Run
John B woke up the next morning and quickly got ready for work. He hadn't been by since the storm, other than to borrow the scuba gear. And he didn't want to risk losing his job by missing another day.
He didn't have time for a shower so he hoses off quickly once he got there, lost in his thought. He was disappointed to wake up and see that JJ still hadn't come home. Because it was JJ's home too, and he didn't understand why JJ stayed at her father's last night. Was she still angry about being lookout?
"Hey. Employee of the month! Where the hell you been?" One of the other workers yelled to him, breaking him from his thoughts. "You taking some me time? Ward C's lookin all over for you. You know he don't like to wait."
John B dried his face in a towel and made his way towards his boss's boat, wondering what this was about.
"Have a seat," Ward Cameron told him as Jihn B walked onto the deck of his boat.
"Yes sir," John B did as he said.
"Who dotted your eye?" Ward asked while working on something.
"Surfing accident," John B said quickly. He's no snitch.
His boss stopped what he was doing and turned around to grab his tool box. "You've had a hard year John. A very hard year. I feel like I've done what I could to help you. Would you agree with that?"
John B doesn't like where this is going. "Yeah. Yeah. Yes sir."
Ward set his toolbox onto the counter he was working on. "I told you you could always come to me if you ever need anything. Is that true?"
"Yeah. I mean, you said you'd help me with my DCS case," John replied, hiding his nerves.
Ward sighed and sat in a seat across from John B. "I need you to answer a question and I need you to be straight with me." John B squirmed in his seat. "Did you take gear off the Druthers?"
John B's heart sunk as knew he was caught. Sarah must've ratted him out. "Yes sir, I did," he didn't bother trying to lie. He just hoped he wouldn't get fired.
"Look Mr. C, I'm- I'm not a thief, okay?" He tried to explain, "It was two dollars worth of air. Stale. You don't want your daughters to breathe that air-"
"John," Ward stopped him and John thinks he almost looks sorry, "It's the principle of the thing. I cannot have employees that I cannot trust. I don't want to do this, John, but you have made me do this."
John B stared blankly as he already knows what's coming.
"I have to let you go," Ward finishes.
John B nods and made his exit. He stormed down the dock, damning himself for ever thinking a kook could ever be trusted. A kook princess no less. What was he going to do now?
Speaking of the kook princess, she was making her way his direction eating chips like she didn't just fuck him over.
"Hey John B," she called as he stormed past her. He tried to ignore her, but she wouldn't let him do that. "I'm sorry, that's it?"
He turned around to face her as she went on. "Not a 'hey, how you doin?'or 'kiss my ass'" she rolled her eyes, crunching on chips.
"You're secret's safe with me?" He repeated her earlier words as he walked up to her angrily.
"What secret are- Oh. That secret," she said humorously.
John B didn't find it humorous and he wanted to wipe that false innocent smile off her face. "I just got fired because of you. And I know you can't imagine that, but some people need jobs so they can eat."
Sarah stopped smiling, confused. What was he talking about. She didn't say anything to her father. John B slapped her chips out of her hand and stormed away.
"What the fuck?!" She yelled after him, causing him to turn back around.
"You're exactly who I thought you were, Sarah Cameron," John B stated, then turned around once again and stormed off without looking back.
Sarah just stared at his back, confused of what just happened. She pieced together that her father found out about the scuba gear, but it wasn't her. John B would never believe her, sho why even care, she asked herself, but she already knew the answer to that question.
She was jealous of the Pogues. Maybe not the living conditions but, their freedom. Their loyalty to each other. Everything she couldn't find in her circles of friends and she herself was guilty of lacking in the past. But the way John B and JJ had defended each other at the beach had ignited a spark in her. She even liked the banter whenever she came across their crew. It thrilled her and she craved to be a part of it.
That will never happen, she thought to herself sadly. Pogues and Kooks are forever destined to be enemies it would seem.
She sighed as she turned around to continue towards her original destination before she was distracted.
