Chapter 122

Crouching down in the woods had become uncomfortable, but Rain tried not to think about the pain in her legs. They’d been in the same position for almost two hours now as the battle raged in front of them, not so far away. The sound of explosions, of gunfire, and screams were close enough that Rain could imagine they were just on the other side of the trees in front of them, though she knew exactly where they were hunkered down and that Gretchintown proper was still about a hundred yards in front of them, on the other side of the woods.
The scent of smoke had begun to hit her lungs about an hour into their wait. Not only were the bombs they were using capable of creating great plumes of smoke, but she also had a feeling that several structures were on fire. She couldn’t see any flames, but she smelled wood burning. At least she couldn’t smell burning flesh, even though she had an idea that there were people out there suffering from the explosions. War came at a cost, after all.
Occasionally, Josie would get an update over the comm, but she never filled the rest of them in. They stayed completely silent, waiting, trying to piece everything together.
Knowing that Adam was right beside her was more of a comfort than a distraction, which was a good thing for Rain. She wasn’t thinking about how nice it would be to have his arms around her as much as she was thinking about how nice it would be to know someone who was shooting to kill was right beside her as she went into the fray. If anyone wanted to kill Mothers more than her, it was Adam.
And Mist… and Walt. They all had their personal reasons to want to be in the fight right that moment, but if the commanders thought they’d serve a better purpose waiting, that’s what Rain would do. For as long as they wanted her to.
Another hour passed before Josie got another call over her comm. Even though Rain could hear every word the male voice was shouting, she didn’t know what any of it meant. It was some kind of code. The only part she grasped was, “Daddy’s Girl.” So whatever he was saying applied directly to them.
Josie raised the comm on her shoulder to her mouth and said, “Ten-four,” before she turned to look at her detail. “Are we ready?” she asked.
Everyone nodded. Josie got to her feet, and the others followed suit, ignoring the pins and needles feelings of having their feet and legs asleep.
Rain could hardly feel her legs below the knee, but she kept up with the others, her rifle at the ready as they came out from between the trees and stepped onto one of the streets of Gretchintown.
A glance around was all she could steal before she had to refocus on what was going on in front of her. The place looked nothing like the quaint little village she’d left. The buildings were all smoldering or in ruins. The streets were littered with debris. Bodies fell here and there all across the lawns, many of them in military Mother uniforms, though not all of them. Some were from their side. Some seemed to be civilians. Rain kept her eyes forward and fixed in the direction she knew they’d be headed in order to infiltrate the medical building.
The group was passing quickly through the town, unharassed by any military Mothers, which seemed odd to Rain. Where were they? She knew the women well enough to know they wouldn’t just let them walk into the medical building without putting up a fight, not unless there was a good reason for it. Any reason they had couldn’t be good for the attackers. Rain was about to say something to Josie when a large commotion to their left drew all of their heads around.
They were at Weatherhouse. Rain hadn’t even realized it until she turned her head; the rest of the town looked so different because of the warfare that had torn it apart. She watched as the Quebecian military herded a group of girls dressed in school uniforms out of the building, shouting at all of them to put their hands on their heads and run.
The girls were crying and screaming, clearly terrified. Rain’s eyes widened as she saw faces she recognized. She started to take a step toward the scene, but Mist’s hand shot out to stop her. “Don’t,” she said.
Rain couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Didn’t Mist have any sympathy for these girls? She saw their old roommates running along as well. Gale and Breeze had tears streaming down their faces as they struggled to hold on to one another. A soldier stepped in to push them apart, shouting at them to put their hands up.
“Rain, come on!” Mist insisted, grabbing ahold of her arm. They were moving forward again now that Josie was certain the alarming sound wasn’t a threat. The girls would be fine.
Just as she was about to turn back around, Gale’s eyes landed on her face. “Rain?” She saw the girl’s lips move, but she was too far away for Rain to hear the whispered realization. It was impossible for Rain to turn her eyes away from her friend who was being herded off like cattle. “Rain!” Gale shouted.
Another yank on her sleeve had Rain turning around. It wasn’t Mist this time, it was Adam. “Come on, Rain. We have to move,” he said, looking over her head. It was then that Rain realized the Mothers were around after all. Gunfire rang out from the building across the street from Weatherhouse. The soldiers that were moving the girls returned fire as Josie’s detail sprinted forward to take cover behind a large transport vehicle that was sitting in the middle of the road, smoking. It looked like a Michaelanburg transport vehicle to Rain, though she wasn’t sure, it was so charred, with pieces of twisted metal hanging from the frame.
