Survival

It had been ten years since high school graduation and the prom night that brought the B-List closer together. Ten years of separate lives with a phone call maybe once a month from each other.



Isis closed the year book before her and set it on the table in front of her. She was hoping that this had been a good idea. She was also hoping that they didn’t see the change in her, that she could be the same Isis they knew in high school.



She couldn’t back down now. The tickets were non-refundable for the cruise and they had all given her their RSVP, thinking it a brilliant idea to get them all together for a long vacation this year. She was rich now, though she had never lacked for money, and had made sure to let them know that the whole thing was her trip. They had all insisted it be something they do together from now on, taking turns paying.



She shook her head, knowing that this may be the last time she saw them with her occupation. She stood and grabbed her bags from the bed, carrying them out of the apartment and down the stairs, tossing them into the back of the cab before climbing in herself. “Pier 13.”



The driver nodded and took off at horrendous speeds toward the pier where she would meet them. She paid him and then climbed out, pulling her bags with her. She gripped the bag she knew held her extra ammo, clenching her arms to her chest to feel the guns resting there. Paranoid, maybe, scared of their opinions of her, hell yes.



She walked up the plank of the cruise ship and was stopped by one of the crewmen. She smiled at his offer to take her bags and just asked that he took her to her room. She was to be sharing with Clara, she knew that much, she was just hoping that she was here early enough that her friend wasn’t here yet.



He nodded and took her to her room, gasping slightly when they got to the room and she took the bag off her shoulder, flashing a gun at him. “I’m sorry, miss, but you can’t carry that on here.”



Sighing, Isis pulled her badge out of her back pocket and showed it to him. “FBI with Interpol credentials. I’m allowed to carry it on any country.”



He nodded, though he still seemed scared as she handed him a tip and he walked out of the room. She found the bathroom and looked at herself in the full length mirror there, trying to find something that her friends would see of her that had changed.



The midriff shirt she wore was not something she would have done in high school, neither were the short shorts she wore. The knee high leather boots with the flat soles weren’t either. The only thing she was wearing that she would have worn in high school was the oversized man’s short sleeved buttoned down shirt she had to cover the guns. She had changed a great deal, but she was wondering if they had.



She hadn’t seen her friends in nearly six years but from what she heard, they were as much as the same as she was different. Clara had become one of the most prominent surgeons in the world. Gabe and Ryley had taken their small garage band they had had in high school and made it one of the top bands in the world. She was the only one whose name wasn’t known to half the world’s population.



Sighing, she heard the door to the cabin open and the rich beautiful tone of Clara’s voice came toward her. “Thanks. I can get the rest of it from here.”



She took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom, smiling as best she could at her friend. “Hi, Clara.”



“Isis!” Clara ran at her, hugging her tight. She only paused a little as she felt the guns, but she had always been sheltered so she probably thought it was some new type of clothing. She pulled back and looked Isis up and down. “Wow, I, still as beautiful as ever.”



Only on the outside. Isis fought the urge to say it out loud and smiled at Clara. “You look well, Clara. Have you seen the boys yet?”



“No, not yet, but I can’t wait. I actually saw them in concert a few months back with my niece. She’s twelve now, you know.”



“I remember the day she was born. Your brother was so thrilled he signed all of the B-List out of school to take us to the hospital to see her. She was beautiful.” Isis smiled at the memory, though the smile was replaced by her fears again.



“She’s still beautiful, though her hormones have kicked in and she has the biggest crush on Gabe. I don’t think she quite realizes yet that he was there the day she was born.” Clara tossed her bags onto her bed and then flopped beside them, smiling up at Isis. “Well, what have you been up to? Gabe, Ryley, and I are in the news all the time, but you seem to be the only illusive one of us.”



Isis smiled and flopped onto the bed beside her friend, shaking her head. “I didn’t want to be seen. I joined the Marines shortly after graduation, got a degree in psychology through one of their programs, and then, after an incident while on a mission, I was honorably discharged. I work for the government now. It’s no big.”



