𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 27.

"Put the raincoat on," he muttered, while quickly slipping his arms into the sleeves of his own.

"Why?" I looked between him and Sarah warily.

"Just put the frickin' coat on, Charlie!" He shouted in a low volume, with wide eyes.

"Okay!" I scolded him back, with eyes as equally wide. "Alright!" I grabbed the raincoat with both hands, quickly draping it over my back, shoved both arms in, and cloaked the hood over my head like they were doing.

Next thing I knew, they grabbing a tank and lowering their hooded-heads around a bend. I stayed close behind John B, and I was holding a crate instead, stepping down into the cargo entrance of the large boat. He rushed past Sarah when they put their tanks down, and I was last to step down the stairs after dropping my stupid crate of nothing, their steps echoing on the metal.

    We heard a man shout from somewhere else above deck. "Gotta go down into the engine room!"

    I cussed under my breath and trudged further.

    I was breathing unsteadily as they ripped open a big metal door, revealing another hall, but lit up with red lights. Sarah swooped into the room and ran to the end, and John B waited for me at the open door. His hand was on my lower back as I passed him, frantically pushing me inside to make sure I was safe and out of sight. All that was heard after that was the loud voices of men on deck, and all of our uneven breaths.

    As I stopped to stand beside Sarah, John B stopping on my other side, the boat suddenly shook. It was a violent shake, enough for us to loose balance. As if it were a reflex, my one arm wrapped around John B's neck to keep steady, his own hands trailing around my waist, and my other arm reached out to Sarah who gripped a shelf for support. There were a few gasps.

    "Yeah— um," Sarah was looking at John B and I holding each other, once the boat was steady, "I'm having a hard time believing there's nothing going on there," with a sly smirk, she pointed to the both of us.

    I fake-coughed, and only looked to him for a split second, our faces being inches apart, before letting go. He cleared his throat.

    "Guys, we're moving," John B noticed, after a long and awkward second.

    "Holy shit," Sarah breathed out, a relieved and happy look rising to her face.

    I fully pulled away from John B, and looked around the room slightly wide eyes, my mouth agape. My stomach began to settled with an odd feeling from the red lights, while I made my way into a much more open space. I heard their steps following me.

    "Holy fuck, it's hot in here," John B muttered, and then let out a long sigh as he rushed past me. I breathed in his scent, before he took off his backpack and sat himself on a low metal cabinet.

    "Jesus," Sarah huffed, from behind me.

    We hadn't even been in the engine room for more than two minutes, but I was already starting to feel my forehead drip with sweat. A long breath of air left my mouth as I took off the yellow raincoat, dropping it on the floor before crouching down to sit on top of it, leaning my back against the cabinet. My shoulder was pressed up against the bottom of John B's leg.

    "This is torture," John B heaved, annoyance in his tone.

    "It was your idea, idiot." I rebutted.

    Sarah sat down on the metal cabinet above me, her legs crossing on top of it.

    "Actually, it wasn't," he claimed. "I was going to ask if we could get a ride on top. This was Sarah's idea."