soon, but let's just say that the first chance I get while everyone and everything here in my place could be left alone, I'd take the first ship, plane, or whatever method it was to finally reunite with them.

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