All noise ceased in the room as Dylan tentatively walked over to join John B at the window with the others not far behind, all discussions of the potential anagram coming to a standstill as they studied the black truck now parked outside the Chateau, next to John B's van. As the driver and passenger side doors open, Dylan's breath caught in her throat at the sight of the two men from Lana and Scooter's house, now moving towards John B's front door, and her stomach lurched at the sickening feeling that, whatever they had been looking for at Lana's, they were now their next target.

"Guys, guys, is that them?" Kiara asked in a panicked whisper.

"No," JJ whispered in disbelief, backing away from the window. "No, no, no,"

"Is that them?" she asked again, now looking over at Dylan, who was still frozen staring out the window.

"This is suboptimal," Pope said grimly.

"John B, I told you," JJ began, starting to pace, "Why does it always-"

"JJ, look at me!" John B yelled in a whisper, pinning JJ against the wall in an attempt to keep him quiet. "Where's the gun?"

"Gun?" he repeated, eyes widening. "I, uh, I can't-"

"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kie asked in disbelief.

"It was in my backpack, and then I..." JJ thought aloud, trailing off.

"On the porch!" John B concluded.

"It's on the porch," JJ repeated, quickly making a mad dash out of the office and towards the front porch.

Dylan finally broke away from the window to look over her shoulder at JJ quickly slinking through the house, although at the sound of yelling, he did a one-eighty, nearly slipping flat on his face in his haste to run back to the office unseen. "John Routledge!" a deep voice bellowed, causing Dylan's blood to turn to ice in her veins as JJ shut the office door behind them again once more, just as the sound of a loud crash echoed through the small house.

"Come on out, now!" the voice yelled again. "Fuck, get out here!"

"They're on the front porch, guys," JJ whispered, looking back at the group.

"Thanks for that," Dylan muttered sarcastically under her breath as the crashing sounds continued, no doubt of the two men beginning to tear apart the Routledge residence the same way they did to Lana's.

"Routledge!" a second voice shouted, punctuated by the sounds of shattering glass. "Where you at, boy?"

"We gotta leave!" Kie whispered again, finally looking back at the window behind Dylan. "Guys, window, window." she suggested, pointing.

Without another word, Pope and JJ hurried to the window, Dylan backing up to give them space to work. Together, they tried to pull the window open, but it was to no avail as the glass pane stayed firmly in place. Dylan's heart felt as if it were going to beat out of her chest as the crashing sounds continued out in the living room, slowly growing closer and closer.

"What- what's happening?" Kiara stuttered. "Why is it taking so long?"

"It's painted shut, okay?" JJ replied, and John B silently settled back against the locked door, trying to barricade it shut.

Dylan and Kie both turned to Big John's desk against the other window, beginning to rifle through the papers that littered the top of the desk. While Dylan felt a pang of guilt that John B had tried to leave the place untouched for if his father came back, she also knew she couldn't afford to dwell on his desire to leave things in place when their lives were on the line. They just needed something, anything, to get off the paint sealing the window shut.

"Here!" Kie whispered, holding up a letter opener and moving back to where the two boys were still attempting to open the window. "Okay guys, here, I got it." she said, beginning to chip away at the paint.

"Where the hell's that compass?" one of the men shouted, and Dylan looked back to where it sat on the table, abandoned next to Pope's anagrams, and she picked it up, shoving it into her pocket.

Instantly, she felt the weight of the object in the pocket of her shorts, even though realistically she knew it couldn't have weighed more than a couple of pounds. What seemed like such a harmless family relic to John B had likely cost Scooter Grubbs his life trying to protect, and had now left two homes in shambles in the men's attempts to find it, threatening the lives of her and her new allies as well. Whatever they were trying so hard to find within the compass, or Big John's message within it, she knew it was very, very dangerous information to have.

Dylan was quickly pulled out of her thoughts at the sound of a hand attempting to twist the knob of the locked door, now guarded by Pope as well as John B, their eyes widening as the man began to pound on the door. "You better not be in there!" the voice shouted from the other side of the door, his yell ricocheting through Dylan's bones as he stood mere feet away from them, separated only by a layer of wood.

Pope broke away from the door as a violent crash thundered against it, the wood splintering. John B wasn't far behind as the door began to cave, the man on the other side throwing his weight against it in an attempt to open it. Dylan could barely register the sound of a safety clicking before a shot rang out against the wood, the space near the lock nearly exploding from the force of the bullet. The sound was still thundering in her ears as JJ finally managed to slide the window open, a deadly silence falling over the house as he gestured for them to go.

