Frankie sits out on the deck gazing out across the water. She rests in what seems like silence from an outsider, but her loud rushing thoughts keep her busy. She thinks about Travis and Alicia. What could be happening to them. It worries her awfully. Her hands get shaky pondering these ideas. She's interrupted by a splashing noise a few feet out.
She jumps to her feet and looks around frantically for a source of the noise. A figure in the water can be seen waving their arms around for help. Frankie turns back to the inside of the boat.
"Hey! Someone's here! In the water!" She shouts. She waits a moment but no one comes. She gives a sigh and then reaches down and pulls the person up by the arms. They lay face down on the deck unmoving. Frankie grabs their shoulder and flips them over onto their back.
She jumps back and gasps. The person didn't have a face. Not in the way where their skin was gone, no, they have skin over their face. But it is smoothed out, with no eyes, nose or mouth. Frankie screams in shock and falls off her feet. She scooches backwards. Nick runs up to her, and crouches down.
"Frankie, are you okay? What happened?" He asks. She turns her head at him.
"They-they-" She looks back at the person she pulled on deck. No one is there. She points at the ground where they were. "They were right there, I swear-"
"No one is there Frankie. No one was." She looks back at him. She whispers now.
"They had no face." Her eyes are wide. Nick pulls her into a hug. He let's go and holds her hand.
"Let's go inside." He whispers. She nods. He helps her get on her feet, and guides her almost like someone would a blind person. She sits at the center table. Nick takes the seat next to her. She notices the few guns on the table.
"What were you doing?" She asks.
"Oh, it's not important right now." He turns himself closer to her, giving his full attention.
"It's fine. I want to help."
"You don't have to-"
"No, no it's fine." He pauses looking in her eyes, trying to read her facial expressions. He then grabs a gun.
"Well, I was loading all of them." She nods and takes one. They sit in silence loading them. Real silence. Not the eerie kind either, the peaceful kind. Madison stomps down the stairs behind them.
"Don't pull that shit again." She scolds, talking about the short trip they had both gone on.
"Strand said it would be quick." Nick explains, setting the gun down.
"Then Strand should have gone. Nick, Frankie, what were you thinking?"
"We don't really mind it out there. Honestly." Nick defends their decision.
"We have enough problems. Please don't add to them. Okay. Don't worry me like that, you two."
"I'm sorry." He mumbles. Frankie clicks the gun. She looks at it squinting. Madison glances over to her.
"You're getting comfortable with that."
"I'm really not." She replies quietly. Madison leaves the room. "Let's go downstairs. I want to see our prisoner." She says with a frustrated face. Nick nods. They go down below, and find Chris talking to Reed, their hostage. Chris seems angry by what Reed is telling him.
"Hey, you okay?" Nick goes up to Chris and asks. He closes the door to Reed. Frankie is a few steps back.
"You all right?" She questions.
"I'm fine."
"Want to come upstairs? What is it? What? What is it?" Nick interrogates him. He tilts his head.
"I froze. I let them on the boat. This is my fault."
"Look, man--" Nick is interrupted.
"No, no, I pull the trigger, none of this would happen. I pull the trigger, my dad and Alicia are on the boat, we're off to Mexico already." Chris rants.
"What, you gonna shoot a pregnant woman? Come on, man. I wouldn't shoot a pregnant woman. This isn't on you."
"What if I freeze again? I want to make up for it."
"Okay, but just don't let it get inside your head, all right? Yeah?" Frankie speaks up.
"Okay." He quickly responds and rushes off. Frankie slowly opens the door to Reed. She glares at him with her arms crossed.
"Who the hell are you?" He laughs. She snaps. She pulls out the metal chain in her back pocket and storms into the room. She wraps the chain around Reed's neck tightly, but loose enough for him to breathe. She stands behind the chair and whispers in his ear.
"If anything, and I mean anything happens to Alicia, I won't kill you." Reed squints confused. "It'll be much, much worse. You'll beg me for death before I kill you." She hisses through her teeth and tightens the chain slightly. Nick barges in. He puts his hands up, trying to calm her down.
"Frankie....please." She loosens the chain. "I want to also, but we can't." She unwraps the chain, and remains behind the chair. Reed gasps for air. Partly because of the rod impaled into him. She walks over to Nick.
"Ya, listen to your owner bitch." She stops in her tracks. Nick steps closer to her.
"Give it to me." He whispers in her ear. She hesitantly passes the chain into Nick's hands. She expects him to pull her out of the room, but is taken aback by his next actions. Instead of taking the chain from her, to keep her from attacking with it, Nick wanted to use it himself.
