2 Chapter 2

Within the next month, he got the house fixed up costing him a total of 9, 325.14 dollars, as well as putting up a for sale on the house for 73k. He was completely shocked and damn near demanded to know who pulled all the discriminating evidence concerning his house and seal them away from the public eye when he was told that there was not a single black mark against the house other than the drug incident.

And since he was not the type to let things go, he went to the Hoke County court office and almost demanded to see a judge or someone to learn about the truth about his house instead of asking. Even though he was not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth, he knew that if the military or any federal agency were to look at it and see that that particular mess was covered up, then he, himself, would be up on charges. And in a bad way.

His mind was in such a chaotic state that he forgot about his lawyer who happened to be there that day with another client that he was representing, who happened to be his ex-wife who was clinging to him as if he was the only lifeline she had. Putting two and two together, he began to see red. It took all his willpower not to lash out at them both before demanding to see someone else, while his lawyer tried to explain the circumstances behind it.

Ignoring them after he demanded that they leave and were gone before he did something all three of them would regret. He waited for a few minutes before a black judge a few inches taller than him with what looked to be a boxer's physic from how his robes clung to him, came walking out of an office that Robert assumed was his. "Mr. Nelson, I presume? My name is Henry Jackson. I heard your shouts from down the hall. As stereotypical as it may sound, some of us in here are quite appalled about such lawyers like him practicing the law. Now, what can I do for you today?"

Taking the next few minutes to describe the situation with his house, he tried to calm down so that he would not act negatively towards the judge since it was not him that he was angry towards. Robert had always admitted to having anger issues that he just could not get over no matter what he tried.

While he was talking, the judge led him to the office area that he came from. So when he finished, he was sitting in a chair opposite him. "In other words, you are wondering if anyone had falsified the reports to the house you are now currently living in that might prevent you from selling the house. Is that correct?" Henry asked getting a nod in return. "I will have someone I trust dig into it and see what they find, and I will have them let you know what they found." Agreeing, they both stood up and shook hands before Robert left.

From then on, the house took almost a full month for the repairs, inspectors, and the Real Estate Agency to give approval. While all that was being handled, he went out and bought a 1988 Chevy K2500 4x4 Cheyenne, as well as a camper shell so he could put a safe box for all his weapons in order to transport them and returned the rental to the nearest Rent-A-Car. He even went out and bought an old-style 25-foot-long camping trailer with an extended hitch neck to give his truck the room to turn, so he can put the few things he had in it, and possibly a few more necessities.

A few hours later, he was able to get a hold of an agency that was selling a 3-story ranch that was about 1-hour drive north of Pheonix that cost 120k when he saw it on their website. Since he saved roughly 789,000 dollars, he went ahead and bought it in full, leaving his name Robert Nelson as the point of contact as well as his number, and telling them that he will call and let them know when he was leaving and when he was about an hour out so he could sign all the legal documents when he arrived.

Since he was on standby until the house was finished, he had several solar panels placed on the camper for power and stocked the thing fully of non-perishable good. The 32" flat screen TV, printer, DVD player, and other minor electronics that he bought when he was out on his minor shopping spree, he placed in such a way that he could maneuver without them getting in the way.

The following two days were a blur for him. He was trying to get things rolling for his big move out when on the second day a group of people dressed in black came walking up to him. Quirking an eye at them while trying to hold the humor behind it at bay, to which he mostly failed as it tickled his funny bone for some reason, he reached out his hand and welcomed them. "With that out of the way, why don't you two tell me why you are here, hmm? I seriously doubt it will be happy news."

Without further ado, the two men began to tell them all his lawyer had done to mitigate the lawsuit against his Ex. They even brought him his family heirlooms that he thought he had lost when his lawyer had betrayed him. They said that his lawyer had all evidence that was superficially incriminating destroyed since it could have been anything done by anyone. Which was how the house now has a clean slate besides what had happened.

They also mentioned that the daughter that his Ex had was actually his lawyers. That actually did not surprise Robert as much as he thought it should.

