The moment Josie had given the order to infiltrate the building, Rain and the others had moved forward, completely prepared to knock through the door in front of them. It came as quite a shock when they realized the door was unlocked. It made absolutely no sense to Rain. Why would the Mothers want to let them into such an important building?
Unless… this was a trap.
The soldiers took up positions in the hall near the door, waiting for everyone to make it inside of the building before they moved any further. They had been given orders not to speak so that they wouldn’t be heard, so all Rain could do was catch Adam’s eyes. She could tell by his expression that he was also concerned about how easy that was. Josie was the last one in, so there was no time to catch her attention before they were all sitting ducks in the hallway.
<The combat uniforms Rain and the others wore were made from the most advanced technology in the world. Even at close range, most of the Military Mothers’ bullets could not penetrate most of the material that covered them from head to toe--except for their faces, which were exposed and their hands. That didn’t mean that none of the Military Mothers’ bullets would make its way through a weak spot in their uniforms or that one of them wouldn’t take a bullet in the eye and lay them out, but it did mean, as the invading forces returned fire on the women in brown uniforms, they had a much better chance of taking out their targets than the soldiers from Michaelenburg.One of the soldiers behind Rain screamed and fell to the ground. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her to find out what had happened to him as her fingers continued to pull the trigger. She aime
“The records room?” Rain repeated. “Is that where we were headed?” She hadn’t been certain what their objective was, other than to kill as many Military Mothers as possible and get them out of the way. But now that she knew exactly where they were headed, she had to wonder why.“Yes,” Seth said. “We need proof that the Mothers are using fossil fuels, and we believe all of that information is kept there, in the records room.”Rain’s eyes widened as she thought about what else might be kept there. Would it be possible for her to find out who her parents were? What about the Bridge? Would there be something in the records that proved that the Bridge was actually a device used to kill people, rather than send them back to start again?“It’s this way
“Where the hell are the babies?” Adam asked, spinning around to look at all of the containers in the room where they were standing. There were hundreds of containers sitting on the tables. The amber fluid within them was still, the cords and tubes that were hooked up to each of them not making a noise or moving in anyway.“It doesn’t make sense,” Rain said, walking slowly down the row where they’d all landed after exiting the air vent. “They couldn’t have possibly taken all of the babies over the Bridge, and without these incubators, they’d die.”“Is it possible that all of the fetuses grew large enough to be taken out of their incubators while you were on the road or training?” Crichton asked, adjusting her helmet.Rain shook her he
“Claw marks?” Adam repeated. Rain looked up at him and nodded, watching his face morph from surprise to shocked disgust to doubt. “How do you know that?” he asked.“Run your fingers over the marks,” Rain said. “You can feel where the fingernails dug into the concrete.Adam leaned down and raked his hand over the portion of the wall Rain was referring to, but his hand didn’t linger there long before he pulled it back, clearly put-off by the idea that someone was lying on the floor clawing at the walls.A lot of somones.“So you think they dropped people down here, and then… what?” Adam asked her, shining the light around the space again.Rain stood and fo
“Adam?” There was no answer except for the echo of her own voice around the empty chamber. “Adam!”The light wand was still rotating slightly, casting odd shadows before it stilled. Where was he? It didn’t make any sense. They hadn’t been able to find a way out of this room, but all she had to do was turn her back for a few seconds, and Adam was gone.Rain’s breath staggered, and she felt her heart start to race. Tears clouded her vision. She pulled her knees up to her chest and did her best to stay calm, but it was impossible. She was all alone, trapped down here. Adam was gone, and she had no idea what had happened to the rest of her squad. As far as she knew, no one else had any idea that she was down here, except for Adam, and he was gone. Had he fallen through another trapdoor? She was certain there was no one else
