Escaping Darkness (Book 6): The Shadows

by Richards, E. S.

  “No problem,” Jadon started to move, maneuvering carefully over his friend’s body and clambering into the front seat while also trying not to distract Marcus too much from driving. “You okay, dude?”

  “Yeah,” Marcus replied quickly. “Don’t worry about me. I got this.”

  Jadon quickly patted his friend on the shoulder before twisting in the seat so he could reach back and hold Jesse. It wasn’t a comfortable position in the slightest, but it was necessary so that Mia could clean the wound and bandage him up. Jesse had lost a lot of blood. Thankfully the flow was slowing down now, though that did mean the boy was starting to waver in and out of consciousness.

  “Come on, Jesse,” Mia encouraged him. “Stay with me. This is going to sting.”

  Dousing a bandage in antiseptic, Mia pressed it against the bullet hole in Jesse’s shoulder and started to clean the wound. A gut-wrenching howl escaped Jesse as Mia worked, the sting from the antiseptic causing him to writhe and struggle against Jadon. Because the bullet passed straight through, they didn’t need to worry about removing any metal fragments from the skin and, following her inspection, Mia didn’t think anything was still left inside him. They would find out in a matter of days if the area didn’t start to heal properly; for now, Mia knew they couldn’t do anything more than wrap up the injury and hope for the best.

  “That’s good, Jesse,” Mia cooed, talking to the injured boy as she used to with Riley when she hurt herself. She had patched up many scraped knees and bruised elbows in her time as both an aunt and then as a parent, albeit nothing as serious as a bullet wound. Thankfully the worst thing that had ever happened to either Chase or Riley under her care was a dislocated shoulder that Chase had popped out playing lacrosse. Despite requiring quite a few pain meds following joint repositioning, he had been back playing the game no more than two weeks later. If Jesse could recover half as well, Mia would count that as a stroke of good luck—something she believed their group was well overdue for.

  “I’m going to wrap it up now,” she explained to the boy, narrating her work as she did it to keep his mind focused and stop him from drifting off to sleep. Once she was finished, she was happy for Jesse to get some rest, already having administered a couple of the strongest painkillers from the first aid kit. Until then she wanted him lucid. “I need to make it tight, so tell me if it hurts too much.”

  Jesse winced again as Mia wrapped the bandage around his bicep, the muscle trying to tense against her touch despite how it had been lacerated. He wouldn’t be playing football for a long time, but in their current state that was probably the least of Jesse’s worries. He didn’t ask Mia to loosen the bandage though, gritting his teeth and bearing the pain until it was finally done.

  “There we are,” Mia smiled. “All finished. You can relax now, Jesse.”

  Sagging almost immediately at the words, Jesse’s head lolled back against the seat and Mia shifted her body so none of his weight rested on her anymore. Blood had seeped into the seats of the Jeep, staining them red and giving the whole car a metallic smell. Picking up a couple of wipes from the kit, Mia cleaned her skin as best she could, wiping a bit more of the bloody dribble from Jesse’s lower arms as well as the boy’s eyelids fluttered.

  “You all right, Mia?” Jadon asked from the front, still twisted in his seat so he could assist where needed. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Mia replied. “He can sleep for a while now. Probably best to allow his body to recover.”

  “Are you all right though?” Jadon repeated, worried not only about Jesse, but Mia as well after everything she had done.

  Mia smiled, grateful for his concern. “Yeah I’m okay,” she nodded. “All worked out in the end, didn’t it?” she half joked. “The perfect plan.”

  Marcus laughed from the front, finally slowing the car a bit and shooting Mia a look in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, right. What even happened in there?”

  “Oh, man,” Jadon shook his head. “Those people are crazy, dude. I’m telling you—if you hadn’t rammed this car through their barriers, I don’t think we would’ve made it out alive.”

  “Seriously? How did it end up like that?”

  Mia sighed, unsure how to begin to explain it. Thankfully Jadon saw the look on her face and how exhausted she was and picked it up for her, though he was equally staggered by what had happened. He had experienced hatred before in his life, but not on that level. It was like something out of a history book. Jadon only hoped that they would fail and that Yellowstone wasn’t the saving grace for them as they believed it was.

  “Bunch of sick racists, if you ask me,” he muttered, Marcus turning his head slightly to listen to his friend beside him. “They locked us in a dormitory for the night and then when Jesse and I started asking questions, they got aggressive and threatened us.”

  “No way? For real?”

  “It was horrible, man,” Jadon continued. “I know there are people out there like that but jeez, this lot was extreme.”

  “Do you think there are more of them? Like, you reckon that was only one small part of it?”

  “They called themselves the Authority,” Mia interjected from the back, unable to completely switch off the conversation. Adrenaline was still pumping through her veins and she felt like she needed to do something rather than rest. If talking was all she could manage, then that would have to do. “And I definitely think there’s more.”

  “How come?”

  “Well, if you think about it, they were clearly sent by someone to set up at the border and they said they had orders not to let anyone in or out of Texas. If you ask me, that sounds like they’ve taken over the whole state. Or are trying to at least.”

