By early afternoon, Lira Ren had spent nearly forty minutes examining the warehouse's inventory system.
Daric and Jorin stood beside her, waiting.
Finally, she looked up.
"You designed this yourselves?"
"Mostly," Jorin answered. "Jules helped establish the original categories."
Lira scrolled through the spreadsheet.
Each item had a category, supplier, delivery date, quantity, and assigned storage location. The shelving zones were color-coded, and the brothers had created separate records for shipments that hadn't arrived yet.
"This is good work," she said.
Daric smiled.
Jorin tried not to.
Lira noticed.
"Don't look so pleased. I haven't finished."
Daric's smile disappeared.
She turned the tablet toward them.
"What happens when a supplier sends a partial shipment?"
"We record the amount received," Jorin answered.
"And the remainder?"
"We leave it pending."
"Good. But how do you link the second delivery to the first without accidentally counting it as a new purchase?"
The brothers exchanged a glance.
Daric leaned forward.
"We could assign a purchase-order number to each delivery record."
"And add a status field," Jorin said. "Partial, completed, damaged, or returned."
Lira nodded.
"Exactly."
She opened another section.
"And how are you checking that the goods inside each package match the invoice?"
"We've been checking them as they arrive," Daric said.
"Every package?"
"Not every individual box. Some shipments are sealed."
"Then you'll need a receiving procedure. You can't assume a supplier sent the correct goods simply because the outside label matches."
Jorin made a note.
Lira watched him for a moment.
"How old are you two?"
"Sixteen," they answered together.
"And your father put you in charge of this?"
"He gave us help," Daric said. "But we're managing the inventory."
Lira smiled.
"Then he's making good use of you."
She spent the next hour helping them refine their system rather than replacing it.
They established a separate receiving log, added purchase-order references, and created a process for identifying damaged or incomplete shipments.
When Kaelen called to ask how the inspection was going, Lira gave him a straightforward answer.
"Your sons have done excellent work. They need a little guidance on commercial receiving procedures, but the foundation is solid."
Kaelen sounded pleased.
"Can you help them with the next round of deliveries?"
"If they're willing to listen."
Across the table, Daric whispered something to Jorin.
Jorin elbowed him.
Lira looked at them.
"They're willing," she said.
Jules spent the afternoon watching farming videos.
She'd begun with a simple search on TutuBe:
How to grow vegetables for beginners.
Three hours later, she had learned that tomatoes required support, potatoes shouldn't be planted too close together, and preparing soil was considerably more complicated than throwing seeds into the ground.
She also discovered that people had surprisingly strong opinions about compost.
One video featured a woman explaining how to establish a small vegetable garden using basic hand tools. Jules watched it twice, pausing to write down the equipment she would need.
A shovel.
A garden fork.
A hoe.
A rake.
A wheelbarrow.
Gloves.
Seed trays.
She glanced at the packets of seeds spread across her desk.
She'd purchased them because she knew food production would eventually become essential.
But she'd spent so much time acquiring supplies that she'd barely considered what it would take to grow anything.
Her dimension had fertile land, clean air, and a stream containing vital flux.
Those advantages wouldn't help if she never planted a seed.
Jules opened another video.
This one covered preparing a vegetable plot from untouched ground.
The instructor drove a garden fork into the soil and explained how to loosen it without destroying its structure.
Jules looked toward her bedroom window.
Then she looked at her hands.
She had survived eight apocalypses.
Surely she could learn to grow a tomato.
That evening, Jules cooked dinner while her father finished work.
She prepared rice, roasted vegetables, and chicken seasoned with garlic, herbs, and lemon. She'd made the chicken earlier and preserved it in dimensional storage, so she only needed to retrieve the portions she wanted to serve.
The rice and vegetables were freshly prepared.
Amira helped set the table, carefully counting out nine places.
Kaelith followed her with a spoon in each hand.
"I'm helping," he announced.
"You're doing a wonderful job," Jules told him.
He placed both spoons beside one plate.
Amira sighed.
"Kaelith, everyone needs one."
He looked at the table.
Then he moved one spoon to the next place setting.
"Better?"
"Much better."
When Kaelen finally emerged from his office, the family was already gathering around the table.
"How was the warehouse?" Jules asked her brothers.
"Good," Daric said.
"Lira helped us improve the receiving system," Jorin added.
"Did she make you redo everything?"
"No," Daric said. "She actually liked what we made."
Jules smiled.
"I told you it was good."
"You also told us to stop arguing over the colors," Jorin replied.
"Because you spent twenty minutes debating whether medical supplies should be blue or green."
"Green makes more sense," Daric said.
"Medical supplies should be blue."
"Why?"
"Because—"
"Eat," Kaelen interrupted.
The brothers stopped.
For approximately five seconds.
Then Jorin muttered, "Still think blue makes more sense."
Daric kicked him under the table.
Serina shook her head, smiling.
Jules looked around at her family.
Her father was discussing the warehouse improvements with the boys. Selina was helping Kaelith cut his chicken. Amira was telling Tavian about something she'd read that morning.
Everyone had something to contribute.
And for the first time since she'd awakened in this life, Jules wasn't trying to direct every conversation toward another purchase, another delivery, or another emergency plan.
She had her own work to do.
After dinner, she helped clear the table, washed the last pan, and returned upstairs.
On her desk lay the gardening notes she'd made that afternoon.
She picked them up, then looked toward the empty corner of her bedroom.
Beyond that familiar space waited a cottage with a modern kitchen and almost nothing else.
No bed.
No furniture.
No place to sit after a long day's work.
Outside, the family was preparing warehouses, vehicles, water systems, and supplies.
Inside her dimension, Jules had barely begun.
She opened her notebook to a fresh page.
At the top, she wrote:
DIMENSION — DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Underneath, she added three headings.
Farming.
Livestock.
Furnishing the cottage.
She stared at the list for a moment, then underlined the first heading.
Tomorrow, she would begin preparing the land.