Chapter 138

The Military Mothers’ boots hit the ground almost in tandem, which told Rain what formation they were in. Even before she rounded the corner where she could see them, she had a vision of exactly where each of them was standing.
She took a deep breath and flung herself out into the open where the women were coming at her as fast as they could run. Rain aimed and pulled her trigger four times, hitting all four of them before any of them could fire a first shot at her.
The first two were hit squarely in the head, one of them in the forehead, the other in her nose. The second two were a little shorter than Rain had anticipated, and she grazed one of them in the helmet before she could adjust and shot the last one in the cheek. She went flying backward, screaming, blood spurting through her hands as she instinctively covered the wound.
The Military Mother remaining on her feet looked like she was about fourteen years old at best. Rain had no idea they’d been recruiting girls of that age. As she aimed again, the girl dropped to her knees, her hands up by her head. “Please,” she said. “Please don’t kill me.”
Rain didn’t want to shoot her, but she also knew she couldn’t trust her. How did she know she didn’t have a grenade or something?
“Lift your gun over your head with one hand!” Rain shouted.
The rifle was looped over one shoulder like Rain’s was. Slowly, the girl reached down and grabbed it away from the trigger and pulled it up over her head.
“Toss it over here, butt first.”
The girl did as instructed. The gun landed on the floor at Rain’s feet.
“Do you have any other weapons?”
The girl had tears streaming down her cheeks as she said, “Yes. I have a revolver in my holster.”
“Again, one hand. Toss it this way.”
Still crying, the girl did as she was told. Once again, the weapon landed with a thud on the ground near Rain’s boots.
“Anything else?” Rain demanded.
“No. Please--”
“In a second, you’re gonna get up, with your hands up, and run down that hallway as fast as you can, back the way you came. If you turn around or lower your hands, I will kill you. If I ever see your face again, you’re dead. Do you understand?”
“Yes… Rain,” the girl said.
The fact that she knew her name caught her attention and caused a pain in her middle Rain had to ignore. “All right. Go.”
The girl slowly pushed up off of the floor without using her hands, her breathing echoing through the hall. She locked eyes with Rain for a moment before she turned around and ran with her hands in the air, going as fast as she could down the hallway until Rain couldn’t see her anymore. She stood for a moment, listening. While she was under the impression that the Military Mothers were running short on troops, it didn’t make any sense that they would only send a handful of young women to try and stop Lightning from breaking into the computer system and downloading all of the damning records Quebec needed to present to the world to show them that Michaelanburg was, in fact, using fossil fuels.
So… where were the others?
Was it possible that the Quebecian forces were keeping them at bay? Or was it just a matter of time before more troops were pouring in?
Rain wanted to hope this meant that they were winning, but the Mothers were clever, and there was a good chance they would find a way to get around the attacking troops in greater numbers, ones Rain couldn’t handle on her own.
She needed Adam to come back.
She needed Mist and Walt.
She needed… a miracle.
Only the buzz of the lights overhead filled her ears as she stood in the hallway, listening for boots. There was a good chance that other Mothers had made it through the door that she had broken through to gain access back here, but the only way to find out where they might be was to get back to Lightning and the cameras.
Satisfied there was nothing else she could do here, Rain took off, back the way she’d come.

