Bab 149: Government Shelter (8)
<Author's note: The things (racism, sexism, political views, etc.) depicted or mentioned in this story do not reflect the real world and are purely coincidences. If they do, please keep in mind that they are simply for world-building and are only work of fiction. Thank you for your understanding.>
6:24 pm.
The lights inside the base were switched on.
Nathan was back in the 50-person rectangular military tent where he and Sweet Dave ate earlier.
He was seated at one of the tables, waiting for Ida to come.
He was still wearing his Black System equipment. He took off his helmet and placed it on top of the table.
There weren't many people. And the ones that were here were wearing System items, while others weren't.
He checked his watch.
'Where the fuck is that Machine Gun Mouth? It's already way past 6:00 pm.'
'Sigh… She did say that the pilot was a friend of a friend so maybe…'
'Well, whatever. She better not stood me up or --'
'Wait… What if the pilot died? She did mention that he went out with a group to search for food supplies and never once she stated that the pilot was a Chosen One…'
'Ugh... Fuck me sideways… What a pathetic and worthless Chosen One I am. I still need to rely on a non-Chosen One...'
At a table next to him, there were two men having a conversation while eating.
"Hey, man, I heard a few crazy things from one of the people in charge of interrogating the government people who surrendered earlier this afternoon."
"What kind of crazy are we talking about?"
"Like CRAZY."
"No offense, but just think about it, the interrogation was made in private so there's no way the groups in charge would leak it. Any leak would no doubt be fake."
"Yeah, you have a point. But you have to know that 4 out of the 5 leaders in this shelter died from the explosion this afternoon. And right now, everything is in chaos because the surviving members are fighting over the position to be the next leader within their respective groups and the remaining leader, Makeda, and her team are doing everything they can to stabilize the situation."
"..."
"Well, if you don't believe me, then that's okay. I won't force you."
"Hey, I never said that. Come on, tell me what did you hear?"
The man scoffed and then said, "So you're interested after all."
"You're the one who brought up the topic first."
"Fair point. Did you know that the billionaires and all the important people around the world are planning to go to the space station to get away from the zombie threat? As a matter of fact, a few have already escaped to space. They're even planning to build a mega space station that could accommodate about 5 million people. They're letting the Xudonians build it because they're the fastest."
"Hmm... I don't know if I could believe that story -- the part where they're going to build a space station. But thinking about everything that has happened so far since the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, for them to do something like that -- the abandoning thing, well, that wouldn't come as a surprise if it's true."
"Yeah. Well, I have another one which is even crazier."
"Shoot."
"They found God."
"Huh? I'm not sure I understand."
"They found God."
"Okay… And?"
"Hey man, scholars have been debating since the beginning of time whether God is real or not. The fact that God revealed himself at the start of the zombie apocalypse made a lot of people go crazy. I remember when that time happened I was checking my social media and people were posting like crazy."
"Hold on for a minute. Didn't we have this discussion before? Although some are saying it's God, others are claiming it's the devil or something else who is claiming to be God. And according to their logic, those who don't think it was God that time, God is supposed to be this being that represents unconditional love and yet He unleashed this zombie apocalypse upon us."
"Yeah, we already have the discussion and I still think it was really God that talked at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. But that's not the point here. The point here is that one of the information they got from the interrogation is that they found God and He's in Mt. Makanalah at the country of Aleahil."
"At Aleahil?"
"Yeah, it proves a lot of things, right? But it also messes up a lot of things."
"Did they speak to Him?"
"That I don't know. Even those government people that surrendered this afternoon don't know."
"Holy shit, man. If the first story I already have my doubts because it was too crazy, this second story is just on another level."
"Yeah, really crazy, right? When I first heard it I had the same reaction as you."
All along, Nathan was quietly listening.
'Heh~ What a very interesting piece of information if they were true.'
'Aleahil, huh. That's a brown-Caucasian country.'
'And as far I can remember, that being who was claiming to be God didn't mention what religion He was representing.'