"Asshole," she muttered grumpily.
John B was angry. His walk turned into a run, needing to burn some energy. He had no idea where he was going, just that he needed to keep going. The burning in his lungs distracted him from the rage in his thoughts. Rage at everything. His father's disappearance and everything related to it, DCS, Sheriff Peterkin, JJ not coming home, Sarah Cameron, Ward Cameron, hell all the fucking Camerons. It all boiled under his skin. He urged himself to go faster.
Finally his lungs couldn't take anymore and he slowed down to a walk, breath ragged as he recovered. He looked around and saw that he had ended up in a part of town that had seen better days.
A black truck pulled up beside him, and he looked at it curiously. The window rolled down to reveal the two men that had shot at them and trashed his house.
I just can't catch a break, John B groaned internally. Ratter, the passenger, cocked a pistol and set it where John B could see it.
"Time's up, boy," Ratter said, intimidatingly.
John B booked it. "Damnit!" Ratter climbed out and chased after him.
"Don't run boy!" John B could hear Ratter yell from behind him. The other man drove after him with the truck.
John B turned to run through someone's backyard, hoping to lose them, but Ratter was right behind him and closing in fast. John B tried to leap over a wall but the entire wall came down making John B fall with it.
He recovered quickly and ran into some foliage, barely staying out of Ratter's grasp. Ratter nearly had him, but John B managed to knock him down using his momentum and kept running. He came out of one of yards he'd run into and started to run across the road, but the other man bumped into him with his truck.
John B ran around the truck and down the road, as the truck reved behind him to turn around.
"Stop!" Ratter was behind him again. He kept running and he went to climb a chain link fence, but as soon as his hands touched it, his body seized and he fell back, nerves on fire. He couldn't move except to writhe in pain.
"You gotta watch those live wires after a storm," Ratter said as he came to hover above him threateningly. "Now you're gonna give me what I want."
John B was resigned to his fate, when a siren blared from next to them. John B couldn't look to see who it was, but Ratter stood up straight and walked away.
Thank god, John B sighed, relieved. A moment later, Sheriff Peterkin's face hovered above him.
After the seizing stopped and the pain died down, John B slowly stood up, feeling like he'd been hit by a truck.
Sheriff Peterkin directed him into her police vehicle, and he listened. She did save his life, after all. She entered the driver's side and they sat in silence for a moment.
Finally, Sheriff Peterkin broke the silence. "So how's it working out, kid?" She he didn't say anything she added, "It's a whole lot safer if you give it to me than anybody else."
John B looks at her. She did save him and he does feel over his head, after everything. He wants to trust her. He pulls out the compass and looks at it say, wishing he didn't have to part with it. He handed it to her before he could change his mind.
"This thing probably saved your life," Sheriff Peterkin said as she looked at it. "Concentrated the shock. Lucky."
That's ironic considering Pope and JJ had been calling it a death compass and cursed just yesterday, John B thought. He climbed out of the car, sullenly, and watched as Sheriff Peterkin's car drove away with his compass.
He felt lost as he made his way back to the chateau. When he arrived he noticed for the first time how trashed it was. He'd been too exhausted the night before and in a hurry to get to work that morning so he hadn't really noticed. He felt it reflected how he felt inside.
JJ was still not home.
He was done, he decided, feeling empty. Kie was right and this was just a goose chase. His dad is gone. Mind set, he gathered everything left in his father's office on the Royal Merchant and threw it in a pile in the front yard.
He lit a match and set it ablaze, pouring gasoline on it to make it burn faster.
He watched the bulletin board among everything else, but then something caught his eye. He hurriedly grabbed the fire poker and used it to drag the bulletin board back out of flame before it could be destroyed completely.
Olivia R. Routledge, he read from a tarnished note in the upper right corner.
And just like that, his determination was renewed. He was going to uncover the truth, no matter what.
He climbed into the Twinkie and started the engine. He would need his friends for this. With that, the Twinkie headed off.