Chapter 2 - The Escape Plan
"Get inside the house right now!" Grandpa roared, pushing me toward the door.
I stumbled over the threshold, clutching Brucie as she began to wail.
The sound of shattering glass filled the living room as a brick flew through the window.
"Head for the basement!" Grandpa ordered, providing cover fire with his shotgun.
The deafening blasts made my ears ring as I scrambled down the wooden stairs.
I had never seen this violent side of the gentle man who used to bake me cookies.
At the bottom of the stairs, I waited in the dark, trembling uncontrollably.
Grandpa rushed down a moment later, locking the heavy steel basement door behind him.
He rushed over to a bookshelf and pulled a thick, dusty volume.
The entire shelf swung open, revealing a hidden dirt tunnel.
"I dug this twenty years ago, praying we would never need it," he panted.
We crawled through the damp earth for what felt like hours.
Brucie's cries eventually turned into exhausted whimpers.
We finally emerged into a dense thicket of woods a mile away from the house.
An old, rusted pickup truck was hidden beneath a camouflage tarp.
Grandpa tossed me the keys.
"You have to drive, Clover," he said, his voice suddenly sounding very weak.
I turned around and let out a horrified gasp.
May you like
The moonlight caught the dark, wet stain spreading across his abdomen.
He had been shot.
