Rain carried her bag in front of her, both arms folded across it, as if the tablet and other odd assorted items inside were of extreme importance. That wasn’t the case at all. She was completely lost in her thoughts as she made her way to IW, trying to concentrate on what she’d learned in the lab that day, not on what she was about to do.
They had done rounds, as she’d hoped, and they’d actually gone into the incubation room, or Nourishment Unit, as it was officially named. They’d watched the medical team work to bring the babies to thriving states and had been shown some that were likely not going to meet the criteria needed to continue to stay in the unit for much longer. Mother Swan had explained that once their levels reached below red level and stayed there for more than two hours, the technicians in the medical unit would “call” them, give them the cursed label, “failure to thrive,” and they&rsq
Nothing about IW was at all enthralling to Rain, yet it was a requirement, one she’d been taught not to take lightly. There was lubricant available from a pump on the wall near the chair where 24C was presented to her, but she didn’t use it. With some of the other men, she had to. With him, she could usually find enough pleasure to go without. Something about rubbing the oily substance on her private area before she went about her duties seemed even more vile than the practice session itself.With her knees on either side of his hips on the chair, she took a deep breath and pushed up, grabbing hold of his manhood and working it inside of her. It took her a few moments as she certainly wasn’t aroused, and it had been a few days since she’d visited IW, but after about a minute, she had him entirely inside of her and let go with her hands so that she could take hold of the two handles on either side of his shoulders. She had heard so
Opening the door to her shared room, Rain paused in the doorway as Mist turned and looked at her over her shoulder, her tablet propped on the pillow at the head of her bed. “Hey,” Rain said, not sure whether or not Mist was still angry at her.Mist clicked her tablet off and set it aside before rolling over and sliding off of the side of the bed so she could face her. “Hi.”Relieved that at least her best friend was speaking to her again, Rain hung her backpack up on a hook, not bothering to take her tablet out, and kicked off her sneakers, moving them over to the spot by her dresser where she kept them. She walked over to her bed and sat down across from Mist. “How was your day?”“Fine.” Mist attempted to smile, but it was so forced, it looked more like a snarl. “Yours?”“Ugh,” Rain groaned, lowering her head and shaking it slowl
The next few days went by without much discussion between Mist and Rain. Most non-school days, they would go out into the woods and walk around, but it had rained on Saturday, and the ground was still muddy on Sunday, so Rain had declined Mist’s invitation. It hadn’t deterred the nature-lover, though, so Rain had spent the day studying and reading in her room. Thoughts of the points Mist had brought up recently about the way the Motherhood viewed men kept coming back to her, leaving an unsettled feeling in her gut.Monday morning, she went to class as she always did. She had an hour of her history course before she’d report to Mother Swan’s anatomy class. Having the same Mother for all of her medical classes was helpful because she got to know each of her students so well. Rain had thought it was great only having one instructor until she considered that also meant she’d only hear one person’s interpretation of everyth
Rain entered Weather House with a lot on her mind. Cloud’s comment at the beginning of class had her distracted the entire time Mother Swan was lecturing, so now she had two quizzes to prepare for. She flew up the stairs to her level, down the hall, and pushed through the door without giving a second thought to what might be happening on the other side of the door.Mist was sitting on her bed, but she wasn’t alone. Another girl--woman was probably a better word since she was a couple of years older than them--was sitting next to her. They both looked up, caught off guard, as Rain stopped in the doorway, and she thought she saw Mist move something underneath her pillow.“Hi, Sunny,” Rain said, closing the door behind her and pretending like she wasn’t shocked to see Mist had company. In all of the years they’d roomed together, which was most of them, she couldn’t ever remember her best f
All day, Rain listened to discussions between the other girls in the hallways, before class started, in the restroom, everywhere she went, trying to get an idea as to whether or not anyone else knew what Cloud was alluding to the night before. But she didn’t hear so much as a stray whisper that made her think anything was going down at the medical building that day. She even hinted to Cloud that she thought there was some gossip, but her friend had no idea what she was getting at.By the time she was making her way over to IW that afternoon, she’d resolved herself to the idea that Sunny and Mist were nuts. Either that or whatever had been in the works had gone wrong or been discovered. She approached the changing rooms concentrating more on getting this over with so she could go finish up her homework as opposed to actually being worried about some kind of coup on the part of the younger women.Making her selection had not b
The man on the chair had removed his shadow sock. He stared at her, his blue eyes like sapphires as he blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. He was even more handsome than she had thought he might be, with a square jawline and a perfect nose. His hair was a sandy blond, short but wavy on top. He sat up, placing the black shadow sock over his manhood. It looked as if he might be considering getting out of the chair.“I know martial arts!” Rain shouted, bringing her hands around in front of her and taking a stance like the Mother who had trained her to protect herself had shown her. “You’re not supposed to move!”The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if her statement somehow amused him. “Relax, I’m not going to try to hurt you.”Rain’s eyes enlarged at the sound of his voice. It wasn’t anything like what she expected a man’s voice to sound l
“Rain?” he repeated, his blue eyes wide as he spoke her name.“Yes.”The alarms were still sounding in the hall, and the announcer came on again to remind them not to speak to one another. “We expect to be fully operational again in fifteen to twenty minutes,” the voice explained. Rain sighed and sank to the floor, being sure to keep her dress pulled down. It was going to be a long fifteen to twenty minutes, and she doubted that was accurate. Chances were, it would be longer.“I’ve read about that.” He was looking off in the distance, at the wall, as if there was a window there, and he could see outside. “Sometimes, when it comes down hard, I can hear it on the roof.”She realized then what he meant--the rain. “You’ve never seen it?”24C shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything, Rain.&rdq
Rain decided she needed to find something else to talk to 24C about, other than her friendship with Mist. Still sitting on the floor, waiting for the Mothers to unlock the door, she pondered whether or not to ask him more questions, but the only one she could think of at the moment seemed silly.“It sounds pretty amazing out there.” He had that far off tone to his voice, like he was imagining a wonderful world where people could do whatever they liked, which wasn’t quite the case, but compared to his reality, it was close.“It’s not bad. Better than in here. What do you wear in the workout room? You don’t….”“Walk around naked all day?”Rain dropped her eyes, feeling her face redden yet again. She didn’t mean to think about him in a workout room, lifting weights, completely nude, but the image was there just the same.
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