Nick wraps the chain around his hand and makes a fist. He pushes past Frankie and hits the man in the face twice. The chain breaks the skin on Reed's cheek slightly and causes him to bleed. Nick grabs Frankie by the shoulder and they walk out, shutting and locking the door behind them.
"C'mon let's go check what the plan is with my mom." Nick mutters and they start to walk down the hallway.
"Thank you." She says and looks up to her side at Nick.
"I didn't just do that for you. I did it for me, Alicia, and you."
"Thank you anyways." They walk up to the captain's room in silence. When they get there they see Strand and Madison by a radio. The radio clicks on and a man's voice comes through.
"Hey, asshole, what are you waiting for, a written invitation? Get your ass back here. Over. Reed, you're pissing me off. Drop anchor, shut it down. Over." Madison hesitantly lifts the microphone to her mouth.
"You can have your brother when I get my family back."
"Madison, is that you?"
"Yes."
"What'd you do with him?"
"Nothing yet."
"What about Ben and Red?"
"You promised us safe passage, they didn't follow through on that."
"Let me talk to Reed."
"No."
"Let me talk to him now!"
"He's alive. You want him, trade. One hour. Your brother for my family."
"Okay, I'll play. One man with Reed. If he's unharmed, you get yours."
"I'll go. I'll go. I'll bring him." Nick whispers.
"One hour." The radio clicks off.
"I'll go, Mom." Nick repeats. Before Madison can respond a gunshot goes off below them. Madison, Nick and Frankie, rush down the stairs to the source of the noise. They reach the room Reed was being kept in. Madison gasps.
"Oh, my God." She mutters. Reed sits tied to the chair dead. Chris must've shot him in the face and grazed his cheek. The wound in his stomach added to that killed him. Ophelia and Daniel stand around his body.
"Chris said he was gonna turn." Ofelia says.
"Where's Chris?" Madison asks.
"He just left." Madison leaves and follows after Chris. Luis runs up to the doorway. He sighs frustrated.
"That's that. We're going south. This is done."
"Nothing is done." Daniel replies. Nick and Frankie lean against a wall. Luis leaves. Ofelia begins cleaning the blood stains in the carpet.
"Chris can't see this. Ugh." She mumbles through scrubbing.
"Think I'm actually starting to get used to this." Nick comments.
"Please don't."
"It's what we do now-- spill blood, clean it up, spill it again." Frankie explains.
"Chris said he was gonna turn. He wasn't, was he?" Ofelia asks. Reed begins breathing again. He snarls and gurgles on his own blood. He stumbles on his feet and reaches for Frankie. "Oh, God. Careful." She shouts to Frankie. Nick flicks open a knife and steps in front of her, about to kill it.
"Oh. No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait." Daniel commands. He runs at Reed's corpse and impales him more by sticking him into the wall. "Not yet. Not yet."
"What do you mean not yet? He's not gonna come back to life!?" Frankie exclaims.
"We can still use him. Cover his head, tie him up. His brother won't be able to tell he's dead in the exchange." Daniel describes his plan to them.
"That actually might work."
Next thing Frankie knows Madison is loading up the small boat on the deck getting ready to leave for the trade. Nick goes up to his mom. Frankie stands around fifteen feet away, still able to hear their conversation.
"Mom, let me go."
"No."
"No, let me go. Listen to me. If something happens, it's better if it's me."
"Nick-"
"Everybody else needs you."
"No."
"And I'm better with the boat. Why won't you just let me go?"
"Because you want to. Because people do need you. Frankie needs you. Alicia needs you. We need you. You need to realise that Nick. I know you had time away from everyone for a little while, and you forgot that people care about you. Well guess what, they do. You're my son. You're a brother. You're a husband. You're not alone now." Madison goes on a rant teaching Nick to look out for himself. He walks back over to Frankie
"She's right, you know." Daniel hands Madison the dead version of Reed. They get in the boat and set off. Nick and Frankie run up to the top balcony where Strand is, to see what unfolds. Nick holds the binoculars.
"I can only see Travis." He says.
"Give me those." Frankie snatches the binoculars from him. She describes the scene to them. "Madison is handing over Reed. They're giving her Travis. Oh shit, they lifted the head covering. Oh shit, he's dying to his dead brother! Wow, really biting into that neck there. They're getting rid of the other guys." She lifts the view up. "Alicia's up top! Madison and Travis are bringing the boat over. Why is she hesitating? Oh, she jumped! And she's in the boat!"
"Thanks for those profound storytelling skills." Strand snickers.