Chương 40: Chapter 38: Alchemy and Aviation

Upon arriving at Mom's property, I radioed in and had Alex drop the briar wall, while sending a quick update to Denise letting her know I'd made it safely. I didn't bother having Alex seal the driveway behind me since we weren't planning to stay long. Before I even cut the engine, Dog had already leaped over the side of the truck bed to greet Pepper, doing that classic, circling "let me check out your butt" routine. I just shook my head, stepping down from the cab.

I was immediately cornered by Travis and Jace, both of them practically bursting at the seams to tell me about their progress. Not only had they successfully repaired both drones, but the System had actually rewarded them with a thousand experience points apiece for "recovering lost technology." The windfall had pushed both boys straight to Level 2. Even Grandma was apparently creeping up on Level 3.

It was a massive relief; I knew Denise would be thrilled to find out the boys could level up by crafting and fixing things rather than having to hunt monsters in active combat like I did.

"The drones are pretty sick, Dad," Travis said, holding up a sleek quadcopter.

"Yeah, they even have built-in night vision," Jace chimed in.

"But they don't have infrared."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I replied, dripping with sarcasm.

"I completely failed to score you top-of-the-line, military-grade thermal imaging gear four days into the literal apocalypse." Both boys cracked up.

"No, I know," Jace laughed, shaking his head.

"I was just thinking about how we can map out the school tonight."

"Of course you were," I smiled, clapping him on the shoulder.

"How do they handle? Are you guys actually any good on the sticks yet?"

"It was a little rough getting the hang of the physics at first," Travis admitted.

"But once we figured out they have a manual auto-hover setting, it got a lot easier."

"How high can you push them?"

"Pretty high," Jace said, looking up at the sky.

"At least high enough that nobody on the ground will ever spot them in the dark."

"Perfect. Grab your cases and load everything into the back of the van." As the younger boys hurried off, Alex stepped up, looking just as eager to share his own breakthroughs with the herbalism system. Apparently, simply steeping the dandelion, aloe, and mint leaves for half an hour yielded a basic medicinal tea. However, he'd discovered that if he boiled a massive pot of the mixture, strained out the foliage, and kept boiling down the liquid, he could concentrate the properties.

The end result was a genuine healing potion that restored thirty points of health, stopped bleeding debuffs, and even neutralized minor poisons. I looked at the dark green liquid, immensely proud of what he'd pulled off.

"The only real issue," Alex explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "is that I didn't have any proper vials to store them in. All I could find were empty sixteen-ounce plastic water bottles." After some careful experimentation, he'd figured out that roughly three ounces of the concentrate constituted a single full dose. To make it simple, he filled each water bottle with fifteen ounces of fluid, giving each container exactly five doses.

I didn't care about the makeshift packaging in the slightest; if things went sideways tomorrow, I'd gladly chug a warm water bottle full of magical sludge to stay on my feet.

"You mentioned on the radio you had another breakthrough too," I said.

"What else did you whip up?" Alex beamed, pulling out a second bottle filled with a yellowish liquid.

"A stamina potion."

"Seriously? No way," I said, genuinely impressed.

"How did you manage that?"

"Well, I figured stamina is basically just energy, right?" Alex began, his inner gamer taking over.

"So I started thinking about what common ingredients give people an energy boost. Grandma had some fresh ginseng root in the fridge that she uses for cooking. I used my overgrowth spell to cultivate the root and multiply it. Roots and foliage grow incredibly fast under the spell—it's only the actual fruits and vegetables that take forever to mature. Then I remembered you used to drink lemon, mint, and cucumber water for energy when you were training.

You always told me that anything citrus or spicy jumpstarts the metabolism, but Grandma didn't have any citrus left, so I used paprika instead. Ginseng, mint, and paprika. I used the exact same boiling and concentration process, and now we have a stamina potion that instantly restores thirty points. I managed to brew five full bottles of it. And the best part? I'm almost Level 6 because of the crafting EXP." The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Son, that is absolutely incredible," I said, looking at the bottles.

"I have a feeling that once we lock down that high school, you and the chemistry lab are going to become best friends." Leaving the boys to finish loading their gear, I walked up the porch steps and into the house to check on my mother and stepdad.