Although both the Trinitian and Iklasian religion originated in the brown-Caucasian country Aleahil, they have different stories.
In the Trinitian book, the prophet Amos traveled the desert alone for 30 days and 30 nights without any food and water. And when he was about to die on the 7th day from dehydration and hunger, that's when he was visited by a holy being.
The holy being revealed to him that he was called Filius and was one of the three gods of this world. The other two were Pater and Telum.
Pater is the main God or something like a creator. Meanwhile, Telum was something like the will of Pater.
And after Filius revealed himself to the prophet Amos, He passed Telum to him to let him survive, attain enlightenment and have the power to perform miracles. And once the prophet Amos got out of the desert, he went straight to the city of Muqada where Mt. Makanalah was located to offer a prayer because even during that time it was popularly known that prophet Zalimun once met God there and gained enlightenment. And after offering a prayer, he went back to the city to preach the word of the Gods and also perform miracles.
Meanwhile, in the Iklasian book, the story goes like this: One night, an angel spoke to the prophet Zalimun in a dream, telling him to climb Mt. Makanalah because God wants to meet him. When he woke up in the morning, he told his wife, Hayati, about the dream and immediately decided to climb Mt. Makanalah. His wife tried to stop him and told him that it was only a dream and nothing more but he didn't listen and still went to climb the mountain.
The prophet Zalimun climbed the steps of Mt. Makanalah for half a day before entering a cave. Inside the cave, he searched for God. And on the 7th day, that's when he found God. And according the book, when the prophet met God, he was blinded by the holy light and overwhelmed by God's presence that he could only kneel down and close his eyes as God passed on the holy teachings to him.
'And if more people learned about this information, like Muwinians, I wonder how many Holy Wars would this will lead to…'
A man approached him.
"Nathan, my friend, are you now ready to eat?"
He turned to the man and saw Pietro's smiling face.
He was one of the people in charge of cooking in this base.
'Oh, it's the weirdo. This is already like the third time he has asked me this…'
"And between you and me, it's best to eat a meal when it's still hot. But of course, whether it's cold or hot, it will still be absolutely perfectisimo!" Pietro said and blew a kiss in the air.
"Umm… I'm still waiting for someone."
"Okay, my friend," Pietro said and bowed before leaving.
Finally, Ida arrived and she was accompanied by two people -- one was a brown-Caucasian woman and the other was a black man.
All three of them were wearing a complete set of System items.
When Ida saw Nathan, she and her companions went to his table. They sat down, removed their headgear and placed them on top of the table.
"Hi, sorry about being a little late. We got caught up with some things. Have you already eaten? If you already have, I totally understand. It's really my fault to begin with. We were supposed to meet here a couple of minutes earlier. I swear that I really tried to come here as fast as I could but I was dealing with too many things --"
Nathan listened to her only for a moment before turning his eyes towards her companions, specifically the black person.
The black man and the brown-Caucasian woman were studying Nathan as well.
They were surprised at first with his black-colored equipment because they've never dropped one. But after thinking about it, they dismissed him as one of those narcissists that paint their System items for the sake of fashion, which makes it pointless because the paint will vanish once it's poured with a [Grade D] Repair Kit.
'So this is the pilot, huh. I wasn't expecting him to be… black,' Nathan thought before turning to Ida who just finished talking. "It's okay. I haven't yet eaten. I was waiting for you guys."
In truth, he already ate before coming here. The food he ate was his from his own stock inside his [Artifact] Gold Spatial Finger.
Although Pietro was a great cook because he was able to prepare such a delicious meal despite the minimal ingredients, it couldn't count as a proper meal for him, considering his new body size.
If Pietro could serve him at least 3 meals in one sitting, then it would've been enough.
"Oh! I'm really sorry for having you wait. I promise I'll make it up to you next time. Anyways, eating with people does makes the food even tastier," Ida said and then pointed at the black man, "Nathan, this is Ekueme."
"How's it going, fam?" said Ekueme.
Ida continued, "And this is Yasmin, the pilot I told you about earlier."
It was the brown-Caucasian woman.
