by Paige Yancey
“Don’t worry. We have you covered’ once your clear run like the hellhounds of Hades are on your heels, got it?”
“Okay.” Her hair had come loose from her ponytail holder and was swinging around her shoulders; she shoved it behind her, as she nodded her head in agreement.
“Go now,” he said so suddenly that it took her a few seconds to realize what he’d said.
“Go!”
With a quick jump into the air, she sprang from behind the cold rock and sprinted across the forest to the cave, her flash light clutched in her hand. All she could think of was getting to the shelter and to her daughter. As she neared, she slowed. Since the ceiling was fairly low, she bent at the waist, enough to enter the cave, and then continued along the path to the right. The entrance was camouflaged by an old mining door. Siobhan kicked the old crate that had been bolted to the door in the ground, revealing the keypad to the shelter. Once she entered the code, a beep sounded, and the pressurized door popped open.
Siobhan opened the door wider and went down the stairs inside the bunker, the door automatically closing behind her. She held out her hands to trail them along the walls so that she could go down the steps in the darkness. A light could be seen at the end of the little stairwell. Everything in the entrance was metal, and her footsteps rang out in the silence. As she stepped down onto the main level, she came up short, seeing her grandfather standing there holding a rifle, her little girl peeking from behind him with her blanket and a doll in her arms.
Recognizing her, her grandfather let out a deep breath and put down the weapon. With steady steps, he moved forward and grabbed her into a big bear hug. “Girlie, you just about scared me off this earth.”
“Sorry, Pop,” she said, slightly out of breath. “It’s been a day.”
“I can see that. Why don’t you sit down in the lounge? I’ll make you a cup of tea, and you can tell me all about it.”
“First let me see my little one,” she said, forcing a smile on her face as she walked over to the precious little girl with the strawberry-blonde hair and clear blue eyes.
“How are you, my little strawberry?” she said and swooped up her little girl.
With a little hoot and a giggle, her daughter cuddled into her arms.
“Pop-Pop picked me up from school early, Momma.”
She smiled down at her daughter. “He did, did he?”
“Yeah, and then we drove all the way here, and then we played games and ate snacks and watched movies. There are some old movies here, Momma.”
Siobhan gave a short laugh. “Yes, there are. We may need to update them one of these days,” she said, grinning over at her granddad.
“That we should,” he said.
“All right, little priss,” Siobhan said, giving her a final hug. “Why don’t you go play with Dolly while I talk to Pop-Pop?”
“Okay,” she said, and bounded off to some toys that were scattered in the lounge area.
When Siobhan turned from her daughter playing on the floor, a hot mug of tea was handed to her by her grandfather.
In his stern military voice, low enough the little girl couldn’t hear, he said, “Story, now.”
She nodded. “So, you remember what I told you when I was at the hospital, right?”
“Yes.” He motioned her to take a seat at the small table at the end of the kitchenette.
“Well, I called Hank, an old friend of mine from my military days. He has his own security company. I asked him to send some help.” Just then a banging sound echoed through the underground area, coming from the entrance. She glanced up the hallway and then at her grandfather, who was already grabbing the rifle. He handed her a tablet, opened to the app that displayed video feed from the camera at the door.
“If you had this the whole time, why did you almost shoot me earlier with the rifle?” she muttered.
“Someone could have been behind you. First signal from you, and I would have blasted his head off,” he said with a big grin.
“All right, cowboy, let’s see who it is.”
On the screen stood Soldier and under his arm was a very bloody looking Atlas.
Atlas felt his vision coming and going as he leaned against Soldier who stood in front of a strange looking door in the cave Siobhan had disappeared inside.
As she ran from them, Atlas had stood up from the rock they’d used as cover. He’d laid down a blanket of bullets to distract their attackers, so that she could get to the bunker. For several minutes more, he and Soldier continued returning fire, not allowing Siobhan’s attackers anywhere near the cave. Then he’d noticed a car peeling out and racing away. With a heavy sigh, Atlas had scanned the forest to make sure no one else would follow them but hadn’t seen anyone. Silence fell over the clearing. Soldier moved next to him and hunkered down. Atlas slid his back down the boulder and sat.
