POPE ROLLED OUT OF THE WAY JUST IN TIME.

They all ran to him after they jumped out of the way as he rolled around on the ground, breathing heavily. He gasped, "I'm good. Just give me, like, one second to, like, catch my breath."

"You did it, Pope," John B breathed out as he, JJ, and Bree ran their hands along the engravings on the cross. The Callaway girl was in complete and utter shock. Of course, the cross had been something nice to think about and dream about, but she never thought that they would actually find it. The Routledge boy moved his finger to a keyhole in the side of the artifact and pointed out to them, "Well, here's why Limbrey wanted that key so bad."

"Whoa. Good find. How much do you think she's worth? Like, if we melted her old bones down, dude, I'm talking like high billions," the Maybank boy rambled on.

Bree looked at him incredulously. "Are you actually insane? If we melt it down, it loses a lot of its value. Not to mention the fact that its hollow, so there's not that much gold."

"Hey!" Pope interrupted all of them once they all started yelling at each other. Actually, it was pretty much everybody yelling at JJ and JJ yelling at everyone else. "It's my ancestors' cross! This is bigger than money, and the world's gotta know the truth."

"Yes. If we don't get this shit outta here before Limbrey gets here, nobody's gonna know. So saddle up," John B informed him, gesturing to the cross and then to outside where the truck was waiting for them to bring the cross.

They nodded before rushing over to the giant golden thing that created a hole in the floor when it fell and grabbing different parts of it so that they could lift it up. The blonde boy was shouting orders at all of them. "It's heavy like right here. Wait. Hold on. John B, you're gonna pull, all right? Pull down."

""I'm gonna pull down. You guys pull up. Ready? One, two, three." Once the brunette boy finished counting down, they all lifted with all of their strength. They were able to get it off the ground, but they were all grunting, and Bree was pretty sure that they were not going to make it very far.

"Who's...who's not lifting right now?" JJ exclaimed, looking around at all of them as they slowly inched to the door of the church. He glared at the Cameron girl. "Sarah, are you seriously—"

She cut him off . "I'm lifting!"

"Okay, guys. I can't. I can't," the Heyward boy panted ut, and then he started to keel over, which caused all of them to start protesting and yelling at him.

"No, no, Pope! Hang on there! No, no, no, no, no, no! No!" the Maybank boy yelled, but it was too late. Pope landed on the ground behind him, and the cross hit the ground. The blonde boy whipped around to the Callaway girl next to him. "Damn it, yo! You almost dropped it on my foot!"

Sarah quickly jumped to her friend's defense. "'Cause we're the only ones lifting it!"

"Guys! Guys, guys, I'm not okay. I'm not okay," the Heyward boy yelled to them, stopping the arguing that was about to break out between them all. They all looked at him to see that his entire face including his eye, nose, and throat was covered in stings and swollen.

"He's having an allergic reaction," Kie gasped, and they rushed over to him, leaving the cross on the ground behind them.

Bree examined the stings trailing down his neck and to his chest and informed them, "His throat's closing up. We need to get him to a doctor. Now."

"What about the cross?" the Carrera girl questioned as they all helped the gasping boy to his feet and started dragging him to the car.

John B grunted before turning to his best friend. "JJ, try and hide it."

"I got it. I got the cross. I don't know how I'm gonna hide this! It's so heavy. I can't — I'm coming! Jeez! That thing's heavy," the blonde boy rambled as he tried to hide the cross while they carried their friend. He ran outside with them and closed the doors on the church behind him. "Bree, Sarah, I didn't hide it well enough."

The Cameron girl shook her head at him. "Don't worry about that. We gotta get Pope some help"

"Okay. I know where to go! Give me the keys!" the Maybank boy yelled to them once he caught up with them, holding his hand out for the keys.

"They're in the ignition!" the raven-haired girl shouted at him frustratedly. "Go."

"Right. I knew that."

Once they slowed to a stop, Bree realized where they were and rolled her eyes. "You did not seriously bring us to the guy that owns the ambulance that we stole."

"He'll help us," JJ assured them, but they all looked at him skeptically. However, they didn't have have very many options, so they just sighed and started dragging Pope to the door. JJ knocked and yelled until his cousin opened the door. "Ricky! Ricky! Hey! Bro! Ricky! Ricky! Hey, Ricky! Ricky, hey, I got a problem, bro! I know you're mad at me!"

