RISE

by R. D. Brady

  Chapter One Hundred Thirteen

  Greg found Sandra and Luke sitting in the middle row of one of the SUVs. Sandra had her arms around Luke and was rocking with him. Luke clutched Sandra’s arms, still looking terrified.

  Man, that poor kid. Greg knew how terrifying these situations were. As a grown adult, they were difficult to say the least. But for a sensitive kid? It must’ve been absolutely traumatizing.

  Luke would never be the same again. Neither would Sandra. But Greg hoped that one day he could get past this. He’d never forget. Greg had never forgotten. But Greg liked to think that he’d grown stronger from it. Not just physically but mentally. He knew now that there were things that went bump in the night. He knew now that faced with death, he would still try to save those he cared about. He knew himself better. But he wasn’t sure if life-threatening situations worked the same for kids. Did they come out the other side stronger? Or because they were still growing and maturing, did it set them back or maybe even push them off the course to complete maturity?

  And for a kid like Luke, would it be even more difficult to come back? Luke was an extremely trusting kid. He saw the world in a way that Greg wished more people did. But it also led to pain in his young life. Greg had overheard Sandra telling Norah about the kids at school. Maybe in some weird sort of way, that bullying had helped prepare him for this situation.

  But those were thoughts for another day. The car door was open. Greg walked up to it, placing his hand on top of the frame. He kept his voice low. “How’s he doing?”

  Sandra shrugged. “I … I’m not sure.”

  Luke caught his glance for just a second before looking away. “Hey, buddy. You did really great down there.”

  “Sammy?” Luke didn’t look at Greg while he asked the question.

  “Actually, that’s what I’m here to talk to you about.” Greg paused. He didn’t want to blurt out the request in front of Luke because he wanted to give Sandra the option to say no. But he also didn’t see how he was going to be able to get Sandra away from Luke. And time was of the essence. “Um, we have a little issue that we were hoping we might be able to get Luke’s help on.”

  “Now?” Sandra asked.

  Greg nodded. “Most definitely now. Sammy’s hurt. Maeve and I think we can repair the damage. But we need a, um, well, a blood donor.”

  Sandra stared at him, and he could tell she didn’t understand what he was saying.

  Probably because I haven’t said it. Greg took a breath. “Okay. Here goes: According to Sammy, Luke is related to him and therefore can donate blood to him.”

  Sandra continued to stare at him before she shook her head. “No, no. He’s already been through too much. We can’t—”

  Luke interrupted her. “He saved us, more than once, Mom. It’s our turn to save him.”

  Out of the mouth of babes.

  Sandra looked down at Luke and hugged him tight. “Are you sure? They’d have to put a needle into your skin. I know you don’t like that.”

  Luke nodded, looking more confident. “I’m sure. I want to help.”

  Sandra looked back at Greg. “Okay, I guess we’re in.”

  And now I guess that means that Sammy has a real shot.

  Chapter One Hundred Fourteen

  Getting Sammy into the plane had proved to be a tricky endeavor. But after quite a bit of maneuvering and some cursing, they managed it. They’d had to push two stretchers together in order to compensate for his size.

  With shaking hands, Maeve transfused Luke’s blood into Sammy. She held her breath, her eyes shifting between the monitors and Sammy’s face, looking for any sign that he was rejecting the blood. But if anything, his vitals improved. After fifteen minutes, he stabilized and seemed to fall into a deep sleep.

  Maeve sank to the floor at the edge of the medical unit.

  Greg collapsed next to her. “I can’t believe that worked.”

  “I wonder why that worked.”

  Greg patted her thigh. “Let’s save that little medical mystery for another day. I’m tired.”

  Maeve gave a shaky laugh. “Yeah, me too.”

  “I’ll take the first shift. Go see your gang.”

  “I’ll send someone down here to keep you company, okay?”

  “Sounds good. They can also keep me awake, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to fall asleep.”

  With effort, Maeve pushed herself to her feet. She made her way over to the stretchers and checked the monitors one last time. He looked like he was doing well. But they knew nothing about his physiology. They were basing the readings solely on what would be good for a human of his size.

  Her gaze drifted over to him, wondering where he’d come from. But soon her scientific thoughts drifted away, and only her grateful ones remained. She spoke low, knowing he was in a deep sleep and probably couldn’t hear her, but she still felt it needed to be said. “Thank you. Thank you for saving Luke. Thank you for saving my family. Thank you for looking out for all of us. I don’t know where you came from or why you’ve become our guardian angel, but I am very grateful that you are.”

  Maeve reached out and squeezed his hand, and for just a split second, she could’ve sworn he squeezed hers in return. She made her way out of the medical unit and up the narrow staircase to where everyone else was.

  Adam and Jasper stood at the top of the staircase, waiting for her.

  “How is he?” Jasper asked.

  “I think he’s going to be all right. The blood from Luke seems to have done the trick. I can’t explain why, but we got lucky.”

  Adam nodded and turned to head down the stairs, but Maeve put out an arm, blocking him. “Wait.”

  Adam looked up at her.

  “Will he be safe at R.I.S.E.?”

  Adam looked down the stairs and then back at her. “I’m not sure.”

