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
“Is she gonna injure herself?” Adam asked after a few moments where the silence of the lonely road did nothing to stop the noises coming from the truck.“Probably,” Rain said, shaking her head. “But that hasn’t stopped her from doing it lots of times since I cut that piece of metal out of her.”Adam snickered and shook his head as well. He was sitting with his ankles crossed, his hands fallen over his knees. Rain tried not to stare at him, tried not to wish his hand was in hers. Something had definitely changed since he’d been back, but she couldn’t quite decipher what it was. Had he become someone different out there on the road, or had she changed while she waited for him? Maybe it was a bit of both. Either way, she didn’t like it.This was the first chance she’d had to speak to him alone since he’d returned. Lots of questions floated around in h
By the time Seth returned and got the truck fixed, with minimal help from the other guys, it was getting dark, and he was clearly worn out. After he’d nearly veered off of the road twice due to his exhaustion, Rain and Mist were able to convince him to pull over at the next town and find a hotel. Since he refused to let anyone else drive and clearly couldn’t do that himself at the moment, Seth had reluctantly agreed.This hotel wasn’t as fancy as the one they’d stayed in at Louis City, but it was clean and off the beaten path. Every time they stopped for any reason, they were all frightened that the Mothers might catch up to them. Rumor had it that all of them had returned to Michaelanburg to fight off the attack from the south, but Rain wasn’t sure. She didn’t think the Mothers would give up on finding them quite that easily. By Seth’s calculations, they should be crossing into the Nation of Quebec the next day,
The drive to the border of the Nation of Quebec took another three days, longer than expected, but caution kept them from taking a more direct route. Along the way, Rain and Adam were careful of Seth’s feelings. Unlike their friends, they were able to satisfy their longing for one another with subtleties--a knowing glance, a touch of fingers while passing an object from the front seat to the back, a small smile in the rear view mirror. Seth was a kind person, and he had done right by them, doing so much more than he was obligated to. He could’ve left Rain on the riverbed to die. He could’ve pointed them in the right direction and wished them well. Instead, he was sacrificing so much to take them across several unknown lands that even he had never visited before so that he could ensure their safe arrival. The last thing in the world Rain wanted to do was hurt him.But he knew. It was evident that he did. She could see it in the way that