* * *

Adam led the way around the outside of the building, the naked, exhausted men running behind him as quickly as they could. He was the only one with clothes; he was the only one with a weapon. He could’ve grabbed some from the dead women, but these men didn’t know how to use them anyway.
Memories of the Mothers shooting down at his unit earlier in the day from one of the apartment buildings made him leery to take them out in the open, but it was the only way they were going to be able to get to the camp. He didn’t see any Mothers in the buildings when he stuck his head out around the corner. Nor did he see anyone wearing his own colored uniform. An occasional popping sound made its way out from inside the building, but other than that, there was only the chirping of birds in the trees in the distance and the buzz of insects.
“All right! Keep your heads down. We’re going to that next building over there, got it?” Adam said, turning to face the men. All he saw on their faces was wonder at being outside, the terror of potentially being killed, and exhaustion from having not eaten or slept in who knows how long.
Adam waved his arm and stepped out first. No one shot at him, so they all hurried as quickly as they could from the IW building to the next closest building, which was part of the academic complex. He knew that from studying the map, not because he’d lived in this town most of his entire life.
In a matter of seconds, he’d reached the other building, and the men had all made it behind him. There was no one shooting at them, so that was something.
This building wasn’t as long as the IW building, but they’d have to go around the corner and up the other side so that they could go in the right direction to reach the camp.
At the edge of the building, Adam stuck his head out and had a look around quickly before pulling it back around to the back of the building. One of the women’s apartment buildings was up ahead on the right. They’d be running right by it for most of the distance that they were next to the academic building. The apartment building was about fifty yards away and much taller than this building.
Which meant it was the perfect place to put a sharpshooter.
Something in Adam’s gut was telling him that he needed to be extra cautious. He’d ducked around the corner a few times and hadn’t drawn any fire, but he didn’t trust that the lack of bullets meant they were safe.
“You guys wait here for a minute. I have a bad feeling about this,” Adam said, hoping they could all hear him over their heavy breathing. None of them were in any condition to be running around outside. He needed to get them help quickly.
Adam kept his gun drawn and went around the corner of the building a few feet. He stood there, staring at the apartment building, waiting.
It only took a few seconds before he saw a gleam in the top floor window, about six rooms over from the far left of the building. Immediately, Adam ducked back around the edge of the corner. Just then, a chunk of brick exploded near where he’d been standing.
Sharpshooter.
He had to hope that this was an inexperienced woman who hadn’t seen much battle and would be easy to draw into his scope.
The glitter of sunlight off of her weapon was enough to tell him where she was, and the pause from the last time he’d ducked around before she’d fired gave him an idea of how long he’d have to shoot, and where he needed to aim.
Realizing there was a good chance he was going to get shot himself if this failed, Adam had to be careful. Chances were, this sharpshooter would be aiming for his head, too, which was the only place that was truly vulnerable, unless she got lucky and hit a seam, as had happened with Walt. Why the Quebecians hadn’t cleared this bitch out of this building, he didn’t know, but if they were going to make it out of this situation, they needed to clear her.
Granted, the men could just huddle down back here and hope for the best. If the Quebecians won the battlefield, they’d likely be safe and could be taken to the camp then. But if they didn’t win, or if the Military Mothers managed to get the Dicks back under their control, well, it wouldn’t end well for the men behind him.
So… it was up to Adam.
Taking a deep breath, he made sure his weapon was cocked and ready to go.
“What are you going to do?” one of the men asked him. “Isn’t there a Military Mother with a gun up there?”
“There is. I’m going to shoot her,” he said.
Another man chimed in, “What if there’s more than one?”
Adam was fairly certain that there wasn’t because if there had been, they would’ve all been firing, but he wasn’t going to speculate on that at the moment. “Then… I’ll shoot them all.”
“What if they shoot you?” asked a blond who didn’t even look old enough to be in the program.
“If they shoot me, they probably won’t kill me because I’ve got this protective uniform on, but if they do… you guys just run over into those trees and hide,” he said, pointing at the woods in the distance, away from the IW building. They’d have to go back the way they came, but at least they’d be away from the sharpshooter. “Don’t worry. I’ll get her. I’m a good shot.”
“Sure hope so,” the first man who’d spoken said. The realization that Adam couldn't even ask them their names because they didn’t have any made him want to shoot this woman all the more.
His weapon was ready. Now, Adam needed to be ready. Rain’s face flickered before his mind’s eye. Knowing he needed to get rid of the sharpshooter, get these men delivered, and get back to her, Adam ducked around the edge of the building.
The same flicker appeared up in the top floor window again. He didn’t wait for her to pull the trigger this time. Adam fired off several rounds in the same relative area, realizing he’d need to hit her in the head, too. It would be difficult to know exactly where her head was, but he needed to hit it.
Adam ducked back around the corner the second after he heard the glastic of the window give and squeezed off two more rounds. She had been firing out the bottom of the window with the rest of the window closed. If she’d opened it all the way, he wouldn’t have seen the glint of light off of the reflective surface. But he also would’ve immediately known which window she was behind since it would be the only window open at all.
“Did you get her?” the blond kid asked.
“I don’t know,” Adam admitted. “We’ll find out.”