With a single tear rolling down her cheek, Rain turned to face Seth. “Why don’t you guys go ahead, and I’ll stay here?”
His eyes widened for a moment as he thought about what she was saying. If he felt, in that moment, that she was choosing Adam over him, she couldn’t blame him. Because she was. But more than that, she was choosing for them to complete the mission without her. If Adam showed up, they might be able to head off on foot on their own, but the chances of them making it to Quebec weren’t good. They could stay in Louis City. She had friends now. She had a few of Mist’s gold coins. They could stay there until the rebellion began, assuming Mist and Walt were able to talk the leaders of Quebec into fighting, and then join back up with them.
But if Adam never showed up, she’d be in a potentially dangerous city by herself with only a few people she’d just met and the Mothers hun
Arriving in Louis City had been disorienting for Adam. Exhaustion had him hallucinating well before he began to realize that the houses, buildings, and other vehicles he was seeing were real. When he looked up in the sky and saw an enormous silver horseshoe, he thought for sure it was just as much a part of his imagination as the fake trucks he’d been seeing on the empty road, the animals he’d thought he’d glimpsed out of the corner of his eyes as he was riding toward the city, and other mysterious elements he’d seen that faded away as soon as he turned his head to look at them.Now, standing in the grass near the landmark he’d been traveling toward even when his body was about to fall off of the bike, holding Rain in his arms, he knew it had all been worth it.If it wasn’t for her scent, the distinct mixture of florals and refreshing water he inhaled with every breath, he might think she wasn’t
The view out Rain’s window hadn’t changed much in the four or so hours since the sun had come up. They’d been driving all night, only stopping for a few minutes now and again for Seth to stretch and to use the bathroom. This part of the road was different from the trip from Judea to Louis City because there were towns along this route every once in a while, and there were people in other vehicles driving past them or traveling in the same direction as they were much more frequently. The roads were not fantastic, and it was slow going, but Rain was thankful they were not having to walk.Seth didn’t say much, especially not the night before when she’d been sitting in the back seat and Adam had fallen asleep on her shoulder just an hour or so after they’d left the city, and now that she was back in the front seat so that Mist and Walt could sit next to each other and hold hands and make googly eyes at one another, Seth st
“Is she gonna injure herself?” Adam asked after a few moments where the silence of the lonely road did nothing to stop the noises coming from the truck.“Probably,” Rain said, shaking her head. “But that hasn’t stopped her from doing it lots of times since I cut that piece of metal out of her.”Adam snickered and shook his head as well. He was sitting with his ankles crossed, his hands fallen over his knees. Rain tried not to stare at him, tried not to wish his hand was in hers. Something had definitely changed since he’d been back, but she couldn’t quite decipher what it was. Had he become someone different out there on the road, or had she changed while she waited for him? Maybe it was a bit of both. Either way, she didn’t like it.This was the first chance she’d had to speak to him alone since he’d returned. Lots of questions floated around in h
By the time Seth returned and got the truck fixed, with minimal help from the other guys, it was getting dark, and he was clearly worn out. After he’d nearly veered off of the road twice due to his exhaustion, Rain and Mist were able to convince him to pull over at the next town and find a hotel. Since he refused to let anyone else drive and clearly couldn’t do that himself at the moment, Seth had reluctantly agreed.This hotel wasn’t as fancy as the one they’d stayed in at Louis City, but it was clean and off the beaten path. Every time they stopped for any reason, they were all frightened that the Mothers might catch up to them. Rumor had it that all of them had returned to Michaelanburg to fight off the attack from the south, but Rain wasn’t sure. She didn’t think the Mothers would give up on finding them quite that easily. By Seth’s calculations, they should be crossing into the Nation of Quebec the next day,
The drive to the border of the Nation of Quebec took another three days, longer than expected, but caution kept them from taking a more direct route. Along the way, Rain and Adam were careful of Seth’s feelings. Unlike their friends, they were able to satisfy their longing for one another with subtleties--a knowing glance, a touch of fingers while passing an object from the front seat to the back, a small smile in the rear view mirror. Seth was a kind person, and he had done right by them, doing so much more than he was obligated to. He could’ve left Rain on the riverbed to die. He could’ve pointed them in the right direction and wished them well. Instead, he was sacrificing so much to take them across several unknown lands that even he had never visited before so that he could ensure their safe arrival. The last thing in the world Rain wanted to do was hurt him.But he knew. It was evident that he did. She could see it in the way that
Three people had entered the room, though it seemed two were just there for the protection of the third. These two, a man and a woman, wore the same uniforms as the officials who had escorted them in. The other man, a rigid looking fellow who had graying brown hair at his temples, visible below his hat, looked like the sort of person one didn’t mess around with. His uniform was a dark brown, and he had several pins on his lapel.He sat a bottle of water and the translating device on the table and then pulled out the other chair across from Rain, studying her. “Rain Gretchintown?” he asked her.Rain nodded before she managed, “Yes, sir.” It was odd using that word--sir. It had almost fallen out of their language since no one ever needed it for anything in Michaelanburg.“I am Lt. Gordon Laurent. It is my understanding that you are an escapee from the country of Michaelanburg and that
Another loud blast went off as a shell fired from an artillery vehicle exploded into an armored tank across the lines in the Spanish-America Army ranks. That damn tank had already taken out two transporters and a few of their smaller artillery vehicles. As White watched the large Spanish-American vehicle explode from a fortified bunker on the high ground overlooking the battlefield, she hoped every soul aboard died a horrible, fiery death.The Mothers seemed to be winning, but it was hard to say. Their forces hadn’t been pushed back from their own southern border yet, but then the Spanish-American ranks seemed to fill back in whenever they took a large swath of them out. She knew the southern country was much more densely populated than Michaelanburg, and since they allowed both men and women to fight amongst their military ranks, there was a possibility they could have two or three times the number of soldiers the Mothers had available. They&rsquo
None of the people that had loaded her into the back seat of the car had translator devices, so Rain could understand next to nothing of what they were telling her. It was only through gestures that the military officials had indicated to her that she was supposed to get into the back seat of the sedan. The driver, dressed in the same military uniform that the soldiers who had accompanied Lt. Laurent into her holding cell had been wearing, said nothing as he piloted her along a winding asphalt road, devoid of any other vehicles save the occasional green military jeep.Alone in the back of the car, Rain could only guess where they might be headed. The vehicle seemed to be taking an easterly path, but even after all of the running and navigating over open ground she’d done recently, she didn’t know for sure. She tried to stay calm, telling herself, at least they weren’t headed south. They were still in Quebec, after all. But for all she k