CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
[21]
song: televised mind by fontaines dc

"Hey!" Was all anyone could get out, all standing at the edge of the waves, swinging their arms, jumping like that would make a difference.

The plane was small, and far away, and if it were even flying in their direction in the first place, it'd be a miracle if it spot them.

But Pope and Cleo had climbed up on the cliff, lighting the pile of sticks and coconut hair on fire, an attempt to send a smoke signal.

"Down here!" Cassie heard Pope yell from the cliff. "We're down here!"

She looked around, wondering if it was too late to write SOS in the sand. Hating herself for not thinking to do it ahead of time, like Pope had with the fire. Maybe then they would've gotten rescued long before this.

"Wait, hold on—" John B starts.

"He sees us— guys, he sees us!" Kiara says frantically, tugging on Cassie's arm as she looks up to see the plane turning around.

"Holy shit," John B lets out. "He's going to the pond!"

Cassie didn't really have a moment to register what was really happening, all she knew was that she was running with everyone else to the pond. Listening to Pope and Cleo scream and cheer from the cliff.

She ran off from the group for a second, quickly gathering up what little remained of her things. She grabbed her jacket, and her shoes, quickly scrambling through the sand to catch back up with everyone.

"We did it!" Cleo screamed excitedly as she ran into Cassie.

"I can't breathe." Cassie let out with a smile, trying to catch her breath around all the commotion. "Like I actually can't breathe."

"Really?" Cleo stopped, looking at her concernedly.

Cassie let out a laugh, "No, no— in a good way. That's— come on!"

Seeing the plane turn around for them was one thing, watching it land was another. It skid across the pond, which acted as the perfect landing strip.

"Hey!" Pope yelled, as the plane doors open, everyone rushing towards it.

"We did it!" Cleo repeated.

Pope about tackled Cassie to the ground, grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her. "Hey! We're getting out of here!" He spoke, out of breath. "We're finally getting out of here!"

The pilot stepped down a step, examining each person he'd just landed to rescue. He was an older guy, wearing clothes you'd see on any guy in The Cut. Drug-rugs, khaki shorts, aviators and tattered flip-flops.

"What do we got here?" He spoke, leaning against the plane with his arm, and squinting his eyes forward at everyone.

"Uh— you know, just some castaways." John B says, looking behind him as JJ and Kiara caught up.

"Well, I'll scratch that off the grocery list." The pilot says, adjusting the glasses on his nose. "Hang on, I uh— I got just the thing for y'all."

Cassie watched as he leaned back into the plane, hoping it was food. Anything. A singular piece of bread. A Happy Meal. An entire roast dinner. She couldn't have lasted much longer.

He leans back out with a bottle of booze, and a red first aid kit. "First aid, and rum." He says, tossing it towards them. "So what's the story, you guys sank a boat?"

"Uh—" John B hesitated. "Jumped off one. Her Dad's." He nods towards Sarah, and she sent him the most nasty glare Cassie had ever seen from the girl.

"In-laws, man. They're tough." The pilot says. "Welp, have no fear. Jimmy's here!"

Cassie laughed, looking around to everyone else, but it was only John B, Pope and Cleo who shared her expression. JJ, Kiara, and Sarah look like they'd all been told someone died.

"Well, all hail Jimmy guys!" Cleo says excitedly. "Let's go."

It started to sink in when they started loading on the plane. "I'm Jimmy Portis, I'll be your captain today." He says, helping each person on, lifting them up by their hands. "Is this all? All seven of you?"

"Uh— yeah. That too heavy?" John B says.

"Nah." Jimmy said. "Well, technically, maybe. But, I think ole' Fish here'll probably be okay."

"Probably? Did he say probably?" Cassie whispered, as she ducked below the low ceilings of the plane to find somewhere to sit.

"You're the dog, man." Pope says, patting Jimmy's shoulder as he walked inside next.

When everyone loaded on, Cassie searched for a seatbelt among all random objects in the planes. Old suitcases, vintage maps, pieces of junk you would've bought from hotel gift-shops, but no seatbelts.