“Looks like they left. Wonder why?” Soldier said, and then glanced over at the cave hidden in the forest.
“Probably to report to their higherups and to bring in reinforcements. We need to get moving.”
“Well, let’s go,” Soldier said, pushing away from the rock, still scanning the area. He pulled out a flash light and pointed it toward the cave. Before making their way to the cave they grabbed the bags from the vehicle.
Following behind Soldier, Atlas moved at a jog. They ran side by side for the short distance, with their flashlights bouncing along the trail. The cave entrance came up fast. Suddenly Atlas felt a sharp pain in his head, and he staggered then bent over from the pain.
Soldier turned and leaned over to check on Atlas. “Atlas, are you okay, man?”
Atlas grimaced. “Yeah, I’m an idiot. I was watching the flashlight following the ground and didn’t realize that the cave entrance dipped down right there. Good thing I have a hard head,” he said, reaching up to touch his scalp and finding moisture there.
From his right side, Soldier chuckled as he dragged Atlas’s arm over his shoulder. “Sorry to tell you this man, but you’re bleeding like a stuck pig.”
“Yeah, having trouble seeing ’cause blood’s in my eyes.”
“Come on. It can’t be that far. I can see where her feet scuffed the dirt, so it shouldn’t be that hard to follow her steps.”
“Sounds good to me. On to the doctor.”
They stumbled further into the cave and followed the footprints until they stopped at a strange door. Soldier hesitated, then he reached forward and banged on what appeared to be an old mine door. Atlas stumbled forward slightly, and Soldier had to move his feet so he wouldn’t fall over.
“I think I might have hit my head harder than I thought,” Atlas mumbled.
“Yup, I agree with you.”
Suddenly, the ground beneath them moved, and Soldier pulled him back so that they wouldn’t fall into an opening.
Siobhan’s voice came from below, “Pops, it’s the men who helped me get here. The ones Hank sent. They’re good to go.”
Atlas started to move forward, and Soldier struggled to get down the steps into the bunker while trying to keep Atlas propped up as he walked down. Through his blurred vision, he could see Siobhan rush up to meet them and take Atlas’s other arm to help him down the rest of the way.
“Did you get shot? Let me look at you,” she said as she led him over to the lounge chair in the little living area.
He collapsed onto the chair. An older man holding a rifle in one hand leaned over and gave him a towel. Grasping the towel, he wiped at his face to get the blood out of his eyes.
“Thank you, sir,” he said, and then turned to Siobhan. “I hit my head when we entered the cave. It’s just a head wound.”
“Oh, my goodness, glad to hear it,” she said as she leaned over with a penlight to flash it into his eyes. “You may have a mild concussion, but without an MRI, I can’t be sure. We’ll have to watch you for about 24 hours.”
She probed around his injury.
“Ouch, that hurts.”
“Are you o
kay m-mister?” a little girl asked in a tiny voice.
He looked down at her and noticed she had long, curly red-blonde hair and crystal-blue eyes.
Siobhan turned to the little girl. “Mable why don’t you go play with your dolls, while I fix this man?”
“Okay, Momma.” She skipped off to the other side of the bunker.
“Is that your daughter?” Atlas asked.
“Yes.” She didn’t look him in the eyes as she examined his head. Her touch was gentle on his skin, but the pressure of her fingers on his wound caused some pain, and he flinched.
“Sorry,” she said. “I think I’m going to have to put a couple of stitches in that so the bleeding will stop.”
“How old is she?” Atlas wanted to know.
Siobhan didn’t answer. She pulled a small kit out of her bag next to the chair on the floor and set out gauze and cleaning supplies. With the gauze, she cleaned his head, which hurt, but he was distracted from the pain as he waited to hear what she would say. The needle and thread flashed in front of his face, and he felt the first sting as it entered his flesh.
