I awoke with a start, clutching my chest where the bullet went in. The last thing I saw was Ivan's icy blue eyes staring straight into my soul as he pulled the trigger.
Looking down, there was no blood streaming from my chest; looking up, there was no trigger happy, psychotic nut, unfortunately, related to me.
I took a deep breath leaning back on my hands, looking at the navy blue covers lying over my legs.
Charlie was lying on his stomach, arms folded up under his head, turned toward me sound asleep. His mouth was parted slightly as the soft snoring flowed in and out of his dark, berry-colored lips. His hair was in disarray like a fawn-colored halo flattened against his forehead.
I laid back down on my side, facing him as I traced a finger slowly down the side of his face and across his square jaw, where a bit of scruff had started growing.
"Can't sleep?" A voice from inside the tent asked, making me jump.
I squinted through the darkness back into the depths of the tent; the outline of Derek's figure leaned against the tree trunk.
"Why aren't you...."
"Asleep? Funny you'd ask. I was awoken by the cries of a certain someone saying: don't shoot, don't shoot." He mocked me, hands raised.
"Sorry, don't know why I'm...." I sighed, slightly embarrassed as I pretended to rub the sleep out of my eye, just to have something to do with my hands, "Been having those a lot lately." I confessed.
He didn't say anything, just shared the silence with me for a moment.
"Okay, well," I pointed down at the covers. "I'm gonna try again."
"Don't bother, daylight in 15." He responded solemnly, gazing to his left out the other side of the tent to the outside. "Everyone up?" He sighed heavily.
I nodded.
"Everyone up." I agreed calmly.
An evil look came over Derek as he stared down at a sleeping Tyler lying at his feet. His booted foot came down hard on Tyler's shoulder, causing his raucous snoring to come to an abrupt stop.
Tyler sat up lightning-fast, Derek being the first thing he saw.
"Daylight in the swamp, sleeping beauty." Derek teased in a flat tone, trying not to let his mouth twist up into a smirk.
"What the fuck, man?" Tyler cursed, rubbing his shoulder where Derek's boot made contact, which now left a muddy print.
I'm not cleaning that. I cleaned up last night's mud fight that Xander started.
"Language." I snapped at Tyler, shooting him a look then at the kids three feet from him. "Get them up," I instructed, arching my brow.
Tyler brought his foot back to continue what Derek started on the new victim, Xander.
"Wanna keep that foot?" I challenged him.
The smile fell from his face, and he put his foot down begrudgingly, using his hand to shake Xander awake. Blinking a bit, Xander lifted his head up to look at where the disturbance came from.
"Up and at 'em," I called over to him and the girls.
Xander's bronze, curly mop of hair was perfect except for about two inches of his forehead, where the hair was sticking straight up.
It was hysterical.
Sitting up groggily, he looked over his sisters, trying to sneak in a few more minutes of sleep.
I nodded to Tyler once more, and he shook them awake as well. First Faith, who happily looked around at all of us; guess she's a morning person. Then Violet, whose dark hair hung over her face, struck out at where the arm that shook her awake came from.
Tyler took it to the ribs.
Oooh, that had to hurt.
"Come on, V, rise n' shine." I encouraged, at a hopefully safe distance from her limbs.
"I don't rise until there's shine." She muttered, her hair still covering her face as she pulled the covers up over her shoulder.
What we called covers were really just unzipped sleeping bags that came in Derek, Charlie, Tyler, and I's emergency bags. We shared since there wasn't enough for everyone; Charlie and I, Tyler and Xander, the girls, and Derek got his all to himself. Which is a story I will not share with you this early in the morning, but it's how he got dubbed "the scary one".
"Well then," I mumbled to myself, turning my attention to a snoozing Charlie separating me from the rest of the gang, just how he likes it, he says.
I kissed his forehead lightly, then touched his shoulder, trying not to let the fact that Derek was watching creep me out. Charlie groaned softly, acknowledging my presence.
"Mornin', good lookin'."
He opened one eye, then closed it.
"Mmm." He mumbled lazily, his quirk of a smile lasting for only a second before his face relaxed and he dozed off again.
I never understood how people can just fall asleep at the drop of a hat.
"Everybody, get dressed and pack up; we're heading out," I announced to my half-asleep gaggle of fugitives.
There was minimal movement being done, so I shot a look at them.
"Now." I pushed.
They started pulling shirts over their heads, Tyler clumsily hopping about trying to get his second foot into his pant leg.
Derek just sat as still as a statue, watching me. He likes to sleep in his clothes; he says it's better to be ready to get up and run if needed. The rest of us like the idea of sweats, the magical clothes that were comfortable and didn't chafe in unwanted places.
There was a white t-shirt and sweatpants for sleeping packed in every backpack for the soldiers. The kids had to sleep in their under-clothes from the jumpsuits since none of them had a pack.
I shook Charlie once more, trying to get him moving since I know it takes him a bit to fully wake up.
Xander, fully dressed, came bounding up to Charlie.
"Wake up! Wake up, Charlie, it's time to get up!" He cried happily, jumping onto his back.
Charlie's eyes popped open as the air was forced out of his lungs. He wheezed, pulling Xander off his back so he could turn over.
I almost laughed, but it would have been greeted with a death glare, so I stayed quiet. I looked over them with soft eyes, feeling the corner of my mouth pull up into the beginnings of a smile.
"I'm up, I'm up." He coughed, trying to manage a sitting position.
"We're going on an adventure, Charlie!" He exclaimed excitedly, sitting on Charlie's stomach.
"We are, are we?" He asked, uncertain, looking to me.
I mouthed "Max" to him, and he nodded.
Even though the kids grew up in the System, I was determined for them to still be able to act like kids. I wasn't going to saddle them with weapons and responsibilities for keeping themselves and each other alive; that was my new job. And Goddamn it, they were gonna believe in Santa Claus, even if it kills me. Semi-normal life of believing in magical beings and Bigfoot, coming right up!
