by ID Johnson
“Why are they going back?” Walt asked, gesturing at the blue dots headed back toward the red.
“They must be working a grid pattern so they don’t miss anything.” Mist muttered another curse word under her breath and looked up at the sky. As far as Rain could tell, there weren’t any blue dots in their vicinity at the moment, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be there soon.
“Are those Mothers on land riders up ahead of the other dots?” Rain asked as Mist took the tablet back.
“That’s my best guess,” Mist replied. She put her arm through the strap of her backpack and slid it over her shoulder. “I’d estimate they’re about five miles behind us, but I think they’re too far to the west right now. If we continue in this northeast trajectory, we should be able to continue to put space between us and them. Our biggest worry at this point will be if the drones are actually taking video and sending it back to someone who will be able to get coordinates and send them to the team in the field.”
“Son of a bitch,” Adam muttered, digging his toe into the leaves and dirt atop the forest floor.
Rain didn’t want to let go of his hand, but she also wanted to put her arm around him, so unable to decide what to do, she took a step closer to him, and he let go of her hand and pulled her closer. When her arm went around his waist and her head landed on his chest, it seemed natural. For a moment, she almost felt safe, despite the fact that the entire nation of Michaelanburg was bearing down on them, fully armed and ready to kill all of them.
“We’ll just have to use the shield, stay close together, and keep an eye out. If we see one of them, we can change directions, or find a place to hide,” Walt said, the voice of reason they all needed to hear.
“Yeah, and we have to take advantage of the next forty-eight hours, or however much time we have on that shield to put as much distance between ourselves and them as is humanly possible,” Adam added. With the hand he had wrapped around her, he was gently tugging the bottom of her ponytail. It was the most soothing sensation Rain could recall, and she could only imagined that perhaps being held by one’s true mother might be more calming.
Mist had her game face on again. “You’re right. We can do this. We just need to be more determined than they are, that’s all. They can’t chase us all the way to the Nation of Quebec.”
“That’s the spirit!” Walt agreed, leaning down to kiss her on the top of the head.
Apparently, Mist’s fear of dying wasn’t so compelling she didn't have time to turn and find his lips with hers. Rain knew she needed to look away, so she turned her head and met Adam’s smiling face. He shook his head slowly in disbelief at the two of them, but all Rain could think about was what his reaction might be if she pushed up on her tiptoes and did the same to him.
She could never do that, though, not after all he’d been through. It was ridiculous to even consider it. Instead, she forced a small chuckle and then returned her attention to her friend who found a way to let go of Walt’s mouth so that they could possibly live a few hours more.
Mist activated the device and opened her palm. It made a whirring noise and floated up into the air about ten feet above her head. “It should sense the trees and anything else that might be in its line of flight and go around.” She exhaled loudly again and then nodded at the small spinning circle before looking at her companions again. “Are we ready?”
“Let’s do this,” Walt said.
Rain nodded and Adam said, “Lead the way.”
Mist adjusted her rifle over her shoulder and took off at a diagonal, similar to the line they’d been running for hours. The others fell in behind her, knowing they’d have to be careful to stay within the ten feet she’d mentioned earlier. Running in such close proximity would be difficult, but as they headed between overgrown trees and bushes with exposed roots meant to trip them, with all of the Military Mothers behind them, all Rain could think about was how cold her skin felt now that Adam’s arms weren’t around her.
For hours, they sprinted on through the woods, keeping an even pace, their feet falling in sync. Rain’s heart was beating out of her chest, and her lungs felt as if they might explode at any moment, but she wasn’t about to even consider slowing down. She certainly didn’t want to be the weak link, the reason they were caught from behind and slaughtered. Rain would keep running until she fell down dead or was shot from behind.
All four of them had to feel the same way, she imagined. Not a word escaping from any of their lips until the sun was starting to go down. But then, Mist suddenly pulled up with a shudder, her stop so quick the rest of them almost slammed into the back of her.
“What is it?” Walt asked, his voice a whisper as Rain and Adam both fingered their weapons.
“I thought I heard something,” Mist said, her voice so quiet, Rain had to strain to hear it.
“Like what? Is someone coming?” Adam asked, his head turning to take in the area around them.
A shift in the trees ahead of where they stood had them all focused in that direction. The leaves were moving, twigs snapping. There was definitely something there. All four of them drew their weapons, training them on the fluttering leaves. Rain braced herself for the appearance of a legion of Mothers or bullets whizzing from every direction.
What stepped out from behind the trees was somehow even more petrifying, and she didn’t know if she should pull the trigger or turn and run in the opposite direction. At the moment, all she could do was stare in stunned silence, waiting for someone to jar her out of her stupor as her short life flashed before her eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Two yellow eyes peered out at them from between the trees. Adam swallowed hard, not sure what he should do. If anyone was about to shoot the giant creature in front of them, he figured Mist should take the shot. Not only was she standing in front of the rest of them, but as far as he could tell, she was the best shot.
However, she wasn’t shooting. Instead, the tiny woman was standing there, her eyes bulging, as they all stared at a massive orange, black and white striped beast that had to weigh at least eight hundred pounds.
