"THEY'RE FANCY PEOPLE," KIE INFORMED THEM ONCE THEY PULLED UP TO THE HOUSE. They had finally reached Charleston, and they were about twelve hours late. They were praying that they were not going to be punished for that. "They've had three governors in the family. They've run Charleston for, like, three hundred years."

JJ nodded as they all stared out at the huge house that was in front of them. "These Kooks make our Kooks look like Pogues. You sure this is the place, Pope?"

"Pretty sure," the Heyward boy answered.

Bree, who was sick of being stuffed in this middle, began to push JJ out of the vehicle despite the fact that the door was still closed. "Let's go. Let's go."

"All right," he responded, opening the door, and they all climbed out and began to approach the building. "Fat City, for sure."

"Twenty-seven King Street," Pope told them, holding up the letter that was sent to him to compare the addresses and make sure that they were at the right house.

The Maybank boy looked up at the the very tall and spiky gate that kept anyone from climbing over it and onto the property without getting seriously injured. "Talk about home security. Are those spikes to keep people out?"

"No," the Callaway girl responded when she saw something and put all the piece together. She pointed to a spot on the property. "Look, the slave quarters are over there."

"These spikes were to keep people in," the Heyward boy added with a sigh. Then, they made their way through the unlocked gate and up the front porch steps of the house. The impacts echoed when Pope hit the door with the large locker on it. They waited nervously for someone to open the door, and he questioned, "Think that was too much?"

"It echoed the entire house. That's for sure. So they definitely heard it," the blonde boy told him.

Kie suggested with a shrug, "Maybe nobody's home." So, he began knocking again for good measure, and in the middle of the third time, the door swung open to reveal a very creepy man. Bree did not want to judge, but he did not look like the kind of man to live in that huge or a house.

"You must be Pope," he gathered, his eyes scanning all of the other teenagers around him. The brunette girl felt uncomfortable when his eyes landed on her before he looked back to the person he actually cared about.

Pope raised his eyebrows at the man in question. "Are you Mr. Limbrey?"

"Ms. Limbrey was expecting you yesterday," the man corrected, and all of their eyes widened when they realized that they had been calling her 'he' that entire time. They had just assumed that she was male for some reason.

The Heyward boy scramblde to explain himself and apologize. They needed to be extra nice to these people since they were freeing their friend. "Oh. I'm... I'm sorry. My car broke down on the way up here."

"Carburetor blew up in the middle of Nowheresville," JJ added, causing the blonde man to look over at him with an uninterested expression. He also seemed angry, and the Callaway girl guessed that it had something to do with the fact that Pope was not the only one there. "Sorry about that. "

"Yeah, she was, uh, real upset when you didn't show up," he informed them.

Kie was trying to get him to understand so that he was not mad at them. She let him know, "We tried to call, but there's no number on the invitation."

"Yeah, we got here as fast as we could," Bree said.

Nodding to the Heyward boy's friends all around him, the man explained to him, "She also expected you to come alone."

"I mean, these are my friends," Pope scoffed, glancing at the other three before turning back to the man at the door. They still had no idea who he was and what he had to do with anything, but they figured that if he knew Ms. Limbrey, they should listen to him. " They helped find the Royal Merchant too. I—"

"The instructions were explicit. Your friends can stay outside," he cut the boy off, shaking his head.

The Maybank boy cut in before Pope could respond. "We're kind of a package deal, man."

"JJ. It's okay," his male friend stopped him from saying anything that they might regret since that was what he usually did. He then turned to Kie, shooting her a small smile. "I got this. I'll be good. "

"Yeah. We'll be right here," she assured him, returning his expression.

He reached out for her hand, and she grasped it between her fingers. He told her, "Keep the car running." Bree was not sure if he meant to keep it running in case they needed a fast escape or what, but she assumed that that was what he meant.

"Yep," Kie responded with a nod.

Then, Pope stepped inside the house, and the man closed the door behind him. The other three stood on the porch awkwardly for a second, wondering if they should wait or get back in the car. Bree was the first to ask. "Should we go back then?"

"Yeah, let's go," the Carrera girl answered.

They began walking down the driveway and through the gates again. As they climbed back in the car — JJ in the driver's seat this time with the Callaway girl in the middle and the raven-haired girl on the other side of her — the blonde boy spoke up. "You know, I kind of assumed that Limbrey would be a dude."

"You know what happened when you assume," the brunette girl told him with a sigh, and when both of the other Pogues looked at her with confused expressions, she continued, "It makes an ass out of 'u' and 'me.'"

That made them laugh.

《✵》

"LOOK, IF LIMBREY IS LEGIT..." KIE STARTED. They were still waiting for pope to come out of the house, and they were starting to get a little worried. "...then Ward gets arrested, and maybe Sarah gets the gold." Then, something moving bby the house caught their eye.

"Does that look voluntary?" Bree asked as they watched Pope walk along the blonde guy from earlier and some lady on crutches that she guessed was Ms. Limbrey. The Heyward boy looked back at them, and he looked really nervous.

The man pushed the boy forward and looked around like he was making sure that no one was watching. The blonde boy answered, "That would be a negative." Kie was about to climb out, but he grabbed her shoulder, reaching over the Callaway girl. "Wait, wait, wait. They're going into the alley."

"Go around back?" the two girls guessed at the same time, and the Maybank boy confirmed it at the same time that they said it. So, they were all in sync.

"Yeah," he responded, nodding as he started the car and put his foot on the gas so that they would start moving. "We'll meet them around back."

