𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒; outer banks

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

"Not stay here," JJ muttered almost immediately, eyeing the water worriedly. 

"I can take my dad's truck." Everyone sent Kiara looks of doubt. "How much worse can it get, you know?"

"I would offer but, mum doesn't have a truck, only a little car," Renna murmured sympathetically.

"That's fine, we need something to pull her out with. There's the winch at the Chateau. That's like, two miles," JJ reasoned with a grin. 

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Sarah nodded. 

"If you're gonna do it, let's go, okay?" John B mumbled. 

"All right," Kiara nodded. 

And so they parted, JJ and Kiara walking away from the remaining five who moved to sit on the roof of the Twinkie. They waited, and waited, and waited - until they deemed it too long. Their friends were taking forever. "How long does it take to go two miles and back in a car? I feel like they're taking a minute," Pope questioned aloud, voice empty. "Should I go look for them? Should I go find them and bring them back?"

"I don't know. Just give me a sec," John B managed as he held his bandana in his mouth. 

Atticus jumped off the roof of the Twinkie and approached the nervous boy, pulling him back with his hands on his shoulders. "Pope, just relax, man. They're fine, maybe they just ran into someone, all right?"

"But, why do we got to send JJ and Kiara, the slowest people on Earth?"

"That's true, they're extremely slow people," Renna commented, her legs swinging over the side of the van. "Gosh, this is so boring." She jumped down, landing in the water with a splash. 

"Woah, careful there, princess," Atticus mumbled, grabbing her unsteady body by her lower arms. She raised her brows. 

"Princess? That's a new one," she laughed, wrapping her own arms around his neck before leaning up to connect their lips. 

"Hey, you two!" Pope snapped, causing them to pull away and look at him with confusion. "Find me some driftwood, we're not waiting for them anymore." They rolled their eyes, Atticus mimicking his voice with high-pitched and incomprehensible dialogue. 

They split up, Atticus walking with John B as Renna trailed after Pope. The latter weren't successful, but John and Atticus soon found a piece of wood floating on the water's surface. However, when John B reached for it, he found it wasn't really a shard of bark, but a full-grown alligator who quickly sunk its teeth into his calf. 

He screamed, landing backward in the water as Atticus let out a shout, Renna and Pope hurriedly beginning to run over. "Someone get me a knife!" Sarah quickly followed Atticus' orders as Renna continued to splash her way through the murky water, hoping not to find her own hungry gator. "Renna, don't come any closer," Atticus warned, holding a hand out as Sarah threw him the knife. He caught the blunt end, quickly stabbing it into the gator's body to free his hurt friend. 

They rolled in the water, both Atticus and John B disappearing numerous times before they both resurfaced bloody and sore. They helped John B up to the top of the van where Renna was impatiently waiting, holding out her hands to help haul him up. After some time, they all managed to seek safety on top of the roof once more. 

Sarah wrapped John B's bloody wound as Renna inspected Atticus from behind, running her rattling fingers down his arms and neck and cheeks as she looked for even the smallest of scratches. She found one when she reached his hands, a long cut running down the back of his palm where the teeth of the alligator scratched along his skin. "God, okay, just, wait . . ." Renna rambled on as she examined his hand before moving across the roof, leaning over the edge with her stomach pressed to the top of the vehicle as she reached into the front passenger seat.