Kiara was first out of the window, leaping down to the ground outside. The boys pushed Dylan ahead next, as she climbed outside and dropped down to the grassy earth below. She instantly kicked off from the ground, running away from the Chateau after Kie, who ducked into the small chicken coop in the yard. Dylan nearly dove in after her, crawling against the side and trying her best to make herself small against it, and one by one, the boys appeared after them.

"The compass," John B whispered, looking frantically around at the others. "Where's the compass?"

"Here," Dylan whispered, pulling it out of her pocket and tossing it to him, eager to be rid of the artifact.

John B caught it as they fell into a hushed silence, trying not to be heard from within the house. Dylan sat between Kiara and JJ, the latter laying down on his stomach so as not to be seen through the layers of chicken wire. The only sounds punctuating the silence were those of the chickens scrambling around the coop, clearly unhappy about the newcomers interrupting their peace, and she silently willed them to stop, her eyes narrowing at one that began to crow louder than the others.

After what felt like ages, John B tensed from his spot watching through the small window, and Dylan looked out to see the two men carrying bins full of Big John's research out to their truck, all of his work on the Royal Merchant disappearing into the vehicle. However, at the sounds of the door opening, the chicken began to crow louder, displeased with the new sounds in addition to the five teenagers invading its space.

"Do something, Pope," JJ whispered, gesturing to the rooster. "Shut him up!"

"What do you want me to do?" Pope shot back in a panicked whisper.

"Pet it, or something, or talk to it, I don't know," Kie suggested.

The rooster continued to fuss as the door to the back of the truck slammed shut, and John B instantly retreated from his vantage point at the window, leaning back against the side of the coop on the other side of Kiara. The crunch against the fallen leaves on the ground outside had Dylan's heart sinking into the pit of her stomach as one of them began to walk towards the source of the noise.

"You do something!" Pope whispered to JJ.

Tears sprang to Dylan's eyes as she held a hand over her mouth, holding down the frightened sobs that threatened to escape as her blood continued to pound in her ears in tune with her racing heart. The rooster landed between her and JJ, its feathers ruffled in its protest, and JJ leaned forward, picking it up and trying to hold it down. In response, the rooster clucked louder, but with a snap of its neck, it fell silent in JJ's hands, causing the tears to spill over Dylan's eyelids as she watched the scene before her.

JJ leaned back, his eyes moving from the rooster to look over at Dylan, and she shut her eyes tightly in response, willing herself to wake up from the nightmare. If she tried really hard, she hoped she could wake back up in her house that morning, before everything had gone to shit, or if she were lucky, back in her house on Figure Eight the morning she and Kelce were set to go for lunch and ice cream.

"Ratter!" a voice shouted from outside, and Dylan jumped slightly at the sound, bumping into JJ, who held onto her in an attempt to keep her still, his panicked gaze boring back into hers. "What the hell are you doin'? Let's go."

A sob of relief escaped Kiara as the footsteps began to retreat, along with the sound of one of the truck doors opening as his accomplice climbed inside. The man, Ratter, slammed the back of the truck closed before climbing into the passenger side, and the engine started up with a roar, maybe the most beautiful sound Dylan had ever heard as she let out a shaky breath.

JJ slowly let Dylan go as the sound of tires crunched against the gravel driveway, and the sound of the engine slowly faded from earshot. They were long gone by the time anyone dared to make a move, with John B leading the pack as he slowly climbed out of the chicken coop as the others followed him out one-by-one.

"Come on," John B said, leading them back towards the van. "I'm not in any hurry to be here if they come back, are any of you?"

"Hell no," came a chorus of their voices as they piled in, Pope slamming the door shut behind them.

"Where are we going?" Dylan asked as John B shifted the gear into drive, quickly speeding away from the Chateau and onto the main road leading out of The Cut.

"The compass gave me an idea." he said. "I mean it's obvious, right? A family heirloom. I mean, what better place to hide a message? He had to know it was going to get back to me, right?"

"Yeah," Kie assured him. "It's possible,"

"It could also be possible that you're concocting wild theories to help, you know, deal with your sad feels." Pope suggested.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels." JJ spoke up. "Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it."

