✮⋆˙ ᵗʰⁱˢ ˡᵒᵛᵉ ˙⋆✮
↳ ⁰¹⁰. ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵒᵃˢᵗᵃˡ ᵛᵉⁿᵗᵘʳᵉ
ᴼᵘᵗᵉʳ ᴮᵃⁿᵏˢ

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The container is hot and sweaty. Julia is asleep, pieces of hair sticking to her forehead while the others speak to one another. Olivia is sitting trying to listen to JJ, quite literally almost falling asleep as she does.

"Nice work, John B. You know these things lock from the outside, right?" JJ shakes his head.

"Okay, I was just trying to get us on the boat, JJ." John B replies, his voice barely above a whisper. "I wasn't thinking that far ahead."

"We're stuck in here like rats. In this death cage!"

"It's hot." Olivia mumbles.

"Okay, JJ, you're not helping." Pope sighs.

"You don't have a lot of room to talk right now. You said you had a plan, but what happened to thinking ahead?"

"I find your lack of self-knowledge disturbing."

JJ laughs, "Last I checked, you literally shot an oil container with a gat. "

"Oh my god! Shut up. Shut up." Kiara snaps, "Pull it together."

Everyone was absolutely fed up. They just meed to find Sarah and go home, right? Right..?

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"Hey Pope, how do you kill a snake?" JJ asks randomly.

Pope shakes his head, feeling tired "You go for the head."

"Exactly. Bur the head, in this instance, is the bridge. To take the bridge, we need maximum firepower. And I happen to know that there's an armory on this ship in case of pirate attacks." JJ goes on.

"Pirate attacks. You lost me." Olivia shakes her head, "Killing everybody here is not a plan." She stands up and walks down the container.

Julia lies asleep peacefully, occasionally letting out a small hum as she dreams.

"Guys!" Olivia whisper yells. "Can we fit through that, yeah?" She asks, looking up to a vent window

"Hell yeah. Nice one, Liv." John B smiles.

"What was that about a swiss army knife not coming in handy today?" JJ holds the knife in his hand and he started to unscrew the screws.

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JJ continues his pocket knife on the screw, trying to open the window.

"Okay," He speaks up, "we raid the armoury, get weapons, roll back here, and plot the next move." He hands Pope the screw, "The armoury is on the third deck, aft, near the laundry room. Let's roll."

"JJ. Hold up. I don't think we should all go out there. It's too risky." Pope looks up at the blonde.

"Why?"

"Okay, I gotta be honest. I think you should stay here." JB speaks up, speaking his mind.

"What?

"I have Sarah that I'm gonna go after. And Pope has.."

"The cross." Pope finishes for him.

"Yeah. Let's go get it." JJ ignores what Julia said.

"Also, if you go out there, there's 100% probability that you're gonna do something stupid." John B says, everyone nosing at him.

"Okay, first of all, I think the correct terminology is "ballsy." That is it."

"Okay, get down." Pope mumbles while John B grabs JJ.

"No. Get off!" JJ pulls away from John B's hand. "I'm a field player."

John B shushes him before speaking, "If we go out there, and we get in a bind, we need somebody to look out for us. That's what we need."

"Okay. I get it. I get it. I get it. I'll be on the B team."

"I never said "B team.""

"Sorry. Are you calling me "B team"?" Olivia comes in between the two boys.

"Didn't mean to offend you." JJ turns to the girl.

"Did B team not just find our way out, or am I totally tripping?" Olivia speaks up, stating the facts.

"Hey, look. Just hand back. Hold down the fort." Pope tries to speak softly.

"Great. Looking forward to it. Mm-hmm." JJ nods along, sarcastically.

"I'll babysit." Julia mumbles, looking at Kiara, JJ and Olivia

"You guys have fun. It's your funeral, your game. I'll be in here, on the bench.."

"Hey," Julia grabs ahold of Pope and John B's shoulders, "don't get shot. That's all I got."

"Um, 'Don't get shot.'" John B mocks his sister.

"Well, that's disheartening and scary." Pope adds.

"Positive affirmations, Julia.

"Yep. No problem."

Julia and Kiara help the boys out, while Olivia follows after JJ.

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Olivia is sitting, sweat covering her face, and rocking back and forward slowly.

