Chapter 75: Chapter 75

The Gate was even more astounding standing beneath it in the large patch of green grass the people of Louis City called Gate Park. Rain had spent the entire day there the day before, and now, late in the afternoon of the day they were supposed to head north, she was still fascinated by the way the sun glinted off of the metal surface, the way the wind blew it so that it swayed slightly from side to side.

She’d been speaking to many of the people who hung out in the park over the hours. From their discussions, she learned that it was possible to go up inside of the Gate, though no one had done so in centuries. They’d found pictures of people in little elevators that went up to the top in the rubble from a building that had been located nearby, which had been destroyed in the war. Rain stared up at the marvel, wondering what it would be like to go up there and look out over the world. Would a person feel the wind swaying the building? How bright would the sun be from up there?

The other three were back at the hotel. The day before, they’d taken turns waiting with her, but today, Rain had felt safe enough letting them stay there and get some rest. She had her revolver in her pocket, but she didn’t think she would need it. The people here were all so nice and friendly. They mentioned to her that there were other parts of town that were dangerous, but not here, not in the park, not in the sunlight beneath this beautiful piece of art.

“Your friend not here yet?” a male voice called from over her shoulder.

Rain turned to see a man she’d met the day before coming toward her. He had a friendly smile on his face, his hair piled on top of his head in a bun. She wasn’t exactly sure how old he was but thought he was probably old enough to be her dad, probably in his mid-to-late forties.

“Hi, Bert,” Rain said with a smile as he stopped beside her. “No, not yet.” He was an artist who liked to paint people in the park, and the paint on his clothes and hands showed he’d been getting some work done that day. “What have you been painting?”

“You should come over to the easel and check it out,” he said with a grin.

Rain raised an eyebrow, wondering why he didn’t just tell her. But, she was also interested in seeing his work so she walked over with him.

Several of the other people she’d met the day before were congregated around Bert’s easel. She said hello to them, many of which were busy painting, drawing, or strumming away on guitars or violins. It was such a nice, carefree environment, Rain loved it.

“Well, what do you think?” Bert asked, standing next to the painting he’d been working on.

Rain stepped around where she could see. It was her. Though he’d used non-traditional colors for most everything except her hair, which still looked different since it was painted in an array of oranges and reds, it was still obvious the figure, painted in yellows, greens, and blues, was her--looking up at the Gate, which was located in the background, painted in a deep blue with a twinkle of sunlight glinting off of it.

“Wow!” Rain’s hands went to cover her mouth. She was at a loss for words. “That’s… incredible!”

“Yeah? You like it?” Bert asked with a grin.

“I love it!” She never would’ve dreamt someone could capture her so perfectly in anything less than a photograph. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”

Bert was clearly proud of himself and glad that she liked it. “I was going to give it to you, but then, I thought, we’d love to keep it here, to remember you by, the kind girl whose personality is as refreshing as a spring rain.”

She couldn’t help but blush at the compliment. She hadn’t spent that much time with them the day before, but every question she’d asked, every compliment she’d given, had been so well received. It was clear her fascination amused them. “That’s really sweet,” she said.

“Will you sign it for us?”

“Sign it?” she repeated. “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t… really have a last name.” She didn’t want to call herself Rain Gretchintown; she didn’t want to have a constant reminder of the awful place she’d left.

“That’s okay. Just write Rain,” he suggested, offering her a paintbrush he’d just dipped in black pain. “Right there in the corner.”

“Isn’t that where the artist usually signs?” she asked.

Bert nodded. “Yes, but I’ll sign underneath it. The art couldn’t have been done without you.”

With the same broad smile on her face, Rain signed her name.

“Perfect. Thank you.”

“Thank you, Bert.” Rain was smiling so broadly, her cheeks were beginning to ache.

The roar of an engine brought that to an end. She looked over Bert’s shoulder and saw a vehicle approaching. For a split second, she’d hoped it was Adam, that she was hearing the motorcycle. But this engine sounded different, though still familiar. Approaching on the road that ran around the greenspace, Rain saw Seth’s truck, her friends loaded inside.

It was time. They’d want to leave now. Rain’s eyes shifted off to the distance. Adam hadn’t made it there yet, but the others would want to leave anyway. He’d missed the window, and now, they needed to go on.

Rain took in a deep breath, and even though all of her new friends wanted to know what was the matter, she couldn’t find the words to tell them. How could she move on without Adam?

“I’m fine,” she assured them, after a moment of contemplation. “My other friends are here now, though. I’m afraid we’ll probably be leaving soon.”

“Oh, no,” a girl named Trudy said from her spot on the grass nearby. “But what about your other friend?”

“Yeah, the one on the motorbike?” Willow, another artist, asked.