After the men left and calling the real estate agent to see about making a bidding war if multiple offers came in, Robert went on to deal with the next item on his list to finish, which was the PTSD appointment, in which was the last of the medical exams the VA wanted him to do. He was not looking forward to this. But to his surprise, the only thing he was asked was yes or no questions, which actually made him happy at the end of the hour-long session. It was on his last day in NC that he let the VA personnel know that he was moving to Arizona after he was told that he would be getting 100% on his disability.

So, by the time everything was finished and dealt with, it was 0530 in the morning when he left. Normally he would wake up about 0400 to do some exercises and go for a 5k run, but he was wanting to get on the road early so he could make decent time on the trip, while taking as little time and amount of stops as possible mainly being for gas, water, and to stretch his legs. So, when he was 90 minutes outside Pheonix, his body was stiff and hurting at the joints when he made the call to the people concerning the paperwork. Thankfully, the seats and ride here were a bit more comfortable than riding in a HUMVEE.

When he arrived at his destination a little after 10.00, he got out of the truck and his back popped like popcorn going up and down his spine when he stretched his body. Looking around, he could see a lot of ruffians, college kids, gang members, and other people walking around. Shaking his head about the overall scene he saw, he went into the place and asked for the agent he was talking to about the house.

Four hours later, he was walking back out to his truck with the agent so he could be shown where the house was and for them to look at the house itself. Also to have questions answered just in case, he saw a problem that the agency missed.

Upon arrival at the house, Robert could see that the place was well maintained and care for. Pulling in through the 10' tall concrete fence, which really put a smile on his face, he noticed an old, very well-maintained single-story barn towards the back of the 50-acre plot of land. Getting out he turned to the attorney, Mr. Henderson, and asked him about the story about the barn since it was not in the review.

"Ah! Yes. They believed, and yes, some people did say no, that if someone saw such an old "eye-sore," they would not be able to sell the house for the amount they wanted. So, they asked not to have it in the review and only tell it to the person when they arrived, that is if they actually notice it in the first place since it actually looks to be outside the property line. The barn was actually part of the original build-up of the place. It was used for farm storage when this place used to be used for cattle and horses. The previous owners then turned it into a safe house with a 19-acre wide bunker under the land, with the barn in the middle" Mr. Henderson replied.

Happy about the hidden gem, he turned to take a tour of his new home. The first floor he saw, was where he could entertain his guests if he even had anyone to invite or thought about it in general. The foyer is roughly 8' in diameter, big enough to place shoes, jackets, keys, etc. There was a stairwell leading upstairs to the first floor there as well.

Heading into the living room that has a spacious 3300 square feet and 9 feet tall walls, with French doors that led out onto a deck that had to be at least 30x45 feet in dimensions. Robert was amazed at the way that the place still held onto the old west feel while being updated to modern fixtures with actual wooded floors and beams.

To the left of the entryway was the kitchen with all the things a cook from a five-star restaurant would cream themselves over. To the back wall was a double door that led out to the balcony, a fireplace about 6 feet from that, and a large 8-foot window about 2 feet the right. To the right was a wall that had different kinds of stuffed animal heads that the previous owner left behind with the last wall being bare.

Taking the time to fully look at the first floor, Robert went into the kitchen that's at least a 30x50 foot room and saw the stainless-steel refrigerator, range, sink, and dishwasher. The latter 3 were all connected to a long 10-foot-wide by 20-foot-long by 4-foot-high with a 2-inch black marble countertop island in the center of the kitchen.

Going over to them, he noticed that they were bolted down in place preventing them from being moved to make him question as to why. But before going deeper in thought about it, he went over to the fridge which is 3 feet long, 4 feet wide, and about 6 feet tall with a double door top with a 2-foot-high freezer door on the bottom. It even had that electronic front which tells you all the neat little stuff concerning the fridge and the item inside.

Smiling at the thought of all the beer he could shove in the thing, he turned to the range which he noticed was actually a twin range. Both of them had double oven doors, 6 burners, as well as a built-in pizza maker making him sigh in both happiness and resignation.

