A New Home (Chasing Destiny)

A New Home:  Book One in the Chasing Destiny Series

Kindle
Edition

Copyright © 2012 Abigail Denver

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Author’s website: 
http://abigaildenver.com

Hannah stumbled out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes and crying.  She ran straight to her mother who was sitting on the couch reading a book.  Her cry was startling.  Hannah rarely cried, and when she did, it meant she was hurt.  “What is it, baby?”

Hannah whimpered.  “The police are coming.  Grandpa’s dead.”  She rested her head on her mo
ther
’s shoulder and sobbed.
 

Leah looked down at the tiny blond head.  Hannah was only three, and had never acted this way.  “Grandpa’s fine, honey.  I talked to him an hour ago.”  Her father had called on his way out of town.  He had a convention in Dallas and had called to let her know he was on his way.  Leah was extremely close to her father, and had almost daily contact with him.

“Car wreck.”  Hannah shook her head.  “Go to the door,” she sobbed.

Leah looked at her daughter with a confused look on her face.  What was she talking about?  She
tried
to soothe her again,
but
the doorbell rang. 
As soon as it rang, Hannah’s screams escalated.  Leah
looked down at her little girl.  “You stay here.  I’ll get the door.”

She opened the door, just enough to see out. 
Two police officers stood on her front steps.  Leah covered her mouth, trying to hide her shock.  “May I help you?” 

The taller, and older of the police officers said, “May we come inside, Mrs. Long?”

Leah opened the door wide and led them inside.  The older officer took a seat on the couch beside her, while his partner sat in the recliner.  “I’m Officer James and this is my partner, Officer Stevens.  I’m sorry to inform you, your father is dead.”

Leah’s tears started to fall.  She looked down at her baby girl who was still sobbing, her chest rising and falling.  “How did it happen?”

“There was a car accident on I-20 just west of Fort Worth.  He was hit by an eighteen wheeler.  The driver fell asleep at the wheel.”  Officer James paused.  “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Leah nodded slowly.  “Thank you.” 

They spent another few minutes discussing the pertinent details of where his body was, and when she could have a funeral home pick it up.  After the officers left, Leah turned to her baby girl.  “How did you know?”

Hannah looked at her mother with wide, frightened blue eyes.  “I saw him.  And I saw the police.  Inside my head.”

As a psychiatrist, Leah was aware of other instances where people had visions of loved ones dying.  She hated the fact it had happened to her baby, but she wasn’t shocked.  They’d do some testing on her and hope it never happened again. 

She called her husband
, Ryan,
at work.  He had pulled the weekend shift at the hospital where he worked in the ER.  “You need to come home.  My daddy just died in a car accident.”

As soon as he arrived, she explained how everything had happened.  They both stared at their baby, hoping against hope something like this would never happen again.

Chapter One

Hannah dove cleanly into the
water.  She was on a local swim team and spent hours every day during the summer training to get faster.  Someday she wanted to be in the Olympics and get more gold medals than Michael Phelps.  She was sure she could do it, too.  She’d already broken some local speed records, and she was only twelve. 

When she started
junior high
, in September, she was going to join the swim team at school. 
She couldn’t wait.

She swam hard pushing for her personal best.  She loved swimming.  She could clear her mind, and just concentrate on how it felt to swim through the water.  She’d gone with her parents to Cozumel once, and swam with the dolphins. 
Her love of swimming had begun then, and her goal, every time she swam, was to swim as fast as a dolphin.  She knew it was corny, but it really worked for her.

She was halfway through her first lap when the vision overtook her.  There had been lots of visions over the years.  Each time she’d had one, something terrible had happened.  The first, when she’d lost her Grandpa had been the worst.  She didn’t remember it, but her parents had told her the story enough times she felt like she did.

This vision was more powerful than all the others combined.  It showed a world torn apart by warring factions.  It showed a small group of survivors, all children and teenagers.  It showed her burying her parents and every other adult in her life.  But most importantly, it showed her how to survive.

As always, the vision made her lose consciousness.  When she came to, a lifeguard had her on her back, slowly pumping water from her chest.  She rolled to her side and vomited on the pavement, then lay back, panting.   She remembered the vision.  All of it.  And she knew what she had to do.

*****

That evening at dinner, her mother, as always, asked about her day.  She took a deep breath, and explained about her vision.  “Everyone over the age of 20 in the entire world is going to die.  We have six years to prepare for it.  We have to start now.”

Her kid sister, Emily, scoffed at her.  “You’re making this one up.  There’s no way.”

Hannah shook her head.  “I only wish I was.”  She handed her mother a
piece of paper with six
numbers written on it.  “Those are the numbers for tomorrow night’s
M
ega-millions.
  Go buy a lottery ticket.  The pot’s over one-hundred-million.  We’ll need the money to ensure the survival of the human race.”

