I woke up, letting out a loud yawn. I rolled over and pulled my pillow back over my head. It was too bright and I was still tired. I slowly slipped back into dreamland. Feeling comfy and warm. When I woke up again it was dark outside. I liked the dark, it just felt more natural to me. I crawled out of bed and shuffled out of my bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen. Picking my tablet up off the kitchen table I flicked on the news while I made myself a cup of my favourite coffee. It was ru’yabaza coffee.

I wasn't really listening to the news but I knew the lady on the news was prattling on about the riots happening in many of the cities. Once my coffee was ready I moved to the dining table and sat down to drink it while I watched the news. As far as I was concerned the news had nothing important to say. It was just the same crap they had been talking about for the last few weeks. Some nut job was hacking into every tv and radio channel spouting off about the end of the world as we know it and if we want to stay safe we should move to densely populated suburbs or towns. Somewhere far from the cities. The tablet droned on as I made myself another cup before heading for the shower.

I took a quick rinse before packing a couple of bags with clothes and essentials that I would need for three months in my grandfather's house up in the mountains. The coffee machine went into the trunk of my car along with a fricken lot of coffee bags. I tossed my suitcases on the back seat and locked up my house before getting in the car. I drove down the driveway taking a left at the end. seven blocks later and a few turns, I was at my parents’ house reversing into their driveway. I knocked on the door waiting for my bleary-eyed sister who opened the door. I laughed at her hair, it was everywhere.

"What the hell are you laughing at, Emma?"

After I managed to pull myself back together I told her

"your hair is a mess."

I walked past her into the house.

"Come on, let's get you packed into the car so we can head up to grandpa's, I'm sure mom and dad have already gotten everyone else up there already."

She snickered at me before pointing at a suitcase by the door.

“I knew you were coming tonight instead of today. Ya know like you were meant to this morning, so I’m already packed!”

I laughed and put my hands on my hips.

“Well if I’m so predictable then you can put it in the car.”

She snickered at me.

“Nuh-uh, Tom! Can you take our suitcases out to the car please” she called out to her boyfriend.

A few seconds later Tom came running down the hallway lugging his suitcase in his left hand and as he passed Jeniffer’s he scooped it up with his right hand and went out the front door without even saying hello to me.

“Hello, Tom” I called after him as I rolled my eyes.

“Why is he coming?” I asked Jennifer.

“Cause he is my boyfriend and Grandpa said he could,” Jennifer replied cheerfully.

I sighed and nodded my head. We followed him out the front door where she stopped and locked it before following me over to the car. Tom had already stuffed their luggage into the backseat.

“Shit em, how much coffee do you need?”

Jeniffer asked as she looked over the hundred or so bags of coffee I had filled the boot of the car with. I just made a face at her as I climbed into the driver’s seat and put my seatbelt on.

“You coming Jeniffer or do you plan to stay?”

She quickly climbed into the back passenger’s seat as I turned the car on. Tom had, of course, claimed the front seat.

“I’m coming, I'm coming, don’t get your panties in a knot” she grumbled back at me.

I couldn’t help smiling as I pulled the car out of the driveway and merged with traffic as I began the long drive to Grandpas’. It wasn’t long before Jeniffer had Tom turn the radio on and blaring at full volume. Her hands were soon slapping her thighs in time with the beat of the song.

I found my sister's happiness infectious and began to sing along with her to songs I knew. I was turning onto a street that went past a shopping centre before connecting to an onramp to the highway when I was forced to slow down because a lot of other people were running across the road heading for the shopping centre.

"What the hells going on?" Jennifer asked As we drove past.

I could see a dozen police cars in the parking lot. The police were trying to enforce some semblance of order.

"I have no idea," I replied as I turned my head back to the road ahead of me.

I Sped up a little as I merged onto the on-ramp. Finding there were not many vehicles, I continued to speed up to the speed limit enjoying the drive as I sang with my sister. I slowly lost track of the time and where we were as I enjoyed the songs and fun I was having. It wasn't until Tom screamed.

“you're going to miss the exit!”

That I realised I almost had, I didn't bother trying to make it.

“Damn, I'll grab the next one and come back,” I said as I moved the car over to the correct lane.

Tom glared at me like I should have been paying more attention. I couldn't help rolling my eyes, the ass was just in a hurry to get there so he could suck up to our parents. And bang my sister.

I managed to easily get the car turned around and back to the correct exit.

I followed the road until it reached a small town. Tom looked at me as we drove past a pharmacy.