Rain shook her head, trying to fight off tears that were going to fall one way or another. “Nope. Adam’s not here yet.”

Bert hung his head and shook it sympathetically. “Well, if we see him, we’ll let him know that he missed you.”

“We’ll tell him when you left,” another guy, Russ, assured her.

“Thank you,” Rain said. “I appreciate it.” She gave Bert a hug and then a few of the others stepped up to tell her goodbye as well, and she embraced them each in turn before shifting to face the direction from which Seth, Walt, and Mist were slowly approaching. With a heavy heart, Rain adjusted her backpack, made sure she still had her gun, and headed their way.

“Hi, Rain,” Seth said. “I’m sorry, but we need to go.”

She looked past him to the others, whose expressions told her that they were in agreement. Rain’s eyes automatically shifted back to the west, to the road that led to the Gate from that direction. “Can’t we just give him a few more hours?”

“Rain… we’ve all talked about it,” Mist began, her tone sympathetic but not heartbroken the way that Rain’s was. “We’ve already given him an extra six hours. The fact that he’s not here, that he hasn’t been able to get in touch with us… well, there’s just no way of knowing where he might be. We can’t assume… anything.”

It was evident what Mist meant by that. They couldn’t assume Adam was still alive. She looked to Walt. If it hadn’t been for Adam, he would be dead. “I’m sorry, Rain. I think we need to go. But all of your new friends will keep an eye out for him and point him in the right direction, right?”

“I’m sure, if he can make it here… when he makes it here,” Seth corrected, “he’ll be able to make it the rest of the way to Quebec. Maybe he’ll even catch up with us along the way.”

Tears filled the corners of her eyes. She knew what they were saying made practical sense, but she couldn’t help but feel as if she were giving up on Adam, and she couldn’t imagine him ever giving up on her. The mission itself was more important than any one member of their party, and yet, she couldn’t make herself start walking toward the truck.

“Just one more hour?” she asked. “Please? Can we just sit here on the grass for one more hour and then, if he’s not here, we’ll go?” That would put them almost at sunset. She knew it was futile, but it would make her feel slightly better if they would just give her this one last try.

Seth blew out a deep breath and looked over his shoulder back toward this truck, which was parked on the edge of the street. There weren’t too many vehicles there, but there were some. He was likely worried about it getting broken into, but Rain wasn’t. “Okay. One hour,” he said, looking at the time on his phone. “At 6:17… we go.”

Rain nodded and sank down onto the soft grass, knowing it wouldn’t really be any easier to leave without Adam at 6:17 than it had been at 5:17, nor would it be at 7:17 or even 12:17. Leaving without him was going to be excruciating. Living without him had been these past few days as well. She realized, if they left the Gate without him, she would have to get used to it because if he didn’t show up on time, he probably wasn’t coming. At all.

The rest of the world seemed to go silent as she sat there, staring in the direction she expected Adam to come from, were he coming. She wasn’t even sure if she was remembering to blink or breathe, she was so content on willing him to appear. He had to be out there somewhere. Was it possible for her to pull him to her just by thinking of him?

The moments ticked away. Seth sat beside her but the other two did not. Instead, they chose to use their hour talking to nearby artists and looking at the Gate. Rain sat stoic, feeling the sympathy rolling off of Seth, but he didn’t say a word. Not for the first hour, not even when Rain was certain it was past 6:17. Mist and Walt came back to check on them a few times. Finally, as the sun was going down, Mist said quietly, “Seth, it’s almost 8:00.”

“I know.” His voice was a whisper that cut through Rain’s heart like a sharp knife. “Rain?”

She cleared her throat, afraid to speak, afraid it would cause the tears to fall. “Just until 8:17?” she asked.

His fingers wrapped around her wrist. “Rain, sweetheart, we can say that all night. I know you feel like you’re giving up on him if you leave, but don’t look at it that way. He missed the time frame, but he can still catch up. We aren’t giving up on the mission, are we?”

She didn’t turn her head to look at him, only continued to stare at the darkening horizon. Seth could frame it however he wanted to, but they both knew, if she got up and left, she may as well be sealing Adam’s tomb. Leaving him behind was as much an admittance that she thought he had died out there as writing an obituary for him would’ve been.

The others didn’t understand because Adam hadn’t done what he’d done for them. He hadn’t taken the tracker and ridden off into the sunset with it to save Walt, Mist, Seth, or any of the people they’d left in Judea. Sure, that was a nice bonus, but they all knew--the only reason Adam volunteered to take on this dangerous mission was because of her. Because he wanted to save Rain. Because she was the one he cared about above all else.

And now… she was choosing to leave him behind.

With a single tear rolling down her cheek, she turned to face Seth. “Why don’t you guys go ahead, and I’ll stay here?”

