A New Home (Chasing Destiny) Read online

  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 or given away to other people in any form or by any means. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  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

  Twelve year old, Hannah is a normal girl, as far as anyone can see. She likes to swim and enjoys playing computer games. When she starts to have visions of the world ending, and how she can prevent it from happening, she doesn’t really want to prevent it. Why should she give up her life to save the world? How can she possibly convince people she’s not crazy?

  Prologue

  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 mother’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 Mega-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 was 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 fam
ily’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?

  Walking to the family computer, she scanned the image, and brought up her mother’s Facebook account. She used it quite a bit to play games, but today, she was doing something a lot more important.

  She posted the picture and made a comment below it. “Imperative that we find this family. Please share this with your Facebook friends and their friends. If you know this family, please contact, Leah Long at llongheadshrinker at yahoo dot com.”

  She watched as her mother’s friends shared the picture over and over. She’d set up the email address, and checked it hourly. Just as her mother walked in the door, the email came in. “That’s my neighbor’s family. Is everything okay?” It was signed simply, Jim.

  She responded. “Thanks so much, Jim. I just need to talk to them. Would you give me their address so I can contact them?”

  Within five minutes the address appeared in her mother’s email address. Hannah rolled her eyes at the man’s carelessness. How could he just give someone’s address to a random person on the internet? “Mom? Can we fly to Wisconsin tomorrow?”

  Her mother sighed. “You found them already?” She’d been hoping the people would be impossible to find. Everything was falling into place too easily, though. The visions had to be true.

  Hannah nodded. “We don’t have any time to waste. Everyone needs to be in place by September first.”

  “Where are they, so I can figure out which airport to fly into?”

  Hannah looked at the address again. “Some place called Sun Prairie.”

  Her mother patted her arm. “Hop up and let me look.” She sat down and her fingers flew across the keyboard. “Okay, we need to fly into Madison. There’s an eight a.m. flight. We can be in their driveway by two if we rent a car at the airport. Will that work for you?”

  “Yeah, that should be fine. Operation, convince people to move to Idaho is now underway!” She’d never been to Wisconsin. Maybe that was a good thing about her visions. Travel.

  Chapter Two

  Hannah had her mother stop at a gas station between the airport and Sun Prairie, which was less than twenty minutes away. “Mom, I need you to get a lottery ticket again. Here are the numbers.” She handed her mother the numbers she’d written down before they’d left home. “Oh, and I want a bottle of water and a Milky Way, please.”

  Leah raised an eyebrow, but went into the gas station. She came out with two bottles of water, a candy bar and the lottery ticket.

  Fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of a large two story home. Leah parked on the street in front of the house, and they walked up together. Hannah rang the doorbell and took a deep breath. A woman came to the door, drying her hands on a dishcloth. She looked like she was in her late thirties. Her hair was dark, but her eyes were a deep green. “May I help you?”

  Hannah smiled. “I know you don’t know us. My name is Hannah and this is my mom. We’re not going to take up much of your time today.” She handed her the lottery ticket.

  The woman took it automatically and looked down at it. “What’s this?” She flipped it over in her hands. Obviously she knew what it was, but why was someone giving her a lottery ticket?

  “It’s the winning lottery ticket for tonight,” Hannah told her. “You can keep it under one condition.”

  The woman laughed. “This is the winning ticket? You’re sure?”

  Hannah nodded. “As sure as am I you’re standing in front of me. When you win, you have to agree to sit down with my mom and me. You, your husband and your two sons.”

  The woman frowned. “How do you know I have two sons?”

  Hannah shook her head. “That’s not important right now. Will you agree to see us tomorrow if that really is the winning ticket?”

  “Sure. If this is the winning ticket, you can have all the time you want.”

  “Thank you. Have a good day.” She turned on her heel and headed back to the car.

  Leah stood for a minute debating whether or not she should apologize for her daughter’s abruptness, or go to the car. She smiled at the woman. “Thanks for your time.” She turned and followed Hannah to the car. “Now what?”

  Hannah shrugged. “We find a hotel, and come back tomorrow.”

  They found a hotel in Madison, and Hannah did some swimming, while Leah read in a lounger beside the pool. At least, Hannah thought she read. Instead she sat staring at her book, wondering what she’d agreed to. She knew
Hannah, and she knew she wouldn’t lie. Other people weren’t as likely to believe in her daughter, though.

  But how in the world could she sit here believing in a few short years, she’d be dead? How could she believe that her daughter, a little girl who was just growing out of a paralyzing shyness, would be changing the world? It just didn’t seem possible.

  It was around ten the following morning when Leah parked her car in front of the house in Sun Prairie. The door flew open before they even reached the porch. “You gave me the winning lottery ticket,” the woman said shaking her head. “How did you do that?”

  “Can we come in and talk? Is your family home?” Hannah asked. “I’d rather explain everything only once.”

  Five minutes later, they were all seated around the dining room table. “I guess I need to start at the beginning, but to do that, you need to hear it from my mom.”

  Leah quickly told the story of how Hannah had predicted the death of her grandfather. She told of other incidents over the years, including Hannah’s school catching fire right after Hannah had started screaming for everyone to get out. The two boys and their parents stared at Hannah in wonder.

  “I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s happened more times than I can count. I hoped this time she was wrong, but she gave me the lottery numbers for Texas, and we won.” Leah shrugged. “She’s never known the lottery numbers before, and now twice in the space of a week? She’s telling the truth.”

  “The truth about what?” the woman asked. She didn’t look like she believed what she was being told, but she looked afraid to disbelieve as well.

  “A few days ago, I was swimming. I’m a competitive swimmer,” Hannah explained. “I was in the middle of my first lap when I had a vision. I don’t know what else to call what I do. I’ve always just called them visions.”

  “Okay,” the man said. He had dark hair and eyes, and his nose had obviously been broken at some point. Just like the artist’s sketch.