"oh, baby where are you
now when I need you
most?"
MAYBE IT WAS PURE LUCK that the three were able to make it across the bridge in time to follow Sarah. Red didn't care what it was, because they made it. Now, all that mattered was to get Sarah.
But Red could tell it had already been a few hours because she could see the sun start to peek out from the sky, but she had fallen asleep in the Twinkie.
Red was awakened by the overall bumpiness of the rocky road approaching the port Sarah's location had led them to, but it was just in time.
John B pulled off into the dirt on the side of the road, rubbing his finger against the Twinkie's wheel. "We did it, old girl."
"Let's roll."
Red quietly closed the Twinkie door as they anxiously awaited the semi-truck that would allow them into the port.
Soon enough, the truck would pass, and the three teens would follow closely behind it. They waited for security to be distracted by the truck while they snuck in through the small crease in the gate.
They ducked behind some loading equipment, watching the guards before peeking over the equipment at the ship.
"Ah, shit..."
"The Coastal Venture? Dude, I know that ship." JJ read the shite wording on the side of the ship. "My dad did legs on her last summer, It's a total tramp steamer. I worked on her in port.
"Guys, look. The cross." Red pointed in the direction of a large wooden box, being lifted onto the ship. Red glanced down, spotting two familiar heads. "And Rafe... and Bennie. What is she doing there?"
"Bennie'll let us know where the cross is, don't worry about it. She knows we're here." JJ explained.
"Look, there she is!" John B exclaimed, pointing towards Sarah, Wheezie, and Rose Cameron. "JJ, we gotta come up with a plan."
"I know, I'm working on it. Maybe if we get over to that barge, we go over. We'll have to get in the water, though."
"That's fine."
"Then we're gonna be sitting ducks."
Red's eyebrows furrowed at JJ's comment, but it was quickly brought out of context by the sound of Kie's voice.
"Howdy." She voiced, rushing up to the trio in front of Pope.
The three jumped back, not expecting her to sneak up on them gave them quite a scare.
"I was about to stab your eyeballs out!" JJ declared, holding his fingers to Kie.
"You guys looked scared as shit."
"Wait a minute, how'd you guys even get here? How'd you find us?" Red cut in, chuckling lightly at the end of the sentence.
"Geo-located your phone."
"Yeah, that track..."
"Smart."
"You okay? What happened?" John B questioned, giving Pope a once over and noticing he was badly bruised and covered in mud.
Pope sighed, stepping forward to get a better view of what lay in front of them. "Rafe round three."
"Are you kidding me, again?"
"You won though, right?" Red poked, trying to lighten the mood even just a little bit.
"It was a tie." Pope chuckled. "Is that the cross?"
"Yep."
"They're holding Sarah hostage." John B explained, turning back towards the rest of the pogues.
"We have to get on that boat." Kie acquired.
"Yeah, but we still have to get past the goon squad. That's the issue, Kie." Red breathed, looking over at the construction workers stationed outside of the ship.
"OK, let's move, c'mon." John B turned back towards Pope, who still stood, his eyes fixated on something. "Pope, what are you doing?"
Pope explained something inaudible to John B before running off away from the group. John B walked back over to the group.
"Where is he going?"
"That's a good question, Red. I don't know."
It was only a few seconds later that a large bang rang through the teen's ears. They looked over to see an explosion and men crowding around where it came from. Soon, Pope would come crashing over towards them, crouching down beside equipment before John B approached him.
"Look, that container's going on the ship, we can get in that way." Pope pointed towards a storage container, looking back over at John B. "You with me?"
The group rushed over towards the back of the container, JJ, Red, and Kie hesitating to climb inside.
"Woah, did we think this through?" Asked JJ, standing outside of the container.
"Yes, this is the plan."
"That's a trap right there, Pope, you see that once we get in, we can't get out!"
"Look, you guys don't have to come, alright?" John B assured, putting his hands on JJ's shoulders.
"Yeah, this is our fight," Pope added.
Kie let out a shaky breath, climbing into the storage container without another thought.
Red turned to JJ as if asking with her eyes what he was doing. JJ looked down at her, slipping his fingers into hers and giving Red a reassuring smile.
