Chapter 23

All the way home, Rain looked over her shoulder every few seconds, checking to see if she was being followed, seeing if her duplicity had been discovered and she was about to be brought down, taken to the Bridge, and ended. Visions of Mother White jumping out of the shadows had her panicked. Her pulse was racing, but she did her best to appear calm. Everyone knew the military had cameras in places where no one would expect them to be. If she was acting suspiciously, she might draw their attention, even if what she’d done inside of IW hadn’t been detected.
Back in her room, she took a few deep breaths and hung her backpack up, her eyes trained on the window. All of her roommates were present, so there wouldn’t be any chance to discuss what she’d done or question Mist as to what it meant. Surely, she had to know what the signal was supposed to clue Adam in to. If not, they would be left behind when the rebellion started, and if that was to be the case, she at least deserved a heads up after what she’d risked.
“How was your test?” Mist asked as Rain stared out the window. Everything was green and fresh from the recent rains, the ground muddy and soft. She had stayed on the sidewalks, but she knew the wet earth would make her sneakers sink in if she stepped on it, which would make it hard to run. “Rain? How was your test?”
She realized Mist was speaking to her and dropped down on the edge of her own bed, finally turning her eyes to look at her friend. She hadn’t had an exam in any of her classes that day, so she could assume Mist was asking if she’d been able to pass the trial--to give the information to Adam. “I think I did okay,” she said, hoping her voice sounded natural.
It must not have. “Are you all right?” Gale asked, leaning down from her bunk. “You look a little pale.”
“I’m not sure. I might be getting sick,” Rain noted. “I’ll go to the clinic tomorrow if I’m still not feeling well.”
“Good idea,” Breeze agreed. “There’s no use being sick when you don’t have to be.”
“Can you imagine, being alive back in the old days when people were sick all the time, and there was nothing anyone could do?” Gale asked her friend, and the two of them started a conversation about how awful it must’ve been back then, before modern medicine could cure just about anything. Rain laid down on her bed, one arm tucked behind her head, wishing they’d go away so she could talk to Mist. Or maybe she should leave. Would Mist follow?
A rumbling from the bunk above her had both of the other girls declaring they were starving and scrambling down to go seek out food in the cafeteria. “Do you guys wanna come?” Breeze asked, pausing by the ladder from the bed to put her sneakers on.
“Not now,” Rain said. “Maybe in a bit.”
“You do look a little green.” Gale gave her a sympathetic look, then the two of them headed out the door, much to Rain’s relief.
Mist waited for them to go, which was just as well since Rain was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to relay the story right now anyway. There wasn’t much to tell. She’d done what she’d gone there to do on both counts. That’s about all there was for her to report. What she really wanted to know was what happened next.
After the other girls had been gone for a few minutes, Mist sat up. Rain could feel her eyes boring into the side of her face before she even turned her head. “You told him beta forty-eight?”
“I did.” She finally looked at Mist, but she didn’t sit up. “Do you know what it means?”
“Yes. Are you in?”
Her eyes shifted back to the ceiling and she took a deep breath. She met Mist’s eyes again before she answered. “Yes.”
A sharp nod was her friend’s only response before she started talking. “Beta means the second shift of Inseminators. Forty-eight means two days from now. That’s all I know about the signal. I do know that we are part of the exit team for the men Adam will lead out of the gym doors. You and I are to go directly to the burned out house upon the signal and wait by the cellar door for the men to come into view. There should be women escorts with them, hopefully armed ones, but that will depend on how successful the rest of our team is.”
It was difficult for Rain to believe any of this could happen. “What about the military? They’ll pursue and shoot to kill.” Someone like Mother White wouldn’t hesitate to kill all of them, she just knew it.
Mist nodded. “That’s why we’ve been hoarding munitions and other supplies for the last several weeks. Finding that cellar was crucial. We’ve been storing hydration pills, food stuffs, ammunition, and military uniforms there. I believe there are other locations where similar items are being hidden, but I really only know what’s going on with us. We’re called C team.”
“Why C team?” Rain wanted to know.
“Because we’ll be working with the third shift of Inseminators. The shift Adam’s on--and 37W.”
“How do you know that?” Rain wanted to know who was calling the shots, who was passing on the information.
Mist rolled her eyes. “I just do, Rain. Anyway, they’ll be coming from the gym, and honestly, they should have the safest passage. I wonder if it’s because Adam was the first to agree to help from the inside that earned him the swiftest exit.” The last remark wasn’t to her. Mist was looking at the ground when she said it. Rain hadn’t realized Adam was the first to agree. Mist had her eyes again. “If it goes as I expect, the A team will have a tough time because they should be in the cafeteria, and that’s a difficult exit. They’ll have armed guards to get past, as well as interior and exterior doors. If they’re in their rooms, it will be a little easier, but not much. And B… that will be the hardest of all.”
