Austin dropped his head onto the table, groaning into the smooth stone. All three of his friends were still arguing about the siren and gun shot over smoothies, pausing to slurp up the blended fruit before going right back to pointing fingers.

""You're the only one who heard it!" Seek yelled. "At least both me and Colin heard and saw the bullet."

"With evidence that apparently just disappeared?" Bri asked in disbelief.

"Maybe whoever shot it came back and cleaned up," Colin offered. He gulped down his smoothie with the glass shaking in between his nimble fingers. Bri placed her hand on his wrists until he stopped fidgeting. She frowned, watching *her brother still in mild freak out.

She sighed. "Fine, if we believe that you guys did hear a gun go off then we'll start locking the doors at night-"

"We weren't already?!"

"-and if they come back, Austin's cameras will catch him. That fair?"

Colin and Seek looked at each other in quick consideration and nodded.

"Good, now about the siren..."

"I'm still not fully convinced you heard a siren in the middle of the woods," Colin admitted.

Bri sent him a small glare, clearly titled 'you traitor'. "My music was off and I definitely wasn't playing any video game so what else could it have been?"

"Hallucination?" Seek shrugged.

"I didn't hallucinate!" Bri argued and they were all back at it.

Austin stirred his smoothie, hoping none of them turned to him for an opinion. The last thing he wanted was to go against Bri or risk starting an even bigger argument with the others, but this needed to end at some point. His mom taught him never to go to bed angry and if they kept this up, they'd all be going to sleep frustrated and pouting.

"What if I go out there with my recording equipment?" He said and the arguing died down, thankfully. "I can set it up and if the siren happens again, it should pick it up."

"That's... actually a good idea," Colin said, now slurping his straw in an empty glass. The dry sucking of air chipped at Seek's ears and he elbowed Colin's arm.

Austin grinned. "Great! Who's coming with me?"

"Nuh uh, I'm not going out there ever again until it's time to go back home."

Seek shrugged helplessly. "Ditto. You're crazy if you think I'm leaving this house."

"I don't want to go out there alone! If there is a mysterious siren or someone with a gun, I don't want to deal with it by myself."

"Fine, what if I go with you?" Bri said, a twinge of annoyance piquing in her voice.

Austin's head snapped in her direction. "Okay! Definitely sounds like a plan, yeah. We can even go now if you want!"

Colin and Seek shared an exasperated glance while Bri just slowly nodded. "Riiiight."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Less than an hour later, Austin and Bri were lugging themselves and his bag out into the woods. Bri led the way, treading the same path she jogged that morning. By that point, it was mid-day and the sun was high above them, shining but mostly obscured by rolling clouds. Only puffy white, no ominous storm that they could tell.

They walked in comfortable silence, letting the sounds of waving trees and small critters in the grass serenade them. Normally their walks were filled with talking but without half their group (plus the day's stressful events), it was quieter; the atmosphere between them pressed down by the shared anxiety.

But it was still quality time spent with Bri. Something he didn't get that often. Austin would've enjoyed it a lot more if the threat of being killed wasn't still hanging in the air.

They reached the small area where Bri heard the siren and stopped. She dropped to the ground and sat cross legged, watching with her head resting in her hands as Austin set his bag down and pulled out a bundle of equipment. 'Foley artist' stuff he'd told her.

"I thought you only brought your cameras with you?" Bri asked.

Austin carefully laid a stand upright, eyes laser focused on the leg locks. "I didn't want to pass by the opportunity to get some authentic natural sounds."

"That's... actually surprising."

"I usually just download them online."

"That sounds more like you."

He set up the short stand with a microphone layered in thin fabric attached to the end. He angled the microphone upwards and tightened it in. Grabbing a small black box that looked like a remote, he turned a dial and tapped the mic.

A dull squeal could be heard from the headphones and Austin nodded, satisfied. "Perfect." He switched something on the box. "It's recording! Anything that makes noise within 50 yards we'll get to hear."

"Can't we already do that?"

Austin handed Bri the headphones and she slipped them on. The foam fit perfectly over her ears, blocking out all other noise. The faint birds chirping and blowing breeze funneled directly into her head. Much clearer and forceful; it was like all the sounds were right next to her.

She pulled the headphones off and handed them back. "Okay I will admit, that's kind of cool."

"Really?" Austin exclaimed enthusiastically. "Maybe next time you play baseball, I can try and get the sound of your bat cracking when you hit the ball!"

Bri chuckled. "I don't think I hit it that hard."

"Both you and Colin are stronger than you look," Austin said, rubbing his chin.

Bri raised her eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Colin socked me in the jaw earlier. For a small guy, he packs a big punch."

"He gets jumpy when he's scared. He threw my baseball at our dad when we were younger because he tried surprising us. Dad had a blackeye for a week."

Austin winced. "I hope he didn't leave a bruise. Do you see a bruise?"

Bri leaned closer to inspect his jaw and Austin felt his breath hitch. "I don't see anything. Just some blood coming out of your mouth."

"What?!"

"I'm kidding!" Bri laughed and Austin's panic and brief annoyance immediately dissipated. "I'm sure he didn't hit you that hard, he values his 'pristine nails' and 'flawless hands' too much to really punch someone."

"I think he or Seek would've hit us with that mic stand if they didn't see it was us."

"Colin...doesn't think things through all the time," Bri said. She huffed out a sigh but it was still with fondness. "Pretty sure he's the reason for 90% of his and Seek's detentions."

"He's your brother."

"He's your friend."

"Exactly, I choose to be around him! What excuse do you have?"

"Just because I'm his sister doesn't mean I have to hang out with him. I do it because I actually like being around him... Sometimes."

Bri rested against the incline while Austin laid back in the grass, gazing up at her the clouds while they gossiped about their friends behind their backs. The sun slowly dipped closer and closer to the horizon. As the time passed, Bri briefly considered going back to check on Colin but stayed, convinced Seek would keep him mildly safe for the time being.

"-so there I was on second base, Connie at plate, and the short stop-"

"Wait which one is the shortstop?"

"It's next to second plate."

"That should be your position right?"

A pinecone flew through the air, narrowly missing the panda hat shaking with laughter. Austin heard a crackle as it landed nearby but shrugged it off. Bri continued her story and he tried to focus on her voice, an easy task for him. A moment later, another crackle sounded and he paused.

Thump.

"Wait," Austin cut her off, "do you hear that?" He slipped the headphones on and listened.

Bri stared at him. "I don't hear anything."

Austin held a finger to his lips and handed her the headphones. She peered at him weirdly but accepted and put them on. At first, she could only hear the tree leaves rustling and the whistling of the wind. But then she heard it and her heart stopped.

Rumbling.

The ground was shaking.

(*I will headcanon Bri and Colin as siblings in every series and you'll have to pry that from my cold dead hands)