Sitting on the floor crying was not helping her at all. Rain knew that, but she didn’t know what else to do. Adam was gone without a trace, and she had no idea where he had gone or how. They’d looked for openings. There were none.Clearly, there had to be some, though, or else he would still be here. He hadn’t just vanished into thin air. Rive got up and took the few steps over to the light wand and picked it up. She wished she had a comm on her shoulder so she could call Adam--or Seth. But only the commanders had working comms. She was on her own, unless Seth or someone else saw the opening in the wall that had sucked her and Adam down to this hellhole.The light wand cast strange shadows on the wall. They danced across the ceilings and the floor. The floor--she hadn’t checked the floor. Was it possible that they weren’t actually
The buzzing sound assaulting Adam’s ears was familiar in a way that made him never want to open his eyes again. His head felt like it’d been run over by an army transport vehicle, and the smell burning his nostrils was also a stinch he’d hoped he’d never smell again.“Are you awake then, 24C?”The voice he heard scratched his inner ears, it was so offensive. He knew exactly who was speaking to him before he even slit his eyes to look at her.Adam’s worst nightmare had come true. He was strapped to a chair in the Insemination Ward. The lights were out, except for the soft glow of the safety lights, and across from him stood one of the Military Mothers.He knew which one, even though he couldn’t see her face. Nothing co
The feel of hands around her ankle lingered even after Rain was pulled to safety. At the top of the silver tube, Mist and Walter yanked her up out of the slide. Her hand was aching and cut from the rope, but she didn’t care. If it meant leaving one hand behind, she would’ve done anything to get out of that room.“The Mothers were grabbing me,” Rain said. Her breathing was labored, her heart pounding in her chest. “I don’t know how they got in there. We looked everywhere for a way to get out.”“Where’s Adam?” Walter asked, resting his hand on her shoulder as Rain bent over and tried to catch her breath.Tears filled her eyes again as Rain said, “I don’t know. They had to have taken him.” She stood up, wiping at her eyes.
The view out the kitchen window was beautiful. Snow capped mountains in the distance, open fields full of green grass and brightly colored flowers in the foreground, with plenty of trees and bushes throughout. No matter how many days Rain stood in that room, doing what some might think as mundane tasks, like doing the dishes or cooking dinner, she would never, ever get tired of that view. To Rain Blue, that view meant freedom. “Mama! Come outside and play catch with us!” her daughter, Misty, shouted as she came flying through the backdoor. “Dad is gonna teach Wally how to throw a curveball!” “Oh, wow!” Rain said, drying her hands on a dishtowel as she turned to see her daughter’s bright red hair fly by on the other side of the table. Misty was a little blur and had been the entire four years of her life. Luckily, her cousin, Wally, who lived next door with hi
Rain stepped inside the large circular room along with about thirty of her fellow soldiers from the Quebecian army. She glanced around at the faces of her fellow soldiers and saw the confusion and uncertainty on all of their faces. Adam was just a few people away from her. They caught eyes for a moment, but then Rain focused on the center of the room where President Violet was standing.All around her, large boxes marked as explosives were stacked on top of one another, the highest stacks coming about to her waist. She was a short woman, with short dark hair and a swath of purple in the front, sort of like Mother White’s stripe, though Rain had assumed that that was natural.Next to Violet was a pillar of some sort with what looked like a golden button on top. Wires from each of the boxes were wound around one another, creating one thick wire that was con
Being back in the air was a sensation Rain couldn’t quite get used to, but this mission was different. The first time she had flown, the flight had been long, and she’d been nervous for far more reasons than she was now. This time, she was on a small plane with a select group of soldiers who were being moved to the front to help complete a mission that was almost done. All eight of the soldiers on board the flight had recovered enough from their wounds during various other attacks that they could now go back into active duty. Rain was ready to storm the fort where President Violet was reportedly hiding, and she was glad to have Adam by her side, not only on the flight but also when they landed.It was loud inside of the plane, so no one could truly talk, and despite their relationship status, Rain didn’t dare touch Adam with her hand while they were in uniform and active. But the fact tha
