Escaping Darkness (Book 6): The Shadows

by Richards, E. S.

  THE

  SHADOWS

  The Escaping Darkness Series

  Book 6

  By

  E.S. Richards

  Mike Kraus

  © 2019 Muonic Press Inc

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my awesome beta team, without whom this book wouldn’t be nearly as great.

  Thank you!

  Chapter 1

  Waking up Riley wrapped her arms around her grandma’s waist, pressing her face into her stomach and inhaling her familiar scent. It felt incredible. She never wanted to let go; the sensation was a thousand times better than she had imagined it would be. Being back in her grandmother’s arms made her feel like everything was finally okay again. Riley felt like there was suddenly nothing wrong with the world, like everything was as it was supposed to be, and she could finally be happy again.

  “Where’s Pop?”

  With those two words, everything changed. With tears in her eyes, Linda wriggled free of her granddaughter’s grasp and forced Riley to look up at her. Chase stood in front of her expectantly, waiting for an answer. The door to the front room was pushed closed, meaning neither of the children could see in. They stood confused and concerned in the kitchen, waiting for Linda to reply.

  Looking at both of her grandchildren, Linda almost choked. She felt the love inside of her chest expand and multiply, filling her with a warm feeling that reached all the way up from her toes to the very top of her head. She had never really given up hope that Chase and Riley would return to the farmhouse, even as she had also been forced to be realistic and push them out of the forefront of her mind as she focused on keeping herself and Jerry alive. Now her babies were back, and she needed to tell them what had happened.

  “He’s in the front room, but—wait!” Linda stopped her grandson from walking in before she had made him fully aware of what had happened. “He’s not doing very well,” she quickly followed up with, seeing the expressions change on Chase and Riley’s faces and struggling to know what to say to them. “Your pop is really struggling at the moment. There’s something wrong with his lungs that isn’t getting any better. You need to be very gentle with him; he’s not the same as he was when you left.”

  “He’s not going to die, is he?”

  “I don’t know, sweetheart.” Linda shook her head in response to Riley’s question, feeling her granddaughter shuffle even closer to her again after speaking. “Without a proper doctor, I don’t know what’s going to happen. He sleeps a lot and he’s very weak, but we can’t say anything for certain. I know that seeing the both of you again will cheer him up. I just wanted to warn you that things aren’t exactly the same.”

  Riley looked across the kitchen to her brother, her bottom lip wobbling as she processed the words. Chase had said something like this might happen. He had no idea it would be related to Pop’s health, although he had said that things might be different. Riley hadn’t wanted to believe it and now she was going to have to. Shifting her gaze from her brother to the front room door, Riley found herself almost not wanting to go inside.

  Chase could read the expression on his sister’s face like a book. The time they had spent together over the last couple of weeks had brought them closer than ever before. He knew how frightened what their grandma had just said made his sister, but he also knew that they couldn’t avoid seeing their grandfather. Whether he was sick or not, he was still the same man to Chase, and he needed to see him again.

  “Can I?”

  “Of course, darling,” Linda smiled at her grandson. “Go ahead.”

  Chase swallowed and started walking toward the door. Riley curled around her grandmother’s body again, needing support more than ever. She felt like she was about seven years old again, all memories of wanting to leave home and to be treated like an adult completely erased from her head. She would give anything to be a child again, cared for and looked after by her loved ones.

  Putting his hand on the door handle, Chase forced himself to smile and look confident. He tried not to think about how scared his sister was or how they had yet to update their grandma on Blake, Vic, and Leo, who all waited in the mudroom. They had all graciously offered to let the two of them have their reunion first, though neither Chase nor Riley had expected this. As he finally entered the front room Chase reminded himself of everything he had already got through so far. He could do this. This was his grandfather, not something horrifying; he had nothing to be afraid of.

  Seeing his pop lying on the couch, Chase faltered for a second before walking over to him. Right away he could tell that the old man wasn’t the same. His skin was pale and clammy and there was a gleam of sweat on his forehead while he slept, a surprise considering how cold the farmhouse was. Dark bags sat under his eyes while his cheeks seemed to sag inwards, giving him a look of near starvation. Along with all of that, every time he breathed, a horrible raspy noise escaped his throat. It was like a strangled cat crying out for help, a desperate sound that Chase knew instantly wasn’t going away any time soon. It didn’t sound curable, it sounded like a sentence. An ultimatum.

  “Pop?” Chase knelt down on his knees beside his grandfather and gently laid a hand on his shoulder, not wanting to startle the old man or cause him any pain. “Hey, Pop. It’s me. It’s Chase. Wake up.”