The majestic creature stared right back at them, as if he was equally stunned to see four humans prowling through his woods. His pink nose wiggled as his nostrils flared, his pointy ears shifting as he listened either to them or, with their bad luck, more members of his pack. Adam wanted to turn his head to look around them, to see if there were more of whatever sort of cat this was somewhere to be found nearby, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away.
“What do we do?” Walt whispered, his voice cracking as he asked the question.
Mist took another deep breath through her nose and slowly reached for her backpack, not taking her eyes off of the big cat in front of her. She unzipped a side pouch and pulled something out as they all held their collective breaths.
Whatever Mist had in her hand, it smelled like something that might attract the kitty, and those giant nostrils were flaring even faster now. The ten or twelve feet between the tip of Mist’s boot and the two-inch long polished blades on the end of those paws seemed to shrink slightly, even though Adam was fairly certain no one moved.
Mist pulled something out of the side pocket of her pants and slid it inside of the small, round device she’d gotten from her backpack. She closed whatever she’d opened and then held the tantalizingly odoriferous sphere for the cat to see. The eyes didn’t seem to move, but the nose was still going a thousand miles a minute. When Mist tossed the sphere away from them into the trees, the cat didn’t bound after it. Instead, it continued to look at the four of them, as if it wasn’t sure whether or not to follow the meaty aroma or see how much meat it could scrape from their bones.
“Come on, you bastard,” Mist said under her breath. “Take the bait.”
Slowly, the cat’s head started to turn in the direction Mist had thrown the sphere, but then it turned back to look at them. Pulling its lips up in a snarl and revealing even more of the shiny teeth that coul
d easily tear them into tiny bits, the cat let out a roar that shook him to his core. It seemed evident now that they needed to shoot this beast before it ended all of them.
Swinging her gun around so that the nozzle was pointed at the beast, Mist readied her trigger finger. Adam had to assume she’d already taken the safety off so that if the cat took a step toward them, or coiled its muscles to lunge, Mist would shoot it enough times to render it useless--or it would take her out first while the rest of them scrambled to get their guns at the ready.
Once again, the giant furry head turned, sniffing in the direction the sphere had gone, and then, another roar came out of its mouth. It bent at the knees, then took off into the air, flying into the trees to their left. Whatever the hell Mist had tossed away from them, the tiger wanted it more than the four humans.
Wiping sweat from her brow, Mist muttered a prayer of thankfulness. “All right. We can’t assume there aren’t more, though tigers don’t usually travel in packs here. That was the only tracking sphere I had, so if we see another one, we shoot it.” She was already walking backward as she spoke, shrugging her backpack into place and then turning to run into the trees again, the others following behind her.
“What the hell is a tracking sphere?” Rain asked, her eyes wandering through the trees, looking for more tigers. Adam’s were doing the same, though he had to admit he was still fascinated to discover that the beast was a tiger. He hadn’t been sure when he’d first faced the animal, having never seen so much as a picture of one before, but it looked much like he’d imagined it would, having read about it in books.
“A tracking sphere is a small device Lightning created to throw them off of our tracks. It was designed to attract big cats, once it’s been activated, which it hadn’t been until after we came face to face with that bastard. I put the tracker from my tablet inside of it.”
“Your tablet?” Rain echoed, taking a few quicker steps to catch up to Mist, as if she wanted to yank her around and look her in the eyes as she asked, “What are you talking about? You told me not to bring my tablet.”
“That’s because you didn’t know how to remove your tracker. I did. My tablet is in the room, but I took the tracker out before we left.”
“So… now the Mothers will know where you are?” Walt asked.
“No. The sphere is dormant right now. It’s wrapped in a highly scented little snack for the kitty. Once he eats it, he’ll fall asleep for about an hour, which will let us be sure to get away from him. Then, he’ll wake up and have the urge to find some water. When he does, that water will activate the device, and it will begin to send out a signal as to my whereabouts--except for obviously I won’t be near the beast by then, and when they find the cat, they might get a little more than they bargained for.”
Adam took all of that in, not sure whether it helped them to have the Mothers have a beacon so close to where they were currently situated, or if it would’ve been better not to throw them off at all. There was nothing they could do about it now since Mist had already taken that on by herself. She seemed to be right about everything else they’d done so far, so he had to trust she would be with this as well.
“Now, all we have to do is avoid those damn drones, and we should be in business,” Walt mumbled to no one in particular, and the group picked up their pace again. Thinking about the odds of them making it all the way to the Nation of Quebec without any of them getting killed was not the happiest way to spend his time. Instead, Adam decided to think about how amazing it would be to reach freedom, to have his own home, maybe a job, and a beautiful wife--maybe one with gorgeous red hair who always looked stunning, even when she was running through the forest, fleeing from tigers, Mothers, and whatever was to come next.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Two days. Rain had been running for the better part of two days. They’d taken a few breaks for a half-hour here and there, but since the shield Mist had activated would last for about forty-eight hours before it would power down, all four of them felt compelled to continue to run while they had the opportunity to take advantage of the safeguard.
