Later in the day we were back outside with the Pogues around, Kie was playing with Bongos, Pope minding his business, reading a book and JJ just throwing rocks and sticks, he had tried to come up and ask me how I was doing when he first arrived and because of the promise I made, I gave a short answer, he tried to make a joke but I just walked away.
"Look, I'm callin' it off. All right?" John B says, "Peterkin said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS."
"And you believed her?" JJ grumbled.
"Yes, I believe her, JJ." He said in a matter of fact tone.
"An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop."
"All we gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple of days, and she'll help me out." He tells him, and tosses the metal stick in his hand aside. "It doesn't help that your ass was the one shooting a gun."
"Oh yeah? Right, you know what I should have done? Just let Topper drown her ass." He says, I was sitting RIGHT there.
"Yeah, because Topper was gonna drown her?" He challenged.
"Sure looked like it."
"Oh tell me more. Come on."
"Topper was DROWNING HER." He emphasized, "She was throwing up water and gasping for breath while you were laying on the ground!" He told him. "They always win, don't they, man?" He continued getting riled up. "Kooks VS. Pogues, they always win!" He says, hitting something. "Goddamn!"
"Look, It's okay!" I tell them.
"No, it's not okay! It is not! They don't want us to go down into the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there, and you know it." He says, walking up and sitting next to me, John B kept glancing over.
"John B, I know you know. And I understand why you don't wanna go." He says to Pope, "You're the golden boy, you've got way too much to risk." He looked at Kie, "And you, I mean you're already rich as fuck anyway. Why would you bother." He tells her.
I looked away from him, he glanced at John B. "You two and me, man. We've got nothin' to lose!" He says, standing up and pacing around again.
"JJ.." John B sighed.
"We really don't, all right? And I know it didn't used to be like that for you."
John B moved past me and walked up to JJ, "I don't want to talk about this. I don't wanna talk about it." He says.
"So that's it?" JJ asks.
"Just get out of my way, bro!" He says, shoving JJ aside with no remorse.
"John B, listen to me. I have a plan." He says, chasing after him to talk, Pope, Kiara and I glanced at one another.
"Are you feeling better?" Kie asks, she was worried about the marks all over my face and body, there were bruises on my wrists from where Topper pinned my hands behind my back, bruises on my stomach, legs and face. It was less extreme for John B than it was for me.
"Yeah, they don't really hurt." I explain, Kiara puts her hands out and rubs my wrists and hands. "What in the world are you doing?" I ask her.
"Shh.. it's good for the body." She says, I giggled at her.
John B ended up bringing me out on the boat, turns out he was actually listening to JJ, while he was on the Druthers, Sarah came up and started talking to him, they headed back down and I stared at her, she hissed sympathetically. "Damn, are you good? You both look gnarly." She mentioned, "'Specially that eye of yours." She says to John.
"Yeah, you know what. You can tell Topper he won the first round."
"A gun to head doesn't seem like a win to me." I muttered quietly, his head snapped toward me.
"I'll get him next time."
"So there's just gonna be a reign of terror on this island now?" She asked him.
"You know wars have been started for less Sarah Cameron."
"Okay. Can we drop the whole Pogues versus Kooks thing? It is really stupid."
"Maybe keep your boyfriend from trying to kill people then." I tell her.
"How about you keep yours from starting fights." She told me.
"Who, JJ? Not my boyfriend."
"Sure seemed like it to me."
"Well, you're wrong." I glared at her.
"Girls, really?" He asked, going over to the control panel, Sarah flipped him off as he started the boat and we went on.
"This is empty, you took empty tanks?" Kiara asked John B when we were together again. "Okay, this one's a quarter full. It's enough for one of us."
"Love it when a plan comes together." Pope chips in.
"Doesn't anybody know how to dive?"
It was silent.
"Anybody?"
"It's kind of a Kook sport." JJ says.
"I.. read about it." Pope replied.
"Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die."
"I could probably do it." I told her, John B chuckled.
"You're not going diving."
"Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breath. How hard could it be?" JJ says.
"Well if you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends." Pope informs him.
"Bends like, bend over and.."
"The bends kill you." I tell him.
"Right--"
"I can– I can dive." John B says.
"Um, sir, if I can't dive then you can't dive." I told him, he rolled his eyes.
"I'm the boss so I can tell you not to dive."
"Who said you're the boss?"
