Escaping Darkness- The Complete Saga

by E S Richards

  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.”

  “I know, darling,” Linda squeezed Chase’s hand in her own before moving her hand to his cheek. “I know you’ve been through a lot too. We should talk about it, just, maybe not all at once, okay? Like you said, the most important thing to me is having the two of you back safe and sound. I can’t imagine what it was like for you both out there, but so long as you’re both okay, that’s good enough for me.”

  “Okay,” Chase smiled. “I’m sorry.”

  “Stop saying that,” Linda smiled. “You have nothing to apologize for. I love you, Chase, and I’m so happy that you’re okay.”

  “Me too,” Chase returned the smile. “Are you okay though? Has it been hard with Pop? How long has he been like this?”

  Linda let out a slow breath. “Mm, there’s a lot to catch you two up on from here as well. It’s not been easy.”

  Chase pursed his lips, feeling disappointed in himself once again over how selfish he had been in returning home. He reminded himself that just because he was back at the farmhouse and just because he wanted to feel looked after for once, didn’t mean he could be. There was still a lot of work to be done and he still had to make sure that not only Riley, but his grandparents and his friends were surviving and thriving now as well. If anything, the burden on his shoulders had increased instead of lessened and that was just something he was going to have to deal with.

  Hearing his father’s voice in his head, Chase remembered something Brogan had once told him when he’d had messed up during a lacrosse game and lost the team he captained a place in the finals.

  “It’s not all about the end result, son. Sometimes we have to take a fall to realize what we achieved along the way. While you may think you’re responsible for everyone on this team, all you can really control is how well they work together. None of this rests solely on your shoulders. It
’s on the shoulders of everyone in your huddle. Together you can carry the combined weight, whereas alone you will drop it. Get back in there and show your teammates how insignificant this one little blip is. It’s a learning experience, and moving forward, you’ll now have the strength and the knowledge to go ahead. This isn’t the end, Chase. This is just the start of another journey for you.”

  At the time it hadn’t made much sense to Chase, but now he heard the words ringing in his head again and he put the pieces together. Whether the challenge was a lacrosse game or surviving a disaster, all it took was teamwork and determination and anything was possible. Chase had already proved that to himself in Houston—he, Riley, and the others had gone through much more than anyone could’ve imagined and they had made it out the other side in one piece. Now that he was facing another battle, he just had to continue with his head held high and know that there was always a solution waiting for him—he just had to know where to look.

  “Ah, excuse me,” Vic apologized as he re-entered the kitchen, seeing Chase and Linda standing close together and sharing a few quiet words. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “No, don’t apologize,” Linda quickly replied. “Could you help us with this coffee, actually?”

  “Of course,” Vic immediately answered, always happy to help out no matter who was asking. It was in his nature to do so, something that had been instilled in him from a very young age by his mother back home. After moving to America, Vic felt like he had sort of lost out on the few elements of him that were more family-oriented—his focus being on his store and making a name for himself in the city—and since the eruption that side of him was slowly returning, the opportunities he had to help Chase and the others reminding him of how he had been brought up.

  “Chase, can you get some food out of the pantry?” Linda suggested, wanting to provide at least some sort of sustenance for her guests before they had a proper meal that evening. “Things should still be organized per Riley’s ration schedule.”

  Chase grinned, remembering how particular his sister had been about their food stores and what they could eat. Yanking open the pantry door he walked inside to review the contents, struck immediately by the rich and meaty aroma that was trapped behind the doors. “Wow,” he inhaled a deep breath. “What is that?”

  “Oh.” Linda suddenly froze, uncertain how to tell her grandchildren that the meat from their family cows now lined the pantry. It needed to be eaten quickly before it went bad, Linda having recently cooked it all to allow it to last a few days longer. Now that Riley and Chase were back, she wasn’t sure whether they would feel comfortable eating the animals they had so easily called pets for many years.

  Allowing his thoughts to catch up with him, Chase slowly put two and two together and understood why his grandma was struggling to explain the sudden surplus of meat in their pantry. It was Milk and Shake. The beloved cows that they had kept around on the farm even after the place shut down for business officially. Chase had always liked them, but Riley had been a great deal fonder than he was of the cows. He understood why his grandma had been forced to kill them for meat, though he couldn’t be certain Riley would feel the same.

  “I’ll just stick to cookies for now,” Chase spoke up, picking a couple of packets from the shelves and closing the pantry door. Turning to look at his grandma, he gave her a knowing look and smiled. “Don’t worry about it,” he said softly. “You were only doing what you needed to do to survive.”

  Linda gave her grandson a grateful look, appreciating how understanding he was being. Chase seemed so much more mature than he had been when he left the farmhouse. While that was undoubtedly a good thing, it made Linda worry about what he had been forced to deal with on the outside. She could only hope that in time he would remember how to be a child again and not become too bogged down with the terrors the volcano had forced upon them.

  “Do you think your sister will understand?”

  “I do,” Chase replied after a second. While Riley was still a child at heart, she had grown up a lot more than either of their grandparents realized during her time away. As much as Riley had loved both of the cows, Chase knew that she would understand why this needed to happen.