"Gross," Dylan muttered, shooting JJ a bewildered glance.

"I'm not concocting, okay?" John B defended. "My dad's trying to give me a message."

"If it helps you believe, John B," Kie said softly.

"Look, I-I don't need a therapy session, okay?" he insisted. "Look, I'm not trippin' out."

"It's okay to trip, bro." JJ assured him. "But-"

"Look, my dad is missing, okay?" John B cut him off. "Missing. You don't know what it's like to have the person closest to you vanish and then have no idea what happened. Just wake up every morning wondering."

"It's been almost a year," Kie reminded him.

"Hey, he could've been kidnapped." JJ agreed. "That's definitely a possibility."

"Yeah, he could be in a Soviet sub getting interrogated by the KGB somewhere." Pope suggested.

"Absolutely," JJ added. "Or, uh, Atlantis."

"I don't think this is helpful," Dylan said, glancing back and forth between JJ and Pope.

"Yes, thank you for that." JJ scoffed.

"What do you think the message is?" Kie asked, looking back over at John B.

"Redfield," John B said, and Dylan looked out the window as they passed by a sign, advertising for the town landmark ahead of them as John B continued to drive the van forward. "Redfield Lighthouse. That's my dad's favorite place."

As John B parked the van in the grass on the other side of the fence from the lighthouse, he killed the engine, and JJ leaned forward, sliding open the back door so he, Dylan, and Pope could climb out. Dylan studied the structure before them, raising a hand to her eyes to help block out the sunlight. While it looked a little worse for wear after the hurricane, the lighthouse remained intact, aside from some chipping paint along its exterior and the loss of power on the island deeming it useless for the time being.

"Right, here's what's gonna happen," John B instructed. "You're just gonna post up and look out for bogeys, okay?" he said, gesturing to JJ.

"Wait, why me?" JJ asked.

"Because you're not coming," Pope explained.

"Why?"

"Look, JJ, there are independent and there are dependent variables," Pope explained. "And you're an independent variable, we don't know what you'll do."

"Shut up," JJ scoffed, irritated. "Just shut up, Pope!"

"Just listen to me for a second," John B insisted. "Just listen. Pope, Dylan, you guys stand look out with JJ, okay? If we get split up, we meet back at JJ's house."

"Great," Kie agreed, and Dylan nodded.

John B and Kiara bid the group goodbye, and Dylan watched as they climbed the fence, beginning their trek across the field to the lighthouse. Once they were out of sight, Dylan looked back at the other two boys, who looked as if they'd rather be anywhere else at that moment, and she couldn't help but agree.

"I'm gonna work on my merit scholarship essay," Pope spoke up, moving back towards the van, "and I'm trying to keep felonies down to a minimum."

"Alright," JJ said, pulling a hacky sack out of the pocket of his shorts and proceeding to kick it around. "Would you just shut up already?"

"Asshole," Pope muttered, grabbing his supplies for his essay, and Dylan sat down against a nearby tree, leaning back against the trunk as she watched JJ kick the hacky sack.

"I bet this isn't exactly how you saw your Kook summer going, is it princess?" JJ asked, and Dylan looked up to see his eyes trained on her.

"You could say that," she said simply with a shrug, crossing her arms over her chest.

"How are things back on ol' Figure Eight?" he asked. "They've got their fancy generators and shit, I'm surprised you're not off at Kelce's house charging your phone and pretending you're still rich."

Dylan tried her hardest not to react to his words, though on the inside, they hit her like blows to the chest. In all honesty, she hadn't been back on Figure Eight since the day they moved, once the last box was out of the Bates mansion and en route to the small shack on The Cut. However, as much as she wished she could change that fact, she knew that, until her father's trial, there was no going back for them.

"No point in my phone being on if there's no signal on The Cut," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "And besides, someone had to unpack the boxes and my mom's at work."

She didn't bother telling him that Kelce had instead spent his time over at her new place helping her move, but both she and Kelce knew he would've rather been anywhere else in the world than at his girlfriend's new house on The Cut.

"You don't have people for that?" he scoffed. "I just wonder how a Kook's going to like living on our side of the island now, that's all. Away from the country club and the Kook Academy, and stuck with the dirty Pogues you guys hate so much."