  “Whoa,” Marcus slowed the Jeep even more in response to Mia’s words, suddenly cautious of what they might find on the roads. It was the middle of the night and he had been driving recklessly into the darkness for over an hour now. There was probably enough distance between them and the border for him to slow down and look for a place they could spend the night. Especially if there was more of the Authority roaming around the place. “You really think they could do that?”

  “I’m not sure,” Mia answered honestly. “I think they’re definitely trying to. We need to be careful who we run into out here. I don’t think we can trust anyone until we get to my parents’ farm.”

  “I agree,” Jadon nodded. “How far is it from that border crossing?”

  “A good few hours’ drive still,” Mia replied. “I’ve no idea where we are now, to be honest. Marcus, which direction are we heading in?”

  “Uhh,” Marcus faltered, reluctant to admit that in the rush of the moment he had just hit the gas and followed the road, not even remembering which turn he’d taken at the intersection. “I’m not completely sure, actually.”

  Mia nodded, knowing that she couldn’t feel disappointed in Marcus for that. Emotions had been high for all of them and she knew that looking at road signs hadn’t been anyone’s top priority. “No worries,” she shrugged. “I reckon we’ll find somewhere to stop for the night if possible, then get our bearings in the morning and make a beeline to Houston then. I highly doubt anyone from the border has tried to follow us, but if they did, we’ll hide the Jeep away anyway. Should be fine for one night.”

  “All right, cool,” Marcus smiled in the rearview mirror. “We’ve passed a few places, shouldn’t take too long to find somewhere decent.”

  “Awesome,” Mia replied. “Let’s all keep our eyes peeled.”

  Sitting back in her seat a fraction, Mia turned her head so it was angled out of the window and stared into the darkness. After everything that had just happened, she’d barely had time to process the bigger picture. Whoever the Authority was, whoever they had been founded by and whoever they were linked to were trying to take control of what she imagined was not only Texas, but the entire country. It was typical of her luck that they’d started in her home state, although Mia’s main concern wasn’t for her
self, just for her family waiting at the farmhouse.

  She wondered how far the Authority’s reach had expanded. Had they focused on the larger cities first because of how populous they were, or had they started in the smaller suburbs? She tried to put herself in their position and figure out what they would do: easier, smaller targets, or larger, more challenging locations? It wasn’t a mindset Mia had ever tried to enter before and so she struggled to wrap her head around it. She knew millions of people around the world carried prejudices, but she thought that on this scale they had been wiped out. It made her feel sick and she dreaded to think how it was affecting other people throughout Texas.

  Time couldn’t pass quick enough between her reuniting with her family now. This was the closest she had been to them in a long time and Mia could feel a warmth in her heart as a result. It was no longer weeks until she would see them again, but days—soon, just hours. That was a feeling more incredible than anything else she could imagine and as they drove into the darkness looking for a refuge for the night, it was the feeling Mia focused on. Not the injured boy sleeping next to her or the worried driver who was away from his unborn child. She ignored the negative emotions that had encapsulated her so heavily over the past few weeks and focused on hope. With hope, she knew there was nothing that could hold her back. Nothing that could stop her.

  Chapter 6

  Lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling in the corner of the room, Mike processed what he was going to do that day. Even though he had assured his father that he was up to the challenge the day before, Mike had naturally woken up with several doubts about returning to the pit. He was vulnerable at the hands of the Authority. No matter what Jackson said about having people on the inside, there was no guarantee that something bad wouldn’t happen to him.

  When the Authority had first picked up Mike, it had been during their initial raid of the city. The street where he lived with his parents and younger brother was plunged into chaos quicker than anyone could’ve prepared for, the Authority using both the advantage of surprise combined with brute force and violence to overpower everyone and take the children away with them. Naturally Jackson had fought back, but after his wife—Mike’s mother—had been killed, the fight in him died like water extinguishing a flame.

  After that, Mike and Rylan had both been carted away by the Authority, taken to a place they didn’t recognize and separated into cells as a result of something they didn’t understand. Mike had been lucky enough the first time around to find friends like Leo, Joel, and Chase. Sadly, he had a feeling that this time, those relationships wouldn’t be possible. After his father and the rebel faction managed to overpower the Authority once, Mike knew their security levels would be much stricter and any chance of living a half-decent life inside the pit was unlikely.

  But he had told his father he would do it—that he would be the mole on the inside and help to take the Authority down. Despite how much he didn’t want to, Mike knew he would do it because of one overwhelming reason: he wanted to make his father proud. It was never something he felt like he’d managed to achieve in the past and now that the opportunity to do so was right in front of him, Mike couldn’t turn it down.

  “Are you all right, bro? You awake?”

  Mike rolled over in his bed so he was on his side, looking out into the small room within the office facility where he had been sleeping alongside his brother and father since he and Rylan arrived. Rylan was looking at him now, a concerned expression on his face as he too worried about what would happen to Mike in the pit this time around.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”

  “I need to,” Mike explained again to his younger brother, forcing himself to sit up in bed and prepare for the day. There wasn’t any getting out of it; he might as well start the day with a smile on his face while he still had the chance. “Dad specifically asked me; he needs my help. You know I couldn’t say no to that.”