"Till the sun burns out?" JJ asked glancing up at Kie, John B, and Pope who stood there waiting patiently.
Red looked at the three, then back at JJ. "Till the sun burns out."
The duo leaped into the container, slipping through the narrow space between what was inside the container and hiding the back behind equipment.
"Yeah, this one's good to go." Red heard a man shout from outside the container. She turned to John B with a grin on her face, giving him a fist bump.
It was then that the container started to move forward as it was being pulled by some sort of truck. Soon the truck came to a halt, alerting the teens that they had arrived somewhere.
"Gotta be on the dock now-"
JJ was interrupted when John B shushed him, slowly standing up. Metal could be heard clanking from outside the container.
The container jotted to one side quickly, Red grabbed onto JJ as people shouted from outside. The heavy metal box flinched backward, causing Red to lose her grip and fly backward into John B, who barely grabbed her in time to stand her back up on her feet.
With one final tear forward, men from outside yelled that the container had come to a semi-safe landing and it was done jotting around.
"We made it."
"Sh! Be quiet, JJ!"
Kie's shushing was too late because men from the outside must have heard them. After all, when John B glanced up out of the window, he immediately flinched backward at the sight of one of the workers.
It scared them pretty well, but the men eventually walked away.
Once the teens were sure that they had made it onto stable ground, they made themselves more comfortable in the pod. Red sat over by Kie while JJ and John B negotiated.
"Nice work, John B. You know that these things lock from the outside, right?" JJ reminded, becoming increasingly more agitated with being stuck in the pod.
"I was just trying to get on the boat, JJ. I wasn't thinking that far ahead."
"Yeah, well now we're stuck in here like rats."
"It's hot." Kiara removed her jacket, she was right, it was getting really hot in the pod. Especially because it was likely made of metal.
"In this death cage."
"Ok, well you're not helping." Pope cut in, rolling his eyes at his friend.
"You don't have a whole lot of room to talk right now, Pope. You said you had a plan but... what happened to think ahead?"
"I find your lack of self-knowledge disturbing."
JJ laughed coldly, "Last time I checked, you shot an old container with the gat."
"Oh my god, shut up!" Kie groaned, kicking her leg out in between the two of them. "Shut up!"
"Pull it together. I know we're stuck in here. That sucks. But arguing isn't gonna get us out of here." Red added, Kie removed her leg from between them and looked over at John B.
JJ sighed, turning away from Pope. "Okay."
"Great, then let's try to find a way out of here."
Minutes of no luck passed, and the pod only got hotter and hotter. It was almost like the heat was sucking all the hope out of each and every one of the teens.
"Hey, Pope," JJ spoke, breaking the painful silence between all of them. "How do you kill a snake?"
"You go for the head."
"Exactly, but the head in this instance, is the bridge," JJ stated. "To take the bridge, we need maximum power, and I happen to know that there's an armory on this ship in case of pirate attacks."
Kie's eyebrows knit together. She stood up, getting ready to leave the space they bunched up in. "Pirate attacks."
"And if we take that- and I'm not just talkin' pistols-"
"You lost me." She declared, stopping in front of JJ. "Killing everybody here is not a plan."
Red patted JJ on the shoulder before following Kie into the other room. It was only then that she noticed something. A light. It was coming from something covered by material in the container, likely coming from a window.
"Kie," Red called, clicking her tongue and nodding her head in the direction of the light. Kie rushed over to her, helping her carry what was covering the light down.
"Guys," Kie called, not getting the attention of the arguing boys. "Guys!"
Finally, the boys made their way over to where Kie and Red stood. Red turned to John B, proud of the discovery. She gazed up at the window, "We can fit through that, yeah? One at a time."
"Hell yeah, nice one, RL."
"What was that about a Swiss army knife not coming in handy?" Asked JJ, getting 'the look' from both John B and Red as if they were disappointed parents.
"Just stop." John B said between his teeth, moving out of the way so JJ could climb up and begin cutting through the window screen.
