Chapter 56: Chapter 56

“Good, you’re awake.” Esther brought in a tray with soup and a sandwich on it, along with some ice water. She insisted Rain drink as much as possible, which would’ve been all good and well if it didn’t mean she had to get up to use the bathroom every half an hour, making it hard to sleep. Thank goodness there were plenty of bathrooms in this house and that one was attached to her bedroom.

Setting the tray on the nightstand, Esther situated herself on the bed near Rain’s hip. “Any pain this morning?”

With her lips pursed together, Rain shook her head, afraid opening her mouth would cause a gush of words to spill out, words she ought not say.

Esther gestured for her to lean up so she could inspect the wound. Satisfied that it was healing nicely, she smoothed down the bandages. “I brought you a nontraditional breakfast. Figured the soup broth would help heal you, and the meat in the sandwich would do you good as well.”

“Thank you.” Rain could manage that much.

The older woman smiled, but her eyes lingered on Rain’s face. “What’s the matter, dear? Did you have a bad dream?”

Again, all she could do was shake her head. If she attempted to tell Esther it was nothing, she’d see right through that. It was definitely something.

Crinkles formed around Esther’s warm brown eyes as she pondered Rain’s expression. Rain had to shift her eyes down to her folded hands, certain the mother would know what she was thinking. Whether it was age or caring for so many people over the years, Esther had a way of knowing when someone was bothered. Her calloused hand reached up and moved a lock of red back over Rain’s ear. “We’ve got thin walls and windows that don’t need to guard against the wind or rain.” She leaned back, her eyes still studying Rain. She could feel them. “My Seth is the sort of person that will befriend anyone, especially those he sees strugglin’ and alone. Sometimes, the fellas he attracts are the kind better left to their own demise.”

She knew then, or at least had surmised, that Rain had overheard the conversation the men had been having outside. Rain met her eyes for a second but then stared past her at a spot on the wooden panels of the wall. “It isn’t right. I don’t care so much what that man thinks of me.” Her eyes shifted as she concluded her thought. “But… no one should make Adam feel that way. He doesn’t deserve it.”

Sighing, Esther took Rain’s hand between hers, decades of work showing in the rough tips of her fingers and patches on the other side of her knuckles. “What the four of you have been through is a horror no one should have to experience. The fact that the law of the land where you come from not only allows it, but demands it, is an atrocity. Those with clear eyes will see and understand. Those with feeble minds never will. Along your journey, Rain, you’re sure to come across many more like Daniel Redd. I think you’ll find the vast majority of humanity is good and will understand and want to help. But it’s best you understand his kind is out there now so that you can prepare.”

Her words brought tears to Rain’s eyes for reasons she didn’t quite understand. Perhaps it was the fact that Rain had assumed the rest of the world would be full of beauty and kindness without a single blemish, and Daniel had spoiled that for her, or maybe it was just the idea that this woman beside her was mothering her in a way no one ever had before, but it was all she could do to keep from breaking down.

Hurried footsteps in the hallway kept the tears at bay as Rain’s heart leapt to her throat. Something was wrong. Her first instinct was to reach for a rifle that wasn’t there. What if the Mother’s had breached the mountain after all?

“Esther!”

It was Adam’s voice, and he was the one running down the hallway. “Esther!” His voice broke, it was so shrill. Something was terribly wrong.

With the first shout, Esther was up off of the bed and headed for the door so that when he called her name the second time, she had it open. “What’s wrong, Adam?” The alarm on her face matched the feeling in Rain’s gut. Panic. She pulled the covers back and reached for the jogging pants Esther had brought her the day before. They were an old pair of Seth’s but they would be more comfortable than her own clothes if Rain needed to come out of the room for any reason. Whatever was happening now, seemed like as good a reason as any.

“Stay here!” Esther said to her even as Adam flew toward the door. “What?”

“It’s… Mist,” he said, his face white. “I don’t know… I… Walt sent me. I’ve never seen so much blood.”

Rain’s heart was thundering as she ignored Esther’s command for her to stay there. “Mist?” she questioned, even as Esther was shouting at her to stay in the room and for Adam to stay with her and demanding to know where Mist was.

“She’s in the bathroom in the back hall,” he said, catching Rain at the door.

Esther shot down the hallway as Rain struggled against Adam’s grasp, knowing he was much stronger than she was. “Adam! What happened?” Rain asked, still fighting him. “Why is she bleeding?”

“I don’t know!” he shouted, looking her in the eyes. “Rain, calm down. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I can’t calm down! Where was the blood coming from? Did she hit her head?” A thousand scenarios flooded her mind. How could Mist have possibly gotten hurt so badly inside this secure home?

“No, I’m not sure. Walt just called me in there to get help. He didn’t want to leave her. I think….” He hesitated, looked away, looked back at Rain. “I only caught a glimpse through the crack in the bathroom door, but I think it was coming from… between her legs.”

