When it all goes down

Shots fired

Fucking cops. Shoupe had come onto the boat, curious as to why we were there. I held my breath and tried to look as innocent as possible. We knew John B was out of air. He couldn't hold his breath much longer. Shoupe and his men finally sped away and we heard a gasp come from the water.

" you missed the show brother." Jj said pulling John B back on the boat.
"You scared the shit out of me." Kie said with relief
"Dude the cops were up here, but we took care of them. Shit I thought we were busted." I said grabbing the scuba tank from John B.
"Hey guys. Bogey, two o'clock. Anyone recognize that boat?" Pope was pointing at a boat headed directly in our direction. We all shielded our eyes to get a better view.
"Let's not stick around to find out" I said "JJ, go  get the bowline."
Kie and I ran to get the stern. John b was yelling for JJ to go faster.
"Go go go go. They are coming." Pope yelled. John B started the boat and we started making our way out of the marsh. The boat was definitely following us.
"Gun it!" Jj yelled pulling me to him. We all looked back when we saw one of the men pull out a gun.
"Oh shit!" Jj yelled shoving me on the ground and pulling Kie down with us.
"John B, get down!" I screamed. JJ was shielding me with his body and Kie and I were holding hands. Suddenly I felt her hand let go and saw her grabbing for the net, she threw it out into the water stopping the boat that followed. They let out one final shot, but we were long gone.
"Holy, shot." Jj hollered pulling me to my feet."Whoooo, that was insane."
" who knew, JJ wasn't the only crazy person with a gun?". Everyone laughed as we made our way back to the dock.

My mind kept going back to John B holding on to what he claims is his fathers compass. How is that even possible? Everyone else is upset about it not being worth anything, but to him it's worth everything. My thoughts were interrupted by the bell on the door. Another customer.
"Kie, that's your table." I said calling her from the back without looking up. It had been a slow day and Kie and I rotated tables.
"But what if I wanted your section?" Fuck.
"I quit. Sorry." I spat back at him. "What do you want Rafe?"
There stood Rafe and Kelce. Kie came out from the back and came to the counter where I was.
"Can we help you?" She asked giving them the same attitude I did.
"Aw, now it's a double date." Kelce said with a smirk on his face.
"You didn't answer my question." I said to Rafe ignoring Kelces comment.
"We were just in the neighborhood, thought I would maybe come by and see if you were coming to midsummers?"
Kie and I looked at each other and couldn't help but bust out laughing.
"What drugs are on you on, man? Must be some good shit because you have officially lost it."
I saw the fire in Rafes eyes. I knew I hit a soft spot.
"I just actually kind of thought, for a second, maybe you were tired of being, I don't know... trash. Maybe you were sick of your poor life and your loser boyfriend and maybe a real man could treat you to something nice. But you are right, trash is trash."
"Oh hell no I-" Kiara started. I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the back until we heard the bell chime signaling they had finally left.
"What in the actual hell." I said running my hands over my face. Kie was still pacing and telling me how I should have let her at him.
"Kie, his words don't mean shit to me. Besides, we have bigger problems than kooks right now. I'm more concerned about the grown men shooting at us yesterday, then some drugged up kook and his feelings."

Kie's dad showed up and let us go. We got to John Bs and JJ and John B were already ranting to Pope about something. I watched Jj pace and he told us the story of the two men who shot at us showing up at the  Grubbs house when they went to asks about the compass. Scooters wife seemed scared, but gave them no information. Which left us at square one. JJ finally calmed down so I made my way over to him. He pulled me onto his lap. "You ok?" I asked him as  he made circles on my back with his thumbs.
"Yeah, I am now." He said resting his head against mine.
" don't get all sappy on me now J, making it super weird."I said poking his ribs like he does to me.
"So you're just gonna use my move on me!" He said trying to get me back.
"The office." We hear John B say "my dad. My dads office."
Me and JJ looked at each other and I hopped off his lap to follow everyone down the hall. I was eager to get into the mysterious office myself. Big John never left the door opened. It was always locked. We used to plot how we could break in when were kids. We would lay in the backyard, and share all our wild fantasies about what we thought was inside.

John B opened the door and we all stood in the doorway, taking it in. There were old pictures all over the walls. Books, maps, and papers strewn out all over the desks. It looked as if Big John had just stepped out for a minute, everything was just the way he left it.

"I've slept over here like 600 times, and I've never seen this door opened." Pope said stepping into the room and taking it all in.

"Shit man, this is wilder than I thought." Jj replied grabbing my hand and pulling me into the room. John B walked over to the desk and grabbed a board with pictures and names. He showed us the original owner, Robert Q. Routledge. Every picture was another relative, who died with the compass. That's promising.

"Death compass, you have a death compass." Pope said shaking his head.
"Get rid of it man." Jj added in.
"I'm surprised we made it out yesterday with that thing." I said pointing to the compass in John Bs hand.

"My dad used to talk about this compartment in here." He twisted the compass and the top came off. He looked at it like he had seen a ghost.

"What's wrong?" I asked noticing how his face changed.
" this wasn't there before." He turned the top over and showed us the scribbles. "This is my dads writing."

Jj and Pope walked over to where John B sat and they all tried to read what was written on the top. Kie and are were walking around the room, looking at the papers taped to the walls. The rooster crowed, startling me and I went to look out the window. There I saw the black truck pulling into the driveway.

"Shit. Guys, somebody is here." I turned to them and JJs head snapped up. He walked over to the window, putting his hands on my waist to move me aside.

"Shit." He turned to John B, a panicked look on his face. "We got company."