Free Hidden (Final Dawn) by Darrell Maloney Page A

laugh he loved so much. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
         “Don’t tell me you’re just now finding that out.”
         “No, your secret’s been out for awhile.”
         He grew serious.
         “Remember we only have a limited amount of cereal mix. And we don’t know how many more babies are going to be born before we break out. Shoot, we might have five or six more ourselves.”
         Her eyes grew big and her eyebrows went up.
         He went on.
         “The longer you breastfeed, the longer our cereal supply will last. But ultimately, it’s up to you. When you feel the time is right, then we’ll switch over.”
         “I think I’ll talk to your mom about it tomorrow, and get her opinion on it. And speaking of your mom, how is she doing on her new healthier lifestyle?”
         “Oh, you know mom. She’s hard headed like Dad was. I don’t know how I managed to be so reasonable and level-headed with parents like that.”
         Hannah burst out laughing, then shushed herself so she didn’t wake the baby.
         “Hey, I resent that. Anyway, she’s hard headed and insisting that she’s just fine. But at least she’s taking her medicine, and is taking Debbie’s advice to change her diet and limit the time she spends on her feet. I think she realizes that this can be serious if she doesn’t make the effort.”
         Hannah finished the second bottle and handed it to Mark. He left one on the night table and took the other to the refrigerator. It would be the backup bottle in case Markie was extra hungry.
         When he crawled back into bed, Mark wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. Then he held her close and started gently running his fingers through her hair.
         “Now go back to sleep, my beautiful bride. I love you, baby.”
         “I love you too, honey. Good night.”
         She was asleep in no time, and dreaming. He knew because her eyelids were twitching. He kissed her on the forehead. Even after all this time, he couldn’t believe his luck in finding and catching the most wonderful woman in the world.    
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 12
     
         Sarah went to Bay 24 to look for Bryan and bring him a bottle of water. She found him and his brother Mark with a tape measure and calculator.
         “Wow,” she said. “Isn’t that taking it just a bit to the extreme?”
         “Nope. We have to be absolutely precise or we won’t be able to find the rod.”
         At that very moment, Sami walked up. She had just finished feeding the livestock in Bay 17 and had seen the others walk past. She wanted to see where they were going.
         Sami said, “Hey, you all. Did y’all decide to throw a party and forget to invite me? Should I be offended? Was it something I said?”
         Sarah laughed and said, “No way! You know you’re the life of every party. A party can’t happen without you. No, the boys are deciding where to build their tunnel. I just came by because I’m nosey.”
         “Tunnel? Don’t we have, like, a door we can use?”
         Sami gave Sarah her best “duh” face.
         “I’ll let Bryan explain. He’s the engineer. Honey, tell Sami why you’re going to dig a tunnel.”
         Bryan rolled his eyes, as though he’d explained the plan a thousand times before. But Sarah was his girlfriend, after all, and she could be moody when she didn’t get her way. So Bryan did what most henpecked boyfriends do and complied with her request.
         He told Sami, “When the thaw comes we will move out of here and into the compound a couple of hundred yards east of here. It has a high wall built around it, and will provide us farm land to grow our crops, and grazing land for our livestock.
         “The problem is, we don’t know what the world is going to look like when we get out. We may be the only people alive for hundreds of miles. Or, there may be lots of