“What?” Rain stopped struggling so that she could comprehend what he’d said. It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t as if Mist could be pregnant and having a miscarriage. Her period couldn’t cause that kind of blood. What in the world…?

Rain gasped, both hands flying to her mouth as she realized exactly what Mist had done. Her breath was knocked out of her as completely as a swift kick to the gut would’ve done. She stumbled backward a few steps, leaving Adam confused as he reached for her. “Rain? What is it?”

“Oh, no!” she said, scrambling for the door again. “Her IUD!” she stammered, met with Adam’s strong grasp again, pulling her back. “You have to let me go, Adam! I’m the only one here who knows how to remove the piece that’s tearing into her now.”

“Her IUD?” he repeated, loosening his grip. “Wait a minute--didn’t you tell me that those had trackers in them? That if they weren’t removed correctly, they activated some sort of a signal?”

“Yes--but that’s the least of our problems at the moment, Adam. If I don’t get that other piece out, it will continue to eat through her tissue until she bleeds to death. Now damnit, let me go!” She pulled away again, but this time there was no resistance as Adam released her.

Rain shot down the hallway having no idea where she was going and almost collided with Seth. “What’s happening?” he asked.

“Do you have a doctor in town?” she asked. “Someone who would have forceps, clamps, a speculum?”

“I don’t know what all of those are but… we have a midwife.” Seth looked from Rain to Adam and then back again, her panic infecting him as he began to fidget with his hands and shuffle his feet.

“Go get her and every tool she has involving the uterus!” Rain demanded. If she were in Michaelanburg now, she could fix this in a few seconds, but without the right tools, it would be much harder. Seth ran off toward the back door, and even though he was sprinting at full speed, she felt the need to shout, “Hurry!”

She realized she’d forgotten the medical kit. Spinning around, she said, “Adam, go get the black bag. Where the hell am I going?”

“Last door on the left,” he directed her. “The bathroom is inside of the bedroom.” He went back the way they’d come, and Rain powered ahead, thinking through the procedure and trying to come up with the best way to stop Mist’s bleeding before it was too late.

She pushed through the door to see Mist had been transferred to the bed. Esther had her friend’s legs spread and was trying to ascertain the problem while Mist gritted her teeth and tried not to scream, and Walt stood next to her, holding her hand with tears streaking down his face.

“I don’t know what’s wrong!” Esther shouted, pulling her blood stained hands back.

“I do,” Rain assured her. “Seth went to get the midwife. I’m going to need her speculum and probably a lot of other tools to get this out. I don’t think I can do anything until I have those tools. Mist, what the hell were you thinking?” She didn’t yell at her friend, only muttered the last part. Right now was not the time to shout at her, not when she was on the verge of dying.

“What is it?” Walt wanted to know. “Is she pregnant or something?”

“No, she tried to take her IUD out,” Rain replied, taking Esther’s place. Mist was only wearing a shirt, and since she knew Adam would be back any moment, she grabbed a blanket from the foot of the bed and draped it over her friend. “Walt, go get some towels and clean water.” She wasn’t sure if she’d need either of those things, though water was always useful, but she definitely needed Walt out of the room.

He looked at Mist for a moment and then rushed off. “I’ll be back,” he called over his shoulder. She said nothing, but her eyes followed him.

The sound of familiar footsteps heading their way prompted Rain to say, “Esther, can you get the bag from Adam? Don’t let him in. There’s no reason for him to come in here.”

As soon as Esther handed her the bag, Rain dug out the few tools she would need. She would have to cauterize the blood vessels once she was able to get the other piece of the IUD out, but she couldn’t do that at the moment, not without something to hold Mist open for her. Right now, if she could reach in and feel it, she wouldn’t be able to get the tools she’d need to remove it inside.

Not that she had the tools she needed to remove it. That was a specialized tool that she wouldn’t have access to until she was a full-fledged Medical Mother. Now, she was just a third year student. She’d have to do this the hard way. If they were in a hospital in Quebec or someplace where they could take their time and go in surgically, it would’ve been easier to remove, too, but that was also not an option, thanks to Mist’s hasty decision to pull it out now.

With a deep breath, she looked her best friend in the face and said, “Mist, once I have the tools I need, this is going to hurt. The only way I can get it out is to cut it out.”

“Won’t that cause… damage?” Mist asked, her eyes wide.

“Yes, it will. I’m not sure how much, and I don’t know how far up inside of you it’s traveled. It’s not a large piece, but it is programmed to bite, chew, and climb up the fallopian tube to the uterus. The Mothers don’t want people just yanking these out for obvious reasons.”

Behind her, she heard Esther click her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “How barbaric,” she muttered.

“But… I want to have a baby someday,” Mist reminded her.

