Deep Shadows Read online

  HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

  EUGENE, OREGON

  Scripture quotations are taken from

  The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

  The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Cover by John Hamilton Design

  Cover photos © T photography, 89studio / Shutterstock; antonyspencer, PabloACruz / iStock

  Published in association with the literary agency of The Steve Laube Agency, LLC, 5025 N. Central Ave., #635, Phoenix, Arizona 85012.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEEP SHADOWS

  Copyright © 2016 by Vannetta Chapman

  Published by Harvest House Publishers

  Eugene, Oregon 97402

  www.harvesthousepublishers.com

  ISBN 978-0-7369-6653-5 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-0-7369-6654-2 (eBook)

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Chapman, Vannetta, author.

  Title: Deep shadows / Vannetta Chapman.

  Description: Eugene Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, [2016] | Series: The Remnant; book 1

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015034375 | ISBN 9780736966535

  Subjects: | GSAFD: Christian fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3603.H3744 D44 2016 | DDC 813/.6–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015034375

  All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s and publisher’s rights is strictly prohibited.

  Dedication

  For Brenda and George

  Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Prelude

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Chapter Sixty-Two

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  Chapter Sixty-Five

  Chapter Sixty-Six

  Chapter Sixty-Seven

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  Chapter Sixty-Nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Chapter Seventy-Five

  Chapter Seventy-Six

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  Chapter Seventy-Nine

  Chapter Eighty

  Epilogue

  Discussion Questions

  Author’s Note

  Emergency Preparation Lists

  How to Grow a Victory Garden

  How to Perform CPR

  About the Author

  More Great Suspense from Vannetta Chapman

  About the Publisher

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This book is dedicated to Brenda and George Lumpkin. Thank you for enduring my think-out-loud process with this story line. Our shared backyard barbecues sustained me through that difficult first draft. You both provided valuable perspective, not to mention good, solid spiritual guidance. The games of 42 were a bonus. Love you guys.

  I’d also like to thank the wonderful staff of Harvest House for allowing me to write something outside of my proverbial box. You took a chance on me, and for that I am quite grateful. You are a dream team to work with, and you deserve an acknowledgment page all your own. Also, I want to express gratitude to my agent, Steve Laube, who was invaluable in the negotiation of this contract.

  Thanks to my pre-readers, Kristy and Janet, who combed through every word, searching out my errors. Thanks to Connie and Bill Voigt for the use of your names and for answering my questions. Thank you to Dorsey Sparks for the use of your name as well as your spunky personality.

  I would like to express my gratitude to the folks in central Texas who not only answered my questions, but also have provided a lovely place to live. You are salt of the earth folks, and I’m proud to call you my neighbors.

  Last, I would like to thank you, dear reader, for following me down this path of a different genre. My prayer is that this novel will cause you to look at your life, your neighbor, your town, and your faith with fresh eyes. If you’ve never been to the Texas hill country, come on down and enjoy some of the most beautiful land God created.

  And finally…always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).

  So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

  PAUL’S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, CHAPTER 11, VERSE 5

  We are living on the brink of the apocalypse, but the world is asleep.

  JOEL ROSENBERG

  PRELUDE

  Abney, Texas

  June

  Shelby Sparks couldn’t breathe.

  Max had knocked her to the ground seconds after the explosion. She heard the swoosh of a home collapsing and felt the heat of the fire from where she lay in the middle of the street. None of that mattered.

  She pulled in a deep breath, coughed on the smoke, an
d choked on the words she needed to say.

  Someone screamed for help.

  Another explosion ripped through their neighborhood.

  A roaring fire surrounded them.

  Shelby was consumed by a single thought—Carter was out there. She had to reach her son. She pushed against Max, pleaded with him to let her up, tried to jab him with her elbows. All the while, she fought the sobs tightening her throat.

  “Are you okay?” he shouted.

  He’d raised up enough to check on her. She didn’t pause to listen to a word he said or answer a single question. A part of her mind registered the wall of flames, the destruction and death. She pushed those thoughts aside, struggled to her feet, and ran toward her son.

