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
The sound of a zipper ripping quickly had Rain’s eyes flying open just as quickly as she shot up and looked around, not sure where she was or what was happening but fairly certain she could be dead in a second or two if she didn’t get her wits about her.“We need to move out soon,” Mist said, leaning in the flap of the tent. “Up and at ‘em.”Relieved that she wasn’t about to meet her maker but still not sure what was happening, Rain dropped back down to try to clear her thoughts, expecting her head to fall onto the floor of the tent. Instead, she landed on something warm that made a soft groaning noise as her head made contact.Once again, she was up, spinning around this time as she prayed it was Adam and not an infiltrator. The former Inseminator lie next to her, a smirk on his face as if he were trying to hold back a laugh at her expense. “Sorry,” Rain mumb
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