by ID Johnson
“I’m Mist. This is Walt,” she said, pointing to where Walt was kneeling beside her, “and this is Adam.”
Esther nodded at each of them. “And the girl?” she asked, looking at Rain.
“Her name is Rain,” Adam said, his eyes focused on her face again. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but her face looked even more pale than usual, and she was so still. He had to concentrate to see the shallow rise and fall of her chest as she sucked in air.
“Well, we weren’t expecting visitors,” Esther said, pulling herself up as she wiped her hand on her long skirt that fell over a pair of denim pants. Her boots were similar to theirs in that they were military grade, though hers were old and worn. “But we’ll make do.”
“We appreciate your help,” Adam said, able to pull himself away from Rain long enough to address the woman. “We will do whatever we can to repay you.”
She was on her way back to the steering mechanism. Seth seemed reluctant to move aside, but he did so. If she made a response to Adam’s promise, he didn’t hear it.
Seth came over to where they were all gathered around Rain, bending down to join them. Behind him, Peter moved over toward his mother, ready in case she called on him to do anything. Adam guessed he was probably around fifteen from his size, but it was hard for him to tell since the only males he’d ever been around were drugged and given growth hormones from the day they were placed in their glastic cages, as he had been. If he had to guess, Seth was probably closer to his age, maybe a little older. He was muscular, but not bulky, and Adam had a feeling his muscle had been honed through hard work on a farm or by some other natural means, not through the artificial weight lifting that had caused him and his friends to bulk up.
“How much further is it?” Mist asked Seth quietly, her eyes peering out over the edge of the boat.
“A few more miles until we get off of the river, but then we’ll have to go through the mountains quite a ways. I would say we’ll be at our place in about twenty more minutes.”
“We’ll have to move her again?” Adam asked, thinking that transferring Rain again wouldn’t be in her best interest.
“No, this is a duck boat,” Seth explained. “It goes from land to sea and back again. It’s actually faster on land.”
Adam had never heard of such a thing but it was interesting to him. This was the first vehicle he’d ever been in, so the fact that it could go on land and sea caught his attention almost enough to cause him to forget about Rain’s injury for a moment.
“You live on a mountain?” Walt asked. He had a sense of wonder to his voice. Adam could relate. He’d never seen real mountains before, only the hills they’d traversed through on their way to the river. Under normal circumstances, Adam would be excited to see them, too, but at the moment, Rain was his only concern.
“No, not on the mountains,” Seth said. “In them.”
“What’s that now?” Mist asked, resituating herself as the boat hit another rough patch in the water.
“You’ll see,” Seth replied. “Just know we’ll be safe from the Mothers once we get away from the Red River.”
“What did you call it?” Adam asked, not sure if he’d heard wrong or Seth had said something unexpected.
“The Red River,” Seth repeated. “Why? What do you call it?”
“We call it the River Red,” Mist said. “That’s what we’ve always called it.” She shrugged. “Same difference, I guess.”
“I guess,” Seth said, scratching his chin. “But I think it’s just another way the Mothers manipulate everyone. Everything has to be different, even the name of the damn river.”
Adam had to agree with that. If Seth was expecting to get a disagreement out of Mist, to test her allegiance, she passed the test. “True,” she said with a sharp nod. “They’d say the sky was green if they needed us to believe it.”
Seth’s expression shifted slightly, as if he had decided then and there he was right to trust his own instincts and help them. “I think we’re safe now,” he said, glancing back in the direction that they’d come. “But Mama won’t let up until we’re home.”
The word Mama hung in Adam’s ears. This woman--Esther--was Seth’s mama, his mother, not with a capital M but the sort of mother that none of the rebels had ever had. The sort that carries their child in their womb, gives birth, takes care of the child as an infant, and continues to care for them even as they age, like this young man before him now. What it must be like to have one of those, Adam couldn’t fathom. He was certain it must be unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
He glanced quickly at Mist and Walt. Both of them seemed to have missed the subtle mention of Seth’s “Mama.” Or if they had held similar thoughts to the ones in Adam’s mind now, they didn’t show it in their expressions. Mist seemed to be impatiently looking ahead, trying to figure out how much longer until they got to where they were going. She was clearly worried about Rain. Adam was, too, but he trusted Esther for reasons he couldn’t quite explain. If the woman said Rain would be okay, he had to believe her.