  ONE

  Bend, Texas

  One week earlier

  Shelby stumbled over a tree root, tried to maintain her balance, and ended up bumping into Max, who glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped.

  Hiking was not her idea of fun, especially since she had an almost pathological fear of snakes. Something scurried through the underbrush. She momentarily froze, but all she could hear was the thudding of her heartbeat and the clomp of Max’s boots against the rocky trail. Resisting the urge to look behind her, she opted instead to pick up her pace and catch the group. They were heading northeast and climbing steadily up. The nearly setting sun cast her shadow in front of her—elongated and misshapen. She wouldn’t have agreed to the afternoon’s activities if it weren’t for the three friends who insisted she step away from her computer and enjoy the great outdoors.

  Max Berkman, Bianca Lopez, and Patrick Goodnight gained the top of the trail a few moments before her. Max was tall and wiry, with black hair beginning to tinge with gray. Bianca was shorter than Shelby—no more than five three, curvy and beautiful. Patrick managed to keep up in spite of his size. He was a big man, with the body shape of the linebacker he had been in high school. He’d retired from the army five years ago. Shelby knew he worked at keeping himself in the same physical condition he’d sported during his years of service.

  She literally collided with the group as they stood with their mouths half-opened, staring around them in amazement.

  The view was a dramatic one. The Colorado River curved like a serpent, two hundred feet below. The Texas hill country stretched out in the distance, green from recent rains. The state park where they were hiking offered over thirty-five miles of trails, though they’d only covered a small portion of that—from the parking area to the Tie Slide Trail, down to Gorman Falls, and now circling back to where they had started via the River Overlook Trail. Probably less than five miles, but it felt like more. Shelby’s heart raced, the muscles in her calves quivered, and sweat trickled down her neck.

  She realized, with a start, that she was the only one looking at the view.

  Glancing up, she at first thought she must be dreaming—that she would wake to find herself at home, in bed, and safe. She closed her eyes and attempted to calm her heart rate. When she opened them, if anything the scene had become more bizarre. What should have been a dark-blue sky was now streaked with shafts of green, pink, purple, and red. The colors of the rainbow, but more sinister.

  The lights of the aurora borealis swirled across the Texas sky.

  “Northern lights?” Max pulled off his ball cap and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Here?”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bianca said, her voice filled with awe. She tipped her head back and stared straight up, her mouth partially open in surprise.

  Curtains of predominantly red arcs brightened the sky, reflecting off every rock, tree, and cactus. Shelby had asked someone for the time less than a mile back, and Max had said it was eight p.m. The sun had set and the sky was beginning to turn dusky. She’d picked up her pace, wanting to make it back to the truck before complete darkness fell.

  But now, the sky was unnaturally bright.

  “This shouldn’t be visible here,” she murmured.

  “I’ve read about it, but I’ve never seen it.” Patrick leaned against a boulder and continued to stare at the sky.

  Max watched Shelby.

  She glanced at Max and shook her head. “We need to get back. Now.”

  When he only cocked his head, she said, “I need to check on Carter.”

  “Can you call him?”

  She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and pressed Carter’s number under Recent Calls. As she suspected, the call wouldn’t go through.

  Bianca and Patrick had taken out their phones as well and were using them to take pictures of the northern lights.

  Max stepped closer to Shelby. “What’s wrong?”

  “The call won’t go through. I need to get home, Max. I need to be there in case Carter… in case he has a problem.”

  “All right. Let’s double-time it.”

  Bianca had been turning in a circle, photographing the celestial event. She was a freelance graphic designer and sold many of her photos on the web. Finally tearing her gaze from the sky, she asked, “Is this a problem?”

  “Yes, it is.” Shelby worked to keep the panic from her voice. Maybe she was misremembering her research. Possibly she was overreacting.

  The aurora continued to bathe them in its unnatural light, even tinting their skin the color of a red rose. Patrick exchanged a questioning look with Max, who was readjusting the weight of his backpack.

