Chapter 32: Chapter 32

“Here is just as good a place to stop for the night as any, I guess,” Mist said whirling around to look at them. They’d come to a small clearing in the woods. By Rain’s estimate, they’d probably walked another fifteen miles since they came out of the tunnel, which would put them about twenty miles away from Gretchintown. Unless the Mothers found where the tunnel came out and employed some sort of tracking device to chase them down, they should be all right for a few hours.

“Do you think they have hounds looking for us?” Walt asked as Mist set her backpack down on the ground and unzipped it.

“I don’t know, but they’d have to find where the tunnel let out in order for those to be helpful,” Mist reminded them. She pulled out what appeared to be a small popup tent, one like the type Rain had camped in when they were children and had to learn basic survival skills.

“Let’s say they do. How long would it take dogs to find our location?” Adam asked her as Mist set up the tent.

“About half as long as it took us to get here,” she admitted. “I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.” She patted him on the shoulder and walked away, yanking something out of her pocket as she came.

It was a tube of some sort, something Rain didn’t think she’d ever seen before. She cracked open the tube and tossed it back the way they came.

“What is it?” Walt asked her.

“Scent screener. It’ll mask any human smell within a ten mile radius.” Mist seemed satisfied with her work and walked back over to the small tent.

“How many of those do you have with you?” Walt followed her back to the tent. Mist secured one side to the ground while he did the other. It looked like two, maybe three people could fit in there, but not all four of them. That was just as well, though, since Rain knew someone would have to be on look-out the whole time.

“Just one more. We’ll need to put a lot more distance between ourselves and them before we use it. I say we camp here so that we can each get about three hours of sleep, and then get up and get going at first light.”

The rest of them nodded. “It’s getting cold, though,” Rain noted. “I suppose we shouldn’t risk building a fire.” The Mothers certainly didn’t teach how to survive in the woods while hiding from them, but it seemed like common sense that a fire would be a bad idea.

“No, we can. I have a shield for that, too,” Mist said. “Let’s gather some wood. We’ll put it here.” She pointed to a spot several feet away from the tent. It should make it warm in the tent without getting so close that the smoke would fill it. The tent itself wasn't capable of catching on fire. It was bulletproof, too.

“Nobody go too far alone,” Adam said, catching each of their gazes. When he looked at Rain, she nodded, wanting to continue to stare into his eyes but looking away. She liked the way he was taking charge. It was a different side of him than the vulnerable man in the chair, a side that made her breath catch in her throat.

“We shouldn’t need too much wood,” Mist said, already stepping between the trees. Walt went with her, though Rain noticed he went to the right when Mist went to the left, so at least they didn't have to be holding hands while they gathered fuel for the fire.

Rain went after her own armful of wood, wanting to get it gathered and sit down for a while. She needed some water, or at least a hydration pill, and some food would be great. She knew they had nutrition pills, too, but she wanted food. Nutrition pills weren’t much more than fancy vitamins.

“What do you think of those two?” Adam asked, grabbing a thick log off of the ground from between two large oak trees.

“I think… they really like each other,” she said. A long stick between a few rocks stood out to her and she grabbed it, snapping it in half with her boot before putting it on top of her collection.

Adam snickered. “Yeah, I know that. But… do you think they’ll be able to keep their hands off of each other in that tiny tent? With one of us in there with them?”

“Huh?” Rain asked, stopping to stare at him. He was facing away from her, looking for more wood, and when he bent to pick up another piece a noise escaped her lips unlike any she’d heard before.

Hurriedly, Rain turned away, hoping he wouldn’t put two and two together that she had been checking out his backside. She didn’t mean to. But it was about the only part of his body she hadn’t seen since he’d been sitting down when the lights had come on in the IW room. It was a fine ass--the kind that would’ve made any of the other women on their way to IW make those annoying sounds that always drove her crazy when she was headed there herself.

Had she just made that noise herself?

Crouching down to pick up a few last logs, Rain thought she heard a snicker from Adam and then remembered he’d asked her a question. She’d let his nice ass distract her so much that she had forgotten what they’d been talking about.

“I’m just saying, I’m not sure I wanna sleep beside them, that’s all. Not first anyhow. Besides, I’m really not tired.”

“You’re going to take first shift then?” she asked him as they both walked back toward the tent with their arms loaded with wood.

“I think so,” he said. “Maybe you’ll get lucky, and they’ll behave.”

“Maybe so,” Rain muttered, dropping all of her logs. Between the two of them, they had enough for a fire, but they’d need more to toss on throughout the night. “Where did they go?” Rain asked aloud. She couldn’t see or hear either of them.

“I don’t know.” Adam looked a little concerned. “Do you think the stories about loose wildcats in these parts is true, or is that just something the Mothers made up to scare us?”