"Remember that time you stole my ambulance?" the man reminded the boy bitterly, clearly not seeing that they really needed help.

"Yeah. I know. I know. I know you're mad. No! Don't do that!" the blonde boy protested when Ricky slammed the door in his face. He ran to the window while his friends continued to plead with the man through the door.

"No! Please! Please, we need help! He got stung by a wasp! He's having a reaction! Please help! Please help!"

JJ screamed to him. "He can't breathe, Ricky!"

"Who can't breathe?" the parametric asked curiously as he finally opened the door to them so that he could see that they actually needed his help with Pope.

"Look at him! Help my friend!" John B ordered.

Ricky, seeing that they weren't just there for a bullshit reason, finally agreed to help and opened the door for them. "All right, Jesus Christ."

"Hey! Nice to meet you. Sorry," the Cameron girl told him before rushing over to the table and sliding everything off of it so that they would have somewhere to put the wheezing boy.

"You know, I wouldn't come to you if it wasn't an emergency," the Maybank boy said to his cousin before turning to Pope as they laid him down on the table. Bree stood next to him, biting her nails nervously. "Hang in there, buddy."

The paramedic looked around at all of them and questioned, trying to gather information so that he knew how to help Pope. "What's wrong with him?"

"Wasps!" the Callaway girl exclaimed.

"Wasps?" Ricky yelled with furrowed eyebrows, and that made them feel a little less confident about his ability to save their friend because he seemed a little confused. "Is he allergic to wasps?"

Kie looked at him like he was insane. "Clearly."

"What's his name?" the older male asked them as he checked the boy's pulse, just to make sure that he hadn't died on them, but that was clear by the heavy breathing filling the room. Once Sarah answered, he turned back to the boy. "Hey, Pope? Hang tight. I gotta get my kit."

He ran off into the other room frantically, and John B pushed JJ after him. "He's looking for a kit. Go help. Yeah. Go help." The two cousins yelled at and fought with each other as the others tried helplessly to calm Pope down.

"Okay, I got it! I got it! I got it!" Ricky shouted to them, running into the room with a duffel bag and unzipping it on the table.

JJ asked him, "What do we do now?"

"You don't do anything 'cause you're not a paramedic. Okay. Hey, Pope. How you doing, man? You look like shit." He looked up at them with a look that made Bree even more nervous. He informed them, "Here's the thing. This is a pediatric dose of epinephrine."

"Pediatric?" the brunette girl exclaimed with wide eyes as he prepared the shot, cleaning the needle. Did that mean there was more or less of it? Was it still going to work?

Kie yelled what was obvious. "He's not a kid!"

"It is ten times the normal dose. So if... if it doesn't stop his heart, it'll help him. But I gotta use the whole thing, or it won't work," he explained to them, and it was like he was asking for consent when he said, "And I'm not going down if he dies."

"Okay! Fine! Do it! hit it! Come on, hurry up! Come on, hurry up! Pope, hang in there, buddy," the Maybank boy told him, and as Ricky was sticking their friend in the arm with a needle, the blonde boy groaned. "I hate needles, man."

After he gave the shot, Pope went still, and they all whipped their heads toward him, scared. "Okay, um, that's it. Now we wait." And they did. They waited about thirty seconds, and nothing happened.

"You killed him," Kie muttered after their moment of waiting, looking up at Ricky angrily.

He shook his head quickly, defending himself because they gave him consent to do what he did. "I didn't do shit. I did exactly what you asked me to do."

"Please! Please! Pope, please, come on!" Kie sobbed out as they all yelled for him to wake up. Bree grabbed JJ's wrist and tapped her foot nervously. The blonde boy subconsciously slid his arm up and wrapped his fingers around her hand. They jumped when all of a sudden, he woke with a huge breath. Kie gasped. "Pope? Pope, Pope, Pope?"

"There he is. That's my boy right there!" JJ yelled as they all laughed in relief. Ricky chuckled as if he did not believe that the kid would wake up.

"It's hot! I'm real hot, guys. I gotta get outside," the Heyward boy informed them while they celebrated, and he stood up and made his way to the door as John B, Kie, and Bree followed him. "I need to get outside. It's hot!"

