The Office
Pope and Kie were already waiting on the porch for them when John B and JJ arrived back at the chateau, having received a text from JJ telling them to get there pronto.
JJ filled them in, while John B sat quietly.
"And we were right outside like this," she explained dramatically, moving to lean against the side of the house, "and all we hear is Bam! Bam! Bam! Knocking paint off the wall, G. From the inside! Alright? And I'm just looking at him like," she points to John B who is staring wide-eyed at her wild display of what happened, "Wait , first off, look at this shit." She moves to stand in front of Pope and uses her hand to shake dried paint out of her hair.
"That's dandruff, disgusting," Kie says disgusted, thinking JJ was exaggerating events.
"Okay, thank you," Pope mutters when he has a lap covered in white flakes.
"Look at all that, alright? That's paint. At that point, I was just like, I'm waiting for death," JJ continued.
Pope decided to cut in, "okay, so you saw the guys that shot at us, right?"
"Yeah," JJ confirmed.
"Did you get a good description of them?" He asked. "What did they look like?"
"Anything," Kie chimed in.
"Anything we can bring to a police report?" Pope added.
"Yeah," Kie agreed.
JJ thought about it for a second, but she can't really remember in between trying not to panic and trying not get lost in flashbacks of her father. "Burly," she finally comes up with.
"Burly..," Pope states at her incredulously.
"Yeah," she nodded, lighting up a cigarette.
"That's not very helpful," Key noted.
"Ok well, no, like the type of guys at my dad's garage," JJ tries to explain. "I mean you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."
"Yeah. Yes. No, we know," Kie nodded, humoring her.
"Right so I can tell you with full confidence. These boys, these killers.." she takes a puff of her cigarette. "They're square groupers."
"They're square groupers, like narcos square groupers?" Pope says disbelieving, "Like Pablo Escobar square group?"
"Yeah man," JJ insists, wishing John B would say something, anything.
"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie," Kie shakes her head at them.
"What does this square grouper look like specifically?" Pope asks again, but he sounds like he's teasing her.
"You weren't there bro!" She said irritated.
"Well apparently you don't know what to look for," Pope snaps back.
"Dude! I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the whole time. I was under duress, okay?!" She yelled back at him. She took a second to calm down. "But I can tell you," Another pause. "I can tell you by the way Mrs. Lana was screaming, that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."
Pope and Kie fell silent at that and John B opened the compass.
"It's a heavy vibe right now, okay?" JJ says to fill the silence. "I'm not liking this very much."
"Why do they want the compass?" Kie asks.
"It's a piece of shit. You couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted to," Pope adds and JJ glares at his lack of tact, so he adds, "No offense John B. I know it's in your family."
They all look at John B who has stood up. Finally he says, "The office."
"What?" Pope asks, confused.
"My dad, my dad's office," John B explained, then walked inside the house towards the room that was always locked. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his Royal Merchant research."
JJ had only been in there twice in all the years she'd been here. Once when her and John B were in fourth grade and John B convinced her it'd be funny to scare Big John by jumping out from behind the desk. John B stole the key and unlocked the door, then went back to return the key. When he returned, they crept inside and locked the door from the inside, then crawled underneath the desk to wait for Big John to come. He always does. Soon enough, the door opened and Big John walked in. John B and JJ jumped up, yelling 'Boo!' Big John had spilled his coffee all over his shirt. She'd closed her eyes and prepared herself for a beating, but Big John had just gave her an odd look at her reaction and shoo'd them off with a stern 'Don't play in my office again.'
The second time was a week after Big John was determined lost at sea. She'd come home from work to find John B standing in the middle of the room, looking like a lost puppy. That was a hard night as John B had broken down, crying himself to sleep. JJ held him the whole night. The next day John B acted like it never happened and JJ never brought it up either. Instead she chose to offer her support silently, with physical gestures and just being there for him. She'd let him come to her, not wanting to push him into anything he wasn't ready for.
JJ sighed sadly, as they followed John B to his dad's office.
