Chapter 40

Two days. Rain had been running for the better part of two days. They’d taken a few breaks for a half-hour here and there, but since the shield Mist had activated would last for about forty-eight hours before it would power down, all four of them felt compelled to continue to run while they had the opportunity to take advantage of the safeguard.
Even though they’d figured out a way to beat the drones by tracking them as they moved around the grid, the shield provided them with the best opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the Mothers undetected. They’d each taken extra energy pills from the supply Mist had brought with her, which helped, but by the time the shield finally started to descend, over forty-eight hours after it had been launched, Rain thought her feet were going to fall off, and the cramps in her calves were almost unbearable.
“Son of a bitch, it’s done,” Mist said, catching the device in her palm. She shoved it back inside of her backpack. Rain had to assume that was because she didn’t want the Mothers to find it and have the technology.
“Thank goodness,” Walt muttered, and Rain had to hide a snicker. She looked at Adam, but he was hiding his face. Even with sweat pouring from his forehead and dampening every strand of sandy blonde hair so that it looked almost as dark as Walt’s, Adam made her heart rate increase even more than the impossible run.
Mist shook her head at all of them. “We’ve covered over a hundred and fifty miles in two days,” she said, sinking down beneath a tree and popping a pill into her mouth. Rain couldn’t tell what it was, but if she had to guess, she would’ve assumed it was a hydration pill.
“What’s the plan now?” Rain asked, afraid to sit down for fear she’d never be able to get up again. Instead, she did some sort of a squat, which caused her leg to cramp up even worse. She ended up sliding down onto her bottom, figuring she couldn’t look any less graceful now than she had when she’d tripped over a root and face planted a couple of miles back.
“Well, according to the tablet, the Mothers are so far behind us, they’re not even on the screen anymore. Either that, or they just haven’t adjusted this far to the east yet. The drones are flying overhead about once every thirty minutes, which we’ve gotten down to a science now, so we know when to scatter out of their zone. The only way they’re going to catch us at this point is if they have turned their trackers off, or they’re on something that goes faster than land riders.”
“What goes faster than a land rider?” Adam asked. He was the only one who hadn’t sat down, but he was bent over with his hands on his knees. He was speaking to Mist, but his blue eyes flickered to her for a short moment. She looked away, shaking her head to clear it.
“They used to have these larger vehicles called transporters that held several people, sometimes even dozens, but I haven’t seen one in Gretchintown in a long time, since Michaelanburg stopped using oil based products. Most of them ran on gasoline. There are some that use electricity. Lightning said that there are still some kept at the capital, but she didn’t think their range on electricity would allow them to move north very quickly. I’m not sure if they could travel all the way to our current location without needing to be recharged.”
“How would they charge something that takes electricity out here?” Rain asked.
“I don’t know that they could. Back up batteries, maybe. Solar would be difficult under the canopy of trees. Other than that, there’s just the heliobirds.” Mist shook her head. “Lightning thinks those actually do take oil products, and it’s just another one of the Motherhood’s lies when they assure the world that they don’t.”
“So doesn’t that mean that they might actually have vehicles that run on gasoline, too?” Adam asked, standing up and stretching his back. The muscles in his arms rippled, sweat trickling down along the vein that protruded from his forearm. Rain flickered her eyes away.
With a nod, Mist said, “Yeah, it’s definitely possible. I don’t think they’ve been completely honest with the outlying towns as to what they have and what they don’t have. There haven’t been a lot of threats from other nations since the war made everyone so destitute, but now that some of the other countries are rebuilding, there are some proclamations. We know the Motherhood has been preparing for a potential attack, especially from our neighbor to the south which has been particularly vocal about wanting to free the men. Spanish-America has been massing troops for months. Even some of the countries across the oceans have been talking about forcing change, according to Lightning’s sources, though a lot of them don’t have a lot of resources to concern themselves with what’s happening here now. And it’s not as if a lot of information filters out of Michaelanburg. But once we are able to give them the evidence they need, we’re hopeful that some of them will join our cause.”
“What about Quebec? Do you think they’ll come in and help us out?” Walt asked.
Mist ran her hand over her forehead, a stream of sweat rolling off of the backs of her fingers with the swipe. “With any luck they will. They are the largest, wealthiest nation on the continent. Who knows, though. If they will give us refuge, we might be able to regroup and go back in ourselves to try to free more men. Most of them will be perfectly happy if they can escape to freedom, even if the Motherhood never changes their ways.”
“But freedom is not enough for you?” Rain asked, reading her friend’s expression enough to know that she wouldn’t be content to start a life in Quebec. She’d want to go back to Michaelanburg and do more.
“I won’t rest until every man is free, and every woman knows the truth.” Mist’s eyes narrowed slightly as she spoke. Rain found herself swallowing down salty saliva… and fear.
“What are we going to do for the rest of the night?” Adam asked. “How close are we to Oklasaw?”
“About a hundred and fifty miles,” Mist said. She looked around for a second. “I think. I’m not sure how far east we went. We should hit the ruins of a large city soon. Maybe we can find it before we have to stop for the night.”
“So we aren’t stopping here”?” Rain asked, wondering how in the world she was going to pull herself up off of the ground and start moving again.
An arched eyebrow from her friend told her that she shouldn’t have even asked. “Would you rather die?”
Rain didn’t bother answering. Instead, she ran her hand down her leg, willing the muscles to stop screaming at her and allow her to push up off of the ground and find the strength to run. Whether or not she was going to die hadn’t crossed her mind in the last few hours that they’d been running for their lives, but when Adam’s hand extended into her line of sight to help pull her to her feet, she took it, just as determined as ever to make sure that nothing happened to him.