Upon arrival at Mom's property, I radioed in and had Alex drop the wall, likewise letting Denise know I made it there okay. I didn’t bother having Alex put up the wall again because I wasn’t staying long. Before I got out of the truck, Dog had already jumped over the side and greeted Pepper, doing that “hey how are you? Let me check out your butt” thing as they circled each other. I just shook my head. Once out of the truck, I was greeted by Travis and Jace who were too excited to tell me about their progress.

Not only had they fixed both drones, but they had also earned one thousand EXP per drone and remote set for “recovering lost technology.” They were now level two. Grandma was even close to level three. I was sure Denise would be happy if the boys could level up by fixing or creating things. They didn’t always have to be in combat like I leveled.

“The drones are pretty sick,” Travis explained.

“Yeah, they even have night vision," Jace added, "But they don’t have infrared.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I said sarcastically, I couldn’t get you top of the line drones with infrared capabilities four days into the apocalypse.”

Both Jace and Travis chuckled at that. “No, Jace said. I was just thinking about tonight’s mission.”

“Of course you were," I responded with a laugh. How do they fly? Are you guys any good at it?”

“It was rough getting the hang of it at first, Travis reported. But once we figured out they had an auto-hover setting, it was easier.”

“How high can they go?" I asked.

“Pretty high, Jace said. At least high enough that someone won’t see them at night.”

“Perfect, I said. Grab your gear and load it into the van.”

When I was done speaking to Travis and Jace, Alex started telling me, just as excitedly about the progress he had made with potions. Apparently, just steeping the Dandelion, Aloe and Mint leaves for a half an hour would make the major medicinal tea. However, he found out he could boil a large pot of the mixture, strain the leaves out and then continue boiling it down to concentrate it. The end result was a healing potion that restored thirty points of damage, stopped bleeding debuffs and even helped against minor poisons. Alex was so proud of himself, and honestly so was I.

“The only problem, Alex said, is I didn’t have much to put the potions in. I only had empty water bottles about sixteen ounces completely full.” After some testing, he figured about three ounces was enough for one dose. So when filling the bottles, he tried to only get fifteen ounces in the bottles making each bottle five doses. That was the only thing he could come up with, with what he had. I didn’t mind in the least. If it came down to it, I had no problem sipping a healing potion for as long as it took.

“You mentioned you had something else too, I said. What else have you discovered?”

“I have a stamina potion,” Alex beamed.

“Seriously? No way," I replied. How did you figure that out?”

“Well basically," Alex began. Stamina is basically energy right? So I thought, what do we have that gives us energy? Grandma had some ginseng root in the fridge because she uses it to make homemade Chinese food. With my overgrowth spell, I planted it and made more. I mean it’s just a root. Roots and foliage grow pretty fast, it’s just the fruits and vegetables that need more time to grow.

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I also remembered that you used to drink lemon and mint water for energy when working out. You also told me anything citrus or spicy will jumpstart your metabolism. Grandma only had paprika. So there you go, ginseng, mint and paprika. And the same concepts apply to boiling it down and concentrating it. Now we have a stamina potion that replaces thirty stamina points. I made five bottles of that as well. And the best part is, I’m almost level six because of it.”

“Son, that is amazing. I said. I’m sure when we take the school, the science lab and you will be best friends.”

Once I was finished with all the news from the boys, I headed inside the house to check in on my mother and Frank next. “How are you guys doing out here?" I asked.

“Not too bad, Frank said. It’s been quiet. Your mother and the boys have been focusing on those drones and Alex and I have finished preserving what meat we can.”

“Well hopefully by tomorrow, I started, we’ll have a place to store all the meat in fridges or maybe even freezers. As soon as we take over the school. I’m planning to leave you the truck I took from the PD. It's a diesel like yours, just older, I laughed. It has about a half tank right now but I figured you could siphon the gas out of yours and fill it up. We need the van for tonight’s mission.”

“How did the PD mission turn out?" Frank asked.

“Pretty successful," I said. We got a lot of gear, a few weapons and a decent amount of ammo. Additionally, we have that truck outside. Better yet we didn’t have to fight or kill anyone. I wasn’t keen on the idea of killing good people so I’m glad it turned out the way it did.”

“That’s really encouraging to hear, Frank said. What’s the plan for tonight?”

“Well we’re going to take the drones and see what we can see," I explained. If we can take the school we will. If not we’ll find another solution. Either way you guys need to start packing everything you can from here and get ready to move. You have the truck out there and I know you have that long flatbed trailer out back. If we could get everything in one shot that would be better. But if we need to make a couple trips, we'll do that as well."

"That sounds good to us, Frank said."

After grabbing a couple dozen eggs from mom, I headed back outside and made sure the kids were packing up their things in the van. I showed Frank where the fuel switch and the glow plug button were, as Frank’s truck didn’t have those. I then had Frank back the truck out of the driveway so I could pull out the van. Once I was ready to leave, I called Dog, who came running over and jumped in, followed by Jace and Travis.

Frank pulled the truck back into the driveway and headed inside the house. He returned carrying my compound bow and quiver full of arrows. He walked over to Alex and said, "Here, this is your father's." I think you’re liable to need this tonight more than I do, plus I have mine here.”

Alex didn’t really know what to say, so he took the bow and quiver and gave Frank a hug and told him, “Thank you.”

“Be safe tonight, Frank replied. All of you," he said, turning to look at the boys and I.

I gave Frank a nod and returned to the van. I looked in the back and was positive I would have to remove the back bench seat at a minimum, for everyone to fit in there with Dog during tonight’s mission. Especially since Dog took up the entire bench. Alex jumped into the front passenger’s seat. After waving goodbye to his grandmother and Frank, he summoned his mana and put the bramble wall back up. The wall would only be good for a little bit without Alex there to re-summon it every hour, but at least it was something. I turned the van around and drove home.

When we got back home, I radioed in as normal and Chad opened the side gate for us. Everyone got out of the van and headed back in the house with Alex going first and me following last. When I walked into the kitchen, I saw Alex hugging Denise and heard Denise sobbing. It hadn’t even dawned on me that the two hadn’t seen each other since this whole thing started. She had heard his voice on the radio and knew he was fine, but to see him in person was a whole different feeling. I let them have their moment and took off my gear and put my weapons down.