Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

This unique entrance was just the de Leon Family's way to make their presence known and it seemed like it had the effect that they desired. To me, if I had these people close, I would've absorbed them—after an interview, of course—in my fold to bolster my numbers. It's just that with the zombie population around these parts, there were certain groups that could afford to survive on their own.

And just like that, it only took a few short moments before we passed this place's roadblocks and we were now on the short route to reach the town where the de Leon Family's HQ was located.

It was only a few kilometers away and it didn't even take 30 minutes to reach our destination.

'Huh.'

The de Leon Family's main base of operations was actually in an industrial park that had everything they needed for making their own type of vehicle or anything they might consider, but something's telling me that it was recently obtained from not-so-legal means.

'Yep… the original logo of these buildings definitely got sprayed over… Wait, is this actually their HQ?'

Quinn chuckled as she saw my expression, "What? Who would've thought they'd just leave these buildings for us with all of the equipment and the materials available? Quite homely, no?"

I shook my head as I turned to her, "Homely?"

"Haha! Just kidding, my place is not as big but it's definitely cozier."

With that said, some vehicles drove inside the other buildings we just saw but Quinn instructed Tatiana to drive a little further, following a couple of vehicles that didn't follow the majority.

After a few minutes or so, we drove into a commercial area for this medium-sized town that they claimed for themselves, and we came upon a tall gate of what seemed to be a barricaded strip mall.

And since the vehicle at the forefront was a truck that had a trailer carrying Quinn's ride, no words were exchanged between the driver and the one guarding the gate as it just opened automatically after a short beep.

Well, there were a few words when the guard—a man in his 30's with the usual getup for Quinn's crew—saw the state of Quinn's DB9.

"Holy fucking shit, who's the genius who did that? Probably dead?"

"Hah! Long fucking story, my guy. Long fucking story. You'll shit your pants once I tell you—"

Quinn shouted at the top of her lungs, "HEY! ARE YOU GONNA DRIVE IN OR WHAT?!"

"SORRY! WE'RE GOING, WE'RE GOING!"

The moment we drove in, I was expecting something like a much more chaotic clone of their enclosure in Cuervo Heights: several baldies walking around with a girl or a bottle in their hand, pimped-out vehicles that were one accident away from causing an outbreak, hard rock blasting from large speakers, or a tent in the middle for their highness but it was not.

Surprisingly, the strip mall was only manned by a dozen or so people—maybe more on the inside, and it was the cleanest place I've seen.

It looked totally metal from the outside but it was like a you-could-lick-the-floor type of situation on the inside. Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the way they repurposed their huge parking area, and making half of it into farms was a plus in my book. I could only guess what they turned the other sections of the strip mall into but the parking area also had an open gym, a "pimping" station, a repair station, a salvage station, and a… umm… a spot to actually park other cars.

But despite all that, the huge garage located somewhat in the middle of the strip mall with several luxury vehicles in front must be our stop.

We were eventually led to a space where we could park our Raptor close to Quinn's main garage and I couldn't hide my excitement from seeing this strip mall turned into a small fortress of sorts… but it seemed like we have forgotten someone.

And like clockwork, my radio buzzed.

-

*bzzt*

[Kid, you seeing this place?! This place is huge! Look at all the vehicles they're working on! Look at the engine on that Bronco! It's fucking huge!]

*bzzt*

-

'Bronco? I don't see a Bronco anywhere in this—'

I was this close to replying to Mr. Alvarez but Quinn grabbed my hand and signaled to not answer him for the moment.

-

*bzzt*

[Kid? You there? Wait a minute, where's your Raptor? I can't— Is that it? On the other building? My eyes can't see that well. Kid? Can you hear me? OOH~ Is that a Five-Ton?! HAHAHAHA! Kid! You won't believe this shit! Fuck it, call me when you see me! I'm taking that shit for a spin!]

*bzzt*

-

Quinn let out a chuckle, "Let him have his fun. He'll find this place soon enough."

"Sure. Tell me: this is your own place, right? The industrial park must be Mauro's."

"Yep, kinda. Well, he still owns a garage like mine but he relocated. I still prefer my own. Besides, that place gets noisy with the number of people and the equipment running almost 24/7. C'mon, I'll show you guys around," Quinn said as she stepped out of the vehicle, stretching for a few seconds.

'Wait… 24/7?'

I was still in deep thought as Kaley and Tatiana followed after her but I felt Jose's arm grabbing my shoulder the moment I was about to follow suit. He never looked so uncomfortable and for some reason, he was having a hard time looking me straight in the eye.

"Where the fuck did you take me now?!" he said in a whisper.

"Oh. I forgot you two were with us."

"C'mon, man! I look like I blend in with everybody but I don't!"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have their number thingy on me! I'm just clean shaven and I'm covered with tattoos! I know I look awesome and all but I don't want to do their version of stolen valor here!"

I started laughing, "Hah! I guess you can say that. It's never too late to pledge to this family!"

"Don't joke like that, man! I try to avoid them but some of them are already buddy-buddy with me!"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"They were shit-faced when they met me! The ones here are all sober, some of them are already giving me weird looks—"

Isaac added, "Nii-chan, I don't handle new places t-that well… And we totally heard nothing on the trip here… j-just saying…"

I let out the tiniest bit of killing intent, "Isaac, call me 'nii-chan' one more time and I'll lop your head off."

"Ah— Big bro, my bad. It's just a force of habit…"

"Uh-huh. Let's keep it that way—"

Quinn's voice suddenly boomed, "THE FUCK ARE YOU THREE STILL DOING THERE?! COME OVER HERE! I'LL INTRODUCE YOU TO EVERYONE FIRST! WE'RE WAITING!"

After a short bit, we all gathered in front of the main garage and even the dude guarding the gate was present. He had the number 441 tattooed on his left arm but looking at everyone else—these 40-something people, half of them didn't look the type. Well, a good number of them were suspiciously looking at Jose and it didn't take long before his appearance was questioned.

A well-built woman wearing coveralls and the number 44 spoke up, "Who's that? New prospect?"

Quinn turned to 44 before turning to Jose, "Naw, unless he wants to? Anyway, everyone, that's everyone and everyone, that's everyone. Done and done. Can someone brief me on the things I left last time? *cracks neck* I'm itching to work again. Where are my work clothes?"

"..."

"..."

Quinn looked at us weirdly after her "introduction", "What?"

Kaley actually stepped up, "That's not how you introduce people… Anyway~ I'm Kaley, this is Sky, that's Tatiana…" she started to introduce everyone from our side, giving a short description for everyone and making sure that the other side was paying attention. And for some reason, her "assets" were already getting compared to Quinn's just from the way everyone else was looking at her and Quinn back and forth.

'I'm gonna give these people a piece of my mind later…'

After a short bit, Kaley finished introducing is and since Quinn didn't care much about properly doing it the second time, the woman numbered 44 started to introduce herself first and copied what Kaley did.

As I thought, some of the people here were from Sal's family to take care of the farms while the other decent-looking people were "prospects" as number 44—Zyra, mentioned. They were survivors from this town that managed to pique Quinn's interest while the rest were sent over to the industrial park to do pretty much the same thing.

However, one thing's for sure, Quinn had this as-long-as-it-had-the-number-4 thing going on because it was blatantly obvious that the ones in here that belonged to their family had her number in their… number.

I'm not sure if that was a bright move on her part—deciding who to take in just for something as trivial as that—but we would see soon enough if it was an actual blunder.