Chapter 49

The pace Crit kept was impressive, especially since Rain had to assume he hadn’t taken any energy pills. As he moved along, taking the most direct route possible, even when doing so meant climbing mountains of debris instead of simply walking around them, he kept a running commentary about most of the things they passed, the history of Dafo, and why he hoped the Mothers showed up soon so he could blast, “Every one of dem bitches back into the hell they escaped from.”
Rain had to assume he didn’t mean Michaelanburg. He must’ve thought they came from a different sort of hell.
Out in the sun, it was a lot warmer than it had been when they were in the forest. The heat of the day bore down on them, the asphalt they frequently traversed soaking it in and using it to bake the bottom of their boots. Each step seemed heavier here than it had in the woods, especially after days of moving nonstop.
“Last time Mothers came, we blew one of their warbirds out of the sky,” Crit said as they passed what looked like a broken down vehicle of some sort. This one was small and probably had been red at one point. They seemed to be everywhere. In the distance, she could see more crumbled buildings, though these were not as tall as the ones they’d seen the day before. Trees and plants were bountiful in every direction.
“What did you do with it?” Adam asked, bringing Rain back to Crit’s comment. The warbird.
He shook his head. “It limped away, off into the woods, deep into no-man’s land. We couldn’t get it. I would’ve loved to have a look inside it, though.”
“So would a lot of other people,” Mist noted. Rain caught her eyes. The fossil fuel. Did Crit know what she was getting at?
He laughed. It was such an odd sound, it caught her off guard. A mix between a cackle and a roar. “If we could prove what the rest of the world already suspects, Michaelanburg wouldn’t last more dan a few days.”
He did know, then. Or at least he suspected. “Why is the rest of the world so interested in what might be sitting beneath Michaelanburg?” Walt wanted to know.
“Are you kidding me, man?” Crit asked, sloshing his rifle around to his other shoulder so that he could look at Walt. “All dis time, those women are saying they have no oil left, that it’s all gone, but they’re really sitting on top of a fuel source. Since the Middle East was practically turned to a sheet of glass, alternative sources have been harvested around the world, but all of them are costly and don’t provide the same reliability that fossil fuels do.”
“But they can’t last forever,” Adam noted. “Once the oil is gone, it’s gone, right?”
“Yes, but Michaelanburg is situated over what used to be one of the most prevalent preserves in the world. Who knows how much there is beneath them? The fact dat dey been lying to the world all these years, claiming to be using the same resources as everyone else, when those of us who’ve seen the truth know better…. The rest of the world will want to get dey asses just for dat.”
Rain was aware that the Motherhood had gone to great lengths to put up a facade for the rest of the world. They claimed to be a government of women who worked to protect female rights; they didn’t even acknowledge the existence of men within their boundaries to other nations. The science and technology that came out of Michaelanburg was second to none, but at what cost? The rest of the world had established by now that there were men in Michaelanburg, and most of them suspected they were treated poorly, but there was no proof. Not until now, anyway. Once they reached Quebec, the rest of the world would at least know that men were being mistreated, even if they couldn’t prove that Michaelanburg was using fossil fuels to power their vehicles.
A buzzing noise had Crit digging in the pocket of his baggy pants. He pulled out a small tablet and held it up to his ear. It seemed odd to Rain that he wasn’t looking at the person he was communicating with, but the tablet was small and seemed to be some older form of tech.
“Yes?” Crit said, not slowing his pace even as he nodded his head and led them through an area marked with deep pock holes that seemed to have been the scene of a bombing at some point. Scrap metal littered the sides of the path with a few signs that human life had been taken here whenever the holes in the ground were made. A shoe, a bag, a scrap of clothing wrapped around a tree trunk.
Crit continued to make noises, as if he were agreeing with whomever he was talking to. The conversation went on a bit before he said, “We are about ten miles from Melanna. I will leave them there.” He discontinued the call, putting the device back in his pocket.
“Everything okay?” Mist asked, stepping around a large hole in the ground.
“We got incoming on radar. Mothers don’t know we can see them, you see. Anyway, dey expecting company in an hour or two.”
“You can see them?” Rain repeated, not sure what he meant.
Crit nodded. “It’s an old tech, something used before the war. They can’t pick it up.”
Rain was nervous for the people she’d met the day before, the ones that had been so kind to her. If anything happened to Dal’s family, she’d never forgive herself.
Mist asked, “Is it a large force?”
Crit nodded. “We be ready, though.”
He seemed confident, which was a shift from the way he’d been acting when they’d first arrived, as if he didn’t like the threat the sudden appearance of strangers brought on his people.