Leah stared at the paper.  “Are you sure, Hannah?”

Hannah shrugged.  “As sure as I ever am about these things.  If the numbers aren’t right, then I dreamed it.  If they are?  It’s time to take action.”

Emily
w
as the exact opposite of Hannah.  They’d both been adopted, and they looked nothing alike.  Emily was as dark as Hannah was fair.  “You’ve lost it this time, Hannah.”

Hannah sighed.  “I really hope so, Emily.  If not, we have a lot of work to do, and it’s not going to be fun.”
  Hannah knew her words were a huge understatement.  She hoped she was wrong and her sister never found out what an understatement they were.

*****

The whole family sat around the TV the following evening watching the numbers being read off.  Their mother clutched the ticket in her hand, her eyes wide.  “7, 18, 32, 49, 63 and 8 is the megaplier.”

Leah turned to Hannah.  “We just won one-hundred-twenty-five million dollars.  What do we do now?”
  Leah felt the tears prick her eyes.  How in the world could a twelve year old coordinate saving the human race?  How could anyone think of asking it of her?

Hannah felt the tears coursing down her cheeks.  She’d wanted to be wrong this time.  She’d wanted it with everything inside her.  “We buy land.”  She pulled out the family’s atlas and opened it to the page she’d already marked.  “Here.”

Emily stared at it.  “Idaho?  You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Emily was very much a social butterfly.  She had a lot of friends in Texas and the very idea of moving to Idaho made her sick.

Hannah had drawn a huge box Northeast of Boise in the Salmon River Mountains.  “That’s the area we need to buy.”

Leah blinked a couple of times.  “How big is that area?”

“Twenty
-five
square miles,” Hannah answered without hesitation.  “We need to build walls around the inner sixteen square miles.  We leave a mile on the outside in every direction as added protection.”

Emily folded her arms across her chest.  “I’m not moving to Idaho!
  All my friends are here.
”

Hannah turned on her sister.  “Yes, you are!  You’ll die otherwise.  Do you want to be killed by a bomb, a rifle or a grenade?  Of you could always starve to death.  Which option would you prefer?”
  Hannah wanted to slap some sense into her little sister.  Why couldn’t she listen just this once?

“Enough, Hannah.”  Leah turned to her younger daughter.  “I know this sounds crazy, Em.  It does to me, too.  But Hannah’s never been wrong. 
She got the lottery numbers right.  She’s never done that before. 
We need to do this.”

Emily burst into tears and ran from the room, screaming, “I won’t go!  You can’t make me!”

Hannah looked at her mother.  “Mom, I’m sorry.  I know I sound
crazy
, but we have to do this, and we have to do it fast.  I had a vision of the first family we need to find.”  She paused for a moment looking down at her hands.  “The boy is going to be our leader.” 

Leah sighed.  “And just how do you think we’re going to be able to convince people to move into the wilderness with us?”
  She hated asking.  She knew her daughter would have the answer, even though she really didn’t want to know.

“I have a plan.  First, though, I need to get with someone who can draw the people in my vision.  Kinda like a police artist guy?  How do we find someone like that?”

“What are you going to do with the picture?”
  Leah couldn’t see herself going from city to city trying to find people in a picture.

Hannah grinned.  “Facebook, of course.”

*****

Leah made some phone calls from the office the following morning.  By noon, Hannah was sitting with a former police sketch artist,
Tanya,
who was a patient of her mother’s.  “No, the dad’s eyes were wider.  And his nose had a ridge in it.”

The artist erased and redrew a few lines.  “Like this?”
  She glanced at Hannah for confirmation.

Hannah nodded.  “That’s them.  Thank you!”

“Your mom didn’t tell me why we were doing this,”
Tanya
said.

“Oh, we’re just getting ready for the coming apocalypse,” Hannah said with a smile.  She pointed to the older boy in the picture.  “He’s going to rule the world.”

Tanya laughed.  “Okay, don’t tell me!”  She handed the finished drawing to Hannah.  “That’s a free session with your mom for me.  She said you’d probably need me again soon.”  She scribbled her number on a blank piece of paper.  “Just call me directly.”

Hannah smiled.  “Thanks so much for your help.  I’m sure I’ll be calling you again soon.”

After Tanya left, Hannah sat and stared at the picture, and especially at the older boy.  “I’m going to marry you someday,” she whispered.
  She had to laugh at herself.  She was twelve years old and had plans to marry the ruler of the world.  She had a couple of friends who wanted to marry multi-millionaires and she always thought they were silly.  What would they say about her?