“What?” I asked.

He smiled at me and then pointed back.

“Mind stopping I need to grab something quickly.”

I groaned but nodded my head and pulled over before I reversed into a nearby parking bay. Tom jumped out and jogged back towards the pharmacy.

“Think he is off to buy some ‘hope I'm getting lucky’ raincoats.” I snickered as I watched my sister's face in the rearview mirror.

She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out.

“At least I’m getting some. But he is going to be disappointed if he is buying that. Because I'm not crazy enough to give him any in grandpa’s house.”

I let out a laugh as I looked down the street noticing a large oval, it was about an acre. Next to it was a high school.

"You have got to be kidding me," she said, a mix of both frustration and amusement in her voice.

I turned to look towards the pharmacy to see Tom heading back to the car, waving around a pair of candy panties with one hand, and holding a pharmacy bag in the other. Jennifer shook her head and sighed as Tom got in the front seat.

"Guess what I found," Tom said in between chuckles as he waved the panties about.

I pressed the ignition button and tried to ignore the hard flirting going on between them. Tom pulled out some more items from the bag.

"And I got you a couple of boxes of Tampons because I know you didn't pack enough, plus I don’t have my car," he said, tossing them at Jennifer in the back seat.

"And a morning-after pill for you" Tom exclaimed, laughing loudly as he threw the box in my lap.

I heard a slapping noise after Jennifer leant forwards suddenly. Tom sat there in silence, now holding his bright pink cheek unhappily. I tried to resist the urge to slap him myself. I tossed the box into the cup holder between us. I noticed the bag also had six packs of condoms in it and another morning-after pill box. I snickered and glanced back at Jennifer.

“Raincoat” was all I said and we both laughed.

I pulled the car back onto the road and headed for Grandpas’ again. Halfway through the town, I noticed a large shopping centre with a banner over the entrance reading ‘Grand Opening’ but there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. Tom was sulking and Jennifer was on her phone ignoring him. So I made a mental note of where it was, thinking I could come back into town in a few days and see what they had. As I reached the end of town I took a left onto an old dirt road and followed it out of town.

As we began travelling into the woods. I was keeping an eye out for the old marker of grandpa’s, it was an ancient scarecrow dangling from a tree branch as if it had been hung. The scarecrow was positioned so it hung over the middle of the road. It was a joke he set up for his mates decades ago, but it served to show where the turn-off onto his property was. It was Jennifer that spotted it as she screamed and pointed down the road.

“Ah! Mr Jenkins has hung himself again!”

We both started giggling as Tom sat up looking confused. Jennifer took pity on him and explained.

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“Mr Jenkins is the name of grandpa’s ancient scarecrow and a running joke. You see when grandpa was a little boy. A man named Homer Jenkins was hanged by a mob of people that had accused him of killing a bunch of kids. Of course, it wouldn't be funny if the story ended there now would it?”

She eyed Tom from the back seat as if expecting an answer but as he went to open his mouth she continued the story.

“No, of course not. What makes it funny and creepy is that no one has bought the old Jenkins farm because they say old man Jenkins was so distraught with how his son died he went and attempted to hang himself from a huge tree on his property. However, the rope snapped and when he hit the ground, he broke his leg. He ended up dying of old age. But apparently is still seen to this day limping around the property singing.”

She smiled before she started singing the song.

“Are you, are you coming to the tree? They strung him up. They say my son murdered three. Strange things did happen here. No stranger would it be if we met at midnight in the hanging tree.”

She smiled again and pointed to the scarecrow.

“spooky right?”

We both started laughing again as tom looked between us with an uneasy look on his face.

“You shouldn’t mock the dead,” he grumbled at us.

I smiled at Tom as I watched Jennifer lean forwards and we both suddenly yelled “boo!”

Tom flinched hard and banged into the door as he flailed about. Jennifer and I laughed. I slowed the car down and turned onto the driveway up to grandpa’s house.

"That wasn't funny!" He said as he glared at us.

"I thought it was funny," I replied.

"Yea, so did I."

We both smiled at Tom as he grumbled and sulked in his seat.

"Is any of that story true?" He asked curiously.

"No idea," I replied.

"I don't know either, grandpa has been telling it to mum since she was a little girl but every time someone calls bullshit on it. He becomes adamant that it's true."

Tom nodded and we all fell into our own thoughts as we neared the house.

"That's odd" I mumbled as the house came into view.

The house was an old ranch-style home with a verandah wrapped around it.

"What's odd?" Tom asked.

