season one ; episode six { Parcel 9 }
chapter twenty-eight
BROOKLYN WAS CROUCHED DOWN and she had snuck across the garden with her hand locked around her brother's arm as he dragged her across. JJ and Pope rushed behind them, keeping low. It was more terrifying than it was earlier, one of the main reasons why it was so scary down there was because John B would be going down the well in complete darkness with only a flashlight. Brooklyn, being the worried sister that she was, of course, panicked and begged him not go down but he insisted as the other two boys were too scared.
Brooklyn covered the bottom half of her face with one of her brother's bandanas to stop dust and shit flying everywhere.
"Holy crap, you know what this is? It just hit me. Pope, look." Pope looked over at the blonde who removed his mask. "This is C.H.U.D. Full C.H.U.D."
"What is he talking about?" Brooklyn asked.
"Cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers? Have you guys not seen that film?"
"Nope."
"Can't say I have, no."
"It's actually a good film. It's about cannibals that live in the sewers and under New York City, and it's like-."
"Babe, shut up." Brooklyn snapped, receiving a glare from John B but he shrugged it off because he had more important things to worry about.
"All right. How deep do you think this is, Pope?" John B asked, looking down the well.
"I don't know." He sighed.
The boys started to get John B ready so they could lower him down into the well. As Brooklyn watched her brother be harnessed up, her anxiety grew deeper and stronger but she remained as calm as she possibly could.
"Hey, boys. I have one request." John B groaned.
"Yeah?"
"Don't drop me." He demanded. "Hey, sis, don't panic. I'll be safe." John B pointed over at his sister who was chewing down on her nails, her eyes looking over at him for a second before he was lowered down by JJ.
JJ pretended to slip. "Okay! You're gonna die first, for sure."
"All right, just keep payin' it out nice and slow like that." Brooklyn shone the torch down while the boys slowly lowered him.
"Keep goin'."
"Wait, hold on one second. I'm gonna get situated." Brooklyn looked over at JJ to see him struggling with the rope. She rushed over to him, trying to grab the rope but before she could, the boy had slipped.
"Shit, JJ." Pope's hands lost grip of the rope and John B shot down the well.
"Oh, shit! John, shit!"
"Whoa! What-."
JJ got ahold of the rope again with the help of Brooklyn and the boys managed to get back to the steady rhythm.
"I told you not to drop me!"
"John B, are you okay?" Brooklyn yelled quietly.
"What the hell was that?" He asked, looking up to see Brooklyn shining her flashlight down.
"Little technical difficulties."
"Keep going, slow!"
"Okay, we're gonna start paying you out again, all right?" Pope began to lower the rope while JJ pulled from the other end.
"Okay. Okay. All right, keep goin'."
"Okay." JJ exhaled.
"Hey, we've got fifteen feet left. Are you getting close to the bottom?" Pope asked, lowering more rope.
"I can't tell. Just- just keep goin'."
"I need more." JJ pulled on the rope so Pope could drop some more down.
"Whoa! Stop! I'm hangin' over some sewage-water lookin' shit." He told them.
"You wanna back up?" Brooklyn asked.
"Keep goin', I guess..." And so they lowered the Routledge boy into the sewage water. "Okay, okay! I'm at the bottom." Brooklyn let out a sigh of relief, knowing he had safely made it all the way down.
"How is it down there?"
"It's worse than I thought."
"You find any gold?"
"Uh, nothin' yet. Wait. I think I felt something with my foot." The teens looked around at each other and then back down the well. Could it be the gold?
John B gasped and coughed as he brought his head up from the water. "JJ! Hey, pull me up!" John B screamed so loud that it only scared them. "Pull me up! Come on, man! Go!"
"Pull him up! Come on, J, pull him up!" Brooklyn yelled, trying to help out in any way.
"Go! Come on! Pull me up!" They started to pull him out of the water. "Come on! Pull me up!" The three strained and pulled on the rope to get the boy back up to them. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Wait!" They came to a holt. "Hey, I think I found something."
"Hey. John B. What'd you say?"
"Just give me a minute. Hold on." The didn't let go of the rope and waited for the boy to do whatever he was doing down there. Hopefully by finding something meant he had found the gold but nobody knew.
"John B, you okay?" Brooklyn yelled, not reviving an answer from him. "Shit."
They continued holding the rope and hoping that John B wouldn't take too long.
