“No way,” Chase gasped as Mia told her family the news a few moments later, finding herself back upstairs in the den with four steaming mugs of cocoa. “Already?”
“Yeah,” she replied, handing her adopted son a mug. “They have their own families they need to get back to. We can’t expect everyone to stay here forever.”
“So it’ll just be us left?”
“That’s right,” Mia smiled at Riley. “Just us four. Just our family again.” The sentence was labored to an extent, everyone knowing that even though it would technically just be their family left behind at the farmhouse, it wouldn’t really be complete. Without Jerry the Clarke family was very different, forced to adapt and get used to life as a four, just like they’d had to do following the deaths of Brogan and Lauren. Their family unit seemed to be shrinking by the year, the four of them all hoping that it stayed that way for a while now at least.
“Will I still sleep in the spare room with you?”
Mia looked over at Riley, the young girl waiting for a response to the question with wide eyes, a tiny moustache sitting on her upper lip from the cocoa she had been sipping. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Riley wanted to hear. After everything she had been through—despite how much she had tried to be an adult and act like she didn’t need taking care of—that was all she really wanted.
“I’m afraid so,” Mia replied, making it sound like they didn’t have another choice. “It makes more sense than moving back into your room. All your stuff is in there now and besides, it’s still warmer than that room with the temporary roof. We’ll just have to be roomies for a little longer.”
“Okay,” Riley replied with a smile, pleased to discover that she wouldn’t have to start sleeping alone again. “That’s fine.”
“Are they going to have enough food and water and things?” Linda commented, bringing the conversation back to the three boys who sat downstairs in the front room, wondering about what they would need for the long journey back to Philadelphia.
“Yes, it should be okay,” Mia nodded. “There are still plenty of canned goods in the Jeep and they’re going to take that. Riley went through the pantry again yesterday and took another inventory, so I think we’ll be all right. Nothing to worry about for the next couple of weeks at least.”
“That’s good,” Linda smiled, choosing to ignore the comment that Mia had made about surviving for the next couple of weeks only. It was something everyone in the den decided to do. They all knew there wasn’t enough food in the farmhouse for them to live there forever, but it wasn’t a matter any of them wanted to approach then and there. Mia was more than aware that they would have to come up with some kind of solution. With Blake, Vic, and Leo taking the truck back to the city, and Jadon, Jesse, and Marcus now taking the Jeep, that left them stranded at the farmhouse without a working vehicle. The way the weather was turning outside, Mia knew that could eventually spell disaster, yet every time her head kicked into gear to do something about it, she found herself putting it off a little bit longer. It had been so long since she’d been able to feel comfortable and relax; she couldn’t blame herself for delaying the next onslaught of panic for a few days later.
“We’ll be fine here by ourselves,” Mia declared, hoping her loved ones received the message. “There’s nothing the Clarke family can’t do—right?”
No one replied, the weight of Mia’s question pressing heavily on each of their shoulders. It was impressive how Mia managed to maintain such a positive attitude, her love for her family overpowering any other emotions and forcing her to keep pushing on, keep fighting for what she believed in and for what she knew was right.
“Right, guys?” she asked again, squeezing Riley’s arm and looking at Chase, giving him a glare that said he better agree with her, although in a friendly manner. A look that made him believe what she was saying; made him believe that his family would be okay.
“Right,” Chase eventually replied with a nod. “We got this.”
“Yeah,” Riley added, encouraged by her brother’s response. “We’re the Clarkes. We’re invincible.”
“We are, aren’t we?” Mia said with a smile on her face and a tear in her eye, looking at her mother and hoping for Linda to join in with their enthusiasm. Mia needed her mother to join in; she couldn’t do this without her.
Linda looked at her daughter and knew what she was waiting for. She swallowed, thinking of Jerry and Brogan—the two most important men in her life were both now gone from it forever. But she wasn’t alone. She had Chase and Riley and Mia to help her through the rest of her days and she was determined to be there for them as well. Jerry wouldn’t have wanted her to sulk and grieve for days on end, he would have wanted her to be strong and to help the family succeed where he had struggled to. Sitting up straighter on the couch, Linda nodded and looked at her daughter, empowered by Mia’s speech and determined to survive.