"We used to laugh at him like he was actually gonna find it, but now that he's gone , I've just kinda.. I just left it as he kept it." He hesitated at the door, before pulling out his keys.
"Yeah. For when he gets back," Kie soothed.
Yeah," John B agreed shakily, turning the key into the lock. JJ watched him sadly, knowing digging through his dad's office was going to be tough. John B opened the door and stepped in.
"I've slept over here like 600 times and I've never seen this door open," Pope said as he entered.
"Mm," Kie agreed.
John B grabbed a bulletin board and placed it where they could all see. "Here look, this is the original owner right here," He pointed at a small note in the corner.
"Okay, Robert Q. Routledge," Kie read aloud, "1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass right there." She pointed at an old black and white photo next to it of an older man in a military blues uniform, said compass dangling from his pocket.
"Actually um.. he was shot after he bought it," John B said sheepishly, "Then the compass was shipped back to Henry." He pointed at another old photo of a man standing in a doorway with his wife. "Henry was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. After he died, the compass was given to Stephen." He pointed to a photo of a younger man in his military battle gear stood outside wherever he must have been deployed "Stephen had the compass when he went in Vietnam."
"Let me guess, he died in action, right?" JJ asked, not liking the pattern of bad luck following the compass.
"Sort of. Uh a-actually, he was killed by a banana truck. In-in country," John B stuttered out. "Anyways, after that, Stephen passed the compass down to him, my dad." He pointed at a in color photo of Big John sitting with a little John B.
"Hm. Sounds like there's a reoccurring theme here," JJ pointed out obviously, freaked out.
"Yeah you have a death compass," Pope backed her up.
"I do not-" John B started to object.
"You have a death compass," Pope interrupted.
"Get rid of it," JJ begged, already thinking the compass had brought them enough trouble. "It's cursed, and made its way back to you."
John B ignored them as he seemed to remember something. "Look, my dad used to talk about this compartment in here." he sat down to fiddle with the compass. "Soldiers used to hide secret notes." He unscrewed something and pulled it off.
"What's that?" Kie asked, looking at some letters carved into the compass.
"That wasn't there before," John B replied, excited. "This is my dad's handwriting."
"How can you know that?" Pope asked, doubtfully.
"Because he does these wierd R's with the," he held it up for Pope to see, "see it?"
"Can I see it?" JJ asked, curious. He holds it out for her to see.
She tries to read it but the the letters keep moving, "Red- Rout- no I think that's an A-"
"It says Redfield," Kie eyes her wierdly. JJ blushes in embarrassment. Why did she have to try to read it. Now they know for sure how stupid she is.
"Right," she mutters as if she knew that the whole time and was just messing with them.
"Okay, well what's Redfield?" Kie asked.
"Besides the most common name in the county," Pope added. John B lowered his face to his hand, trying to think.
"Oh, maybe- maybe it's a clue. Maybe it's a clue to where he's hiding," he told them, desperately clinging on to any hope he could find.
"Okay," JJ said, trying to keep the doubt from her voice for John B'a sake, but she can hear it all the same.
"A clue? Come on, that's-" Pope starts but is interrupted by the rooster crowing and Kie clearing her throat for him to shut up. JJ elbowed him and Pope changed gears, " But if it is a clue, maybe it's an anagram?"
John B jumped on it for dear life. "Yes. Perfect. Anagram. You need paper." He grasped around for some paper and shoves it at Pope. "Here you go."
The rooster crowed again.
"How can you concentrate with that thing crowing at you?" Pope complained, as he tried to focus on rooting out an anagram from 'Redfield.'
"JJ loves the rooster," John B defended it, and JJ smiled widely at him as she stood by Pope to try to help.
"I love the rooster," Kie chipped in.
"Let me think," Pope spoke as he focused.
"Seriously, think," Kie tried to help, not helping at all. John B found another piece of paper and a pencil.
"Dedfiel. Colors-That's stupid," Pope muttered. It just sounds like random words to JJ. John B is writing on his piece of paper as well.