They hit the ground together, sliding on the loose gravel of a road that was rarely used for anything but walking, their heads down. Rain’s face was nestled against Adam’s leg, gravel biting into her hand. “Are you all right?” he asked her.
“Yeah, fine,” she said, scrambling up to her knees so she could better assess the situation. It didn’t look like there were many Military Mothers in the building, maybe only half a dozen, and they were all shooting at the soldiers moving the women out of Weatherhouse, not at the detail that was taking shelter behind the vehicle. Why, Rain couldn’t say, but it seemed again like the Mothers were trying to draw them into the medical building like they somehow knew their purpose.
“I can take them out from here,” Seth was saying to Josie. “I’m within range.”
“No, don’t,” she said. “You’ll just draw their fire, and we don’t have enough shelter.”
Another barrage of gunfire rained down on the group of soldiers. Rain watched as a bullet hit one of the girls in the shoulder, sending her flying backward as blood spurted all over the girls around her. Screams of terror broke out again as the women started running in all different directions, not caring anymore that the soldiers had ordered them to move together, as prisoners, toward the woods where their camp was set up. The soldiers did their best to contain them.
“I’ll move over there,” Seth said, nodding at a tree with his head as he double-checked that his gun was loaded and ready to go. “We’ve got to do something, Josie, and I’m the best shot in the detail.”
Josie’s eyes shifted between the building and Seth who was clearly itching to get into the fight for reasons Rain didn’t understand. It wasn’t even his fight. Josie nodded. “Fine. Go.”
Seth didn’t need to be told twice. As soon as he had his commander’s permission, he began to move toward the tree. Rain was tempted to rise up and provide some cover fire, but Josie had explicitly told them not to fire, so she held her gun tight, her trigger finger itching to feel the tension of the metal pulling back and then springing forward with a vengeance.
Moving quickly, Seth was able to make it to the tree without too many bullets coming in his direction. The tree was about twenty paces away, and the trunk was wide. Rain wasn’t completely convinced that the tree was thick enough to keep the bullets from going through the trunk and still striking him.
Within a few seconds, Seth began to shoot back at the Mothers stationed in the building. At first, he drew more fire from them as they attempted to take out the new threat, but the more they shot at him, the more clear it became exactly which windows they were located in. Seth began to pick them off one by one, his bullets launched perfectly from his rifle whereas the Mothers weren’t able to get a good read on him because he was behind the tree, only ducking out to plant one bullet after another at his targets.
With Seth’s distraction, the troops who were evacuating the girls from Weatherhouse were able to get some bullets off, too. It didn’t take too long for the gunfire leaving the building to peter out, and then, there was just the occasional pop pop from the building across from them.
Half of the troops situated in the yard rushed into the building while the other half continued to move the screaming, terrified girls out of harm’s way toward the campsite. Rain had no idea what they would do with them there, but she assumed the commanders had something set up for prisoners.
From the building across from them, the sounds of shouts could be heard and then gunfire, but it wasn’t the quick succession of bullets a person might expect to hear if there was an actual gun battle. Instead, Rain imagined this was an assassination. The troops from Quebec were going around making sure that all of the Mothers that had been shooting at them were dead. It would’ve been disturbing if Rain didn’t think that every single one of them deserved to die.
Once the shooting died off, Josie raised up a bit. “All right, let’s go!” she said, gesturing for them all to follow.
Josie led the way toward the next building. Seth jumped into line with the rest of them as they passed by his location. Rain couldn’t help but give him a proud smile for the bravery he’d just displayed. Seth returned the gesture, but both of them became more serious as they dodged behind the next building and took shelter there while Josie assessed the situation.
A raspy male voice came over the comm on Josie’s shoulder. “Prisoners have been secured,” the voice said. “Second battalion returning to full service.”
Rain took that to mean that the soldiers escorting the girls from Weatherhouse were returning to the battlefield. There were so many other houses that would need to be cleared though. The building they were cowering behind now was Animal House, and Rain was almost positive it was full of frightened young women who felt much the same way as the girls from Weatherhouse. Her group stood between windows and away from doors, just in case shooting from the building rang out, but she was fairly certain there was no threat here. Only girls who didn’t understand what was happening and were confused and scared. She imagined herself if she’d stayed behind, if Mist had never told her what they were embarking upon and why the Mothers were wrong. She’d be terrified.
She was terrified anyway, but she couldn’t let that show. Josie gave the order for them to move on, and they sprinted across the open ground to the next building. In the distance, Rain could see the IW building. Her breath caught in her throat. She knew, no matter how abandoned that building might look on the outside, there were sure to be plenty of Military Mothers waiting for them when they arrived.