“Never forgotten,” she whispered, reminding them all of the people they had lost. “We will live through this.”
Chapter 17
“I think that’s the last of it,” Marcus commented, slamming the trunk of the Jeep closed and turning to look at Jesse and Jadon, who stood with him in the barn. “We’re good to go.”
The three of them all let out a long sigh, none of them sure what to say or what to do next. The Jeep was all packed up and they were ready for the drive back to Philadelphia and their hopefully awaiting families. None of them had spoken much about what they expected to find there, all hoping that things would sort of just pick up where they’d left off. Their home would’ve surely changed following the eruption, but each of them hoped that the city on the East Coast had been far enough away from Yellowstone for it to have survived without much change. That’s what they all needed to believe, the fact they were leaving somewhere safe for a place they knew nothing about already feeling like a massive risk.
“Shall we head back into the house and eat?” Jesse suggested, delaying the inevitable just a little longer. Mia and Riley were cooking them a farewell breakfast and it was something that none of them wanted to miss out on.
“Yeah, come on,” Marcus replied, already starting to walk toward the door. “I’m starving actually.”
Pulling his filtration mask up over his mouth and nose, Marcus tugged open the barn door to the outside and stepped out, letting Jesse and Jadon follow behind him and close the barn back up. The weather outside was still horrendous and none of them really wanted to be out in it for long; Marcus in particular was thinking of the drive ahead and knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task. Only one of the headlights on the Jeep still worked and with the hazy fog and the sideways sleet it was hard enough to see already. He wasn’t excited to get behind the wheel and tackle it head on for hours on end.
The snow wasn’t falling as thick anymore which was the only silver lining Marcus could reach. The clouds appeared to have emptied themselves and blanketed everything in white, the snow immediately latching on to whatever it touched on the ground and freezing completely. Digging would be near impossible now, the dirt beneath the snow completely frozen solid. He just hoped the roads weren’t laden with ice, the last thing the four of them needed was to crash halfway to their final destination.
“Ooh, that smells good! Is that steak?”
“No way! Mia, where did you get that from?”
As the three boys walked into the kitchen, Mia tried to give them a knowing look to stop talking about the food. Even she couldn’t deny it though—it smelled incredible. It came at a price. They were about to eat the last of the meat that Linda had been able to salvage from their beloved cows, Milk and Shake. Riley had finally come to terms with the fact that the meat from the animals needed to be eaten so as to not waste it and to keep them all fit and strong, but it hadn’t been an easy morning reaching that point. The last thing Mia needed was for the three young boys to get her all upset again; many tears had already been shed that day.
“Where did you—�
� Jesse started to ask again, stopping himself short as the answer dropped into place and he noticed both Mia’s stern glare and Riley’s puffy, red eyes. “Ah,” he paused, “err, do you need any help?”
As the others caught on to where the food had come from, the excitement quickly halted and they morphed into responsible adults once more. Mia thanked them all silently with her eyes, reminding herself once again how much she would miss the boys from the East Coast when they were gone.
“Could one of you set the table?” Mia asked, her hands flying all over the place as she managed the various pans she had balanced on portable gas burners and battery-powered hot plates. “And call Chase and my mom down from upstairs? It’s just about ready now.”
The boys all nodded, Jesse walking over to the stairs while Jadon and Marcus picked up mugs and cutlery to take over to the table. Mia and Riley had really pulled out all the stops for their final morning: the steak was good enough on its own, and the fact they had saved up the eggs from the last remaining chickens over the past few days so they could be fried and served alongside added a whole other element to the meal. It was a proper hearty breakfast, something that would keep them going all day and leave them almost certainly wanting more.
“Time to season?”