“That sounds like a big, I. You’ve come along way from the shy little girl we knew in high school.”



“Yeah.” Isis didn’t comment further. She didn’t want to. She couldn’t remember being that little girl anymore. Today was one of those days that she could remember.



There was a knock on the door and the same crewman who had brought Isis’s bags into the room popped his head into the door. “Excuse me, ladies, but there are two gentlemen out here who insist on seeing you.” He seemed excited and Isis shook her head, fighting not to laugh.



“Send them in.” She glanced at Clara who giggled slightly as the guy’s head disappeared around the corner. “He must be a fan, huh?”



“Sure we’ll give you an autograph, but later.” Gabe’s voice came before his body did. He smiled as he spotted the two girls on the bed, jumping onto Isis gently. “Hello, beautiful.”



“Hello, to you too.” She smiled up at him and shook her head. “Now I can see why they thought we were together in high school.”



He moved and her over shirt came open, revealing the two guns under her arms. He frowned slightly and gestured to them. “What’s with the artillery, I? Are you afraid we’re going to hurt you?”



Isis sat up quickly, pulling the shirt over the guns. She shook her head and sighed. “Occupational hazard. I have to carry them around with me everywhere. Sorry.”



“Don’t apologize. At least now we have some clue as to what you do for a living.” Gabe kissed her on the cheek and hugged her to him. “It’s good to see you again, I.”



“That’s for damned sure.” Ryley walked into the room, huge goofy grin on his face. “How are my two beautiful women? The only girls who will ever hold my heart.” He kissed Clara and then Isis before flopping on the opposite side of Clara.



“Ry, I swear if you try what I think you’re going to try, I will hurt you.” Clara frowned at him just as he smiled and flipped onto her, slobbering all over her as she giggled.



Nope, they hadn’t changed at all. Isis was almost sad of that fact, but it made her feel a little more normal to be with them. She shook her head as an announcement came over the intercom that they were setting out and dinner would be served promptly.



They all scattered to get ready for dinner, agreeing to meet up there. Isis went into the bathroom and changed into a nice dress that covered all the vital areas of her body, but left little else to the imagination. She came out and Clara stood there wearing a modest blue dress that came down to her knees, shoulders barely showing.



“Now I feel like a whore.”



“But you look great, I. Doctors don’t really own a lot of sexy attire.” Clara frowned and shrugged as they headed out to the dining area of the ship.



As soon as they walked into the room, eyes were on them, though it was Gabe and Ryley’s screaming that let them know where they were. They made a beeline for the boys, but Isis was very aware of eyes on her. She was also very aware of the fact that for once, she only had a knife on her thigh to protect her, no gun.



“Wow, Isis. You look awesome. At least we know your body hasn’t changed any.” Ryley was never one to be subtle about his opinions of his friends. “Have you been working out though? You seem more toned than before.”



“I was a Marine.”



“Really?” Gabe seemed shocked that his shy friend could have joined up with such a hard core group of meat heads. “For how long?”



“Two years before I was discharged due to injury in the line of service.” Isis said it like she had said it a hundred times, but it felt weird saying it to this guys.



“What injury?”



“I was shot in the chest with a .357 Magnum round.” That was not something she had had to tell people before.



“Big bullet. Where’s the scar?” Again, Ryley was never subtle.



Sighing, Isis lowered the thin strap of her dress enough to reveal the top most part of her breast, showing the little white scar there. “It’s not as bad now as it was eight years ago, trust me on that one.”



“You have your own battle scar. That’s great.” Gabe was, as always, trying to cheer her up. “I bet the asshole who did that to you is dead now though. If he couldn’t shoot to kill.”



“He did. I shouldn’t be here actually, but yes, he’s dead. I pulled the trigger just before the bullet hit me and watched his head explode.” She paused, looking at the looks of disgust on their face. “Too much information, right?”



“Not really, just coming from you, it’s a little bizarre.”



“You’re all bizarre, Gabriel Salomon. You always were.” That voice could have bore a hole into Isis’s mind ten years ago, now it just made the anger rise to the surface.