"Uncle Ted."
"No, he didn't, you're a liar." We argued.
"Since when can you dive." Kie asked him.
"I'll do it. It's fine." He says, staring right at me.
"Let me do some calculations real quick." Pope says.
"You serious?" Kie asks, he looked at her and she just got up, shaking her head.
"Okay, so that boats about 30 feet down, right." Pope says, doing math with a pen.
"Okay."
"So it'll take 25 minutes at most at that depth."
"Twenty five-"
"Which means you need to make your safety stop at about.. 10 feet. Alright? For two minutes, you got it?"
"Yeah, yeah. Ten feet, two minutes. Got it." He replied.
I sighed and took my shirt off, jumping in the water and down to tie my t shirt to the anchor chain, Kie told me it would be a good idea.
"What was that about?" John B asked.
"I dunno, but I liked it. A lot." JJ muttered.
"Dude, how many times do I have to tell you." John B scolded him.
I swam back up and waved to them. "Hey, I tied my t shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down." I told them. "For your safety stop." I said, swimming back, I went to get on the boat and JJ walked over to help, I shooed him away and climbed in.
"Cool."
"You need to make sure you have enough air to decompress." Pope tells John.
"Okay, how much do I need?" He asked.
"Hm.. unclear, breath as little as possible."
"Zen, think zen." JJ says, I walked over, wringing my hair out over the boat.
"Yeah. Got it."
"Hey, if we get caught out here in the marsh, we're basically screwed, so.. better get a move on." He says to him.
"Copy that."
"Don't get the bends." I tell him.
"No promises."
Kiara walks up and kisses his cheek, I cringed at this and JJ groaned.
"Diver down?" He asks.
"Diver down."
He jumped in and started his journey under the water, JJ walked over to talk.
"He'll be fine. In the mean time, why are you so quiet." He asked, I sighed and looked at him.
"Just leave me alone."
"Why? What's your problem today. You won't say more than a word or two to me." I looked away from him but he just moved his face in front of mine. "Well?"
"Mind your own business." I push him away and he follows me.
"Come onnn, we're best friends, you can tell me anything. You won't even text me."
"Have you considered the idea that I don't want to?" I told him, my heart was hurting doing this to him but I had to.
"Why, it's so sudden. You have no reason to push me away."
"Oh my god! Hah! Just leave me alone!" I expressed, Kiara and Pope looked at each other in confusion, they felt the same way, it confused them as to why I wouldn't even look at JJ. A siren went off and Pope swore under his breath.
"Shit. JJ." He says.
"Oh, that's the police."
"You've gotta be kidding me."
"Yep, that's the police."
"Just act frickin' normal." Kiara says, she glanced at me. "You and I are gonna have a chat later."
"Ughh."
"Evening, officers."
"Evening."
"Here." One of them said, handing the rope to Pope.
"JJ, tie this off." He did, he stared at me as he walked by to do so.
"How you kids doing? You know the marsh is closed?" He asks.
"No."
"No. Wow."
"I didn't know that." I shrug.
"Why– why is it closed?" Pope asked.
"Well, we're conducting a search out here. Boat went down."
"Oh."
"Seen anything?" The deputy asks.
"No."
"No boats. No."
"Where is your friend you always hang with? He here?" He asks, looking at me. "Ah, your uh.. brother."
"Cousin." I sighed.
"Yeah, that's right."
"He's working." I told him, cracking my neck.
"Hm. I'm gonna check your little boat out." The officer says.
"Sure, yeah, hop aboard. But uh, don't break anything, please. This is my boat and I don't have any money." I told him. Putting JJ's sunglasses on, I laid back on the front of the boat, pretending to be tanning.
One of the officers looked at my body. "You okay? Got some pretty rough bruises there." She says, I looked at her and then around and pointed at myself, she nodded.
"Oh yeah, it's fine." I told her.
"You got another one of these?" The other officer asks, picking up a life jacket.
"Yeah, it's in the hold." JJ says, Kiara gets up off it.
"Show him."
"Okay," he says, squeezing by her and checking, he picked it up.
"Yup, here we go."
"All right." He says, glancing around and staring at me.
"Sir?" I ask.
"Could you move over please?" He asks, going to check over the edge of the boat.
"Uh, yeah." I sat up and he shoved by me, JJ grabbed my arm so I didn't fall off the boat and pulled me back over where there was space. I pulled away and he sighed, shaking his head at me. "Be careful. You don't wanna slip." I told the deputy. He looked out over the water for a good while before turning back.