Gritting his teeth, he held still.
“Mable is just five,” she said in a soft voice.
Atlas’s world seemed to spin, not from the head wound or the pain from the stitches, but because he remembered the time, six years ago when he’d met this beautiful woman. The night when they’d had a one-night stand.
“Yes, Atlas,” she whispered, glancing down into his eyes. “She’s your daughter.”
Chapter 3
Siobhan could feel the weight of the secret leave her body, but at the same time she felt uneasy with Atlas’s gaze on her. His level stare caused an ache of regret, because, deep down, she knew what she’d done was wrong.
The night they’d spent at the bar so long ago in Germany, he’d told her the military was his entire life, and he couldn’t see himself doing anything else.
Her dream had always been to move back to Washington state one day, and to have a family with a house and a white picket fence. When little Mable had come, her life changed a lot faster and sooner than she’d originally planned, and she’d had to reorganize her plans.
Getting out of the military and moving back home had been her first step. Back to Seattle, where her family was from. Both of her parents had died in a car accident when she was in medical school, and the only family she had left was her grandfather.
He was a gruff old veteran but had opened his home to her while she’d been pregnant and had helped her through that time.
Once she’d recovered from giving birth to Mable, he’d taken over watching and caring for her daughter while Siobhan had gone back to work at a local hospital in its ER.
Grandpa had loved looking after the little girl and took her to pre-school and her practices for soccer and dance. Mable was a very active little girl, and they had both decided that the more activities she could be involved in, the better. Even at five years old, she had an abundance of energy that her pediatrician was surprised by.
Her daughter sidled up beside her and leaned against her leg. “Momma, is the man going to be okay?”
“Yes, my sweet, he was just surprised and hit his head.”
“Oh, okay, will you play dollies with me?”
She smoothed her hand over her daughter’s curly hair. “It’s your bedtime. Let’s get you cleaned up and in your bed.” They would be safe in the bunker, because of how well fortified her grandfather had constructed the space. The later alterations they had made to it, they’d done together. They even had electricity and running water.
“Awww… I want to stay up and play,” Mable said.
She stroked her daughter’s soft curls. “Sorry, we’ve had an eventful day, and you need to go to bed so you can be rested for tomorrow.”
The little girl pushed out her lower lip, and her shoulders slumped.
“Come on, Mable,” Siobhan said. “Don’t pout. I’ll read you a story, and then tuck you in. Say goodnight to the nice men, and Pops, too.”
She watched as her little one turned to the two men and said goodnight.
Atlas seemed to want to do something, but then his body went rigid, and he smiled with his lips and not his eyes. “Goodnight, princess,” he said to her.
“Goodnight, mister.”
“You can call me Atlas, if you want…”
“Okay.”
Then she bounded over to her grandfather.
The old man wrapped his arms around her in a big bear hung and swung her in the air.
“All right, Grandad,” Siobhan said. “You’ll get her all wound up again.”
She smiled over at him, and he looked over at her while still holding the little girl up.
His eyes seemed to sparkle. Then he lowered Mable to the floor, patted her head and turned her toward her bunk. “Off you go, little one.”
Over the years since she’d moved back, they’d set up the space so that Mable would feel at home. They’d added amenities and new technology so they would feel safe, too. Mable had thought of their visits to the bunker as camping and loved to come. Siobhan had gone along with her grandfather’s paranoia from the Cold War era. She knew it made him feel comfortable to know they would always have somewhere safe to go.
She moved over to the little bunk covered in a pink comforter with little characters printed on it, and the dolls and bears strewn all over it. With a swift swipe of her arm, she pushed the toys into the basket that had been pulled out from under the bunk and deposited them back into their home. With her foot, she pushed the short basket under the bed and pulled down the covers so that her daughter could climb into bed. Mable hopped onto the mattress, shoved her feet under the covers, and scooted down so that she could rest her strawberry-blonde head on the pillow. Her daughter’s and her beds were situated at the end of the room, and her grandfather had a bed set up at the end of the living area, near the entrance. He had done that on purpose so that he could “stand guard”.
