Hearing that, I thought I'd literally meet my so-called "Maker" but I found out that this Jesus dude was the guy they'd send out for scouting missions or extended expeditions. He had a team of his own to help him and he'd just pop up here and there once or twice a month if he needed to take a break.
Quinn added, "He's basically a Nomad. He'd prefer the outside but he drops by—like what he's doing now."
"I see. When is he arriving though?"
"Dave said he called this morning. He'd probably arrive later this night or tomorrow morning— Hold up, come with me. I need to show you something."
"Hmm?"
"Just follow me! Don't ask too much questions!"
At this point, Quinn led what was left of us to the biggest building in this industrial park which coincidentally was one of the two buildings that still had power and was also where Mauro's room/office was located.
It had four floors and two basements in total—looking like a fortress on its own—but there was this corner where several finished vehicles were lined up like in a car show.
"We're going to that area."
"To?"
"Shut up and you'll see! C'mon, slowpokes! Walk faster!"
"..."
Ignoring how catty Quinn was being at this moment, she never looked so excited to show us their collection of vehicles that they managed to put their own branding on. Granted some of them had her own style: almost close to the original, there were two particular vehicles that were covered by a dusty cloth.
From my perspective, I could see an outline of a muscle car and a tuner but before I could even figure them out, Quinn beat me to it by pulling off the cloth and accidentally giving everyone a coughing fit.
"FUCK! KAH— *cough* *cough* SHIT! MY BAD! MY BAD!"
"Holy Moly~"
Despite all that, I had the shock of my life when I saw a silver '70s Dodge Charger R/T and a black Subaru Impreza WRX STI that looked like they haven't been used for quite a while.
Seeing them in their unique state felt like visiting an old vacation home that collected dust but I didn't even care as much about it as I approached them and ran my hands on each of them. But funnily enough, Kaley and the rest thought I would touch the muscle car more but I almost tried to break into the tuner car.
"They aren't locked, you FUCKING DUMBASS! PUT THAT CROWBAR— WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THAT?!"
"Ah..."
Kaley mumbled from the side, "Whew, at least it's not a helicopter..."
Quinn suddenly turned to her, "A what?"
Tatiana chuckled, "Oof, don't remind me of that— And~ He's already inside..."
As they tried to initiate another conversation, I easily found the keys in the glovebox and I didn't bother to ask Quinn if I could start it or not. Because if she wanted to show me these cars, she would obviously allow me to play around with them. However, she quickly made her way to the driver's side window and leaned over with a confused expression.
The dude was sticking right behind me like a fucking parasite—only deviating from copying me when the space I went in was too tight—not allowing him to go parallel with me when we were drifting side to side.
I wanted to test him a little bit more but I wanted to see for myself who the fuck was this driver that they were hiding all this time.
After a few more turns, I drove back to the building we came from and parked in front of it—the same car still copying what I was doing.
However, right as I stepped out of my vehicle, the guy in the station wagon straight-up jumped at me and was bawling his fucking eyes out.
'Jesus fucking christ, it's really him—'
"JACKIEEEEEE~!!!"
I'm gonna be fucking honest, it was already too much of a fucking coincidence to have the Number 7 guy be named Jesus, but almost looking like the same person—except for the clothes—was fucking uncanny. But yeah, the muscles helped me differentiate him between the two.
I tried to get him off of me, "Dude! Stop! I'm not Jackie! I'm not—"
Then realization struck for the dumbass, "Wha— You're— GET AWAY FROM ME!"
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO JUMPED ON ME!"
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE JACKIE!"
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU I WASN'T! AND WASN'T HE... You know, not here anymore?"
As soon as I said that, the fucking messiah broke down crying once again though another person stepped out of his station wagon.
It was a woman who actually looked "normal" for lack of a better term but she still looked fitter than 90% of the population before the world ended.
I already prepared myself to get jumped on but the woman who came out just looked at me like she had seen a ghost. And after that, she took a long hard look at the car I just drove and there was a tinge of sadness in her expression.
The silence was starting to become unbearable for a short moment so I had to ask the question.
"This... This car... Was it Jackie's perchance?"
The two just nodded in place before Quinn and the others came up to us.
"Welcome back, Jes'. Got you excited for a bit, huh?"
Jesus instantly got up, "QUINN! WHO'S THIS GUY?! WHY IS HE DRIVING JACKIE'S RIDE?! WHY DOES HE DRIVE LIKE HIM TOO?! IS HE SINGLE?! WHY ARE YOU HERE?!
YOU SAID—"
"ONE AT A TIME, JES'! ONE AT A FUCKING TIME!"
"Right. Is he single though—"
"THAT'S NOT THE FUCKING QUESTION YOU SHOULD BE ASKING RIGHT NOW!"