"What about Ritalin?" She offers. It starts with an R.
"Um.. Dreidel? Fiddler?" Kie adds, and JJ thinks she might also be saying random words.
"Guys let's stick to what we've-"
John B drowns out the conversation when he sees movement in his peripheral and looks through the window in front of him to see a truck pulling up to the house. He doesn't recognize it.
"Drile. Does that mean anything to you?" Pope asks.
"Guys," John B says nervously.
They don't hear him as they continue trying to figure out an anagram.
"Guys! Somebody's here!" John B yells for their attention. They all look up finally to see two large men get out of the truck.
"Guys, guys is that them?" Kie asks, nervous.
"No," JJ tenses, recognizing that it is most definitely the same two men from earlier.
"Is that them?!" Kie panics.
"This is suboptimal," Pope says matter of factly, like they aren't all about to fucking die.
"John B, I told you. Why does it always-" JJ paces, panicked. She can hardly think, she's so scared. All she can see is Mrs. Lana beaten to shit and then flashes of herself getting beat by her father.
John B steps in front of her and grabs her shoulders, "Hey look at me," he meets her eyes and tries to communicate for her to calm down. She backs up toward the wall as she tries to concentrate on breathing, him meeting her step for step. "Where's the gun?"
"Gun? I uh I can't-" she stutters out trying to think past the ringing in her ears. John B gently grabs her face, thumbs brushing across her cheekbones, as he tries to help her calm down.
"Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" Kie complained, and while John wants to tell her to shut up, now's not the time, he knows she's just scared.
"It was in my backpack, and then I-" JJ tried to recall.
"Backpack," John B recalled, "on the porch."
"On the porch," JJ confirmed, feeling herself calm down slightly at the thought of having the gun. She tore away from John B to go get it from the porch before he could stop her.
"JJ, no!" John B whisper yelled at her, but they needed that gun and JJ couldn't let John B risk himself again. Not if she could help it.
His life was worth way more than her own.
It was too late though.
"John Routledge!" Shouted one of the men as they busted through the front door. JJ stopped midrun and turned back around as she slid on the hard floor, running back to the office as noiselessly as possible. They didn't see her.
"Come on out now! Where's the compass?!" They hear as they softly shut the office door behind her and lock it.
John B grabbed her again quickly checking her over, "Where's the gun?"
"They're on the front porch," she whispered, apologetically. John B squeezed her hand. She hadn't even noticed he's grabbed it.
They can hear the men screaming threateningly and tossing furniture around.
"Guys we gotta leave," Kie reminded John B and JJ breaking them from there silent conversation. They immediately jumped into action when they heard glass smashing. "Guys, window!"
John B and Pope try to open it, but it wouldn't budge.
"Hurry," Kie urged, freaking when the window still wasn't opening. "What's happening? Why is it taking so long?"
JJ, tired of Kie's freak out which wasn't helping anyone snapped from where she stood, "It's painted shut, okay?" It was pretty obvious.
"I'll check the kitchen," one of the men could be heard saying.
Kie walked over to the desk and brought back a flat edged object, finally being helpful. "Okay, guys. Guys, I got it," she said, as the boys got out of the way for her to scrape at the paint.
"Check the back room!" They heard. Shit.
The yelling was getting closer. "Come on," JJ urged Kie to go faster.
"I'm going as fast as I can," Kie stressed.
Pope and John B shushed them from where they stood at the door. The footsteps were right outside the door now. And the door knob jiggled.
"You better not be in there!" The man on the other side of the door screamed.
Kie scraped away at the paint faster, almost done. The boys held their backs to the door, until the man started kicking at it. They rushed over to the window and managed to get it open. They climbed through it just as they heard a gunshot.
They needed to find a place to hide pronto. JJ tugs at John B's hand, again not sure when he had grabbed it, and nodded her head in the direction of the chicken coop.
He nods and they stealthily make their way over and inside.