“No, it’s real,” Rain assured him. She had her own flashtube in her bag; she just hadn’t used it yet because they’d been using Mist’s. Quickly, she dropped down and dug it out while elaborating on her answer to Adam’s question. “There used to be a lot of big cat rescue places in Oklasaw,” she said, her fingers wrapping around the flashtube. She pulled it out of the bag, nerves making her fingers twitch so that she almost dropped it. “After the war, there was no one to take care of them. A lot of them got loose. They ate plenty of the other animals, ones from the zoo, pets, what have you. I think they eventually ran out of food, and a lot of them died, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see some. Surely, that’s not what happened to Mist and Walt.”

“I think we would’ve heard that.”

She agreed. With flashtube in hand, she walked between the trees the way the two of them had gone. She kept the light on low, but if she didn’t see them soon, she’d turn it on bright until she found them. “Mist! Walt!” she hissed between her teeth. “Where are you?”

They didn’t answer, but a new noise hit Rain’s ears. She couldn’t quite place it at first. A ridiculous image of a large tiger smacking its mouth and licking its lips after having eaten her friend came to mind, but then she noticed Adam was laughing. The feel of his hand on her arm as he tried to get her attention sent a spark of electricity through her entire body. “Look,” he said, pointing off to his right.

Somehow, Rain managed to ignore the feel of his hand on her, the scent of him standing so close, and do as he suggested, moving her light in that direction.

Mist had her back to a tree, Walt pressing against her, their lips interlocked, their hands roaming everywhere. Rain didn’t know if she should laugh, as Adam was doing, or throw something at them. “Hey! We’re trying to survive over here, you two!” she shouted, simultaneously turning her flashtube up.

“Ah! Turn that down!” Mist insisted, pulling her tongue out of Walt’s mouth and raising a hand in her direction.

Rain dropped the light, knowing it wasn’t a good idea to have it on so bright, not only because it could attract the Mothers and the big game, but it could also bring bugs her direction, and there were some huge ones out here. She hadn’t realized that Mist had been putting up with that on their long march.

All four of them moved back to the campsite, the two love birds having stopped to gather the logs they’d apparently dropped when they’d become fascinated with each other’s mouths.

Mist went to her bag, and Rain assumed she was getting the fire starter, but she pulled out something else, too, something Rain had never seen before.

“What is that?” Walt asked her.

The round device fit in the palm of Mist’s hand. She brought it over to where they’d all dumped their wood and set it on the ground. “It’s a fire shield,” she said. “It will provide a reflection around the fire so that it won’t be visible. It’ll also mask much of the smoke by dispersing it. But you’ll still be able to feel it and hear it. We’ll have to be careful about not letting the fire get too low without throwing another log on since we won’t be able to judge it, though.”

“And make sure we don’t stumble into it,” Walt noted.

“There will be a ripple around the outside. You’ll see. It masks better from a distance than close by.”

Mist pushed a button on top of the device and then finished adding the wood back on top of it. Using the fire starter, she had a blaze in no time, but in just a matter of seconds it faded away, leaving just a ripple in the air around the fire.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Adam said, shaking his head slightly, his hands on hips. “You are full of tricks.”

Mist smiled at him and then went back to her backpack. “You guys hungry?”

“Starving,” Walt said, taking a seat with his back against a large tree on the far side of the tent from where Rain was standing. She found another tree and sat down, not minding at all when Adam found a spot next to her, his folded knee bumping against her leg.

Rain wondered if she should dig into her own stash of food, but Mist was pulling out enough for all of them, including a few more water bottles. She gave each of them a large beef stick, a piece of fruit, and a bag of nuts. They each thanked her, and then Rain offered Adam one of the bottles of water, handing the other to Walt. That was fine with Rain, but she did know she had a bottle herself in her bag and wanted to get up and get it. Her stomach growled, and she decided to eat first and get the water later.

Adam took a swig from the bottle and then handed it to her. She was surprised but took it, thanking him and then taking a conservative drink as he said, “Man, I will never get used to how refreshing that is.”

“I know. I can’t believe how much better my tongue feels after a drink of water,” Walt agreed.

“Yeah, well, your tongue’s had a busy night,” Adam teased.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Walt picked up a piece of debris off of the ground and tossed it over at Adam. It hit him in the chest, and Rain recognized it was the top of an acorn. It just made Adam laugh.

“Okay--this food is delicious, too,” Walt said. “I love the texture of the… are these almonds?”

“Yes,” Mist said, smiling at him. “Almonds and cashews.”

“Wow--unbelievable,” Walt said, shaking his head. “So different than the mush we’re used to.”

“Yeah, the beef stick is really good, too,” Adam agreed. “I don’t know what this is, though. Is it an apple or a pear?” He held up the green apple, and Rain found herself staring in wonder as she realized they’d never had fruit before. Ever. In their whole lives.