  “Do you want me to take the pot through Mrs.—Linda?” Vic corrected himself, the Ukrainian still awkwardly hovering in the kitchen while Chase and Linda spoke about things he didn’t understand.

  “Oh, yes,” Linda nodded. “Thank you. Shall we go back through, Chase?”

  “Sure,” Chase replied, picking up the food he’d gathered from the pantry and following the others back into the front room. Riley was huddled up against their grandfather now, sitting on the couch next to him with her head resting on his chest. Chase wondered whether that was the best position considering Jerry’s issues with his lungs, but the old man seemed happy to have his granddaughter in his arms again, so no one batted an eye.

  “So how have things been here?” Chase asked when they were all seated again, warming his body by sitting cross-legged in front of the fire. “I take it the roof is still the same?”

  “As far as I’m aware,” Linda replied. “I haven’t been upstairs in some time now. We’ve moved everything down here to try and keep warmer.”

  “We can go up and have a look at it if you want,” Vic suggested, feeling slightly awkward as the family all reunited and he, Blake, and Leo seemed to get in the way. He knew he had interrupted something in the kitchen between Chase and Linda and he felt like getting out of the way was necessary for at least an hour or so. “Figure out which bits we need to get from the truck.”

  “It’s okay,” Chase replied, not wanting his friends to run off and do all the work while he sat around. “We can start on it tomorrow, can’t we?”

  “No time like the present, really,” Blake replied, feeling similar to Vic and anxious to get on with the work to both give the Clarke family some alone time and speed things up at the farmhouse so he and Vic could return to Houston. As much as he wanted Chase, Riley, and Leo to be safe, he was still very aware that there was a whole city not far away that also needed protecting.

  “You really don’t have to,” Chase argued back.

  “Don’t worry about it, my friend,” Vic insisted. “You guys sit and catch up. Don’t worry about us.”

  Seeing that his friends weren’t taking no for an answer, Chase gave in and allowed them to exit the front room, heading upstairs to inspect the damage to Riley’s old bedroom. He had to admit that once they were gone the atmosphere in the room did change slightly. The four of them were back together again and that was a feeling more incredible than anything Chase had imagined.

  “It’s good to be home,” he smiled after a few seconds of silence. “We really missed you.”

  “We missed you too,” Linda murmured in response. “I’m so glad you’re both okay.”

  “And you?” Chase pushed his grandma, anxious for the truth now that they were alone. “Honestly Grandma, is everything okay?”

  “It’s not,” Jerry answered for his wife. “But it will be, now that you two are back with us.”

  “Have you heard anything from Mia?”

  Jerry shook his head, saddened by Riley’s question. “Nothing. I still have faith though. If you two managed to find your way back here, there’s no reason why she can’t as well.”

  Everyone in the room agreed wholeheartedly with Jerry’s statement, all wanting to believe that Mia would come back to them. For the time being, each of them just took a deep breath and felt happy for what they had. Their little unit was back together again, and it was more than any of them had ever believed would be possible not that long ago. Once again, they realized how lucky they were and basked in that thought, knowing to make the most of the good moments while they had them. They had no idea how long this one would last.

  Chapter 3

  Striding down the corridor, Freddy Hartley looked at his watch and picked up his pace. He was late, and lateness did not go down wel
l within the Authority. Fully aware that he had only reached his position of relative status due to his uncle’s position in the organization, Freddy clicked his heels together and started speed-walking to his destination, worried about the looks and comments he would surely receive if he turned up to another meeting after it had already begun. Things were really heating up in HQ now—ironic, considering the dropping temperatures outside—and Freddy knew he needed to up his game if he didn’t want to get left out of the next stage of planning.

  As great as it was to be a part of the Authority without having to go through the drawn-out screening process and months of hazing that everyone else had undergone, Freddy still wanted to prove himself and make a name for what he had achieved, not just what his uncle had done. Now was the prime opportunity. No one within the Authority could have predicted that Yellowstone would erupt and give them the chance to push their plans forward by potentially decades. Everyone was at each other’s throats trying to make sure things worked out the way they had always dreamed; it was the ideal opportunity for Freddy to emerge as a shining star. If only he had an idea to share with the group.

  “Late again, junior,” one of older men in the organization tutted at Freddy quietly as he snuck into the meeting room, quickly finding a place to stand at the back and trying not to attract too much attention.

  Freddy didn’t say anything to the old man, recognizing him from a few other meetings but knowing that he wasn’t anyone senior who he needed to worry about. Settling back against the wall and tuning into the discussion, he listened to the conversations going on between the founding members of the Authority and fantasized about one day sitting at that table alongside his uncle.

  Back when the Authority was just Freddy’s uncle Roger and his friends getting together in the local bar, none of them could have imagined it would become an organization strong enough to spread across the country. That was many years ago now, with things really snowballing and expanding in the years before the eruption. They had always had a view to rid the country of the impure, so it came as a sign to them that they were doing the right thing when Yellowstone erupted and finally gave the Authority their chance.