A few minutes later, John B watches the two men carry boxes of stuff from his dad's office to the bed of the truck.
The rooster crowed and started to get agitated at their intrusion, causing too much noise.
"Do something Pope, shut him up," Kie whispered at him since Pope was closest to the rooster.
"What do you want me to do?" Pope asked, helplessly.
"Pet him, or talk to him. I don't know," Kie cried desperately.
The chickens started clucking in reaction to the rooster, catching one of the large men's attention. Shit.
"You do something," Pope whispered to anyone. JJ went after the rooster and caught him in her hands.
She held him lovingly to her chest and stroked him softly, trying her best to quiet him. The bad man was walking closer.
The rooster still agitated and the man pulled out his gun. JJ closed her eyes knowing what she was going to have to do. A tear escaped her eye as she broke the rooster's neck.
Silence.
"Ratter, what the hell are you doing? Let's go!" The other bad man yelled at the one peering at the chicken coop. 'Ratter' as they now knew him followed directions and walked away to the truck. The unnamed man started the engine while Ratter shut the tail gate.
Kie sobbed quietly from her corner in the coop, while Pope tried to comfort her. John B watched the truck pull out and drive away, and JJ, well JJ couldn't tear her eyes away from the rooster she'd just killed.
She could feel Kie's accusing eyes on her as she sobbed, but Kie didn't have any real attachment to the rooster other than it was a living creature. And JJ had to do it, didn't she? The bad men were going to find them and kill them if she hadn't done it. Weren't they? She tried to validate herself in her head.
But she loved that rooster. That rooster had saved her, and she'd just killed it. She'd never killed anything in her life, but now she stared at the lifeless eyes of her beloved rooster. John B had even told her it was hers once a couple months after he had found her hiding in there that one night. JJ had told him she was jealous of him having the rooster and chickens. When he asked 'why, they're just chickens' she'd told him she never had any pet and the rooster wasn't just any ordinary chicken. He was a guardian angel. He saved her' John B knew what she meant and he'd smiled at her affectionately, then 'He's your guardian angel rooster then. He can keep watching over our chickens tho' He'd teased. And she'd just smiled wide at him, like he'd just gave her a puppy.
But now he was dead and JJ killed him. She can't stop looking.
After John B is sure they aren't coming back, he looks back and he feels his heart break when he sees JJ on her knees next to the dead rooster, her hands in fists as she tries to hold back tears. She loved that rooster. He shot Pope a look that said to grab Kie and get out of there. Pope immediately did as he was asked, and led Kie to crawl out of the chicken coop.
"JJ?" He whispered softly, not wanting to spook her. She didn't look up. So he crawled closer. "Hey, JJ"
Still nothing. He gently grabbed her fists and used his bigger hands to open them and intertwine there fingers. "Hey, look at me JJ," He used one of their intertwined hands to gently raise her chin up and meet his gaze. "It's okay," she started to look down again, but he was not about to let that happen. "No, don't look down JJ, eyes on me." And she did.
Her bottom lip trembled. "I-I-I killed him."
"It's not your fault okay," he tried to reassure her. "You didn't have a choice."
"But I-" she started to argue, but John B didn't let her.
"No. I should've done it. I didn't see in time. Im sorry," John B apologized. JJ shook her head in denial, but he stayed firm. "You shouldn't have had to do that. It's not your fault, you hear me? They would've killed us."
After a second she nodded that she believed him, eyes still wet with tears.
"Come here," he opened his arms for her to crawl into and he held her close as she let out a couple sobs. He rubbed her back, wishing he'd been the one to kill the rooster. Anyone else really.
Once she seemed to get her tears under control, she sniffled. "Okay. I'm okay now."
She wasn't but she needed to get away from the chicken coop and she didn't want to cry anymore. He squeezed her hand and nodded.
He let her crawl out first, making sure she didn't look back at the rooster, then followed after. He'd have to come back later to take care of the rooster's body.
For now he rejoined his friends, feeling guilty for the danger he'd put them in.