  “I know,” Rylan nodded, understanding how Mike felt about wanting to make their father proud and sharing the sentiment. “I just don’t want you to go.”

  “Yeah, I don’t really want to either. It’s not going to be long term, though; Dad will get me out in a couple of weeks at most.”

  “Weeks? You didn’t say it was going to be that long before.”

  Mike grimaced. After the conversation the two siblings had shared with their father—where Jackson explained to Rylan what was happening—Jackson had given Mike a few additional details about his return to the Authority. He didn’t have a lot of factual information, just estimations about how long it would take for enough information to be gathered and for their rebel movement to build up the strength to overthrow the Authority. Jackson had told Mike it would likely be at least two weeks of data mining, a timeline he hadn’t been prepared for when he first agreed to it. Mike’s first stint in the pit was just short of eleven days and that had been long enough; he wasn’t sure how much longer he would last, but as he kept reminding himself, he now didn’t have a choice.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry,” Mike excused himself to Rylan. “I wanted to talk to you more about it last night. By the time Dad let me go you were already asleep. You know none of this would be happening if there was another option, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Rylan nodded, fully aware of how things worked in their family. Jackson made the decisions and they either fell into line or suffered the consequences. He knew Mike was only doing exactly what he would’ve done if their father had asked him instead; in reality, Rylan understood how lucky he was that Jackson hadn’t chosen him. “Still though,” he rubbed a hand on the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’ll miss you, bro.”

  “I’ll miss you too, Ry,” Mike smiled. “Come on, why don’t we go to breakfast? I’ve got a lot more goodbyes to say than just this one, it seems.”

  Rylan laughed, allowing his brother space to get up and get dressed for the day. As a partnership, they weren’t particularly affectionate between them. Nevertheless, both Mike and Rylan loved the other greatly and wanted the other to know that. Still, there was nothing more than a fist bump shared between them to say goodbye, hopeful that they would be reunited again shortly.

  Entering the cafeteria for breakfast, Mike’s eyes quickly landed on Joel and Hazel, the other sibling duo having breakfast with their mother as they did every day. Mike was finally used to not seeing Chase, Riley, and Leo sitting at the table as well and while he wished they were all still together, he knew that they were better off with their family. Especially now that he was returning to the pit, Mike was at least glad that none of his friends had to go through that as well.

  “Morning, guys,” Joel beamed up at the pair of brothers as they walked up to the table. “You all right?”

  “Yeah, you?”

  The greetings were pleasant and simple as they always were until Joel & Hazel’s mom left the table, the same routine occurring every morning so the four friends could catch up alone. But this time things couldn’t help feeling different for Mike. He pushed his oatmeal around his bowl unenthusiastically, barely able to bring himself to explain to Joel and Hazel what was happening.

  “Are you going to tell them?” Rylan spoke up in the end, fed up with waiting for Mike to speak out. “Or do you want me to?”

  “Tell us what?” Hazel asked, noticing already that things seemed different that morning.

  Mike paused, receiving expectant looks from everyone around the table. “I’m leaving,” he dropped eventually, knowing it wasn’t up to Rylan to expose the news for him. “I’m going back to the pit.”

  “What?”

  “No way, man, that’s crazy! Why?”

  “My dad needs me to,” Mike explained. “It makes sense. He needs someone on the inside and I’m the best option for the job. I know the place—sort of—and he knows he can trust me.”

  “Yeah, but…” Joel argued back, struggling to find the words. “It’s still crazy. Why does anyone have to go back? Isn’t he gathering eno
ugh knowledge from the outside?”

  “Apparently not,” Mike shrugged. “I’m going back today. Just after lunch.”

  “No way,” Hazel sighed, sad to see another one of their group go. Losing Riley had been hard for her, even as she was slowly becoming more integrated with Joel and his friends, the four of them all hanging out together. Now with Mike going, Hazel selfishly worried that that would end and she would be forgotten about. “How long do you think it’ll be for?”

  Mike sighed and explained everything to Joel and Hazel just as he had to Rylan earlier, going over the details of how long he would be in there and what information he was supposed to be digging up. It was a sad conversation to have, although by the end of it everyone seemed to understand which at least made Mike feel slightly better. If he had to leave his friends and family behind, then there was some shred of compensation knowing that they were safe, happy, and understood why he was leaving them.

  The rest of the morning passed in such a blur for Mike. His father collected him from the cafeteria and drilled him for another hour on what was going to happen and how he needed to act, before handing him off to another person of rank within the faction who had been studying the new layout of the pit. That was thankfully quite useful for Mike, the knowledge of how the pit had been redesigned and laid out giving him an advantage once he was inside. He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage to sneak around unseen and gather information, but it certainly helped for him to already understand the schematics of the place.

  “All right son,” Jackson stood in front of Mike as he prepared to leave, Rylan, Joel, and Hazel hovering just behind as the extension of his farewell party. “You remember who your contacts are in there?”

  Mike nodded.

  “And you know what you’re looking for? And what to do if you find anything?”

  Mike nodded again. Jackson had made everything more than clear to him over the last twenty-four hours; it was unlikely he would ever forget what was needed of him.