  Slowly but surely, the man peeled open his eyelids and blinked sluggishly, taking a few seconds to recognize his grandson’s face. When he did, a warmth seemed to spread all over his body, his wrinkles relaxing and his mouth morphing into a smile that met his eyes in an explosion of happiness. Neither of them needed to say anything more, Chase simply leaning forward and cradling his arms around the old man. They stayed in the embrace for several seconds, breathing each other in and finding comfort in the knowledge that they were together again, no matter what the circumstances.

  “Riley?” Pop asked after Chase eventually let him go, sitting back on his heels so the two men could look at one another properly.

  “She’s in the kitchen with Grand
ma,” Chase confirmed with a smile. “We’re both fine. We’re both home. But…” he paused for a second, uncertain of how to ask his grandfather the question about his health. “How are you?”

  Pop coughed as if on cue, struggling to push his body into a more upright position so he could talk to his grandson. Chase helped the old man, repositioning a cushion behind his back and lifting his aching body slightly so his head rested against it. Every movement that Pop made his body protested, his lungs screaming out for air as he gasped and spluttered, even the tiniest movement making him feel like he’d just run a marathon. Chase could see it clearly and it worried him, his grandma not explaining the extent of the illness or if there was anything they could do to save him. Looking at his grandfather now, Chase severely doubted that there was—a devastating fact for the sixteen-year-old to realize.

  “Been better,” Jerry forced out with a smile, desperately trying to wipe the worried look off of his grandson’s face.

  A knock came on the door to the front room then, Chase and his grandfather looking over to see Riley and Linda standing there.

  “Hey, Pop,” Riley waved awkwardly, not really knowing how to approach him. “You okay?”

  “Get over here and give your old man a cuddle,” Jerry whispered hoarsely, again trying to appear better than he actually was. Linda gave him a knowing look and a supportive smile, noticing already that color had returned to her husband’s cheeks with the arrival of their grandchildren. It was definitely a happy moment to have them back in the farmhouse; their family felt almost complete again. If only they could find Mia and somehow bring her home too.

  As Chase moved to one side and let his sister reunite with their grandfather, he walked over to Linda and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. He knew that Blake and the others were still waiting for him in the mudroom, not wanting to leave them in there alone for too long before he revealed their location. Muttering a few words of explanation to his grandmother, he quickly excused himself and went to find his friends, eager to welcome everyone into the house properly so they could get settled in front of the fire and share their stories. There was a lot to learn about what had happened over the past couple of weeks and Chase wanted to get to the point as quickly as possible.

  “Everything okay, man?” Blake asked as Chase returned to the mudroom, the former stuntman standing up from the hay bale where he’d been sitting beside Vic and Leo. “You’ve been gone a while.”

  “Yeah,” Chase replied with a nod. “My grandfather is a bit worse off than I thought. Something’s happened to his lungs. But Grandma is fine. Do you guys want to come through and settle down?”

  “Aw, I’m sorry to hear that about your grandfather, my friend,” Vic replied. “Is there anything we can do?”

  “I don’t think so,” Chase shook his head. “I think…” He trailed off, uncertain how to explain what had happened when he didn’t really understand it himself. Chase had barely processed being home again, and trying to get his head around his grandfather being sick was a whole other mountain he hadn’t even begun to climb yet. For the time being, he just needed to sit down and process things. He wasn’t ready to explain anything just yet.

  “It’s cool, man,” Leo walked forward and put an arm around his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Shall we go through? I’d love to meet them.”

  Chase looked up at Leo and smiled, appreciating his support. There was still so much more that needed to be said between the two friends, but neither of them was completely ready to talk just yet. Time would heal their wounds as best as possible and following that, they would be there for one another. It was the best either of them could wish for and both knew it was all they were going to get.

  Leading the others through into the kitchen, Chase was anxious to get back to his grandparents again. After being away from them for so long, even a few minutes apart was difficult. He just wanted to be wrapped up in their arms together and forget about everything that had happened. A part of him worried about telling his grandma the truth about the Authority and everything else, scared he would worry her too much about what they had been through. The only way for them all to continue to survive though was to learn as much as possible about what was happening elsewhere. Knowledge might very soon become a bargaining chip that they desperately needed.

  “Grandma,” Chase called Linda out of the front room, Riley and Pop both also turning to look in his direction. “This is Blake, Vic, and Leo, our friends we met in Houston.”

  “Lovely to meet you,” Linda smiled, extending her hand and shaking with each of the new arrivals in turn. “And thank you for helping to bring my grandchildren home.”