"Will you hand me that?" Cassie asks, gesturing to the first aid kit that Pope held.

He tossed it across the plane, and she caught it, opening it up and searching through it.

"What're you looking for?" Kiara asks.

"Dramamine." Cassie glanced up to Jimmy who was pressing a bunch of buttons to get the plane started. "Hey— Jimmy, do you have any Dramamine, by chance?"

"Oh, seriously?" JJ rubbed his eyes embarrassedly. "We just lived on a deserted island for a month and you're asking for dramamine?"

"I get motion sick." She says.

"Can you get motion sick in that direction?" He gestures towards where Kiara sat beside her, then turns toward the cockpit. "So what were you doing all the way out here?" He asked, making polite conversation.

"I got a little guide outfit in Saint Vincent." Jimmy says, looking up and flipping a few switches on the ceiling. "I was spottin' fish."

"What were you spotting?" JJ asks.

Cassie takes a deep breath, trying to relax against the metal of the plane as best she could, tried not to think too much about how this thing looked like it was held together by glue.

"You know, the usual. Wahoo." Jimmy says. "I'd hang onto something, gets a little spicy on take off."

"Oh, god." Cassie mumbled, clinging onto the edge of the seat she sat on, squeezing her eyes shut.

She held on so tight, her hands went numb. It wasn't even that bad, she was just so focused on not throwing up, she didn't give herself any chances to breathe.

But she thought about getting to take a shower. About putting on fresh clothes, and eating a good meal. She thought about brushing her teeth, and doing her nails, and putting on makeup. They were all such simple things she'd taken for granted in the past. She'd never do it again.

The take-off was silent for the most part, everyone as anxious as the next. Every time the plane hit a bump, they all eyed each other to try and gage whether or not it was appropriate to freak out.

But when it leveled, and they were flying flat for a good while, JJ and John B gave each other knowing glances, and then they nodded for the rest of the group to lean in.

"Wahoo don't run in September." JJ whispered, after glancing behind him to make sure Jimmy couldn't hear through his headphones. "Okay? Ever. So whoever this guy is, he's not a fisherman."

The idea of this rescuer stumbling upon them not being a coincidence hadn't crossed her mind until now. And when she looked up at everyone, all eyes were on Sarah.

"Maybe the run just starts earlier out here." Pope suggests.

"Are you sure about that? In the Caribbean?" JJ responds.

"No. I know what this is." Sarah speaks up. "He's working for my dad. And he's probably been looking for us the entire time."

Cassie's blood ran cold as she looked up to where Jimmy sat, wondering if this man was taking them all right back to Ward Cameron's trap. Where the last time she saw him, he had an arm around her neck and the right motive to kill.

"Alright, we gotta find out." JJ nods. "Start looking for some sort of... clue." He trails off as he looks around, then nods to the leather bag swung over Jimmy's seat.

He and John B do that thing, where they look at each other, wave a few hands in the air, and are immediately on the same page. John B scoots up more towards Jimmy, and clears his throat. "Hey, uh— Jimmy. How long have you had this bird?" He yells over the loud engine of the plane.

"About ten years now." Jimmy yelled back.

Cassie tensed as she watched JJ slowly reach forward into Jimmy's bag.

"How long you been flying?" John B asks.

"I've been flying all my life."

JJ pulls out stacks of papers, books, folders, notes, and John B keeps the conversation flowing, as everyone else leans in and starts sorting through it all.

Cassie flipped through the pages of a book on El Dorado, taking a second to enjoy the familiar smell of an old book, when a piece of paper fell out. Sarah leaned down and picked it up off the ground, then examined it.

Her mouth fell open. "The Coastal Venture. Oh my god." She let out.

Cassie took the paper from her, to find a photo of the cargo ship they'd all jumped off a month ago. She snapped her head back up to Sarah, wide eyed.

"This is the boat we were on." Sarah says, defeated, leaning back against the plane. "With Eberhimi and the cross."

