Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd In The Apocalypse!

Chapter 1205: The Five Stooges - Hell Week.

At that point, it didn't take long before I gathered a small crowd in my home gym, and the five stooges—temporary title, of course—came in looking concerned about what I called them out here for.

It didn't come as much of a surprise but their fifth man—I mean, their fifth woman was surnamed Williams, but she surprised me with the puffy curly afro she was hiding under her helmet when she took it off.

'Looking closely, we're all around the same age too, except for Brownie and Hooper, they're probably older than me... Maybe not, we'll see.'

She had the same African-American persuasion as Royo from the surface but her gray eyes—almost the same color as Artem's—told me she was mixed blood just like me and a few others.

In any case, I shooed the crowd away because this group had enough of getting reprimanded with an audience. They seemed to have appreciated the thought but I then introduced myself like I would with any other group—especially around the same age as I am.

"'Sup?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

I pretended to call Captain Davis on my radio, "Yo, Captain Davis, these five-man group protecting Ella's not flying well with me, can I send them back—"

Lee instantly cut in, "W-What's up, sir?"

I put down my radio and smiled, "Alright, Lee, you're in charge of this group now—"

Tennyson, the most regular looking one cut in, "S-Sir, with all due respect, I'm leading—"

"Doesn't look like it, no?"

"That's... I was just being respectful of authority—"

"You say that but you let Brownie do his shit to me and Lee to speak for all of you? Where's the leadership in that?"

"That's—"

"How far's that from my compound?"

"Umm—"

"How many houses in between and how many people, soldiers, checkpoints, steps, drones, cameras, and guns you'd have to go through before you can "escape"? Hmm? Can you even get past the catwalk and my huge-ass gate with Ella struggling from your grasp? Can you even outgun my people? Can you shoot kids? Trust me, they'll shoot you.

I trained them, they just don't look like it."

Everyone didn't know how to react to that not-so-obvious lie.

'Or is it?'

"That's..."

I chuckled, "That's not even the most important thing you missed. All that posturing is just gonna get you all hated by my people, or if you're in another place, get you killed. So first off, I'd like it if you wear casual clothes and conceal carry then apologize to my people and Ella right after.

I'm sorry I'm this rough on you because I thought you were the real deal but I guess I'd lump you in with my trainees/cadets— Hmm... What if we do that, huh?"

Lee replied, "Do what?"

I smiled from ear to ear, "Hell Week."

'Maybe even Hell Month... Eheheh...'

"W-What's that?"

"Something I just made up from saying I'd lump you in with JP and Marvin's group so yeah... Basically, we'd lump you in the same group without any official rank and the top-scoring bitch-ass is gonna be the Baron."

"Baron?"

"It's something the military does here for the cadets and you'll participate in it. And trust me, you're gonna hate me, Tatiana, Oscar, Johnny, and everyone else that'd be putting you through hell. I guess I'll make the Deweys join in as well but I'm expecting a lot from you five. We'll start— no, I won't tell you when we'll start but when we do, you'll definitely know it.

Complaints we'll receive will just grant you more punishments, ya dig?"

With that said, I eventually dismissed the five—surprised I didn't give them a beating—and they did come back wearing casual clothes and slightly concealing their sidearms, apologizing to everyone and hovering around Ella less and less.

But yeah, Rin came back looking for me:

"I'm sorry, but we still have more we'd need to take of..."