Chapter 10: 10

Some heads turned to our direction, some of them are also curious about things.

“I want to tell you guys everything later in the meeting, but some people are not here yet. Tell you what, I’ll tell you the instead the story about how me and Oscar met, sounds good?” I said.

She gave me a nod and everyone else seems very interested.

“We both like watching or reading on topics about a nuclear fallout, a power grid attack, alien invasion, economic collapse and you know, a zombie outbreak. It first started as a hobby, I met Oscar on a convention in San Diego where I got seated next to him. It was a panel for a TV show that features zombies as the enemy, ‘The Pacing Unliving’.” I drank a bit of water then I continued.

“We talked a lot after the panel and we exchanged emails. We got to talking about what we would do in case that happened, then he introduced me into prepping. To give it a short explanation, it’s preparing for a certain scenario, a backup of a backup of a backup plan. It’s actually a rabbit hole if I go into more details on it since there is a different fit for every scenario. It’s like asking someone after you watch ‘The Pacing Unliving’, what would you do in that situation? What would you prepare in case of a zombie outbreak? Like what would you bring with you? What would you fortify your house with? Something along those lines.”

I got a few nods of understanding though some of them are still more focused on eating.

“It got really fun when I started, he helped me buy my first gun, which was a Glock 17 and he taught me how to use it. That’s where I learned that he used to be a Combat Medic for the US Army. He’s 64 now and it only shows when you see the white strands in his hair. Aside from him mentioning her daughter in the Navy which I’ve never met, that’s pretty much all I know about him. Though we’ve been friends ever since.” I was slicing off a chunk of potato that was too big for my spoon.

“When I went back to the Philippines, we’re still in contact. Aside from continuing my parent’s business, I still trained to use my gun. I even had a membership on a range in Quezon City and learned to use different kinds, though I still preferred on using pistols. In my spare time, I learned a lot of other things for self-defense, aside from already knowing Kendo and Karate ever since I was young, I’ve also learned different disciplines. Because in the book that Oscar gave me, it says that you can’t always have a gun at your side, learning other forms of self-defense can be the one to decide whether you could protect yourself and those close to you. It’s better to have and don’t need than to need and not have.” I said.

Oscar nodded at the last part.

“Wow, this is very different from the things that you used to geek about.” Kaley said.

“Hah! Geeking out about something could be anything, you’re right though. I even had a thought in my head to take it one step further. I also learned how to cook, grow my own food, catch fish, farm certain animals, perform basic first aid, fix certain household problems and car problems and so much more. I learned as much as I could take in during these few years, having a photographic memory helped me a lot in this case. The easiest ones to do are things like memorizing certain plants that which are edible and learning what type of medicine works with each sickness. The only thing I’ve taken time to learn is where you need to practice over and over since it takes time. You can say that I’ve become a jack of all trades, though there are differences in skill level for each one. Oscar even introduced me to one of his old buddies in the Army a few years back and they gave me this training from hell, it was actually the training for real soldiers and he left me there for 6 months! I thought I was gonna die at that time!” I concluded.

“Well, you finished it kid. I would’ve told them to keep you there for a year but my friend there told me you were ready.” Oscar said.

“Hah! Ready for what? Vietnam? It was fun although it was hard.” I joked.

He just raised his bowl and he gave a hearty laugh.

“But how did the both of you get this place?” Kaley inquired.

“Most of the veterans in the US are treated very poorly after they retire and some would have a hard transition to society when they come back after a number of years. Some would be lucky to have a roof on their heads and some would be left homeless, so much for being called a hero. Good thing I have saved a lot of money to help myself. I could say that I’m one of the lucky ones. My daughter is in the Navy but we haven’t had much contact since my wife died.” Oscar was the one to answer now and he continued.

“I lived alone in my old house and though I’m getting by good from working 40 years in the army, I felt really bored. Then I started to watch different shows online. I get really into the end of the world genre and in the art of being a prepper so I went to one of the conventions where I met this kid. I don’t know what it is but I got really intrigued in this kid. The way he looks at things and how his head works is different.” he said.

“What do you mean by that old man?” I replied with a raised eyebrow.

“Bah! You’ll never get what I mean. To make a long story short, we became buddies and he was the youngest among all of them. When I got the news that he’s flying back, I decided to sell all my property in Texas to move here. There’s nothing for me there anyway, and most of the stuff here is very cheap. That means I could live the life of a king here. I contacted him immediately and said that I need his help to find a place here and he generously offered for me to stay at his house for the meantime. I stayed at his place and we ‘remodeled’ it while I started to look for a place to get.” he said.

“This place here was owned by the Cruz family, right?” Oscar looked at me.

I nodded, “Their family is planning to move in Australia and they are selling this place lower than the market price it’s really a steal. It even helped us greatly that my parents knew them. They planned to sell everything here for 64 Million PHP (1.25 Million USD) but they sold it to the both of us for 42 Million (825 Thousand USD). It’s still pretty steep but Oscar footed most of it.”

“And what we got to thank for that is the conversion rate kid, dollars converted to pesos would go a very long way.” Oscar added.

Kaley now nodded herself, “I agree, that’s the reason why most people here tried to work abroad.”

“Well we spent more money and time renovating this place when the Cruz family moved out, we changed the gate, fortified the walls, added the floodlights, solar generators and panels all around, CCTVs, the barn, the greenhouse and some other things. Oscar explores the world a few times every year and I was in charge of this place ever since. We slowly built it up and here we are now.” I said while drinking from my glass of juice.

“But why though? Just from a thought that something might happen?” Rin finally chimed in.

“Yeah, and because we can.” Oscar and I answered at the same time. We looked at each other and started laughing.

“Seriously though, we really just wanted to build something of our own, there’s nothing bad to come out of that yeah? We just wanted to feel secure and not blame ourselves when shit hits the fan. Honestly, I just started prepping as a hobby at first, we just rushed on building this thing with Sky when we witnessed that.” Oscar put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘that’.

Kaley and some people gave Oscar a questioning look but he laughed it off, Rin gave a quick glance at me and Zeus is now touching my leg, he seemed to have finished his bowl. In the end, we told them that we would tell them everything we know once everybody is here. The only silver lining here is that Malanday, this barangay, has still not been hit yet. I really hope that the others would come earlier.