Ashe was nine-years-old when his father taught him what to do in-case he was ever kidnapped.

     "Why would I be kidnapped?" Ashe had asked him.

     His father knelt down to his level and held Ashe's small arms. "Remember in your little defense game how you built the towers and then all these little tanks keep coming in trying to destroy your towers? Well, my work is like that. There will always be people coming to tear down what I built for you and you have to be ready to face them. . ."

     "Zoe, I'm going to need you to trust me . . . " Ashe whispered. "When I squeeze your hand we run."

     Zoe didn't move, she clenched her teeth and tried to whisper through them and just hoped the pirates wouldn't shoot.

     "They have guns. . ."

     He tipped his head down to hide his lips. "They won't fire them."

     Ashe hoped that Zoe would follow his lead. She wasn't making a sound, and the group was moving in closer on them. He nudged the tip of his shoes under the piles of broken glass and subtly tried to nod for Zoe to do the same.

     She did. She didn't ask him questions for once.

     "NOW!" Ashe called out.

     Simultaneously the two of them kicked up a spray of glittering glass fragments towards the pirates. Ashe's fingers slid down to grasp Zoe's hand into his and together they sprinted like crazy into the inside of the ship.

     The group shouted out cuss words and the woman with them just seemed to laugh. They didn't shoot—just like Ashe had predicted—but just because they didn't shoot didn't mean they wouldn't chase them down. It was like a slow game of cat and mouse, there wasn't many places to run or hide, the pirates could take their time in finding them.

     Ashe pushed open the cabin doors to certain rooms, but didn't enter them. He wanted to confuse them about which room they might have gone into.

     They ducked into one of the rooms and kept the door open, but pulled themselves to hide in the very small, compacted closet space. The two of them had to wrap their arms around one another just to fit.

     They breathed hard and just hoped they'd find a chance to get away again.

I pressed my mouth against Ashe's shoulder because there was barely enough space for my head to be in there at all.

     His arms gripped my waist and my arms clung to his neck. I could feel his heart beat against my much faster paced one.

     "You can ask me," he said it so softly I could barely hear him. "I know you want to."

     I was surprised by how well he could read me, even when I shouldn't have been. "Okay. How did you know they wouldn't shoot?" I asked.

     "It has to look like a malfunction. Bullet holes anywhere aboard wouldn't make it look like an accident. If they catch us, they'll knock us out and just throw us overboard and it'll look like we just drowned waiting for help. They probably knocked Daniel out because they were hiding in the VIP room."

     Ashe seemed to know a lot about these kinds of situations, I didn't even need to ask him how he knew these type of things. His family was like mine, his father had to prepare him for the possibility of these scenarios playing out. I wondered if the pirates had any clue that they were dealing with the kids of crooks.

     I felt his heart beats start to slow, while mine drummed harder.

     "How do you stay so calm?" I made my voice so quiet.

     "I'm not calm, I am focused on survival. Panic and survival doesn't go together."

     The laughter was louder. Doors slammed and suitcases sounded like they were being tossed into the hallways. One of the men whistled a tune and sang 'Who's afraid of the big-bad-wolf'.

     I was terrified.

     I tried to not let my fear consume me and be brave in the way I was sure Ashe was being brave. It was taking all the strength I had not to feel like covering my face in a corner and wishing everything away.

     "What's the plan?" I asked as I tried to keep from shaking.

     "We find an emergency raft and get off the ship. One problem though . . . "

     He didn't need to explain it, I already knew the problem.

     "Once we're in the water and away from them, they can shoot us," I mumbled softly.

     "Yeah . . . "

     "Okay, one thing at a time. Let's get out of this closet."

     The advantage we had was that the four pirates were loud. We knew exactly how far they had to be from finding us. We also had another advantage, I was positive that we were faster than them. They looked like people who relied too heavily on firepower and not muscle. Even though I knew they were trying not to shoot on the ship, that didn't mean they wouldn't out of desperation.