Eventually, the boat veered sharply to the left, toward the shore, crabbing against the water as it attempted to push them in a different direction. Esther gave the vehicle more power, and it cut through the current as some sort of mechanical noise jarred the bottom of the boat, letting him know there was a transformation going on beneath them. A moment later, the vehicle surged forward, out of the water and onto the shore, climbing up the steep banks and then taking off across the grass, winding between trees so close, Adam felt as if he could reach out and grab hold of the branches if doing so wouldn’t rip his arm off.
How Esther was navigating so expertly through the darkness, around each tree, across the uneven ground, without hitting too many bumps, was beyond him. He might’ve enjoyed the ride if he wasn’t concerned about the motion disturbing Rain. She seemed okay, though, lying in the same spot that Esther had positioned her in, more or less. Lights at the front of the boat cut through the darkness a few feet in front of the boat, or whatever it was now, but she must’ve known exactly where she was going and made this journey hundreds of times to handle the path so well.
The ground changed beneath the wheels, smoothing out a bit before it transitioned to what had to be a road. Tiny bits of gravel popped up and hit the side of the hull, telling Adam the road was covered in pebbles, not the asphalt they’d found overgrown in the woods. With the change, Esther increased her speed. This had to be the fastest Adam had ever gone in his life.
Ahead of them, the flatness morphed into hilly ground, and the further Esther drove, the larger the rises became. Hills grew taller, shifting to mountains. Esther wound between them, sticking to the road. The wind in Adam’s hair every time he lifted his head above the edge of what had been the hull of the boat rocked him backward. It seemed as if they were flying.
It was difficult to see in the distance beyond the meek headlights, but it appeared as if they were headed right for the side of a mountain. The closer they got, the more Adam thought disaster was looming. Why wasn’t Esther shifting? Turning the vehicle away from the mountainside. “Seth?” Adam called with no answer. If Walt and Mist were seeing this, they were silent. “Esther?” Adam shouted now as the side of the mountain got even larger and she didn’t slow at all. Certain they were all about to die, Adam realized he had been the one to beg the woman to take them on her boat. If they died, it would be his fault. At this speed, there really was no question of if. It was more how quickly would it be over.
He closed his eyes, praying that Rain would somehow forgive him in whatever lie after this, but a shift in the sound around him had his eyes flying back open about the time he expected to feel the mountainside colliding with his face. The lights bounced off sheer mountain wall, doing little to brighten the tunnel they were driving through, still at full speed. “What the…?”
“The mountain opened up. There was a door of some sort in the side of it,” Mist explained. “You would’ve se
en if your eyes had been open.”
He stared at her for a moment, noticing she seemed to be hiding a laugh. “Weren’t you scared?”
She shrugged. “I figured she wasn’t going to kill her kids. Only a monster would do that. Or a Mother with a capital M. She’s not one of those.”
Adam nodded in agreement, as much as he hated that her statement was the truth. A Mother wouldn’t have hesitated to take out whoever she needed to in order to get what she wanted, even if it was her own child. Esther certainly seemed different than that sort of mother.
They continued to fly down the tunnel for what seemed like at least a half an hour. The air was different in here. Cooler. Adam thought they might be headed down as they were cutting into the mountain. He never would’ve guessed something like this was possible. He only hoped no one was coming back their direction as they plowed ahead. If that should be the case, Esther wouldn’t have time to slow, whether her sons were on board or not.
Eventually, the tunnel widened, the ceiling lifting, and they slowed. A large chamber with dozens of other boats and vehicles, lit by what appeared to be some sort of primitive electric torches, spanned as far as Adam could see. A thousand questions entered his mind, but now, all he could think about was getting Rain somewhere so that she could be treated. The bullet had to come out so that they could completely heal the wound.
