Rain managed to pull her eyes off of the unexpected entryway in the ground before her and meet Mist’s gaze. “A door?” she repeated. “Why would there be a door in the ground?”
Mist shrugged but still answered. “I’m not sure. I opened it earlier and went a few steps inside, but it’s so dark, I didn’t want to go alone.” Her eyes flickered a few times before she added, “I’m not scared or anything. I just… didn’t want to get trapped down there.”
A small smile pulled up one corner of Rain’s mouth. She knew her friend well enough to know she would be a little scared to go down there alone, as anyone would, but not terrified. “Do you want me to stay here and make sure the door stays open? Or keep an eye out for… anyone?”
Before she even finished, Mist was shaking her head. “No, it’s okay. I don’t think anyone will come out this far. No one ever has before. We can just put some heavy logs on the door to keep it open.” She reached down and grabbed the handle, and Rain found herself holding her breath, a bit afraid of what might be down there, even though Mist said she’d already gone down.
The hinges on the door creaked, and a cloud of dust and dirt filled the air as it lifted off of its resting place. Rain coughed and covered her face as Mist pulled the door completely open and dropped it on the ground with a thud. It was made out of what appeared to be some sort of thin metal, and both sides were covered in rust. She had no idea how long it had been here, undetected, or what purpose it served, but the four by four hole it left in the ground looked slightly ominous, sort of like a square mouth ready to suck in whoever happened to be unfortunate enough to cross its path.
Mist pulled out a flashtube, a thin metal cylinder that projected a bright beam for up to a half-mile and adjusted it to wide so that the beam would spread out across the entire staircase that led down into what smelled like a dark, dank stone prison.
Wiping perspiration off of her free hand onto her jeans, Mist licked her upper lip. “I only went about four steps down before. The steps are wooden, but I think the door kept away most of the moisture over the years. They creaked a little but felt solid.”
“‘Kay,” Rain said with a nod, feeling more than a little anxious herself. “Maybe there’ll be some clues down there as to what this place was used for.”
Mist’s head rocked back and forth as she scooped her red hair over her shoulder. She gulped in air, swallowed hard, and then started down the stairs as if she were diving into a pool of water. Rain didn’t blame her for hesitating, but once Mist had taken a few steps, she followed.
The wood was a little spongy, but it felt solid enough, and Rain was glad they had the light. Few of the sun’s rays penetrated all the way to the floor because of where the stairs were located in relation to the rest of the room. Mist reached the bottom and said, “It’s brick, I think.”
“Brick?” Rain took the last few steps in a hurry because that didn’t make sense to her. When she stepped down, her feet met what felt like a similar material to what the outer walls the buildings in town were built from. Mist angled the light directly to the floor and turned the beam down so it wasn’t glaringly bright. Whatever it was, it was white and divided into squares, but not like the small red bricks they were used to. “Weird.”
Mist shrugged, and they both seemed to decide it didn’t matter at the same time, so Mist adjusted the flashtube again and illuminated the space around them.
It wasn’t large, maybe a bit bigger than the room they shared, and it was mostly empty, though clutter covered the floor--leaves, splintered wood, broken glass, some pieces of metal that looked like perhaps they had been part of an appliance at one point in time. What appeared to be the leg of a broken chair stuck up into the air in the far corner. Dozens of cans were scattered amidst the rest, as well as clear plastic jugs that looked to be empty.
“What do you think happened here?” Mist asked, taking it all in. “There aren’t any leaves on the stairs….”
“Maybe the door was open for a while at one point and they blew in,” Rain suggested. “Then, someone closed it.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Mist agreed, though it wasn’t likely they’d ever have any idea what had transpired in the space. “Do you think it’s safe to… look around?”
“Maybe,” Rain replied. Part of her wanted to. They could step over a lot of the clutter and walk directly on the floor. But then she imagined stepping on some hidden shard of glass or giant piece of metal and hurting herself. Then what would they do? If any of the Mothers found out what they were up to, they’d be in huge trouble. They’d probably have to go to Isolation for at least a week, and while neither of them had actually ever spent any time in there at all, they’d heard stories. It wasn’t pretty….
“We should be careful.” Mist’s comment echoed Rain’s sentiment, and she agreed with a nod before Mist slowly stepped out of the clear patch by the stairs and into the mess that covered whatever this place was.
A row of wooden shelves lined one of the walls. Most of the shelves were empty. Only a couple of cans sat on the bottom shelf. They were so old Rain couldn’t read them even when she held one to her face. Above them, she found a few glass bottles. A jug identical to one she’d seen on the floor sat on another shelf, far in the corner. Mist approached it with caution, stepping around some leaves like she wasn’t sure the floor would hold. Crouching down, she poked at it with one finger a few times and then carefully pulled it off of the shelf. It looked heavy as she struggled to lift it with one hand. “What is it?” Rain asked.
“Water,” Mist said, sitting it back on the shelf.