“Yep,” Mia nodded, moving to one side. “You’re up, Riley.”
As Mia started portioning out the steak on to seven individual plates—the perfect quantity left to go around—Riley bent over the eggs and added a few generous dashes of salt, pepper, and paprika, giving the eggs her favorite flavorings just before they were served. With the sound of Chase and Linda arriving from the den, Mia carefully placed the last couple of fried eggs on top of their steaks and carried them over to the table, placing them in front of her mother and herself before taking her seat.
“This is awesome, Mia!” Chase marveled as he saw the feast on the plate in front of him, the massive pile of protein just waiting to be devoured.
“Yeah,” Jadon agreed. “Thank you so much.”
“It’s incredible,” Marcus nodded, his mouth salivating as he waited politely for everyone to grab a mug of coffee or a glass of water.
“It wasn’t just me,” Mia answered with a smile. “I couldn’t have done it without my little sous chef here,” she grinned at Riley, thanking her for her help. “Come on—let’s dig in before it goes cold!”
“Wait!” Riley suddenly cut in, stopping everyone from eating as she held her hands up, desperate to say something. As all eyes turned on her, she suddenly felt shy, but was determined to say what she needed to. “We should thank Milk and Shake for this. For their sacrifice.”
An awkward silence rippled throughout the room, no one certain of what to say. Linda looked at her granddaughter and remembered what it had been like to be the one forced to kill the two cows, putting their lives to an end so she and Jerry could survive a little bit longer. “To Milk and Shake,” Linda commented, lifting up her mug of coffee and smiling across the table at Riley. “They were the best cows we could have asked for and they’re in a better place now.”
“Here, here,” Chase called out, also raising his mug of coffee as he realized how much this meant to his little sister. “To Milk and Shake!”
Everyone around the table chorused it now, clinking their mugs together and showing their appreciation for the meal. It put a smile on Riley’s face and made her feel better about what they were about to do. She understood the need for the food, although she had loved the two cows dearly. She would eat, but she wouldn’t do it without thought.
“All right,” Mia added, seeing Riley was more settled now. “Let’s eat.”
The kitchen table then quickly fell into a different kind of silence, aside from the sound of knives and forks scraping against plates and people chewing as the meal was devoured. It really was the nicest thing any of them had eaten for some time. Linda had struggled to butcher the cows and store the meat properly, so a lot of it had been used up in stews rather than appreciated as a fine cut like it should be. In a way it was quite fitting that this was the final meal, paying homage to the animals and saying goodbye to the three boys at the same time.
When breakfast came to an end, everyone realized there was sadly nothing else left to do except say that goodbye, and it forced the Clarkes and the three boys from Philadelphia to conclude the meal with sad expressions on their faces, rather than the full smiles that should’ve been present.
“I guess this is it,” Jadon exhaled not long after, stepping back from Mia after just wrapping his arms around her to say goodbye. “I’m really going to miss you, Mia. You’ve been amazing these past few weeks.”
“I’ll miss you, too,” Mia replied, finding her emotions building up more than she had expected. “All of you,” she added so Marcus and Jesse were included as well. “Make sure you keep cleaning that shoulder regularly if you ever want to get back on the football field!”
Jesse laughed, “I will, don’t worry. Thanks for everything, Mia,” he added, stepping forward and giving her a hug as well. Chase, Riley, and Linda had already said their goodbyes, leaving Mia to have her final farewell in private after the time she had spent alone with the boys. “I’m really pleased you found your family again.”
“Me too,” Mia smiled. “I couldn’t have done it without you, though. I just hope you have as much success when you guys make it home.”
“Me too. Hopefully you weren’t just a lucky charm,” Jesse joked, though there was sincerity in his voice. All three boys were worried about what they would find in Philly, the moment for them to finally step out on their own coming at last. It needed to be done, but Mia had felt like a safety blanket at some point for each of them over the past few weeks. It would be weird to continue the journey without her.
