SWEET NICOTINE | pope heyward

18, a runaways simple survival skills

"I'm done here in an hour" He replied and she smiled wider.

"Well then, I'll see you in an hour" She waved as she walked off, needing to make sure the man thought more about their after-work date than the fact she was asking about Carlos Singh.

With absolutely no idea who the man was and no clue, if he had connections with Ward, was only making the whole thing more difficult. If he wasn't connected to Ward, what the hell did he want them for?

On her way out of that part of town, she found herself on a long dirt path. It made her nerves rise but she had to collect herself. She couldn't get nervous and scared right now. She had to find Kiara and she needed to find the pogues.

Kiara seemed the easiest. AJ knew now that Kiara was likely taken by Carlos Singh, whoever that was, and she just needed to get a bit more information.

She heard a vehicle behind and turned, finding a tractor coming towards her. She stuck her hand up, trying to wave down the driver. She thought quickly of a reason.

"you lost out here?" The man asked and AJ feigned innocence.

"yeah, I uh, was actually looking at how to get to Carlos Singh."

"Why do you need to see him?" The hint of accusation in his tone made AJ swallow hard, trying to think on her feet.

"well not him, but his land" She prayed he lived somewhere with lots of land. "I'm doing a school project. I'm not from here" She laughed, knowing that much was obvious. "I'm almost done I just needed a sketch of the land, the house ya know"

"ahh, your projects on Vaux Hall?" He asked and she smiled.

"yeah, Vaux Hall, It's been a really long day but I couldn't head back without finishing this"

"ya know, you remind me a lot of my daughter. Her nose always in the books, always finishing her work before it's due" AJ just smiled at the comment, praying he would help her.

"Well, Vaux Hall is just the other way, down that way there. Almost all of the land is" He answered and she let out a sigh of relief.

"thank you so much for the help" She waved off as he drove away. Her body was exhausted and she was sorely missing the comfort of the island but she pushed through.

She squinted when she saw the group of people by the post on the side of the road. Her stomach doing flips. She took a breath as she continued to get closer.

None of them had turned but she knew it was them and she breathed the biggest breath of relief. She felt like she could have burst out into tears at how relieved she was to see them.

Her feet hit the rocks and at the sound Pope turned, the nervous look fading into shock. "oh my god" He let out and AJ smiled, running towards him. "oh my god, oh my god" He let out as she ran into his arms.

He hugged her as tightly as he could, as if she could vanish any second. "AJ!" Sarah's voice met her ears but she didn't want to pull away from Pope.

"you're okay, oh my god you're okay." He breathed out.

"I didn't know if I was gonna find you guys" Happy tears brimmed in the girl's eyes as she finally pulled away from Pope. Within seconds they were replaced and she was being spun around. She laughed as she hugged JJ back.

The others joined in, hugging the girl they didn't know when they'd find or see again. "how'd you find us? How'd you know we were here" John B asked as they pulled apart.

"find you? I wasn't trying to. I was trying to find Kiara" She breathed out.

"oh yeah, us too" JJ let out, hugging the blonde girl one more time.