Four hours later they all stood in the driveway, looking into the garage. An entire corner was taken up with canned goods, gallons of water, and boxes of rice and pasta. Tess had neatly organized a whole slew of first aid and over-the-counter meds as well as as much toiletries as she could get.
One entire side of the garage was filled with various stacks of hardware, protective clothing and PPE, and every type of tool and supply Zavier could think of. Stacked outside of the garage he had enough lumber, plywood, stones, and bricks to build an entire guest house if he wanted to. Further back, he had dozens of lengths of mismatched pre-made fencing. He'd also rented a skid loader, trencher, post hole digger, and air compressor, putting a down payment on it to rent it all for a week. He figured by then he'd either be done with them or capitalism would have collapsed and he wouldn't need to return them. Either way, he had what he wanted. Later today he'd go fill up the two 50-gallon barrels with gasoline for them. Gas wouldn't last forever but he had a year or so with unleaded, longer with diesel. He doubted it'd matter much after the first six months.
"Alright Team Torres, we have one more mission. We're going back to the hardware store and we all need to pick some offensive and defensive equipment."
They looked at each other pensively but no one said anything. This was bringing the reality of the situation down on them and killing the fun of the morning shopping spree, but it was time to get serious.
"In two hours the safe period ends. I don't know if we'll be in immediate danger or not, but we need to prep as if we're going to be. Going forward we need to over prepare for everything. There are going to be other people and creatures that are faster, stronger, and more deadly than us, but we are a damned smart family. We can out-plan and out-prepare anyone. First step of that is picking weapons."
"What about these daggers?" Cass said, waving at the ones sheathed on his, Luna's, and Tess's belts.
"Those are good and definitely a primary weapon, but not every situation will call for it. Plus, the best weapon isn't the one that does the most damage - it's the one that you can do the most damage with. You need to pick items that speak to you and feel right. Things that feel natural. Then whatever you choose will be stronger than a knife. Understand?"
They did and they all climbed into the SUV to head to the hardware store for the last time.
They walked into the crowded store, Tess and Luna breaking off in one direction with Cass and Zavier hanging behind. Zavier could tell Cass had something to say and he wanted to give him time to approach it on his own.
After a few minutes of aimless wandering in silence Cass spoke. "Dad, I don't want to get a weapon. I mean, I have the knife and a baseball bat at home, but I don't want to have to use them."
They stopped and Cass looked at Zavier with trepidation in his eyes. Zavier marveled at how his baby was already as tall as he was, handsome and lean in the effortless way of teenagers. He had inherited Zavier's hazel-green eyes and Tess's long eyelashes - both of the twins had, as well as the dark honey skin tone that was a perfect mix of his Mexican ancestry and Tess's African-American. His heart squeezed a little as he thought of everything they were going to have to go through to survive what was coming.
"Why not son?" Zavier asked, keeping his voice gentle and non-accusatory.
"I… I don't know. I didn't like fighting that squirrel thing and I hated killing it. I'm no vegan or anything, I know animals die and that one that attacked us needed to, but I hated it. I was so scared, I went fuzzy, and next thing I knew I was sitting on the bed feeling like a million ants were crawling under my skin and like my heart was going to explode out of my chest. And when I saw it laying there with all that blood…" He shuddered as he pictured it. "I'm not strong like you, mom, and Luna. I know I look like I should be because I play sports but I'm not and I know it."
Zavier saw the tears welling up in his eyes and his heart broke a little. "Son, come here," he pulled him into an empty aisle to save him the embarrassment of a dad hugging him in public, and put his arms around him. He held him there for a minute then kissed him on the top of the head, holding his shoulders he looked him in the eyes, hoping Cass could see his sincerity.
"There are a lot of ways to be strong, and not all of them are how many things you can kill. You deal with things here," he touched Cass's forehead, "and here," he placed his hand over Cass's heart, "that most people wouldn't be strong enough to handle. I love you for the strength you have and I love you for not wanting to hurt anything. There's nothing wrong with that, okay?"
He looked deeply into Cass's eyes and saw the relief and love there. He took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. "But we DO have to figure something out. Your mom and me, we can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but we need to find a way to make you strong. You have to protect the three of us the same way we have to protect each other. I don't know what that looks like for you so we'll have to experiment on different things, but for now we have to start with the basics."
"You ARE going to have to fight. That sucks and I don't want you to have to, but I love you too much to let you die because I didn't push you. You could just use the knife and your baseball bat, so don't feel like you have to get anything here, but maybe we can talk through some options?"
The look of fear had reentered Cass's eyes but so did understanding. Zavier hated himself for putting that fear back onto him, but he was only going to be able to coddle Cass so far before it became dangerous. In the world of two days ago he'd have been content to let Cass be whoever he was comfortable with and just make sure he had all the love and support he needed. But, in today's world, he needed to make sure Cass could protect himself, even if it meant being harder on him than he wanted to.
They wandered the store, eyes roaming over everything and letting Cass get a feel for what he wanted to try. By the time they all met up at the register Cass had a few slingshots, a compound bow with arrows, some long metal fence posts that Zavier thought could be used as a sort-of spear to keep creatures at a distance, and a few different versions of items that could be turned into shields; trash can lids, a solid oak door that could have arm straps attached, a few smaller sheets of metal, and even a toilet seat lid.
Luna had also seemed to not know what she wanted and had an array of smaller items that all looked potentially harmful up close; Screwdrivers, hammers, carpet knives, etc. Tess had picked up eight machetes and some different pieces of strengthened clothing. There were four welding jackets with material tough enough to keep anything from cutting or biting through, flexible cut-proof gloves, steel toed boots, thick denim coveralls, and even a few versions of bicycle and football helmets.
Zavier, in turn, had picked up a wide range of sledge hammers, axes, rope, tool belts, and straps so they would be able to make makeshift tool belts for all their items, no matter what they were wearing.
"Going a little heavy on the hammers, don't you think?" Tess nodded towards the 25 pound mauls.
"I figured that as our strength stats go up we're probably going to be able to lift heavier things pretty easily. These are too heavy now but I wanted to get them before they were gone, for later."
Soon they were out of the store and back home with an hour to spare before the safe period ended. Luna and Cass went to their rooms to play their new video games. Tess left to make a run to the gun store to pick up as much ammunition as she could, promising she'd be back before the hour was up. With everything else taken care of, Zavier decided to go next door to talk to his neighbor, the Crazy Canuck.