Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I slowly waved her down, "Alright, alright… breathe~ Kaley\'s my wife, of course, but technically speaking~ we didn\'t actually get married… you know… officially. We have rings though, see—"

"B-But— I know what living together meant but… b-but— huh? Y\'know we\'re not supposed to wear rings, right?"

"Hmm? Oh! Right! Yeah, I backslid years ago—"

"W-WHAT?! I CAN KINDA LOOK OVER THE TATTOOS A-AND THE E-EVERYTHING THAT\'S GOING ON HERE BUT I-ISN\'T THAT GOING TOO FAR?!"

I awkwardly scratched the side of my face, "Listen. It\'s been a while since we\'ve seen each other and a lot… a whole lot has happened to me—even before the end of the world started—but… you gotta understand that people change, right?"

Mimi was wearing a difficult expression, "I-I-I can\'t—"

"Hey. You were supposed to be a history teacher, right? I can\'t believe that—"

"T-That example is w-way~ too different than what we\'re tackling here! It\'s… I can\'t… This is not even backsliding… I-It\'s like you\'re a totally different person! And I… I fear for you…"

"I\'m doing just fine," I said as I sighed heavily.

"I\'m not talking about—"

"I know what you\'re talking about, Mimi. It\'s just… I know you mean well and you always do but it\'s kinda what you said… I\'m different from who I was those years ago but I\'m still me. It\'s just that I\'ve chosen to question and doubt—you know, figure it out for myself instead of… just… simply believing. Simple as that…"

"..." Mimi didn\'t say a word but she did look concerned about certain choices in my life.

"C-Can we change the subject? I don\'t want to rant about that topic because I just did a few days ago and I don\'t wanna start something with you right after our little reunion and—"

Mimi forced out a smile, "O-Okay, I understand…"

I nodded awkwardly, "So… H-How\'s the weather?"

"Ah— Umm… It\'s… It\'s pretty nice actually…"

"Ah…"

"Yep…"

"Uh-huh…"

"..."

"..."

I chuckled nervously, "We\'re getting nowhere with this so I\'m just gonna rip out the bandaid…"

"U-Umm—"

And the bandaid I ripped, "Why me?"

She never looked so confused, "Huh??"

"You know… The long teary hug… The dead eyes when I mentioned that Kaley was my wife… this \'I\'m running away!\' scenario… you know… did you uhh— Why is this so weird to ask? Haha… Ha… D-Do you really have umm… Do you really have something… f-feelings for me— not like brotherly love or anything but you know… the real thing…"

Mimi slowly started to turn red as she couldn\'t look me in the eye, "I-I-I—"

I continued, "Have I been that dense the whole time or was this just a… a recent thing?"

"I… I don\'t—"

"You know me—we spent a lot of time together, I wouldn\'t notice a \'sign\' unless it was on a freakin\' billboard and you should know I\'m like an NPC because I wouldn\'t talk to people unless they talk to me first or something similar… but yeah, I just really wanted to know if—"

Mimi turned to me with the same forced smile, "It… It doesn\'t matter what I feel now, right? Because… B-Because she seems—no, she\'s really great… I can\'t believe that—"

"Alright, stop. Your feelings matter too because— Hmm~ How do I put this? Even though it wasn\'t totally my fault—or yours—that I missed whatever it is you sent me— if you actually did, of course… What I\'m trying to say is umm… I feel bad and I\'m sorry for putting you through that and making you feel this way and I wish I could\'ve done better so that—"

"No, no, no… I s-should\'ve been more direct and h-honest with my feelings b-but I was just… just… a-afraid that— *sniffles*"

At this moment, Mimi wasn\'t able to finish her sentence because her eyes became incredibly watery, eventually curling into a ball—like the first time I saw her—by tucking her knees and elbows in while her head was down. She started to sniffle again before she actually started crying and all I could do was scoot a little closer as I gently rubbed her back.

