Fallen Raine {Completed}

Chapter Six - Some Arrogant Jerks Just Have Good Hearing

            “Why not? There’s eight of us and one of him.”

            “Because we can’t handle this, River.”

            “Look, Jess, none of us are prepared for this. But right now, we’re facing him. We need to hunt down this mother—”

            “Guys,” I interjected, finally speaking up. Right now we were just running around in circles. “We need to keep a clear head and stop fighting. Jessica, River’s right. We need a plan. And River, Jessica’s right. We can’t go in guns blazing. We need to think about this. This isn’t a videogame. Real lives are at stake here. So we need to think about this rationally, okay?”

            I ran a hand down my face and took in deep breaths, calming my anger. I couldn’t get angry now, not when I needed to focus. I’d heard somewhere that if you were angry, you made less well-informed decisions, and that would be our downfall. We needed to stay calm.

            “Raine’s right,” Jason said, taking a step towards me as if he were physically picking a side. “We need to figure this out.”

            “Alright, fine. Raine, what are your ideas?” River queried, crossing his arms over his chest, resultantly making his corded muscles bulge under his black tee.

            “I think that we should stick together, like Jason said, and try to avoid trouble. There’s no use trying to look for him, but we need to stick together and avoid confrontations. This guy is obviously psychotic. We can’t go against him. He’s violent and ruthless.”

            “So, what, we wait around for this guy to come and find us?” River asked dubiously.

            “No, River. We stay on guard and stick together,” I replied patiently, like I was talking to an incompetent four-year-old. “I have a feeling that if this guy doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be.”

            River ran a hand through his hair, making his dark curls bounce. “Fine.” He pointed at me. “But if this goes wrong, it’s falling on your head, Miller.”

            “Well, then it’s a good thing it won’t go wrong, isn’t it, Peterson?” I replied viciously, glaring at him. I knew I had just said that we shouldn’t be fighting, but his attitude was beginning to get on my nerves a little. We were finally figuring out plans and courses of action, and this was River’s reaction to the whole thing? A little support and encouragement wouldn’t have gone astray.

            His strong, defined jaw clenched and he turned his head, but I saw a vein in his neck jump. I rolled my eyes at his anger.

            “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting hungry,” Jason said, obviously trying to dissipate the growing tension between everyone.

            “Yeah, we should probably get some food,” Steve told the group, looking around at us. “If this guy corners us, we need to be strong and fed, not weak and starving. So we should start finding food.”