by ID Johnson
Chapter Thirty-Five
The sound of a zipper ripping quickly had Rain’s eyes flying open just as quickly as she shot up and looked around, not sure where she was or what was happening but fairly certain she could be dead in a second or two if she didn’t get her wits about her.
“We need to move out soon,” Mist said, leaning in the flap of the tent. “Up and at ‘em.”
Relieved that she wasn’t about to meet her maker but still not sure what was happening, Rain dropped back down to try to clear her thoughts, expecting her head to fall onto the floor of the tent. Instead, she landed on something warm that made a soft groaning noise as her head made contact.
Once again, she was up, spinning around this time as she prayed it was Adam and not an infiltrator. The former Inseminator lie next to her, a smirk on his face as if he were trying to hold back a laugh at her expense. “Sorry,” Rain mumbled, sliding away from him. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“It’s okay,” he said, sitting up. “How did you sleep?”
Rain didn’t answer him as she continued to look around the tent. The last thing she remembered was going out of the tent and sitting next to him because she was so uncomfortable sharing the tent with Mist and Walt. Now, she was in here, sleeping with Adam. Well, not sleeping with him. Just sleeping on him. Not on him….
“Rain?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. What?” she asked, returning her attention to the handsome man whose hair was slightly askew from sleep, but even with that, he looked gorgeous.
“I asked how you slept.”
“Right, right. Good. I guess.” The urge to look around again was overwhelming. Instead, she asked, “How did you sleep?”
Adam was making that face again, the one that said he thought she was funny, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. “I slept all right. I wasn’t sure if I woke you when I carried you in here, but since you fell asleep out there, and our shift was over, I thought you should probably come back inside the tent. I hope that’s okay.”
“You carried me? Inside?” she asked, folding her arms around her knees. She had no recollection whatsoever of that. But she did remember then that when she’d gone out to sit with him, she’d fallen asleep. Had it been against his shoulder? She felt a wave of heat slide up her neck and imagined her face was turning as red as her hair.
“Yeah. I didn’t want to wake you. I guess I didn’t?”
“No, nope. Not at all.” She swallowed hard, shaking her head. “Guess I wasn’t a lot of help on ‘our’ watch.”
With a chuckle, Adam reached over and put his hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I told you I wasn’t tired. Even in here, it took me forever to fall asleep. I probably only got a half hour or so total. It’s all right, though. I’m ready to go. We should get to it. We need to get out of here before the Mothers have a chance to catch up.”
He was certainly right on that account. They probably hadn’t stopped to sleep at all. “Yeah, good point.” Rain grabbed her blanket and began to fold it into as tight a square as she could get it so that it would fit back into her backpack. She checked the tent to see if she’d gotten anything else out but didn’t see any other items that needed to be put away. Her gun was lying against the wall of the tent, which made her nervous. If she’d been so out of it she didn’t even realize she’d been asleep on Adam’s shoulder or carried inside of a tent and gently laid down on the ground--or was that also on his shoulder--what was to stop her from blowing her own head off or someone else’s?
Adam folded up the blanket he’d been using but didn’t put it in his pack. She imagined it had to have come out of one of the other two’s packs. He took it with him as he slid outside, his weapon holstered. Rain averted her eyes, as if looking at his backside might cause her to throw herself at him in an even more embarrassing way than she’d apparently already done. Once he was outside and she was alone, she took a few calming breaths, grabbed her gun and her blanket and stuck her head out to see the sun was just coming up.
“There she is,” Mist said, a suspicious grin on her face as Rain stood, noticing Walt had put the fire out and was packing up. “Hungry?” She offered Rain a stick of dried meat, and she took it, not realizing how hungry she was until after she took the first bite.
Mist pressed a button on the tent and it folded itself back into a more manageable size so she could shove it in her pack. Since they’d eaten and drank some of the water, there was more room in there now than there had been before. For a moment, thoughts of how far they had to go became overwhelming. What if they couldn’t find food? They had hydration pills and protein packs, as well as nutrient pills, but that wouldn’t do anything against the sensations of hunger pains or thirst. Rain took some deep breaths, realizing she was letting her thoughts get away from her. They’d be lucky to get to a point where they were far enough away to be hungry or thirsty. Chances were they’d be dead at the hand of the Mothers, a big cat, or a tragic accident that they wouldn’t ever reach such a distance.
“Are you all right?” Adam asked her, putting his backpack on. The strap scraped against the short sleeve of the white shirt he’d changed into at some point, and she noticed how chiseled his bicep was--not for the first time. Every inch of him was pure muscle, and she couldn’t help the images of his naked body in the soft glow of the IW emergency lighting that came to mind.
