“That’s him!” Mist shouted loudly, drawing the attention of the group in front of them. Rain caught Adam’s eyes as they bulged in recognition. “Don’t shoot those two!” Mist sounded authoritative, even though she wasn’t in the least.
“Under whose authority?” one of the Military Mothers asked.
“Mother White,” Mist replied. Rain fought to keep her mouth from dropping open. Mist knew Mother White? “This is the one suspected of leading the rebellion.” She gestured at Adam with the tip of her gun. Now that they were standing right next to the group, Rain wasn’t sure what to do. Her heart was beating out of her chest.
“I didn’t hear any orders to….”
Before the Mother could finish her sentence, three sharp pops cut through the silence. Rain jumped. Mist had fired so quickly and accurately, all th
The alarms were no longer blaring, but Mother White knew the threat wasn’t over. Even though her forces had managed to shut down much of the insurrection, it hadn’t come without a price. Death counts continued to roll in. How the rebels had gotten access to weapons was beyond her, but she did know that the breach in Communications had come from the same women that had caused the problems the other day when the Medical student had been shot for trying to destroy the Bridge. She’d been assured all of the guilty parties had been dealt with, but after this unfathomable offense, it was clear that hadn’t been the case. They’d missed one. An important one.“Mother White, we’ve uncovered a concrete room in the ground, one where it appears the traitors were keeping supplies. We also found more bodies near that location. Three Military Mothers, shot with rifles at close range.”White held her info t
After what seemed like hours of crawling along in near darkness, the light from Mist’s device the only way they could see anything at all, Rain saw a speck of light in the distance. “Is that… the outside?” she whispered.“Yes,” Mist said from a few feet behind her. “The Construction workers joined their tunnel in with an existing concrete tunnel they located. There used to be a really big city here, a long time ago, and they think this may have been an underground waterway of some sort. They even found some engravings in one of the tunnels with the city name on it. They copied down what it said and brought it back to one of the women in Communication who was able to use a translator to decipher it.”“What was it called?” Walt asked her, his voice closest to Rain.“San Antonio,” she replied.Rain had never heard of that town befor
Mist’s flashtube wasn’t turned to full power, even though the woods they were walking through were dark. It seemed like they’d been walking forever, but Rain wasn’t tired. She just wanted to keep putting distance between themselves and the red dots. Every once in a while, Mist would give them an update. They were gaining ground because they’d followed Adam’s advice and headed northeast, instead of due north, but throughout the afternoon into the evening, the red dots continued to spread out, some of them traveling so far north that they were off of the device because they’d gotten too far ahead of their location.“Do we have any way at all of hearing from the other women who escaped?” Walt asked her.Mist shook her head. “No, we don’t. Some of the others had transmitters that would allow them to communicate with one another, but I didn’t bring one. I was afraid it m
Night had fallen, and the Mothers hadn’t made the progress White was hoping for. Nothing was making sense. It was as if the rebels knew exactly where their forces were located and were somehow able to avoid them before they arrived.They had the leader in a cell beneath the hospital ward. Mother White had put one of her best leaders on the interrogation, trying to get as much out of this Lightning as she could, but so far, the reports hadn’t been useful. She would’ve gone down there and demanded some information herself, but every time she turned around, there was another fire to put out.Now that night had fallen, she was hopeful there would be some literal fires that would help her troops in the field find the rebels and destroy them. They had strict orders to shoot first and ask questions later. That was the order as far as any of the escapees were concerned except for the two that were out there somewhere she thoug
“Here is just as good a place to stop for the night as any, I guess,” Mist said whirling around to look at them. They’d come to a small clearing in the woods. By Rain’s estimate, they’d probably walked another fifteen miles since they came out of the tunnel, which would put them about twenty miles away from Gretchintown. Unless the Mothers found where the tunnel came out and employed some sort of tracking device to chase them down, they should be all right for a few hours.“Do you think they have hounds looking for us?” Walt asked as Mist set her backpack down on the ground and unzipped it.“I don’t know, but they’d have to find where the tunnel let out in order for those to be helpful,” Mist reminded them. She pulled out what appeared to be a small popup tent, one like the type Rain had camped in when they were children and had to learn basic survival skills.
Still smiling at Adam, Mist pulled something out of her backpack and asked, “You guys hungry?”“Starving,” Walt said, taking a seat with his back against a large tree on the far side of the tent from where Rain was standing. She found another tree and sat down, not minding at all when Adam found a spot next to her, his folded knee bumping against her leg.Rain wondered if she should dig into her own stash of food, but Mist was pulling out enough for all of them, including a few more water bottles. She gave each of them a large beef stick, a piece of fruit, and a bag of nuts. They each thanked her, and then Rain offered Adam one of the bottles of water, handing the other to Walt. That was fine with Rain, but she did know she had a bottle herself in her bag and wanted to get up and get it. Her stomach growled, and she decided to eat first and get the water later.Adam took a swig from the bottle a
Never in his wildest imagination would Adam have thought the night could have so many different sounds. In his own little bunk in IW, the only noise he ever heard was the occasional sound from another one of the Dicks. But even that was a rarity. To make sure the men were well-rested, gas to make them sleep was piped into their sleeping quarters every night. Everyone slept for a full eight hours—never more, never less. Now, sitting here, listening to what he imagined were mostly bugs and birds, he didn’t know when he might sleep again. Would he even be able to force himself to sleep on his own?It was pretty clear Mist and Walt were not sleeping. He tried to hide a chuckle, listening to them in the tent, which was about five feet away from where he sat, keeping an eye on the situation. He had the screen in his hand and checked it regularly to make sure there were no Mothers approaching from between the trees, but he felt fairly safe at the mo
If she’d slept for ten minutes, that would be saying something, but Rain didn’t even think she’d slept that long. Now that Mist and Walt had stopped whatever it was they were doing, she still couldn’t go to sleep. It wasn’t because Mist kept rolling over on her hair or the fact that she’d spent all day running for her life, it was because Adam was sitting out there by himself, alone, thinking who knows what. This was his first night on the outside of IW, and he might be scared or lonely.Or maybe she was both of those things and just needed him to tell her it would be all right.He looked up at her as she was coming through the tent flap, pausing to zip it behind her. His bright blue eyes were wide, not just with curiosity at seeing her, but he clearly wasn’t tired. “Hi,” she said, coming over next to him. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”“No, not