Chapter 38

Lungs burning, legs on fire, Rain pushed herself to continue to run as fast as she could, even though she had no idea how she was still moving forward over two hours after they’d started on their way. The others were breathing heavily as well. Certainly, Walt and Adam were in excellent shape, but it wasn’t as if they’d ever had the opportunity to run. The Mothers definitely didn’t let them do cardio exercises, like running on a tread machine or a stair climber, because it wasn’t exactly in their best interest to encourage their prisoners to run.
“Let’s stop for a second,” Mist said, taking shelter underneath a tall pine tree, the lowest branches only a foot above her head. “I need to check the dots.”
Rain assumed she actually just needed to get her breath since all of the other times she’d checked the tab, Mist had done it while still running, but Rain wasn’t about to argue with a person who was telling her she could stop and rest when otherwise she was likely to fall over in a minute or two.
Taking a spot beneath an equally tall tree, Rain leaned back against the trunk but didn’t sit down, thinking that would close her lungs up. Adam came back to her from the few steps ahead he’d been when Mist called the halt, offering her the bottle of water he’d just taken a drink from. Normally, she’d want him to keep the water for himself, but she was extremely thirsty and needed to unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
Walt was standing next to Mist, looking over her shoulder at the tablet. “Shit,” Mist muttered, and whatever it was, Rain knew it had to be pretty bad for her to take that approach, rather than attempting to lie to them all to keep their spirits up.
“What is it?” Adam asked as Rain let the cool water spill across her tongue. “Are they closing in?”
Mist shook her head and stepped forward. “It’s not that--not just that, anyway. There are other blimps on the tablet now. Lightning warned me about these.”
“What are they?” Walt asked as the three of them rendezvoused in the space between the trees. Rain held back, screwing the lid back on the water and waiting to hear what Mist had to say before she let herself panic.
“Drones,” Mist replied on a loud exhale. “They’re heat seeking drones, so they don’t just rely on visual location finders, but they’ll also pick up any animal over a hundred pounds.”
“Dang, I knew I shouldn’t have had that second meat stick this morning,” Walt joked.
Adam chuckled politely, and Rain smiled, but Mist didn’t think now was the time to be funny. “I have a device that will help, but I was hoping not to have to use it until we got out into the more open areas, further north. It’ll only work for about two days.”
“What is it?” Adam asked her for all of them.
Handing her tablet to Walt, Mist swung her backpack around and unzipped it, digging in the front pocket before she pulled out another small circular device that looked a lot like the one she’d used to shield the fire the day before. “It’s a hovering shield. It’ll stay over the head of the person who dispatches it and block any heat signals within a ten foot radius, which means we’ll all have to stay pretty close together for all of us to be protected. But it won’t be able to keep them from gaining visuals should anyone actually be watching the cameras on these bastards.”
“Do you think they will be?” Rain asked, finally joining the conversation. The panic she was trying to shove down was beginning to surface, and as she handed the water back to Adam, her hand was shaking hard enough that, if the lid hadn’t been on tightly, it would’ve spilled.
He took the container and slid it back into the holder on his backpack, but before Rain could place her trembling palm on her hip, he took ahold of it, and she immediately felt comforted--not to the point that her stomach wasn’t in knots, but at least she felt steadied by his touch.
“I don’t know if they will be live because, if you look at the tablet, it seems like the drones are flying unbelievably quickly at the moment, as if they’re just searching for heat signals and only slowing if they find something.” She turned the tablet so that Rain could see, and even though she didn’t want to look, her eyes fell on the screen. At the bottom, she could see a few dozen red dots spread out in various spots that covered the expanse of the screen. She knew those were the Mothers. Some of them seemed to be moving much more quickly than others as well. What was even more alarming were the small blue dots that were quickly making their way toward the top of the screen, some of them reaching the edge, others headed back the other way.
“Why are they going back?” Walt asked, gesturing at the blue dots headed back toward the red.
“They must be working a grid pattern so they don’t miss anything.” Mist muttered another curse word under her breath and looked up at the sky. As far as Rain could tell, there weren’t any blue dots in their vicinity at the moment, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be there soon.
“Are those Mothers on land riders up ahead of the other dots?” Rain asked as Mist took the tablet back.