  “It was an honor, ma’am,” Vic replied, bowing his head slightly in respect. “Thank you for having us in your home. We hope to have it fixed up in a matter of days.”

  “What?”

  “Oh yeah!” Chase blurted out, slapping a hand against his forehead. “I totally forgot about that. We’ve got all the stuff to fix up the roof,” he beamed, a look of surprise crossing his grandmother’s face as he spoke. “We brought everything back from the city in the truck. How is the roof, Grandma? Have you managed to do anything for it?”

  Linda shook her head in disbelief. She was astonished. Not only had her grandchildren managed to find their way back to her after all this time, but they had returned with the supplies needed to rebuild the farmhouse and make the place entirely habitable again. She looked at her grandson with a proud smile, the teenager never failing to impress her, no matter what situation was thrown at him.

  “No,” she replied with a shake of her head. “It still needs fixing. Did you really bring everything back to do that?”

  “Yeah,” Chase smiled. “We gathered it all up as we were leaving the city. We’ll bring it inside soon, and then I can show you.”

  “Slow down a minute,” Linda tried to calm her grandson down, still struggling to fill lots of gaps in the conversation that he had left. Before they even started talking about fixing up the farmhouse, she wanted to know what had happened to her grandchildren and exactly what they had been doing for the last two weeks. “You keep mentioning the city—Houston—is that where you’ve been all this time? Why? What were you doing there, Chase? What’s been going on?”

  The smile suddenly slipped from Chase’s face, looking over at his grandma and realizing that he had a lot of explaining to do. He didn’t even know how to begin, but he couldn’t keep the truth from her. “Yeah,” he nodded seriously. “Why don’t we all go and sit down? I’ll tell you all about it.”

  Chapter 2

  Linda listened spellbound, unable to take her eyes off of whoever the story was passed to. Between Chase, Riley, Blake, Vic, and Leo, each of them explained different parts of their tale to the old couple, leaving out no details, no matter how difficult they were to hear.

  “We knew something bad was happening in there,” Blake continued, explaining to Linda and Jerry how they had launched the attack on the pit to free the children. “But we didn’t know exactly what. Jackson—he’s Mike’s father—orchestrated most of it, designed to allow us to execute the plan in five different teams and ensure we got everyone out with minimal casualties.”

  “They planted bombs around the place,” Chase interjected, getting caught up in the story and not noticing how pale both his grandparents were turning as they listened. “It was crazy. We were out on one of the work details when suddenly all these explosions just erupted around the place and these people started charging toward us. You should’ve seen it, Pop. It was like a war zone.”

  “Chase,” Riley muttered to her brother, feeling her grandmother’s hand which rested on her shoulder grasp a little tighter. Riley sat on the rug in front of the armchair where Linda sat, her feet being warmed by the fire they had lit in the front room. Chase looked over at his sister and furrowed his brow, not understanding what she was getting at. Vic, however, did feel the change in atmosphere, understanding the story couldn�
�t be easy for the grandparents to hear.

  “Perhaps we should take a little break, eh, my friends?” The Ukrainian suggested, looking around the room and hoping to make everyone aware of why they needed to stop. “If it isn’t too much trouble, Mrs. Clarke, could you point me in the direction of your bathroom?”

  “Of course,” Linda nodded, patting Riley on the head and pushing herself to her feet. “It’s just through the door in the kitchen next to the pantry. And please,” she smiled at Vic, “call me Linda.”

  “Thank you,” Vic bowed his head to the old woman again, following her directions and exiting the front room.

  Once he was gone, Linda looked around and tried to distract herself from the horrors she had just heard. “Does anyone want a drink?” she offered, wanting to keep herself busy and occupy her hands. “I can put a pot of coffee on.”

  “That would be great,” Blake nodded.

  “I’ll help you,” Chase said, standing up beside his grandma and following her into the kitchen. “Is everything okay?” he asked once they were alone, finally realizing that the color had faded from her cheeks and she was resting against the counter more heavily than he ever remembered her doing. “Do you need to sit down?”

  “I’m fine,” Linda shrugged him off. “It’s just not easy hearing about what happened to you both. I wish I’d never let you leave that morning.”

  Faltering, Chase finally understood things from his grandma’s perspective. All this time he had been so worried about how they would be getting on at the farmhouse without them that he never stopped to think about how much they would be worrying about him and Riley. “I’m sorry,” he replied, taking a step closer and taking his grandmother’s hand in his. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. The important thing is that we’re both back home now and we’re safe. We’re not going to leave here again, I promise.”