Even though they’d figured out a way to beat the drones by tracking them as they moved around the grid, the shield provided them with the best opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the Mothers undetected. They’d each taken extra energy pills from the supply Mist had brought with her, which helped, but by the time the shield finally started to descend, over forty-eight hours after it had been launched, Rain thought her feet were going to fall off, and the cramps in her calves were almost unbearable.
“Son of a bitch, it’s done,” Mist said, catching the device in her palm. She shoved it back inside of her backpack. Rain had to assume that was because she didn’t want the Mothers to find it and have the technology.
“Thank goodness,” Walt muttered, and Rain had to hide a snicker. She looked at Adam, but he was hiding his face. Even with sweat pouring from his forehead and dampening every strand of sandy blonde hair so that it looked almost as dark as Walt’s, Adam made her heart rate increase even more than the impossible run.
Mist shook her head at all of them. “We’ve covered over a hundred and fifty miles in two days,” she said, sinking down beneath a tree and popping a pill into her mouth. Rain couldn’t tell what it was, but if she had to guess, she would’ve assumed it was a hydration pill.
“What’s the plan now?” Rain asked, afraid to sit down for fear she’d never be able to get up again. Instead, she did some sort of a squat, which caused her leg to cramp up even worse. She ended up sliding down onto her bottom, figuring she couldn’t look any less graceful now than she had when she’d tripped over a root and face planted a couple of miles back.
“Well, according to the tablet, the Mothers are so far behind us, they’re not even on the screen anymore. Either that, or they just haven’t adjusted this far to the east yet. The drones are flying overhead about once every thirty minutes, which we’ve gotten down to a science now, so we know when to scatter out of their zone. The only way they’re going to catch us at this point is if they have turned their trackers off, or they’re on something that goes faster than land riders.”
“What goes faster than a land rider?” Adam asked. He was the only one who hadn’t sat down, but he was bent over with his hands on his knees. He was speaking to Mist, but his blue eyes flickered to her for a short moment. She looked away, shaking her head to clear it.
“They used to have these larger vehicles called transporters that held several people, sometimes even dozens, but I haven’t seen one in Gretchintown in a long time, since Michaelanburg stopped using oil based products. Most of them ran on gasoline. There are some that use electricity. Lightning said that there are still some kept at the capital, but she didn’t think their range on electricity would allow them to move north very quickly. I’m not sure if they could travel all the way to our current location without needing to be recharged.”
“How would they charge something that takes electricity out here?” Rain asked.
“I don’t know that they could. Back up batteries, maybe. Solar would be difficult under the canopy of trees. Other than that, there’s just the heliobirds.” Mist shook her head. “Lightning thinks those actually do take oil products, and it’s just another one of the Motherhood’s lies when they assure the world that they don’t.”
“So doesn’t that mean that they might actually have vehicles that run on gasoline, too?” Adam asked, standing up and stretching his back. The muscles in his arms rippled, sweat trickling down along the vein that protruded from his forearm. Rain flickered her eyes away.
With a nod, Mist said, “Yeah, it’s definitely possible. I don’t think they’ve been completely honest with the outlying towns as to what they have and what they don’t have. There haven’t been a lot of threats from other nations since the war made everyone so destitute, but now that some of the other countries are rebuilding, there are some proclamations. We know the Motherhood has bee
n preparing for a potential attack, especially from our neighbor to the south which has been particularly vocal about wanting to free the men. Spanish-America has been massing troops for months. Even some of the countries across the oceans have been talking about forcing change, according to Lightning’s sources, though a lot of them don’t have a lot of resources to concern themselves with what’s happening here now. And it’s not as if a lot of information filters out of Michaelanburg. But once we are able to give them the evidence they need, we’re hopeful that some of them will join our cause.”
“What about Quebec? Do you think they’ll come in and help us out?” Walt asked.
Mist ran her hand over her forehead, a stream of sweat rolling off of the backs of her fingers with the swipe. “With any luck they will. They are the largest, wealthiest nation on the continent. Who knows, though. If they will give us refuge, we might be able to regroup and go back in ourselves to try to free more men. Most of them will be perfectly happy if they can escape to freedom, even if the Motherhood never changes their ways.”
“But freedom is not enough for you?” Rain asked, reading her friend’s expression enough to know that she wouldn’t be content to start a life in Quebec. She’d want to go back to Michaelanburg and do more.
“I won’t rest until every man is free, and every woman knows the truth.” Mist’s eyes narrowed slightly as she spoke. Rain found herself swallowing down salty saliva… and fear.
“What are we going to do for the rest of the night?” Adam asked. “How close are we to Oklasaw?”
“About a hundred and fifty miles,” Mist said. She looked around for a second. “I think. I’m not sure how far east we went. We should hit the ruins of a large city soon. Maybe we can find it before we have to stop for the night.”
“So we aren’t stopping here”?” Rain asked, wondering how in the world she was going to pull herself up off of the ground and start moving again.