The engine wound down as Esther piloted them around several other vehicles into what he assumed was her regular parking space. He saw another tunnel leading off parallel to the first and wondered if that was the reason she’d been so confident of her speed. Was there an entrance and an exit? As soon as the engine was at a mild purr, Seth started to move. He was back with them now, his hands scooping Rain up as if she were feather light before Adam had a chance to do it himself.
Seth practically leapt over the side of the vehicle, which was a good six feet off of the ground. His boots briefly skipped down ladder steps, as if he’d done it a million times, and they knew exactly where to fall, Rain’s body light in his arms. A pang hit Adam in the gut, but he knew he had no claim to her. She’d made it clear they were just friends, and that’s all she ever wished to be.
He followed, though. His concern turned the pang into a knot as he climbed over the side, much more pointedly, and waited to help Mist down. She didn’t need his hand, but she took it anyway, handing Rain’s backpack to him. It was stained with blood, already beginning to crust over and dry. He swung it over his shoulder, not willing to look at it, though the scent of iron tinted each breath. Walt and Esther followed, Peter staying behind to secure the vehicle. The woman walked swiftly in the same direction that Seth had disappeared through a door that took a code.
Adam followed her, but he wasn’t prepared for what his eyes were taking in. He had to stop just inside of the doorway. The space opened up again on the other side, so there was room for Mist and Walt to step around him as he gazed up in amazement. They didn’t seem to notice as he did that they’d essentially just walked into what looked like an opening to the outside world when in fact it was really the cave ceiling above them decorated to look like the country setting outside at night. The sky and a thousand twinkling lights appeared to hang above him. It was mesmerizing. It even smelled like outside. A quick glance around revealed trees and other plants that looked real enough, though he imagined that wasn’t possible. The space was immense, with dozens of homes and other buildings nearby and off in the distance. Esther was walking briskly toward one of the closer homes, a medium-sized dwelling that appeared to be made out of logs. He followed, but it was difficult to keep from studying the sky above him. All of this was so completely unexpected.
Seth already had Rain inside of the house by the time they arrived. She was lying on a bed in a room at the front of the house, off to the left of a small sitting room that led to a kitchen, a hall leading off beyond that. Adam didn’t pause to take this scene in the way he had outside. A small whimpering sound slipped through Rain’s lips, and he felt his heart leap into his throat.
“Get me some clean, hot water, and a scalpel,” Esther was saying to Seth. He rushed off, his eyes lingering on Rain’s face a fraction of a second too long before he went. Then, the woman turned to Mist. “What does she have in that kit to deaden pain?”
“I’m not sure,” Mist admitted. “She’s a medical student, but I study agriculture.”
Esther nodded and took the bag, moving toward a dim lamp sitting on the nightstand next to Rain. She opened the medical kit, took out several items to examine them, and then settled on what she seemed to think she needed.
“Is there another light in here?” Adam asked, thinking the overhead light would be helpful.
Esther gestured at the wall by the doorway but didn’t turn around as she was looking at something she’d pulled out of the bag. It was some sort of an ointment. Adam hoped Mist knew what that was. To him, it looked like something you’d use after a wound, but not before someone went digging into your shoulder.
He placed his backpack and Rain’s next to a chair in the corner of the room and moved to turn the overhead light on. With a flip of the switch, the lights blinked on, though they weren’t much brighter than just the nightstand. It would have to do, unless Mist used her light, and that might be too bright.
Seth came back in, carrying the requested items and a stack of clean towels. Esther immediately went about setting a towel beneath Rain’s injured shoulder over the bedspread and then went back to examining the items in the bag before she took a deep breath and leaned Rain up and over so her shoulder was better exposed to her. “Hold her,” she said to Seth.
He flew around the bed and kneeled on top of it, doing as he was told. “What can we do?” Mist asked.
“You can get back,” Esther said.
