Chapter 144

The bullet fire in the distance seemed to be getting louder. That made Rain think she was going in the right direction. It seemed like all of the action was going on in the center of the building, and that’s where she was headed now.
The Bridge. Finding it was going to be difficult because she had never been there before. She had the idea, that she needed to go to the medical ward, though. While she’d never seen any indication that The Bridge was located near the incubators where the fetuses were kept, it just made sense that it would be there because the majority of people transported over to the other side, whatever the hell that happened to be, were the fetuses.
As Rain hurried down the hallways, headed back to the medical ward where she’d been earlier that day, she had to wonder why they would even bother to take the fetuses over The Bridge. If their position was that the fetus wasn’t a person until it was removed from the glastic incubator, then why would the fetus need to start over?
Her footsteps echoed off of the hallway floor. She had her weapon up, ready to fire if she saw any indication that Mothers were waiting for her in the hall, but she had a feeling in her gut that she was going to make it to The Bridge unharmed. Whoever had beckoned her wanted her there alive.
Why… she didn’t know. And she was pretty sure she didn’t want to find out.
Turning to the left, she saw the hallway where they’d been earlier. It seemed like days ago, but it had only been a couple of hours since Seth was leading them through here. She noticed the hole in the floor that she’d gone through was closed off now. Why would the Mothers bother to close it up?
It didn’t make any difference. She needed to get back to the incubator room so she could find The Bridge.
The gunfire was closer than ever, which made sense. Her fellow Quebecian soldiers were narrowing in on the middle of the building, where the records room had to be located. The fact that she had the thumb drive hidden in her uniform and that it had all of the information on it that they needed made her want to skip this mission and run over to Seth or Jodi, or whoever she could find, to let them know they could call the battle off.
But that was what Lightning was supposed to do. Once she got outside, she was supposed to find a commander and have them call off the attack. The fact that she was still hearing gunfire made her wonder….
Did Lightning get out of the building alive?
If she hadn’t made it out, then it truly was up to Rain to get the thumb drive to the leaders. She had the idea that the Mothers would never let the records room be breached. They’d burn the building to the ground before they let that happen.
Or blow it into oblivion.
Rain found the door that led to the laboratory she’d been in earlier. There was a window in the door, so she peered through it before opening the door. She didn’t see anyone inside, so she slowly opened the door and slipped inside, ready to fire, one eye on the door in case she’d been followed.
The room appeared to be empty.
Why she thought she could find The Bridge from here, she wasn’t sure, but she had noticed other doors that led out of this room when they’d burst out of the door across the room from where she stood now. At the time, the door she’d just come through was locked, too, so the fact that it was open now made her think she was on the right track.
She was being watched, after all.
Going back through the same door she’d gone through before would do her no good. She knew that the door to her right went into the hallway. Her eyes went to the ceiling. That’s how she’d gotten in this room the last time she’d come through. Obviously, she wouldn't be going up there, but she had to wonder if someone could come down.
Taking a deep breath, Rain surveyed the rest of her options. “All right, voice of the Motherhood. I’m at a loss. You want me to come to The Bridge, but I don’t know where the hell that is. A little help, please?”
Across the room, a light came on behind a door she hadn’t noticed before. Whether or not that was an answer to her request or it was a coincidence, Rain didn’t know. But she decided to go that way anyway.
She felt like she was marching to her death as she made her way around the empty tables that used to hold the incubators full of fetuses.
Fetuses. That’s what they’d called them when she was a medical student here. As she walked along, her hip occasionally bumping into the tables, she had to think about the contents of those incubators in relation to where she was going.
The Bridge.
If those fetuses were not people, just a mass of cells, as the Mothers would have them believe, until they were removed from the glastic incubator, then why did they need The Bridge?
And if all of them had begun their lives in this room, Mothers and Dicks alike, growing in an artificial womb, monitored by medical students who fought to keep them thriving and alive so that they could become good girls and useful boys, then how did removing them from the glastic incubator make them any more human than leaving them inside?
Weren’t all of those fetuses actually people?
Even the ones that had “failed to thrive” and been declared unworthy of time and effort by the other Mothers? Had those fetuses been taken to The Bridge and “given a chance to start over”? Or had they simply been dumped out of their incubators into a garbage bag and disposed of?
She might never know, but the thought of what she could’ve been doing at that moment if the Rebellion had never taken place made her stomach twist in knots.
Rain would rather die as a member of the Quebecian Army putting an end to the Mothers’ reign of terror than participate in their spread of lies and propaganda for even one more second.
Reaching the door, Rain tested the handle. It required a passcode to open, but as soon as she pushed on it, the door slid open.
It led to a hallway, but it didn’t look like any of the other halls. The entryway was an off-white, like most of the hallways in the building, but beyond that, the hall was painted in bright colors. Two other doors opened to the same hallway, but Rain knew she was meant to follow the rainbow. Stripes in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet offered a bright contrast to the other hallways and rooms in the building. It looked as if it was meant to be cheerful, which didn’t coincide well with the disposition put off by every other aspect of the Mothers.
Walking down the hall, Rain got the sense that she was being watched again. Her eyes went up to the ceiling. She saw no cameras, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there.
After walking for a few moments, she saw another door at the end of the hallway. Once again, there was a light radiating from behind it. This light was bright, a soft glow, sort of like the rising sun.
Rain stopped about ten feet from the door. It was almost as if she’d watched this scene play out before. Had she actually been over The Bridge and come back, or was it just all of that thinking and wondering about what this place must be like that had her feeling like this was not the first time she’d been there?
This door was different from the others. Oddly, there was no keypad, only a door knob. The light radiating from beneath it made the bronze knob take on a heavenly glow. All she needed to do was reach out and turn that knob, and all of her questions would be answered.
Well, not all of them--but many.
Rain had a feeling, if she opened that door and walked into the room where The Bridge was located, she’d finally find out what was on the other side of the dreaded structure. The thought was terrifying. She wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want to die.
Delaying the situation would do no one any good. She needed to face whoever it was that had summoned her.
She had a feeling she already knew.
It just made sense after all of those ominous meetings in this very building that the one Mother who made her anxious and fearful would be waiting for her on the other side of the door.
She could stand there for another ten years and never be ready.
Before she gathered up the gumption to extend her hand and push the door open, it slowly swung open all by itself.