Kiara and Julia asleep somewhere down the bottom of the container.

"I've been thinking. When all of this is over, and we're just rolling in the dough, I'm gonna get a new board. I'm gonna deck it out, and I'm gonna go on a surf trip" Olivia looks down at the blonde a small smile on her face as he continues, "I don't know where, but, like, the world's calling. I don't know. Name a place."

"Spain." She smiles a little more, looking down at him again.

"Then after spain, South America or South Africa. One of the South places."

"You'll go to South Africa?"

"Then Micronesia maybe, and then..and just ride. Wherever the waves take you, you know?"

"So that's the plan if we were to get a ton of cash? That's-the dream? Surf trip?"

"Ripping jungle break all day long. Bamboo hut, cooking a fish on a fire, and after that, you go back out and just hit the waves again. That's the dream." He does hand gestures while he speaks, sounding genuinely happy and excited about his dream.

"Sounds perfect."

"Yeah

"Got room for one more?" Olivia looks back at him wiggling her shoulders and smiling again.

JJ laughs, "You got your passport?"

"You don't have a passport." She reminds him.

"Hell no, I don't have a passport. Kookies thing ever."

Olivia starts laughing.

"You don't need—"

He gets cut off by Pope, outside the window, "Hey. Hey. Open it."

Olivia jumps down from whatever she was sitting on and JJ pulls at the window.

Olivia wakes Julia and Kiara up as the two boys make their way back into the container.

"I thought Rafe got you guys for sure." Kiara mumbles, rubbing the sweat from her face.

"No. We're chill." Pope pants.

"All right. Okay, let's put the grate back on." Julia says.

"No, wait. Hold it." Pope looks at her.

"What? No. Put it back."

Olivia jumps slightly when another person comes up the window, "Jesus Christ! I kill you, John B!"

"Who is this?" Olivia asks.

"Just relax. Just relax, okay? I told you I had a surprise." John B looks over the three girls.

"Who is she? What's going on? John B!" Julia urges, looking at her brother.

"Hey, hey. Julia, relax. Relax. Remember I told you about the girl we met in the Bahamas that saved us?"

"Uh..Cleo, yeah?"

"Cleo." John B looks up at the girl.

Olivia looks up at the girl too, grateful to meet the girl that saved her sister.

"She's gonna help us, all right?" John B continues.

"Next time, ask me." Cleo speaks up.

Once everyone was settled back into the container, Cleo now in with everyone. JJ speaks up.

"You seriously didn't grab nothing, not one single gun?" Olivia can't help but fan herself, from how hot it was and how he was standing there.

"We tr..tried, okay? I got attacked." John B answers back, with as much sass.

"This is why I should've gone with."

Everyone starts shushing him, while Cleo speaks up.

"Let me get this straight. You six, with no weapons, decided you were gonna hijack this tramp steamer on your own? Do you have any idea who these people are? Eberhimi, if he catch you, he's gonna kill you. Dead. Cut off your fingers."

"I like her." Olivia mumbles to Julia who nods in agreement.

"Okay. What about waiting until we get to port?" Kie asks. "At least then, if something goes wrong, we have a place to run."

"No." Pope speaks up, from next to her, "No, we can't do that."

"Why?"

"Because I've run the scenario over 1,000 times in my head, and our best chances are on this ship. There's 15 crew member and five of us."

"Exactly."

"Three-to-one odds." He holds his fingers up, "Best it'll get. We wait till we get there, they'll trap us."

"We have no chance."

John B butts in, "No, Kie, there's something else. Ward's alive."

Olivia backs up slightly, her back hitting JJ's. He wraps his arms around her, kissing the side of her head.

"What?" She whispers.

"He's alive, and he's on this boat."

"What?" Kie yells.

"Yeah."

Olivia has to fight the urge not to run out of this container and find her dad.

"You gotta be kidding me." JJ mumbles, his arms tightening around Olivia.

"Are you serious?" Olivia asks.

"It was all a setup, blowing up the boat, the confession to Shoupe. Think about it. That was to clear Rafe's name. And he does what? Goes to the Druthers. And what's on the Druthers?"

"Scuba." Julia answers.

"Bingo."