"Do you ever shut up?" Dylan snapped, looking back up at JJ. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a Kook anymore. That all went out the door when my father got arrested, so it doesn't really look like that's an option anymore. If I could be back on Figure Eight instead of playing lookout at the lighthouse, believe me, I'd be there in an instant. But I'm here, and there's nothing either of us can do about it."

"Oh, she's feisty," JJ muttered after a moment, looking back at Pope. "Did you hear that, Pope?"

"I'm not a part of this," Pope sighed, not looking up from his essay work.

"Whatever," JJ scoffed, leaving Dylan alone as he turned back to his hacky sack, and she leaned back against the tree once more, sighing and letting her eyes fall closed as she took a deep breath.

Despite the crazy turn her day had taken, what with the men at the Grubbs' house before following them back to the Chateau, sitting in the field outside the lighthouse with only the chirping of birds to accompany the occasional sound of JJ's hacky sack or Pope's pen scratching against paper, she finally felt like she could breathe, a moment of calm in the hurricane that followed the natural disaster. She'd felt as if she'd been going through the motions since her dad's arrest, but was now being forced to act on her own, without a rulebook to give her the slightest clue of what to follow.

And she was so, so tired of pretending like she was okay.

Her silence was soon interrupted by the sound of a siren entering her earshot, and she quickly shot up to her feet just in time to see a police car speeding around the corner, heading in the direction of the lighthouse. She quickly exchanged a look with JJ, whose expression turned panicked before looking back at Pope leaning against the van.

"Shit," Pope muttered as JJ and Dylan ran for the van, the three of them piling inside.

JJ ran for the driver's seat as Pope jumped into the passenger side, and Dylan slid open the backseat, hopping inside before shutting it behind her. "What do we do?" Dylan asked as JJ turned the key in the ignition.

"Our Plan B," JJ said simply, speeding off from the lighthouse. "The three of us don't get arrested, and we meet them back at my place."

"What about Kie and John B?" Dylan asked.

"They're smart," Pope assured her. "They'll figure it out. We always do."

Dylan nodded in agreement as JJ continued to drive, getting the van safely away from the policemen at the lighthouse and back towards town. However, as Dylan glanced down at the dashboard of the van, her eyes widened as she took in the numbers on the clock reading that it was nearly 4:30 in the afternoon.

"Shit," she hissed.

"What now?" JJ asked, his eyes meeting hers in the rearview mirror as he watched her incredulously.

"My mom's supposed to be home from work before five." she explained. "I was supposed to be home all day, unpacking. If she gets home and sees that I'm not there, especially after everything with my dad, she'll freak."

"Alright, princess, no need to get your panties in a twist," JJ smirked. "Just say 'pretty please' and I'll take you home."

"Seriously?" she deadpanned, looking back at him in the mirror.

"'JJ, will you pretty please take me home?'" JJ mimicked, jutting out his lower lip in a pout before shooting Dylan a shit-eating grin.

Dylan sighed. "JJ, will you pretty please take me home?" she asked, pretending to uncap her middle finger like a tube of lipstick before applying it to her lips.

"You got it," he said slyly.

"Thank you," she sighed. "And keep your eyes on the road, asshole."

Dylan never thought she'd be so happy to see the baby blue house with the peeling paint as JJ rolled the van to a stop outside. She bid them goodbye, hardly looking in JJ's direction as she climbed out of the van, heading towards the front steps. As the van was backing out of the driveway, however, Dylan spied her mother's car rounding the corner, and waited outside as she pulled into the now vacant spot the boys had left behind.

"Who was that?" her mother greeted, glancing back in the direction the van had disappeared to before giving her daughter a hug hello, eyes narrowing at the image of the beaten up old vehicle that looked nothing like the pristine sports cars of her friends from Figure Eight.

"I hung out with Kie and a couple of her friends for a bit," Dylan said simply, hugging her mom back and inhaling the smell of seafood from The Wreck that was embedded in her mom's work attire of a t-shirt and jeans, trying hard not to wrinkle her nose in response. "They gave me a ride home. How was work?"

"Work was good," Linda assured her, tucking a stray strand of Dylan's hair behind her ear. "It's still tourist season, even after the hurricane, so Mark and Anna say this is the time of year with the best tips. Not so bad for a first day." she shot Dylan a smile, leading her back into the house. "So did you have a good day with Kie and her friends?"

"Yeah," Dylan lied through her teeth, not wanting to give her mother any more reason to worry as they shut the front door behind them. "You could say that."