"The porch light is off." I glanced back at my sister.

"You don't think?" She asked.

I turned my headlights off and quickly threw the car into reverse.

"I do, it is one of the signals."

The car quickly reversed back down the driveway until I spotted a red dot of paint on a tree and turned the car in behind the tree and reversed down the slope and into a hidden tunnel with trees and shrubs all over it.

"What the hell is going on?" Tom asked but we ignored him.

I jumped out of the car and pulled the roller door down over the entrance to the tunnel concealing it. I quickly got back into the car and reversed down the tunnel to a section that was wide enough to turn around. I quickly turned the car to do just that. I turned my lights back on and sped up rushing the car down the tunnel.

"Seriously, what is going on?" Tom asked again.

Jennifer hissed in annoyance before she replied "grandpa was in the military, special forc-" I slammed on the brakes before quickly reversing the car into a garage. I leapt out of the car and pulled the roller door closed and locked it with a padlock. “Es..” Jennifer finished as she stood next to the car glaring at me.

I rolled my shoulders at her before moving to the right side of the garage door and placed my hand on the first rock sticking out of the wall at hip height and slowly began to walk away from the door counting the rocks.

By the time I got to the nineteenth rock, Jennifer had pulled Tom out of the car and over to me. I looked at them before pushing the rock into the wall. As the rock slid in, a hidden door with the next rock in the middle of it made a clicking sound and opened a few inches. I pushed it open and stepped through, I closed it behind Tom and Jennifer. I turned walking down the room past military shelves and cupboards. I stopped in the middle, the shelf in front of me had military uniforms on it. I began stripping off my clothing until I was in my underwear.

“Jen, the porch light was off,” I said as she stood next to me in her underwear.

"The house isn't safe" she replied as she pulled a pair of camo pants on.

"There was a red dot on the tree," I said as I pulled on my own pair of camo pants.

"The exit has been compromised" she replied as she pulled a shirt on.

"Jenkins was wearing...shit I didn't see what shoes he was wearing, did you?" I asked as I pulled my shirt on.

Jennifer suddenly gritted her teeth and shook her head. "no, I was too busy messing with Tom." She grumbled as she grabbed a jacket.

"Damn" I screamed as I grabbed a jacket, turning to see Tom just standing there staring at us with a weird lecherous look on his face.

"I like a girl in uniform," he said as he looked at us.

"Oh grow up and get changed!" Jennifer told him as she threw a pair of pants in his face.

He gave an angry look as he caught the pants as they fell.

"You haven't even told me why yet, and for the record, the damn scarecrow was wearing military boots."

We both froze our hands reaching for a pair of military boots as our heads turned to look at him.

“Are you sure?” I asked, my voice shaking a little.

"Of course I'm sure" he exclaimed as he finished undressing and started pulling on the cammies Jennifer was handing him. " You two used that damn thing to scare the shit out of me, I'm not about to forget what it looks like, now am I?"

Jen and I quickly put our boots on.

"Military boots, red dot and light out" Jennifer whispered.

"Serious threat, gone to ground" I replied as I looked at her nervously.

"What could spook grandpa enough to cause him to hide?" Jennifer asked.

I felt trepidation run down my spine as I stared into Jennifer's eyes.

“I have no idea” I whispered to her.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on!” Tom hissed.

Jennifer turned to Tom as she sighed.

“Okay, the land you are on has been in the family for so many generations, you see part of the deal of inheritance for the land is, that you must add more land to the estate in order to inherit it. However, this only applies to firstborn, man or woman, they have to purchase land attached to the estate and then add it to the estate growing the land bigger and bigger. As for the second born and any further children born from the parent of the firstborn can still receive an allowance from the family estate after they turn eighteen. if they purchase land not attached to the estate and have that land added to the estate’s portfolio. Like how I own the apartment building I live in. the money from that goes to the estate portfolio and then distributed.”

Tom looked confused.

“What does that have to do with what's going on here?”

I smiled at him before I pulled open a cabinet and took out a holstered HK MK23.

“Everything, you see when you own so much land you have people that want to take it from you, normally that means land developers want to purchase the land to develop it into towns or whatever.”

Jennifer snickered as she pulled out her own holstered HK MK23 and we both strapped them to our right thighs.

“Of course, land developers are easy to brush off you just say no, go away or fuck off if they get persistent enough. However, every now and then you get people that think they have rights to the land and want to take it through less legal ways.” I said as Jennifer and I, unholstered our pistols and checked the chambers and rounds before putting the loaded weapon back into its holster and clipping the strap over it.