  Maeve took a deep breath. “The U.S. government just okayed the death of half the people on this plane. Will we be safe at R.I.S.E.?”

  Jasper shook his head. “R.I.S.E. has just been exposed to every branch of the U.S. military. That information is supposed to stay secret. But no one knows if that will be the case. Human error or greed is always unpredictable. No one knows what will happen to R.I.S.E. in the weeks to come. But what I can say for sure is that there will be government oversight. No agency likes to think that someone else is getting all the toys. Someone is going to make problems for us.”

  “And my family? Can you guarantee their safety if we go back?”

  Jasper opened his mouth to answer, but Adam beat him to it. “No.”

  Maeve sucked in a breath. “We can’t go back there, then. I won’t put them at the mercy of the U.S. government. I’ve seen that mercy up close and personal. I will make some calls. I will find somewhere for us to hole up until we can figure out our next moves.”

  Adam shook his head. “That’s not necessary. I know a place.”

  Maeve stared at him. She’d been told about Adam’s Draco nature. She didn’t care about that. It was the human component of his nature that she worried about. “What about Tilda?”

  “She’ll understand. Protecting all of you, she knows how important that is.”

  “Didn’t she okay that missile that almost wiped us all out?” asked Maeve.

  Jasper cleared his throat. “Tilda wasn’t sure if she could trust all her people after Ethan’s betrayal. She okayed this mission. She provided the plane, the weapons, the resources, everything. She just couldn’t let anyone know.”

  “Will you tell her where we’re going?”

  Adam nodded. “Yes. But in a way that no one else would be able to understand. And she would never tell. But I need to tell her I’m alive. I owe her that. I owe her everything.”

  Maeve understood that level of commitment. And she prayed that Adam’s faith in Tilda was well deserved. “All right. I’m trusting you. We’re all trusting you.”

  “I won’t let you down. And neither will she.”

  Chapter One
Hundred Fifteen

  RAF Bentwaters, United Kingdom

  Outside the office, the hangar had emptied out. Even Penny had left her little nest, her mother coming to take her and force her to sleep. Tilda sat at the desk, reading through reports.

  The bombing in Antarctica had gone off without a hitch. The team she’d sent reported back that the facility had been completely destroyed. All of the tunnels leading in and out of it had collapsed. They were in the process of going through the wreckage. If there were any Draco alive and if they put up any sort of resistance, a second bombing would immediately commence.

  Her people knew the stakes. They knew what they had signed up for. But it still didn’t make it easier to sign off on the order.

  The bombing in Edmonds was more difficult. The governor of Washington had declared a state of emergency. Tilda’s people had taken over the site under the guise of the Department of Homeland Security. No one outside of her people would be allowed access.

  Over three dozen people had been taken to the hospital. So far, two deaths had been reported.

  And there was no word from Adam’s team.

  Tilda couldn’t remember ever being so tired. Everything ached, even though she’d given in and taken the stronger painkillers. Right now, she wanted more of them. But what she wanted even more than that was to see Adam’s face.

  She didn’t know when she would see him again.

  Or if she would.

  She didn’t know if his team had succeeded or if they were some of the bodies that would be pulled out of the site in the days to come. She glanced at the small nondescript cell phone sitting in the middle of her desk. It remained annoyingly silent.

  There was similarly no word from Agaren. Tilda had no doubt Pop and Crackle were safe. And as much as it would kill Maeve and Chris, it was perhaps safest for them to remain with Agaren for at least a short time. R.I.S.E. was about to change. And Tilda wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to protect them.

  Martin was also still AWOL. But Tilda knew he would show up eventually, like a bad penny. The fact that he’d disappeared at the same time the rescue mission took off gave her a good idea of where he might have gone.

  Or been taken. But Martin was not going to occupy her thoughts. Besides the trouble he could cause, he was not on her list of concerns.

  Across the office, Pearl had fallen asleep on the couch. Tilda didn’t want to wake her. There were still a few more reports she needed to go through, a few more phone calls she needed to return. She yawned, one big enough to swallow her head. She lowered her head to the desk, laying it on her hands. Five minutes. She’d give herself five minutes, and then she’d get back to work.

  A buzzing worked its way into Tilda’s consciousness. She knew she should recognize the sound, but she was struggling through the exhaustion. Then her eyes flew open. She scrambled for the phone and flipped it open. She read the message, her heart lifting.

  We are fine. All accounted for. Need to go quiet. Going home.

  Tilda closed the phone, a smile on her face.

  Pearl sat up from the couch, rubbing her eyes. “Is everything all right? Any word from Adam?”

  Tilda clasped the phone in her hand. “No. Nothing yet.”

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading R.I.S.E. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider leaving a review.

  First let me apologize for taking so long to get the third book in the A.L.I.V.E. series to you. I had originally intended for R.I.S.E. to be the final book in the A.L.I.V.E. series. But as I was writing I realized there were too many threads to tie together for one book. So there will be one more book in the A.L.I.V.E. series, S.A.V.E. I promise it will not take nearly as long to get it to you!

