Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

We headed back to the compound while we saw Oscar and his group carefully unloading the panels.     

"That's a lot." Kaley said.     

"For a couple of houses, sure. But for this whole place, we need a lot more. Well, most of the houses are still unoccupied and the few solar generators could power up a few basic utilities like lights or charging a few devices. This is all for the future." Oscar said.     

"Okay, it's almost noon. I'll take the head to my old house." I said.     

"Kid, take Kaley with you okay?" Oscar said.     

"Sure, want to come with me?" I said to Kaley.     

"Your old house huh? Sure, is there someone there I need to be wary of?" she said, joking.     

"Well, not to be wary of but yeah, Jude is there. He's alone though, he has been taking care of the house ever since we moved here." I said nonchalantly.     

"Wait, what?! There is really someone there?! I thought that place was just empty when we were clearing last time!" she exclaimed.     

"Oh yeah, we never told anyone. I just can't let go of the house before so I kept it and asked someone to live there for free as long as they kept it clean. It's fully stocked too." I explained.     

"You're serious?! B-But why is he still there and not invited to come here?" Kaley asked.     

"Hah! Better check inside the house first before you say anything." Oscar said.     

"What? Why?" Kaley said, confused.     

"You'll see when you meet him. Let's just say that the time Oscar and I were living there, we also made some modifications to it. That's one of the reasons I didn't let go of it." I added.     

I went up to my room and I picked up the mason jar that contained the sentry's head. It was covered by 3 layers of dark fabric to prevent it from seeing anything. Allan closed the gate for us and we made our way towards my old house.     

It was a 3-story house covered by a large gate that led to a garage that extended upwards, up to the terrace on the second floor so no one could climb over it like last time. It had a small staircase on the side of the gate that led to the receiving area. I opened the small gate first and we walked up the stairs. I stopped at the door and waited for a moment.     

A few moments passed and Kaley's confusion was showing more clearly on her face.     

"Aren't you gonna knock?" Kaley asked.     

"Just wait a bit. I had CCTVs installed here as well, he'll see us eventually." I said as I pointed at a camera on the corner.     

*click*     

The door's lock clicking open was heard and a smell of ramen permeated our noses.     

"Hey." the man said while he opens the door.     

The man could be said to be a very simple guy but he's very monotonous. Even his facial expression is like a robot. His speech just has a certain tone that makes you question if he has any emotion.     

"Hey~ Jude~" I said with a small tune.     

"Please stop, you always sing that song when you meet me. Come in. Oh? You're with someone I saw before knocking here, come in as well." Jude said with no emotion.     

"Excuse the intrusion." I said nonchalantly.     

"This is your house man, stop saying things." Jude said quietly.     

Kaley was just growing more and more confused about our interaction.     

"Would you like some?" Jude reached out his bowl of noodles.     

"Nah, but thank you. I'm just here to store something." I replied.     

"Oh, ok. I'll just eat here. How about you?" Jude said to Kaley.     

"Umm, ah- I'm fine, thank you." Kaley nervously said.     

"We'll head up now, is that beef with green onions and garlic?" I asked.     

"Good nose." Jude said nonchalantly as he slurped the soup.     

When we reached the second floor, I opened the door to enter it. When it closed, Kaley looked back and then she started to push me to the side.     

"Sky! Who was that?! He feels so… chill." Kaley said with a concerned look.     

"Oh, he's Jude. I remember telling you his name." I said.     

"No! Not that! Of course, I know his name! How did you two meet?!" Kaley exclaimed.     

"Oh, he's a rescue." I said.     

"Wait, w-what? Like a puppy or something?" she grew even more confused as the conversation continued.     

"We met at a coffee shop. Stop saying I'm a rescue, wait... I am. I haven't thanked you properly yet, thanks." Jude said from behind as he suddenly popped up.     

The door was opened without any noise and it was closed without any noise as well. He was just standing behind us like a sixth man from a basketball manga I read long ago.     

"O-Oh… i-is that s-so..." Kaley was startled when Jude suddenly popped up.     

"The keys, here. I locked it, I forgot." Jude handed me the keys to the rooms and he went back down.     

"Hold on, I really need to hear this story. A coffee shop?!" she exclaimed.     

