The Pogue Queen (JJ Maybank)

Part 7 - The Marsh

"This is empty, you took empty tanks?" Kiara asked as she held up the tanks.

"I...." John B stammered.

"Okay this one is a quarter full." Kiara said.

"That's enough for one of us at least, right?" Brielle asked, then she looked up to Pope and JJ.

"Wow. Love it when a plan comes together." Pope said sarcastically.

"Does anybody know how to dive?" Kiara asked. She looked around the boat as no one raised their hand. "Anybody?"

"That's kind of a Kook sport." JJ said.

"I mean, I read about it.." Pope said.

"Great, Pope read about it, so someone's gonna die." Brielle said.

"Look, y-you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard can it be?" JJ asked.

"That's a stupid question." Brielle said.

"If you come up too fast, nitrogen gets into your blood, and you get the bends." Pope said.

"Bends like, bends over and..." JJ said bending over, making Brielle roll her eyes.

"The bends kill you." Pope said.

"Damn." JJ said.

"I can-I can dive." John B spoke up.

"See? He can dive. I'm cool with that." JJ said.

"Since when can you dive? Kiara asked.

"I'll do it, it's fine." John B said.

"Let me do some calculations real quick." Pope said getting up.

"You serious?" Kiara asked softly, before getting up.

"All right, the boats about 30 feet down." Pope said drawing on a paper. "So it'll take 25 minutes at that depth. Which means you need to make your safety spot at about....ten feet. All right? For two minutes."

"Hey, what are you doing?" Kiara asked as Brielle started to take of her shirt and shorts. She didn't respond as she just jumped in.

"Uh..."
"What was that about?"
"I don't know, but it was hot." JJ said, making everyone look at him. "What?"
"Moving on."
"Yep, so uh, when you're down there, you look for the cargo hold. You stick this thing inside and twist and pull, okay?"

Then Brielle came up to the surface and started swimming back to the boat. "Hey, I tied my shirt to the anchor chain about ten feet down. It's where you need to make your safety stop."

"All right, thanks Brie." John B said.

"All right keep an eye on this." Pope said pointing to the compressor. "You need to make sure you have enough air to decompress."

"Okay, how much do I need?"

"Unclear at this point. Breathe as little as possible."

"Zen. Think Zen, you know?" JJ said.

"Yeah, whatever, got it." John B replied.

"Hey, if we get caught in the marsh, we're basically screwed, so...better get a move on." Pope said.

"Copy that." John B said. Then Kiara went up to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Diver down?"

"Diver down." Kiara replied. She looked back and saw Brielle smiling as John B went into the water. "Shut up, Brie."

"I didn't even say anything!"

A few minutes later

Kiara was laying down on Brielle's lap as Pope was sitting at the drivers seat while JJ looked out the water. After a while they heard a siren whoop and they all immediately looked back and saw a boat coming towards them.