Chapter 55

The eruption of briskly moving water cut through her raspy breaths as Rain realized they were nearing what had to be a large river in front of them. She imagined it had to be the River Red, but there was no capacity left in her lungs for words. Running at full speed for hours had taken away all conscious thought, all ability to speak or think or pray. The only thing she was capable of at the moment was putting one foot in front of the other as rapidly as humanly possible. And judging by the pain in her muscles and the spasming in her feet, that possibility was about to dry up.
They were back in the forest now and had been for several hours. Behind them, the sound of explosions had faded away as they’d put more distance between themselves and Dafo, but every once in a while a light would reflect off of the shiny rifle slung over Mist’s shoulder, and Rain would get the notion that it was another bomb being hurled at their friends in Dafo. She hoped it was actually Dal’s forces taking down a heliobird or putting an end to a transporter, but in her heart, she had a feeling the Mothers were taking out their anger on the citizens who had given them refuge for only one night. She prayed Dal and his beautiful family were all right but didn’t let her mind linger on their faces, especially not the sweet face of his little daughter, Lyna.
Ahead of her, the noises from the river became even louder. Mist made it out of the forested area first, slowing as she ran down a steep embankment. Rain saw a ribbon of black cutting through the solid green in front of her, illuminated by Mist’s flashtube. It didn’t look red at all at this time of night--or was it morning?--but she had to assume this was it, that they’d made it to the River Red, and on the other side, they’d find the nation of Oklasaw, a country pieced together from remnants of what used to be the United States. Unorganized and wielding no power to speak of, they wouldn’t be much safer there, but at least they’d be out of no-man’s land and further away from Michaelanburg.
“This is it,” Mist said, sucking in air as she tried to slow her heart rate. She stopped a few feet from a steep drop off. “This is the River Red.”
The others came to a stop behind her. “It’s about damn time,” Walt said, his breathing also labored.
“How do we get across?” Adam asked. He didn’t sound quite as winded as the other two. Rain wasn’t even prepared to attempt to speak unless she had to.
“We don’t. Not right now, anyway,” Mist said, turning to face them.
“What do you mean?” Walt asked. “We have to.”
Mist shook her head. “It’s too dangerous to try to cross right now. It’s moving too fast. It must be swollen from the rain. If we try to cross now, we’ll end up drowning, and all of this will have been for nothing.”
“What do you supposed we do then?” Adam asked. “If we stay here with our backs up against the river, we’re sitting ducks for the Mothers, and they’re obviously coming. Dal has done a great job of slowing them down, but we all know he’s no match for them. He said as much.”
Mist was nodding. “We need to find a place to hide for the rest of the night. Tomorrow morning, we’ll assess the situation, see where we can cross, find a safe place, and work our way across.”
“In the daylight?” Rain had found her voice now. “Won’t that be dangerous? They’ll be able to see us?”
Mist looked at the river and then back at her. “Hopefully, they won’t be here yet.” She pulled out her tracker pad. “I don’t see any dots anywhere close to us.”
“For all we know, they are aware that you have that and have turned their trackers off,” Adam pointed out.
“Listen, you guys can see the river as clearly as I can,” Mist said, turning her light up. “It’s moving so fast, there’s no way we can get over it.” She shoved her tablet back inside of her backpack and zipped it up.
“So let’s go down stream a bit and see if there’s a better location there,” Walt suggested. “We can’t just bunk down for the night and hope we aren’t found.”
For the first time since this journey had begun, Mist looked flustered. She glanced from the river, to Walt, and back again, and then dropped her arms down to her sides in frustration. Rain was about to make a suggestion when the roar of an engine caught all of their attention. Immediately, the four of them ducked down beneath the closest trees, and Mist killed her light.
Rain peered out between the leaves of the tree she was cowering behind, Adam next to her behind a shrub. The sound seemed to be coming from in front of them, from the river, but she couldn’t be sure. Maybe they were hiding on the wrong side of the trees, though. The Mothers might be sneaking up on them as they took shelter. She turned the other direction but saw nothing but forest.
The whirring sound grew louder. It was clearly coming from the river then. Rain narrowed her eyes and looked up and down the ribbon of darkness. If it was a boat, she thought it would’ve been louder, but then, she’d never heard a boat in real life before and had no idea what one might truly sound like.
“There it is!” Walt whispered, pointing off to the left. Rain couldn’t see anything at first. She was too far to his right, but eventually a small dark form came into her view. It was a boat, a small one, maybe large enough for five or six people at best, slowly trolling along the riverbank.
“Is it the Mothers?” Adam asked, likely talking to Mist.
“I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve heard that Oklasaw has some defense measures. It might be one of theirs. They might’ve seen the bombs going off and decided they needed to step up some security.”
“Should we flag them down then?” Rain asked. If they were as friendly as the folks from Dafo, maybe they’d help them get across the river.
“No,” Mist said, putting her arm out. “We can’t take the chance. They might not be kind to us.”
“I thought everyone hated the Mothers,” Walt whispered back.
“They might not give us a chance to explain. No, I think the other idea was better. Let’s let them pass, and then we can start looking for a place to cross.”
Rain was about to protest when a loud popping sound caught her attention. The initial burst was followed by several others. She turned to see where the sound was coming from, and then a sharp sting in her shoulder sent her flying into the trees. Confusion washed over her. She peered through the darkness, looking for a face to assign blame to. It had to be a Mother who’d shot her, but where were they?
Pain began to radiate through her arm. Her friends reacted more quickly than Rain could, firing back in the direction from which the bullet that had struck her had come before they all took off running in that direction, facing the enemy head on. Blood was beginning to gush out of her shoulder. Her hand over the wound was doing nothing as the sticky substance squirted between her fingers. If she had a few minutes, she could get the medical kit out of her bag and fix it. She’d be fine. But she didn’t have that kind of time. Instead, she slung her gun around and pointed it into the darkness, praying that whoever had shot her had just been a lone wolf and not the entire military or else that bullet wouldn’t be the last to pierce her skin that night.