Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

At this point, Mrs. Garciano's shining moment was still challenged by certain individuals. Still, if they wanted to go this route, they basically had no candle to hold against her because one, she had me as her first backer, then Mauricio, even Captain Dagan and Sgt. Lorraine.

And if we wanted to go a step further, after a few more days, a dozen or so US troops would also supplement this place, and I could easily set up a quick meeting with Mitch and even with Iskoh.

'And they don't even have a fucking idea about Quinn and everyone else involved with her… heh. I could only imagine…'

Still, we didn't completely dismiss these peoples' voices, and even though we wouldn't give up the Garciano's seat to power, we decided to give them a spot along with me, Mr. and Mrs. Garciano, Captain Dagan, Sgt. Lorraine, and Mauricio—a smaller circle compared to everyone we were allied with.

'Mrs. Garciano didn't look too happy with that decision though… I guess we'll see why…'

Their main representative was named Charice Batiancilla, a stuck-up bitch— err… a single mom of two girls, one 18 and 22, a "military" wife for one of the Philippine Army's fallen members. And of course, she was the vice president of this place's HOA(Home Owner's Association) where the president was Mrs.

Garciano, of course, and other than that, she was also a member of this city's school board and one of its generous donors to its biggest university.

Though the moment we gave them an inch, we weren't even given thanks but the notion to quickly take a mile as she gave an impromptu speech without any of us even asking her to.

"Hmph. I guess this will work for now— But alright, good evening to everybody. As you all know, I'm the vice president of the HOA, a member of the SJDMU school board, and a military spouse. I would love to take this time given to me by our respected constituents to lay out my plans for how we could do better.

This will only take a couple hours at the minimum and I guess having just eaten will make this easier and quite pleasant to hear. Shall we?"

'Ugh…'

And surprise, surprise, she already had a slideshow presentation prepared. Seeing that, I was glad to know that not only 70% of the residents couldn't believe the shit she was pulling, but also her two daughters were the ones cringing so fucking hard at their mother's antics.

But yeah, it didn't end there when the first thing she wanted to implement in this place was to lessen the presence of the military and a satchel or a pouch to have their guns covered from civilians.

"As you can all see, the design was made carefully by picking the right color to not have any gender discrimination and the fabric used was made from organic materials—pineapples woven into fabric, before you ask—and even though they'd be fun to look at, it would only be possible if you'd look outside and see where we'll 'strategically' place our soldiers— Umm, yes?

The young man at the back?" She stopped momentarily as she pointed at JP.

JP was already pissed as fuck as he blurted out what was on everyone's mind:

"The fuck is this bullshit?"

"Excuse me?! Bull— Watch your language, young man! Can't you see who you're talking to?! My husband—" Find more chapters on empire

"Yeah! Your fucking husband's a hero and you're tarnishing his fucking name by doing that!"

"Tarnish— How—"

"BECAUSE YOU KEPT MENTIONING YOU'RE A MILITARY SPOUSE YET YOU DO EVERYTHING TO OPPOSE WHAT WE STOOD FOR!"

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?! YOU WEAR THAT SILLY GETUP AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A SOLDIER?! ISN'T THAT STOLEN VALOR?!"

"BITCH— I'M JAMESON PROMETHEUS MCARTHUR IV THE CURRENT BARON AND CO OF THE FUCKING JACKALS, SON OF GENERAL MCARTHUR III! YOU'RE JUST A BITCH WHO ONE OF US JUST MARRIED! WHO'S STEALING VALOR NOW?!"

"THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN SPOUTING?!"

"I DIRECTED THOUSANDS OF MISSIONS TO ACTUAL SOLDIERS AND YOU'RE ADVERTISING FUCKING POUCHES TO STORE OUR GUNS IN! DO YOU REALLY WANT A SPOT IN THAT COUNCIL OR DO YOU WANNA SELL FUCKING MERCH?!"

"AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?! WHO'S THIS KID WORKING FOR?! WHY ISN'T ANYONE STOPPING HIM?!"

And before JP could say another word—even though I loved every fucking second of it—I wanted to retract or take back everything we gave this fucking bitch, yeah, I ain't taking it back now, because if this was how she planned to kick things off with, everyone should've just hanged themselves or shot themselves in the head.

I cut in as I placed a hand in front of JP:

"No one's fucking stopping him because one, he works for me, and two, about 70% of us here were already annoyed from how you tried to take leadership from the Garcianos but now, it seemed like it's 99.99% and that's including your two daughters that couldn't even look anyone in the eye right now."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

"Bitch— Do you have any idea how long it'd take to take our guns out from those stupid-looking pouches and how fast it'd take to lose our lives out there?!"

"B-But it's adjustable and we have this rope—"

I shook my head, "I'm pretty sure your husband's rolling over in his grave right now."

"What did you say?!"

"Look, I don't know what kind of fucking rock you lived in all this time but you're still living in the past. You're trying to push away the soldiers who kept you alive and you're doing them a disservice by having them camp outside because their fucking presence scares you.

And while we agreed we'd give you a spot, you straight-up fucking lost everyone the moment you gave yourself the stage and opened your fucking mouth."

"Y-You—"

"But still, if there's anyone else other than you that have better ideas than gun pouches and relocating this place's military presence outside, please fucking step up now or you'll never have the chance again. Get that bitch out of the stage right now. It's an order."

"Gladly," JP quickly stepped up with Seb and James #1 right behind him.

"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! T-THIS ISN'T FAIR! S-SOMEBODY HELP! T-THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL ME! HELP! H-HEEELP!

HEEEEEEEELP!"

Despite that bitch's struggle after wasting everyone's time, surprisingly enough, her two daughters came up on stage to apologize to everyone, especially to the Garcianos and the military personnel that she disrespected.

It seemed like their dad's passing still affected their mom's psyche, so I easily promised them an appointment with Kaley's mother, Marisha.

"T-Thank you, s-sir!/W-We'll never forget this! A-And we apologize again!"

I waved them off, "It's alright, at least there's a reason for that waste of time— sorry, no offense…" then I turned back to the bitch's constituents, "Last chance, anyone else wants to try their hand? If I hear gun sleeves or military relocation I'm fucking ordering everyone here to gun you down, alright? You have~ five— no, three minutes to have your representative walk up here.

Since you know, you fucks like speeches so much."

With that said, I could still feel the secondhand embarrassment from their group who was definitely getting defectors by the second, but yeah, another lady in her 50s stood up, took a deep breath, and glanced back to her group which was still scrambling for a representative.

I just chuckled as I waved her over, "Name?"

"Cecille Valdez, sir."

I nodded as everyone else ignored her group that had just learned of what she did, "Alright, Ms. or Mrs. Cecille, care to give me more information about you?"

"Ah. Apologies, I'm Cecille, 54, a traditional wife, married to Ronnie Valdez over there who's also part of this place's military force, and I would like to be the representative of this place's council."

"I see that, but why? Your group seem to not agree with you."

"Then I'll go independent, sir, respecfully."

"Hah! Alright, ignoring your normal resume, what can you do better than gun pouches and relocating the military? For your sake, I won't gun you down—and I was joking on that part anyway."

"Ah… Ahaha… While my achievements on paper isn't that stellar compared to Mrs. Batiancilla, I'm a social worker who tended to people from all walks of life.

I don't have a specialty per se, or the fighting capability compared to our soldiers but what I suggest to bridge the gap between the soldiers and the civilians is to have part of the military force live with the other homeowners, unlike, so not only safety would be present in each home every single day, the soldier and the people living in those homes could also learn various skills from each other."

I chuckled, "You heard from your husband, huh?"

"H-He did mention that ratio between soldiers and civilians and the former not partaking in any trades, so I—"

I cut her off with a huge smile, "Enough said, you're in."