Chapter 126

“The records room?” Rain repeated. “Is that where we were headed?” She hadn’t been certain what their objective was, other than to kill as many Military Mothers as possible and get them out of the way. But now that she knew exactly where they were headed, she had to wonder why.
“Yes,” Seth said. “We need proof that the Mothers are using fossil fuels, and we believe all of that information is kept there, in the records room.”
Rain’s eyes widened as she thought about what else might be kept there. Would it be possible for her to find out who her parents were? What about the Bridge? Would there be something in the records that proved that the Bridge was actually a device used to kill people, rather than send them back to start again as new people, born again?
“It’s this way,” Adam said, breathing a little heavier than usual from the exertion of getting the last girl up into the air duct with them.
He was right. They needed to crawl through the duct to the right, which was back the way they’d just come. She wondered how long it would take the Mothers to figure out where they’d gone. She had a feeling it wouldn’t take them more than a few seconds once they reached the end of the hallway and saw that none of the doors had been opened or shot up.
“We need to move fast,” Seth said. “Leavenworth, can you crawl?”
“I think so,” he said, but he didn’t look good. Blood covered his uniform, and half of his face was disfigured where the bullet had entered his skull. It was a wonder he was still alive. If the bullet would have gone through his brain, he’d still be lying in the hallway.
“Let me see,” Rain said, now that they had a few seconds. He turned toward her, and Rain tried not to gasp at the missing chunk of flesh from his face.
Pulling her medical wand out of an interior pocket on her uniform, she ran it along the injured part of his temple, alleviating the pain. She couldn’t heal something that wasn’t there, but the bleeding stopped as scabs started to form. “Does that feel any better?”
“Yes,” he said. “A lot better. Thank you.”
Rain nodded, glad she could be of some help. “Can you see out of that eye?”
“No,” Leavenworth said.
“I might be able to fix that later, but for now, let’s go.”
He nodded, and Rain returned her attention to Seth.
“All right, move out.” Seth led the way, crawling on his hands and knees as quickly as possible back the way they’d come. Rain could tell he was trying to stay quiet as well, but the shaft they were in was made of metal, so there was some popping and shifting beneath them. At any second, the Mothers could hear them and start shooting. There was no way the duct or the ceiling beneath it was strong enough to withstand bullets fired from the Mothers’ guns.
They couldn’t go as fast as Seth wanted to. He kept turning back to see where the rest of them were. Leavenworth was slowing them down. He was right behind Seth, in front of Rain. The duct was almost wide enough for two of them to crawl next to one another, but she was trying to give him his space and not rush him. She couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling. Even though she’d taken as much pain away from him as she could, he still had to be miserable.
It didn’t take long for them to hear noises beneath them. Rain had to imagine it was the sound of the Mothers running through the hallway they’d just left, probably with guns drawn. Would they start shooting through the ceiling soon?
“We need to move faster,” Adam said right behind her, a harsh whisper loud enough for Seth to hear.
“I can’t go any faster,” Leavenworth said, his voice breaking. “You can go around me.”
“No, we’re all staying together,” Seth said looking back over his shoulder. They came to a split in the vent. “Which way?” he asked.
Everyone was waiting for Adam to answer, as if he was somehow supposed to know exactly where they were. “Left,” Adam said. He didn’t sound particularly sure of himself, but Seth trusted him enough to make them go that direction.
Just as they turned the corner, Rain heard the ping of gunfire off of the metal of the vent. “Shit!” she whispered, picking up speed. She had no idea how far back the shooting was, where the Mothers were when they figured out that they had to have gone into the air ducts, but there was a good chance they’d be hit soon.
“Are you all right back there, Crichton? Sullivan?” Seth called as he raced a bit ahead of the rest of them.
“I’m fine,” the woman said, followed by the other male that Rain hadn’t known by name. She knew their names now, but she didn’t know which was which.
The shooting continued, but it didn’t seem to be getting any closer to them.
“We must’ve crossed over into the central hub,” Adam said. “The Mothers that are shooting at us might not have clearance.”
“I bet they get it quick enough,” Seth mumbled loud enough for Rain to hear.
The idea that they might just crawl up into the vent and start shooting at them had her heart pounding in her chest. The metal beneath her hands was cool and slick, which made it easy enough to crawl quickly, but Leavenworth was keeping the rest of them from catching up to Seth.
Until he stopped. Seth came to a halt in front of them, giving the rest of them the opportunity to reach him, but he wasn’t stopping just for the sake of letting them catch him. “What is it?” Rain asked.
“Another vent opening. Rain, Adam, do you know what that is down there?”
Leavenworth maneuvered around Seth and out of the way so that Rain and Adam could see what he was looking at.
Rain stared down into a room with a white tile floor and several tables set up with glastic containers sitting on them. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized exactly what room they were above.
“What is it?” Seth asked.
She looked into his eyes and said, “That’s the room where they keep the fetuses.” She didn’t see the point in telling him the official name for the room. “Surely, that room isn’t empty of Mothers.” She couldn’t imagine that the Military Mothers would leave the next generation of Michaelanburg citizens unprotected.
“Where is this room in relation to the records room?” Seth asked.
“I don’t know,” Rain admitted. “I’ve never been in the records room. But I think it’s in the central hub, which means it should be that way.” She pointed at a diagonal to the left and in front of her. “I’m not sure how to get there from here.”
“We’re going to need to get down there and make it the rest of the way through the hallways. At least down there, we can see who we’re shooting at and who’s shooting at us.”
Rain opened her mouth to protest but closed it quickly enough. He had a point. It was just a matter of time before the Mothers threw a smoke bomb up there or got beneath them and started shooting.
“There have got to be Mothers down there, though,” Adam reminded him. “Rain’s right. I can’t imagine they’d leave this room unguarded.”
“Unless they just assume there’s no way we could get in. Don’t they have several sets of those locked doors that we originally passed through around this inner core?” Seth asked, looking at Adam and Rain.
“They do, but….” Rain stopped. She had no idea whether or not the Mothers would rely entirely on locked doors, but she doubted it.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Seth said. “I’ll go first.”
“No, I will,” Leavenworth said, already readying his gun.
“I can’t let you do that,” Seth said. “I’m the squad leader. I’ll go first.”
“I’m already injured. Let me go.” Leavenworth was already reaching for the grate cover. This one didn’t come off nearly as easy as the last one, but they managed to pry it off with the help of Seth’s pocket knife. They’d made enough noise that if there were Mothers in the room, they had to know that they were there.
Leavenworth moved more quickly than he had since he’d gotten shot. He swung himself down through the opening, landing next to one of the incubators and immediately taking cover behind it. He had his gun at the ready as he pushed up to standing and looked around. He shook his head and then motioned for the others to come out.
Rain though this could potentially be a trap. Why wouldn’t the Mothers be there?
One by one, they dropped down out of the vent and moved away so that the next person could go through. Seth followed Leavenworth. Adam caught Rain’s eyes before he went, and when she swung her legs down out of the opening, he was there to grab her and lower her to the ground, which she appreciated considering it was a good ten feet to the floor.
He helped the other female down, too, but by then, Rain’s focus was on something else. The incubators. Her mind was having trouble processing exactly what she was looking at. She’d been in this room before. She’d been learning how to use these incubators to take a fetus from a small bundle of cells to a viable baby, so she knew that these devices were full not that long ago.
But now… looking around at the glastic containers, she realized that every single one of them was full of the amber-colored fluid they used to help the fetuses to thrive.
And that was all.