His eyes widened for a moment as he thought about what she was saying. If he felt, in that moment, that she was choosing Adam over him, she couldn’t blame him. Because she was. But more than that, she was choosing for them to complete the mission without her. If Adam showed up, they might be able to head off on foot on their own, but the chances of them making it to Quebec weren’t good. They could stay in Louis City. She had friends now. She had a few of Mist’s gold coins. They could stay there until the rebellion began, assuming Mist and Walt were able to talk the leaders of Quebec into fighting, and then join back up with them.

But if Adam never showed up, she’d be in a potentially dangerous city by herself with only a few people she’d just met and the Mothers hunting for her.

Seth shook his head. “I can’t let you do that. It’s too dangerous. Besides, as much as you care about Adam, you care about the cause more, don’t you?”

Did she? She’d been away from Michaelanburg so long now, she could hardly remember what it was she was fleeing. Oppression. Lack of freedom. Men being used as slaves. Yes, all of that was awful. How much of that would change now that Spanish-America was aware of what was happening there? Would the Mothers be able to continue with their way of life now that the rest of the world could easily find out all of the rumors were true and then some?

The cause was an idea--an ideology. It was a picturesque utopia where the world would become a better place through her efforts if she did her best to fight for them. Adam wasn’t some thought in her head. He was real. His existence didn’t depend on the agreement of thousands of people or the brute force of those wishing to change the status quo. Why would she care more about something that might never be than a person that was? Someone who cared deeply about her?

“Rain,” Mist said, tugging on her shoulder. “I know how hard this is, but we need you. All those girls back home who don’t know what’s happening, how they’re being manipulated, the wrong that’s being indoctrinated into their heads, they need you. The men being forced to give their bodies away for free multiple times a day need you. The ones who are being taken to the Bridge, to death, because they are not flawless… they need you, too. I can tell the leaders in Quebec, but two of us will be more compelling. Come on.”

She turned and looked at Mist and saw a pleading look in her eyes she hadn’t ever seen before. What would Adam have her do? Would he want her to sit there and wait for him, essentially dropping out of the fight, or would he want her to get up off of her backside and move?

With a deep breath, Rain stilled herself. She didn’t have to think long at all to find the answer to that question. Adam would want her to go.

Swiping at that single tear, Rain got up off of the ground. With a numbness to the world, she moved with her friends toward the truck, wishing she could just freeze time and go out and search for him herself.

They were almost to the truck when she stopped walking. In the back of her mind, she thought she sensed something in the distance. Or maybe she heard it first. But she stopped, just ten or so paces from the truck. “Do you hear that?” she asked as the humming sound in the distance began to grow louder.

“Hear what?” Seth asked.

But Mist, who’d become accustomed to listening to the quietest purrs of engines while dodging drones, turned and looked at Rain. “I hear it. But it could be another truck in the distance or a different bike or….”

Rain held up a finger. The noise was getting louder, and it definitely sounded like the engine she’d heard the day Adam left, as she was half asleep in Esther’s bedroom.

“Rain…” Seth began, shaking his head. “We can’t just wait on every engine we hear to make sure it isn’t Adam.”

She wasn’t listening to him though. The engine was even louder now, drawing close by. She turned and watched where the road curved up from a rise in the ground that prevented her from seeing more than a few hundred yards away. Other vehicles came by slowly, but those weren’t the ones she was listening to. As Seth called her name again, the noise and the visual connected. There was a motorbike coming up the road, one towing a small cart, the male driver dirty and weary, but recognizable.

“Adam!” Rain screamed, getting the attention of everyone on the lawn near the Gate.

“I’ll be damned,” she heard Seth say, but that was background noise as she took off as fast as she could run toward the motorcycle. It would’ve made more sense to let him drive right up next to where the truck was parked since they’d have to load the bike, but she didn’t care. He’d stop.

He did stop, too, about a hundred yards away from the truck since that’s how far Rain got with her sprint. He turned the bike off, removed his helmet, clicked something with his foot to make it stand up and climbed from the seat, looking as if he was in a lot of pain from sitting so long and exhausted. That didn’t stop her from launching herself at him.

Adam opened his arms just in time as Rain lost contact with the ground and wrapped herself completely around him, arms around his neck; legs around his waist. “You’re here!” she said, her cheek pressed to his.

“I’m here,” he said quietly. “And so are you.”

“And so am I.”

Rain pulled back, and realizing how tired he had to be, she put her feet on the ground. She wanted to kiss him, to tell him that she loved him, that she never wanted to be away from him again, but there were so many questions in his blue eyes, so many stories he needed to unravel for her, she did none of those things, only stared into those azure orbs for the longest time before she had to look away. She put her head on his shoulder and held him tight, knowing the others wanted to say hello and then get on the road, but she couldn’t let go of him again. Not yet.