“Why is that?” Rain bit her lip, wondering what the answer might be.
“They’ll be in the IW waiting areas or with women. So… they’ll have to escape through the IW rooms. You know how hard it is to get down those halls. There’s no easy exit. And… they’ll be naked. Some of the women who are on our side will be carrying clothing with them to hand off, but they won’t have time to get dressed until after they escape. If they escape. The women, too. It’ll be harder on all of them.”
Despite the stress she’d felt all day about the role she’d played, Rain suddenly felt lucky that she’d be stationed so far away from the armed guards when the rebellion began. “How many women are there?”
“In the B group?” Mist clarified. Rain nodded. “Twelve, I think. If no one chickens out. They don’t have to run. They can just sit on the floor and wait, like you guys did the other day.”
Rain ran her hand down her face. “The day after tomorrow is Saturday--no classes. Is that why?”
“Yeah, otherwise, we’d be in class when it starts. It’ll be sometime during that shift--between ten in the morning and three in the afternoon. Lightning said be ready all day, but she’ll aim for around noon because that’s when there are less Military Mothers around. A lot of them will be at lunch.”
It was too much for Rain to process. The idea of leaving everything she’d ever known to run off into the woods with a bunch of strangers, Mist being the only one she really knew. It seemed insane. “What then? What do we do after they reach us?” If they reach us, she thought.
“We are to get as many into the cellar as we can, hoping the Mothers pass over us. I believe we’ll wait for cover of night, and then head north, to freedom. I’m not sure though. Things change.”
One word stuck in Rain’s mind. “Freedom? Isn’t that… thousands of miles away?”
“I don’t know,” Mist admitted. “None of us knows for sure what lies behind Michaelanburg. I’ve heard there are cities and towns in what used to be called The Midwest that have free men. But, if that’s not true, we may have to travel all the way to the Nation of Quebec.”
“Mist, the Mothers have transportation--they have land riders, transporters, even heliobirds, if they want to use them.”
She was shaking her head. “Lightning says she can disable all of the land riders easily enough, at least for a long enough period of time to give us a head start. She’s fairly certain only one or two of the transport planes are even in commission anymore. Most of them are far away, in the city of Parkerton, along with the large land transporters and the heliobirds. She said we haven’t been hearing the reports from down there, but Spanish-America has been threatening attack, considering an attempt to free the men in Parkerton. They say that hundreds of years ago, all of Michaelanburg belonged to Spanish-America, and they want to take it back, especially the part that borders their capital city.”
Rain was finding that last part hard to believe. “Surely, if Michaelanburg were so close to being under attack, we would know it. Wouldn’t our Military Mothers be there, helping?”
“A lot of them are, from what Lightning has reported. That’s why now is the perfect time for us to do this.”
“What if we run into other hostiles, people from other countries who want to do us harm?”
“I guess that’s possible, but my understanding is that the rest of the world wants to see men free. The war did so much damage to the international economy and structure of the world, there hasn’t been much interest in what other nations are doing for decades, centuries even. Now, with advances in technology, rebuilding of infrastructures, the world is starting to talk about what used to be the United States again, Rain. They’ve taken an interest in what’s happening here, and a lot of those countries are led by men. They want to help.”
“Help? Why is it any of their business?” She couldn’t imagine a foreign power getting involved in another country’s laws just because their beliefs weren’t the same.
“Because what we’re doing to the men is a violation of civil, human rights, Rain. They want us to put an end to it. I think… anyone else we run into, as long as they’re not part of the Motherhood, will recognize what we’re doing and want to help. At the very least, I don’t think they’ll try to stop us.”
“I sure hope so.” Rain was on information overload. She sunk back into her pillow.
“First, we have to get out of here, and that won’t be easy.”
“No, it won’t,” Rain agreed. Having guns wasn’t going to do her any good. She couldn’t remember exactly when she had last fired one, but it had been years, since back in her informal schooling when everyone was given lessons with guns. Her most deadly weapons were her own hands, but since the Military Mothers were armed, by the time she had an opportunity to use those, it would be too late.
“All we can do is try, Rain.” Mist said, her voice just a whisper. “Hopefully, we will succeed.” She leaned over and squeezed Rain’s arm, drawing her eyes. “I’m glad you’re doing this with me. I’d be more scared if you weren’t.”
“More scared?” Rain echoed. “You mean, you’re scared now?”
“I’m terrified,” Mist admitted. “But I know it’s something we have to do.”
Rain drew in a deep breath and nodded before returning her gaze to the ceiling. She wasn’t sure it was something she had to do, but it seemed like it was too late to back out now. She was already a part of it, and if the Mothers were to find out she was the one who’d passed on the information to signal the rebellion, she’d be dead if she stayed behind. She closed her eyes, doing her best to picture Adam’s face, and tried to rest. She had a long road ahead of her, and today’s mission was just the beginning.