After reading Mable a story, Siobhan gave her child a smile. “Goodnight, precious.”
Mable reached up and pulled Siobhan’s head down for a loud smacking kiss on her cheek. “Love you, Momma.”
Siobhan leaned over and kissed her daughter’s forehead. “Love you, too.”
Mable rolled onto her side, facing the wall. The little girl always fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Siobhan stood then turned back to head over to the lounge area, trying not to look at Atlas.
“Alright, boys,” her grandfather said, “the couch and the lounge chairs all fold out into beds. There are linens, blankets and pillows in the chest in the middle of the sitting area.”
Atlas nodded. “Thank you, sir, we’ll set up for the night.’’
Since the guys were getting situated, she decided to head over to her bed and get settled in for the night. They came here so often; she had a small amount of clothing and the essentials that she would need. She slid the bin out from beneath her bed and pulled out a toothbrush and toothpaste. After gathering her toiletries, she headed over to the full bathroom they had installed.
Atlas met her on her way across the room. “We need to talk.”
Siobhan sighed. “Can it wait until tomorrow? I’m really tired.”
He drew a deep breath. “Yeah, but no more running away.”
She met his gaze with a steady one of her own. “I never ran away from this.” She walked into the bathroom and closed the door in his face.
Why was she hiding from him after dropping the proverbial bomb on him? He had so many questions to ask her about his daughter. Deciding that he would sleep on it after Siobhan’s blunt refusal to talk tonight, Atlas walked over to the pull-out couch where Soldier and Pat, Siobhan’s grandfather, where discussing the different countries they had traveled to.
“You still prefer a pizza from America and not from Italy?” Soldier said, his eyebrows rising.
“Son, sometimes, home is best, no matter how g
ood it is elsewhere.”
“Very true.” Solider nodded. “There’s no place like home.”
Atlas piped in at that moment, “Chicago has the best pizza anywhere.”
“I don’t know. I’d say New York has the best.” Soldier grabbed a blanket out of the chest and tossed a pillow at Atlas.
A little giggle could be heard from the other side of the room.
Atlas turned his head toward the little bed where his daughter was laying. She had rolled over to look at them while they set up the beds and had seen Soldier tossing the pillow.
Pat turned to his great-granddaughter and motioned for her to come over to them. She jumped out of the bed, and like a gazelle, she bounded across the floor and into his arms. Atlas felt a pang of loss in his chest. In that moment, he realized how much he had missed by not knowing his daughter.
“Little miss, do you want me to read you another story before you go to sleep?”
“Uh huh,” she nodded her head in agreement.
“Go grab a book from your bookshelf and bring it back.”
As before, Atlas watched his daughter bound across the room to a little shelf filled with books and toys at the end of her bed. Once she got her book, she hurried back to her grandfather’s lap. Soldier was putting a sheet on the pull-out bed, and Atlas turned to get the blankets. He could hear Pat tell the story to the little girl with animated voices, and the little girl, giggled along with him. Atlas finished putting the blankets on the beds, and Soldier grabbed the pillows from the lounge chair to put on bed as well. At that moment, the door to the bathroom opened, and Siobhan walked out. Somehow, Pat had set up a fully functioning shower, and Siobhan’s hair was wet. Atlas was mesmerized by her beauty, and her movements were so graceful.
She ignored his gaze and looked over to their daughter. “Come on, Mable. It’s bedtime.”
“Ahhh, Momma,” Mable cried, “the story is almost over.”
“We can finish it tomorrow, little one,” Pat said. “You should listen to your mom.”
Mable got up slowly and dragged her feet toward the bed. Her head hung down, and her blonde hair swung in her face.