They all snapped their heads over to the girls who had rushed to the basement, panicking and screaming. "Guys! Mrs. Crain! She's up there! She tried to kill us with a fire poker. We gotta go."
Oh great, another thing to add to their list.
"We looked her in the parlor, but we gotta go."
"Okay, code red. Let's go. John B! Get back on, man!" JJ yelled down to the boy.
"JJ! Hold on, man! I'm comin'!" John B took the rope in his hands and all five of them began to pull him back up.
"Come on!"
"Three, two, one, pull!" They all tugged on the rope but it didn't go as planned. They all slipped across the mud and fell back against the ground.
"Shit! Where the hell is he?" Brooklyn scrambled to the edge and looked over.
"John B!"
"I found the gold!" John B yelled. "JJ! Brooke! Pope! Kie!" He screamed.
"Yo, he's drowning! We gotta pull him up!"
"John B!"
"Hey, John B! Get back on the rope. We're gonna pull you back up, okay, buddy?" They all took ahold of the rope and used all their strength to pull the Routledge boy up to safety.
"Come on! Pull!"
They all grunted and shuffled as they tugged as hard as they possibly could on that rope. "Come on."
As John B inches closer to the top, a gunshot was fired from behind them. "Shit! Jesus!" Brooklyn took ahold of Sarah's hand and pulled her to the ground with Kiara. The three girls hid behind a wooden pillar.
"Pope! JJ! What the hell?" John B yelled.
"Tie it up now, man!" Pope groaned.
"Pope, hide!" JJ tied up the rope so John B could climb his way up.
They all ducked and hid, all clinging onto each other as their lives did actually depend on it. "She can't aim for shit."
"She can't see. She's blind." Another shot was fired in the direction of Brooklyn, Kiara and Sarah.
"Shit! Go!" Brooklyn pushed Sarah and Kiara in front of her to get them out of the way before moving with them.
Brooklyn fell to JJ's side, her body crouched behind his she looked over to see John B's hand grab onto the edge of the well. His head appeared, looking from his sister to Mrs. Crain who shot another bullet that was inches from his head.
"I don't care if she is, that's buckshot!" JJ yelled.
Brooklyn stayed behind and grabbed onto John B's hand to safely pull him out. She tugged at his arm, not caring that her hands were now covered in whatever he covered in. "Whoo!" They raced out of the basement and back to the van.
"Can we go now?"
"Get in the car!"
"Come on!"
Another shot was fired as they began to drive off. They weren't so scared once they were safely in the van as the woman couldn't aim for shit.
"Why are we always getting shot at!"
John B and Brooklyn were the last ones to get in as they ran a little behind but once the two were in, they were safe. "Oh, my God!" JJ yelled, looking away from the road to see John B covered in mud.
"Are you okay? Are you shot?"
"No." He coughed out.
"I think I'd know if I was shot, right?" Kiara pressed her hands to her chest to double check.
"You look disgusting."
"God, you smell like ass."
"What the hell just happened?" Sarah was inhaling and exhaling heavily in the back of the van.
"All-time Pogue Hall of Fame, baby."
"Hell, yeah." Brooklyn pressed her palm to JJ's back. "That bitch is possessed."
"That bitch can't aim."
"How does she move that fast?" Pope questioned.
"She's possessed."
Brooklyn blocked out everyone's voice and looked down to see her brother holding something in his hand. He pushed the sewage crap off the object and it revealed something shiny. Something gold.
"Holy shit! No, you didn't!" Brooklyn screamed, wrapping her arms around John B. She didn't even care that he was covered in sewage gunk.
"We did it, baby!" He yelled as he hugged his sister.
"No, you didn't!"
"I did it!" He laughed.
"Oh, my God!"
"I did it!"
Everyone screamed and cheered as they looked down at the gold. Brooklyn grabbed onto John B, holding the gold in her hands and not fully believing that this was actually happening. It was real.
John Booker Routledge had found the gold. Four-hundred million worth of gold.
"Holy shit, guys, we're gonna be rich!"
"Full Kook! Full Kook! Full Kook! Full Kook! Full Kook!" Everyone chanted, banging their hands against the van and cheering. "Full Kook! Full Kook! Ayyy!" They cheered.
John B grabbed his sister's arm. "We did it. We did it."
"Dad would be so proud of you." She wrapped her arms around him again.
"You really wanna hug me?"
"I don't care. I'm so proud of you. I love you!"