These Different Times (Nick Clark FF)

20.

The atmosphere on the boat became tense as soon as we heard the older brother's yelling and everyone started glancing between each other nervously.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Seth demanded when he finally got up onto the boat, "You're kidnapping my brother! Where are my parents?"

"Put the gun down," Maddie instructed gently, "We're taking Harry somewhere safe. You can come too."

"Where are my parents?" he repeated.

"There was an accident," Travis said quietly, taking a quick look at Harry who was still sat in between Nick and I, hands toying with the action figure in his hands, "You're mom, I'm sorry."

"No," Seth growled, jabbing his gun in his direction, "You did this. You coming here...we were fine!"

Harry flinched at his harsh tone, making the older boy look in our direction, his eyes softening, "No, buddy. It's okay, I'm sorry. Come on, we'll go find mom and Willa."

"Seth," I started as the little boy got up, leaving his action figure by us as he did what he was told but Nick put his hand on his shoulder.

"He's not safe here."

"And he's safer with you? Seth asked.

"Neither of you are safe here," I spoke firmly, "Those fences you have by the water aren't going to last forever. You have to know that as well as I do."

"We'll manage." Seth muttered, moving over to stand in front of us, "Now come on, Harry. I won't tell you again."

Nick went to say something again when the little boy finally got up, giving the two of us a sad glance and following his brother over to the door but I put my hand on his arm, shaking my head when he looked at me.

"There's no point."

His jaw clenched but he held his tongue, relaxing back onto the seat while everyone else followed the two brother out onto the deck and I got up to look out of the windows looking down onto the dock, my heart sinking when I saw that Melissa's reanimated body was slowly making it's way towards them.

I couldn't watch this so I wordlessly moved back to my seat beside Nick, where we sat in silence until we heard the gunshot.

I only hoped that he hadn't made Harry watch.

**

"I'm starving."

Alicia and Ofelia didn't even open their eyes to look at me, "You ate not even half an hour ago."

The three of us were laying on the floor of the top deck, staring up at the clouds as we sailed underneath them.

"I know," I answered them, "But that was a whole thirty minutes ago."

"Wait," Alicia said quietly, reaching for her watch that was on the sun lounger that was by us, "What time is it?"

"You're the one with the watch," I murmured, "You tell us."

Instead of answering us, she took off inside just as the boat shuddered to a halt.

"What now?" Ofelia groaned, "Can't we go one day without stopping?"

Laughing, I pushed up off the floor and went in search of Nick. He really was my only source of entertainment on this boat, which was really sad.

I found him down in the bedroom, his hands playing with Harry's soldier figure.

"Hey," I mumbled, sitting beside him, "You okay?"

Without looking down at me, he shook his head, "No."

He was angry. That much was obvious by the fact that he wouldn't even look at me and the fact that he was staring at the wall with such intensity, that if it were a person, it'd probably be dead.

"You want to talk about it?"

He began pacing back and forth in the small room, something else he always did when he was mad, "I just...I don't get it, Tay. Why would Seth choose not to come with us? We could have given both him and his brother a chance to live. A chance to beat this! And now they're stuck on that God forsaken islandd!"

"I know," I whispered, playing with the toy, "I wanted them to come too."

He sighed loudly and sat back down beside me, "Did the boat stop?"

"Yeah. Don't know why. Though I'm sure it's nothing."

Just as I finished my sentence, Travis and Strand wandered past that open door, talking quietly between themselves.

"Maybe it's not nothing," Nick murmured, standing up, "Want to find out what it is?"

Giving him a wide smile, I nodded, taking his hand when he held it out for me and the two of us snuck down to the engine room, pausing just before the door.

"Can you fix it?" We heard Strand ask, "Because in case you haven't noticed, we're on a tight schedule."

"It's not as if you haven't mentioned it before," Travis muttered, "I'm not a miracle worker, but I'll give it my best shot."

Nick looked down at me with a confused expression and I shrugged. Even listening, we couldn't work out what it was but whatever it was, it must have been bad since the boat had some to a stop.

"Something must be lodged." Nick then whispered, "Come on, we'll ask my mom. She'll know."

The two of us slowly made our way upstairs, where Ofelia was sitting talking to Maddie with her father and I moved to listen to what she was saying, pulling Nick over by our joined hands, "What's going on?"

"There's something stuck." she answered, and her son whispered a quiet told you so in my ear.

He then looked around, eyes scanning over the surrounding oceans and I let out a yelp as I was dragged towards the railing of the boat.

"Woah," Nick breathed, pointing, "Look at that."

My eyes followed to where he was pointing and I let out a low whistle. On the shore, there was luggage and such spewed all over the place, most likely from a plane or a boat or something.

"Give me the binoculars," I muttered and Nick handed them to me.

"What do you see?" he asked.

"There's first aid boxes," I whispered, looking up at him, "Clothes. Lot's of clothes. Nick, we need to go to shore."