“That’s my best guess,” Mist replied. She put her arm through the strap of her backpack and slid it over her shoulder. “I’d estimate they’re about five miles behind us, but I think they’re too far to the west right now. If we continue in this northeast trajectory, we should be able to continue to put space between us and them. Our biggest worry at this point will be if the drones are actually taking video and sending it back to someone who will be able to get coordinates and send them to the team in the field.”
“Son of a bitch,” Adam muttered, digging his toe into the leaves and dirt atop the forest floor.
Rain didn’t want to let go of his hand, but she also wanted to put her arm around him, so unable to decide what to do, she took a step closer to him, and he let go of her hand and pulled her closer. When her arm went around his waist and her head landed on his chest, it seemed natural. For a moment, she almost felt safe, despite the fact that the entire nation of Michaelanburg was bearing down on them, fully armed and ready to kill all of them.
“We’ll just have to use the shield, stay close together, and keep an eye out. If we see one of them, we can change directions, or find a place to hide,” Walt said, the voice of reason they all needed to hear.
“Yeah, and we have to take advantage of the next forty-eight hours, or however much time we have on that shield to put as much distance between ourselves and them as is humanly possible,” Adam added. With the hand he had wrapped around her, he was gently tugging the bottom of her ponytail. It was the most soothing sensation Rain could recall, and she could only imagined that perhaps being held by one’s true mother might be more calming.
Mist had her game face on again. “You’re right. We can do this. We just need to be more determined than they are, that’s all. They can’t chase us all the way to the Nation of Quebec.”
“That’s the spirit!” Walt agreed, leaning down to kiss her on the top of the head.
Apparently, Mist’s fear of dying wasn’t so compelling she didn't have time to turn and find his lips with hers. Rain knew she needed to look away, so she turned her head and met Adam’s smiling face. He shook his head slowly in disbelief at the two of them, but all Rain could think about was what his reaction might be if she pushed up on her tiptoes and did the same to him.
She could never do that, though, not after all he’d been through. It was ridiculous to even consider it. Instead, she forced a small chuckle and then returned her attention to her friend who found a way to let go of Walt’s mouth so that they could possibly live a few hours more.
Mist activated the device and opened her palm. It made a whirring noise and floated up into the air about ten feet above her head. “It should sense the trees and anything else that might be in its line of flight and go around.” She exhaled loudly again and then nodded at the small spinning circle before looking at her companions again. “Are we ready?”
“Let’s do this,” Walt said.
Rain nodded and Adam said, “Lead the way.”
Mist adjusted her rifle over her shoulder and took off at a diagonal, similar to the line they’d been running for hours. The others fell in behind her, knowing they’d have to be careful to stay within the ten feet she’d mentioned earlier. Running in such close proximity would be difficult, but as they headed between overgrown trees and bushes with exposed roots meant to trip them, with all of the Military Mothers behind them, all Rain could think about was how cold her skin felt now that Adam’s arms weren’t around her.
For hours, they sprinted on through the woods, keeping an even pace, their feet falling in sync. Rain’s heart was beating out of her chest, and her lungs felt as if they might explode at any moment, but she wasn’t about to even consider slowing down. She certainly didn’t want to be the weak link, the reason they were caught from behind and slaughtered. Rain would keep running until she fell down dead or was shot from behind.
All four of them had to feel the same way, she imagined. Not a word escaping from any of their lips until the sun was starting to go down. But then, Mist suddenly pulled up with a shudder, her stop so quick the rest of them almost slammed into the back of her.
“What is it?” Walt asked, his voice a whisper as Rain and Adam both fingered their weapons.
“I thought I heard something,” Mist said, her voice so quiet, Rain had to strain to hear it.
“Like what? Is someone coming?” Adam asked, his head turning to take in the area around them.
A shift in the trees ahead of where they stood had them all focused in that direction. The leaves were moving, twigs snapping. There was definitely something there. All four of them drew their weapons, training them on the fluttering leaves. Rain braced herself for the appearance of a legion of Mothers or bullets whizzing from every direction.
What stepped out from behind the trees was somehow even more petrifying, and she didn’t know if she should pull the trigger or turn and run in the opposite direction. At the moment, all she could do was stare in stunned silence, waiting for someone to jar her out of her stupor as her short life flashed before her eyes.