Chương 33: Chapter 32: The Next Objective

The heavy wooden side gate clicked firmly shut behind the Ford, and Chad immediately materialized from the gloom of the driveway. Working in sync, we rapidly cleared the truck bed, transferring the heavy locked iron long-gun racks and the bulging canvas duffel bags directly into the secure garage. I unzipped one of the smaller canvas bags and gestured toward the contents.

"We hit a decent logistical vein inside the PD, Chad. There's a handful of police radios and multi-bay charging docks in here. Can you patch them directly into your off-grid battery bank and see if the cells will actually accept a charge?"

"On it," Chad nodded, pulling the gear out to inspect the housings.

"I'm hoping we can salvage at least a couple of functional units," I explained, leaning against the workbench.

"The more communication lines we have up and running, the better our tactical coordination is going to be—especially with the high school operation staring us right in the face." Chad turned a dock over, checking the wiring leads.

"Will these units even be capable of communicating on the specific frequencies we already established for our current handhelds?"

"If the internal processors survived the pulse, then absolutely," I replied.

"These older department models feature a scan-and-lock utility. It's simple: we just have someone broadcast a continuous signal from our current radios, and the moment the new receiver intercepts the signal bounce, you hit the lock toggle. The frequency gets mapped automatically."

"Sounds straightforward enough," Chad said, setting the chargers on his work bench.

"I'll juice them up tonight and run the diagnostic sweeps first thing in the morning." Before I turned to enter the main house, a familiar chime sounded softly inside my consciousness. A notification had actually pinged on my HUD while I was navigating the dark streets in the F-250, but I'd made a conscious decision not to read pop-up text while operating a heavy vehicle in the dark. I relaxed my shoulders, focused my intent, and pulled up the active log: [Notification: Skill Proficiency Increased!] [Sneak: (BeginnerLevel 8)] [Dark Vision: (Beginner Level 7)] I hadn't anticipated receiving any direct Experience Points for the precinct run, mostly because the System hadn't officially categorized the raid as a formal Quest, and we'd managed to execute the entire extraction cleanly without being forced to take lives or engage in lethal combat. Seeing that my skills had still advanced through sheer real-world application made the night's success feel even sweeter.

With the notifications cleared, I finally pushed the back door open to greet my wife. Dog, possessing zero sense of patience, pushed past my shins and located Denise first. She was already waiting by the kitchen island, immediately dropping a generous bowl of slow-cooked meat scraps onto the tile, which the beast began devouring with absolute ferocity.

"You're thoroughly spoiling that animal, you know," I murmured with a chuckle, stepping into her space and wrapping my arms around her waist.

"That's literally my job description," she teased, leaning back into the embrace with a soft smile.

"I take it the operation proceeded according to plan? You were out and back a lot faster than I anticipated."

"It went about as smoothly as a heist can go," I said, resting my chin on her shoulder.

"Zero casualties, zero active fire fights. The actual volume of ammunition inside the cargo containers fell a bit short of my initial estimates, but you can't expect the world to be perfect four days into an apocalypse. We harvested more than enough surplus ordnance to tide our group over for the immediate future. I need to hook up with Joe on the radio now—he and the guys are currently offloading the secondary crates from his Suburban." I unhitched my radio, keyed the primary channel, and initiated the call.

"Red Rover to Spartan, come in. Over."

"Go ahead, Red Rover," Joe's deep voice responded instantly over the static.

"Are your boys about wrapped up with the offload? Over."

"Affirmative. Staging the last of the tactical gear now. ETA is roughly twenty minutes. Over."

"Copy that. Radio when you're a block out and we'll roll out the welcome mat. Red Rover, over and out." Exactly twenty minutes later, the low, familiar silhouette of Joe's truck coasted down the dark street. I stepped outside, pulled the heavy side gate wide, and ushered Joe and Pete quickly into the workshop perimeter. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

They had made the strategic call to leave Johnny back at their primary residence to maintain an armed guard over their newly acquired share of the ammunition supply, which I thought was an incredibly smart play. I liked Johnny, but to be completely honest, I didn't have the mental bandwidth tonight to answer another barrage of twenty hypothetical questions. We were operating on a razor-thin timeline, and our next phase had to be executed with absolute precision.

Securing the high school facility was paramount to our collective families' long-term survival—a harsh reality that a single guy in his early twenties didn't quite possess the life experience to fully internalize yet. Someday he would, but right now, we had to do the heavy lifting. Once the three of us were seated around the low table in the living room, I clapped my hands together to focus the room.

"Alright, boys... Operation Doughnut Shop Smash and Grab is officially a success. We didn't get all that I hoped for. I thought there should have been far more than what was actually there, but we walked away with significantly more than we had three hours ago. It's plenty of firepower to initiate the school push."

"Look, if we can't successfully secure a suburban high school campus with ten thousand rounds of 5. 56 sitting in our magazines," Joe rumbled, leaning back against the cushions, "then whoever is currently holding the property honestly deserves to keep it."

"Agreed," Pete nodded, a slight smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"But I've got one burning question, Derrick. Why on earth didn't you tell those two rookies to 'freeze' when you snuck up behind them? The absolute ironies of the situation would have been legendary." I let out a dry laugh, shaking my head.

"Trust me, the thought crossed my mind. But in that exact split second, with Dog growling like a chainsaw, I knew I wouldn't be able to deliver the line with a straight face. I decided it was best not to be so incredibly cliché."

