Chapter 59: Chapter 59

The motorbike had to be at least thirty years older than Adam and Seth. Rigid joints along the casing and the seat told Adam that it had been put back together more than once. Since the vehicle only had two wheels, unlike the apparatus the boat had become when it had transitioned to land to bring them into the cave only a few days before, the bike was fundamentally unstable. Even when Seth was bringing it out of the garage into a large clearing that was meant to resemble an open field, though it was still inside of the mountain, it leaned to one side. Adam had good balance and coordination, but he didn’t know how well he’d be able to handle this challenge.

“All right, this is it,” Seth said, kicking out a piece of metal that allowed the bike to balance on the ground so that he could let go of it. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Adam said, running his hand through his hair. “I have to be.”

Seth shook his head, clearly disagreeing. “So, this is how you accelerate.” He squeezed a mechanism on the right handle. “And this is the brake.” This time he indicated a similar mechanism on the left handle. “The speedometer will tell you how fast you’re going. Pay careful attention to the fuel level. Peter is gathering up enough corn ethanol for you to be able to make it to the river and then to our rendezvous point, plus a little, but there won’t be a lot extra. If you should wipe out and spill it, you’ll be screwed.”

“How am I going to carry it?” Adam wanted to know.

“There’s an attachment that hooks on the back. Peter will bring it around. It might slow you down a little, but it’s the only way.”

Adam nodded in understanding. “So… I’m guessing the hardest part is keeping it upright.”

“Yes, that’s certainly part of the challenge. But you’ve also got to keep from wiping out from hitting a big rock, a rut in the ground, or a tree. It’s not easy.”

That was becoming abundantly clear. Adam looked it over for a few more seconds and then saw Peter coming from the direction of the garage where the boat was parked, the same place where Seth had gotten the bike. He vaguely remembered how awestruck he’d been stepping into this place and seeing what appeared to be a night sky inside of a cave. Now, the sky was blue above them, a faux sun shining, clouds wafting across the projection screen above them. It didn’t look so real now, in the brighter light, but it was still miraculous. For a moment, Adam wished they could just stay there. But he and his friends had a mission to complete, to get to Quebec and ask the government to help free the others still trapped in Michaelanburg. As tempting as it was to forget all that, he owed it to the other Dicks to do his best. And at the moment, he needed to get that stupid tracker as far away from Rain as possible, so there would be no lounging around under the fake sun.

Taking what looked to be some sort of thick glastic hat off of the back of the bike, Seth said, “I suggest you put this helmet on. You wanna protect your head. Unless of course the Mothers are coming, and then, you might wanna just get it over with.” He smirked, but Adam got that he wasn’t really joking.

Adam took the helmet and studied it. It looked a bit like the gear the Military Mothers wore when they were moving in to sedate a Dick who was out of sorts or break up one of the few fights that sometimes broke out. He tapped it and realized the blue shell wasn’t glastic at all. It didn’t seem nearly as unbreakable as the material he was used to. “What’s this made out of?”

“Plastic,” Seth said, his eyebrows knit together. “It’s pretty thick, though. Your head should be fine unless you slam it into a boulder or something. The rest of you, well, it depends on how fast you’re going.”

Shaking his head and trying not to think about how stupid this was, he put the helmet on, clipping the strap under his chin as Peter arrived with a small cart loaded with canisters. They were strapped in, a clear covering holding them in place.

“It’s easy enough to fuel,” Seth went on, unscrewing a lid on the left side of the bike. Just pour it in here. Try not to let it get too low. By the way, do you have water? Some of the territory you’ll be crossing is dry and arid.”

Adam nodded. “Your mom filled my backpack up with food and water.” It was nice having a mom, as opposed to a Mother. Esther had made sure he had as much as she could fit into the pack without weighing him down too much. He also had some hydration pills, just in case. Plenty of ammunition for the gun in his holster was also in the pack, but he hoped he didn’t need it. One gun against the Motherhood likely wouldn’t be effective.

“Before we hook the cart up, I think you should try it out. I guess I’ll show you first.”

“Do you want the helmet?” Adam offered.

“No,” Seth said, slinging one leg over the seat and kicking the metal piece up so that he was balancing the bike. “I’m not going to be going that fast.”

Seth showed him how to start the bike, and the machine sputtered a second before the engine began to purr beneath him. Seth reminded him, “You’re going to want to go pretty slow until you get the hang of it, but don’t go too slow, or you’ll tip over.”

“Right,” Adam said, raising his voice over the roar of the engine.

“Ease into it, and remember it’s more about your state of mind than anything else. If you’re scared, you’re more likely to crash. You know how to steer, right?”

Adam nodded. He assumed so. He’d never had to steer anything before. They’d find out.

Slowly, Seth eased up the gas, and the engine revved as he lifted his feet and rested them on two metal pieces protruding from the bike. Adam paid careful attention to how Seth kept the bike balanced, moving slightly from one side to the other as necessary. When he applied the brake a few moments later, he set his feet down on the ground as the bike stopped, keeping the engine running but no longer moving. “Ready to try it, or do you want to see it again?”

Seeing it again wouldn’t do him any good. Adam needed to get on with it. “I’ll try it.” He imagined himself ruining the bike before he even got out of Judea. Seth switched the engine off and put the stand down. Adam walked the few steps over to where he’d parked. He noticed a few people standing around the perimeters of the open space, watching Seth and his house guest intently. Adam couldn’t let that make him lose focus. He needed to give every ounce of attention he could muster to what he was about to do.

He sucked in air and mounted the bike the same way that Seth had. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as he thought it might be. It was lighter than he’d imagined. The grips felt right in his hands. Sitting there for a moment, getting a feel for the vehicle, he was reminded of a book he’d read once. The Mothers encouraged Dicks to read in their free time to keep them more docile, only allowing access to books with messages that didn’t go against the Mothers’ rules or philosophies on how life should be. All of the books were only available on ancient tablets that didn’t work half of the time and had no access to anything else, but it was better to be lost in a make believe world than face their present existence. One of the books had been about a girl who loved to ride horses. The first time she’d climbed onto the back of one of the majestic beasts, she’d felt as if her body melded to the creatures, as if they were one. Adam sort of hoped this bike would be a little like that horse, and it did feel more familiar than he’d expected it to, but he still fully accepted the fact that he was about to get up close and personal with the rocky mountain floor of the cave.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Seth prompted. If he was nervous, his voice didn’t give it away. Wouldn’t he have to be? Seeing some stranger attempt to ride his motorbike for the first time? He had to know he’d likely never see this bike again, even if Adam did manage to make it to the river to drop the IUD. What were the chances he’d make it back?

Adam couldn’t think about that. Instead, he turned the bike on, the way Seth had shown him, kicked up the metal stand, and felt how the bike leaned from side to side. It seemed to want to naturally fall to his left, so he’d have to keep that in mind. Then, with a silent prayer and his lungs in his throat, Adam gave it a little gas.

It kicked out harder than he expected to, but he stayed in the seat. Easing up on the gas, he got a feel for how tight he needed to squeeze to get it to go slowly without it beginning to tip. It was an intricate dance, the careful balance between too much and too little, leaning one way and then the other, but he seemed to be getting the handle of it.

“See if you can turn around and come back!” Seth shouted.

It was difficult to hear him over the engine, but Adam understood. He took his time turning, making a wide arch, not wanting to wipe out. The technique worked, and in a few seconds, he was turned back the way he’d come, taking it slow. Visions of himself plowing into Seth or Peter, who was watching silently, his eyes wide, had Adam moving extra cautiously.

“Can you stop?” Seth asked as Adam approached.

He hoped so, but that might be harder than it looked. He slowed the bike by taking his hand off of the gas but then squeezed the brake.

It didn’t work quite as smoothly for him as it had for Seth, but he managed to bring it to a stop, kicking up some gravel, and nearly spinning it out. Adam squeezed the brake a bit tighter and dropped his feet onto the ground, willing the bike to stop. He came to a halt a few inches away from the spot he’d left from.

“Ookay,” Seth said, nodding. “Not bad. Not bad at all. I think… you can actually do this.”

Encouraged to hear that, Adam thanked him and put the stand down, turning off the engine. There were a few things he needed to say before he left, and he wanted to make sure he got the chance.

As if he had an idea that Adam wanted to tell him something, Seth turned to Peter. “Go tell Mom I think this is actually going to work,” he said.

Peter nodded, his mouth still hanging open, and then turned around and jogged toward their house. Adam’s eyes followed him. He couldn’t see the log home from here through other houses and buildings. He wished he could. His thoughts went to Rain. He needed to tell Seth something, something important.

Before he got the chance, Seth pulled a device out of his back pocket. “This was my grandfather’s phone,” he explained. “It’s old, but it’ll work. It uses a frequency the Mothers abandoned a long time ago, so they won’t be able to track it. Still, you’ll want to leave it off when you’re not using it, so the battery will last.”

Adam had never seen anything like it up close, but it reminded him of the device Crit had used to talk to Dal when he was delivering them to the outskirts of Dafo. “How does it work?” he asked.

“This is how you turn it on,” Seth explained, squeezing a button on top. “It takes a minute. Then, the passcode is easy. Grandpa was always forgetting it, so we went with one, two, three, four.”

Adam chuckled. “I think I can remember that, even though those aren’t the numbers I’m used to.”

“Right,” Seth said with a nod. “And the alphabet won’t be the same either, but I’ll show you where to find my name and Mom’s. That should be all you need.”

As soon the device was on, Seth showed him which buttons to click to call him. An odd sound that sort of resembled a song emanated from Seth’s pocket until he clicked a button that turned the phone symbol from green to red. “That’s it.”

Nodding, Adam took the phone. “Simple enough.” He put the phone inside of the pocket in his shirt, thinking it was less likely to fall out of that pocket than the one in his jeans.

“Do you know how to read a compass?” Seth asked.

Again, Adam indicated that he did, remembering how Mist had given him hers and shown him how to use it. That device was still in his backpack.

“There will be one on the screen. I’ve already programmed it to lead you to the river, so you’ll just have to follow the line, more or less. It’s supposed to take you by the shortest path, but if you happen to get off, as long as you keep going west, northwest, you’ll get there.”

“Sounds good,” Adam agreed.

“I’ll show you how to get out of the cave as well. Then, once you complete the job, we’ll meet you at Louis City. Just turn back around and head east. I’ll text you the directions for changing the nav so that you can program it to your new destination after you leave the river. Our plan is to give Mist one more day to rest and give the Mothers a day to be pulled away from here. The mountain exit we’ll use is much further north than the one you’ll be going out. I’m hopeful it will be so far enough north they won’t see us exit. We’ll see how that goes. It should take you less than two days to get where you’re going, assuming you stop to sleep for a few hours when you can. I’m giving you five days to get to the rendezvous point. If, for some reason, you’re not there by then and I haven’t heard from you… I’m going to take the girls and Walt further north. Mom doesn’t know that. Don’t mention it to her, but that’s what will happen.”

A lump formed in Adam’s throat as he thought about all of the reasons why he might not return. The idea of Seth essentially taking his place, of going on with the rest of his party, riding alongside Rain, sleeping next to her, the way he had, caused him to have to look away from Seth for a moment and gather his thoughts.

When he finally spoke, he wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to say. “Will you tell her….” He thought of what Rain had been trying to tell him, right before she fell asleep. What had she meant when she’d said she could be the woman? Had she really been trying to kiss him? “Will you tell Rain I said goodbye?”

“Of course,” Seth said, his eyes narrowing with understanding. He folded his arms across his chest. “Anything else?”

Adam weighed whether or not it was worth it to tell her he loved her, in case he didn’t return. Would she want to know that? Or would it be better left unsaid? If the unthinkable were to happen, and Rain were to die, would he want to know that she also loved him, or would it be better to assume she only thought of him as a friend? Since he had no idea how she felt about him, it made his decision easier. “No, I think that’s all.”

“Okay. Well, if you think of anything else, you can always call.”

“Right.”

Seth’s mouth pulled up at the corners in a sympathetic smile. “Why don’t we try going a little faster, and then you can be on your way?” His hand came down on Adam’s shoulder. “You can do this. And don’t worry about Rain or the others. They’ll be fine. I’ll take care of them. I promise.”

Adam nodded, knowing that he could trust Seth. He would keep her safe. A flicker of fear lit up inside of him. This time, it had nothing to do with his own demise. For a moment, he wondered if there was a chance Seth might take care of Rain in ways Adam wouldn’t prefer. “Thanks, Seth,” he said quietly. He offered his hand, and Seth took it, gripping it tightly. Then, Adam prepared with a few more practice rides before he headed on his way. The IUD was tucked inside a pocket of his backpack, ready to lure the Mothers away from Judea, ready to take them on a futile chase that would hopefully end in their frustration and Adam’s triumph.