"So, Ward's alive, huh?" JJ questions, feeling pretty pissed off. "And he has the gold and the cross and Sarah." He lets go of Olivia.

"Thanks for rubbing that in." Olivia mumbles.

"So he's just gonna get away with everything again, huh? Not happening. We're not watching this movie again, right, Pope? You said we need the win. And with her, we're going to the bridge, and we're gonna take it right now." He points at Cleo, "You with me?"

"Let's do it." JB agrees.

"I'm with you, and I wanna be the one to take that bridge." Pope also agrees.

"That's what I'm talking about."

Cleo starts to chuckle, "He's gonna take the bridge?"

"Yeah." JJ answers.

"He couldn't even take me." This makes Olivia and Julia bark a little laughter out.

"Okay. First of all, I was going easy on you." Pope tries to defend himself.

"Seriously?" JJ mumbles.

"I went easy on you." Cleo sasses back.

Kie shushes everyone while John B verbally shushes everyone, "Shut up."

"She didn't even—" Pope tries but John B shuts him up, JJ continuing to speak.

"Relax, all of you. If you're really with us, if we use that knife, we can go up into the bridge, hold it up against the captain's neck, then we go on the intercom and make him tell the rest of the crew to meet up in the forward hull. Once they're in the same place, bam, we lock them in there, and we take back what's ours."

Pope nods, "I like it. It could work."

JJ looks back at Cleo, "Are you with us, then?"

"I want her to be." Julia says.

"No." She looks up at JB, "This is stupid."

"All right, let's open these things up!" A man's voice from outside and metal clanging stops everyone from doing what they are doing.

"They're checking the containers." Kie mumbles.

"Uh-oh." Pope mutters.

Cleo climbs up the wall to the window again, "Wait. No. Cleo."

"What are you doing?" Julia asks her.

Cleo shushes everyone handing the window cover to Kiara, and climbing out.

"She's gonna tell them. Shit."Pope mutters as Kiara covers the window again.

"Hold up!" Everyone listens to the girls voice outside the container, "This one's clear, Sir."

"Are you sure?"

"Went through it inch by inch. Nothing but tubing and plastics in there."

"What if the stowaway had been in there?"

"Well, he wasn't, so..Come on, man. We have work to do. Move your bumper, man." And the man walks off.

Pope nods, looking down at everybody, "Okay, she's on our side. That's good."

John B places his hands on Julia's shoulders, taking a deep breath while JJ speaks.

"Pope, you're up. We'll wait for your signal, okay?"

Cleo whistles letting Pope know it's okay to come out, he takes the cover off, "Come on." She tells him as he climbs out the window.

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JJ, John B, Olivia, Julia and Kiara climb out of the window, after hearing Pope and Cleo's signal, making sure it's clear. But then they split up.

Olivia and JJ find themselves hiding as men pass.

"Psst. How many?"

Olivia looks around the side, then holding three fingers up to him.

The man's voice booms down the hallway, "It's something about that cross. I'm telling you, it's cursed. We're making God angry." The two look out the doorway slightly.

"Where's cap, didn't he call us down here?"

"Yeah."

"What's going on?"

"Waiting for the captain."

Multiple men are heard.

"He's supposed to be down here."

"Where are we going, and where's Dad?" Olivia hears Wheezie voice, but stays on task, holding the number of fingers up for JJ.

"I don't know, Wheezie." Rose's voice comes through. But Olivia blocks all thoughts out.

Olivia and JJ press their backs against the metal wall when Rafe stops walking looking where they are before he disappears.

"That's all off the crew." Olivia mumbles to the blonde next to her.

"Except Ward. We need Ward."

"We can't wait."

JJ waits a second before nodding to the doorway and Olivia moves fast and swiftly, getting ahold of the door.

Her and JJ push against all the men on the other side.

"Close it! Close it, go!" He comes behind her helping her push.

Olivia holds the door closed, with his help, "Lock it." She grunts as the men continue to push.

"There's another door! There's another door!" And the two take off to the other door after locking the first.

They get to it in time, this one easier to lock and close.

JJ and Olivia climb down a ladder into where? Olivia didn't know, but she trusts JJ.

"Time to jack this loot." He speaks.

"Yep."

The two make their way to where the cross is, "Here she is." Then they start pulling the cloth off it. The cross now seeable to the two blondes.

