Begin Volume 2--Rain's Run  False sunlight filtered through thin lace curtains over the window next to Rain’s bed. It wasn’t her bed, though, not really. She’d left her bed far behind when she’d left her home in Gretchintown almost three weeks earlier. It seemed like months, maybe years, had passed since the last time she lay in her own bed. How the world had changed since then. Or maybe it hadn’t. Maybe all of the changes had been on her end.It wasn’t just the faux sunlight that stirred her. The sound of two male voices, one familiar, one becoming so, hit her ear and slowly brought her back to consciousness. The pain in her shoulder was mild now, especially compared to how it had been when Esther and her family had rescued Rain and her friends and brought them to the safety of their mountain home, Judea, buried beneath the landscape of Oklasaw.Eavesdroppin

Adam and Seth continued to talk, with Seth asking questions about what it was like for him, just the day to day activities. Adam talked about the gym and other aspects--taking supplements, etc. Rain’s mind wandered. She should get up. She should let them know she could hear. But then, a third voice entered the conversation, one she didn’t recognize at all. One she instantly didn’t like.“Hey, Seth!” a male voice, higher pitched and grating but still masculine, called out. “This one of the rebs you pulled from the river?”“Yeah, Daniel. This is Adam.”“Hi,” she heard Adam say and then there was the smack of flesh on flesh that made her think they must’ve shaken hands or something.“How’s it going?” Daniel asked, his voice still irritating. “You likin’ it on the outside?”“

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. “

A swift moving current lofted a broken tree branch along the edge of shore as the murky, red tinged river cut a swath in the land wide enough to make it infeasible to try to swim across the distance to the identical patch of muddied ground that disappeared into tall grass and eventually a forest that mirrored the woods behind her. Mother White stood perfectly still, only her eyes moving as she traced the path of the projectile as if this broken tree from upstream could somehow solve all of her problems.It had been almost forty-eight hours since she’d gotten a report of shots fired. At the time, she’d been a few hours behind the lead Military Mothers who had progressed quickly around the outskirts of Dafo as she led the attack on the remnants of the city. Dal and his people had put up quite a battle, which had been surprising since he had no dog in the fight. What he sought to gain by preventing White and her military from advancing on the fo

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