  “The lady says we need to hurry. Let’s go.”

  It was a testament to their friendship that everyone held their questions. The group turned back toward the trail, and that was when they heard the whine of a jet engine, followed by a thunderous crash. To the southeast, black smoke rose to meet the swirling light of the borealis.

  Bianca gasped, Max and Patrick stood frozen, and Shelby realized that the nightmare she feared was actually happening. Each member of the group instinctively stepped closer together.

  “What was that?” Bianca swiped at her hair, and Shelby noticed that her friend’s hands were shaking. “Patrick? What was that? Did we… did we actually just see a plane crash?”

  Before Patrick could respond, they heard the whine of another plane—this one smaller, probably a single engine, and headed south. As they watched, another dot approached, and then the planes collided. They tumbled to the ground as more smoke filled the sky.

  “None of those planes were military,” Patrick said.

  “Those people… are they all dead?” Bianca backed up against a tree and slid to the ground. “Are you telling me… did an entire plane of people… did three entire planes of people just die right in front of our eyes?”

  “I’m fairly certain the first was a domestic flight, probably headed to the regional airport.” Patrick’s tone was grim, hardened—the voice of a soldier assessing a situation. “The other two could have been private jets.”

  Shelby glanced at Max, who had once again pulled out his phone. “Nothing. I can’t access 9-1-1, there are no emergency notifications, there’s nothing.”

  She fought the urge to vomit, covered her mouth with her hand, and tried to think clearly. This could not be happening. Not now.

  Plane crashes. People burned alive. The borealis.

  The thoughts spun and collided in her mind, and beneath those more selfish, more urgent ones rose to take their place.

  They weren’t ready. Probably they never would have been ready, but Shelby’s life had finally begun to resemble something normal. Carter was to leave for college at the end of August.

  Please, not now. The words were a prayer coursing through her heart.

  Max’s expression had settled into a hard, straight line. “We can’t help those people. It’s farther away than it looks.”

  “So we just leave them?” Bianca’s voice cracked. She stood and swiped at the tears running down her cheeks.

  “Yeah. We do.” Max repositioned his backpack.

  Without another word, the four best frien
ds rushed back down the trail, retracing the path they had covered a few hours earlier. Only now everything was different.

  They stayed closer together, though darkness had refused to cloak the hillside. Picking out the trail was no problem. It was eerily bathed in the pulsing light of the borealis. In twenty minutes they covered the distance back to where they’d parked. As they turned the last corner and caught sight of Max’s truck, another explosion shattered the evening’s silence.

  TWO

  That sounded different,” Shelby said. Her legs trembled, and her right arm had begun to shake.

  “Probably a train.” Max led the group and Patrick brought up the rear.

  Bianca was breathing heavily when they stopped.

  The parking area was deserted. There was no sign of park rangers, emergency vehicles, or other hikers.

  Patrick stored their packs in the bed of Max’s old Ford pickup. When he’d bought the truck, it had been used but in pristine condition. He’d liked it because it didn’t have any gizmos—no backup cameras or computers that would require replacing. Now it was twenty years old and showing the wear of travelling down a few too many country roads.

  Max pulled out his keys and unlocked the doors, muttering, “Let’s hope it starts.”

  “It would. I mean, it will,” said Shelby.

  She started to climb into the backseat of the extended cab pickup, but Max nodded toward the front. She hesitated, and then she stepped up on the running board and grasped the grab bar, pulling herself into the passenger seat.

  Patrick and Bianca hopped into the back.

  They were all buckled by the time Max started the truck. He put it in drive and sped down the caliche, white rock road.

  Patrick tapped on the back of the seat. “Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “Yeah, what is happening? Planes falling out of the sky? A possible train derailment? Are we being attacked?” Bianca attempted to drink from a water bottle, but her hands were shaking too badly. She recapped it and asked, “Can you get anything on the radio?”

  Max turned it on and cycled through his preset stations. They heard nothing but static.

  “Does this have anything to do with the aurora?” she asked Shelby.