"Surf trip." He looks at her, the two doing a handshake.

Locks clicker are heard and the two look up as the rood above them raises. Pope standing there above them makes the two laugh.

"Whoo!" They both say in unison.

"That's what I'm talking about! Let's go!" Olivia laughs at JJ's excitement.

Pope holds his fist in the air, "The time where people do shit to us and we just sit back and take is over."

"Whoo! That's my boy! Let's get this done, baby!"

"Hell yeah!" Olivia yells.

Once Olivia and JJ have hooked the cross up JJ looks up at Pope, "Take her up, Pope."

"Okay." He nods from the crain.

As he starts, JJ and Olivia help lift it, "Slow. Slowly!" She yells.

Olivia lets go once it's official in the air.

"Bring her in to the middle." JJ speaks up to him, still holding the rope helping Pope with making sure it's secure.

"Okay. That's good." Olivia throws him thumbs up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" The cross is moved to far pulling JJ making him land on the floor in a heap.

"No! Too far! It's too far! Pope!" Olivia shouts as the cross hits some things.

"Sorry! My bad!" He yells down to the two.

"Your other middle!" Olivia corrects what JJ said earlier.

They both grab the rope again, helping Pope lift the cross up .

"Right there. Okay."

"All right." The two continue to speak up to him.

"There is it. Yeah." JJ yells up to him, both of them letting go off the rope. "Let's go help John B load it up on the lifeboat." The two run out the room toward where John B is.

Olivia waits as JJ steps off the ladder before running, "Come on. Come on."

The two continue running, after a while they come to a stop, hiding behind some metal.

"Clear." JJ whispers to her.

Olivia nods and the two make their way to the side off the ship.

JJ looks over the edge, "I don't see him."

But when Olivia turns a man appears, "Jay.."

"Of course. There's more of you." The man pulls out a machete, "Get down on your knees."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." JJ sasses the man, then he ducks as the man comes at him.

The man misses his arm hitting the wall, Olivia holds his arm against the wall, holding her back just in case, while JJ punches him.

"Hit him, Liv!" And so Olivia does as she told and yanks the emergency power supply door open, hitting the man square in the face.

"Where's John B?" JJ yells to her as he stands over the man.

"John B!" Olivia gets to the side of the boat, yelling the boys name.

The man gets up again, swinging at JJ who ducks in time. But on the second time, he doesn't move making him stumble back, falling against some metal.

The man turns to Olivia, "Olivia!" JJ yells, who turns around just as he goes to swing at her but she moves back in time, gripping the edge more.

"Olivia!" JJ yells again, before standing up and jumping on his back. He grabs the wrist with the machete in.

The man throws him off, and swinging again, Olivia and JJ both leaning back. But JJ gets hit with the end if a machete, falling overboard and into the water.

They both watch him hit the water.

The man turns back to Olivia and goes at her again, but she lifts up using the ledge and kicking him in the stomach knocking him over.

She goes over to the ledge, "JJ!" She yells down, seeing him floating face down in the water.

She doesn't think, before climbing over jumping in after him.

"JJ!" She swims behind him, flipping him over and wrapping her arms around him from the back. "JJ! JJ, please, stay with me! Stay with me." She pants, treading water and keeping him afloat is hard work.

"John B's coming. John B's coming, okay?" she continues.

"Shit.." She mumbles. "John B!Help!" She decides to yell.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She mumbles to the passed out boy in her arms.

The other come in the boat, John B helping JJ into the boat.

Olivia grabs Sarah and Pope's hand pulling herself up and in the boat.

Olivia goes straight over to JJ as the boat starts and the get away from the bigger boat.

"J! Please! Please!" She pleads the blonde.

"Wake up." John B joins.

"Please get up!"

"You gotta wake up."

JJ starts coughing, water coming out of his mouth, "There you go. Yeah, yeah. Cough it out. Cough it out, baby." John B urges the boy while Olivia taps his chest helloing him get the water out of his body.

"Welcome to the land of living, dude." Pope speaks, a bright smile on his face.

"No CPR needed, huh?" John B jokes.

JJ's immediate attention goes to Olivia's hands on him, "Hi." She smiles down at him when he finally looks up at her.

"'sup?" Everyone laughs.

