Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Mr. Alvarez's last statement ended with him stroking his chin with a complex expression but I waved him over before he tried to do something stupid.

"Hey, the plan is to try and work with them. If you stir shit now while everything's going swimmingly with the de Leon Family and that group, I won't—"

He scoffed, "Won't what? Who do you think you are?"

For the first time in this meeting, Mr. Alvarez felt like a stranger, and even if we did have a short moment from talking shop, he was still a person that held a lot of power. He might be buddy-buddy with me for a short bit, but I still don't know the guy fully.

At this point, the atmosphere was getting a little heavy but I need to hold my ground.

"I'm the person who put you down, bitch. And if you want to return the fucking favor, wise up and think for once. You say you have a fortress but guess what? They have one too. Nigh impregnable too, according to the person you're trying to get killed—"

Mr. Alvarez completely ignored my provocations, "Whoa! Whoa! I'm not trying to get him killed—"

"Who do you think they're gonna come after if something ever happened to them? They're not fucking stupid. They'll piece it all together and they'll be like animals in heat once they found a new challenger. The random shamblers on the streets wouldn't be as exciting to them."

"So, you're saying we're gonna lose?"

I shook my head in derision, "Both sides will but as previously stated, aren't you all losing people on a regular basis? Is going to war with the government the solution? You know, to stop them from killing themselves? Or… since they're gonna die anyway, are you gonna use suicide tactics to cause massive amounts of damage? Is that it? The last hurrah or some shit?"

"..."

"If you're that desperate for food that you have to attack someplace that could easily send several tanks and attack helicopters your way, why don't you have someone in your fold take Sal's hand or you could do that yourself—"

"PUUUUUUU!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"

"I HAVE A FUCKING WIFE!"

"Should we tell him?"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'M DEAD!"

"Fuck, that's the most amazing thing that came out of you, holy fucking shit…"

"Yep, we're all gonna die today…"

"I'm… I'm gonna stay away from this one…"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

I've never been so confused, "Is there… Is there something I said?"

At this point, even Sal was dying-laughing from my earlier statement but Mr. Alvarez was this fucking close to choking me out. I definitely stepped on some toes but I guess I'd find out more stuff about these people.

Sal wiped her tears from laughing as she turned to me, "Kid, I'm basically his step-sister but that was long, long~ ago."

"WHAT?!"

She added, "We're not related in any way but let's just say that when our late parents separated— hmm, how should I put this in words you can understand? I maybe got stuck once or twice in the washer…"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"STOP, SAL! DON'T SAY ANYMORE!"

"I'M NOT HEARING THIS! I'M NOT HEARING THIS!"

Hearing that, I didn't know whether to laugh or shut the fuck up because Mr. Alvarez was staring daggers at everyone who so much show their teeth from trying to hide their laughter.

I guess it was safe to say that their relationship didn't work out but they cannot erase the history between them. It's just that Sal was pretty much over it while it was like an old wound that opened for Mr. Alvarez.

Mr. Cuervo eventually anchored the conversation, "As stated earlier, since the kid will be dropping by the de Leon Family's turf for a few days, he'll be on the mission to gather info on his old Alma Mater. I strongly advise against stirring up shit while the kid is doing recon and even if he isn't, it'll do more harm than good for everyone here."

"Agreed."

"Agreed…"

"That works for me."

"Me as well…"

"Fine. To keep it a hundred, I wasn't actually thinking of doing it. My people are much, much more important now. I can't just replace them and train the common rabble because we don't have much of those anymore. But yeah, it's another story if they come for us."

"What do you mean?"

"When it started, like the Castillos, we flipped our town and the ones surrounding it upside down, claiming everything for ourselves, the DDR Camps included. It cost a lot of people and bullets but we absorbed everyone that didn't fight back. It's just that it's taking its toll now since we're always low on food."

Mary sighed, "I told you so many times. Increasing your territory and the number of people on your payroll without making sure you can handle it will spell all sorts of trouble. You're lucky that your only problem is food."

Mr. Alvarez replied, "We have other problems too but that's just the most troublesome at this moment. But yeah, I'll take care of it once we get back. I'm thinking of downsizing and re-assigning other people to more helpful shit."

Sal chuckled, "Good luck with that."

"Hey! I'm not that good at managing shit but we still get it done! It's not like I'm the only one that has that problem. Mauro and I—"

Mauro interjected, "Nope. Not anymore. Elsa will be handling some of the stuff back home—"

Quinn quipped from the back, "Finally…"

"What do you mean by that?!"

"There's only so much I could do and I'm always busy so having another capable woman at the shop will do us wonders."

"Hey! I'm—"

"What? Half the time you spend on managing is fixing the mistakes that should not have been there in the first place! Dave handles some of the shit back home but everyone else keeps fucking it up. It still amazes me how we survived until now. I was about to start another chapter by myself if things continued as is."

"Stop with the jokes, you're not leaving even if I force you out."

"Heh, true. Anyway, are we done here? There's too much talking and I can only handle a little bit more," Quinn said as she turned to Mr. Cuervo.

"Then a little bit more," Mr. Cuervo replied with a smile.

After that, more topics were brought up but they were mostly concerns that were easily solved by common sense or with the help of the other family. And surprisingly enough, aside from the casual mention of drugs and some other illegal shit like prostitution or straight-up bloody murder, their organization functions like any other organization in the "legal" world.

Everyone needed the basic stuff to live and some other things though it would've been wildly different if it wasn't the end of the world.

Right now, everyone else was more focused on surviving, and somehow, cooperating with their long-term archnemesis didn't sound like a god-awful plan. And yeah, trying to live with these people didn't sound too bad either.

The original plan was to wipe half of the families in question and take care of the dregs later—because the head of the snake was more important—but like the substance that Sal peddled to each of us earlier, it all boiled down to how you use a certain substance in order for it to do good or bad.

That statement would've made my parents turn in their graves but I've already done a lot of things that would've prompted the same reaction.

I've killed and tortured people, turned away from the 'creator', and much, much worse. In short, my ledger was as bloody as it could get but it was done to achieve certain results that didn't betray myself completely.

Yes, psychedelics were the root cause of my parents' demise and I would've achieved complete vengeance after putting a bullet in each head of the people in this place but somehow, I felt that I should do something else entirely. It sounded cringe but for a higher cause, I could place the thought of vengeance in the deepest part of my head and only bring it back if I was wrong.

It sounded conceited and stupid but I could always raze this place to the ground—and each of their territories if I wanted to, but I wanted to see if my dream of everyone getting along could work now that we all share a common goal.

With that said, it didn't take long before the meeting was adjourned but Mr. Cuervo waved me over and handed me a set of keys and another keycard with the familiar dragon crest that was on the keycard Cynthia gave me.

At this point, everyone else had already left and only the two of us were in the meeting room.

"What are these for?"

"It's for the third house to the left of my mansion. You have your personalized floors here but you gotta have a house, your family's house. And yeah, you're gonna be busy today."

"Hmm? Why?"

Then Mr. Cuervo pulled out a live feed from the house he just gave to me, "See all those people lining outside? There are still some people that want to join your family even though you turned all of them away. Hear them out, you might find a few diamonds among the rough. Trust me, they'll line up on that spot all week if you don't see what they have to offer."

"I see—"

"Right, before I forget… I should return these…" Mr. Cuervo said as he placed the detonators for the plastic explosives that were mounted on the viewing platforms for the Castillo, Alvarez, and the Garcia Family.