Chapter 153

Where the hell had she gone?
Adam had ridden the motorbike back to camp to deliver the message to the commanders. Luckily, he’d found one fairly quickly upon reaching the forest. He’d told the man, Lt. Brason, what Mother White had told them and then handed over the thumb drive. The commander had attempted to tell Adam to stay there, that he was done, and while it would’ve been a relief to go find his tent and take a nap, Adam couldn’t possibly do that. He wouldn’t be able to rest until he was certain that Rain and the others were back in camp safely.
He had immediately turned the bike around and sped back toward the medical center. Even before the building came into view, he saw soldiers running from that direction. That let him know that Lt. Brason and the others had taken him seriously and were in the process of evacuating the building. Hopefully, that meant they would suffer no more casualties that day.
He knew that Mist had gone back in there. Hopefully, she had also gotten word that the retreat was underway, and she would get out as quickly as possible. Knowing Mist had only gone in to try and find Seth and the others told him that she would have no reason to stick around once they started exiting the building--would she?
At the moment, Rain was his only concern. So he’d sped back over to the wooded area where he’d left her to take the thumb drive and the message to their leaders. He fully expected to see her standing there in the trees, gun drawn, ready to fight off any other sharpshooters who might poke their heads out of the trees.
But when Adam had arrived at the place where they’d parted, Rain was gone.
It looked like Rain had just vanished. Not only was she not there, no trail of blood was visible.
It was as if she’d simply ceased to exist.
Adam had run around, shouting for her for several precious minutes before he had realized what she’d done.
He should’ve known better than to leave her to her own devices. He knew her better than anyone, and the fact that Mist had gone back into the building to try and find Seth should’ve told him that Rain would do something just as stupid--or brave as the case may be.
Abandoning the bike, Adam ran over to the closest door just as a series of explosions rocked the building. His eyes widened in horror as he thought about what that might mean. He needed to find her, and he needed to find her now.
As he ran down the hall, he saw a figure coming his way and instantly realized it was Seth, and he was carrying a body. “What’s going on?” he shouted over the sound of the fire and the falling debris.
“Thank God you’re here! Go down the hall. Rain’s pinned. She wouldn’t let me help her until I got Mist out!” Seth yelled.
Adam’s panic intensified as he sped down the hall, tripping over debris on the ground, choked and blinded by the smoke. Where the hell was she?
Then, he heard her. It was just a grunt, more of a muffled breath, but he knew it was her. She was sitting on the ground with a huge piece of wall on her leg. Adam crouched down and helped her lift it off. He was pretty sure she didn’t even realize he was there. Once it was off of her, she began to make the worst whimpering sound he’d ever heard. He could only imagine the pain she had to be in. She started to fall backward onto the floor. Adam lifted her into his arms. “I’ve got you, Rain. I’ve got you.” He stood as quickly as he could and took off for the door he’d come through.
The smoke was getting so thick now, he could hardly breathe. His eyes were stinging, and the ground was starting to shake again. More explosions were going off in the central hub. Soon enough, the entire core of the building would fall, and then, the rest of the facility would come crashing down around them.
He had to get out, and he had to get out now.
Carrying Rain and running through debris that he couldn’t see with his eyes basically useless and his lungs unable to oxygenate his blood was sort of like trying to run through the quicksand they’d practiced in during basic training, only he felt like it was also inside his body. Even though he could see the door ahead of him, it may as well have been on the other side of the moon. He didn’t think he could get there in time.
He wasn’t about to give up, though. Not when they were this close. He knew Rain would be fine if he could just get her to the medics. They’d be able to fix her leg and make it so she could breathe again.
He had to get her out.
“Adam!” he heard Seth shouting. “Are you coming!”
Adam couldn’t answer, but he saw Seth stepping back through the open door only a few steps away. With every last bit of effort he had, Adam handed Rain to Seth. The two of them disappeared through the door as the floor beneath his feet and the ceiling above him disintegrated in a fiery explosion that had Adam diving for the doorway, even though he was certain he wasn’t going to make it in time.