“I’m fine,” Rain stammered, wondering if he could tell she was practically drooling over him. She wouldn’t have been surprised at all if he didn’t have that amused look on his face, but he didn’t. His expression read something else entirely, as if he were also attempting to press images of her out of his mind that would distract him from the task at hand. She assumed she had to be imagining that. Wishful thinking. While she remembered the conversation they’d had the night before about how the former IW men might feel about relations with women now that they were free to make their own decisions, and she’d even held his hand for a time, it was silly for her to think that he might be having the same feelings for her as she realized she had begun to develop for him.
“I think we are about two miles ahead of the lead Mothers at the moment, if my calculations are correct,” Mist said, staring at the blinking red dots on her device. “That’s not much, especially if they are using land riders. So we need to get going. We should’ve probably left already, but the two of you were sleeping so peacefully….”
It wasn’t like Mist to put their safety at risk for some rest. “We might want to pick up the pace then,” Rain said.
“And head that way,” Walt added, pointing at a more northeasterly heading. “We know they’re already headed almost due north.”
“Sounds good to me,” Adam said, and the four of them took off at a jog, Mist giving the place one last look around to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind. The remnants of the fire were buried, and as far as Rain could tell, there was no sign that they’d been there at all. She just hoped the Mothers weren’t able to pick up on anything they’d missed, and if they did find their campsite, they wouldn’t be able to find their trail. It didn’t seem like a good day to die.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Mother Jaguar had spent most of the night searching the forest and finding next to nothing. Now that the sun was up, she tried to hide her disappointment as she continued on, her land rider moving through the trees more quickly than the Mothers that were on foot, which was what had allowed her to reach the front line in a matter of hours. Not that it had made any difference. The only rebels that had escaped the initial battle had been located hours ago, on the other side of the town, headed toward Aricornia.
Despite Lightning’s confessions and all of the information White had gotten from her when she’d shot Hurricane, the forest was expansive, and these rebels had tools the Motherhood couldn’t combat. Tablets that told them where the Mothers were located, so long as they had their monitors on, which they had to keep on in order to communicate with one another. Shields that hid fire and smok
e. Another device that would keep the hounds from scenting them. How they had managed to create all of these tools and keep them a secret from the Military Mothers was beyond Jaguar.
The Motherhood had some new weapons as well, though, ones those that had rebelled were not ready for. Drones were on their way from the capital city that moment, the sort that could glide between trees and detect heat signatures of any creature weighing over a predetermined amount. They had transporters like the one Jaguar was riding now that would allow them to move at up to twenty miles per hour over rough terrain. They might not be able to track by scent, but hopefully, they’d be able to get a heat reading from the drones and follow them that way. Even if the rebels shot their drones down, they should be able to get there quickly enough to find them and destroy them before they could get away.
All of them were to be shot on sight except for the red haired girl--Rain--and 24C. Jaguar knew exactly who he was, even though she’d had to hide her surprise when she’d learned that he was a leader of the rebellion. In her time leading the Military Mothers of Gretchintown, before White had been sent in by President Violet, she never would’ve guessed the mild-mannered 24C would’ve been a problem. Sure, he’d been a little bit of a troublemaker when he was younger, but that was the case with a lot of the men, especially the more vital ones, like 24C. He had an energy about him, something that might be described as charismatic in a woman, which seemed to draw the other men to him. But Jaguar would’ve never thought he’d use that strength to go against the Motherhood. She thought he’d learned his lesson a few years ago when a group of Military women had been attempting to put a wild animal of a Dick into his place, and 24C had tried to intervene. He’d ended up being punished severely, though Jaguar had to admit she hadn’t minded doing her duty to teach him a lesson. If she came across him in these woods, she might have to remind him of the last punishment he’d received before she brought him back to White.
“Jaguar, report,” White barked in her ear. Since Jaguar had arrived on the field five hours ago, the requests had come every thirty minutes. She’d had little to report the previous times and still had nothing. At least, with the rising sun, they might be able to speed up the rate of their pursuit.
“We are approximately fifteen miles due north of Gretchintown, spread out over twenty miles, nearly shoulder to shoulder,” she said, altering what she’d said the last time she’d reported only slightly, although they had picked up almost two miles in the last thirty minutes. The other women were jogging or running to keep up with her. She wished they had more transporters so they could pick up the speed, but there were only a hundred working units in Gretchintown. White had sent for more.
“Spread your line thinner. I want you stretching out to the northeast,” White said. “Also, the drones are ready to be deployed and should be in the air over your head in the next fifteen minutes. You will be able to follow their progress on your info tab. If they get a hit, you’ll see their location immediately.”
“Yes, Mother White,” she said, aware of what her info tab would allow her to do. She also knew all of her commanders would be able to control the drones within their regions as well.
