Will opened the front door to the small house and found that the lights were on and the sound of tapping was coming from the room he had set up as the office. As he was taking his shoes off, he noticed Donny's sneakers there. When he entered the office, he found Donny typing away on one of the laptops.

"I thought you were planning to go to school today?" Will asked.

"I did, but talked to Mikey." Donny suddenly looked around and began speaking in a low voice, as if he was afraid someone would overhear him. "He said his guy can get us the guns whenever we can pay him. I wanted to tell you but I didn't want to mention it on the phone."

"There's no need to be so nervous. If we're caught for unauthorized possession of a firearm, we'll most likely only take a fine." Will assured as he took out his wallet and pulled out a several hundred dollar bills, putting it on the table next to Donny. "As for the money, this should be enough. What were you working on anyway?" Will asked, taking a look at the computer screen.

"The playoffs are starting soon, so I signed up for this betting site to check out how it works." Donny said as he tucked the money away in his wallet. "But when I tried to make a bet, I found out that they have a limit." Donny switched the tab on screen to show what he was talking about.

"$2,500 limit..." Will said. "That won't be enough for us."

"That's why I was looking for a site with higher limits, but the highest I could find was $10,000 limit on this one super shady looking site. So in the end, I followed your playbook like with all the banks we visited and decided to sign up for all the betting sites I could find." Donny showed Will a notepad he had on the side with a list of at least 15 sites, the sign in details, the bet limit, and the bet he placed.

"That's a good idea."

"Ye, the odds aren't too bad. You said that the Toronto T-Rexes made it to the finals, but you couldn't remember which games they won. So the only thing we can do was bet on them every game. We might lose some bets, but we'll still be up by a lot in the end."

"If you're already betting, that means you've started receiving the money from the banks?"

"Yeee, I got the bank from the bank." Donny clicked on his phone and then showed it to Will. Will merely shook his head as he took the phone and checked the banking app displayed on screen.

DA

Dominion-Alberta Bank

Deposit Accounts Current Balance ***8813 - Savings $0.00 ***5152 - Swear Jar $63,000.00

"When we were opening up our new accounts, that cute teller told me I could nickname my accounts."

Will tapped on the chequing account or 'Swear Jar' and it opened up to show more details.

Recent Activity Townco Bank +$5,000 Habibi Canadian Bank +$3,000 YOLO Bank Corp. +$15,000 BofA D's Banks of Canada +$10,000 Bank Ten Canada +$5,000 D.P. Morgan Bank Canada +$7,500 ...

"Heh, that's one big ass swear jar." Donny said as he giggled to himself.

"If you had the money already, you should have said something when I gave you the money earlier."

"Bro, it's annoying going to the bank or an ATM to get hard cash."

"Alright then, it looks like you got around half so far. That's about the same for me. This still won't be enough for what we need to do though."

"Life's tough for an 18-year-old with no credit score." Donny let out an exaggerated sigh.

"In about 3 months, we'll scour the internet and borrow from as many moneylenders as we can find, since their conditions and rates are more strict."

"Is that safe?"

"Should be fine. Most are overseas, and I can't imagine many of them will be able to stay up and running after what's about to happen. We'll probably have to pay back some of them, and a few of them may try to force us to pay for the interest accumulated during the downtime. But we'll deal with it when the time comes, I'm sure we can get out of it."

"So..." Donny had a big grin on his face as he rubbed his hands together like an excited child ready to open their presents. "What are we shopping for?"

"For starters, we can't have you taking the bus every time you need to get here on your own."

"I walked here, actually."

"Well, do you have a driver's license?"

Donny's eyes widened when he realized what his friend was talking about.

"Hell yeah, bro, now that's what I'm talking about."

The doors of the pickup truck slammed shut. Two young men—barely adults, took in the large and empty plot of land that was just a little larger than a football field. The grass and weeds had grown up to the waist length and the area surrounding the land was filled with trees.

"Jesus...$850,000 for this?" Donny uttered. "I always hear my parents complain about the housing prices in Toronto but it just a piece of land. There's not even anything built here yet."

"For 2 acres, and a decent distance away from the city but not too far. We also have some privacy, it's not bad." Will said, pointing at the woods nearby. "In the short term, the contractors will cost us much more."

"Can't we just rent like a farm or something? Or even rent a place and just secretly build what we need without telling the owner?"

"Renting is a risk because the owners might show up and see what we built or even worse, they might show up during the outbreak. Besides, right after things start clearing up, the demand for shelters skyrocket. We won't lose any money investing in this place."

At that moment, a newer model pickup truck turned in and drove up to the lot. The logo displayed on the side displayed 'Four Heads Design + Build'. After parking next to their vehicle, two older men stepped out and greeted the younger two, exchanging handshakes. They seem to be a little surprised that the people they were meeting were so young but they kept it professional.

"Good day we're having. So this is the lot you called us for." The man who introduced himself as Greg said as the two men examined the area.

"And you wanted a rush job for this?" Scott, the other man, asked.

"Yes, it's extremely important that it's finished on time." Will said. "If you can't then I hope you can bring in more people or you'll have to work together with another contractor."

"It might be a little tight coordinating and scheduling to install the geothermal system in. Three months is a bit tricky but we can work with that kind of timetable."

"You mentioned you wanted us to leave space for a greenhouse and water tower?" Greg asked.

"Yes, we plan to build it over there." Will pointed to the side.

"What about the storehouse?"

"I was thinking next to the greenhouse. It'll make farming a little more convenient."

"If you plan to power the storehouse as well, it'd be better for it to be next to the main house. That way, we can keep the solar panels together and the wiring won't be overcomplicated."

"You're right, let's go with that." Will agreed, wanting to save time by avoiding complications.

"Did you want to reinforce the storehouse walls as well?" Scott added.

"No, I think we'll be fine without it."

"You can always store anything important in the basement, there'll be plenty of space down there, and it'll be fortified like a bunker." Scott nodded.

Donny kept quiet as he watched the three go over the construction plans for the land. He felt a little in over his head. It reminded him of when his father's business partners came over for dinner. Just a few weeks ago, he was still playing video games, but now he was involved while they were going over plans to construct a safe house.

"You two preparing for a war or something?" Scott asked at one point.

"Maybe they're preparing for an apocalypse." Greg quipped. Donny couldn't help but stand there nervously and force a smile as the three of them laughed at Greg's joke.

Eventually, Greg went off to survey the land and take measurements of the land while Scott took photographs. Will and Donny departed, leaving the two of them to do their job. The sooner the job was done, the sooner the two of them could start preparing for exactly what Greg joked about.