The struggle to get up the stairs was real. The women were so unbelievably weak, their legs shaking, it took forever for most of them to even lift their legs high enough to climb the stairs. The idea that they should all just pick up a girl and carry her up the stairs, coming back for a second entered Rain’s mind, but they couldn’t carry them all the way outside, so it seemed pointless to take them up the stairs when they’d still have to manage to get out of the building. At this rate, the Mothers would be able to bring troops from another town and get them there in time before these poor ladies made it up the stairs. As she was helping them up the stairs, the girl on Rain’s left was talking. Rain sort of wished she wouldn’t. Nothing she was saying was pleasant, and she truly needed to save her breath, but she was telling her what had transpired, and Rain had

Adam flew down the hallways as quickly as he could go, trying not to think about what might happen to Rain and Lightning while he was gone. He had to let the men out of the storage closet and get them outside. Getting them out of the closet would be easy. Getting them out of the building would be harder, especially if the Military Mothers had caught on already that tactics had been changed, and rather than trying to find the records room, at least part of the Quebecian forces were trying to circumvent it.Seeing the storage room up ahead, Adam sped up and then skidded to a stop in front of the door. He knew that the door was already unlocked, so all he had to do was throw the latch, which couldn’t be accessed from the inside. He knew that the men on the other side would have no idea who was opening the door, and they wouldn’t be able to hear h

Adam led the way around the outside of the building, the naked, exhausted men running behind him as quickly as they could. He was the only one with clothes; he was the only one with a weapon. Memories of the Mothers shooting down at them earlier from one of the apartment buildings made him leery to take them out in the open, but it was the only way they were going to be able to get to the camp. He didn’t see any Mothers in the buildings when he stuck his head out around the corner. Nor did he see anyone wearing his own colored uniform. An occasional popping sound made its way out from inside the building, but other than that there was only the chirping of birds in the trees in the distance and the buzz of insects.“All right! Keep your heads down. We’re going to that next building over there, got it?” Adam said, turning to face the

“What the hell happened?” Adam shouted, leaving the men behind as he ran across the open ground to where Mist was sitting next to one of the dormitories. She was cradling Walt’s head in her arms, and the tears streaming down her face said more than any words could tell him.“We got the women back to camp, and he insisted he was fine.” Mist said, her breathing labored. “But then, we got back this far, and he collapsed. I tried to use the healing wand but….”Adam looked carefully at Walt’s pant leg. It was completely soaked in blood, dripping down inside of his boot. “Is he still breathing?” Adam asked.Mist nodded her head. “Barely. I don’t know what to do. I patched up the wound but--”&

The door was right ahead of her.All Rain needed to do was push through that door and head around the side of the medical building, run around the side, and make her way back to camp. Hell, she even knew how to get there if she cut right through the woods and swing around so that there was little to no chance of any of the Mothers catching up to her.She had the thumb drive in her pocket. That was all they needed, other than just killing as many Mothers as possible. Once she got back to camp, the commanders could call the rest of their forces back, and then, they could bomb the hell out of the building, killing everyone and destroying them once and for all. Without this building, the Mothers wouldn’t be able to survive. At least, that was the impression Rain had gotten from how they were defending it.So why w