Lungs burning, legs on fire, Rain pushed herself to continue to run as fast as she could, even though she had no idea how she was still moving forward over two hours after they’d started on their way. The others were breathing heavily as well. Certainly, Walt and Adam were in excellent shape, but it wasn’t as if they’d ever had the opportunity to run. The Mothers definitely didn’t let them do cardio exercises, like running on a tread machine or a stair climber, because it wasn’t exactly in their best interest to encourage their prisoners to run.
“Let’s stop for a second,” Mist said, taking shelter underneath a tall pine tree, the lowest branches only a foot above her head. “I need to check the dots.”
Rain assumed she actually just needed to get her breath since all of the other times she’d checked the tab, Mist had done it while still running, but Rain wasn’t about
Two yellow eyes peered out at them from between the trees. Adam swallowed hard, not sure what he should do. If anyone was about to shoot the giant creature in front of them, he figured Mist should take the shot. Not only was she standing in front of the rest of them, but as far as he could tell, she was the best shot.However, she wasn’t shooting. Instead, the tiny woman was standing there, her eyes bulging, as they all stared at a massive orange, black and white striped beast that had to weigh at least eight hundred pounds.The majestic creature stared right back at them, as if he was equally stunned to see four humans prowling through his woods. His pink nose wiggled as his nostrils flared, his pointy ears shifting as he listened either to them or, with their bad luck, more members of his pack. Adam wanted to turn his head to look around them, to see if there were more of whatever sort of cat this was somewhere to be found nearb
Two days. Rain had been running for the better part of two days. They’d taken a few breaks for a half-hour here and there, but since the shield Mist had activated would last for about forty-eight hours before it would power down, all four of them felt compelled to continue to run while they had the opportunity to take advantage of the safeguard.Even though they’d figured out a way to beat the drones by tracking them as they moved around the grid, the shield provided them with the best opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the Mothers undetected. They’d each taken extra energy pills from the supply Mist had brought with her, which helped, but by the time the shield finally started to descend, over forty-eight hours after it had been launched, Rain thought her feet were going to fall off, and the cramps in her calves were almost unbearable.“Son of a bitch, it’s done,” Mist said, catc
The plants of the forest grew closer together the further away from Michaelanburg the military traveled. Working her land riders through the foliage was slow going, and at times Jaguar thought they might have been better off on foot. But their average time traveling a mile was still faster than the Mothers running on foot, so Jaguar didn’t abandon her vehicle just yet. Besides, they finally had a lead.“Her behaviors are so erratic, it doesn’t make sense,” one of the uniformed Mothers who was doing the majority of the tracking, Mother Scorpion, said to Jaguar’s left. “At times, she’s perfectly still for hours. Then, she takes off running so quickly, it doesn’t seem like this could possibly be a human.”“What are you saying?” Jaguar asked, praying she hadn’t just shifted course and started moving in on one of their primary objective’s transponders for no reason
The drones were acting odd. The ache in Rain’s feet didn’t overshadow the fact that the drone they’d expected to hear at least five minutes ago hadn’t made its trip overhead as scheduled. Since they’d realized the drones were following a grid pattern, they’d known exactly when to expect them and had been able to scatter out of range whenever they’d announced themselves about twenty feet before they arrived above them. But since they hadn’t heard any in a while, it was clear that the Mothers had changed things up a bit, and their eyes in the clouds were no longer following the same pattern.She would’ve mentioned it to her companions if she wasn’t absolutely exhausted. Beyond that, she was certain the others had probably figured it out, too. Mist was sure to have noticed before she did. Her friend was so smart, so aware of everything. Mist’s worldly knowledge sort of made Rain consider perh
The buildings were taller than Rain had realized. It seemed like each step she took forward got her no closer to them. By the time they reached a mostly clear piece of concrete sticking out of the ground and forming a broken trail with its brethren of broken bits and pieces that seemed to lead directly to the closest building, which was still a thousand miles away in Rain’s mind, lifting her boots was a negotiation with each step. If the Mothers showed up right now, Rain was as good as dead.Not to mention the fact that she felt as if she were being watched. The closer they got to the remains of the city, the stronger the sensation that eyes were tracing their every move grew.It was Walt who finally said something. His eyes lifted toward the closest buildings, he asked, “Is someone watching us?”“Sure seems that way,” Mist replied. “But, they haven’t shot at us yet, so that&rs
Six men and four women of various ages came to a stop about twenty feet in front of Rain and her friends. They were all armed with various weapons. Rain recognized the rifles and handguns, of course, but one of them was carrying what looked like a long spear, its metal tip not only screwed into the top, but a long cord wound around it as well. Another had what might’ve been a bow and arrow of some sort. A bent piece of plastic arched across her back, but there was no string, and the quiver held several pieces of metal that appeared to be blunt on the end. One was carrying a long black stick that looked more like the handle to a sword than anything else. Perhaps it was a baton to beat a person to death with. She didn’t want to find out what it was. She didn’t want to find out what any of the weapons were.Two men stood in the middle of the group. The one on the left, the tallest, with long, black braided hair that surrounded his shoulder
Dal led them down concrete walkways between the buildings Rain imagined must’ve been streets at one time. She had a vague understanding of what cars were and how they used to fill the roads, polluting the air with noxious gasses as they took people from one point to another at high speeds, often crashing and killing the occupants. She’d never seen one, but she knew the Mothers had some larger transport vehicles in their fleet. She imagined the military hadn’t used any of them to chase their group down because they’d be impossible to maneuver between the trees, but if they had roads like these, they could get to Dafo easily enough. Were there such roads she was unaware of?The leader approached a smaller building positioned right behind one of the towering structures they’d seen from a distance. Up close, the sight was even more pitiful. Large plants covered the outside of the sagging building, smaller ones pushing through cr
Pitch black greeted her when Rain opened her eyes. There was no way of knowing what time it was since her timepiece was in her backpack, which had been confiscated. Her back ached from sleeping on thin blankets on top of a concrete floor, but she didn’t stir, afraid she’d wake Adam who was lying next to her.Her stomach growled loudly reminding Rain that she’d fallen asleep before she’d eaten anything. As soon as she’d laid down, she’d been out like a light. How many hours ago had that been? She couldn’t say, but she had a feeling it had been a while.Not only was her stomach screaming at her, so was her bladder. Muttering a curse word, and praying she didn’t wake Adam, she sat up, hoping somehow she’d be able to see better at this angle. Her eyes adjusted slightly, but it was still unbelievably dark, and she had no idea how she’d make it to the restroom in a strange place with
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