      "Look what I found! That rich chickadee left little presents in all the rooms." One of the men called out. "There's some kind of ice-pick in these bags, why would they need an ice pick?"

     "There's some blocks of ice in the freezer with them stuff in them, phones and such. I guess she wanted to make a game of it." The female voice told him.

     An ice-pick? Hannah had placed party-favors in each room, that meant that the room they were hiding in had to have one somewhere.

     "I'll look for it, you be the look out," Ashe instructed.

     It was a relief that Ashe seemed to think on the same wavelength as me, I didn't need to explain any of my ideas to him at all.

     We opened the closet door as soundlessly as we could possibly manage. I tiptoed near the door, but stood near the hinges of it. I just could see a sliver of a view into the hallway. The group ransacked the rooms for valuables and either stuff them into their pockets or a medium-sized black bag.

     They weren't rushing to find us, they were so confident that we had no where to run and it was only a matter of time before they either caught us or the ship sank.

     Ashe walked around the small cabin like someone that was trying to keep from waking a grizzly bear. His hands dug with care into bags and suitcases and with each of his movement I felt my nerves go crazy.

     He turned over the lid of a zebra-print suitcase to find the party-favor bag hidden behind it. He slipped the ice-pick into his hand and stealthily eased his way against my side.

     At least we weren't totally empty handed. If we could disarm one of them we could definitely take at least one person down.

     I tilted my lips towards Ashe's ear so he could hear me. "I think they're all in a room together, we should try and sneak out before they go back into the hallway."

     I felt his fingers touch against mine and hold them. I knew he was only doing it so that we'd be able to keep up with one another, but it did help me to calm myself a little.

     Together we stepped out into the hallway. We could see clothes being flung out of a door and hear the triumphant cheers of the group as they laughed over a pair of laced lingerie they found. We made our way back onto the deck and this time we kept our bodies low and hid behind overturned tables.

     Ashe didn't say anything to me, he just nodded towards a round, white cylindrical case. The labels and colored safety images made it clear that the container held an inflatable raft inside it. It was really large and had several straps that would have to be unhooked to open it.

     There was no way that we could open this case, inflate the raft and get it into the water without being heard.

    We locked eyes.

     "I'll have to create a diversion. Something loud so they won't hear you getting the raft ready," he said.

     "No, no! I don't want you doing anything that might make them decide to shoot you!" I adamantly refused.

     Ashe's mouth twitched a bit and he smiled. "If we make it off this ship alive, will you tell me why it is that we fight so much?"

     "Because of things like this! You're an idiot!" I squeezed his arm, I didn't want him to go.

     "When you hear the signal, start working on the raft. I'll try and distract them as long as I can and then I will come back to you."

     "Please, please Ashe, don't do this. Because I won't leave this ship without you."

    His hand reached up to touch the side of my face. He did it so tenderly that it took me by surprise.

     "When we were twelve, you were my first crush," he confessed with serious ice-blue eyes. "You with your ridiculously cute smile and big eyes full of wonder. Then everything changed between us, but I didn't stop liking you. Katie-Rose and I weren't real, we were just passing time with each other and keeping Hannah away was just a bonus. I dated girls, but they were never like you, Zoe. . ."

      I felt like crying. Why was he telling me this? Why was he confessing to me like he wouldn't get another chance to?

     "Don't tell me this, just stop. . ." I quietly pleaded with him.

    His hand drew away from my cheek. "If I'm not back in twenty minutes, go without me."

     I tried to grab his shirt to keep him from leaving, but nothing would stop him. Ashe crawled carefully down the deck away from me. I couldn't even call out to him without giving us both away.

    When I couldn't see him anymore I felt the tears roll hotly down my cheeks. I tried to quickly wipe them away. Now wasn't the time for crying, I had to make the most of every moment.

     I wasn't going to let him down, and no matter what, I was going to make sure we both got off the ship—together.

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