Cassie handed off the photo to whoever took it from her hands next, she wasn't paying attention anymore. She could've blacked out.

"So he was looking for us?" Cleo says.

"He's working for my dad." Sarah responds.

The plane jerks, and Cassie shot back in her seat, grabbing onto whatever her hands found first.

"Hey, y'all better hold onto something! Got some unexpected turbulence coming up here."

Cassie's breathing started to stagger, inhaling and exhaling through her nose as she kept her lips pursed together.

"Whatever it is, it's happening fast." Kiara says, nodding towards the window.

The plane pushes through a cloud, and every so often you could see the outline of a coast.

"It looks like Barbados, I've been there with Terrance." Cleo says.

"Okay." JJ starts, readjusting in his seat. "There's seven of us, one of him."

"Can we storm the cockpit after we're on land?" Cassie says, still clutching onto her seat, too terrified to move.

"They could be waiting for us on the tarmac." JJ responds.

"Who's gonna fly the plane, dumbass?" John B says.

"I've seen Pope fly simulators." JJ shakes his head.

"We're gonna die." Kiara mumbles, sinking back into her seat.

"I-I crop dusted for my uncle last summer? But this is not the same thing?!" Pope said.

"We don't have time to pretend this is a real option." Kiara speaks sternly.

"Do you have an idea?" JJ says.

"Something safe?!" She responds.

"Why don't we just wait until the plane lands somewhere safe, and then we sneak out, and if somebody comes to mess with us, we mad-dog 'em." Pope says.

Cassie, still pinned against the wall of the plane, somehow gets out a quick nod.

"Okay, okay." JJ says. "I like the mad-dogging part."

"Just put that back." Kiara whispers, handing JJ the picture of the Coastal Venture. "Put it back. Be cool."

"Hey, Jimmy— is that— is that Burning Man?" John B speaks up again, gesturing to a photo on Jimmy's dashboard.

JJ slowly moves towards the bag on the back of Jimmy's seat.

"Yeah, that's Burning Man alright!" Jimmy laughs. "That was my first time."

JJ slowly lifts the flap up off the bag, starting to stuff all of its belongings back in.

"How many times you been?"

"Oh, I started going when I was eighteen." Jimmy nods.

"Yeah, I've heard a lot about it. I've never been—"

Jimmy turned around, catching movement out of the corner of his eye, only to find JJ in his bag.

"Hey, man! What the hell are you doing?!" He shoves JJ, hard, and with it, the plane dropped.

It was yelling, and screaming, and it sounded like JJ had grabbed the bag from him completely. Jimmy had turned around from the cockpit and was wrestling JJ for it back.

"Who are you?!" JJ yelled over the chaos, as the plane took another dip.

Cassie held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her body lift up off the seat. "The plane! Fly the plane!" She screamed.

"It's my book!" Jimmy yelled, "Give it back!"

"Please fly the plane! Please fly the plane!" Pope screamed.

"Let it go! JJ!" Sarah screamed, as her head jerked to the side at another big drop.

Jimmy flung back into his seat, hitting a couple switches. "Come on, Fish. Come on, Fish." He repeated, over and over until he jerked up on the wheel.

Cassie shouldn't have opened her eyes, she shouldn't have looked out the front windows and watched as the plane nose dived into the water.

But it was this very peaceful feeling, that knowing all the terror she felt in the moment would be over in seconds.

Her mind was silent despite the screaming around her, she could hear only the sounds of her shaky breathing as she closed her eyes again. She'd always heard that your mind died before your body did in situations like this, and this was probably what that was. She was shutting down to protect herself.

She lost awareness to her surroundings. Everyone was gone, and it was just her and her mom again. She felt that airbag hit her, she felt her collarbone crack. She felt the way the other car pinned her leg against the door until the bone snapped. She heard how loud it was, the scrape of metal against metal, the sound of the tires squeaking. She heard the ringing noise in her ears, and the croaks of her dying mother.

