It was dark. That didn’t seem right. Adam opened his eyes, remembering instantly where he was--in Naomi’s garage--but he didn’t think it should be dark outside if he’d only slept for a couple of hours.
Jumping up, he looked around and saw Naomi still working by lamp light at the other end of the building. She had her hair tied back, her face scrunched up in frustration as she worked with what he thought might be a wrench on the front tire of the bike, which was tipped up in some contraption so that the wheel was in the air.
Grabbing his backpack, Adam headed over, wondering what time it might be but also afraid to find out. “I guess things aren’t going well,” he said.
She didn’t take her eyes off of the piece she was working on as she answered. “No, it’s not. I mean… it’s better now. For a while, I was having the hardest time repairing the brake l
How Seth was still driving, Rain wasn’t sure, but he had to be exhausted. After she’d woken from a nap of about three hours, she’d offered to let him pull over and sleep while she watched out the window for any approaching threats, but Seth had refused. Now, two hours later, she could see he was struggling to keep his eyes open. They were on hilly roads with large drop offs on either side. While they hadn’t seen anyone coming in the other direction for most of the day, Rain was still worried.“Really, Seth, the sun is going to be up soon,” she said, reaching over and touching his arm. He jumped, as if he’d forgotten she was there. “You need to get some sleep.”“I’m fine,” he said again.“I don’t believe you,” she replied, tugging on his sleeve. “Pull over! You’re going to wreck and kill all of us.”
“You’re all set,” Naomi said, wiping her hands on a towel she had strategically stuck in her back pocket. “I’m so sorry it took so long.”While Adam was also sorry he hadn’t gotten on the road nearly twelve hours ago, at least the bike was working now, and the trailer was straightened out so that it would tow in a straight line. “That’s okay,” he said, since there was little he could do about the lost time now. “I’m just glad you were willing to fix it. You must be exhausted.” She had worked through most of the night. The sun would be coming up soon.“No problem,” Naomi replied, stifling a yawn. “That’ll be six hundred dollars.” She stuck out her hand, her eyebrows raised expectantly.Adam looked at her outstretched palm and back in her eyes. “I wish I had that kind of money.”Laughi
Louis City wasn’t anything like what Rain was expecting. As the truck neared the metroplex, she stared out the window in awe. In Gretchintown, the place where she’d lived her entire life until she’d run away, she’d just assumed their way of life was like everyone else’s, or at least like everyone who lived in a city, as far as transportation, housing, and a million other considerations were concerned. Now, gazing out the window with her mouth hanging open, Rain couldn’t believe everything she was seeing.“Good grief, there are so many vehicles!” Mist said from the back seat. She seemed to be feeling better. Earlier that morning, when Seth had been sleeping on her lap, and Rain had been listening to the sounds of the world awakening, Mist and Walt had awoken before Seth, and it was pretty clear she was well enough to add their own song to the ones the birds were chirping. Rain had wished her ears closed as e
The hotel claimed to have exactly two rooms left, both of them more expensive than the other rooms that they had advertised on the sign out front because they were slightly larger. When Rain followed Seth into the room she’d be sharing with him, she wondered what a small room looked like. This one appeared to only be about half the size of the room she shared with Mist and the other girls back home.Seth seemed more impressed. “Not bad,” he said, dropping his bag near the door. “Nice view. Two beds. This will work.”Rain took her backpack off and set it on one of the beds. “Really?” she asked, walking over to the window. She could see a sliver of the Gate from here, but mostly just other tall buildings. It was getting dark, and she expected not to be able to see anything at all soon enough.“Yeah, at least it doesn’t smell like horse shit, cigars, or anything,&rdquo
The Gate was even more astounding standing beneath it in the large patch of green grass the people of Louis City called Gate Park. Rain had spent the entire day there the day before, and now, late in the afternoon of the day they were supposed to head north, she was still fascinated by the way the sun glinted off of the metal surface, the way the wind blew it so that it swayed slightly from side to side.She’d been speaking to many of the people who hung out in the park over the hours. From their discussions, she learned that it was possible to go up inside of the Gate, though no one had done so in centuries. They’d found pictures of people in little elevators that went up to the top in the rubble from a building that had been located nearby, which had been destroyed in the war. Rain stared up at the marvel, wondering what it would be like to go up there and look out over the world. Would a person feel the wind swaying the building? How brigh
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
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