They ran into the yard as he sprinted down the street and back at them excitedly, springing into the air and pumping his fist. "Let's go get that cross! Whoo! Game six! I'm Michael Jordan!"

"Yeah, game six!" John B laughed out.

《✵》

"UH, POPE, YOU'RE DRIVING PRETTY FAST." Sarah was telling the truth because they were speeding down the road, and they all genuinely believed that they were about to die. John B, Sarah, JJ, and Bree were all crammed in the back, the Callaway girl sitting on the floor below JJ and Sarah's feet.

The Maybank boy nodded in agreement. Even he was a little scared, and he was the world's worst driver. "Pope, last to judge, but I think you should slow down a little."

"That would definitely delay our arrival to the cross," the Heyward boy pointed out to them, even though totaling the car would make them get there slower. "We gotta get there."

"Actually, crashing the car would really delay our arrival to the cross," the brunette girl corrected him because they really did not need to get in yet another car accident.

Kie furrowed her eyebrows. "Why did we let him drive again?"

"I said I'd rip your ears off," the Heyward boy reminded her, and Bree swore that his teeth were chattering because of how excited he was.

Bree nodded, remembering what the boy had told them before they left Ricky's house. He had threatened that exact thing. "He said he'd rip our ears off."

"I was joking about that, by the way. That's a really funny joke," Pope told them, and when he turned around to look at the people in the back, they all yelled at him to keep his eyes on the road. "I don't know what JJ's cousin gave me, but I am moving!"

"We couldn't tell," the Carrera girl muttered sarcastically, and all of a sudden, he started swirving all over the road, slightly off the side of the road.

The Routledge boy pointed out the huge trees just off the side of the road, and he warned, "I don't know if you noticed, but there's these giant oak trees all along the road. They're like six inches off the road."

"You don't need to pass," the raven-haired girl yelled to the boy that was driving because he was trying to pass all of these cars going both ways, and he was inches away from crashing into all of them. "You don't need to pass. You don't need to pass."

"We're not gonna get to the cross if we're dead, Pope!" the brunette boy yelled.

"We're not gonna die," Pope chuckled out, rolling his eyes as he turned around to tell them., "It's our divine right to get that cross."

John B screamed, pointing at the road as they began to swerve even more, about to veer off. "Pope! Look at the road!"

They all screamed as the tires screeched, and they went flying into one of the trees. Glass shattered and landed on them as Bree went flying forward into John B's knee. She groaned as they jerked to a stop, and she reached up to grab her head that was now throbbing because of the impact.

"Oh, my God. Bree, you good?" the Routledge boy asked her once he saw what had happened, and she just nodded in response, in too much pain to speak.

JJ opened the door with a grunt. "That is the last time you drive, Pope."

"My dad's truck! No!" Kie exclaimed as she climbed out of the car nad ran to the front to see the damage that had been done. Needless to say, it was totalled. "My parents are gonna kill me for real this time."

"Yeah, well, weren't they already gonna do that anyway?" the Maybank boy questioned as they all joined her on the road, causing all of the girls to glare at him because he was not helping.

"We're gonna have to walk the rest of the way," Pope told them, and then, he started walking down the middle of the road. John B ran in front of him and stopped him, but Pope tried to push past him. "I'm going to get my cross."

The Routledge boy was trying his best to calm his friend down while the rest of the Pogues yelled at the Heyward boy to come back. "Hey, just relax for a second. I'm trying to help."

"Get off me. I'm getting my cross."

"There's a truck coming. You're gonna get hit by a car!" the brunette boy shouted, pushing Pope out of the road so that the truck didn't go barrelling into them. "What are you doing?"

As the truck drove by, they all saw who was driving it. It was the freaking blonde guy that was always with Limbrey. Pope's eyes widened, and they all started sprinting in the direction of the church. "We gotta get back to the church!"

"No, no, no, no!" Kie yelled, and they ran as fast as they could to the building where they found the cross. Bree's head was pounding with every step because of what happened in the car, but she pushed through it because she had to get to the cross. As soon as they got there, they realized that the doors were open, and one look around the room told them the thing that they feared.

"It's gone."