When he returned home that afternoon, Suzie greeted him at the door.
"Reed! Where were you all day?"
Reed smiled warmly.
"Just handling some business."
"Business?"
Suzie was confused, previously he couldn't even get out of bed until noon, and now...
"…You have grown."
Sophia, standing behind her, chuckled softly, while feeling nostalgic.
How the small Reed cheesily calling her aunt has turned into a fine young man.
Reed simply smiled and walked upstairs.
He wanted for them to enjoy this moment of peace. To let them indulge all they can in this still beautiful world.
He shut his room door, and Elise immediately popped out.
"Don't you think you bought too much."
Reed raised an eyebrow.
"There is no such thing as too much supplies, especially in the apocalypse."
Elise opened her mouth, then shut it, anything she doesn't eat food, or rather these weren't hers, so she had no counterargument.
Reed sat down, calmly analyzing.
The apocalypse wasn't just about zombies and the bizarre environmental changes, it also clearly depicted the survival nature of humans—cruelty. People would become worse than zombies faster than anyone could expect.
A zombie was at least predictable, but a human with hunger and a gun wasn't.
That's why he needed—
weapons.
And weapons were... tricky, at least it couldn't meet Reed's standard if he go down the legal way. He could buy guns legally, but not in the quantities he needed.
And he couldn't draw attention. In the apocalypse, the first people raided weren't the rich nor the poor.
They were those who got supplies.
"Elise."
"What?"
Elise said as she floated closer.
"Can you access the darknet?"
Elise blinked, then puffed her chest proudly.
"This is but a piece of cake for me."
Reed nodded.
"Good. Find me suppliers."
Elise hesitated.
"…what if this backfires?"
Reed leaned back, expression calm. Her thinking wasn't over excessive but it wasn't without fault too. If someone really figures something out of him... Well, no one is insane enough to do so.
"Elise, in eighty-five days, robbery, murder, massacre, cannibalism and what not will be legal. We will think about that only when it's really gonna happen."
Elise stared at him for a long while then she sighed dramatically.
"Fine. But if some dawg really smelled it out, you handle it."
Reed smirked, planning exactly how to handle it.
...
Over the next week, Reed moved like a shadow through the city. He didn't rely only on Elise, but also used the connections his parents had made over the years.
He contacted private collectors, ex-military contractors, gun show dealers. Using money and influence to make amends.
Back-alley sellers who didn't ask questions.
He purchased firearms in pieces, across different locations, under different names, through intermediaries.
One pistol turned into five, five turned into twenty. A shotgun became three, ammo boxes stacked into hundreds.
He didn't only buy guns. Silencers, attachment s, body armor, tactical vests helmets, knee pads, night vision goggles, thermal scopes, crossbows, machetes, hunting knives and various other military equipment.
For what? To wage war against the zombies? No, all this wasn't for fight, guns only hold value initially in the zombie apocalypse.
What he wants these for... was to trade.
By the second month, Reed's supplies were terrifying, his wealth was no longer money, it was an almost endless amount of supplies.
But Reed still wasn't satisfied, he wouldn't stop here because New York was a death trap.
Reed stared at the map pinned to his wall, on it was the location of an estate he recently bought from a very erratic builder in asia.
It was secluded estate near the outskirts, in a village to be exact. It had been built in such a way that it can survive the cruelest of natural and man made forces.
It had Large land, fenced by thick walls capable of withstanding explosions easily, with it's own water filtration system connected to the river nearby through the underground channel, solar power and electricity generation systems, making it an ideal place to make a base.
He had also secretly done various modifications like steel doors, window bars, bulletproof glass panels, another layer of perimeter fence, traps, escape tunnels, cameras, motion sensors, radars, 360° monitoring systems, defensive and offensive protocols installed, making it no than the White House.
"This will be the base."
He pondered.
With this, he finally completed his checklist.
'It's in china, pretty decent choice i guess.'
The plan was simple, to trick Sophia and Suzie into relocating before the apocalypse.
He needed to make it look like not a relocation, it will be a 'vacation', just a rather entrinsic one.
Leaning back to the chair, Reed blatantly said.
"Sophia can be convinced."
"But what about Suzie?"
Elise asked, completely accepting him and his family as her own... While reed's gaze softened slightly at the mention of her. With a faint smile, he answered.
"To be frank, she is... Well, quite an idiot, not a tough nut to crack. And to top it off, she trusts me blindly."
Elise stared at him for a long moment, inwardly lamenting about his luck with women. Annoyed by the conclusion she came up with, she muttered.
"…Lucky b*stard."
...
Night, at Suzie's place.
Reed sat by the dining table with Sophia who gracefully finished her meal and Suzie who was humming happily while eating dessert. With a huge chunk in her mouth, she asked.
"You've been… quite busy lately."
Reed nodded calmly.
"I have to be, as there are many things for me to handle."
Sophia placed down her spoon.
"What are you planning? Why did you just give up on your parent's decades of hard work without even trying?"
Suzie froze mid-bite, almost choking on the cake she was eating. Forcefully swallowing it down, she nervously blurted out.
"What? Reed, are y-you seeing s-someome? A-are you secretly getting married?"
*COUGH**COUGH**COUGH*
And with that, this time it was Reed's turn to choke on his food.
Sophia glared at Suzie, while simultaneously coming to Reed's side, slowly caressing his back.