“Find them, Jaguar. The Motherhood is counting on you.”
“I will find them,” Jaguar said, feeling beads of perspiration beginning to dot her hairline. She knew that White wasn’t just giving her an order--she was reminding her that if she failed, Jaguar would have to pay for her failure. If it meant the rebels or her, failure was certainly not an option.
As soon as White disconnected the call, Jaguar began to bark her orders. “Emerald, Duck, take your two units and spread out further to the east and then cut north, on the double time. Don’t worry about staying shoulder to shoulder. The drones will be here soon.”
“Yes, Mother,” both of the women said as they began to do as they’d been ordered. The drones could cover fifteen miles in a matter of minutes if they were functioning at full speed. With their ability to cover more ground, the women could spread out, and those that had land riders or who could move faster wouldn’t need to continue at such a slow pace either.
Calling out to a few of the other women nearby who were using transporters, she gave them orders to move ahead in groups of three. It seemed as if the rebels had broken into smaller bands. Chances were, most of them had no idea how to use the weapons they had, especially the Dicks. The Mothers would have the element of surprise, speed, accuracy, and a thirst for blood. She’d put her money on her fellow Military Mothers against these ragtag rebels any day.
“Let’s go, women!” she shouted, cranking up the speed on her own land riderteleporter. “Let’s find these rebels and make them wish they’d never raised a hand against the Motherhood!”
A cheer reverberated through the forest, one she hoped the rebels would hear, one she hoped would leave them quaking in their boots, especially that Dick 24C. When she found him, she had something for him--something he wouldn’t forget.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
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 to argue with a person who was telling her she could stop and rest when otherwise she was likely to fall over in a minute or two.
Taking a spot beneath an equally tall tree, Rain leaned back against the trunk but didn’t sit down, thinking that would close her lungs up. Adam came back to her from the few steps ahead he’d been when Mist called the halt, offering her the bottle of water he’d just taken a drink from. Normally, she’d want him to keep the water for himself, but she was extremely thirsty and needed to unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
Walt was standing next to Mist, looking over her shoulder at the tablet. “Shit,” Mist muttered, and whatever it was, Rain knew it had to be pretty bad for her to take that approach, rather than attempting to lie to them all to keep their spirits up.
“What is it?” Adam asked as Rain let the cool water spill across her tongue. “Are they closing in?”
Mist shook her head and stepped forward. “It’s not that--not just that, anyway. There are other blimps on the tablet now. Lightning warned me about these.”
“What are they?” Walt asked as the three of them rendezvoused in the space between the trees. Rain held back, screwing the lid back on the water and waiting to hear what Mist had to say before she let herself panic.
“Drones,” Mist replied on a loud exhale. “They’re heat seeking drones, so they don’t just rely on visual location finders, but they’ll also pick up any animal over a hundred pounds.”
“Dang, I knew I shouldn’t have had that second meat stick this morning,” Walt joked.
Adam chuckled politely, and Rain smiled, but Mist didn’t think now was the time to be funny. “I have a device that will help, but I was hoping not to have to use it until we got out into the more open areas, further north. It’ll only work for about two days.”
“What is it?” Adam asked her for all of them.
Handing her tablet to Walt, Mist swung her backpack around and unzipped it, digging in the front pocket before she pulled out another small circular device that looked a lot like the one she’d used to shield the fire the day before. “It’s a hovering shield. It’ll stay over the head
of the person who dispatches it and block any heat signals within a ten foot radius, which means we’ll all have to stay pretty close together for all of us to be protected. But it won’t be able to keep them from gaining visuals should anyone actually be watching the cameras on these bastards.”
“Do you think they will be?” Rain asked, finally joining the conversation. The panic she was trying to shove down was beginning to surface, and as she handed the water back to Adam, her hand was shaking hard enough that, if the lid hadn’t been on tightly, it would’ve spilled.
He took the container and slid it back into the holder on his backpack, but before Rain could place her trembling palm on her hip, he took ahold of it, and she immediately felt comforted--not to the point that her stomach wasn’t in knots, but at least she felt steadied by his touch.
“I don’t know if they will be live because, if you look at the tablet, it seems like the drones are flying unbelievably quickly at the moment, as if they’re just searching for heat signals and only slowing if they find something.” She turned the tablet so that Rain could see, and even though she didn’t want to look, her eyes fell on the screen. At the bottom, she could see a few dozen red dots spread out in various spots that covered the expanse of the screen. She knew those were the Mothers. Some of them seemed to be moving much more quickly than others as well. What was even more alarming were the small blue dots that were quickly making their way toward the top of the screen, some of them reaching the edge, others headed back the other way.