Nathan knitted his brows and then said, "Huh?"
As far as he can remember, the pilot that Ida mentioned to him was a "he", not a "she".
But before Nathan could even open his mouth, Pietro again appeared.
"Nathan my friend, so these are the friends the beautiful friends that you have been waiting for! Oh… What a beautiful rainbow of races! Such is the beauty of the friendships here in Womania!"
Nathan, Ida, Ekueme and Yasmin didn't know how to react and were left completely speechless.
It took about 5 seconds before they snapped out of the trance.
"Pietro, we would like 5 servings, please. Patricia will be coming over very soon. Thank you," said Ida.
"As you wish, mademoiselle!" Pietro said and bowed before leaving.
"I really admire the fact that you can speak to him. Me, on the other hand, I just don't know how to handle him," said Yasmin.
"But guys like him are rare nowadays," said Ida.
"True," said Ekueme.
"No, guys like him have always been rare," said Yasmin.
They chuckled.
Nathan finally snapped out of his trance. "Hold on for a minute. Machine-- I mean, Ida, I thought you were going to introduce me to a pilot that's a friend of a friend of yours...? Correct me if I'm wrong."
"Yes. Ekueme is my friend and he's friends with Yasmin. I've met them when I was --"
"But didn't you say the pilot is a guy?"
Yasmin looked at Nathan and Ida and raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
Nathan glanced at Yasmin.
'This person is definitely a woman. There's no doubt about that…'
'As for her being a pilot… Hmm… Women back in her country aren't even allowed to drive cars so I highly doubt it if she can even pilot a helicopter…'
"Nathan, I'm sorry. But I forgot to mention to you that Yasmin identifies as a man so I address her with a male pronoun. Meanwhile, Ekueme here isn't a pilot. He's a doctor, a neurologist to be specific," said Ida.
Nathan was mindblown.
'Eh? There are still people doing this political correctness bullshit?'
'And the black guy is a fucking doctor? What have I been doing with my life?'
He shook his head.
'No… The world is a big place. And with the zombie apocalypse right now, I can't be choosy…'
'But you have to admit that a brown-Caucasian woman who isn't even allowed to drive cars back in her country can pilot a helicopter is really fishy...'
He took a deep breath and looked at Yasmin.
"Okay, so you're the pilot. I want --"
Pietro arrived with the meals they've ordered.
"My friends, here are your meals~! Oh, can you guys remove your helmets off the table?"
They grabbed their helmets and put them on their laps.
Meanwhile, Nathan's eye twitched as he grabbed his helmet.
The urge to slap Pietro or crumple his helmet welled up inside him.
Pietro placed the meals on the table.
"Bon appetit~!" Pietro said blew out a kiss in the air and bowed before leaving.
And right after Pietro and his assistant left, Patricia, the fifth person that Ida was referring to, arrived.
"Hey, guys," she said.
It was a half-Asian and half-Caucasian woman. She too was wearing a complete set of System items.
Ida and the others greeted her.
"Babe," Patricia said to Ida and leaned over, kissing her lips before sitting down.
Seeing the food at the table, she said, "Perfect timing!"
They all began eating happily except for Nathan.
He was feeling annoyed and a voice inside his head started speaking.
'Why are you wasting your time with this nonsense?'
'Aren't you in hurry?'
'What happened to I'm a Chosen One and I refuse to bow down to society and society must bow down to me?'
'Were all those things nothing but bullshit?'
His eyes flashed with a cold glint.
"Sigh… You're right..." he said under his breath and then wore his helmet. "This is truly pointless..."
And right after he said that, the air around him suddenly turned cold, causing Ida and the rest to stop eating and look at him.
"Nathan? What's wrong?" said Ida.
Nathan stood up and stared down at Yasmin.
And with a cold voice, he said, "Listen here. You're going to teach me how to fly a helicopter or I'll kill you and everyone that stands in my way."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Immortal_Shades
Immortal_Shades I haven't properly edited this chapter yet. I'll probably do some edits later.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone