Chapter 60: Chapter 60

The roar of an engine in the distance had Rain turning over in bed. Her shoulder was uncomfortable--stiff and achy--but it didn’t hurt. When she opened her eyes, blinking a few times against the bright faux sun coming in the window, it took her a moment to remember what had happened. Then, she sat up in bed. There was a lot to do, and they needed to hurry. She glanced at the clock to see what time it was, but realized she had no idea what time she’d gotten up to go fix Mist. The tray with the breakfast Esther had brought her that she didn’t get a chance to eat was gone. Her stomach rumbled, but there was no time for that either.

Tossing back the quilt and sheet from her bed, Rain eyed her boots, thinking she should put them on so that she was ready to do whatever needed to be done. But then, she was still wearing Seth’s oversized pants. Remarkably, she hadn’t gotten any blood on them or her T-shirt, which was a miracle since there had been so, so much blood. If she were going to take the device far away from Judea, she’d need her own clothes. Deciding she’d just go ahead and change, Rain looked around and spotted a stack of clothing on a chair next to where her backpack was propped. Esther must’ve cleaned her clothing for her while she was out. That woman had a bit of a tough exterior, but on the inside, she was warm and loving. Not for the first time, a pang of jealousy hit as Rain realized just how badly she wished she had a mother just like Esther.

A tap on her door sent the already ajar closure bouncing backward. Seth’s upper torso was visible in the crack, though he didn’t stick his head inside. Kind of him--in case she was indecent, she supposed. “Seth!” she said, standing as he took that as his welcome into the room. “We have so much to do.”

“Good, you’re awake.” He was much calmer than she was, his green eyes slightly narrowed as he walked in. A thin film of dust covered his boots, and there were dirt marks on his jeans and across his gray shirt. She hadn’t noticed them earlier in the day. What had he been up to? “Can we talk?”

Rain looked back at her clothes but then nodded. He gestured to the edge of the bed, and she sank down on it, thinking it might be awkward to sit on a bed with a man under most circumstances, but when he sat down a good two feet from her, also on the edge of the mattress, she didn’t feel uncomfortable. Not about that anyway. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Seth crinkled his mouth to one side of his handsome face, considering how to answer that question. A nervousness set in in Rain’s gut, tangling and twisting, telling her something wasn’t right. “We have a plan,” he said quietly, not meeting her eyes until after he’d finished that initial sentence. “It isn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but it’s in progress, and I think it’ll work. Probably.”

Rain lifted her eyebrows at him, not sure how to respond. In progress? She shook her head, not sure if she wanted to hear this. The last plan she’d found out about that was already in progress was a bit of a shock, and she wasn’t quite over that yet. Instead of asking about the plan, she inquired instead, “How is Mist?”

“She’s fine,” he said, his nod steadfast. “I just spoke to Mama. She’s in the kitchen fixing lunch, by the way, and she said she’d just gone in to see how Mist was doing. She was asleep, and a lot of her color had come back. Walt said she’d been sleeping most of the time since you fixed her. Mary said she’d come back later to check on her to make sure she doesn’t need a transfusion.”

“Does she know how to do that?” Rain asked quickly. She’d been thinking Mist might need one herself, but she hadn’t gotten a chance to look into that before her adrenaline rush had worn off and she’d crashed.

Again, Seth was nodding. “She does. I’m sure our methods aren’t as sophisticated as yours, but we do have our ways.”

Rain smiled, knowing he didn’t mean anything derogatory about her when he said that. “What about the IUD?”

The breath leaving his lips was warm as he blew it out, making a noise sort of like a horse. Not that Rain had ever seen one of those in person. “Well, that’s where the plan comes in.”

“What do you mean?” She wanted to demand to talk to Adam, to see what he had to say about this plan, but for some reason, she held back. There had to be a reason Seth hadn’t mentioned Adam yet, and an equally compelling reason why she hadn’t seen him since he’d carried her into the room. Thoughts of what she’d said, what she’d done, were blurred. Had she tried to kiss him? Had she said she wanted to marry him? Perhaps it was best if Adam didn’t come in right away. Maybe she needed some time away from him. Was the fact that he wasn’t there connected to her lightheaded blunder?

“I wanted to take the IUD out of here on my motorbike.” He emphasized the word “I” as if that was critical to the rest of what he was about to say. “I thought that was something I should do.” Again, emphasis on the “I.” He paused. “Mama thought differently. So… Adam is taking it.”

With absolutely no control over her face at the moment, Rain gawked at him. “What?” she asked, her voice a shrill screech. “Adam is taking the IUD out of here? On foot? To where? The Mothers will capture him immediately.”

Seth’s hand rested on her good shoulder, the pressure increasing as she continued to let the possibilities of what might happen to Adam run away with her mind. “Rain, it’s okay,” he said. “That is… he didn’t leave here on foot. He took my bike.”

His words were meant to make her calm down, but they didn’t have that effect. If anything, the panic inside of Rain somehow increased. “Adam? Is riding your motorbike?” The sounds she’d heard earlier, the ones of an engine nearby, came back to her. Had that been him? How long ago had he left. Her eyes went to the window as Seth’s hand slipped from her arm.

“I know it sounds a little… crazy,” he said with a shrug. “But I showed him how to use it. He’s not perfect, and I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t wipe out a few times, but he could handle it. Under the circumstances, with Mama preventing me from taking it myself, it was for the best.”

Rain turned back around, her eyes landing on a spot on the wall near the attached bathroom door, the white paint of the room blurring as her eyes lost focus. “They’ll catch him,” she whispered. “They’ll track him down and either shoot him on sight or take him captive.”

His hand was back on her shoulder, sliding to her back, not to gain her attention as it had been before but to comfort her. “I know it’s scary, Rain, but it had to be done. Adam’s smart. He’ll be all right.”

She swiveled her head to look at him. His gaze was steady as he met her eyes. Jade green glowed slightly in the indirect light of the window. His mouth turned up slightly at the corners in assurance that he was confident in his response. The scent of aftershave she remembered only in the back of her subconscious mind from that night she’d been brought into this room and carefully deposited on the bed, a woodsy scent with a hint of spice mingled with a unique perspiration that had to be Seth’s scent, caught her attention as she realized he was sitting closer to her now, having resituated each time she’d let her worry overwhelm her.

“Do you really think he’ll be okay?” Her voice sounded meek, like a small child, only a whisper.

Seth slid his hand down to her elbow, squeezing slightly. “I do,” he said, his smile growing. “Mama has already alerted our local leadership about his mission. We have defensive measures that will help him.”

A ray of hope sparked inside of her as Rain asked, “Like what?”

“Well, for one thing, we have a flash radar system that will not only disrupt their drones feeding information back to their leaders, it can also interfere with the ability of the drones to take clear video and photographs. It doesn’t always work correctly because it’s an old technology, but it should help. Our fellow militia members will do all they can to keep the main body of Mothers from even entering our lands, let alone tracking him down, though I don’t know if they’ll be willing to go to war. Still, enough of them like to take shots at drones and set up boobytraps for land riders, that should help. Also, my understanding is that the prime minister is sending delegates in to attempt to speak with the general in charge to see if she fully intends to invade. It seems they are amassing troops and constructing bridges for that purpose, which isn’t acceptable to our leadership for any reason.”

All of that sounded diplomatically promising. Rain had to wonder why they were all going to such trouble over a small band of rebels but didn't ask the question. “How will Adam know where to go?”

Seth nodded as if he was expecting the question. “The bike has a navigation system that will lead him to the Colorado River. He’ll toss in the IUD, and then they’ll start tracking that instead. If they get visuals on him ahead of time, they may very well decide it’s not worth it to divide their forces to go after just one of you when the other three must be elsewhere, so they’ll leave him be. Once he’s dropped the IUD in the western flowing river, he’ll head back this way. He has enough fuel. We’ll meet him in Louis City, a large town in Middlecountry. I want to give Mist one more day to rest, and then we’ll depart, taking my grandfather’s truck. I’ll get you there, reunite your party, and then make sure you know where to go to reach Quebec safely. It’ll be fine.”

He did have a plan, clearly, and he articulated it as if he could see into the future and knew exactly what would happen. He hadn’t released her arm. Rain was glad. Like holding Adam’s hand, having Seth’s fingers wrapped around her was a comfort.

Beyond that, he was going with them, and they were going to drive, at least as far as this Louis City he’d mentioned. She’d never heard of it before, but it sounded like civilization. It seemed like a place the Mothers might hesitate to attack for fear of angering other governments. Middlecountry was unorganized, much like Oklasaw, but the rest of the world wouldn’t appreciate the Mothers invading without good cause. She couldn’t fathom a scenario in which the Mothers were able to spin what had happened as justifiable means for bringing their armed forces into neighboring countries.

“You’d do that?” she asked, facing him again. “You’d give up everything you have here to go with us?”

Seth nodded. “Yeah, of course. I wish I could do more, but Mama….” His voice trailed off, and for the first time, Rain realized there might be some downsides to having a parent. “Anyway, she’s probably about done with lunch. You wanna come and eat? She’d love to have you at the dinner table.”

“Sure,” Rain said, the fact that Adam was not out there waiting weighing on her. She stood, but her eyes went to the window again. She paused, took a deep breath, and then let it go.

He had risen as well, but her sigh had him pausing. “He has my grandfather’s phone,” Seth said. “I showed him how to use it to call me or Mama. I’m sure he will when he gets a chance.”

The idea that Adam would be able to communicate with them was a relief. “Good,” she said.

“Also,” Seth continued, pushing his hands into his pockets, “he did tell me to tell you he said goodbye.”

Rain took a step back, her eyes widening as her mind went through all of the possibilities of what that one request might mean. “He did?” she asked, hoping Seth would say more.

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I think there was something else he wanted me to tell you, but that’s all he said. He wanted to tell you himself, of course, but you were sleeping.”

“Right,” she said. What was it that made Seth add that additional comment? How had he been able to tell that Adam wanted him to deliver a longer message but had decided not to?

Deciding she couldn’t ask that question right now, she left it at that, following Seth out of the bedroom toward the kitchen where she could hear Esther bustling around preparing lunch. Her eyes traveled around each room and the hallway as they made their way to the back of the house, but she didn’t see the one she was looking for. It wasn’t a mistake or some sort of absurd joke. Adam had really left, and he was in danger right now. With terror threatening to boil up inside of her, Rain placed a smile on her face and tried to focus on the nice family before her that had invited them in and were doing their best to help the rebels--not on the fact that Adam was likely riding a motorbike to his demise.