  To be notified about S.AV.E.’s release, and other books please sign up for my newsletter. You will receive exclusive content including the full-length novel DUST, the prequel to The Unwelcome Trilogy. You can sign up for it at my website rdbradybooks.com or follow this link.

  Turn to the next page for the fact or fiction section.

  Fact or Fiction

  The creation of R.I.S.E. was created with that aid of numerous facts that I have come across in my readings. When I write these types of books, I tend to read a ridiculous amount before I even start writing. All the facts found within R.I.S.E. are taken from multiple sources.

  Below I discuss some of the facts used in the development of R.I.S.E and when possible provide one link to at least get you started if you are looking for more information. If there is something in the book not covered below, drop me an email (rdbradywriter@gmail.com) and I’d be happy to chat with you about it.

  Now on to the facts!

  Lizard People. I have mentioned the lizard people in other books. It is true that four percent of the population did report believing that the U.S. government is controlled by lizard people. (Click here.) It is perhaps safe to say that some of those answers were made in jest. However, when it comes to alien abductions, the story is less easily explained.

  Well known within the UFO literature is the image of abductions at the hands of little grey men. However, there are numerous reports of a second group abducting humans: beings with lizard heads but human shaped bodies. While the greys are reported to be cold and clinical, the reports of the lizard people are filled with menace and a focus on creating a hybrid between the human race and their own.

  It all sounds insane, right? Well, it gets stranger. The story about the search for lizard people under Los Angeles is actually true.

  In 1933, George Warren Shufelt attempt to excavate a rumored city of the lizard people built some 5,000 years earlier. It was not a lofty archaeological endeavor on Shufelt’s part. He was interested in the gold rumored to be found amongst the tunnels. Alas, he ran out of money before he found anything. You can read about him here.

  Semi-Identical Twins. Semi- identical twins are actually a relatively new classification of twins. Fraternal twins share 50 percent of their genes. Identical twins share 100 percent. Semi-identical share between 50 and 100 percent. In semi-identical twins, one egg is fertilized by two sperm. Three sets of chromosomes are then split amongst two twins. There have only been two documented cases. You can read about them here.

  A Hollow Moon. Is the moon hollow? The questions seems right up there with whether or not the moon is made of cheese. Yet, there is some evidence to suggest that at least part of the moon is hollow. During the Apollo 13 mission, the spent Intrepid was dropped back to the moon. Unexpectedly, when it impacted a huge gong sounded and the moon continued to vibrate like a bell for over an hour.

  Follow up crashes of lunar modules from Apollo 13 and 14 revealed the same phenomena, the moon sometimes vibrating for three hours! The results were decidedly unpredicted. And many have come to the conclusion that at least some parts of the moon must be hollow to result in such a phenomena.

  Secret Space Agency. There have been rumors about a secret space agency for decades. I have no knowledge of a secondary space program and the creation of one for R.I.S.E. was simply an extrapolation from these conspiracy theories.

  Wernher Von Braun. The information on Wernher Von Braun is accurate to the best of my ability, with one exception: he did not create a secondary space program. He was however the mastermind behind NASA, the US rocket program and the mission to reach the moon. In addition, he created films with Disney and spoke about manned trips to Mars. He also had a good rapport with JFK and did have a dinner scheduled with him which never took place due to JFK’s assassination.

  Space Angels. Back in 1984, Russian cosmonauts reported a strange orange mist engulfing their space station. When they looked outside, they saw seven eighty-foot tall winged humanoid creatures with what they described as peaceful expressions on their faces. The winged beings stayed outside the craft for ten minutes before disappearing.

  Days later, more cosmonauts joined the crew. And once again, an orange mist covered the ship. This time, six cosmonauts saw th
e enormous ‘space angels.’ In some reporting, the cosmonauts speak of a telepathic connection with the angels who warned about the violent nature of humanity, and the need for Earth’s inhabitants to turn to a more peaceful existence. In others, there is no report of any contact beyond a feeling of peace and tranquility experienced by the cosmonauts. For more information, check out the following link or Google, Russian space angels.

  Britain’s Roswell. The Rendelsham Forest Incident is in many many ways Britain’s Roswell. The UFO was allegedly tracked by radar and Kensington did report seeing a craft with strange symbols on it. He also reported receiving a series of zeros and ones in his mind when he touched the craft. There are also many who doubt it ever happened. Like Roswell, the truth will never probably be known. For more information on the Rendelsham incident, check out this link or just Google Rendelsham incident.

  Thank you again for reading R.I.S.E. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have the time, I would truly appreciate it if you left a review.

  With great appreciation,

  R.D.

  About the Author

  R.D. Brady is an American writer who grew up on Long Island, NY but has made her home in both the South and Midwest before settling in upstate New York. On her way to becoming a full-time writer, R.D. received a Ph.D. in Criminology and taught for ten years at a small liberal arts college.

  R.D. left the glamorous life of grading papers behind in 2013 with the publication of her first novel, the supernatural action adventure, The Belial Stone. Over ten novels later and hundreds of thousands of books sold, and she hasn't looked back. Her novels tap into her criminological background, her years spent studying martial arts, and the unexplained aspects of our history. Join her on her next adventure!