Chương 25: Chapter 24: The Weight of Tomorrow

After giving Dog a few final, lingering scratches, Denise finally stood up. A warm, affectionate smile broke across her face as she stepped over to me, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck and pulling me into a deep embrace.

"So, what's the update?" she asked softly against my chest before pulling back to look at me.

"I assume you found Joe and everything went okay."

"Yeah, I sure did," I said, tapping the canvas of the small pack slung over my shoulder.

"Everything went great. I even managed to salvage a couple of broken drone projects for our budding Artificers to play with. But before we get deep into that, I want to do a quick run back to our house to verify if our long-term emergency supplies are still in the garage. I'm going to need the boys' help to clear all the junk away from the cabinets. After that, I want to take them out to my mom's place so they can set up a workspace and start trying to systematically repair these drones.

We desperately need to get an aerial platform into the sky above that high school to see exactly who, or what, is currently living inside the perimeter." Denise's smile instantly faltered, her maternal instincts kicking into overdrive.

"I don't know, Derrick... I really don't know how I feel about the kids being out there in the middle of nowhere right now."

"It's not the middle of nowhere, baby," I reasoned gently, placing my hands comfortably on her shoulders.

"And honestly, if you look at their situation, it's probably significantly safer out there on the outskirts than it is inside the city limits. Alex explicitly told me they barely encountered any civilian traffic or hostile elements pushing past their perimeter after the initial day of the collapse. Besides, they won't be exposed. Alex and Frank are holding down the fort out there. Frank is already sitting at a Level 6 Warrior, and Alex is a Level 5 Druid.

I know you still don't have the exact same understanding of these mechanical class concepts as the rest of us do, but trust me entirely when I tell you that Alex is already incredibly powerful. Given the choice, I'd choose a high-tier Druid to lock down a perimeter over a baseline Warrior any day of the week. And don't get me wrong, Frank is absolutely no slouch either. The System awarded him that Warrior classification for a very definitive reason."

"I know, I know," she sighed, her shoulders slumping as she looked down at the patio tiles.

"I just fundamentally hate everything about this new reality, and it constantly worries me."

"I don't like it any more than you do," I replied, trying to keep my expression completely serious. Denise snapped her head up, a knowing glint flashing in her eyes as she sharply slapped my forearm.

"Oh, you are completely full of it, Derrick Miller! You are literally having the absolute time of your life right now. Don't think I don't remember you text-sharing that stupid meme to me a few months back—the one about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse and having to desperately pretend you aren't completely excited for the world to end. Well, here is your actual apocalypse, and what's more, it's entirely zombie-free. So you can officially stop pretending." I broke character, letting out a genuine, booming chuckle.

"Okay, fine. I will freely admit I am a little excited. I mean, fundamentally speaking, I am currently wielding an epic broadsword. It's hard not to appreciate the irony. But honey, I do completely understand the very real, lethal dangers out there, and I worry about the children constantly. But... hell, should we even realistically be calling them children anymore? The boys are fifteen and seventeen. In a world where society completely collapses, those are adult ages.

And both of them are highly proficient with firearms—I personally saw to that myself by dragging them out to the firing range and ensuring they could comfortably operate and shoot every single weapon I own. Mike and Isadora are both twenty-one, and Alex is nineteen. We cannot keep them locked up inside the structural confines of this house anymore. We need them to actively get out there, adapt, and get stronger. Especially now." Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road.

Report any occurrences elsewhere. At the mention of the older kids, Denise's expression shifted, a deep, heavy shadow of maternal longing settling over her features.

"I've been thinking about Mike a lot today," she admitted, looking up into my eyes with a pleading, raw vulnerability.

"Derrick... do you really think he's okay out there?"

"I am completely sure he's fine," I responded instantly, my voice ringing with absolute certainty.

"Think about it, baby. He has access to some of the absolute highest-tier tactical training that government money can buy. Don't forget the kid is actively stationed with a premiere Special Forces unit."

"But he's not actually a Special Forces operator," she countered defensively, her voice tight.

"It's not the exact same thing."

"No, it's technically not," I conceded, nodding respectfully.

"But it is still damn close to it. I remember back when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, our unit completed a number of specialized structural projects directly for the 3rd and 7th Special Forces Groups. That was back when Bragg still had two full operational groups on the roster. But while we were attached go them, we were cleared to cross-train at some of their advanced firing ranges right alongside them.

Even though that exposure was relatively minimal in the grand scheme of things, it was incredibly informative and elevated our baseline capabilities. Now think about Mike's daily routine—he has been living, working, and embedded with those operators every single day since the moment he graduated from jump school. And... let's not forget that a core prerequisite for his specific occupational specialty required him to successfully complete Military Police school first.

If I know Mike, we're going to see him rucking through that front gate very soon." I paused for a brief beat, watching her features soften slightly before adding, "There is one more logistical detail we need to address, though." Denise's brow furrowed automatically, her posture tensing back up.

"What's that?"

"We need to acquire a large cache of weapons and ammunition to outfit our extended group," I stated, my tone dropping lower.

"And I know the exact place where we can get them." She crossed her arms, analyzing my face.

"And where exactly would that be?"

"Joe, Pete, Johnny, and I are planning to raid the local police department tonight," I said bluntly.

"You're going to WHAT?" she exclaimed, her voice spiking in volume as her eyes went wide. Before she could spiral into panic, I quickly moved in, taking her hands and methodically running her through the entire tactical breakdown I had just mapped out with Joe and the crew. I detailed the layout of the storage houses, the peripheral ammunition containers in the back lot, and our planned low-profile insertion strategy.

Just like Johnny, she was intensely apprehensive about the inherent risks of breaching a government facility. However, to her immense credit and practical mind, she began to see the absolute strategic wisdom of the plan before I could even finish laying out the final extraction.

"So," I finished with a soft smile, squeezing her hands, "when the guys pull up at our house tonight around nightfall, can you do me a massive favor and cook us up a heavy batch of that love? That Nourishment buff of yours is going to provide an incredibly critical physical margin for error when we cross that threshold tonight." Denise let out a soft, dramatic scoff, though a tiny, affectionate smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.

"I guess the ancient proverbs are entirely true then. The definitive way to a man's heart really is through his stomach."