“Of course, they're still fairly easy to deal with, you call the cops, have them arrested, pop off a few shots to keep them distracted while the cops arrive, then let the law firm we own deal with them. They are always fun. We gain their land in the lawsuit.”

Tom held up his hand as he looked between us.

“Hang on, you are strapping guns to yourself, you're starting to scare me.”

I smiled and waved my hand dismissively as I began walking down to gun racks.

“Ah, it's just a precaution, we haven't been out here in years, it's probably a test, to see what we remember. Don't worry, okay?”

Tom was shaking his head as he inched back towards the door.

“You have dumped a lot of information on me, but you still haven’t told me what's going on.”

Jennifer slammed the cupboard door closed as she glared at him.

“Okay, fine, you want to know?”

Tom flinched at the loud banging sound but he nodded to Jennifer’s question.

“Yes, I want to know.”

Jennifer sighed as I pulled an FN Scar-L from the weapon rack.

“Alright hun, the scarecrow had military boots on, that means there are men on the estate with guns and we are to go to ground. The house light was off, which means there are at least half a dozen men and they have taken the house or are watching it. Finally, the red dot on the tree means there are more men in the tree’s most likely near the road to ensure no one drives out, they most likely have RPGs or spike strips. Basically, there is a small army on the property and we should arm ourselves and hide, pick off any strays and defend our land. Simple right”

Tom was now shaking his head quickly.

“Nope, nope, nooo, this is way too much, Jennifer you're hot as hell but this is too much for me. There is no way I can go running around a forest with real guns! I want out, let me out right now!”

Jennifer and I looked at each other, then at Tom before Jennifer replied.

“Tom, Hunny, relax, it's going to be okay and there is no way we would let you run around the forest with a gun, you're not trained. No, we are going to leave you in a safe house down here.”

Jennifer smiled at Tom before turning to look at the monitors with me.

“How many do you see?” I asked Jennifer as she smacked one of the monitors that had a fuzzy image on it.

“Twenty-seven, eight around the house, four inside the house, eight near the road, looks like they do have RPGs and spike strips and then there are six fanning out looking for grandpa and whoever else was here. They look like they're moving in teams of two and that leaves the last guy who is in the garage.” I nodded my head and then pointed at a monitor showing the road we had come in on.

“You missed these three hiding behind the trees, but they don't seem to have guns in their hands, maybe they are the leaders or lookouts?”

Jennifer looked at the monitor as she frowned.

“Perhaps-” Jennifer closed her mouth suddenly as we heard the sound of a pistol being cocked behind us.

We slowly stood up and turned to see Tom holding a pistol and waving it between us.

“Drop your weapons, and open the door!” he screeched.

I slowly knelt down as I lowered the assault rifle to the ground, and then unclipped the strap on my holstered pistol. The sound of a door unlocking caught my attention as I glanced up to see Jennifer turning away from the computer.

“The door is open Tom, you can leave if you really want to but there are dangerous men out there, you are safer here with us.”

Tom’s shaking hand suddenly became steady as he smiled.

“I know, that's why I purchased a morning-after pill for each of you because you are going to need it once we are done with you, of course, that will also be after your grandpa has signed the estate over to us, the rightful owners.”

He laughed at us before he motioned for us to come closer as he backed towards the door.

“Now step this way as you undress, you need to be presentable.”

My face twisted into revolution and anger I drew the pistol from its holster as fast as I could and pulled the trigger. The bullet missed the heart I was aiming for but it did get Tom in the left shoulder. Tom screamed in pain dropping his gun as he stumbled back through the open door, his right hand grasping his left shoulder. He looked up in time to see us advancing on him, pistols drawn and pointing at him. He quickly pushed the door closed before we could reach it. I banged on the door as Jennifer screamed. “Asshole!”

I turned around and quickly ran back to the monitors. I could see him running down the corridor heading for the surface. I grabbed up my assault rifle and glared at the monitor for another second before pushing the few buttons that would unlock the door.

“I'm going to kill him,” I growled.

Jennifer quickly turned to look at me as she held her own rifle fresh from the rack.

“That scum is mine to kill. I loved him, gave him my v card and.. and..”

Jennifer turned and ran out the door. I stood there a little stunned before a smile slowly crept onto my face.

“Oh, that boy is in for a world of pain.”

I took one step towards the door when the room shook violently. And large rocks began to fall from the roof of the tunnel. I realised I was going to be sealed inside the room right before a rock hit me on the head.