The dual sinks that were next to the ranges were about 3 feet deep with a detachable overhang faucet. The dishwasher, however, left him baffled. Instead of a single pull-down door that he was used to, this one had 2 open side doors that inter-locked when you lock it down for cleaning. Not to mention that they were completely see-through as well. Thank all that is holy that he does not have any kids.

Turning to the back wall, he could cabinets littered the far wall like one would see in a walk-in closet,

going the full 50-foot length of the wall. The cabinets when opened, looked to be 2 feet in depth, 1 foot wide and stacked 3 high from the ground up. Well unless the previous family had about 15-20 people living here, why the hell is there so many fucking cabinets? Robert thought to himself.

Shaking his head, he left them with the agent to head to the second floor, which he then learned of a nice feature that he could have used while in the military. The entrance to the second floor had a door that could only be properly locked when the door is closed. If it were closed with the door locked, it would unlock itself. Smiling at the possible uses the previous family used it for, he continued on only to see 12 bedrooms roughly the size of 15 x 25 feet. Six bedrooms per side of the hallway.

Slowly, he turned his head to Mr. Henderson and quirked an eyebrow. Seeing this Mr. Henderson said that the previous family had a headcount of 12, which also answered about the number of cabinets downstairs. Since all the rooms on this floor were the same, Robert was wondering where the master bedroom was as they headed for the top floor.

Since the paper pusher was not really forthcoming with any information, it damn near shorted his brain when he saw that the third floor was a bedroom half the size of the acre-sized house. Drawing a blank as to why anyone would need such a big room, the agent dropped a bomb that completely shorted his brain.

"The previous family head had 3 wives from what I was told. 1 wife in the system with two wives on the side. All consensual. From what I could gather, he was a very kinky man from the reports. But when I tried talking with the women, panic was clearly in their eyes as well as fear. And no matter how hot it gets here, they ALWAYS wore long sleeve shirts and pants or full body dresses to prevent their bodies from being seen. They would even wear heavy amounts of make-up for just a few minutes they were in town as if to hide something."

Hearing this, Robert felt a tingling sensation run up and down his spine. The videos that he saw the lower enlisted were watching popped into his head, and he had a hard time trying to get rid of the images that were popping up. So, to change the subject, he asked if there was an underground storage unit or something similar here at the house only to be told that there was a safe hidden in the first-floor closet that was located in the foyer.

2 hours later, Robert walked the agent out to his 2018 Denali, all the while thanking him for his help and time. Since it was near sundown, Robert decided to go make a list of everything that he will need for the house, plans on making a range, contacting the people to expand the land he now has, as well as how he was going to set everything up.

Going back to his camper, he opened a can of chili to serve as his dinner. While the chili was being nuked, he started a management plan to help him financially and physically, so he had something to go by, while time stamping today's date. 15.45 on 19May2044

Just as he finished the basic setup, his dinner finished to which he got and sat back down after adding hot sauce to it.

Chili is never complete without hot sauce.

Now he started to research the prices on all the stuff he wanted to get, then the stuff he needed to get, as well as approximate quotes from the online pages from the company that made the walls and the amount he would need to get roughly 20 more acres.

Since he had almost 660k left in his bank, he figured he would have just enough to get all that done. So, when the amount of $457,223 came up, he was wondering if he made a mistake since he figured he would have only about one to two thousand dollars left. Shelving the list for now, he saw that it was only 21.44 when the barn popped into his mind.

Taking the mag light, he walked over to the barn and started looking around. He could see the entrance to the bunker well enough, but he wanted to look over the barn itself first. As he did so, he saw all the eight-legged freaks all over the place. Sighing, he began to look at the beams, joists, walls, stalls, and everything else that he could see with the mag.

He spotted what looked to be dried fecal matter on the ground in the back corner of in one of the stalls. He even spotted an area of the beams that had what looked to be indentions caused by rope, to which he counted six such placed. The setup was starting to make the back of his mind scream at him about how it all looked familiar. But he could not put his finger on it no matter how hard he thought about it.

Once done with his initial inspection, which was creating more questions, he went towards the bunker door that was laid into the ground and opened it. As soon as it was partially cracked, a stench that he could not mistake made him throw the door open and rush inside just in case there were any survivors – the stench of recently decayed flesh.