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.
“This vision was the worst I’ve ever had. In my vision, the entire adult population of the planet was killed off by disease. The kids who were left took it upon themselves to kill one another off.” Her eyes looked bleak. “Everyone died, except for a small community in the wilderness of Idaho. The community was completely surrounded by stone walls, reinforced with steel.” She looked at the oldest boy for the first time, staring into his eyes. “You were the leader of that community.”
His eyes widened. “You don’t even know me.”
“I know I don’t, but I will. We need you. We need all of you to move with us to Idaho and start building that community now. We have seven years to prepare it. If we fail, the Earth’s population will die out.”
The man laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He looked at his wife. “He can barely keep out of trouble at school. And he’s going to be the ruler of a community of kids? And keep the human race alive?”
“I know it seems far-fetched. We’re very aware of that fact. That’s why my daughter brought you the winning lottery ticket yesterday. She thought maybe it would convince you she really can see the future,” Leah said softly. “And if you join our community, we’ll need the money from the ticket.”
The boy spoke up for the first time. “I believe her. I want to go.” He smiled at Hannah as if he’d known her for years. “I know she’s telling the truth.”
His parents looked at each other in wonder. “When are you planning on going there?”
Leah smiled. “I haven’t even purchased the land yet.” She pulled the folded page from the atlas out of her pocket and spread it on the table. “This is the area we need.”
They all leaned over the map. The younger boy pointed to the river running through the area. “That would be good for fishing.” His eyes lit up at the idea of fishing. Hannah smiled to herself. He was going to be the woodsman for the group. He’d fish and hunt and provide a great deal of food for their community.
Hannah nodded. “We’d build greenhouses, and with those, and the rivers, we’d have enough food to sustain ourselves. By the time the land is purchased, we’ll have recruited the families we need. You’re the first we’ve contacted. There’s no point in going forward without our leader.”
The older boy smiled at Hannah. She judged him to be around thirteen. He couldn’t be much older than that to survive. He had the nicest eyes she’d ever seen. She could see why she ended up married to this boy. “I’m Justin,” he said.
“Hannah.” She grinned at him across the table. Wow. She was smiling at the boy she’d spend the rest of her life with, and he didn’t even know it.
“I’m Jason,” said the younger boy.
The three sat smiling at each other as their parents pored over the map. “I’m a lawyer,” the father finally said. “I’ll see to the purchase of the land.” He paused after seeing Hannah’s face light up. “I’m not saying we’re coming. We’ll have to discuss that as a family. I’m just promising to help with the land.”
Leah sighed with relief. “You’d be perfect for the job then. I’ll leave the buying in your capable hands. It’s not something I was looking forward to doing.” She handed them a piece of paper with their address and phone number. “Call us after you’ve talked over what we’ve said. We must seem insane to you.”
Justin shook his head. “Not at all.” He grinned. “I always knew I’d rule the world one day.”
Hannah giggle
d softly. “You will.” She stood. “We need to be ready to move by September. As soon as the land is purchased, we’ll hire someone to build the wall. We’ll want it fourteen feet high and thick. I’ll draw out the specifications. Once the wall is built, we’ll all move there. My vision told me September first is the date to move, so we need to get started.” She looked at the calendar on the wall, noting the date. June fifteenth. Could they collect all the people they needed and get the wall built in two and a half months?
The man stood. “I never even introduced myself. I’m Jim Ryder. My wife is Melanie.”
Leah shook hands with them both. “Get in touch with me about the land.” She looked at Hannah. “Is there leeway, or do we need those exact coordinates?”
“Exact. Don’t worry, it’ll work out.”
She handed Justin a piece of paper with her email address on it. “Keep in touch. We’ll need to get started on forming the council before we even go there.”
Leah shook her head. “They haven’t said whether or not they’re coming, Hannah.”
Hannah nodded. “They’re coming. They’re the easy ones to convince. Wait ‘til we talk to the general and his family. They’re the hard-headed ones.” She was not looking forward to meeting the general.
“We’ll be in touch within the week,” Jim told them. “Hopefully the land will be purchased and we can have them start building the wall.”
Leah looked at Jim. “Why do you believe her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. But I do. It’s probably the whole lottery ticket thing. Melanie said she was sure it was the winning ticket when she gave it to her. She knows what’s going to happen. We need to get the children ready to survive.”
As Leah and Hannah drove back to the airport, Hannah sighed with relief. “That was much easier than it could have been.”
Leah nodded. “A lot easier than the others will be, I’m sure. How many families are we going to have to do this with?”
Hannah grinned at her mother. “You might want to close your practice now.”
Leah sighed. “That many?”
“Fifty families. One-hundred kids.” For the first phase.
“I’ll give my two week’s notice,” she said. “All except for Tanya, of course. I’ll have to find a way to keep working her in.”
Hannah nodded. “Yup. I’m going to call her right now. I want to see her tomorrow.” Another family to capture on paper. They needed to find the general next. Nothing else mattered if the general wouldn’t agree to go.
“I’m proud of you.”
Hannah looked over at her mother. “Why do you say that?”
“You saw something terrible, and you’re doing what you need to do to save the world. It can’t be easy trying to get people to believe you.”
“It’s not, but I got the vision for a reason. I have to do what I can.” The words were simple, but the way Hannah felt about them wasn’t. She didn’t want to do this. She’d rather bury her head in the sand and forget about what she’d seen. She would never get to be an Olympic swimmer.
Leah patted her hand. “We’ll do it together.”