Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Even if it was still a few more hours before the Admiral and everyone that would be going with him leaves, the whole place was still buzzing with activity due to all the preparation.

It was a miracle in itself that Jennifer and I managed to sneak out and have some quality time for a couple of hours, for some reason, and everyone in our circle knew what we did and they were kind of giving us looks for it.

But yeah, I just offered Jennifer a drink but she opted for a soda because she already had a stiff one.

"Haa~ That hits the spot…"

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Really? A Diet Coke hit the spot?"

Jennifer scoffed, "Trust me, even water tasted like whiskey after we were done…"

"Pfft… I barely recovered when I was with Kaley, you're too brave taking it solo—I couldn't imagine Kaley's stamina for that too…" then she turned to me, "How do you two do it? I'm usually good once I get off once but you two always keep going ESPECIALLY when I thought we were done!"

I shook my head, "I dunno— It more than makes up for the lack of cardio in my exercises… I used to do them a lot because it clears my head so…"

Jennifer took a sip from her drink, "Cardio sucks… And with how much I weigh, ugh…"

"That reminds me, since you declined the Admiral's offer for that certain enhancement, you planning to stay that buff or do you wanna scale down a little bit?"

Rachel looked surprised, "You declined it?! W-Why? Only a handful of people—especially the ones staying here—gets to have them!"

Jennifer placed her arm over Rachel's shoulder as she looked at me, "Because someone convinced me indirectly and I wanna know if I'm special without them— Also, I don't wanna owe the Admiral too many favors…"

Rachel looked sullen for a moment, "D-Did you do it for me? Since I'm only one of the few instructors—"

"Eh. Briggs could handle it and who'd have the time to learn all that shit if they're preparing to take back the land they already took from someone else?"

I had to make a face, "Oof, you went there, huh?"

"I'm just sayin' this shit could be voodoo for all we know— and nuking every goddamn place that got overrun might've taken off the chance to find that one herb to cure us all. Even so, would we even have enough for everybody?"

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"Hmm."

"At least that's my theory."

"You really think so?"

"Not quite but it wouldn't hurt to have another perspective on things. Gotta see all the options, you know?"

"Hmm, I guess that's true."

"But yeah, why are you asking if I wanna scale down again?"

"Well, you know, a bit of size grants more strength but it takes off some speed— One of the reasons I declined the enhancements as well. So, what I'm saying is… if you cut down to maybe— How much do you weigh again?"

"Around 220?"

"Kilos?"

"Pounds! Do I look like I use kilos?!"

"Americans… Anything but the metric system…"

"Can't you just get back on topic?!"

"Sure, sure… If you're 220 now and slowly laying off on gear… Hmm~ It's gonna be brutal if you suddenly cut to 180—"

"180?! Do you want me to look like a fucking twig?!"

"You— I'm 180— no, I'm actually 185 right now but that's besides the point! You're maybe 30 pounds less than Quinn and your heights are a foot apart!"

"Your point? Just means I maybe have more muscle! She looks like she's using gear as well so I'm winning—"

"She's completely off it months ago—"

"What?!"

Then Quinn suddenly walked over to us, asking for a drink as well, "I heard my name, what are you talking about?"

Rachel chuckled, "The step-siblings are discussing fitness stuff, by the way, I'm 150 pounds and I don't look like a twig—"

Quinn chuckled, "Because you're natural, that's why. No offense saying that but you still look great—"

Jennifer cut in, "You're 250 and off gear?! How?! You look amazing!"

'She used to be heavier before too…'

"Well~ I used to be close to 300 and— huh. I actually am lighter now, feels good, not gonna lie. But yeah, with my height and hobbies, it's pretty common to be 250 and I do eat a lot—high-quality protein, especially—but yeah, it's still a bitch I can't throw around the weight I used to throw around when I'm casually powerlifting.

Genetics plays a part in it as well—I don't wanna say I'm that blessed but I kind of am."

