The Rain: The End, Marietta Standlee [year 7 reading list TXT] 📗

a foot taller than me, I use his momentum and bend forward, forcing him to lose his balance and follow my lead. I take full advantage of it and roll the large man over my shoulder.

As his eyes meet mine, they're full of surprise and a little hurt. I shake my head at him, "You should know better."

He finally laughs and lets Colin help him up before he claps me on the shoulder so hard, I stumble forward. "Payback is a bitch, Commander." He warns with laughter in his voice.

"Yeah, we'll see about that." I accept his challenge, and we grin at each other.

When Colin resumes his walk to our new quarters, I limp a bit, though. Pulling Derek over my shoulder twisted a muscle in my side.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Colin asks, concerned.

"My side," I complain.

"We'll have to toughen you up again. As soon as I show you our room, we'll start on the training. You were idle too long, Tinker Bell." he chastises me.

I narrow my eyes at him. "Have you forgotten that I gave birth to your offspring not three months ago?"

"That was three months ago, princess. If you wanted to be a breeder, you should have stayed behind."

My mouth opens and closes like a fish on land. He didn't, did he? I kick him in his behind as he makes his way further down the hallway, laughing loudly. The oaf knows exactly that he just ignited every single fuse in my body. I really hope that when he said I needed to train, it meant I would get to fight him. Breeder? He'll be in for a nasty surprise. I'll fight dirty, if I have to.

He leads me towards an elevator, yes, an elevator, inside a freaking mountain. To say I'm impressed is a complete understatement. I note the buttons inside the elevator—three up and four down. Ace and Carl really have been busy.

We make it up to three and walk down another hallway with several doors on each side. The walls still drip with water, and the same primitive lights illuminate our way. After a couple turns left and right, Colin finally stops in front of a door that doesn't look any different from the others. Before he opens it, he points towards the end of the hallway. "Girls to the right, boys to the left. Bathrooms and showers."

Our room looks cozy, though. I'm not sure where or how Colin managed to bring in a larger bed, but it looks inviting. Thick blankets lay on top, and several pillows seem to beckon me—a table with four chairs, a desk, and a small couch complete the room. A radiator emanates warmth and is stationed right by the bed. "It gets cold here at night," Colin warns, stepping towards me, pulling me close. "I missed you when I had to sleep here alone."

"Well, it's a good thing then that I decided not to be a breeder." I challenge.

He laughs and kisses me, making my knees go weak. The smell of salt and forest on him makes my stomach do weird things until I finally breathlessly ask, "Do you think we can put training off for a few hours?"

His eyes light up, "You betcha."

Chapter 5

After another month, we've fine-tuned the last bits of our plan, while Colin relentlessly trains me until I'm in even better shape than I was before the birth of our children. From sunup to sundown (supposedly, it's not like I get to see the sun much inside the cave), we train, train, train. Some days he takes me outside into the woods and shows me some stealth moves or just plain chases me up and down trees and overgrown paths. Other days we are joined by more trainees.

As much as I curse him, standing here now, it was worth it. Three hundred men and women are under my command, all of us hidden on the outskirts of a large red-orange field of flowers. They're not our goal today though, they and us are simply a diversion. Behind the field is a large airport that was once O'Hare international airport. However, all the airplanes have been moved to a large dumping ground and replaced by alien spaceships.

One-hundred-forty-three to be exact, give or take some that were added or taken away after our last count two days ago. Those are our targets. Hidden in the dark is our main army, nine-hundred men and women, one-hundred-fifty of which are pilots, are waiting for us to attack and lure the enemy out into the fields so that they can take off with our prize. More spaceships. That army is led by Briggs.

Two additional smaller forces like mine are spread out in and around the airport. One led by Colin, the other by Derek. The beauty of our plan?

A second attack exactly like this is taking place thousands of miles away, coordinated by Dimitrov. Once this mission is accomplished, Plan B will go into effect almost immediately. We're done playing games with the aliens. We're done with diplomacy. Once we've finished here, the American and the Russian President will have all the bargaining power they need to make the aliens retreat once and for all. They just don't know it yet.

Purposely we left our leaders in the dark. Colin and Dimitrov called it deniability. I don't care what they call it, as long as I finally get the chance to kill some of those Gorongiath bastards.

Claire's little ploy has still not worked out. It was almost a year ago, that I thought Colin dead and went through hell. Ka is dead, which is the one and only accomplishment in a year. His father's company went through a throughout investigation, was forced to pay fines and is still up and running. Female humans are still forced to breed, males are used for entertainment, the plantations still encroach on our land, raising the temperatures and killing everything and everyone in their path.

President Koralen is still in charge, something