“Water?” It seemed so strange to have a plastic container of water on a shelf, but then, perhaps they didn’t have hydration pills back then. She couldn’t imagine a world where a person had to worry about finding water.“The cans must’ve been food,” Mist said as she stood back up and shined the light around toward the chair in the corner. “Maybe people took shelter down here during the war.”“Maybe,” Rain agreed. It made sense that a room like this might be able to withstand the bombs they were dropping at the time, but it seemed dangerous to build the stairs of wood. If a fire had broken out, they could’ve burned, leaving them stranded. “It’s all so bizarre.”“I agree.” Mist took a few steps toward the mess in the corner, walking slowly. While there was still some light radiating her direction, Rain didn’t want t
The bell rang as Rain slid down the slick hallway, her shoes losing traction, her hand reaching for the door just as Mother Swan went to lock it. Everyone knew if you didn’t make it into class before the mother locked the door, you’d be barred from entering for the entire period, and since this was a lab, that meant Rain would miss the entire day. Luckily, Mother Swan was feeling lenient this morning. She narrowed her wrinkled gray eyes slightly and said, “Good morning, Rain. Cutting it awfully close.”“Good morning, Mother Swan. Yes, I apologize. It won’t happen again.” Rain waited for a nod of agreement from her instructor and then hurried to her seat next to Cloud, trying to catch her breath. She held her lab coat in one hand, her bag that contained her tablet and the other tools she’d need slung haphazardly over her shoulder where it had fallen in her desperate race to beat the bell and reach the door b
Rain carried her bag in front of her, both arms folded across it, as if the tablet and other odd assorted items inside were of extreme importance. That wasn’t the case at all. She was completely lost in her thoughts as she made her way to IW, trying to concentrate on what she’d learned in the lab that day, not on what she was about to do.They had done rounds, as she’d hoped, and they’d actually gone into the incubation room, or Nourishment Unit, as it was officially named. They’d watched the medical team work to bring the babies to thriving states and had been shown some that were likely not going to meet the criteria needed to continue to stay in the unit for much longer. Mother Swan had explained that once their levels reached below red level and stayed there for more than two hours, the technicians in the medical unit would “call” them, give them the cursed label, “failure to thrive,” and they&rsq
Nothing about IW was at all enthralling to Rain, yet it was a requirement, one she’d been taught not to take lightly. There was lubricant available from a pump on the wall near the chair where 24C was presented to her, but she didn’t use it. With some of the other men, she had to. With him, she could usually find enough pleasure to go without. Something about rubbing the oily substance on her private area before she went about her duties seemed even more vile than the practice session itself.With her knees on either side of his hips on the chair, she took a deep breath and pushed up, grabbing hold of his manhood and working it inside of her. It took her a few moments as she certainly wasn’t aroused, and it had been a few days since she’d visited IW, but after about a minute, she had him entirely inside of her and let go with her hands so that she could take hold of the two handles on either side of his shoulders. She had heard so
Opening the door to her shared room, Rain paused in the doorway as Mist turned and looked at her over her shoulder, her tablet propped on the pillow at the head of her bed. “Hey,” Rain said, not sure whether or not Mist was still angry at her.Mist clicked her tablet off and set it aside before rolling over and sliding off of the side of the bed so she could face her. “Hi.”Relieved that at least her best friend was speaking to her again, Rain hung her backpack up on a hook, not bothering to take her tablet out, and kicked off her sneakers, moving them over to the spot by her dresser where she kept them. She walked over to her bed and sat down across from Mist. “How was your day?”“Fine.” Mist attempted to smile, but it was so forced, it looked more like a snarl. “Yours?”“Ugh,” Rain groaned, lowering her head and shaking it slowl
The next few days went by without much discussion between Mist and Rain. Most non-school days, they would go out into the woods and walk around, but it had rained on Saturday, and the ground was still muddy on Sunday, so Rain had declined Mist’s invitation. It hadn’t deterred the nature-lover, though, so Rain had spent the day studying and reading in her room. Thoughts of the points Mist had brought up recently about the way the Motherhood viewed men kept coming back to her, leaving an unsettled feeling in her gut.Monday morning, she went to class as she always did. She had an hour of her history course before she’d report to Mother Swan’s anatomy class. Having the same Mother for all of her medical classes was helpful because she got to know each of her students so well. Rain had thought it was great only having one instructor until she considered that also meant she’d only hear one person’s interpretation of everyth
Rain entered Weather House with a lot on her mind. Cloud’s comment at the beginning of class had her distracted the entire time Mother Swan was lecturing, so now she had two quizzes to prepare for. She flew up the stairs to her level, down the hall, and pushed through the door without giving a second thought to what might be happening on the other side of the door.Mist was sitting on her bed, but she wasn’t alone. Another girl--woman was probably a better word since she was a couple of years older than them--was sitting next to her. They both looked up, caught off guard, as Rain stopped in the doorway, and she thought she saw Mist move something underneath her pillow.“Hi, Sunny,” Rain said, closing the door behind her and pretending like she wasn’t shocked to see Mist had company. In all of the years they’d roomed together, which was most of them, she couldn’t ever remember her best f
All day, Rain listened to discussions between the other girls in the hallways, before class started, in the restroom, everywhere she went, trying to get an idea as to whether or not anyone else knew what Cloud was alluding to the night before. But she didn’t hear so much as a stray whisper that made her think anything was going down at the medical building that day. She even hinted to Cloud that she thought there was some gossip, but her friend had no idea what she was getting at.By the time she was making her way over to IW that afternoon, she’d resolved herself to the idea that Sunny and Mist were nuts. Either that or whatever had been in the works had gone wrong or been discovered. She approached the changing rooms concentrating more on getting this over with so she could go finish up her homework as opposed to actually being worried about some kind of coup on the part of the younger women.Making her selection had not b