She turned to face Victoria Arthur, the rest of the A-List in tow as it had been in high school. “But I guess in his case, being bizarre helped him rise to the top of the music charts. What has it done for you, Vicky? I haven’t heard your name in the news.”



Everyone looked at Isis like she had sprouted another head. She never, ever stood up to Victoria Arthur. She was always afraid of her. Even Vicky seemed shocked about this little fact. “I am working my way up in the world of business.”



“Are you sure you’re not sleeping your way to the top? I mean, that’s how you got such good grades in high school, right?” Again, most shock from everyone.



“How dare you! What have you been doing that you think you can talk to me like that? I have not heard your name in the news either. What gives you the right to talk down to me?” Vicky put her hands on her hips, looking defiant, but Isis merely smiled before standing.



“I am ex-2nd Lieutenant Isis Sands of the US Marines. I served our country. It gives me the right to talk down to you.”



“EX-Marine. It doesn’t tell us what you do now.”



Isis smiled and looked at her group before, with speed and precision, pulled the knife she had hidden on her thigh and held it to Vicky’s throat. “Do you really want to test me now, Vicky? Knowing what I spent two years of my life doing, do you want to test me?”



“Please … I … I didn’t mean to.” Fear shown in Vicky’s eyes and Isis pulled back, sheathing the blade and sitting back at her table.



She pulled her badge out of the guarder at her other thigh and laid it on the table, showing it to the A-List. “Oh yeah, and I work for the FBI and Interpol now. Do you have anything else you would like to say to me, Vicky?”



Vicky shook her head and grabbed Alex’s hand, pulling him off, Nate and Abby in tow. Gabe was the first at Isis’s table to speak. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. When did you decide you needed to quit standing on the side and stand up for yourself?”



“About two weeks after graduation when I went with my mom to the beauty shop and she was there bragging that she had gotten into a modeling academy. I had just signed up for the Marines and was getting shipped out in a week. I knew in that moment that if I ever saw her again, and she ever spoke down to me, I would make her remember that I was better than her.” Isis shrugged and bit into the steak in front of her.



“Good going, I.” Ryley was staring at her like she had done something he was positively in love with.



She ignored their looks and continued to eat. She didn’t think this was going to be the best vacation if she had to share it with the A-List, but at least Vicky would leave her alone now.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



They had been on the ship a week and had only run into the A-List once, though they had had plenty of time together to realize that they were still the same kids that they had been in school. They had played pranks on the crew, never getting caught, and even managed to convince Gabe and Ryley to perform for one of the late night crew shifts when all the passengers were asleep. It was their seventh night on the ship that things went a little weird.



The four of them were crashed in Clara and Isis’s room when there was a big bang that woke them all up. They frowned and got dressed quickly, going on deck to see that pirates were threatening to take the cruise ship and had punched a hole into the side of the ship.



Isis ran back to her cabin with Clara and grabbed their stuff, making a run for a lifeboat. They met the guys there and managed to get the lifeboat into the water as the ship began to sink. There were screaming as the pirates got onto the ship and started to kill the crew and any else they ran across.



People began to jump into the water, but at that height, few survived. She heard someone moaning in the water behind them and dove into the water, aiming for the unconscious body. She went into Marine mode and pushed the limp body of Alex Santos into the lifeboat. “Take him. We can’t leave him here or the sharks will get him.”



She swam quickly around the boat as it sank, but there were few survivors. She found Nate Nelson amongst the rumble that the pirates were throwing away and swam him back to the lifeboat, giving him to Gabe and Ryley. Vicky and Abby were clinging to the same door and Isis managed to swim it to the lifeboat, helping the two unconscious girls into the boat before climbing in herself.



She looked out as the ship sank and waited for survivors to come, but none surfaced. The pirates were long gone, thinking that they had killed everyone that had been on the ship. When no one surfaced after nearly ten minutes, Isis lay against Gabe, barely able to catch her breath. She opened her mouth to give them instructions and passed out promptly from exhaustion.