"Dude!" Pope says through laughing.

Olivia cradles his head, hugging him.

"Just always looking for attention." John B jokes.

"Whatever it takes, right?" JJ speaks up.

Olivia takes a wet rag from Cleo, and pressing it to his head.

"What the hell happened?" He looks up at her."

"Blunt end of a machete." She tells him.

"Machete?" He speaks, seemingly proud of himself.

"The blunt end."

"Next time, duck." Julia speaks up.

"I'll try to remember that next time. Thanks."

"This shit ain't over." Pope looks back at everyone.

"No, it ain't." JB agrees.

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Julia, Olivia, Cleo, Sarah, and Kiara sit on the beach watching JJ, John B and Pope bringing the boat onto land.

Olivia looks over at Julia and smiles, earning a smile back.

"Good job, guys."

"Good job." Sarah and Kie congratulate the boys.

"JJ, you all right there, buddy?" John B asks the blonde.

"Yeah. Still a little dizzy. Okay, anybody know where we're at?" He looks around.

"Deserted beach. Unknown island." Pope answers.

"All right, I'll take that as a no." JJ look at the ocean, "Plan A, huh, Pope? That went well."

"This is the lowest we can go. We literally have nothing else to lose. The cross, gone."

"The gold, gone." Julia adds.

"Seriously, if we had a nickel for every time we got beat up, I'd sat we're at dollar fifty."

"That's more than I got on me." Olivia shoots back at the blonde in front of her.

"That somehow doesn't make me feel better." Sarah also adds.

"Yeah, you're right." John B agrees with her, "But, I mean, we've..we've had some good stuff happen, right?"

"Name something." Pope asks sounding suspicious of the boys words.

"Um..Uh, the boiler room. What? If the boiler didn't explode I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe. I couldn't have gotten the Zodiac and gotten us out of here."

"That wasn't luck." Cleo shakes her head. "That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it."

"Sterling my thunder, Cleo. Um.."

"Sorry."

"Okay. Pope, you're related to Denmark Tanny. That's crazy."

"And I lost all his inheritance."

"You know what?" John B stands up, looking at everyone. "Guys, this is it. This is the Pogue life. We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of paradise. With my best friends, with my family. So, I don't know. I wouldn't wanna do it with anyone else. Look, and while you guys were complaining about every little thing..JJ?" He walks over to the blonde.

"Hmm?"

"I was looking at those burly lefts." He points to the waves in the ocean.

"There's some slabs out there." JJ looks back at JB.

"Just a few."

"Kie, see that? I know you wanna get out."

"No boards."

"Well, we can bodysurf till we make some boards."

"Lame."

"Pope? Come on, man."

"They do look pretty tasty."

"Oh, yes, they do."

"There's nobody around. We could squat here for a bit. Kind of belongs to us now, huh?"

"You got a point."

"Eight-way split?" The two do the handshake.

JJ looks down at Olivia before up at everyone, "Poguelandia." He says in a posh accent.

"Oh boy." Olivia mumbles.

"I claim thee Poguelandia." He then switches his voice back to normal, "I like the ring of it. I'm gonna make a flag. It's gonna have a chicken on it. With a coconut bra, smoking a j.."

Sarah, Kie, and Julia laugh.

"..in Crocs." And everyone laughs at this.

"I could use a J." Julia speaks up.

"Can we vote on this?" Sarah asks.

"Shall we get to work?" Pope turns to John B.

"Let's get to work. Let's start working on provisions." They do the handshake again. "Set up shop."

Olivia looks up at JJ's hand taking it, "Going full Pogue." She speaks to him then helping Julia up.

"What is a Pogue, anyway?" Cleo asks.

Then Pope teaches her what a Pogue is and the handshake.

Later that night everyone sits round a fire, laughing and smiling at everything and anything.

Julia and Olivia look at each other a smile, brightly.

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Lexi speaks!!!!
WOOP WOOP WOOP!!!! SEASON 2 HURTS ME INSIDE. It's so slow pace and it pisses me off. Thank fuck it's over.

heres some more emojis.
🫶🏻❤️🧡💛💚🩵🩵💜🩷🖤🩶🤎🤍🫶🏻

enjoy.

please and,
thank you.

Words: 3900