SEASON ONE,
CHAPTER 19:
THE ROYAL MERCHANT
"Copy that. Aye, aye."
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A PRISTINE WHITE boat sails across the deep blue ocean as it rocks against the gentle waves being created. It holds five teenagers aboard, it being the same group of friends following Big John's word in trying to find the Royal Merchant. Many adults have dedicated their lives into finding this shipwreck and will most likely be annoyed to find out that some teenagers got to the golf before them. But the Pogues are finishing the research that John B's father began and carried. It lead to the man to his death — or disappearance, whichever people choose to believe in.
A sturdy plan has been created in what the five will be doing for them to be successful with the treasure hunt, and it's something they all believe will work. JJ will be driving the entire time with Delilah right next to him, giving directions from the map. Meanwhile, John B is going to be drop the drone into the water where he and Pope will be watching through the live camera being displaced onto a screen. Kiara will be holding the tether attached to the drone to measure how far down it sinks.
Soon enough, John B soon announces the order to stop where they are at see after catching sight of the GPS held in Delilah's hands. JJ doesn't waste any time to listen, wanting to follow orders correctly so that this can all go smoothly. Then, just like they planned, John B lowers the drone into the freezing water and watches as it slowly disappears from their eyesight, meaning that it's only sinking lower down.
"Okay, lets start this." Delilah mutters, looking down at the GPS. "Ten seconds northwest."
"Got it! Ten seconds northwest." JJ repeats.
"100 feet!" Kie calls out.
A gasp is suddenly heard escaping Pope's mouth. He staggers backwards and away from the screen after experiencing slight shock at the sight of a squid swimming by the camera. Quickly realising what he's done, the boy tries to play it off as nothing and walks back over to where he's stationed. John B, however, had noticed his actions and hurries over to him.
"What? What is it?" John B asks, slight excitement peaking through his voice.
"It's nothing." Pope replies, feeling ashamed to dampen his mood. "Sorry, my bad. I just thought I saw something."
400 feet is reached as Kie announces in to the group, tallying it on the side of the boat with a piece of chalk they brought along for this very reason. The sound of thunder can be heard rumbling loudly in the skies above. Dark clouds can now be seen starting to roll in and surround the large boat. This catches the five off guard, not expecting to find themselves out at sea when a storm is trying to arise — maybe they should have picked another day to seek out this ship.
"The tide's turning." Kie states.
"Ten seconds easy. Southeast." Delilah instructs.
JJ nods. "Copy that."
"Twenty seconds mid-speed. South." Delilah instructs again.
"Copy that. Aye, aye." JJ replies, doing as told once again. "Keep the tether out of the prop!"
"I'm trying!" Kie exclaims.
"JJ, keep the boat going!" John B demands.
"Ly." JJ calls, glancing at the girl holding the GPS beside him. "Is that good?"
"Yeah." Delilah replies with a small nod, double checking on the map. "Yeah, that's good."
"700 feet!" Kie informs.
The sound of thunder continuing to crackle fills their ears loudly in, seeming to travel closer to them with each noise the storm makes. The wind is starting to increase too as it harshly whips against their skin and creates knots in their hair — Delilah is grateful that she shoved her ginger hair into a messy bun before going on the journey. The tides they sail on grows more and more violent by the minute, which gives them an unsteady footing on the boat.
"Oh, for fuck sake." Delilah curses.
"JJ, hold it steady!" John B orders.
"900!" Kie calls out.
"JJ, we'll turtle in this storm, man." Pope informs with worry, wanting them to survive this.
"920!" Kie continues.
"Crank it north by northwest. Ten seconds." Delilah instructs.
"Pope, how are we doing?" John B asks.
"Almost there." Pope confidently replies.
"John B, there's too much current. We're gonna lose it!" Kie exclaims, desperately yanking at the tether.
"South, southwest, JJ. Hard." Delilah instructs again.
The boy instantly does as he's told, wanting him and his friends to get through this. A large wave hits the side of the boat that they're all aboard of and causes it to shake slightly at the impact. The five stumble at the unexpectedness, but they still manage to keep themselves upright.
"Half speed. Steady at this bearing." Delilah continues.
A beeping sound now emits from the GBPS as the red circle now shifts to be directly underneath the figure of the boat. This is what Delilah has been keeping track of this entire time, and this digital image is exactly what they need.
"It should be here, John B!" Delilah states, shouting over the storm that's brewing.
"What do you see, Pope?" John B asks.
