The Rain (Book 1 - The Unprotected)

Chapter 29 - Anticipation et déception

They sat at the side of the road waiting for the rain to stop. The mist was gaining on them, a monster creeping over hills and consuming the tree's and everything in its path. The cars were parked by the fields, where the army was but because of the fog, they couldn't see anything.

"So what? We just wait?" Jane asked impatiently, looking out her window in the hopes to see something. She couldn't sit still, the fact that her parents may be over the hill filled her with excitement.

"You wanna run out in the rain? Be my guest." Nate grumbled from in front of her. His eyes were closed and his head leant against the seat. Jane rolled her eyes at the back of Nate's head and sighed, looking out longingly into the sheet of mist.

"What time is it?" Nate asked, his eyes still shut. Jeanette pulled back the sleeve of Clifton's jacket and looked down at her watch.

"It's almost four thirty." She said, looking behind her to see Bethany curled up into a ball. Her eyes shut as she listened to the music that Jane gave her. It was from Jane's phone, at least, she thought it was.

"Ugh." He groaned and opened his eyes, snatching the walkie talkie from Jeanette's lap. "Hey, are we sitting here all night or..." He drifted off, taking his finger away from the button, the silence was replaced by static.

"Well, you want to go and see if our friends are on the other side? Knock yourself out." Courtney broke through the static. Nate chuckled at her answer and shook his head, placing the walkie-talkie on the dashboard and crossing his arms. "We have to wait until the rain stops and the mist fades. So yeah, if it takes all night, we'll wait all night." She said sternly through the static.

Nate scoffed and looked out his window. "Great." He mumbled sarcastically, leaning back and closing his eyes again.

-5 hours later-

It was dark outside. Nate couldn't see a thing. The mist blurred everything and the disappearance of the sun hid everything. The moon sat lonely in the centre of the sky. A few stars were dotted around it but they were no match for the moon's light. Every now and then a thin, wispy cloud would pass over the moon and shade some stars but after time, it would fade into the dark night sky.

Jane and Bethany were asleep. Jeanette had a few energy bars and two tins of canned meat in her backpack. They'd eaten that for dinner. Jeanette had draped Clifton's jacket over Bethany as a blanket and Nate just wrapped his tighter around himself.

"I never thanked you," Jeanette whispered turning to face Nate. He didn't know that she was awake, he thought they were all asleep. He turned to face her, startled when she talked.

His brows scrunched together and he titled his head to the side. "For what?" He asked curiously.

"For saving me that day, when..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Nate knew what she was talking about but he stayed silent. He wanted her to actually say it. "When...Clifton ran and..pushed me down. I never thanked you for helping me." She breathed out. She opened her eyes and Nate could see the tears glistening in them.

"It's cool." He looked over at her with pity. "People do and say things they don't mean when they're scared." He said comforting her in a sense. She nodded and looked over at him, she was twisting the ring around her finger.

"He used to say that 'fear was stronger than anything we'd ever known because it had the power to take control over us'." She whispered, the tears were running down her cheeks and dripping onto her blue top, making a few dark patches.

Nate nodded and breathed out a humourless laugh, he looked out the window. "He was right."

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