All Chapters of Rain's Rebellion: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The roar of an engine in the distance had Rain turning over in bed. Her shoulder was uncomfortable--stiff and achy--but it didn’t hurt. When she opened her eyes, blinking a few times against the bright faux sun coming in the window, it took her a moment to remember what had happened. Then, she sat up in bed. There was a lot to do, and they needed to hurry. She glanced at the clock to see what time it was, but realized she had no idea what time she’d gotten up to go fix Mist. The tray with the breakfast Esther had brought her that she didn’t get a chance to eat was gone. Her stomach rumbled, but there was no time for that either.Tossing back the quilt and sheet from her bed, Rain eyed her boots, thinking she should put them on so that she was ready to do whatever needed to be done. But then, she was still wearing Seth’s oversized pants. Remarkably, she hadn’t gotten any blood on them or her T-shirt, which was a miracle since

Dust coated his teeth, his eyeballs already gritty with the constantly blowing sand and small rocks as Adam made his way west as quickly as he could possibly go. Under any other circumstances, he might’ve taken this opportunity to look around him, to take in the constantly changing landscape, transitioning from mountains to farmland, to dry strips of dirt and rocks like the one he was on now, back to what he could plainly see was more hilly country in the distance and possibly mountains beyond, but now was not the time, particularly since there were no trees or tall plants of any kind in this area to protect him. If the Mothers were to catch up with him now, honing in on the silent signal emanating from his pocket, he would be screwed in a way he’d never been screwed before--which was saying something.It took all of his concentration to keep the bike upright and moving in the correct direction. How many times had he almost wiped out? Hit a r

Seth must’ve sensed her uneasiness. He reached over and put his hand on her shoulder, a soothing kindness she much appreciated as she tried to make sense out of Esther’s one sided conversation.It was mostly grunts and one word answers. “Yes.” “No.” “Okay.” In-between, she’d ask an occasional question of clarification, “What time?” “What did he say?” “Are they going to do that?” The conversation dragged on, Esther not even looking Rain in the face as she stared at her free arm, draped between her ample bosom and the table.After what seemed like a half hour, though it was likely more like ten minutes, Esther thanked Mayor Abraham, whoever that was, and disconnected the call. “The delegate has completed his meeting with the Mothers,” she said, letting out a sigh as she spoke. She shook her head. “They refuse to stand down.”

Rain expected someone to meet her at the door to the dance, to take her name or something of that sort, but no one was stationed there. A darkened, narrow hallway led off to another section of the building. On either side, glass cases held old photographs and plaques. She would’ve loved to take her time to peruse them, to learn more about the history of Judea, but she didn’t head that way. Instead, she moved forward, toward the music, and the light pouring from the largest room, one she imagined was constructed for the purpose of holding dances and other public get-togethers.The song playing now had a faster tempo than the one she’d caught drifting on the air earlier. This one featured a brass instrument she thought might be a trumpet, but she’d never heard it played this way before. It wasn’t trilling out the power of the military. Rather, whomever was playing on the recording seemed to be having fun, teasing the listener,

One thin beam of light lit the winding path in front of him, if one could even call it a path. The only thing that distinguished the narrow trail in front of Adam from the rest of the surrounding countryside was the slightly smaller size of the obstacles that stood in his path. Dodging larger rocks that had come to find their way in his immediate course was even more difficult now that the sun had gone down. The moon wasn’t full out here in the real world, as it had been in the mountain dome. Instead, it was a sliver that didn’t lend itself to much illumination. While the stars would’ve commanded his attention if he’d had the luxury of pulling his eyes away from the ground long enough to admire them, the bright pinpricks of white were more of a distraction than a source of light, the urge to take his eyes off of the road, to gaze up at them and admire their beauty overpowering,He was shocked that he had made it this far. Night ha