"Nothing." Pope replies in frustration. "It's just a whole lot of nothing."
"980!" Kie exclaims.
"I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!" Pope announces, repeating it to make sure he's heard.
"Steady here, JJ. Quarter speed, alright?" John B orders.
For the hundredth time today, JJ listens to the instructions before he and Delilah turn in their seats to look back at their friends. The three are staring at the live screen for the camera with disbelief crossed over their faces, eyes wide as smiles spread across their faces. The pair then peel their eyes away and exchange similar looks, wearing the exact same grins as they high-five each other.
"It's the Royal Merchant."
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The pristine white boat still floats in the middle of the oceans waters, only this time there is a raging that's swirling around it and is preparing to strike anything that crosses its path. But that's not the only thing raging; the mood on the boat has massively dropped as the radiant teenagers now have frowns on their faces from pure disappointment and anger. Yes, the Royal Merchant was successfully found, but none of them have found what they really went there in search for, and that's the 500 million in gold.
It feels like world had given Delilah and her friends all these hopeless leads to end up where they find themselves now. It's like they were merely pigs being feed before they're thrown to the slaughterhouse to be killed off, only they're being thrown into a storm instead. The five had wholeheartedly believed in the idea, but it was thrown right back at their faces to be laughed at. The harsh truth of reality is that none of them are simply ever meant to find it. It's not their destiny, it's someone else's.
Delilah starts to wonder if maybe the whole thing is bullshit itself, or maybe only there's a possibility that the gold is hidden somewhere else in the world and is just waiting to be found. But that could be another thing that will be hopelessly followed and nothing is retrieved from it. The group, specifically John B, still have belief and that's why they're still searching.
"It's not there." John B states as he breaks the silence that fell over them. "Just pull the drone up."
"Look, we can do another pass. Recharge the battery, maybe?" Pope suggests. "We can go back down."
"We've been through it three fucking times." JJ bluntly informs. "There's nothing there, guys."
"Shut up!" Kie exclaims.
"What? It's true!" JJ fires back.
"The gold could be buried underneath. We don't know." Kie argues.
"We don't have any proper equipment on us to go diving that deep down." Delilah tells her, a reminder of the little stuff they brought along. "Hell, we even struggled diving thirty fucking feet in the marsh."
"We, uh... We could find gear. Come back another time to get the gold." Kie suggests.
"If it was there then it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B says. "Somebody beat us to it."
"Or it was never there." JJ argues.
Delilah looks up and over in the direction that JJ is standing there, noticing the look of frustration on his face. The boy just turns away from them all and sails back to the Outer Banks so that they won't be out at sea when the storm really hits. Delilah understands why JJ is annoyed because they've risked a lot and simply made decisions on hope and belief, only for their dreams to be crushed within minutes.
"You know, this stupid ship has been hunted down by many people, so tell me why the fuck we thought we were any different?" Delilah blurts out.
JJ shrugs in response as a sigh leaves his mouth, unsure of the correct answer himself. Though, the girl does have a point. Maybe the only reason that the teenagers had so much belief is because someone before them, who they happened to know, already carried out many months (maybe even years) of research that they thought could be trusted.
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The treasure hunt came to an immediate stop after nothing was found at the wreck, resorting in them all returning back to land and separating to do their own thing. Delilah walks down the chilly street with a hoodie hanging loosely around her body — it's JJ's hoodie to be exact since she stole yesterday after her and Pope got beaten up. The hood of the clothing is pulled up over her head with her ginger hair pulled to the front, flowing slightly in the wind.
A beep belonging to a cars horn suddenly fills the air, going on for longer than people would've liked. The teenage girl jumps before snapping her head towards where the sound is coming from, glancing from car to car. Eventually, a dark coloured vehicle is spotted in one of the parking spaces and contains both Rafe and stopper. Their gazes aren't on her though, but rather on someone else behind her.
Curious to know who is currently the target to the Kooks, Delilah glances over the top of her shoulder. Her gaze reads onto Pope as he stands there outside of his father's restaurant, almost frozen in place as he quickly realises that the two boys have found him. This must mean that Rafe and Topper know about the payback that was given in return. The boy and the girl's widen eyes meet for a brief moment.
Delilah's gaze then shifts back to the car that the two boys are seated inside of, making sure to keep a close eye on it so that they aren't caught off guard. Slowly, she finds herself starting to walk backwards until she's now side by side with her friend, feeling safer than she did before. Neither one of the Kooks seem to have moved their gazes away from where the Pogues stand, practically shooting daggers towards them through their glares.
