No One Ever Realized That They're Already Dead

The kids had just made it to the large yellow raft when a shot rang out. Ben heard it go flying past his ear. All turned to see the three men make it out of the jungle. Crap.

“Put down the guns!” Tom the bad guys leader called out.

Ben and Damien kept their guns in hand, Ivory’s sword also ready if they got too close.

“Ellamae,” Ivory said lowly. “Lay down in the raft.”

“Bu—”

“Now,” her sister snapped. “That’s an order.”

Ellamae, still wearing the many necklaces and rings, got into the boat and lay down. She wanted to help but knew she didn’t have a weapon or the strength to fight. She had trust in her family to get them out of this.

“We’ll make a deal!” Ivory called out.

Nothing was said for a moment until Tom called back, “Name your terms!”

Ivory didn’t trust him for a moment. “Put your guns down!” she called out.

“You first!” he said and couldn’t believe he was doing this with a 9-year-old.

“No! Look,” the young girl said trying a new angle. “You can have all the treasure, we just want to go home.”

Tom smirked at thinking the naïve little girl would even begin to think he’d let them go. He’d thought the teenage boy would at least speak up but he remained quiet with his gun aimed. Did they even know how to fire? Tom doubted it.

Ivory watched as the men weighed their options. Just like she knew they would.

Before any more deals could try and be worked out, Ivory shouted, “Now!”

Damien and Ben fired, the men returned fire and took a few steps forward. Those few steps dropped them down into a carefully hidden hole. A hole that Ellamae almost fell into her second day on the island.

Silence.

“Yes!” Ben cried out and turned, picking his little brother up in his arms.

Ellamae popped up and as Damien turned to hug Ivory, he saw her sword in the sand and her leaning against the yellow raft, hands pressed to her side.

“Ivory,” he said softly, worried.

Ivory lifted her hand away, and it was covered in blood. She was hit… again.

“Shit,” he cursed. “Ben!”

Ben and AJ quickly looked and saw the problem.

“Fuck,” the teen muttered and went to work looking at the wound. “A slice. It’s deep, needs stitches.”

“It hurts,” Ivory groaned, a few tears escaping her eyes.

“It’s ok, sis,” her brother said and brought his shirt over his head, handing it to Ben to press into his sisters wound.

“Guys,” she groaned. “Go check on them before be leave, hurry.”

AJ nodded and quickly ran over to the hole and looked in. He came back with a smile.

“The black one’s got a bone sticking out of his shin, the leaders passed out, and the bald one is beating the wall and cursing.”

“Good,” Ivory sighed then winced at the added pressure Ben pressed into her wound. “Guys,” she said and bent down, making her wound cry out in pain, but she picked up her sword. “Let’s go home,” she said once straightened.

“Finally!” Ellamae cried out.

The guys helped Ivory into the boat. Ben started it up and guided his family and him to the larger boat.

“Let’s get you below,” Damien said to his sister.

“No,” she said firmly. “I’ll stay above incase anything happens and you need me.”

Ben looked at Damien and grinned. Bullet wounds or no bullet wounds, same old Ivory.

“Aye, aye, captain,” AJ laughed.

D found some pillows below deck and a blanket; they set Ivory up so she was comfy. Ben went to the driver’s seat and started turning things on.

“Dude,” AJ muttered looking at the dash.

“What?” Ella asked.

“We drifted all the way down to South America, way down!”

Ben laughed, "We're closer to North America. Still far though."

Ivory laughed softly, “This is going to be some story.”

“I’m so writing a book,” AJ grinned with a laugh. “I’ll make millions!”

“Should we call coast guard now or till we reach American waters?” Ben didn’t even realize he was asking such an important question to a 9-year-old, it was just natural to ask her.

Ivory thought it over. “It will be less hassle if we just waited.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Ben said and started the boat up.

Once they were away, AJ and Ellamae went below to find food.

Hours later, Ben finally made the call over the radio. “Eagle Wing (boats name) to coast guard, Eagle Wing to coast guard.”

Moments later, “This is coast guard, Eagle Wing. What’s the problem?”

