𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒, 𝗉𝗈𝗉𝖾 𝗁𝖾𝗒𝗐𝖺𝗋𝖽

7: 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐

Pope and Y/n both helped John B take off the scuba gear, while the Routledge boy still tried catching his breath from their situation just moments ago.

"Hey, guys?" Kie calls. "Guys, bogey, two o'clock."

The boys and Y/n all turn their heads in her direction before following her gaze, seeing a boat, two men standing inside as they drive closer and closer to the teenagers. Anxiously, Y/n places her hand inside Pope's slightly bigger one. Noticing her expression, Pope squeezes her hand in reassurance.

"Do you recognize that boat?" Pope asks.

"I've never seen it. What are they doing back here? The marsh is closed." Kie reminds.

"I don't know." JJ responds. "But let's not stick around and find out."

"JJ, get the bowline." John B instructs.

"Yeah." JJ replies, doing as told.

"Should we wait on them?" Pope asks.

"No, we're not gonna wait on them." John B responds, denying.

"Are you joking?" Kie asks, staring blankly at the boy.

As JJ continues to pull the anchor out of the water, Pope quickly walks to the controls, turning the boat on in an instant before joining Y/n's side again, just as John B started to drive and JJ finally finishing his task, the anchor now in the boat.

"I don't like the look of this." John B murmurs.

"Are they coming for us?" Y/n questions.

"Maybe they're fishing." Pope suggests.

As the five teenagers rant many things, Pope instructs John B to go into the marsh, which the Routledge boy obeys, wanting to get away from the mysterious and creepy men. As they drive more in the marsh, the sound of an engine revving even more is heard behind the teenagers.

"Hey, guys, they're following us." Kie informs.

"This can't be good." Y/n murmurs.

"Dude, you gotta go faster!" JJ exclaims, instructing. "Gun it!"

"I'm going!" John B replies.

As John B drives faster in the marsh, a gunshot suddenly rang through the tense air between the adults and the teenagers. Kie pulls her little sister down to the floor with her, Pope doing the same, both holding her close to them. After a couple more shots, Y/n looks around for any solution to slow the adults down behind them.

E/c eyes landing on a net, the Carrera girl gets out of her sister and best friend's arms, hearing them call for her to get down. However, she doesn't listen as she grabs ahold of them net, stumbling towards the back of the boat.

"Get down, Y/n!" John B yells.

"Y/n, get down!" Kie and Pope shout in unison.

She doesn't listen to them as she throws the net far into the water, watching as the adults boat starts to drive over it, but soon comes to a stop as the engine didn't work at the moment. Once they were out of sight, JJ, Pope, and Kie all rise to their feet as they start cheering. Well, not Pope. Kie goes to her little sister, giving the girl a big hug, resting her head on the younger girls head, both sisters smiling.

"That was insane!" The sisters exclaim in unison, laughing as they high-five each other.

After minutes, the Pogues soon find themselves near the docks, John B being the first to hop out of the HMS Pogue, JJ being the last one as they followed the Routledge boy, watching him kneel to the ground, opening the duffel bag.

"What do you guys think it is?" Kie asks.

"Gotta be money or something, right?" John B replies.

"That or a couple of keys with street value to the low- to mid-mils!" JJ adds, exclaiming in excitement.

"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope bursts out.

"Wow, Pope. That's a rare outburst of emotion from you." John B comments.

"Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation. Just open the bag." Pope demands. "We almost died over this. Y/n almost died over this!"

"I'm okay, Pope." Y/n reassures in a whisper, grabbing his hand, which slightly calmed him down.

The four watched as John B pulled out a small black bag from the big duffel bag. Opening the small bag, John B pulled out a canister like object, then twisting the cap open. John B turns the canister upside-down, a compass soon falling into his palm.

The four friends excitement disappeared as they now realized all this was over, just to find a compass. They ran into cops, lied to them, John B almost drowned, and they were shot at, all just for a compass.

"Oh, wow. Yeah. That's about right. Good job, everybody. We found a compass." Pope says, sarcasm laced in his voice.

JJ pulls off his cap, ruffling his blonde hair as he looks down at John B, noticing the boy just staring at the compass with a smile sitting on his face.

"Dude, what? It's not worth anything." JJ states.

"This was my father's." John B whispers in response as he doesn't bother taking his eyes off the compass.

The four friends watch as the Routledge boy's smile widens upon the possibilities of his father still might be out there and alive, before glancing at one another with frowns, not saying a word as they didn't want to ruin the moment.