𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Twenty-Four: Monarch Part One

"Nora, Nora wake up."

I awoke to the feeling of someone tugging at my shoulder, making me let out a muffled groan before turning around to face the opposite direction. When the person shook my shoulder more aggressively, I rolled back over and groggily opened my eyes. "I'm up," I declared, adjusting the covers and sitting up.

Raine gave me a quick smile before walking out the door. After rubbing my eyes, I turned my head to the side, expecting to see Dylan there, but shrugged when I found the space next to me completely empty. He was probably outside getting ready. More privacy for me.

I sighed and stretched my arms above my head before getting up as well. I felt the same nervous pit in my stomach grow as I changed clothes and slipped some shoes on, but I shook it off and walked outside, hoping that talking with the others and going over plans would distract me from the uneasy sensation. Walking out to the crate, I noticed that almost everyone was already awake, all surrounding the crate in the middle. I smiled sheepishly and rubbed my shoulder, feeling slightly embarrassed and guilty for sleeping in.

"Great, the princess finally woke up," Dylan muttered sarcastically when I stopped at the crate. Resisting the urge to make a snarky comment back, I resorted to glaring at him bitterly. Maybe I could make his head explode if I glared at it long enough. Before I could try, I felt an elbow gently nudge my side.

Raine sent me a small smile that I translated as a good morning. I returned the gesture, smiling as I elbowed Raine back lightly in the side. Raine raised her eyebrows, taking my action as a challenge and elbowed me back, harder this time. I widened her eyes, giving her a playful glare as I nudged her back with the same amount of force. We kept nudging at each other, harder each time, until Dylan interrupted our sisterly competition.

"Alright now that everyone's awake and not attacking each other," he said, staring straight at Raine and I with a sarcastic smile, "We can go over everything." Dylan turned back to the rest of the group as Raine and I rubbed our rib cages, giggling at the fact that we had successfully annoyed Dylan.

"Who hurt you?" Raine asked sarcastically as she pretended to stare hurtfully at the dark-haired boy, shaking her head.

I accidentally let out a "pfft" sound as I tried my best to stifle my laughter which only caused me to snort lightly. Charlie, too, was holding back a laugh, but eventually let it out when he heard my ridiculous attempt to hold back my own laughter. Even Jack was cackling, pointing at his unamused brother as Dylan watched the rest of the group laugh at Raine's comment.

"You guys done?" he asked, raising his eyebrows once everyone started to settle down.

"Oh, come on, it was funny," Jack said, cocking his head towards his brother.

"I'm being serious though, who hurt you," Raine said, widening her eyes meaningfully and caringly at Dylan as I giggled. Dylan rolled his eyes and gestured in Fed's direction, indicating that he should speak up and address the group.

"Well, there's not a lot I can say. You all know what to do. You know your positions. We've practiced and memorized everything. All that's left is to execute," Fed said, stepping into his leadership role effortlessly. "We all have loved ones in there and they are all depending on us, so we have to do this for them. It's what they deserve."

I took a deep breath and scanned the kids around me, who were nodding encouragingly as Fed finished his speech.

"Alright, let's hit it," Dylan said as he stepped back from the crate to pack up his gun and extra bullets. We broke off and went to find our personal items and weapons. I grabbed the gun Dylan had given me earlier and placed it into my drop leg holster while Raine did the same with the knife I had given her way back when they were at the abandoned yellow house.