“It’s an apple,” Mist told him. “They used to call them Granny Smith apples back in the old days. Since it was named for a woman, we kept it, but now it’s Mother Smith.” She rolled her eyes.

Adam sank his teeth into the apple, and the look on his face brought a smile to Rain’s. “Oh, wow. That’s like the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth,” he said, licking the juice off of the inner part of the fruit before it could drip and be gone to him.

Walt took a bite, too. He made an “mmm” sound and then added, “I would agree--if I hadn’t just kissed Mist.” He looked at the girl next to him and smiled, and Mist’s face turned a little red, but she grinned back at him. Rain wanted to be jealous of their affection, but she was so happy for her friend, she couldn’t be.

They finished their meal in near silence as the men relished what might be the best meal they’d ever had and the women essentially had a snack to hold them over until they had some real food. When they were done, Adam said, “I’ll take the first watch.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Mist asked him.

“I’m sure. I’m not tired at all.”

“Okay,” she said, not arguing. “Then the three of us will sleep for a couple of hours and then someone can take your place.” Rain didn’t mention what Adam had said before, about the two of them not being able to keep their hands off of one another. Surely, they were so tired, they’d just sleep, wouldn’t they?

Adam pulled the gun he’d produced earlier out of a holster on his waist. “One thing, though. Before you ladies go to bed, can one of you show me how to use this? Just in case?”

Mist snickered, and Rain hid a smile. “I’ll show you,” she said. Mist and Walt pulled foil blankets from their bags and zipped the packs up so they could grab them in a hurry if they needed to. Mist set the screen she’d been staring at all night next to where Adam had taken up residence under the tree so that he could use it to keep an eye on the red blips that represented the Motherhood. Taking their guns with them, Mist and Walt headed inside of the tent.

“We’ll leave you that side,” Mist said, pointing to what would be the left side of the tent to Rain.

“Thanks,” she said, watching the two go inside. They left the tent unzipped for her, and Rain turned back to Adam. He was watching her expectantly. With a deep breath, Rain pulled herself up to standing, hooking her flashtube onto a hook on her belt loop.

Adam stood, too, the gun in his hand. “Okay, so I am guessing I should point it at whatever I want to shoot.”

“Very good,” she teased. The kissing noises from the tent had her blushing. She had to tune it out so that she could concentrate on the man in front of her, the man so close, she could put her lips on him, if she wanted to. She wouldn’t though. With everything Adam had been through, the last thing she would ever do was assume he wanted anything physical from her. “It’s not hard,” she said, meaning shooting the weapon. Immediately, images of an erect manhood came to mind as she thought about Walt and Mist in the tent and the realization that she’d been with Adam not that long ago. She dropped her head, shaking it. He snickered but didn’t say anything.

“Is this the safety?” he asked. “Because I flipped it off earlier, when we came through the tunnel, and I had it off for a while, but then I flipped it back on.”

Raising her eyes again, Rain studied the weapon he had in front of him. “Yes, that’s it. Just flick it over, use the sight to aim, and pull the trigger. These guns have a slight kick, but not too bad. The clip should be full, which means you have forty rounds. I’m sure Mist brought plenty of ammo. I have about ten extra clips in my bag. The rounds we have fit in these handguns as well as the longer rifles Mist and I were carrying.”

His eyes flickered from her face to the weapon while she was speaking. “I hate to waste a round, but do you think it would be okay if I fired one, just to see what happens?”

Knowing the gun would hardly make a sound, she didn’t see the harm in it. “Go for it,” she said. “Just aim it between the trees so we don’t kick up any debris.”

Adam peered through the sight, keeping it about two feet from his face and watching the crosshairs inside of the eyepiece. She assumed he was honing in on something in the distance, but she couldn’t see what it was. She took a step back, giving him enough room to do what he needed to, and he pulled the trigger. The kick was nothing to him, he was so strong. He seemed to be happy with his aim, too, as she heard a slight rustling in the distance.

“Think you’ve got it?” she asked him.

“Yeah, I think so. You feel safe having me out here?”

Rain smiled at him. “As safe as I could, sleeping in a tent in the middle of a forest inhabited by big cats with half of the Motherhood doing their best to track me down and kill me.”

Adam chuckled. “Well, when you put it like that….”

Without thinking about what she was doing, she put her hand on his arm. “Thanks for taking the first shift, Adam.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you, Rain. For everything. I hope you can get some sleep.”

The sounds coming from the tent that she was about to walk into hadn’t died down. Shaking her head, she said, “Yeah, me, too.” She unclipped her flashtube and handed it to him since he didn’t have one. Then, giving Adam a little wave, she went into the tent, praying she wouldn’t be walking into some real-live version of that book cover.