I didn\'t say anything for a couple of minutes just to let her cry everything out but I had to let her know of a few things just to fully rip the bandaid off.

Once she calmed down, I told her everything that happened—well, the important ones—the moment I stepped foot out of this place to where we are now.

As expected, there were a few false heart attacks and several moments when she had to take a few minutes to process things, but all-in-all, with the way Mimi was, she actually took it better than I thought she would. And yeah, we took close to three hours of just talking under this tree but it offered enough shade for the two of us.

On her side of things, she relayed to me that she shifted when she found a generous sponsor—because she used to be a working student—and no, it wasn\'t me and yes, I actually tried to pay for her studies but she respectfully declined me.

And her reason for accepting a random sponsor and not me? She told me that it felt really weird at the time but she later realized that she\'d be able to help more people earlier—and possibly pay them back faster—if she took the money and used it and not take more than twice the time to finish on her own.

But yeah, she did mention she was too shy to ask me for that same offer she declined but we both know full well that I\'d be happy to help her with anything if she just asked.

It\'s always just a matter of communicating properly.

Other than that, her life was pretty much studying at this school then graduating and working at the same place, and one of the few excitements she had in life was working in the emergency room with various patients and moving in with the crew after much convincing.

And in regards to the MILF— I mean, Doctor she was working under, she easily spilled all the things she know about her when I mentioned Dr. Sandara\'s significant other\'s unhealthy hobby.

Though adorably enough, she asked too many questions when I talked about Zeus, the rabbits, and the other animals we were taking care of but she got quiet, TOO quiet when we were discussing about the type of relationship I have with Kaley and the rest. She looked like she wanted to ask some questions but she was more inclined to listen to what I had to say and form her own hypotheses about it.

But on a side note, Lopez, Lucas, and JP still hadn\'t returned and when I asked Mimi about them, she told me she cut into all of the shortcuts available and that\'s why her knees and elbow had scrapes and bruises, she actually didn\'t encounter the three on her way here.

\'I guess they weren\'t actually complete assholes but we\'ll never know what would they have done because— nevermind…\'

In any case, we hugged it out after she had a good cry, and turns out, the people at my house also broke bread and shared their own stories with each other but I was mostly the topic of conversation because I was the link between all of them.

With that said, Mimi and I joined the conversation and time passed too quickly because my other two friends—Allyssa and Ron—came into our house so fucking confused not only because of the armada of vehicles outside but by the number of people present. And once again, we had to make everyone catch up with a condensed version of our stories and it was already way~ past sunset when Lucas and JP came back without Lopez.

JP approached me the moment we met eyes, "Umm… Lopez stayed in the hospital with his wife and—"

I waved him off, "No worries, I understand."

"You d-do?"

"Yeah~ He won\'t leave that place because his wife is basically sleeping there and— by the way, where did you two guys go?"

Lucas answered while raising his smartphone, "I dunno if you\'ll believe us but it\'s the first time we explored this campus! It\'s too huge! We\'ve only gone to the hospital and softball field the last time we were here but we got to explore maybe 20% of the whole campus! We got pictures!"

Megan was the first to react, "What?! Lemme see!"

"You should\'ve told us!"

"We could\'ve come with you guys!"

"Maaaan~ That\'s not cool…"

"Woah! What\'s that thing over there?!"

"Is that THE statue?!"

"Bro…"

"Lemme see! Lemme see!"

At this point, Lucas had never been so proud of the pictures they took while JP was just too fucking embarrassed about the attention but I started chuckling when I met eyes with my old friends who know where the actual tourists spots were, and I\'d hate to break it to the two but half the best spots to take pictures from could only be taken after sundown.

I turned to Ben, "There\'s still a curfew, right—"

"Bitch. We fucking graduated. The curfew doesn\'t apply to us! Besides, they\'ll give us more credits for patrolling in the night too, and that\'s where I break the game."

Everyone else asked, "The game?"

"The fuck y\'all think I\'m lounging around in the morning when I could earn much more in the night?"