Mist didn’t like that response. Neither did Adam, but they had no choice. Esther took something else from the bag and put it on Rain’s shoulder first. Adam prayed she’d guessed right and that was whatever would work best to deaden the area. With the first slice of the blade, they’d find out really quickly.
It didn’t take long. Seth’s grip was firm, but Esther steadied herself by holding on to Rain’s shoulder. Adam couldn’t see what she was doing from where he was standing, back toward the opening of the room. Mist and Walt were behind Esther, deeper into the room, at a distance but on the side where they’d have a view of what the woman was doing. Esther made her first cut, and Mist winced, covering her mouth. Her face went pale, and Walt’s arm went around her.
Rain didn’t cry out, but he could tell by the way she bit her bottom lip that even with her eyes shut tightly, she was in pain. Seth was close to her face, whispering something. A pang hit Adam in the stomach. Even without much experience in the real world he recognized the emotion immediately. Jealousy. This man they’d just met on the boat shouldn’t be the one holding her, comforting her. It should be him.
Realizing he would’ve sounded ridiculous to anyone who could read his thoughts, Adam took a deep breath and returned his attention to Esther. He shouldn’t be so selfish at the moment either. Rain was in a lot of pain, and rather than thinking about her, he was worried about the fact that a man she couldn’t even see because her eyes were glued shut was trying to help her relax. He shook his head slightly and focused on the woman. It didn’t take long at all for her to pull a tiny, deformed, mangle of metal out of Rain’s shoulder. “Here we go,” she said, dropping it onto a towel on the nightstand. “All out.”
“Thank God,” Seth said. It was a concept Adam was familiar with from his study of the Bible, but he hadn’t heard anyone say that before, not that he could recall. It seemed right--though a bit odd.
Seth was looking over Rain’s shoulder as his mother cleaned the wound with the water he’d brought in and another clean towel. “Do we use that device now?” he called to Mist.
“Yes,” she said, flying out of Walt’s embrace to the bed. She picked up the wand Esther had already used on the fr
ont side of Rain’s wound and turned it on, placing it in Esther’s outstretched palm. “You can put it all the way in now.”
The older woman nodded, having figured that out already. She pushed the object inside of the hole she’d just made getting the bullet out. At first, Rain winced, her eyelashes fluttering, though her eyes did not open. But seconds later, she relaxed. The device was doing its job--closing up the open blood vessels, healing the torn flesh, repairing the wound. Esther pulled it out a few seconds later and handed it back to Mist who turned it off. “Thing’s good to have around,” the woman muttered.
Even though it wasn’t necessary because of the healing wand, Esther insisted on wrapping the wound with gauze. Once she had Rain wrapped, she lowered her carefully back to the bed. Seth seemed reluctant to let go of her, which ate at Adam’s gut again.
“Fetch that blanket on the chair, and let’s get her boots off.” Esther had been speaking to Seth, but it was Mist who went for Rain’s boots. The patient’s eyes were still closed, her breathing evened out. She seemed to be asleep now.
Mist got her boots off, and Seth draped a dark brown blanket over the top of her. “We’ll let her rest and worry about changing her out of that torn shirt later,” Esther said, satisfied with her work. “Now all y’all git.” She made a sweeping gesture with her arm toward the door. Seth helped her gather up the towels and other items, and Mist finished putting the healing items in the medicinal kit, but she left it on the nightstand, just in case, and then they headed for the door.
Adam knew he’d have to go, too. Esther wouldn’t allow him to stay in the room with her patient when she clearly needed to rest. He only needed a quick glimpse of her tight lips to know that. Reluctantly, he took one last look at Rain, and then headed for the door, praying to Seth’s God or whoever might be listening that she would be okay and wake up soon. He’d been so close to losing her for good, and it had scared him to death. The idea of being free, of having all of the world to explore and do whatever he chose meant nothing if Rain was no longer a part of it. The idea almost brought tears to his eyes, but he reminded himself that she was safe now--they all were--and followed the others out of the room.