Jennifer sighed as she looked at her arms, "Maaan~ I don't wanna lose these though—"

I shrugged my shoulders, "Then don't."

"Then why are you telling me to cut to 180 then?!"

"I was just— I'm offering advice, alright?! You probably had some goal to achieve getting that big but since you denied getting that particular enhancement—"

Quinn cut in, "What particular enhancement?"

I turned to Jennifer, "Can I tell her?"

Quinn asked again, "Tell me what?"

Jennifer shrugged her shoulders, "I don't care, really— if you trust her, tell her. But not with all these people around, at least don't tell her about the specifics."

I then turned to Quinn, "You wanna have a kid with me, right?"

"Of course— And before you say anything dumb, I'm just asking because I'm curious, I'm not thinking of taking anything right now and it'd be dumb to fuck up my body while I'm trying to conceive. But what is it?"

At that point, I made her lean in so I could whisper in her ear bits of what this "Peptide" was capable of and Quinn wasn't able to hide the initial shock.

"That's… That doesn't sound like a peptide at all— at least with those effects! Huh.

I'd be tempted to take it if I was still competing but with those side effects, it's like taking SARMS or MK-677 or some shit," then she turned to Jennifer, "Look, if you just wanna look big, don't change anything but if you're just after strength, how big you are helps with it—people who compete in strongmen are prime examples—but look at him, he looks around 180-190 right now but he could pull weight like a motherfucker… Fast as fuck too."

Jennifer sighed again, "Can't we just do something in between first? See how it goes?"

I smiled, "That's why we're here talking. You'd probably kill me if you dropped down 40 pounds *snaps fingers* like that but we could go halfway there as a start. Trust me, it's gonna be a bitch slowly losing the strength to do your top sets but if we tweak it a little bit—and include some cardio as well—you'd see the things your body could do in a state you'd think would be impossible."

Jennifer looked down for a moment before she eventually asked for a shot of whiskey, "Fuck it, being this big has its own set of problems but this sort of advice coming from someone bigger than me… I guess I'll try it. How much weight do you bench anyway?"

I casually replied, "135."

"Kilos?"

"Pounds—"

"ARE YOU FUCKING MESSING WITH ME RIGHT NOW OR WHAT?! I CAN BENCH 225 FOR REPS AND YOU'RE THE ONE GIVING ME ADVICE?!"

Quinn just had a realization, "FUCK! ME! I HAVEN'T THOUGHT ABOUT THIS SHIT YET!"

Jennifer waved her off, "WHAT ARE YOU ON NOW?! YOU MESSIN' WITH ME TOO?!"

Quinn shook her head as she pointed at me, "This bitch mostly does calisthenics so we don't actually know his Big 3 besides his deadlift! HAH! Can you imagine?"

Rachel chimed in, "W-What's his deadlift anyway?"

Quinn turned to me, "Are you gonna tell them or what?"

"Just tell us!" Jennifer exclaimed.

"775…" I casually said as I downed a shot of bourbon.

"..."

"...wut?"

At that point, even Rachel who looked like she casually lifts couldn't believe the difference between my bench and deadlift, and even though they were totally different lifts that use different muscle groups, the difference was just too fucking large.

But yeah, Ignoring Quinn's predatory look on me as it reminded her of our lifting session back in the Rivas Estate, Jennifer gave me this unwilling look because it seemed like I broke her total—meaning her total tonnage between her benchpress, squat, and deadlift.

Currently, it seemed like my total had already exceeded a thousand pounds since both my bench and squat were 135 while my deadlift was 775, a total of 1045 pounds(475 kilos). However, with how I bulked up a few pounds plus the techniques Sebastian parted with me, I was pretty sure I could bump those numbers up to unbelievable amounts if I so wanted.

It's just that I was pretty spent already and had a few drinks, making it extremely dangerous to lift heavy weights, much more, try and break a personal record just because.