"All right." He says.
"All right." Two more came from the boys.
"Beautiful day, innit?" He asked.
"Sure is." I sighed. The officer walked back and undid the boat.
"You let us know if you see anything on your way out." He tells us.
"Will do." Pope says.
"We'll be gone soon, sir." JJ says.
"Yes, you will." He replied, before they went back off.
We all ran over to look off the edge of the boat.
"He's definitely out of air." Pope said.
He popped up above the surface. "There he is!"
"Oh, god! Jesus Christ! Don't scare us like that."
JJ was laughing, "How'd it go down there?"
John B muttered while JJ went over to help him out of the water. "Did you find anything?" He asked.
"Did I find anything?" John B mocks playfully, tossing a bag up.
"Yeah, there we go! That's my boy!"
"Jeez, dude."
"You okay?" Kie asked, he was panting.
"Yeah, I ran out of air."
"You scared the shit out of me."
"Yeah, the cops were up here, but, uh.. We took care of 'em"
"My bad." He chuckled, rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah, you kinda missed the show, brother."
"Hey, guys? Guys, bogey 2 o'clock." Kie says, we looked over to see a strange boat with people on it coming toward us.
"Do you recognize that boat?" Pope asked.
"Never seen it." I told him.
"What are they doing here? The marsh is closed." Kie says.
"I don't know, but let's not stick around to find out" JJ says.
"JJ, get the bowline." John says, JJ responds and goes over to do that.
"Should we wait on 'em?" Pope asks.
"No, we're not." I told him. "Go get the stern. Go!"
"Are you joking? JJ, hurry up."
"Guys, don't wait for me. Go." JJ says.
"Let's go!"
"I don't like this."
"Are coming toward us?"
"Maybe they're fishing."
"Go, go, go, go!"
"Go into the marsh." Pope says, John B does just that.
"Let's go!"
"I'm going. Act natural." He says, I glanced over at them speeding up to chase.
"Uh, John B. They're following us." I tell him.
"Shit."
"Oh, this can't be good." Pope says.
"Dude, you gotta go faster!" JJ tells John B.
"I'm going!"
"Gun it!"
"I'm going!" He says, speeding up the boat. We all held on while we watched the men chase us at high speed. I held onto the rail near JJ since Pope and Kie had the other side. All of a sudden a gunshot was heard and it whizzed past JJ's head, right between mine and his.
"What the–"
"Holy shit!" I shouted. JJ pushed me down in front of the control panel and got down too.
"John B, get down!" He shouted, we all ducked behind the walls of the boat except John B who was trying to get us away as another bullet went by.
"Oh my god, we're gonna die." Pope said, JJ sat up to check behind us again and another gunshot went off, I reached up and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him down on top of me, but at least he was behind the walls of the boat, there was absolutely no space between mine and his bodies.
"Have you lost your mind! Don't move!" I tell him, he put his forearms out to keep himself from crushing me and kept his head down in my neck. Kiara swore and picked up some fishing net. Another bullet went off and John B ducked his head.
"Get down Kie!" He tells her, she ignored him and set up the net, throwing it out back, hoping it would get caught in their engine. Another bullet went off, I made sure to keep JJ down because he was so damn curious to look and get shot in the head. Thankfully the fishing net plan worked and we got away as their boat stopped, JJ glanced down at me and I just pushed him off, moving out from under him.
John B started chuckling, I stood up and looked back at the boat that got further and further away.
"Oh my god! Whoo!"
"Whew!"
"Booyah!"
"That was insane!"
"See you, guys!" JJ shouted. Once we all made it back to The Château we ran up on the pier to check the bag John B got.
"What do you think it is?" Kie asked.
"Gotta be money, right?" John says, opening it.
"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low- to mid- mils, man!" J says.
"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope asked.
"Wow, Pope." I looked over at him. "That's a rare outburst of emotion from you, man."
"Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation." He defended himself. "So open the bag. We almost died over this."
We watched John open it and find a canister, which he then opened too.. to find a compass.
"Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right." Pope sighs. "Good job, everybody. We found a compass."
I stared at it and John B looked at me, showing it off. "Oh my.."
"Dude, what? It's not worth anything." JJ says.
"This was my father's.." he chuckled softly.