* * *

The sensation that she’d been moving had jarred Rain awake for a few moments, but she hadn’t been able to open her eyes, and then, she’d suddenly been aware of the fact that she wasn’t quite as hot, and the air that she was sucking into her lungs wasn’t burning her from the inside out anymore.
But she had failed at opening her eyes, so she had no idea what the situation was. The thought that she could’ve died and was now in whatever world came beyond this one had crossed her mind. She didn’t believe that The Bridge was a way to start one’s life over, but she did think there had to be something after life as they knew it.
She certainly believed in death.
People shouting to one another registered in her mind as she tried to open her eyes again. She could feel something semi-soft beneath her. It wasn’t what she’d call a bed, but it was also not the hard floor of the medical building.
How in the world had she gotten out?
She had no recollection whatsoever.
After she’d lifted the chunk of wall off of her shattered leg, she’d lay down on the ground, expecting to never open her eyes again.
But here she was, clearly alive, even if her eyes still wouldn’t open.
“Rain? Are you with me? Can you open your eyes?”
She didn’t know who was talking to her. The voice was male, and he was demanding. She really wanted to open her eyes, but they simply weren’t cooperating.
“Listen, Rain, we’re getting ready to load you onto a helicopter to evacuate you back away from the hot zone. It would be great if you could let me know that you hear me first.”
It wasn’t the medic--or at least the man she assumed was a medic--asking her to open her eyes that made them fly open. It was another memory. “Where’s Mist?” Had Seth been able to get her out of the building?
“She’s right next to you,” the man said. He looked like he was about ten years older than her. Dressed in a Quebecian medical uniform, he had a kind smile as he gazed down at her.
She was in the medical tent back in the woods near the launch point. Rain turned her head. It wasn’t a good idea, as it was painful. Her head ached, and her neck was stiff.
But he was right. That was Mist. She looked so still, and her face was covered with ash and stained black from the smoke.
She imagined hers was, too.
“How is she?”
“She’s going to be fine,” he assured her. “All of you are going to be fine.”
“All of us?” Rain was confused. He couldn’t mean all of the attacking forces since she’d seen bodies wearing the same black uniform that she wore lying on the floor in the medical building. Those people weren’t getting out on their own, and many of them were clearly dead already.
“Yes, the four of you. Seth got Mist out. Of the four of you, I’d say he’s the best off. Once you were handed off to him, the building collapsed pretty quickly. He got hit with a lot of debris. But he’s insisting on helping with the rest of the injured and transporting the men and women we rescued.”
Rain was trying to listen to what the medic was telling her, but part of it wasn’t making sense. Seth hadn’t gotten her out. “Who--who handed me off to Seth?”
“Oh, you don’t remember?” he asked.
Clearly, she did not remember. Rain shook her head--also a mistake.
“Adam,” he said. “Adam went in after you and brought you to Seth. The building fell in on him right after he handed you off at the door.”
“What?” Rain tried to sit up, but the medic held her down.
“We were able to dig him out. He’s got a lot of injuries, but he should be okay.”
Rain couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Adam had come back for her? But she’d sent him to the camp with the thumb drive so that he’d be safe.
“Rain, calm down,” the medic said. “I know that the top medics were working on him earlier. They said he should make a full recovery. My understanding is that he’s got quite a few broken bones. He had some internal injuries as well, but he should make it. You need to worry about yourself right now so that you can heal.”
“What’s wrong with me?” Rain asked. She couldn’t feel much of anything below her waist.
“Your leg is shattered, you’ve got a lot of burns, and your left lung collapsed. We have already started putting your leg back together, but you’ll probably need another surgery once you get out of here. Also, we reinflated your lung and have started treating your burns. You were a medical student here, weren’t you?”
Rain nodded. “I was.”
“Then you know what it takes to heal those sorts of injuries. It’ll take some time, but you’ll be fine in a few weeks.”
She drew in a deep breath, which stung a little, and then let it out. “All right. Thank you--”
“Henly,” he said with a smile. “Of course. Thank you. My understanding is that you managed to get the thumb drive out.”
“Adam delivered it,” she reminded him.
“But only because you helped the brave rebel girl to download the information.”
“Lightning,” Rain said. “Wh-what happened to her? She didn’t get out?”
He shook his head. “Adam said… she didn’t make it.”
“Adam saw Lightning? When?”
“When he delivered the thumb drive, he said he’d seen her body.”
Rain hadn’t had a chance to ask Adam about all of that--how it had gone getting the Dicks out or why he’d come back. She didn’t know how he’d happened to fall into Mother White’s grasp. It was all too much. Her head was swimming.
“Go to sleep, Rain. We’re going to be moving you shortly. I’m going to turn up your medication so you can rest. I just wanted you to know that you won’t be here when you open your eyes again. You’ll be near the Oklasaw border, okay?”
Fighting the medicine would be futile. Rain wanted to stay awake. She wanted to know what was happening to her. But within a few seconds of the medic turning up the medicine, Rain felt her mind go fuzzy, and then, she could no longer keep her eyes open. Rain drifted off, hoping that she would see her friends again soon.