She couldn't move her legs, couldn't get out of the car on her own, until the adrenaline wore off, and she passed out from the pain, and an EMT carried her out.

When the plane hit the water, her eyes shot open at the sound. Everyone fell forward, toppling over one another. Cassie couldn't see what was happening, couldn't really tell if anyone was alive or dead.

As she flung forward, her arm got caught on something sharp, what, she didn't know, but it sliced her skin open as she fell past it. It was a mess of arms and legs, people yelling in each other's ears, trying to shield themselves from boxes and random objects falling from their spots in Jimmy's plane.

She didn't notice until the water was up to her neck that they'd submerged in the ocean. She kept her face up and above the surface, frantically trying to find her footing.

"Everyone good?!" Pope yelled between coughs.

Cassie pushed forward through the water, to JJ that was across from her. She spat salt water from her mouth before she spoke, shaking his shoulders. "Get up, get up!" She yelled, as his eyes were closed, and his head was leaned up against the plane wall.

She didn't see blood, so she wasn't worried. JJ had a habit of passing out on thrill rides, and every time he awoke, he was always shocked to have found he'd passed out. When his eyes shot open, he let out a loud gasp and looked at Cassie like the most insane thing just happened.

"We gotta get out! We gotta get out of here!" Pope says, starting to pull those who hadn't found their footing yet up by their arms.

John B, coughing, pushed through the water until he got to the end of the plane, where he used his legs to bust open the door.

"We gotta get out before it sinks!" JJ yells, only adding to the chaos.

John B peaks his head out the door, panting. "Oh no, oh no. They do not look friendly." He says.

Cassie whips her head around to the window she stood by, looking out to see what John B was seeing. Four, no, five cops approaching on the beach, only a few yards from where the plane landed.

"No, no they look very unfriendly." Pope says.

"We gotta go, we gotta go." John B says, holding the door open for Cleo, who pushed herself up and out.

He grabbed Sarah next, then Pope, then JJ. John B held out a hand for Cassie, and she took a deep breath, pushing up through the water towards the end of the plane. "I'm coming, just go!" She yelled, glancing behind her to make sure everyone was out.

John B didn't have time to argue before he pushed himself out the door next.

"Cas, it's sinking fast!" She heard someone yell from outside.

She turned around, finding Jimmy knocked out in the front of the plane, bleeding head pressed up against the steering wheel.

They told Cassie in the hospital that her mom probably would have lived if an ambulance was called sooner. If someone had dragged her out of the front seat, bleeding head pressed up against the steering wheel, and taken her to the hospital. How much sooner? Half an hour? Ten minutes? Ten seconds?

Cassie found herself trudging back through the water, back down the plane, through all the mess she'd just gotten herself out of. "Hold on!" Cassie screamed, her voice echoing off the water and right back into her ears.

"No, no, no, Cassie, no!" She heard yells of protest.

"We gotta go, now!"

She pulled herself up to the cockpit by latching onto the seats, her body fell against all of the buttons as gravity worked against her. "Jimmy!? Jimmy!?" She spoke frantically, getting in his face, and seeing if her voice alone would wake him.

She swallowed harshly, knowing the weight of the water, plus an entire grown man, plus trying to maneuver them both out of a rapidly flooding plane was promptly impossible, but she did it anyway.

She snaked her arms under his, her feet continuously slipping against whatever it was she stood on beneath the water, but she pulled him up and out of the seat, her voice straining with each tug. "Come on!" She yelled. "Wake up!"

She tugged again, and he lifted from the seat, her head was now fully tilted back, it being the only way she could get any oxygen now as the water reached the top of the plane.

She pushed against the seats with her feet, holding onto Jimmy's body as they slipped out a broken window. She felt the glass scrape across her back, but it didn't hurt, not yet.

It was easier now that they were out of the plane, she was on her back, using one hand to hold Jimmy above the surface of the water, the other to keep herself afloat. She kicked, following the sounds of voices and shouts to lead her to land. "I got you, I got you." She repeated, coughing out what felt like gallons of salt water she'd swallowed in the process.

