Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Hearing that, I thought I'd literally meet my so-called "Maker" but I found out that this Jesus dude was the guy they'd send out for scouting missions or extended expeditions. He had a team of his own to help him and he'd just pop up here and there once or twice a month if he needed to take a break.

Quinn added, "He's basically a Nomad. He'd prefer the outside but he drops by—like what he's doing now."

"I see. When is he arriving though?"

"Dave said he called this morning. He'd probably arrive later this night or tomorrow morning— Hold up, come with me. I need to show you something."

"Hmm?"

"Just follow me! Don't ask too much questions!"

At this point, Quinn led what was left of us to the biggest building in this industrial park which coincidentally was one of the two buildings that still had power and was also where Mauro's room/office was located.

It had four floors and two basements in total—looking like a fortress on its own—but there was this corner where several finished vehicles were lined up like in a car show.

"We're going to that area."

"To?"

"Shut up and you'll see! C'mon, slowpokes! Walk faster!"

"..."

Ignoring how catty Quinn was being at this moment, she never looked so excited to show us their collection of vehicles that they managed to put their own branding on. Granted some of them had her own style: almost close to the original, there were two particular vehicles that were covered by a dusty cloth.

From my perspective, I could see an outline of a muscle car and a tuner but before I could even figure them out, Quinn beat me to it by pulling off the cloth and accidentally giving everyone a coughing fit.

"FUCK! KAH— *cough* *cough* SHIT! MY BAD! MY BAD!"

"Holy Moly~"

Despite all that, I had the shock of my life when I saw a silver '70s Dodge Charger R/T and a black Subaru Impreza WRX STI that looked like they haven't been used for quite a while.

Seeing them in their unique state felt like visiting an old vacation home that collected dust but I didn't even as I approached them and ran my hands on each of them. But funnily enough, Kaley and the rest thought I would touch the muscle car more but I almost tried to break into the tuner car.

"They aren't locked, you FUCKING DUMBASS! PUT THAT CROWBAR— WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THAT?!"

"Ah…"

Kaley mumbled from the side, "Whew, at least it's not a helicopter…"

Quinn suddenly turned to her, "A what?"

Tatiana chuckled, "Oof, don't remind me of that— And~ He's already inside…"

As they tried to initiate another conversation, I easily found the keys in the glovebox and I didn't bother to ask Quinn if I could start it or not. Because if she wanted me to show these cars, she would obviously allow me to play around with them. However, she quickly made her way to the driver's side window and leaned over with a confused expression.

"I thought you'd go for the Charger? What gives?"

"I like this one more? I'm like a Twinkie sometimes but this car's special to me."

"A Twinkie?"

"Yellow on the outside, white on the inside?"

"You—"

"C'mon! At least let me run a few donuts outside! I'd even let you ride shotgun! How much do you weigh again? Around two hundred and—"

"L-Let's stop there!"

Isaac interjected, "I'll ride shotgun!"

Tatiana chuckled-scoffed, "Trust me, you can't."

Jose walked over to the back, "I think I can do it? Why don't we boys have some fun for once?"

Kaley eerily chuckled from the side, "Hah! Have fun~"

"Why is she doing that? I heard you can fucking drive but why is she smiling like that? I—"

Before he could utter another word, the girls just pushed his ass inside the car with Isaac, and I locked all of the doors and windows before I launched us out of the building. The whole area had a huge space for any car to run wild but I imagined an outline in my head—putting it over the large open space—making it look like I was driving on a complicated drift track.

With that said, this car would need a lot more work from the driver for it to be able to be drifted but I had an inkling that its internals had more work done compared to the outside.

Like Quinn's "stock" car, this one, much like the other one I was driving probably had more performance upgrades than their outward appearance, and scratch the word probably, it had more things done on the inside than on the outside because I can feel how much I could push it right from the first corner. However, I had already forgotten that I had a couple of passengers and surprisingly enough, I didn't think that Isaac would be the one left conscious.

"HAHAHA~!!! THIS IS SO FUCKING LIT— HOW CAN YOU FUCKING DO THIS?! GO THERE! GO THERE! GO THERE!"

Jose had already passed out when I lightly tapped this blue container—to realign it with its friends—with the rear bumper and looked like I almost crashed into several cars when I weaved through the parking area at full speed.

He was screaming at the top of his lungs a few seconds earlier and it was just cut off in the middle as he got continuously rag-dolled at the back.

Things were fun after a couple more turns but I had to look at the rear-view mirror twice when I saw an old-ass station wagon following behind me. It looked to be a Benz Station Wagon from the '70s or '80s but the amount of parts that were switched out of it had me confused. However, the driver behind it was fucking god-like to keep up with me so I had to look at Isaac and give him a few words:

"You better put your seatbelt on…"

"What?"

"Grab on that handle too—"

"Why— AHHHHHHHHHHHH~!!!"

Before Isaac let out the blood-curdling scream that woke up Jose and instantly made him pass out in the same second, I let out a short exhale to figure out who was this fucking driver that could keep up with me. I'm not a drift king per se but the motherfucker was going parallel with me and withdrawing at the right moments. The dude was sticking right behind me like a fucking parasite—only deviating from copying me when the space I went in was too tight—not allowing him to go parallel with me when we were drifting side to side.

I wanted to test him a little bit more but I wanted to see for myself who the fuck was this driver that they were hiding all this time.

After a few more turns, I drove back to the building we came from and parked in front of it—the same car still copying what I was doing.

However, right as I stepped out of my vehicle, the guy in the station wagon straight-up jumped at me and was bawling his fucking eyes out.

'Jesus fucking christ, it's really him—'

"JACKIEEEEEE~!!!"

I'm gonna be fucking honest, it was already too much of a fucking coincidence to have the Number 7 guy be named Jesus, but almost looking like the same person—except for the clothes—was fucking uncanny. But yeah, the muscles helped me differentiate him between the two.

I tried to get him off of me, "Dude! Stop! I'm not Jackie! I'm not—"

Then realization struck for the dumbass, "Wha— You're— GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO JUMPED ON ME!"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE JACKIE!"

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU I WASN'T! AND WASN'T HE… You know, not here anymore?"

As soon as I said that, the fucking messiah broke down crying once again though another person stepped out of his station wagon.

It was a woman who actually looked "normal" for lack of a better term but she still looked fitter than 90% of the population before the world ended.

I already prepared myself to get jumped on but the woman who came out just looked at me like she had seen a ghost. And after that, she took a long hard look at the car I just drove and there was a tinge of sadness in her expression.

The silence was starting to become unbearable for a short moment so I had to ask the question.

"This… This car… Was it Jackie's perchance?"

The two just nodded in place before Quinn and the others came up to us.

"Welcome back, Jes'. Got you excited for a bit, huh?"

Jesus instantly got up, "QUINN! WHO'S THIS GUY?! WHY IS HE DRIVING JACKIE'S RIDE?! WHY DOES HE DRIVE LIKE HIM TOO?! IS HE SINGLE?! WHY ARE YOU HERE?! YOU SAID—"

"ONE AT A TIME, JES'! ONE AT A FUCKING TIME!"

"Right. Is he single though—"

"THAT'S NOT THE FUCKING QUESTION YOU SHOULD BE ASKING RIGHT NOW!"