You Have 51 Kids? (Statehumans)

chapter five: Into the forest

[Louisiana's P.O.V.]

"It's showtime."

Idaho smirked and pressed a button on the rectangle box.
Click.

At first the only sound the audio made was the snickering and giggling of my brothers, but focused in more on strange accented voices in the background, along with the the steady patter of rain.

"Why are we doing this again?" A girl, sounding about twenty-four, asked.

"Well..uh...y-you don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm just checking to make sure he's alright." A nervous-sounding guy responded.

"I'm sure he's fine, don't..." The girl's voice was drown out by my brothers attempting to hold back laughter before the line cut.

The whole room was quiet. Either it was quiet with disappointment that the recording was useless, or quiet because none of us understood what the audio meant.

"...so.." Texas shifted uncomfortably on his bed.

Wisconsin let out a sigh. "Don't you see? There are intruders in the forest!"

"It seems like they were talking about dad, maybe?" I suggested. "But why would they be worried about him?"

"Lunch is ready, guys!" We all jumped at the sound of dad's voice coming from downstairs and exchanged glances as we heard our siblings running down the halls.
Kentucky slowly stood, but Texas shook his head. We waited for the stomping of our siblings to die down before speaking once more.

"Maybe they're close to him in some way?" Idaho shrugged.

"I think we've already figured that out." Kentucky sighed. "What did they look like? How long will it take for them to get here?"

"There was just the two you heard on the recording. A guy with a red maple leaf on his face and a woman with a blue and yellow face." Wisconsin said.

"We used the latter from a few days ago. They were about in the middle of the forest." Idaho butted in.

I blinked. That was really close to the house. Dad still hadn't found the latter, even though he had spent hours looking for how we had gotten out. Because of this, we had taken several trips outside and had explored almost every step of the forest (wich had turned out to be just a thin line of trees). But dad has been trying his best to keep us 'safe' by not letting us out of his sight.
I know he's just worried about us, but he can be really overprotective sometimes.

"So what do you say we do about it?" I asked.

"I say we make them go away." Florida stated bluntly, making us all jump. He had been quiet for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of us had forgotten he was still here.
"What would happen if they found Hawaii or someone else out there? What if they took one of us?"

After a moment of silence, Texas stood up and adjusted his hat. "I agree. We need to do something. Dad obviously doesn't know about this, otherwise he would be freaking out."

Kentucky nodded. "We don't have long before they reach the house, so we need to figure out what we're doing and fast."

"I vote we scare them." Idaho said darkly. "We could take Montana's bear."

"That's too easy." Florida frowned. "We need to make sure they don't come back."
After a moment, he smiled.

A shiver went down my spine. Whatever Florida is planning, it can't be good.

[Fifteen minutes later]

[ Rhode Island P.O.V]

Texas, Kentucky, California, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Alaska, and me all stood in Florida's room with Idaho handing out camo outfits. As my brother does this, though, I am slightly worried about how Florida has affected him in the last five minutes.
A moment ago he had taken Idaho aside and told him something, but I couldn't hear what. The only thing I know now is that Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, and Idaho all have devilish grins plastered to their faces.

Florida had explained the plan to us, and I'm almost sure my heart is beating so loud in my chest that Massachusetts, who is next to me, can hear it.

You know what? I don't know why I'm doing this. All I wanted was just a day to relax, where nothing bad happened.
I never planned on there to be countries out in the forest heading for the house.
Now that was... a surprise.
But this? This is a disaster just waiting to happen.
I don't know why, but I just have a gut feeling not to do this. Am overthinking this? Why am I not happy? The other states are finally noticing me, so why do I have such a bad feeling that something is going to go wrong? Like maybe dad will find out? No, that's not it. Is it? That can't be. Then why‐

"Rhode Island." Florida was looking down at me."I have a job for you." He smiled warmly and placed his hand reassuringly on my shoulder. "Into the forest."

[Hi everybody I tried to make this chapter interesting, and I have great plans for the next part of the story. Well, now that I'm actually writing this very last bit I don't know what to say here, but have a great whatever time it is you're reading this!]