“They’re coming!” Katie proclaimed.

The loud thumping of feet is all they could hear. It was like a drum keeping rhythm in their heads, thump, thump thump, thump, thump thump. They could only keep running, and that is exactly what they did. They didn’t mean for this to happen. Just last week they were starting their dream vacation. Katie, her best friend, Emily, and her parents were going to the Bahamas on a cruise.





*********

It was a warm August day. The breeze across Katie’s yard was perfectly warm. Katie and Emily were skyping one last time before their trip to make sure they had everything packed.

“I’m so excited!” Katie exclaimed.

“Me too!” Emily agreed.

“I’ve got everything packed. I just need to add my toothbrush after I brush my teeth before leaving tomorrow.”

“Same here, I am super excited,” Emily mumbled while yawning, “I am going to go to sleep now.”

“Ok, well, I will see you tomorrow at my house at 8:00.”

“Not a moment later!” Emily joked; she knew Katie had planned exactly when everything was suppose to take place. That was just her.

“Bye.”

“Bye.”


Katie closed her MacBook and gently placed it next to her on her blue striped bed spread.

She had been waiting for this trip for over a year now. Emily and Katie had been begging their parents to go on a cruise. Little did the girls know that their parents had been planning this very trip for them. They decided to have Katie’s parents go with the girls, since Katie had just turned sixteen and this was her present.

Katie lied down on her bed, her long rich brown hair fell in all directions. She got up and put it in a loose ponytail. The moon had been shining for a while now. She needed to get some rest. Katie needed to get up at seven tomorrow to pack up the car and get ready. She would then drive to the terminal with Emily and her parents. Katie lived in Cocoa Beach, Florida, so the terminal was only ten minutes away.

She walked over to her bathroom in the far right corner of her aqua blue room. She looked into the mirror, staring back at her were her gleaming green eyes. She was ecstatic. She opened one of the drawers in her simple bathroom and began to brush her teeth. Once she was finished, she turned off the lights in her room and drifted off to sleep.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Katie slapped her clock to silence this irritating tone. “Today is the day!” she thought as she jumped out of her cozy bed. She put on a pair of blue fuzzy slippers and grabbed her iPhone. Katie took off running out of her room. The halls of her large house were empty, since she was an only child. Katie could hear a scraping of nails against wood behind her. She turned around to find her dog, Sir Charles, running to greet her.

She ran down the stairs into the kitchen.

“Good morning,” Katie sang.

Sir Charles had caught up to her. He was a beast of a golden retriever, but was a huge teddy bear on the inside. Sir Charles would be staying with one of Katie’s neighbors while they were on their trip. He licked Katie’s hand playfully as she strode over to her mom and hugged her.

“Good morning,” Her mother replied, “You are awfully happy this morning, although Katie I have no clue why,” Her mother joked.

“Mom!” Katie exclaimed as she playfully hit her mother in the arm.

Katie’s mom was the same height as her, 5’ 5’’. She had light brown shoulder length hair, which was ever changing: Last month it was blonde, the month before, a dark brown. Katie’s mom was quiet, not nearly as outgoing as Katie.

Katie grabbed a green glass bowl out of the white cabinet, then took the box of Honey Nut Cheerios and poured herself a bowl. She obtained a spoon out of a drawer and started to devour her breakfast. She hated milk in her cereal! The very thought of it made her cringe. While eating she checked her Facebook newsfeed, nothing too interesting.

After breakfast she went up stairs and grabbed her pillow and bags. She found purple Toms she wanted to wear that day and placed them on her unmade bed. She proceeded to get dressed. She would be wearing a pair of white shorts, and a purple lacy tank-top. Purple was her absolute favorite color. She didn’t care much for pink.

Her phone vibrated, and a new text from Emily popped up.

“Be right over, I can’t wait!!!:)”

Emily lived a few houses down from Katie. Even though the text had said she would be right over, she knew her best friend, this wasn’t true. While Katie waited for Emily, she curled her hair into long loose spirals. A doorbell rang, it was her! Katie flew down the stairs and flung open the door. A shriek went up from both girls.

“Eeeeee!”

“Oh my gosh, I am so stoked!” Emily proclaimed.

“Me too,” Katie agreed, “now put your stuff over here and my dad will put it into the car.”

Once everything was packed, and Sir Charles was all taken care of, they were off toward the terminal. They were to board the Disney Fantasy for a seven-night, eight-day Eastern Caribbean cruise.

“Wow!” everyone gasped when they first saw the ship. They had seen it many times before since they lived so close, but they had never been on it, nevertheless this close to it.

When the silver Chrysler 300 convertible pulled up to the terminal, a nice man named Gregg directed them where to go. After doing what was instructed, Larry took their bags from the trunk and put them into a big crate which would later be loaded on the ship. Their boarding time was eleven. Since they were concierge level, they were one of the first families to get on the ship.

“10:00 a.m.” Katie said, “Right on schedule!”

Katie had planned everything out to make sure it was perfect. Once they stepped into the terminal, they were surrounded by walls full of Mickeys, it was Disney after all. Blue walls were lined with gold swirls, surrounding everything. Emily and Katie talked while Katie’s parents checked in for the cruise.

“We’re all set!” Katie’s mom proclaimed as she handed the girls their room keys, “We are on deck eleven, room 11491.”

The girls looked at each other and smiled. They heard a voice over the speaker.