"That's an absolute tragedy," Pete chuckled, shaking his head.

"What a massive missed opportunity for the memoirs." Joe's expression turned serious, cutting through the humor.

"So, what's the immediate operational sequence? What's next on the whiteboard?"

"We will hit the high school tomorrow night," I stated flatly. Pete shifted forward.

"And what about the aerial reconnaissance assets? What's the status of the drones?"

"The reality is simple," I said, looking between them.

"We are forced to take that school campus regardless of whether we have functional eyes in the sky or not. The longer we allow random local factions or desperate survivors to entrench themselves within those concrete structures, the more hazardous and costly it's going to be for us to root them out. We are only four days into the System integration.

I highly doubt anyone holding the school has had the time or resources to construct serious defensive fortifications, let alone organize a cohesive, disciplined counter-assault response. That being said, having tactical aerial data would be a massive force multiplier. Let me dial the tech team right now and get a real-time status report." I pressed the transmit button on my handheld.

"Boondocks, this is Red Rover. Come in, over." The line remained dead silent for several seconds. I keyed the mic again, sharpening my tone.

"Boondocks, this is Red Rover. Acknowledge transmission, over." After another brief delay, Alex's youthful voice finally broke through the static, sounding slightly flustered.

"Uh... are you calling us, Dad?"

"Yes, Boondocks, I am actively calling you," I replied, a smirk tracking across my face.

"Who else do you think lives out in the absolute middle of the boondocks? Informational status report, over."

"Right, sorry. I guess I was completely unaware of our call sign," Alex responded dryly. I deliberately kept my thumb off the button, letting the airwaves hang in absolute, dead silence for a few heavy moments to let the lesson sink in. Finally, Alex broke the quiet again.

"Did you... actually want to talk to us about something?" I let out a soft chuckle, keying the mic.

"You completely failed to say 'over,' over."

"Was I... actually supposed to say that?" Alex asked, sounding completely bewildered. Again, I left the line dead silent. After an audible, dramatic sigh traveled across the airwaves, Alex finally called back.

"... Over." I could hear Joe and Pete quietly snickering on the couch as I answered.

"I'm just checking in to see how you guys are holding up out there, and to find out if the tech team has made any quantifiable progress on their two projects. Over."

"We're doing totally fine out here, Dad," Alex's voice steadied.

"It's been completely quiet. The boys actually managed to get the first drone tracking briefly earlier this evening, but the battery cell was almost entirely drained. They've got it hooked up to the charging line now and have already shifted focus to the second one, Over."

"That is phenomenal news," I replied, leaning forward.

"The absolute second they verify a full charge, tell the boys to get some active flight hours in to practice the controls. Any other updates on your end? Over."

"Yes, actually," Alex's tone instantly perked up with pride.

"I've made some serious progress with a few new alchemical potion extractions. I honestly can't wait to show you what the interface unlocked. Over."

"Wow, that's even better news than the hardware," I said, genuinely impressed.

"I'm looking forward to running the numbers on them. I'll be there a couple hours before dark tomorrow to pick the three of you up, and you can walk me through the inventory then. Over."

"Sounds like a solid plan," Alex confirmed.

"See you tomorrow, Dad. Over."

"See you tomorrow. Red Rover, over and out." I slid the radio back into its secure holster, turning back to the guys.

"Well, there's our parameters. We've got one functional aerial asset ready for deployment, and hopefully the secondary one will be online by tomorrow afternoon. Plus, Alex has successfully brewed a new batch of alchemical potions for us to test. When I dropped him off, he was working on a major medicinal tea extraction, so with any luck, we'll have some serious healing support on standby tomorrow night if things get messy."

Denise, who had been quietly monitoring the entire conversation from the kitchen doorway, crossed her arms, her brow furrowing with sudden concern.

"Did I just hear you correctly, Derrick? Are you seriously planning on picking up the kids tomorrow afternoon?"

"Yes, baby," I said softly, recognizing the immediate protective shift in her posture.

"Why exactly are you bringing them back here?" her voice tightened.

"Are you honestly telling me you're planning on bringing our children into an active combat zone at that high school? I am absolutely not okay with that idea."

"Take a breath, honey, relax," I said, holding up my hands to soothe the tension.

"I have zero intention of putting our kids anywhere near the direct line of fire. I am absolutely not marching them into a breach. Well, maybe Alex—his magic is too powerful for us not to utilize if an emergency breaks out. But the rest of the crew will be stationed securely in the back of the van, parked a full block away from the campus perimeter under heavy cover. Their sole responsibility will be operating the drones and relaying enemy movements to us over the radio."

"I don't like the idea of Alex being anywhere near the school either," she countered, her motherly instincts digging in.

"Look, I don't ever want to put our family in harm's way, Denise, but the simple reality is that we desperately need their skill sets for this play," I explained honestly, meeting her gaze.

"And besides, you know as well as I do that you couldn't keep Alex away from this operation if you locked him in a vault. He was practically begging to hit the police department with us tonight. There is absolutely zero chance he's going to sit quietly on the sidelines while we move on the main campus." Denise let out a long, controlled breath, realizing the logic was sound even if she hated it. She stepped fully into the living room, leaning against the edge of the armchair.

"Alright. So walk me through it then—what exactly is your plan for taking that school?"