Rafe's eyes do fall onto the redhead standing beside the boy, noticing the fact that she's stood there too. His lips simply pucker together as a kissing motion is mimicked and directed towards her. Delilah just feels disgust rushing through her body at the mere action, never wanting that to happen again. The food that was previously eaten for lunch is certain to be thrown up at any moment now.
Pope just reaches out and wraps his hand around the girls wrist, tugging her away and pulling her out of the frozen state she fell into. The pair run through the restaurant as Pope makes sure to take the back route to avoid disturbing customers, knowing that his parents would kill him for that. A set of doors are soon pushed opened where they take off running yet again, keeping off of the main streets and sticking to alleyways — all they want is for Rafe and Topper not to find them and continue the beatings they started.
"We need to go to JJ." Pope tells her as panic settles in his stomach. "They know, Del!"
"Calm down—" Delilah begins.
"No." Pope refuses, interrupting her. "We're going to JJ right now. He can help us."
Delilah doesn't even get a moment to try talking to her anxiety riddled friend, wanting to help calm him down but knowing that he won't listen. Pope turns to face the direction that JJ's house is in and starts to makes his way towards the desired location. The girl hesitates for a split second while deciding on what's the right thing to do, sighing in frustration as she knows that she can't leave Pope on his own. So, Del takes off running after him to catch up.
Eventually, the very person that they are desperately looking for is found. JJ is in the alleyway around the back of his house with noise-cancelling earmuffs on as the gun is gripped firmly in his hands. A harmless teddy bear appears to be propped up on a tree stump as the barrel of the gun is pointed straight at it. It's clear that the bond is target practicing, learning like he said that he would. But the gunshots just echo in the air and, unknowingly to him, rings in their ears.
Delilah and Pope repeatedly try to call out to JJ and pull his attention away from the gun, voices slowly becoming louder and more agitated as they continue to get ignored. It takes a few minutes to pass before the boy finally realises that he has company and only flashes them an apologetic look. The earmuffs are pulled off of his head as he turns towards the two.
"They know." Pope blurts out.
JJ pauses as he tries to think about what his friend could possibly mean by that. His eyebrows just knit together in confusion, struggling to understand the context when he's received none at all. Pope stands there with that same panic from before starting to rise up in him once more.
"What? Who?" JJ questions.
"Rafe and Topper." Pope replies, keeping it brief and easy to understand. "They know."
"Alright, chill, bro. They don't know shit." JJ assures, not realising that it's actually a lie.
"Topper knows I sunk his boat." Pope states.
"How do you know that they know?" JJ asks as he tries to get a better understanding of the situation.
"Because Rafe and Topper were posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged us." Pope replies.
"Calm down." Delilah gently tells him, repeating the same words from back when it first happened.
"Get a grip, man." JJ says in a harsher tone than the girls. "They don't know shit."
"They have cameras. They could've seen me." Pope insists, trying to get the boy to believe him.
"There was no power, Pope. How could they have seen you?" JJ asks.
"It's Figure Eight. They've got generators, JJ." Pope states as he starts to leave around. "They don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats. It's not a good look on my transcript."
"Enough with the regret, bro!" JJ exclaims. "They hit us, we hit them. It's the law of the jungle."
"I'm with JJ on this." Delilah agrees.
"When are you not agreeing with each other?" Pope fires back, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Just listen to me, okay? They caved your face in, physically threw you to the ground, and beat you with a golf club. Then, they threw me and managed to get me unconscious beside a pathetic fucking golf course." Delilah reminds as her voice raises slightly, trying to get the boy to understand. "How could you not get angry at them and want to get revenge? It's a natural instinct."
"Look, you know what you're gonna do if any Kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it?" JJ begins, firmly grabbing his friend by his shoulders. "You walk up to them, look them right in the eye, and—"
"Deny the living shit out of it." Pope interrupts.
"That's right. Deny, deny, deny." JJ agrees with a nod, letting his hands fall back to his side. "But just for safety, we don't go anywhere without protection."
"The gun?" Delilah questions as she glances down at it resting on the stump. "Is that why you've been practicing?"
"Like I said, Ly, protection isn't cheap." JJ tells her, earning a stifled laugh from the girl. "Okay, wait—"
Pope sighs. "Get your dirty minded head out of the gutter, Delilah."