“Now boarding guests in group one, please have your keycard ready. Thank you and have a magical cruise.”

“That’s us,” Katie’s father said.

The group began to walk toward the Mickey Mouse shaped door. A nice lady asked for their keycard. After they presented it to her, they continued to move down tunnels which lead to the ship. Right before the entrance, another lady was taking pictures of each group in front of some sort of background. They placed their belongings on the ground and waited for the picture to be taken. FLASH, now was the moment, the moment they had been waiting for. They turned the corner and entered the ship.

They stopped to take it all in. They weren’t just on a ship, they were suddenly transported to Wonderland. It gleamed with gold. Attention to detail was exceptional. The lobby of the ship had the colors of a peacock: purples, greens, and blues gracefully danced across the walls. The floor looked to have giant peacock feathers coming out one wall and spreading to the others.

A chandelier hung from the ceiling. Gold outlined peacock feather glass hung so elegantly, flowing all together. The atrium was three of the fourteen stories. Balconies from the different levels over looked the lobby. Cherry oak boarded the walls. Off to the right, a beautiful glass tile mosaic of a castle adorned a wall. Fantasyland was real, they were there right this very moment.

A light hand tapped Katie’s shoulder, waking her up from her awestruck state.

“What is your last name?” he asked.

“Carter,” she answered.

The man who had asked her then announced into a microphone, “The Disney Fantasy welcomes the Carter family!”






*********

“Ow!” Emily shouted, “I think I just stepped on a rock!”

“Shhh, keep running,” Katie yelled back, “this way.”

They made a sudden sharp turn onto paths that lead to Cocoa Beach. Katie knew the beach like the back of her hand. She ran up and ducked behind a trash can. Emily was breathing heavily. Katie had guessed they had probably just run about three miles.

“Ok, so people are chasing us,” Emily stated.

“Yeah, I got that, not just regular people, FBI people,” Katie replied back.

“Why did they have to come when your parents were at our neighbor’s getting your dog? What are they going to do when they come back and see all our are belongings and us missing?” Emily asked.

“What were we suppose to do when the FBI shows up at your door, invite them in for tea?” Katie answered.

“Well we certainly shouldn’t run away from them.”

“Did you have a better idea?”

“Well, what do you think they want? We didn’t do anything illegal... I am pretty sure.”

“That is a good question,” a voice behind them said, “My name is Tori.”

Katie and Emily jumped. A group of about five people were standing behind them, armed. The voice came from a woman in front. She had shoulder-length black-as-night hair. Her grey eyes were focused intently on the girls.

“We are FBI Customs Enforcement agents. I believe you have something we are looking for. We need it now.”

Emily glanced at Katie. The girls were lost. Only about forty-five minutes ago, the FBI had shown up at Katie’s house. Katie’s parents would probably be at the neighbor’s for about another hour, they loved to talk. The girls had no clue what the suits were talking about. They had gotten off their wonderful cruise that morning. All they had were the items they bought on the ship. Then it hit Katie. There was that one thing. Oh that one thing, that very one thing that lies at the bottom of her drawstring backpack. She had been in such a hurry to leave the house, she never took it off.





*********

The first port of call was St. John. The beaches were absolutely breathtaking. The flowers were like a fresh box of sixty-four crayons, vibrant and full of color. Katie, her parents, and Emily had departed the ship and were going to go to a beach nearby. While Katie’s parents were relaxing on the sand, the girls went for a hike in a nearby treed area.

All different types of tropical trees were there. Emily was collecting broken pieces of shell on the ground unwanted by others. She was hoping on turning the shells into a beautiful piece of artwork when they got home.

“Can you put these in your bag?” Emily asked.

“Sure,” Katie responded, “You know what I really want?”

“No, what?” Emily replied.

Katie pointed to the top of a nearby palm tree. There hung four green coconuts. The tree was not that high, so Katie immediately started climbing after making sure no one was in sight. Her background of ten years of gymnastics made this task easy. Up she climbed the twenty foot tall tree. She grasped the coconut with a free hand, ripped it from the tree, and threw it down to Emily. Emily caught it and put it in Katie’s drawstring bag while Katie descended the tree.

“We don’t tell anyone of this, promise?” Katie questioned.

“Promise.” Emily agreed.





*********

Katie looked at Emily and back at the agents. By the look in her eyes Emily promptly figured out what they wanted. After all, they were best friends.

“Why is it so critical that you have this item?” Emily asked.

“It contains an insect that is only found on some Caribbean islands. It carries a virus that will cause a fever and terrible infection, which will later lead to their death if not quarantined now.”

The girls knew they had to do what was right. The FBI had probably found it while the bag went through security. Katie opened up the bag, grabbed the coconut and tossed it to Tori. Her souvenir of the adventure was now taken away, leaving her only a memory.

“You guys are going to need to come with us, we still have a few questions to ask you to verify that a virus has not yet started to spread.” One of the other agents said.

“What if it has?” Katie questioned.

“Well let’s just hope it hasn’t,” another one added.

“How do we know you guys aren’t just a bunch of imposters?” Emily asked.

They agents showed them their badges. Knowing that the FBI agents were who they said they were, the girls were led to a couple of white Sedans. After being blindfolded, the girls were taken to a secured government area. Knowing Emily was right by her side, Katie leaned over and said:

“I blame the coconut.”