Chapter 98

Louis City wasn’t anything like what Rain was expecting. As the truck neared the metroplex, she stared out the window in awe. In Gretchintown, the place where she’d lived her entire life until she’d run away, she’d just assumed their way of life was like everyone else’s, or at least like everyone who lived in a city, as far as transportation, housing, and a million other considerations were concerned. Now, gazing out the window with her mouth hanging open, Rain couldn’t believe everything she was seeing.
“Good grief, there are so many vehicles!” Mist said from the back seat. She seemed to be feeling better. Earlier that morning, when Seth had been sleeping on her lap, and Rain had been listening to the sounds of the world awakening, Mist and Walt had awoken before Seth, and it was pretty clear she was well enough to add their own song to the ones the birds were chirping. Rain had wished her ears closed as easily as her eyes….
“And look at all of the tall buildings,” Walt added. “They’re not falling down like in Dafo.”
“Louis City took its fair share of bombing during the Third World War,” Seth explained as he drove amidst the other cars and trucks clogging the highway, which was paved now. “But hundreds of years of rebuilding the infrastructure and drawing in people who don’t want to be governed by any of the countries around here has made it a lively place, one where some people have taken the time to clean up a lot of the damage. It’s still a dangerous, lawless place, though. Full of shifty people who have come here to escape the nations of Oklasaw, Middlecountry, Aricornia, and other places where laws are better enforced.”
It didn’t look dangerous to Rain, only exciting. “Where are we headed specifically?” she asked Seth.
He blew out a deep breath. “I figure we should hang out near the Gate. I doubt Adam has gotten there yet, but we should probably be nearby. We’ll have to find a hotel. They can be expensive. I hope I have enough money to cover a night or two.”
“I have money,” Mist said, her tone nonchalant.
Rain turned and looked at her, raising an eyebrow. The money they had in Michaelanburg was more of a credit system that registered through their tablets, not that they ever used it for much of anything since they could pretty much get anything they wanted or needed by asking the Mothers. Their roommates, Gale and Breeze, tended to ask for more clothing items than Mist and Rain ever did. “I don’t think that will work here.”
Mist rolled her eyes and picked up her backpack. A few seconds later, she pulled out a handful of gold coins. “Thunder gave them to me,” she said, handing them to Rain.
The coins were heavy in the palm of her hand. They seemed to be legitimately made of gold. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at them. She’d never seen real money before.
“Holy shit,” Seth muttered, snatching one of the coins out of her hand and studying it as his eyes darted back and forth to the road. “This is real, Mist!”
“I know,” she said as if she hadn’t been carrying a fortune around with her. “That should be enough for a decent hotel room, right?”
“Hell, yeah,” Seth agreed. “We should have plenty to pay for fuel and lodging all the way to Quebec.”
Rain let him keep the one coin, but she reached her hand back to Mist for her to take the others.
“Keep them,” her friend said. “I’ve got more, and it’s probably better if we spread them out a little. Just in case we get separated.”
The idea of that happening made Rain nervous, but she nodded and dropped the coins into her pocket, not wanting to think about what might happen if they did end up losing track of one another. She wished Mist would’ve thought to give Adam some of her gold. Maybe he could pay to get his phone fixed or catch a ride if something happened to his bike.
To her right, a large structure came into view on the horizon. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before, and she had to blink a couple of times to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. It looked like a large upside down smile made of metal that protruded out of the ground. She couldn’t say for sure how big it was, but from here, it appeared to be enormous. “What is that?” she asked, pointing at it.
“That… is the Gate,” Seth replied, smiling at her. “That’s where we’re headed.”
“Wow!” Walt sounded just as awestruck as Rain felt. “There’s no way Adam could miss that.”
“I wouldn’t think so,” Seth said. “I wouldn’t think so….”
“Is there a hotel near there?” Mist asked.
“Yes. All the hotels near the Gate are very expensive, though. That’s why I was worried. But… I guess you’ve taken care of that.” He had a grin on his face as he quickly glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Cool,” Mist said. “We’ll need two rooms.” She giggled, and Rain heard Walt laughing, too.
Rain turned to look at her. She had already heard enough from them earlier to know that they were not taking Mist’s medical condition seriously. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, raising one eyebrow at them. “Mist… you aren’t fully recovered.”
“Helps with the healing process,” her friend replied and then Walt laughed again.
Deciding she needed to stay out of it, Rain turned back around and looked out the window as Seth took the next exit. She had never seen a city like this, after all, and she didn’t want to miss out on it because her friend refused to take her health seriously. She honestly didn’t care if Mist did end up regretting her decision, as long as she was able to travel. The problem was, if they got two rooms, and Mist shared a room with Walt, that meant she’d have to share with Seth. While she knew he’d be a perfect gentleman, it didn’t seem fair to him either to put him in that situation.
As if sensing her concern, he reached over and put his hand on her leg. “It’ll be all right,” he assured her, quietly.
Rain nodded, wishing she could accept him at his word, but she wasn’t sure that she could. What would they do if Adam showed up later that night? All three of them share a room? That would be awkward…. But then, that was a problem worth having if it meant that Adam would be with them.
Out the window, she saw all sorts of interesting people as Seth wound his way through streets not much wider than the ones in Michaelanburg. But these streets had vehicles traveling down them, something Rain rarely saw, and if she did, they were military vehicles. They were also full of colorful people in lively outfits, talking and shouting to one another, going in and out of buildings she assumed had to be stores. Even with the truck windows up, she could hear music. Some of it originated in the buildings they went by; occasionally, they’d see a musician standing on the sidewalk, an instrument in hand, a hat out for donations. It was all so different than anything she’d ever seen, or imagined she might see, while she was a captive of the Mothers.
“This place doesn’t look that dangerous,” she said, mostly to Seth.
“Parts of it are; parts of it aren’t. Down here, this is the art district, and it’s mostly full of musicians and artists. If you go too far in any other direction, though, you’re going to run into some bad people. There’s not much in the way of police or government in Middlecountry. It’s kind of a free-for-all.”
“That’s where we are now?” Walt clarified. “We aren’t in Oklasaw anymore?”
“Nope, not since we crossed that river a ways back,” Seth said. “This is basically another sort of no-man's land, but not the kind you crossed through before. The people here have nothing to fear from the Mothers like those further south.
“Must be nice,” Mist muttered. Rain agreed. She couldn’t imagine a life where she didn’t fear the Mothers.
Actually, that wasn’t completely true. The further away from Michaelanburg she traveled, the more she became aware that life didn’t have to be the way it had always been, that there were opportunities out there to have fun on a daily basis, to explore nature, to get to know people--including men. The thought that she was being chased down by militant women who wanted to kill her or drag her back to their country so they could torture her and prevent anyone else from ever escaping was easy to ignore when she could hear the beautiful music coming from the streets of Louis City and see the smiling faces of both men and women out the window. It was too bad she couldn’t just stay here, but she knew, no matter how safe it seemed at the moment, the Mothers wouldn’t be stopped at the northern Oklasaw border. They’d keep coming until they found her.