Collide | Rafe Cameron

1

The hurricane was moving in quick. I had just finished my shift at The Wreck, which I got courtesy of Kie, and I was quick to make it back to the château. I was sharing the Twinkie with John B, we were much too broke to have another car, but our Volkswagen bus was just fine.

I jumped into the drivers seat of the Twinkie and quickly pulled away from The Wreck, the window was blowing quick already and the sky was a dark grey. Driving down the road I watched as shop owners prepared their businesses before the hurricane, in hopes the damage would only be minimal.

The thing about the Outerbanks is the island was divided between the Northside and Southside. The Northside we called Figure 8, which is where the kooks live. The richest of the rich, living in 6 bedroom colonial houses on the water.

Now the Southside on the other hand, we called The Cut, people struggling to keep their power from being shut off. The people that lived here we called pogues. Working 2 jobs as the kooks had 2 houses.

One last thing, kooks only hang out with kooks and pogues only hang out with pogues. Unless your Kie of course, she was a pouge through and through none the less.

Pulling into the dirt driveway of the château, I could see John B with his friends sitting on the enclosed porch. There was 3 of them, JJ, Pope, and Kie. They were just as much his friends as mine at this point.

"I'm back," I say as I shut the door of the Twinkie. They all looked over and smiled.

"Do you know if my parents need help with hurricane prep?" Kie asks, I shrug my shoulders before answering.

"I'm not sure, but you should get home before it gets too bad, don't want to get stuck with no cell service," I tell her, I walked inside the small house. The pullout couch that never got closed had crinkled blankets from where one of the pogues had slept last night.

I heard the sound of a car start and new Kie was leaving, most likely giving Pope a ride back to his house too. I knew JJ would stay, he never went home.

I heard John B and JJ enter the house, the screen door slamming shut behind them.

"You get the boat on the trailer alright?" I ask knowing we couldn't leave our small boat in the water during a hurricane.

"Yep, was pretty easy with everyone's help," John B answered. I smiled and nodded as I looked through the cabinets for something to eat. When I found nothing good enough, I grabbed a beer out of the fridge and moved to stand in front of the screen door.

"Agatha is gonna be a doozy I can already tell," I sigh hoping that the hurricane wouldn't tear it up too much.

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I woke just after John B, yawning and stretching on the creaky old mattress. I slowly slid off my bed, feeling how heavy my eyes still were. Leaving the room I found John B starting to walk out the door to see the damage that the hurricane had done. JJ was just starting to sit up off the pullout.

I followed John B out the door, seeing the yard a mess with tree branches and a downed tree. John B mumbled to himself about the damage as I stood by the steps of the house.

Soon JJ joined my side, giving his own input about the hurricane.

"Agatha did some work huh," he said as he leaned against the rail of the porch. I nodded in agreement as John B agreed too. JJ made his way down the steps to John B who was pulling branches out of our boat. "Whatcha thinkin'?"

"I'm thinkin' the storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze. All those drum are gonna chase a crab," John B said, I knew where this was going. Although John B was right, this would be a good time to fish.

JJ asked him about the DCS meeting that was going to happen today, once I got word of the hurricane I knew that it would have gotten canceled.

——————

After getting the HMS Pogue back into the water we traveled through the marina to pick up the rest of the crew; we made our way down to the marsh.

Pope was driving the boat as the rest of us enjoyed a beer. JJ stood up standing on the very front of the boat as he told Pope to make the boat go faster.

JJ held his beer up and away from his mouth, slowly pouring it hoping the wind would be enough to blow the beer into his mouth. Of all the many times I have watched JJ do this it has never worked.

JJ was really trying hard but then the boat hit a sand bar, sending everyone flying, and JJ into the water. I landed just forward on the deck of the boat with a hard thump.

"Shit," I groaned slowly standing up, "You good Kie?"  She nodded at me before looking out to JJ in the water.

"You okay JJ?" Pope asked from the wheel of the boat after JJ got to the surface of the water. He floated on his back groaning in pain.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head," JJ answered causing me to snort at his pain. "Pope what did you do?"

"Sandbar. The channel changed," Pope told him, as he started walking to the front of the boat to get a look at the sand bar. "Guys...I think there's a boat down there," Pope told us, Kie and John B making remarks of disbelief. Pope told us he wasn't kidding.

I walked over to where he was standing, seeing the very top of a boat in the water. We sat in shock for a second before quickly pulling off our shirts, and for us girls our shorts too.

Jumping into the water we swam down. It was definitely a boat alright, a nice one at that. I got this feeling that something was going on and it probably wasn't good.

We broke the surface laughing. "That's a Grady-White. A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy," JJ told us as we started swimming back to the boat. We pulled ourselves back up on the boat. "That's a primo rig."

"Yeah that's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something?" John B questioned as he stood up.

"You surfed the surge?" I asked John B, worrying about him, JJ high-fived him.

"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asked, I shrugged my shoulders.

"No, but we're about to find out." John B said, getting out the anchor.

"John B you can't be serious. It's too deep for you to go down there like that," I told him knowing I was responsible for his safety, even if I wanted to know whose boat it was too. JJ agreed too but John B was too stubborn to ever accept some good advice.

"Oh, for the week and feeble, JJ," John B said as he pulled the anchor out of its compartment. JJ told him he wouldn't resuscitate him and Kie expressed her worry before JJ pushed him into the water.

It felt like forever before John B made it to the surface. We all waited in anticipation before he made it to the surface holding a motel key.

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asked.

"Looting potential?" JJ asked, but John B told them no.

"I found this motel key," John B said holding a key with a yellow tag attached.
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Okay so Um, this is basically just a beginning and honestly you could probably skip over the whole thing. I think I'm going to skip the motel scene as it would just be a lot. Then we can move onto better and more interesting things. Anyways, thank you for reading!