To Be A Leader

Chapter 43: Baby One More Time

Thunder rolls, the sound shaking the drenched earth below my feet as lighting flashes above. It's so bright it burns my eyes, which is the only thing burning, unfortunately. The rain pelting my skin seems to freeze me to the bone, drenching my clothes and hair, making harder to move down the flooded roads.

"What a night, Five, eh?" Sam asks. I can barely hear him through my headset over the roaring thunder. I can't even answer because of how bad my teeth are chattering.

"Don't give us your 'what a night' speech, Sam," Paula snaps beside me. She looks just as bad as I do, cold and wet and irritated. "Five and I both know you're warm and dry in a comms booth while we're out in what is clearly a sign that the people of earth displeased the Lord, and His flood will wipe us out."

"Noah, get the boat," I joke, but it doesn't seem as funny with my chattering teeth.

"Yeah, sorry," He says, sounding rather sheepish. "I suppose it doesn't help if I say the roof of the shack has a dodgy seam, and there's water dripping right on my head?"

I smile at the image. Paula doesn't.

"Does your cocoa have marshmallows in them?" She asks.

"Does my-" Sam scoffs. "Does my-no, my cocoa does not have marshmallows! Because I've had to choose, and I wanted a digestive biscuit more."

"You mean a cracker?" I ask. "Because that's what your biscuits look like."

"Well, I wasn't going to have your version of a biscuit. You'd find a way to light it on fire."

"Rude."

"Truth hurts, my love."

I roll my eyes. As soon as I get home I'm getting in bed and making myself into a burrito with the covers, and Sam's going to have to deal with not having a blanket for the night.

He sighs and takes a sip of his drink. "Look, we need to keep a check on the perimeter of that industrial zone, okay? The baby factory's in there. Fine, it's surrounded by zoms and protected by bad A.N.N.I.E., but when we get enough of the cure to go in, we are going in. We're hoping it won't be more than a few weeks, or even days now, and that'll be a huge blow against Sigrid. Meanwhile, well, we can't afford for a cam to go out and then Sigrid move the babies and we never find the again!"

"We understand," Paula says as Sam takes another sip of his drink. "It's just, if you could try not to slurp your-" She freezes and grabs my arm. "Five, did you see that?"

I blink, looking ahead. It's hard to see anything in this rain, especially since it's so dark out. "No, what?"

"It's faint, but look!" She points ahead. "There's a light out there. There's someone out in the storm with a torch."

"I'll just try and get my cams, and-yes," Sam says in surprise. "Yes, there's a woman alone with a torch coming from the west."

"Well, the only thing west of there is the-"

"Uh, yeah, yes. She must have come from the baby factory. And yeah, there are soldiers in pursuit. God knows why or how she's out there, but Five, Paula, you have to get to her and intercept her before the soldiers do. Heading due east from your position. Go now!"

The urgency in his voice kicks me right into gear. Even with the sting of the rain pelting my skin, I take off with Paula, running as quickly as we can. This woman could have valuable information about the factory, their defenses, their weaknesses.

Thank you, God.

It becomes harder to move when we leave the roads, instead running through dirt and grass fields to get to her. My feet keep getting stuck in the mud, and I'm sure these shoes will need a good cleaning afterwards to keep them from being ruined completely.