𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐁𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐄𝐍 ᯓ outer banks

chapter ninety-one

THEY ARRIVED AT Wilmington safely, only to find like, a thousand trains here. They knew that they had to find car 750X on the track to Raleigh, but the only issue was that they had no idea where to start looking.

Brooklyn and Kiara realise one issue, "We're not getting out of here with a giant cross," they say, glancing in each other's direction as they speak.

"We won't have to. We can nab it somewhere further in the country," Pope tells them. "Just gotta figure out how to stop the train."

Of course, that was easier said than done.

"Leave that to me," JJ says and Brooklyn can't help but look over at him.

"How you gonna do that?" Cleo asks just what Brooklyn is thinking.

"I got an uncle up in New Bern, right? When he got tipsy, he'd just throw an old chain across the tracks, just for shits and giggles. And that old chain would stop all the train traffic in coastal Carolina," JJ says, moving his hands around to imitate what his uncle would do.

"A chain?" Kiara questions.

Pope, being the genius that he is, says, "He's actually right. There's a low-voltage current that runs across all rail tracks. Throw a chain on it, you close that circuit. It would read as another train. Crossing lights come down. Science is actually pretty sound."

"Science," he clicks his fingers at Brooklyn. "I knew my science." She rolls her eyes and smiles.

"Well, we don't have a chain," Pope tells him.

"No, but I bet Topper's dad has jumper cables in the truck," Sarah says. "Would that work?"

Before they can speak further on the matter, Topper speaks up loudly behind them, "What's going on? Are we doing this or what?"

"I hate that guy," Brooklyn mutters.

"All right, you all wait here," Cleo says. "Me and Pope will go look for it and send a signal once we find it."

"Do we actually have a plan right now?" Sarah asks.

"Think we do," Brooklyn smiles, clasping her hands over Sarah's. "Pretty impressive, right?"

"Let's not jinx it. Come on," Pope taps Brooklyn's shoulder and they all begin to safety climb off the train they've been standing on to formulate this so called plan.

When they get down to the ground, Topper is obviously not as excited about their plan as they are. He's panicking, worrying that his father will find out his stolen the truck for the night to help commit robbery of a giant golden cross.

When they get the all clear from Pope and Cleo, signalling they've found the train, they start to prepare for battle. However, they stop and hear the sound of that exact train taking off, meaning that if they didn't get a move on now, they'd miss the train.

Sarah passes jumper cables to Brooklyn while Topper lectures them, "Hey, I just wanna make sure everyone here is okay with ending up in federal prison."

"Uh, if it gets to that, yeah, I'll do it for Pope," JJ says, speaking exactly what Brooklyn was thinking.

Brooklyn hops on the back of JJ's motorcycle, waving her goodbyes to Topper, Sarah and Kiara as JJ drives off and she closes her arms around his waist.

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JJ and Brooklyn set up camp a little further down the track, hoping that this would be further enough for them to place down the jumper cables and stop the train from moving.