THERE WAS NO PLAN after they eventually floated to a random island. They had no idea where they were or how they were going to get back. At this point, all they had was each other.

"Plan A, huh, Pope?" JJ joked. "That went well."

"This is the lowest we can go," Pope said. "We literally have nothing else to lose. The cross, gone."

"The gold, gone," Sarah added.

"Seriously, if we had a nickel for every time we got beat up, I'd say we're at a dollar fifty," JJ said.

"That's more than I got on me," Kiara said.

"That somehow doesn't make me feel better," Sarah said.

"Yeah, you're right," John B said. "But I mean, we've had some good stuff happen, right?"

"Name something," Pope said.

"The boiler room?" he said. "What? If the boiler didn't explode, Car and I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe. Couldn't have gotten the Zodiac and gotten us out of here."

"That wasn't luck," Cleo said. "That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it."

"Okay, Pope, you're related to Denmark Tanny," John B said.

"And I lost all his inheritance," he said.

"At least we got Sarah back," Carson pointed out. Sarah laughed and nodded her head in agreement. The last thing she would have wanted was to still be stuck on that ship.

"You know what?" John B said as he stood up. "Guys, this is it. This is the Pogue life. We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of paradise. With my best friends, with my family. I don't know. I wouldn't wanna do it with anyone else. Look, and while you guys were complaining about every little thing..." He walked over towards JJ and pointed towards the ocean. "I was looking at those burly lefts."

"There's some slabs out there," JJ said with a smile.

"Just a few. Kie, you see that?" John B said. He looked over at Carson and smiled. "Car, I already know you wanna get out there." She stood to her feet and smiled as she looked out at the water.

"Won't have to share it with any Kooks," she said.

"Kind of belongs to us now, huh?" Pope agreed.

"Poguelandia," JJ said in an accent. "I claim thee Poguelandia. I like the ring of it. I'm gonna make a flag. It's gonna have a chicken on it, with a coconut bra, smoking a J, in Crocs."

"Very... specific," Carson said. "I love it. To Poguelandia!"

"To Poguelandia!" they all cheered. Carson looked over at JJ and smiled before wrapping her arms around him. After everything that they had been through, the only thing that mattered was that they were finally all back together. They had all almost died at least once but yet they still managed to survive and make it through. Granted, they were left with nothing but each other, but maybe that's what really counted in the end. They were Pogues for life, after all.

✰ end of part two ✰