Rain wasn’t sure that was the case, that they would be ready. Perhaps there was something Crit knew that she did not. Dal had mentioned not having enough weapons, not enough large ones anyway. What if their hiding place were discovered, and all of those innocent lives were lost because Rain and her friends had strolled into town seeking shelter?
There wasn’t much she could do about it now. He’d said he’d leave them in ten more miles, in a place called Melanna. How far that was from the River Red and Oklasaw, she had no idea, but Rain picked up her pace, hoping they’d arrive at the point where Crit could leave them quickly so he could get back. Something told her Dal would need every available man when the Mothers arrived, and Crit was fiercer than most. Maybe he’d face off against Mother White and teach that woman a lesson she wouldn’t soon forget.
* * *
“Dis is where I leave you,” Crit said about two hours later when they finally came to a stop in an area devoid of any signs of life, save the partially visible road beneath their feet. “If you follow dis path due north, you will run into the River Red in about a day, day and a half.” He pointed straight ahead, in the direction they’d been traveling all day.
They’d made good time, that was for certain. The sun wasn’t even beginning to sink below the horizon. If they continued at the same pace, they might actually make it to River Red before the expected time. Rain wasn’t sure how much longer she could basically run at top speed, even though she was well aware by now that their lives depended upon it.
“We can’t thank you enough,” Mist said, offering him her hand.
Crit looked at her extended palm and then back at Mist’s face. “You are better than I thought,” he said with a shrug. Rain hid a smile. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as she’d assumed either. Crit shook Mist’s hand and then reached out to shake Walt’s. Rain was next. She let her smile go, thanking him in turn, and he bowed his head slightly before releasing her palm and reaching for Adam’s.
“Best of luck to you,” Adam said to Crit.
“Many blessings upon all of you,” Crit said, dipping his head again. Then, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of them anymore, he took off in a sprint, headed back the way he’d come.
“I sure hope the Mothers don’t find their hiding spot,” Mist said, shaking her head as she watched Crit fade into the distance.
“Me, too.” Rain turned, no longer caring to watch the man disappear. Thinking about what would happen if the Mothers found Dal and his people made her stomach hurt, and she had too many other worries to concern herself with at the moment, ones she had a slight bit more control over, though not by much.
“Are we ready?” Mist asked, stretching her back.
“As we’ll ever be.” Walt’s answer had to work for all of them as Adam and Rain didn’t bother to vocalize that they were also ready to go.
Mist broke out into a quick jog, and the others followed along. “Do you think we should stick to this road or is that too risky?” Mist asked, looking up at the sky. “The drones have been kept at bay by that forcefield, but if the Mothers break through, they’ll probably follow this artery.”
“There’s not much cover here,” Adam noted. “It’s not like there are a lot of trees, only tall grass.”
“I think there will be trees again as we get closer to the river,” Mist replied. “It just makes sense that there would be with so much water around. There will likely be smaller rivers and tributaries we will have to cross, too.”
“Then, we should probably stick to the road,” Rain thought aloud.
Mist almost stopped as she glanced over her shoulder to look at Rain, like she couldn’t believe her friend had actually made a decision.
Compelled to elaborate, Rain said, “If there are any chances of bridges being intact enough to use to cross, we will need to be on a road.”
“Good point,” Mist said, turning back around. She didn’t stray from the path they were on, which made Rain wonder if she had actually made a good point--for once.
None of them spoke as they continued to run. All of them understood the need to reach the River Red before the Mothers caught up with them. Rain desperately hoped that Dal and the others had some way of slowing the Mothers down that wouldn’t jeopardize his people, though she couldn’t imagine that was a possibility.
As the sun began to fade, and Rain’s legs began to ache, a new sensation caught her attention. At first, she thought she was perspiring enough that the sweat was actually dripping off of her head and wetting her fists as they swung next to her side. But then she realized those droplets weren’t sweat--it was sprinkling.
“What in the world!” The droplets got bigger, alarming Adam who was running next to her. He stopped in his tracks as the heavens unleashed, tipping his head up to the sky. “Is that--rain?”
“It is rain,” Mist assured him. “Now, come on. It might actually help. I’m sure they can fly in the rain, but it won’t be as easy, and if the roads become muddy, any other transportation will not be as useful.”
Rain caught Adam’s eyes, and even though she still saw a bit of that angst she’d noted earlier, he smiled at her and started laughing. She laughed, too. She’d definitely been caught outside in a deluge on more than one occasion, and her namesake was usually nothing more than an annoyance to her. But seeing him enjoy his first time in the rain made her smile, too. If fate was on their side, the rain would work to their benefit, as Mist had noted. At least it cooled them off. Mud splattered up, covering her shoes and the bottom of her pant legs, but Rain kept running, praying the next body of water they saw was the River Red.