If they moved too quickly or suddenly, that might let the Limbrey lady know that they were onto her, and they could not have that. So, the raven-haired girl told him, "Be chill. Be chill."

"Yeah, sure," he replied as they started down the road.

Kie and Bree were staring out the window and down the alley every time they passed a building in search for their friend. The Carrera girl questioned, "Look where did they go?"

"What if they went underground?" the blonde boy quizzed almost excitedly.Because in C.H.U.D., when they took people down into the sewers, it would turn the humans into humanoids 'cause of the radiation, and then all of a sudden—"

"JJ, shut up. That doesn't make any sense," the brunette girl itnerrupted him. She did not mean to be mean, but she was really worried about Pope at that moment.

He did not seem offended, though when he responded, "Right, sorry. Did you see him?"

"No." After Kie answered him, Bree just opened the door of the moving car and jumped out. She tripped a little because of the speed, but she was able to roll onto the ground so that she did not get hurt all that much. She had no idea what her thought process was. She just knew that there was no way that they were finding Pope like that. The Carrera girl yelled after her as the car screeched to a stop. "Bree what the hell are you doing?"

"Finding our friend. Come on!" she answered, turning around and jogging backwards for a second so that she could wave them over before facing forward again and aprting down one of the alleys.

JJ was faster than she was, so he quickly got up with her. They ran together with Kie right behind them, and when they heard heard yelling, they moved faster. They turned a corner and saw the blonde man lying on the ground and Pope above him. The man was reaching for a taser that was on the ground a couple feet away from him, but the Maybank boy beat him to it.

He ran toward the taser and kicked it down the path toward the girls. Kie reached down and grabbed it. Bree shouted to the boys, "Come on!"

"Pope," the blonde boy muttered, looking over to the boy that was still trying to punch the man on the ground aggressively. He was really angry. "Pope, come on. Go! Just leave him! Leave him!"

They ran back down the path to where the car was parked, and they all piled in, their talking overlapping while JJ started the car. Kie looked back after a second and saw a car following them at a really high speed. "Guys, I think he's following us."

"Hurry it up, JJ!" the Callaway girl ordered as she looked between him and the car behind them. He listened and slammed on the gas as hard as he could.

Pope, being observant, informed them, "This is a one-way."

"I know," the Maybank boy answered, but he did not seem to be telling the truth becaus ehe was going the wrong way in a freaking one way!

They kept yelling when they saw another car coming their way, and if the boy did not turn, they were going to collide. Thankfully, he did turn, but in the process, he almost ran over some people that were crossing the road. He yelled, "Get out of the road!"

"Those were people! Jesus Christ!" Pope screamed.

Breathing out a sigh of relief that they did not run over anyone yet, Bree exclaimed, "This is why we shouldn't let JJ drive."

"That was evasive driving technique right there, y'all," the blonde boy replied, ignoring her dig at his driving skills as they all stared at him in disbelief. They turned another sharp corner, and all of a sudden, the vehicle made a hissing sound, and smoke began so surround them a little bit. JJ groaned out, "You said he fixed the carburetor! You said he fixed it!"

"He did," they Heyward boy responded.

As the truck began to slow to a stop, not being able to go anymore, Bree sammed her fist against the door and shrieked, "Shit! Damn it! Looks like we're on foot now."

"Number one rule. Never trust mechanics," the Maybank boy told them, and Bree rolled her eyes. That might've been helpful earlier when they were actually at the mechanic. They ran to the back and grabbed their bas out of it as the car that was following them pulled behind theirs. JJ's eyes widened, and he yelled, "We gotta go around! Go, go, go, go, go!"

"Guys, I think he has a gun," Kie informed them, and that just made them speed up.

JJ ducked, even though it would not help or protect him against anything. "Shit, get down!"

They kept sprinting down alleys and sidewalks, yelling various things and running into a shit ton of people as they did so. No matter what they did, though the man seemed to be gaining on them. Finally, they turned a corner, and time seemed to slow as they slid to a stop once they saw what was in front of them. Well, actually, who was in front of them.

John B and Sarah.

"Holy shit," Bree laughed out in amazement. They all just stood there for a second, taking in the moment of happiness. Their two friends were on some sort of bike thing with John B pedaling and Sarah in some sort of car in the back.

That was until they realized that they were still being chased by a man with a gun. Both John B and Sarah told them, "Get in! Get in! Get in!"

Both girls hopped inside the car with Sarah while the two boys grabbed onto the back and started pushing. "Oh, my God!" the Callaway girl breathed out, and all of the girls embraced despite the high speed chase going on. JJ hopped on, riding on the side, and they thought they were about to get away when Pope fell.

"Get up, Pope! Get up!" John B yelled, and he slowed down slightly so that Kie could pull Pope on as well as soon as he stood up. The blonde man tried to grab onto the car because apparently he was the Flash and could run really fast. JJ pushed his hand off, though.

He fell to the ground, and they all cheered when they realized that there was no way that he was going to catch up to them on foot. They continued down the street and hopped a fence so that they landed on the beach where the two fugitives had parked a boat. Bree did not know where they got it, but she did not really care because it was their way out.

She helped JJ and Pope push the boat off the land, and after they got it into the water, the Maybank boy grabbed her by the waist and helped her onto the vehicle. Then, the boys hopped on. She ran straight to John B as soon as her feet touched the ground. She threw her arms around him, and he chuckled, hugging her back. After that, she ran over to Sarah and embraced her once again.

They were safe, and they had their friends back.