"How are you guys holding up out here?" I asked, stepping into the kitchen.

"Not too bad, all things considered," Frank replied, looking up from the table.

"It's been quiet out this way. Your mother and the boys have been completely focused on those drones, and Alex and I finally finished butchering and preserving what meat we could salvage."

"Well, hopefully by tomorrow night, we'll have a secure place to store all that meat in actual working fridges and freezers," I said.

"As soon as we secure the campus, we're moving everyone in. I'm planning to leave you the truck I took from the station. It's a diesel just like yours, just a few generations older," I chuckled.

"The tank is sitting right around half full, but I figured you could siphon the remaining fuel out of your dead truck to top it off. We're going to need the van for the mission tonight."

"How did the run on the police department turn out?" Frank asked.

"Incredibly successful," I said.

"We secured a massive haul of tactical gear, a few heavy weapons, and a healthy supply of ammunition. Best of all, we didn't have to pull a trigger or hurt anyone to get it. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of fighting local citizens, so I'm glad it played out the way it did."

"That's a massive relief," Frank nodded.

"What's the timeline for tonight?"

"We're going to deploy the drones after dark and see exactly what we're up against," I explained.

"If the numbers look manageable, we take the school. If not, we fall back and find another solution. Either way, you and Mom need to start packing up every essential item in this house and get ready to move at a moment's notice. You'll have the Ford truck out front, and I know you still have that long flatbed trailer parked out back. If we can load everything in one single push, that'd be ideal, but we can make multiple trips if we have to."

"We'll be ready," Frank promised. After collecting a couple of dozen fresh eggs from Mom to replenish our dwindling kitchen supplies, I headed back outside to ensure the kids were finishing up with the van. I took a few minutes to show Frank the manual fuel switch and the glow plug sequence on the older Ford dashboard, since his newer, fried truck didn't use those older mechanical inputs. Once the breakdown was finished, Frank backed the truck out of the main driveway so I could clear a path for the van.

I whistled for Dog, who came bounding across the yard and leapt cleanly into the back, followed closely by Jace and Travis. Frank parked the truck along the fenceline and walked back into the house, only to return a moment later carrying a familiar, beautifully maintained compound bow and a matching leather quiver packed with arrows. He walked straight over to the passenger side where Alex was sitting, holding the weapon out to him.

"Here," Frank said softly.

"This belonged to your father. I have a feeling you're liable to need this piece of history a lot more than I do tonight, and besides, I've still got the shotgun inside." Alex stared at the bow, completely caught off guard. He took the weapon and quiver with shaking hands, then leaned out of the door to give Frank a tight hug.

"Thank you, Frank."

"Be safe out there tonight," Frank replied, stepping back and looking over at the boys and me.

"All of you." I gave Frank a solemn nod and climbed into the driver's seat. Looking into the rearview mirror, it was glaringly obvious I was going to have to completely unbolt and remove the rear bench seat before our actual assault team piled in later tonight. Dog took up the entire middle section of the floorboards as it was. Alex settled into the front passenger seat, taking a long breath as he looked over his father's old bow.

As we cleared the driveway, he summoned his remaining mana, throwing his hand out the window to pull the dense briar wall back across the entrance. Without him remaining on-site to constantly channel the energy every hour, the barrier would only hold up for a little while, but it was at least some peace of mind for the afternoon. I spun the steering wheel, swung the van onto the main roadway, and made the drive back to our neighborhood.

When we arrived home, I keyed the radio to alert the family, and Chad jogged out to swing the side yard gate open for us. Everyone piled out of the vehicle, with Alex leading the charge toward the house and me bringing up the rear to carry the eggs. The moment I stepped through the door and into the kitchen, I froze. Alex was wrapped tightly in Denise's arms, and I could hear her sobbing into his shoulder.

It hadn't even crossed my mind until that exact second that the two of them hadn't seen each other face-to-face since the entire world had fallen apart. She'd heard his voice over the crackle of the radio and knew he was breathing, but actually holding one of her sons was a completely different reality. I quietly set the eggs down on the counter, stepped back to give them their moment, and began unbuckling my tactical gear.