After closing the side gate, Chad assisted me unload the truck, bringing the weapons racks and duffle bags into the garage. “There are radios and chargers in one of the bags, I explained. Could you hook them up to your charging system and see if the batteries will take a charge?”

"Sure," Chad said.

“I’d like to see if any of them work. It would be nice to have more communications, especially with the school in front of us."

"Will they be able to work with the frequencies we have for our radios?" Chad asked.

“If the radio still works then yes," I said. These radios have a scan feature that lets them lock onto any frequency they’re in range of. We just have someone talk on our radios and when the new radio picks it up, you just lock it in and you're done."

“Sounds simple enough, Chad said. I’ll put them on the chargers and we will find out tomorrow.”

Before I walked into the house, I checked my notifications. While driving back to the house, I had a notification pop up. However, I felt it might not be prudent to read notifications while driving. I focused on my stat sheet and brought up the notification:

-Skills increased: Sneak Beg 8, Dark Vision Beg 7.

I figured I wouldn’t get any EXP for doing a snatch and grab at the PD. This is because it wasn’t an assigned quest and we were able to make it out of there without having to fight or take lives. So when I saw I got a couple skill increases, it made me even happier with the night's success. With my notifications handled, I headed inside to greet my wife.

Dog, of course, came in and found her first. She provided him with a bowl of meat scraps, which he quickly devoured. “You’re spoiling that dog you know,” I said as I took her up in an embrace.

“That’s what I do," she said, smiling back at me. I assume the night proceeded well? You weren’t there as long as I thought you would be."

"It went pretty well," I replied. No one was hurt and there was no fighting. We didn’t collect as much as I hoped, but you can’t expect everything in an apocalypse. We got plenty to tide us over for now though, so that’s alright. I need to hit Joe up on the radio so we can discuss what’s next. He and the other guys are offloading his suburban right now.”

Accessing my radio, I said, “Red Rover to Spartan, over.”

“Go ahead, Red Rover,” came the response.

“You guys about done with that load? Over.”

“Affirmative, ETA about twenty minutes, over”

“Copy that, hit me up when you’re almost here and we’ll roll out the welcome mat, over and out.” Twenty minutes later, as promised, Joe and Pete came down the street. I opened up the side yard and let them both in.

It had been decided to leave Johnny back at the house to guard their haul, which I thought was a smart idea. I liked Johnny but I didn’t really feel like arguing over twenty questions again. This was something we needed to do, and it had to be done soon. Taking the school was paramount to our families' survival. Something a young, single man in his twenties didn’t fully understand just yet. Maybe someday he would, but not right at this moment.

Stolen novel; please report.

When they were all seated in the living room, I clapped my hands and said, “Sooo… Doughnut Shop Smash and Grab was a success. We didn’t get everything I hoped for, but we got more than what we had. Plenty enough to take the school at least, I hope.”

“If we can’t take the school with ten thousand rounds of AR ammo, then whoever holds the school deserves to keep it,” Joe replied.

“Agreed," Pete said. But I want to know one thing. Why didn’t you tell those two officers you snuck up on to freeze? That would’ve been ironically funny.”

“I know, I said. But at the moment I couldn't bring myself to say it with a straight face. So I decided not to be so cliché.”

“That’s a shame," Pete responded with a chuckle. What a missed opportunity.”

“So what’s next?" Joe asked.

“We will take the school tomorrow night,” I replied.

“And what about the drones?" Pete asked.

“Well, I said. We need to take the school regardless of whether we have drones or not. The longer we let people become entrenched there, the more difficult and dangerous it’s going to be to take it back. With it only being the fourth day into this, I doubt they will be able to put many defenses in place. Even more so, I doubt they will be ready to handle a coordinated assault. But I would like to have drones as well. Let me hit them up on the radio and get an update."

I clicked the talk button on my radio again and said, “Boondocks this is Red Rover, come in over. For a few seconds there was no response, so I said it again. "Boondocks, this is Red Rover. Come in over.” Finally after a few more seconds, Alex's voice came over the radio.

“Are you calling us dad?”

“Yes, boondocks, I am calling you. Who else lives out in the boondocks? Over.”

“Sorry, I was unaware of our call sign,” Alex responded. I didn’t respond purposely, letting him sit there for a moment. Finally Alex came back with, “Did you want to talk to us?”

With a giggle, I replied, “you didn’t say over, over.”

“Was I supposed to,” Alex responded. Again I left the line silent. With an audible sigh, Alex called back "Over."

I chuckled as I replied, "I just wanted to see how you guys were holding up out there and if they had made any progress on their two projects, over.”

“We’re still doing fine out here," Alex said. It's been pretty quiet. I think they got one working briefly, but the battery was pretty dead. They put it on a charge and started working on the second one, over."

"That's great news," I replied. If they can get it charged up, tell the boys to get a little practice time in. Any other news? Over.”

“Yes actually," Alex replied. I made some more progress with a few potions that I can’t wait to show you, over."

"Wow, that’s even better news, I said. I can’t wait to see them. I’ll be there a few hours before dark to pick you three up, and you can show me then, over.”

“Sounds good," Alex said, "see you tomorrow, Over.”

“See you tomorrow, over and out.”

“Well there you have it, I began. They have one drone up and hopefully the second soon. Plus Alex has some potions for us to check out. When I was there last, he made a "major" medicinal tea. Hopefully we will have something in the way of extra healing tomorrow night if needed.”

“Did I hear you say you were picking up the kids tomorrow?" Denise asked.

“Yes baby,” I said.

“Why would you pick them up? Are you planning on taking them to the school with you? I don’t like that idea,” she said.

“Relax baby, I’m not planning to take them into battle with me," I said. Maybe Alex, he's too powerful to not take advantage. But the rest will be in the van a block away running the drones for us and reporting what they see over our comms.”

“I don’t like the idea of Alex doing it either,” she replied.

“I don’t want to put our kids in danger, but we need them," I said. Besides, you couldn’t keep Alex away from this. He wanted to hit the PD with us but I wouldn’t let him. There’s no way he’s going to let us leave him out of this.”

“So what’s your plan?" She asked.