“I know that, and I will do everything I can to make sure you still can, but you can’t have a baby if you’re dead, my friend.”

Mist’s face was already pale from all the blood she was losing, but it went even paler now. “Maybe… I don’t want to be alive if I can’t have a child.”

Rain stared at her for a moment, knowing that was one truth about her friend that she could not argue with. Mist wanted to be a mother--just not a Mother. She wanted the chance to grow her child in her womb, to raise her baby, to know her own creation. It was one of her main driving points for joining the rebellion in the first place, that and freeing Walt, and her indisputable sense of right and wrong.

“It’ll be all right, Mist. It’s just… it’s going to hurt. A lot. I know you can handle it. I’ll make it stop as quickly as I can, okay?” Rain had to ignore the tears that threatened to fall with each word. She hated that she was about to put the best friend she’d ever had through a living, breathing, biting hell, but she had no choice.

Mist nodded slowly. Behind her, the door opened, and a voice she didn’t recognize hit her ear. “What’s amiss?” an older woman asked.

There was no time for that. Rain stood and snatched a large medical bag from the woman whose mouth dropped open and her eyes bulged. Esther put her arm around the midwife and began to explain in soft whispers as Rain dug through the bag for what she needed.

The speculum was crude, unlike anything she’d ever seen before, but it would have to do. “Esther, light,” she said moving the blanket out of the way and positioning the device. Esther took one of the flashtubes from the medical bag and fidgeted with it for a moment until she turned it on. The light was blinding for a second, but then she managed to turn it down.

It would be nearly impossible for her to actually see what she was doing, even with the light. She’d have to feel for the tiny piece of metal that was currently wreaking havoc inside her friend’s body. Then, she’d have to manage to isolate it, and remove it, without the asshole doing too much damage to her hand. Now would be a great time for a pair of cut resistant gloves, like she’d have if she was doing this at home, but since she didn’t have any at the moment, she would take whatever was available.

Looking in the midwife’s bag, she found a pair of gloves that were slick, sort of like glastic, but a little more like rubber and a bright blue. Those would have to do. Maybe she could draw the piece out of it latched on to her. She was just about to get started when the door opened again.

Walt rushed in with a huge stack of towels balanced on top of a bowl of water. “I got your stuff, Rain. Now what?”

“Perfect,” she said, gesturing for him to put it down on the floor next to her. She would need the water, but the bedspread was too far gone for the towels to be of any use now. “Walt, you’ll need to go stand outside with Adam and Seth, okay?”

“Why?” he demanded. “I want to be here, with Mist.”

“Because I can’t concentrate with you in here!” Rain shouted, wishing she could’ve been a bit nicer, but the words were already out, and he was backing toward the door. “Sorry.” she muttered.

Esther had her arms around him, the light shifting as she moved. Rain waited. “It’ll be fine. Rain knows what she’s doing, and Mary has delivered hundreds of babies. She’s very familiar with women’s anatomy.”

Walt stopped protesting and left. As soon as the light was back, Rain took a deep breath and went about her work.

Mist bit back a scream as Rain reached inside to find the missing piece. Blood coated her gloved hand, making it both slick and sticky at the same time. A look at Mist’s face told her she couldn’t take much more. With her other hand, Rain pushed down on her abdomen, trying to move her anatomy into position.

She felt it. The tiny razor sharp piece of metal that had broken off when she’d pulled the strands of her IUD was there, almost to the uterus, digging in to every organ, every layer of fat, muscle, sinew, whatever it could slice as it ping ponged around Mist’s innards. Grabbing hold of it with the forceps had been the initial plan, but once Rain had a finger on it, she managed to squeeze it tightly enough to keep it from moving. Then, looking away from Mist’s face so she wouldn’t have to see the agony she was about to cause, she pulled it out.

The scream that escaped Mist’s mouth was enough to make Rain scrunch her eyes closed. It didn’t last long, but it was horrendous, a sound she would never forget for as long as she lived. Once the piece was out, Rain dropped it into the bowl of water. It continued to spin, searching for something to clamp onto.

The midwife--Mary, Rain had heard Esther call her--was eyeing the piece. “What in the heavens is that for?” she asked.

With no time to respond at the moment, Rain went about correcting as much of the damage on the inside of Mist as she could. She used the same wand that had healed her gunshot wound to cauterize the tears and cuts inside of Mist, as well as to alleviate as much of the pain as she could. It took her several minutes to make sure she’d gotten everything sealed up so that her friend wouldn’t continue to pour blood like a water tap left unattended.

Once she was satisfied that Mist was put back together, she pulled out the speculum and dropped that and some of the other tools she’d borrowed from Mary into the bowl of water. It definitely wasn’t the most sanitary operation she’d ever performed, nor was it at all high-tech, but she thought she’d managed to save enough of Mist’s womb that she would be able to heal nicely and hopefully carry a child someday--someday well into the future.

Satisfied that she was done, Rain began to clean Mist up. “Let me do that,” Esther insisted. “You need to go rest. You’re pale again. How is your shoulder?”

A realization that her entire upper chest and shoulder felt like it was on fire hit Rain with the question. Had she reinjured herself? She checked her own wound to see no blood, but that didn’t erase the pain. “Okay,” she said, not willing to admit that it hurt again.

“Go. Lie down.” Esther meant it this time.

Knowing it was impossible to argue with her, Rain stood. As she removed her gloves, her eyes settled on Mist’s face. She seemed to be asleep, but she may have passed out from the pain. Streaks of pink tinged her blonde hair where her own blood had touched it, possibly from Walt’s hands. Seeing her strong, brave friend lying there helplessly, so ashen, made tears come to Rain’s eyes. What in the world had made her think to pull her IUD out without even asking Rain to help?

And then she remembered the trouble. “Esther, we need to find the other piece,” she said as the mother finished cleaning mist up and slid the bloodied bedclothes from under her. Mary was in the process of bringing over a fresh blanket to cover her with.

“Why is that?” Esther asked, turning to look at her. “Will it tear a hole in my floor?”

“No,” Rain replied quickly, not sure whether or not Esther was trying to be funny. A wave of nausea washed over her, and she took a step back. It was almost as if she were the one who’d lost too much blood. Her forehead felt warm. When she attempted to brush aside a loose lock of red hair, it stuck to her skin.

“Rain--go lay down,” Esther insisted.

Mary’s arms were around her now. Rain tried standing up but didn’t feel as if she could keep her footing. “The tracker,” she mumbled, hoping to make Esther understand before she lost consciousness.

Whose voice it was that shouted for Adam, she wasn’t sure, but the next thing she knew, Rain was being lifted off of her feet again. She looked up through blurry eyes to see Adam’s face, his eyebrows knit together, his lips pursed, as he hurried her down the hallway to the bed she’d claimed a few days earlier. “Adam…” she whispered, wishing she could get her mind and her mouth to cooperate long enough to remind him of what he already knew.

He pushed through the bedroom door, slightly ajar from when Rain had sent him running down the hallway earlier to get the bag, carrying her quickly to the bed and placing her so that her head rested on the pillow. “I know, Rain. The tracker,” he said with a nod. “Do we need both pieces?”

Relieved that he remembered, she nodded. Her eyes felt heavy. There was more she needed to tell him, so much more. But she couldn’t seem to find a single word.

“I’ll make sure we’re safe. You rest.” He slipped his hands from beneath her and started to pull away, obviously in a hurry. He’d need to find the piece Mist had pulled out. The moment it disengaged from the other piece, it had sent a signal to the Mothers, letting them know exactly where Mist was. The other piece also contained a tracker that was activated at separation. That way, the Mothers would not only know one of their devices had been tampered with, they’d know exactly who the culprit was, so they could find her quickly, and punish her. The signals would continue until the Mothers turned them off, which wouldn’t happen until they were found, along with the rebels.

“Adam,” Rain said again, her fingers latching around his arm. He needed to know something. What was it? Oh, she remembered now. “Adam… I could be her.”

He stopped, his eyes narrowing again, not with concern this time, but with confusion. “You could be who?” he asked. “You didn’t remove your tracker.”

“No.” He didn’t understand, she tried shaking her head, but it just made the room spin. “Her. The wife. I could be her.”

“Oookay,” he said slowly. “Rain, get some rest. We have a lot to figure out, but we can’t do that while you’re still feeling poorly.”

Irritated at his lack of understanding, Rain tugged on his arm again. If she couldn’t find the words to tell him what she meant, that she could be the woman he married, that she hadn’t meant to exclude herself when she’d spoken those words at Dafo, maybe she could show him. Pulling him closer and leaning up the best she could in this new, off-balance world, she pressed her lips against his.

She didn’t quite hit her mark. Her mouth was off a little to one side. Her pucker was so weak, it could barely be categorized as a kiss at all, and it only lasted a fraction of a second before she could no longer hold her own upper body off of the pillow and collapsed backward.

Adam stood upright, her fingers loosening their grip as he moved. He took hold of her hand and lay it gently on the bed, then he moved to pull the covers up over her. She’d gone from clammy hot to beginning to shiver, so she was thankful for the gesture, though there was no way she could say that to him.

“You’ll be all right, Rain,” I promise,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Ever.”

Rain nodded, and then, knowing a battle she could not win when she saw it, she closed her eyes, praying he understood everything she was trying to tell him--about the tracker and her feelings. At the moment, the first part was the most important, but as she began to doze off, it was the second part that lingered in her mind. What if he didn’t understand?