The sounds of splashes made her realize she'd reached the beach, as she looked up and behind her to see crowds of people rushing towards her in the water. They took Jimmy from her arms, and she about collapsed into the sand.

"Are you okay?!" She heard someone asks, but she just crouched over, and coughed up what was left in her throat.

Two guys dragged Jimmy up and out of the water, where he regained consciousness, breathing heavy. "Thank you." He got out somehow.

Cassie clutched her arm, where fresh blood spilled from the slice down her forearm, and in between her fingers. She gasped for air, looking at Jimmy as his wide eyes took in his surroundings.

"Are you okay?" She asked, as she struggled to catch her breath.

She heard the sound of two loud engines, and she snapped her head up to find two cops coming towards her, both on their own four-wheelers.

Her mind's first reaction was that they were here to help, but it wasn't until Jimmy said 'you should get out of here' that she realized they definitely weren't.

Cassie stumbled onto her feet, falling forward, back into the sand the first time, before finding her footing again.

She pushed through a group of tourists, who were completely, and understandably, unaware to what was going on, just standing and watching.

It was already impossible to run in sand, but to run in sand, bleeding, already completely out of breath, she knew she wasn't getting anywhere fast.

She ducked behind a palm tree, where she found a kayak rental that acted as the only hiding spot she could manage. The sound of the four-wheelers grew louder, and on top of that, she spot at least three trucks speeding onto the beach, and in the back of each, gunmen.

Cassie clung to her arm as she ducked into the rental shack, breathing in and out as best she could without making too much noise.

"Out of the way!" She heard someone yell. "Policemen. Search the whole beach!"

Her mind was racing. Did Ward send an entire swat-team to take them all out? They were the only people who knew he was alive, and he'd obviously go to great lengths to protect himself.

"Back up! Out of the way!"

A car door slammed too close for comfort, and it made her jump. She realized her hiding spot wasn't gonna cut it for very long, and when she poked her head around to ensure the coast is clear before she moved, she made immediate eye contact with someone who didn't seem too keen on letting her duck back in.

There were arms on her before she even got a chance to run, holding hers down against her side as they easily lifted her up and off the ground. She screamed and kicked in protest. She tried what had worked in the past to get her out of this problem, but when she bit down on his arm, she only felt the gunmen fling her harshly in the other direction.

Her head throbbed at the sudden movement, but she kept kicking, and wailing, and screaming, until another gunmen grabbed onto her legs, and she was thrown into the back of one of those trucks.

"Stop!" Cassie yelled as they started to cuff her to the backseat, "Stop it!"

"Quiet!" One of them yelled, so loud that spit flew from her mouth.

Cassie's only response was to clamp her teeth shut so hard they could've broken. These men were scarier than anything she'd ever seen, stronger, and with bigger guns. They didn't care who she was. Didn't care who Ward was. They'd been hired with a task, and they were going to complete it.

"We lost the others. We'll keep searching." She heard someone say over a walkie attached to the guard's hip.

Cassie was trembling, unable to hold onto her bleeding arm as the other was cuffed to the truck. She jumped when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, her wet hair in front of her face as Jimmy approached the truck.

She tried to speak, but couldn't get any sound out. Too scared, too out of breath.

"I'm gonna try to help you, okay?" Jimmy spoke, leaning down into the truck where Cassie sat, and nodding. "I didn't know it was gonna be like this, I swear. Look, if you don't fight— if you just do what they say, these guys— these guys probably won't hurt you." Jimmy spoke, nodding to make sure she got it all.

Cassie was shaking so hard she could've popped a blood vessel.

"Just take my advice, okay? Do what they say." He added, then leaned up. "Good luck."

a/n
okay LOOK i usually try to avoid that fic trope where u replace an actual character's storyline with your mc bc it's feels sorta lazy to me but ... like the rafe and kiara bit in early s3 at singh's house ??? that's like straight out of a fanfic i HAD TO okay ????? SORRY but it's gonna be good