Storm Chaser // JJ Maybank

76

"Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Rafe, stop! Rafe! Rafe! Stop!" John B shouts. "Just relax for one second!"

We stop in a courtyard.

"We don't know where we're going, all right?" John B reasons. "Give me the scroll." Rafe looks like a caged animal. "Just give me the scroll."

Rafe holds a knife up to John B's throat. "You want this?"

"Wait!" JJ shouts.

"Give me the scroll," John B repeats.

"It's ours," Sarah argues.

"It was," Rafe says. "I took the shit. I bought it for 400k, actually. Okay?"

"Rafe, I just saved your life!" Sarah shouts.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You did it so you could steal it from me," Rafe accuses. "There was something in it for you. All right? Not to actually help me. I know that."

"Rafe, we don't have time," John B tells him.

"We can read that. You can't," Sarah argues.

"Why would I help you?" Rafe remarks. "Huh? I don't trust you. I don't trust any of you. Do you understand? Dad trusted you. You remember what happened to him?! Remember?!"

"Dad died saving my life," Sarah explains. "And you're so eager to blame me for everything, you won't even listen to what happened. Singh's men had me at gunpoint. I was gonna die. Dad took those bullets for me. And if he was still around, he'd want us to work together. I know you know that."

"No, you're just going to screw me like everyone else in my life," Rafe insists. "I know you will."

Sarah shakes her head. "No, no, because I'm all you've got. And you're the only family I have left."

"She's telling the truth," John B tells Rafe.

"All right. If we... if we work together, I... I still get my cut? So," Rafe says.

Sarah nods her head. "Yeah."

"I get my cut?" Rafe asks.

"Yeah," John B tells him.

Rafe holds the scroll out to Sarah. Instead of taking it she hugs her brother.

"Um, guys?" I say.

"Hey, this is great and all, but we seriously gotta go," JJ warns.

"Y'all keep going. Try to find the crown," Kie tells them. "We'll stay back and hold them off."

JJ and I take off running again. Kie takes off in the other direction. We rush up the back hill of the town.

"Storm, keep going up and find cover. I've got an idea," JJ tells me.

We crouch down behind a wall.

"All right, they're coming. Let the first few go by," JJ tells us. "We got one. We'll pick him off."

When the guy is standing under the wall we push. The bricks aren't secured and fall on top of him.

"That's one!" JJ shouts.

I can see a sand storm coming towards us. "We gotta go."

I spot Sarah, John B, and Rafe standing under the horse statue on top of the hill.

"John B. Hey! Do you see what's coming?" JJ shouts.

"Yeah, it's about to get crazy," I warn.

"Do we have any idea where to look for the crown?" JJ asks.