Ben grinned. “Coast guard this is Benjamin Jordan…”

\\ ♠ ♠ Elsewhere ♠ ♠ \\

The phone’s ringing brought Matt from his thoughts. He got up and answered.

Moments later he was throwing on his shoes and jacket, and running from the house. Jimmy was coming from his at the same moment. The two friends shared a tight hug, neither caring that a few tears escaped from both their eyes.

They quickly went into Matt’s truck, called their woman, and headed down to the coast guard. Johnny and Leana, and Ben/AJ’s parents arrived not a minute later.

‘They’re alive,’ was the only thing that kept running through their minds as they all waited.

\ ♠ ♠ [[Fast Forward 1 Hour]] ♠ ♠ \

Word got out and cops had to come and make a barrier so reporters couldn’t get through. Val clutched Matt’s arm as the large boat, along with two coast guard boats, came closer, a coast guard helicopter flying close by.

Once docked and secure, the first thing everyone heard was, “Daddy!”

Ellamae jumped from the Eagle Wing and ran the distance of the dock to her daddy. He hugged her tight, tears falling from his eyes. Ben and AJ came after that, and they too ran into their parent’s arms.

Damien jumped from the boat and ran into Leana’s caring arms. He laughed in joy as she cried in relief and joy and as Johnny wrapped his arms around them both.

Then… nothing.

Matt frowned, his heart and stomach dropping. Where was his little girl? He kept his eyes on the boat and then he saw her. She was in the arms of a coast guard. He handed her down to another and he gently let her down onto her feet. Matt’s breath caught in his throat. Wrapped around her middle was a white cloth that had a red stain on it, same with her upper left arm. Dried blood ran down her side. She weakly walked the distance to him.

When she was close enough for him to grab he was too scared to. What the hell happened to her? He didn’t want to hurt her more, even though he wanted to hug her so tightly that she could never get out of his safe embrace.

“Hey dad,” she grinned just standing there.

Then… she threw herself at him. He let out a shaky breath as his arms wrapped around her, a few tears dropped onto her head.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I missed you too baby girl,” he said and pulled back enough to kneel down.

Some one cleared their throat quite loudly. Everyone looked up to see the main coast guard.

“I know you want to get reunited but…” he locked eyes with Ben. “We need those exact points on where to find those people.”

Ben stood with his arm around his mother’s shoulder. “Ask Ivory,” he shrugged. “She’s the leader.”

Everyone looked down at the little girl.

She grinned. “They could have gotten out but three are in a hole in the beach, not the jungle. One broke something, one was passed out, another just trapped and very mad. Then a man and woman are in the cave. They’re tied up. Oh and the woman will have a sword slash in the back.” Everyone (but Jade Wings) looked at her with the same look and she shrugged. “I had to do something, she was going to shoot AJ.”

AJ’s mom grasped and started hugging her son a little too tightly again; making the other Jade Wings laugh, AJ just rolled his eyes and let his mom have her way hugging him and fusing.

“You’ll never believe the adventure we had,” Ellamae grinned still in her daddy’s arms.

“I was poisoned for a while,” Ben said. “Don’t remember much.”

“I dropped a huge rock on one of the dudes,” AJ laughed. “He needed stitches.”

“I poisoned one with a snake trap,” Damien commented.

“I sneaked onto their boat but got captured!” Ellamae said like it was the coolest thing.

Ivory shrugged, “I was shot twice. Not much help.”

Rage ran though Matt’s veins. He wanted to go to that island and kill those bastards.

But then Ben laughed up with a smile, “Shut up Ivory. We never would have made it without you, oh faithful leader.”

“Yeah!” AJ, D, and Ella all shouted in agreement making Ivory smile.

“Ellamae,” Jimmy suddenly said shocked. “Where did you find these?”

As everyone looked, they too nodded their own kids wearing similar things (although not nearly as much as Ella).

Gold and jewels.

Damien laughed, “There’s more on the island and two huge chests on the boat. But… we dumped a chest into an underwater cave in the mountain.”

All the parents and some coast guards shared looks.

This… was going to be some story.