Weeks of healing for Rain, Adam, and Mist brought their bodies back to full strength, or close to it. For Mist, there would be no returning to the battlefield, not now that she knew she was pregnant. Rain and Adam both wanted to return to the ranks and help defeat the rest of the Mothers that were still fighting near the center of Michaelanburg. With every passing day, their ranks dropped, but as long as President Violet and her cabinet were still at large, the Quebecians would not back off.Saying goodbye to Mist had been difficult, but Rain was also relieved that she no longer had to worry about the safety of her best friend. Fighting alongside the woman she loved most in the world and the man she wanted to marry had been weighty, and she was thankful at least one of those people was now out of harm’s way for good.Rain had different roommates in
Adam was awake when Rain made it back to the room they were sharing together. He’d had multiple surgeries over the last several days, so he’d been asleep a lot, but she was pleasantly surprised at how well he was recovering.Cheryl helped Rain back into her bed and put her leg up on a device that would help it to heal. The technology was a little behind what Rain was used to in Michaelanburg, but she trusted the doctors and the rest of the medical team that had been working on her since the attack.“How’s Mist?” Adam asked with a smile on his face. He was propped up so that she could see him. Rain adjusted her pillows and used the button to move the back of her bed up a bit so she could more easily see him. “She’s good. And you’ll never guess what she found out before her surgeries.”
Walking was hard. It had been a few days since Rain had gotten out of bed. After several surgeries on her leg, she knew that all of the bones were fused back together with a substance just as hard as the bone itself, so it would hold her, but it was still scary.She had a walker to lean on, just in case she lost her balance, and one of the medics from Quebec was alongside her. All of the injured had been moved back to a building in Oklasaw. It wasn’t under the mountain like Judea, the town that Seth had grown up in, but it was still a quaint little village, and Rain was glad they’d get a few weeks there to recover.She just wished she could get back to normal more quickly.She’d seen Adam quite a bit since they were moved, but she hadn’t seen Mist. Her friend was still in pretty bad shape and
Adam had no idea how he was alive.He remembered handing Rain off to Seth, and then, the next thing he remembered, the world was on fire, and the sky was falling down on him. Every single cell in his body was in agony. He couldn’t move, couldn’t lift a hand to try and push his way out, and the smoke was enough to keep him from even wanting to suck in a breath. He was certain he was about to die.Adam had let himself drift on then, feeling like it would be better to die unconscious than to be awake while he was breathing his last.But here he was now, lying in a hospital bed in a makeshift hospital near the Oklasaw border. All around him, doctors and medical students were hustling around, doing their best to help the injured.He had an IV in his arm and knew t
The sensation that she’d been moving had jarred Rain awake for a few moments, but she hadn’t been able to open her eyes, and then, she’d suddenly been aware of the fact that she wasn’t quite as hot, and the air that she was sucking into her lungs wasn’t burning her from the inside out anymore.But she had failed at opening her eyes, so she had no idea what the situation was. The thought that she could’ve died and was now in whatever world came beyond this one had crossed her mind. She didn’t believe that The Bridge was a way to start one’s life over, but she did think there had to be something after life as they knew it.She certainly believed in death.People shouting to one another registered in her mind as she tried to open her eyes again. She could feel something s
Where the hell had she gone?Adam had ridden the motorbike back to camp to deliver the message to the commanders. Luckily, he’d found one fairly quickly upon reaching the forest. He’d told the man, Lt. Brason, what Mother White had told them and then handed over the thumb drive. The commander had attempted to tell Adam to stay there, that he was done, and while it would’ve been a relief to go find his tent and take a nap, Adam couldn’t possibly do that. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he was certain that Rain and the others were back in camp safely.He had immediately turned the bike around and sped back toward the medical center. Even before the building came into view, he saw soldiers running from that direction. That let him know that Lt. Brason and the others had taken him seriously and were in the process of evacuating the b