One Stupid Thing

Take My Advice and Do What They Say

I see relief flood into Kie's gaze, knowing that she doesn't have to save Portis alone. "Hang on!" Kie yells out the open door to the rest of the crew before turning and wading through the water with me on her heels.

"No, no, no, guys! Come on!" I hear John B protest, but we ignore him and any other person who tries to tell us otherwise.

Kie and I climb over the piles of junk and floating debris inside the cabin until we reach Jimmy. She wriggles herself between the two front seats and pulls the man upright by his shoulders. "Portis. Come on. Portis, wake up. Wake up!" She grunts as she wraps her arms around his limp body and uses her body weight to pull him out of his seat. I follow after her, taking up the rear and taking half of Jimmy's weight. The water is partially assisting us, making the man not quite as heavy as he could have been. I guide Kiara backwards through a side window and we just barely squeeze through with Jimmy in tow.

"Kie, over there! Head for the shore!" I alert her through tired breaths. My legs feel like they are going to fall off, but I won't let them stop churning the water beneath me. With one arm around Portis, I use the other to paddle. Kie does the same on the other side of him.

"We got you," Kie assures the pilot, even though he probably can't hear her anyways.

My feet begin to brush sand and I breathe out in relief. We made it. As we are hoisting Jimmy up onto the sand, a couple of bystanders rush over to help. They take over from there, continuing to pull Jimmy farther up the shore. To my satisfaction he sputters and coughs. At least our efforts in saving him didn't totally go to waste. "Thank you," he says, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You lied to us. Who are you?" Kiara interrogates him. I scramble to my feet and stand over him next to her, placing my hands on my knees and breathing heavily. Portis doesn't answer. He just groans and mutters to himself deliriously.

The low hum of engines grows louder in the distance, capturing Kie and I's attention. The same guys as before, the ones in the uniforms, are riding on ATVs down the beach towards us. "You two should get out of here," Portis croaks.

"Shit. Kie, come on." I help her to her feet and, without getting even a moment to catch our breath from the swim we just endured, we are running for our lives once more. It seems like we can never catch a break.

We duck behind and parked boat, its colors faded from sitting beneath the blistering sun. We look around frantically for a place to hide. It would be impossible to outrun these guys on their ATVs, especially because of how exhausted we are.

"Stella," Kie alerts me in a hushed tone. She runs and ducks beneath a makeshift structure made up of debris and held up by barrels. There is just enough space for the two of us to hide.

We wait in anxious silence, trying to slow our breathing and not make our presence known to the men closing in on us. All around us, shadows dance around eerily as the men walk around our hiding place with seemingly no idea that we are here.

As Kiara is peering through a space between two barrels, a middle aged man with greying hair does a double take and catches her eye. He leans in to get a better look and falls right into Kie's trap. She punches him right in the face. He falls back on the sand with a grunt. "They're over here!"

Now, with our location no longer secret, we have to get out as fast as we can before the others show up. We crawl on our hands and knees through the opening once more, but by the time I manage to get to my feet they are everywhere, coming at us from all sides.

Behind me, Kiara gasps in surprise as one comes from around the corner. I dart in the opposite direction only to be intercepted by another. "No!" I groan in frustration. He runs towards me and I back away from his reach only to be taken by surprise as my arms are pinned from behind. They faked me out. I put up a fight, but ultimately, in the weak state I am in, I have no choice but to cooperate.

"Get off!" I hear Kiara snap. To my left, she has also been detained by two men, one of them being the middle-aged one that she punched earlier.

Without any remorse, they immediately begin to guide us away, and down the beach. "You assholes!" I spit, struggling in their grasp. They just grab onto me even tighter, their fingers digging into my arms.

"Let us go!" Kiara protests. They definitely do not want to do that. The men force us into the bed of a truck and stand guard while they wait for instruction. There is no use in trying to make a break for it. These guys are definitely armed, and they mean business.

The radio attached to the officer standing closest to us chatters. "We lost the others. We'll keep searching." I breathe out in relief. At least the others got away.

Portis walks by us, looking defeated and guilty. He approaches the truck bed and avoids Kiara and I's hostile gazes. "We saved your life!" Kiara snaps.

"If it weren't for us you would be at the bottom of the ocean right now and this is how you repay us?" I say to him, my voice barely cracking above a whisper.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry. I'm gonna try to help you, okay? I swear, I didn't know it was gonna be like this. Look, if you don't fight, if you just do what they say, these guys prob... probably won't hurt you," he advises us.

"What did my father promise you?" I ask him.

"Who?" Jimmy asks, his eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"Ward Cameron. What did Ward promise you?" Kiara rephrases. Jimmy just stares back at us with the same confusion. To my surprise, it's genuine. He truly doesn't know who he is. That both relieves and scares me. Something about this makes me suspect that whoever is behind it is far more powerful than Ward Cameron.

"Hey, just take my advice and do what they say. Good luck." With that, Portis gives us a final nod and walks off.

The truck engine starts and the weight of an officer causes the vehicle to dip down. He steps into the truck bed and sits on the edge across from Kiara and I, staring at us intimidatingly. "All right, let's go," he says into his radio. His voice is tinged with a foreign accent, something I have noticed about majority of the officers here.

The truck slowly gains traction on the loose terrain and rolls away, off into unknown territory. I don't necessarily know where exactly we are, or who these men work for, but what I do know, is that I was right. We never should have left the island. I just want to go home.

——
Yes, Stella will be trapped at Singh's place with Kie. It felt necessary for future plot lines of mine and just more interesting to write about in general, so I hope it will be less boring for you guys to read then if she had stayed with the other Pogues.

Edited: 4/12/26