Mia laughed. “I’m sure that’s not the case,” she shook her head. “Come on,” she added to Marcus, holding her arms open and waiting for him to embrace her. “You too.”
Marcus grinned and stepped forward, wrapping his strong arms around Mia and picking her up slightly from the floor with a chuckle. The former scientist squealed and protested, giggling like a child until Marcus set her down. “See you, Mia,” he said softly. “Good luck.”
“You too,” Mia replied quietly, looking up at Marcus and smiling at him like she often looked at Chase and Riley. “I really hope you find Harper. You’re going to be a wonderful father.”
“Thank you,” Marcus replied, his emotions threatening to get the better of him as they all said goodbye. There wasn’t much else to be touched upon now. The boys needed to get going and any longer goodbyes would just be going around in circles. With a few final smiles, Mia watched the three of them jog over to the barn where the Jeep was being kept and disappear inside. She stayed by the window to watch them leave, resting her head against the glass and thinking about everything they had been through—plus everything that was likely still yet to come.
The fact that the three of them were taking the Jeep back to Philly meant that Mia and her family were left without a mode of transport at the farmhouse. There was the old tractor and ATV—the latter also in the barn—but Mia doubted whether either of them was still in working order. As it went, they needed to come to terms with the fact that they weren’t leaving the farmhouse until everything blew over, and Mia knew that could be months or even years away.
She worried about how much food they still had in the house. Thankfully, water hadn’t yet become an issue for them, and it didn’t look like it would with the well still working properly. Still, one day in the future the pantry would become bare and they would be forced to look elsewhere for food. When that day came, Mia had no idea what the best course of action would be, the state of Houston concerning her when it came to leaving the farmhouse.
Everything seemed to circle back to the mysterious Authority, a group she had learned so much more about since reuniting with her niece and nephew and discovering what had happened to them in the city. She was fearful that Mar
cus and the others would have issues getting out of Texas, and even more so that the Authority would one day extend their reach to the farmhouse. If and when that happened, Mia knew she would have to defend the property with her life and that was something she was more than willing to do.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?”
Linda’s voice resonated softly in Mia’s ear just as the Jeep started to roll out of the barn and into sight. Turning to her mother, Mia looked at her with a pleading expression, showing a moment of weakness that Linda knew had been waiting to come out for several days now.
“I’m scared, Mom,” she whispered. “I’m scared about what’s going to happen to us.”
Linda stood next to her daughter and put a hand around her waist, bringing her closer and resting her head against her shoulder, Mia now several inches taller than her mother. “I know, my love,” she spoke softly, the pair of them watching as the Jeep fully exited the barn and started heading down the long driveway away from the farm. “But whatever happens, we’ll get through it. Remember you told me that? We’re the Clarkes. We can do anything.”
Mia sniffed and pulled her gaze from the disappearing vehicle to her mother for a second, pleased to hear her mother finally sound more confident and not completely consumed by the death of her husband. Jerry would never be forgotten, but it was important that Linda was able to carry on without him. In that one sentence, Mia saw her mother returning to her and knew that they really did stand a chance. Because that was all it took: one chance. They didn’t need to do everything right or win every battle. As long as they kept fighting, then they stood a chance at surviving to the end. There was nothing more powerful than hope and that was what Mia and her mother both clung to as the Jeep disappeared from sight and their family was once again left alone in the farmhouse, hoping to survive.
Chapter 18
Jorge sat on a comfortable couch with a glass of water and a cheese sandwich in front of him. There was no other way of putting it, he was in a weird situation. The people who had kidnapped—or rescued—him from the leader’s hotel had brought him to a completely normal terraced house, complete with patchwork pillows on the couch and a friendly cat that wandered around as it pleased. The three of them all stood in the kitchen with their faces still covered. They weren’t watching Jorge or stopping him from running away anymore, instead just talking quietly amongst themselves until they were ready to explain what was going on. An explanation that Jorge felt was well overdue.
Escaping Darkness (Book 6): The Shadows Page 12
