"I don't think you should go, dad. The news said there might be another wave of covid." Will said, attempting to convince his dad once again but he knew it was futile.

"It's fine. It's been over 7 years already, we can't hide away from it forever." Papa Lee assured to his son. "At most, I'll spend in a few days sick."

Will almost panicked when he heard that. "No! If you're going, you have to be careful, you can't get sick over there...we uh...don't have insurance in Hong Kong, it will cost too much if you get sick."

"You don't have to worry, of course I'm not going to get sick on purpose." He said with a smile.

"What are you getting so worked up for? Your father will be fine." Mama Lee interjected, wagging her finger at Will. "You, on the other hand, you should focus on studying for your GED! If you don't get into college before the end of summer, I'm kicking you out of the house."

When they had found out that their son wasn't taking part in the graduation ceremony at the end of the school year, the Lee husband and wife naturally looked into why, and they found out that their son had been skipping out on school for an entire semester. Mama Lee had been completely furious when she found out.

"Alright..." Will went back into his room and sat down with his head in his hands.

Same as in his first life, his father was going to Hong Kong on a business trip. If it was his father alone, Will could come up with something to prevent him from going on his trip. But the problem was that his father was leaving with his business partner—Uncle Jackie, who was also bringing Aunt Shan and Edison along, which extended their trip to 3 weeks so that they could visit their relatives for the summer.

Like with Sara, Will was left with no choice but to trust that they would be safe, like they had the first time around. The problem was he was afraid that his actions this time had butterflied things and may change the situation for his family while they were over there.

I have to at least increase their chances of survival. Will thought as he grabbed his jacket and keys.

"Where are you going?" His mom looked up from the travel suitcase she was helping Papa Lee pack and grilled Will.

"I need to borrow Edison's study notes." Will gave an excuse.

"Be quick then, and pick up some eggs on your way back."

"Got it."

Will left the apartment but instead of going to his relative's house, he drove in a different direction. As he drove, cityscape gave way to suburbs before larger plots of empty land became more common.

He soon turned into an isolated property that was surrounded by concrete walls, making it hard to peek inside the compound. The gate into the compound was wide open, leading to a two-story house that had solar panels lining the roof. There was also a satellite receiver and a radio antenna sticking out.

On the left was a large tunnel greenhouse. There were some crops already in the process of growing inside the greenhouse. A large water tower and chicken coop could be seen nearby.

On the right, there was a box truck parked in the driveway to the side, its back facing a large storehouse with solar panels on the roof. Will found Donny guiding a pallet jack with a pallet full of boxes out of the truck and into the storehouse.

Donny looked up when he heard Will closing the driver side door. "You finally ungrounded?" Donny teased.

"Nope, running a few errands and checking up on you." Will said, following Donny into the storehouse. The storehouse was already half stocked full of boxes containing essentials. "What'd you buy this time?"

Donny slapped the pallet he was putting down into the middle of the storehouse. "Instant noodles."

"I see." Will nodded.

"What?" He swapped over to a hydraulic stacker, lifting the pallet and placing it onto the rack.

"Nothing."

"I need some flavour. We have enough of that boring stuff." Donny gestured at the boxes containing foodstuffs such as MREs, canned food, hardtack, rice, beans, spam, energy bars, bouillon cubes, dried fruit, chocolate, peanut butter, honey, and powdered milk, coffee, cocoa. There was also alcohol, lots of alcoholic drinks.

"I didn't say anything." Will raised up his hands.

"Alright then."

"Alright." Will glanced around the storehouse. "Where did you put the protective gear?"

"I put it inside the house with all the weapons, just in case we need them."

Will went to the back of the storehouse, past the other essentials such as vitamins & supplements, toilet paper, soap, hand-sanitizer, first-aid items, and batteries, to a tightly sealed door. He entered the second half of the large storehouse and checked on the things inside.

The room was filled up with containers and tanks of insects of all kinds. Will had looked far and wide for many of the exotic insects in the collection. But the thing that most of these insects had in common was that they each had what could be considered a special characteristic.

Will inspected the room, making sure everything was tightly sealed and there were no loose insects. He also made sure to feed all of them.

"Ughh...your Parasite farm still gives me the creeps." Donny hugged himself as he entered the room.

"You'll thank me if we can get a Parasite from any of this."

"What are our chances anyway?"

"I think we'll be lucky if we get at least one from this entire room." Will said, putting away the feed. "Even then, it will still be worth it."

The two made their way into the house, Will grabbing a box and a first-aid kit on the way. There was a home gym in the large room near the entrance and a fully stocked clinic in the back. The two went into the room next to the clinic. Inside was where they stored all the equipment they would be using out in the field.

Will placed the box down—with the first-aid kit already inside, and began packing it with radios, halligan bars, climbing picks, rope, bulletproof vests, protective arm and leg guards, goggles, gloves, and ballistic helmets.

"What are these for?" Donny asked.

"Couldn't convince my family to stay, so I'll send this care package over to Hong Kong to increase their chances."

"So it's like an air drop." Donny nodded in understanding. "What about food?"

"I'll order something online and have it sent to the address they're staying at later." Will said.

Once he was done packing the box, he wrote down the shipping information on it and placed it in his pickup truck—to be sent later.

"By the way, I just got sent the last of the loans earlier. When are we investing?" Donny said, waving his phone around with an expectant smile on his face. On it displayed his bank account with roughly $250,000. Will had about the same in his own account. They tried to borrow more but more than half of the lenders they encountered required employment or harsher prerequisite to be eligible for a loan.

Although paying the contractors and everything on the compound put them back $600,000, mostly all the money they made betting—the Toronto T-Rexes lost in the finals to Donny's great disappointment. The two had scoured Toronto and the internet for any moneylenders and borrowed everything they could, no matter how one-sided the rates were. With less than 2 weeks until July 11th, they didn't need to worry about anyone coming to collect.

"We can do it tomorrow. When I get home, I'll send you a list of companies that will still be running even after everything happens." Will said.

"Sounds good." Donny's phone buzzed at that moment and he answered it. "Yo, Mikey, what's up." Donny's face suddenly turned serious, and he hung up shortly after.

"Something wrong?" Will asked.

"The bookie we used, the police just raided their office." Donny said, biting his lip. "They have all the files with our info on it."

"It's fine." Will said.

"What do you mean? What if they come and arrest us? We can't be stuck in prison when shit hits the fan." Donny grabbed his head as he paced around.

"Relax. I said it's fine." Will put a hand on Donny's shoulder to reassure him. "They still have to sift through all the files and organize the evidence. Building a case and getting warrants takes time. Time they don't have."

"I guess you're right..." Donny let out a breath. "But what about after?"

"We can just raid the police department during the mess and get rid of any evidence they have."

"Right...we can do that. Even though we've been working towards it for the last couple of months, I sometimes forget the end of the world is coming."

"Not the end of the world."

"Right, half apocalypse. Halfpocalypse. Never mind, 7/11 sounds better." Donny chuckled.

"Some people call it Z-day."

"Z as in the Z-word? That's corny as hell."

"Alright, I need to get back." Will returned to his truck and drove back home. He grabbed some notes he had packed away in his glove box on his way back in.

"You took your time." His mom gave him a look when he entered.

"There was a lot of traffic."

"Did you get the eggs?"

"Uh..."