"Hah! It is just a very boring story. The coffee shop I used to go and hang out for a few minutes was full. The people that would come would decide to have their orders to go though I was there early and was sitting at my usual spot. I saw him buy a coffee as well but when he turned around to look for a seat, there were no more seats available. He didn't notice it when he came in so I decided to help him out because I have an extra chair that was unoccupied. I waved at him and gestured for the extra chair and we just sat there for half a day without speaking." I said as I looked for the keys to one of the two rooms.     

"And?" she tilted her head.     

"And what?" I asked.     

"The story! Why did it suddenly get weird here?!" she exclaimed.     

"Oh, hahaha! That's the end of it. You know, my kind treasures peace and solitude. That half a day just sitting together, not speaking, just made us friends. Every time I go to that coffee shop, he'll show up sometimes and he would sit with me." I said.     

"Even if there were free seats?" she asked.     

"Yeah, it removes the awkward moment to ask someone if their or your other seat is taken. We'll just come and leave without a word." I said.     

"What? B-But how did you two get to know each other then? And he was just at this house all this time? We knocked in this place before when we thought this was not your house but no one answered. Is he really a human? Are you?" she asked, half-joking.     

"Oh, I found out when I glanced at his laptop that he was looking for a place to move at. I talked to him about this place and he agreed in the condition that he would keep this place always squeaky clean. I've left this house after we moved to the compound but some of my belongings are still here. If he doesn't recognize who's in front of the door, he won't open it no matter what. He saw you with me now so he did. Also, that's rude. Forgot me from before?" I explained, with a fake frown.     

"Sorry, you're right. Wait, you gave this house to him just like that?! He just needs to clean this place?!" she was flabbergasted.     

"Yeah. This place looks awesome, right?" I said with a smile.     

"You really have weird friends…" she said with a smile, shaking her head.     

"Hah! We'll talk later, let's just leave this thing here." I said as I opened one of the safes in the room and placed the mason jar inside a corner.     

"I doubt this could do anything as long as it sees nothing. Putting this here just makes the people at the compound relax a bit." I said to myself.     

Kaley and I went down and we talked with Jude for a while. I told him about all the things that have happened inside and he listened silently. We waved goodbye at Jude and he did the same. I heard the door lock from behind us and we went back to the compound. Oscar saw us coming back and he approached Kaley.     

"So, how was it?!" Oscar was pretty excited.     

"It's… really different. It's very calm there… to say the least..." Kaley said.     

"Right?! When I went there the first time, I was really off-putted by that guy! He's like the old version of this little shit... but weirder!" Oscar exclaimed.     

"That is maybe why they hit it off. Oh! Is he safe there though?" Kaley replied, looking back at me.     

"Yes, pretty much. I've left an AR-15 chambered in .22 LR there with several hundred rounds. There's a few more guns too but that's what he wanted to use. He gets excited when he touches a gun and he's a good shot as well." I replied.     

"Really? He has this very robot-like expression the whole time though…" Kaley said.     

"Hah! It's like a 180 if he touches a gun, trust me." Oscar said while he cackled.     

"Anyway, enough about Jude. He's pretty secure there. What's for lunch?" I asked.     

"Oh, it's…" Oscar told me that it was meatloaf.     

We ate together again and we discussed the next plan for the afternoon.     

"Okay, we need to go back to the store where we found several sacks of feed. We need to take the ones for cows. Oscar, are you done with the panels, or is there more inside?" I said.     

"We only took the ones in display and the few boxes behind it that also contains the panels. I took a few inverters to set up the panels later too. We also found a few electrical tools that I placed in a toolbox. We also took several boxes of lightbulbs and lamps." Oscar replied.     

"We took a bit of time clearing the place since there were a lot of them there and we weren't able to go to their storage area since the closed truck was almost full. There would be more of those panels there but we can't find the manifest that has the codes where they were in their storage area. All the boxes there were similar and it would take too long if we checked each one." Jay added.     

We were talking with each other for a while then we heard our radio buzzing.     

-     

*bzzt*     

"Dude, do you know an old man named Matthew Payan? He's with an old lady named Marisha, his wife. They said they were pointed at this direction by a note with coordinates on it. Dude? Hello~ Dude~"     

*bzzt*     

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