Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Chapter 1087: Meet-ups - The Marine Base II

As we were let inside, I was expecting an evacuation center type of situation where random civilians had these little enclosures of their own while a couple of soldiers were maintaining peace and whatnot but it looked more like a call center division that spontaneously dressed up as soldiers.

The whole fucking space was set up with different communication devices and one part of it had this huge-ass map of the USA right next to other maps of countries like the Philippines for example.

It was obvious that we were welcomed very differently compared to the Main Harbor—because they were all down on their noses, busy to whatever it was they were trying to do—but we kept following the footsteps of this young private until we reached a pitched-up tent inside this hanger for privacy's purposes.

The dude stopped by the entrance and beckoned us to come in without going inside:

"Please."

However, as everyone else from my group was about to follow, the dude stopped them with a difficult expression:

"Umm— Sir Ishiyama, you can only bring up to two people inside with you—"

I cut in, "Shouldn't you have told me that before you made everyone follow after you?"

"U-Umm— A-Apologies… I d-didn't think that they'd all follow—"

Quinn quipped from the side, "For a place that had all of this shit to communicate, you're having a hard time doing it, huh?"

"A-Again… Apologies…"

Then I glanced at his name patch, "Ah fuck, you're Thomas, huh?"

He was visibly surprised:

"Sir? I—"

I waved him off, "I met with Bob at the checkpoint. He told me your friend Royo would hook us up with something special if I gave you the keys to that stock truck we brought over."

Then his demeanor suddenly changed:

"A-Ah— A'ight. The white one with the stripes, right? Meet me at Building 34—the one further back away from everything else—when you're done here. If I'm not there, tell Royo that you met Bob and then me in that order, he'll hook you up."

"Alright."

At that point, this Thomas dude quickly said his goodbye as he pocketed the keys to the truck but Kaley was already frazzled from that interaction:

"D-Do you even know what you've gotten yourself into?"

"Not a clue, why?"

"What if— You should've asked what they offer, at least!"

"Well, we'll know—"

As I was in mid-sentence, it seemed like the old man recognized my voice so his voice boomed from the tent to tell us to come in:

"HEY! I HEARD YA, KID! FUCK THAT LITTLE BITCH, JUST BRING EVERYONE HERE!"

Hearing that, everyone either stifled a laugh or let out a chuckle so we just let ourselves in and saw this McGyver-ish setup with several computers stacked on top of one another displaying several monitors from different angles. Three people seemed to be operating them while one was down on her nose with her headphones but I already spotted from afar who this Major Harper was.

It was this well-built dude with a clean cut and a trimmed beard but his dignified look was destroyed by this leather eyepatch he was wearing for his right eye.

He stood a good six feet tall, with dark brown hair, green eyes— I mean, eye— no—they should be— fuck, just green eyes, a square jaw, and this fucking neck that would need three hands to completely envelop.

But yeah, he also picked me from the crowd and watched me come up to him before he offered a handshake which would almost always mean a battle for grip strength.

And the moment our hands took hold of each other, we were just stuck in a staredown where he was maintaining his stoic demeanor while I was keeping a faint smile despite our forearms suddenly working on all cylinders from all the stress it was suddenly put through.

Though while this was happening, Oscar was already rolling his eyes but Major Harper had already decreased his assault even if I was 100% sure we could go on for longer:

"USMC, Major Harper."

"Sky "The Kid" Ishiyama."

"The Kid, huh?"

"I have plenty of nicknames but it's very inappropriate in the workplace."

"No actual rank?"

"Well~ I was given special authority by the president to do as I please within reason but I don't wanna get mistaken for special forces because we're a special unit."

"And why is that?"

"For starters, you people have a lot of respect for rank and since the old man here is a few steps above yours even though he's retired, you respect his authority—maybe even more because he's one of you guys."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. I'm basically a nobody to you right now but I might strike a few nerve endings if I told you that I don't answer to you or anyone for that matter. It's just that my actions aligned with the president's goals that's why he lets me do as I please and not work under him or any other high-ranking officers for that matter."

"Heh."

"Something funny?"

"You're one special kid, alright…"

"What does that mean?"

"I hate that you fucking hit the nail on the assumptions you have of me but I also like you for it. You also made yourself to be out of the ranking system we're so proud of but you didn't throw it at my face from the get-go—well, not until you were asked—but I heard you caused quite a stir when you met with my officers."

I rolled my eyes as I stared right at one of his, "Can you blame me for that though?"

"Blame your president for not telling you."

"Heh. That's good. You're already driving a rift between us, eh?"

He let out a chuckle, "Is it working though?"

"It still stings a lot, to be completely honest, but that just meant that I'm still not worth shit in his eyes, or yours. Even though I thought I was doing the almighty's work over here but that's just a blip in the grand scheme of things compared to the place you fucks are playing on."