JJ twisted the knife in between the metal of the screen, "Okay, we raid the armory, get weapons, roll back here, and plot the next move." JJ declared facing his head towards the pogues. "The armory is on the third deck, aft, near the laundry room. Let's roll."
"JJ, hold up," Pope called, getting JJ's attention as he gripped the metal. "I don't think we should all go out there. It's too risky."
"Why?"
"Okay, I gotta be honest, I think you should stay here." John B voiced. "I have Sarah that I'm gonna go after, Pope has the cross. And we can have Red go find Bennie."
"Yeah, let's get it done!" JJ poked his head over to John B, clearly not likely the plan they incorporated without him.
"Also, If you go out there, there's 100% probability that your gonna do something stupid."
"Okay, first of all, I think the correct terminology is 'ballsy' That is it-"
John B pulled JJ down from the box, having a hushed argument with him before getting the boy's attention. "Before we go out there and we get in a bind, we need somebody to look out for us. That is what we need."
"Fine, I get it, I get it, I get it. I'll be on the B team."
"JJ, I never said B team."
"Are you calling me B team?" Kie added, having a short argument with JJ before eventually John B, Red, and JJ were climbing out of the window. John B went first, then Pope, Red until the three of them were ducking behind smaller containers.
Soon the three would creep behind the container and climb down into a lower level of the deck. Here, they finally entered the inside area of the ship from a heavy metal door.
It seemed fine when they first walked in, but it was only a matter of time before a strong grip tugged Red backward at the sight of people.
While Pope split up to a different area of the ship, John B and Red climbed backward downstairs, hoping to find both Sarah and Bennie together somewhere on the ship.
John B poked his head through the doorway, waiting for one man to exit the room before they could slide in, eventually exiting through more stairs.
It was only then that a fire gun caught Red's eye, she whispered for John B to stay put while she snuck into the room, grabbing the gun and soon giving John B a small nod and turning it on up to the smoke detecter, hoping to create enough of a distraction that the duo could get away.
The man soon entered the kitchen, freeing John B to go into the room and grab the axe hanging on the wall.
"Hey!" Red whispered, getting the attention of John B. She nodded her head in the direction of a different door. "I need to go find Bennie. This is where we split."
"Okay." John B gave Red a quick hug before pulling back away. "Stay safe."
"Ditto!"
Red split up from John B, closing the door behind her and following flights of stairs until she arrived at another storage area. She had no idea where Bennie might be. The ship was too big to guess.
That was until she spotted a sign that read 'Cabins' which sparked the idea that Bennie probably was with Sarah, and Rose likely wouldn't let them out of the cabin.
Just as Red snuck around the corner, a man grabbed her by the wrist, immediately making her squeal as she turned to him.
"I got a stowaway!" He yelled loudly, trying to get the attention of other crew members.
"No! No, I promise I'm not a stowaway!" Red assured, needing to come up with something quick. "I'm on the list! I'm Sarah Cameron. Ward Cameron's daughter!"
"I thought the Capin' told you to stop making trouble! Do I need to get your father involved!"
"No, please, sir this is all just a big misunderstanding. I'm actually looking for my sister, Louisa, Wheezie she's about yay-high, 13 years old, with brown short hair, and dimples." Red of course described what Bennie looked like instead of Wheezie, knowing that the crew wouldn't be able to tell. "She went looking for someone that could help us... uh- the toilet wouldn't flush, and she has a tendency to run away, Rose told me to make sure she was ok, but I can't find her anywhere."
"You're lookin' for your sister?"
"Yes!"
The crew member sighed, letting go of her. "I'll tell the crew to keep an eye out, but you'd better get back to your cabin."
Red let out a sigh of relief. She knew that everyone was on high alert for stowaways, including the people on board the ship. She couldn't just go around knocking on doors.
It seemed like forever until Red finally found what looked to be another stairwell. She couldn't find her way back to the original container, so now she was rapidly searching around for something. Anything.
But again, someone grabbed onto her, turning her back towards them. Except for this time, it wasn't anyone Red expected to see on the ship even in the slightest.
"Red Shoupe?"
"Louie Rodriguez?"
the return of king Louie!
is all coming together