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“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to write what happened here, so people can know the story of what happened to us.”
“And how will the paper survive if the boat sinks?”
Nancy lifted up a plastic bag, she’d thought of everything. Well, except rushing out of their cabin it seemed. At the very least, she was wearing her life jacket as well.
“How about we get out of here before we drown?”
Nancy put down her pen, slipped the book inside the plastic, tightly squeezed it shut and put it in her bag. It was either going to be found on her body or she would get to finish it if they made it back to land.
“For the record,” Nancy said, “a cruise was your idea. You’re the one who told me not to worry, that the Titanic was just one story of a badly designed boat and it wouldn’t happen to us. The Titanic wasn’t just one story, Marj, other ships have gone down, like the Empress of Ireland who had plenty of boats for everyone but most died anyway.”
“You’ll spend the rest of our lives putting that in my face, won’t you?”
“Absolutely. Assuming we have a rest of our lives.”
“Let’s make sure that happens then.”
Marjan held on tightly to Nancy’s hand and pulled her forward and toward the deck of the ship and its lifeboats. It was utter chaos out there. The crowds were fighting for a spot in the boats, pushing one another, yelling. All traces of civilised society had disappeared as soon as trouble arose.
“So much for helping each other in times of need,” Marjan commented.
“The world needs more Marjans,” Nancy wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and let her chin rest on the top of her head. “Brave with a big heart, and a great head rest.”
“It needs more of you too. Now, use your ridiculous height to find us a way out of this ship, will you?” Marjan pulled on Nancy’s arms to tighten them around her waist, happy for the temporary moment of comfort as they figured out their next step.
Nancy looked up, trying to spot a path to a boat. There were lines and lines of people waiting, many passengers too impatient simply jumped overboard thinking they’d just float in their life jackets and get rescued before hypothermia killed them. Nancy didn’t like their chances with that option so they decided to go for the lifeboats.
There were enough boats for everyone, people weren’t fighting for a spot on them, they were simply panicking as they felt time running out. Nancy definitely felt that fear too, and it certainly didn’t improve things when the boat started tipping over. They didn’t have much time left to get off before it would lay flat on its side, and from then it would likely be submerged quickly.
“I’m starting to think we won’t make it into a boat,” Marjan said. “I’m sorry, the cruise was a terrible idea. We’ll both die here and it’ll be my fault.”
“Hey, no, it was really romantic. And I refuse for us to die. Look, they’re still going with the boats on the sides, let’s see if we can find the inflatable boats.”
People were running and pushing each other toward each side of the deck, eager to get into one of the boats. It was insanity. Marjan and Nancy didn’t want to follow them, thinking they probably had more chances of getting injured than getting a spot on one of those boats at this point. Luckily for them, as people rushed to either side of the ship, the space in the center became less crowded, leaving mainly them and a few crew members, including the captain, waiting to board last.
“Hey, what about the inflatable lifeboats? You must have some, right? Isn’t it time to get them out?” Nancy asked.
“We’re meant to wait for everyone else to be safely aboard the others, but I guess since it’s looking more unlikely by the minute, we could get them out now,” the Captain said.
They proceeded to get those boats out of their containers and inflate them on the deck. Then they took place inside, holding on tightly to the side. A few other passengers joined them as they gave up on the other boats. There was no getting those boats down, it would be too risky to jump over the edge with them, and the systems to lower the other boats were surrounded by the crowd. So the plan was to sit there, make sure to hold on and wait until eventually the ship lowered enough for them to simply float off.
It didn’t take long for the inflatable boats to fill up despite most people’s preference for the solid boats that could leave the ship immediately. Then they waited. Dread filled and afraid is how they spent long minutes watching the crowd disperse into boats as much as it could. Screams filled the air as the ship completely tipped over on its side. Plenty of passengers managed to hang on and get into the boats that were now up, with no way to get down until the ship sank closer to the water. A lot of people fell into the water but they managed to get rescued by the boats on the submerged side that had now all reached water and had been detached quickly.
The inflatable boats slid down the side as the ship turned, until they fell to the water, a little roughly but everyone stayed safe, also grabbing a few stray passengers that had fell into the water. Maybe the boats were overcrowded, but it was only temporary. Once the upper boats could be freed, they would be able to transfer people into them. For now, what mattered most was getting a safe distance away from the ship, as they could never know what would happen next. While it currently looked like it was sinking onto its side, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t flip over on them.
Soon enough, the entirety of the crew and passengers, as far as they knew, sat in a variety of boats, floating on the sea as they watched their cruise ship sink slowly into the water. It felt strangely anti climactic with the silence of the night and everyone too mesmerised by the sight in front of them to make a single noise.
“Everyone, get the ropes, we need to tie all of the boats together to prevent any from drifting away from the group,” the ships’ Captain cried out.
They activated themselves to bring all of the boats closer and linked them with ropes to form some sort of floating island. Then, came the long and boring wait. With nothing left to do, they came down from the adrenaline of the shipwreck and started feeling how cold it was out here. Marjan kept warm thanks to her girlfriend’s arms wrapped tightly around her, but she could see everyone else, and feel Nancy, shivering.
“Let’s play a game,” she cried out to the group. “To distract us from the cold.”
“What game, we have nothing,” a sleepy Nancy said.
Her head now leaned sideways on Marjan’s shoulder, where her breath could be felt on the sensitive skin of her neck. Marjan ran her hand through Nancy’s hair to try to comfort her. She wished there was more she could do to help protect her against hypothermia, but at the very least her body served as a heater for the tall body wrapped around her.
“How about someone names a constellation or anything they can make out in the stars and everyone tries to point at it?”
“Oh that’s fun, I love looking at the stars!” Nancy sneaked a quick kiss in Marjan’s neck before repositioning her head so she could see the sky better.
At first, the game wasn’t very popular. It was mainly Marjan and the Captain, eager to keep the morale, who named things and kids who tried to find them. Then, the kids joined in and started naming things, several of them using their imagination. A dragon, a sword, a Pikachu were found. Soon enough the little boat island became filled with people crying out creatures or objects and others pointing to it. For a while, they busied themselves scanning the sky, almost forgetting that they were lost at sea.
Eventually the game died down as they started running out of ideas. People were getting tired, but they had to stay awake. Both so they could use the flare guns when needed and call for help from any passing ship, and also to avoid the risk of never waking up due to hypothermia. A kid started singing and others joined in. There wasn’t much energy in it, but all that mattered was that it kept them awake.
“Hey, you’re still with me?” Marjan nudged Nancy who wasn’t singing.
“Mmm.”
“Sing with us, please?”
“I can’t sing, Marj.”
“You don’t need to sing well, you just need to not fall asleep.”
“I know, but I’m tired and cold, really cold.”
Marjan cupped her face and made Nancy look at her.
“You can’t give up now, alright? We’re so close to surviving this. I love you, Nance, please, don’t make me lose you.”
“That’s not fair, you know it’s impossible to keep saying no to you.”
Marjan smiled, pulled Nancy’s arms tighter around herself and rubbed her girlfriend’s arms to try and warm her up. She was feeling cold as well, but she did have the advantage of snuggling into Nancy.
They ended up having the groups in each boat huddle for warmth, and they didn’t stop singing. Marjan could see many of them, Nancy included, with their eyes closed, still singing, still fighting to survive. And all of that effort was rewarded when the sun finally started rising, not making them any less exhausted or hungry, but at least they weren’t quite as cold and the bright rays reflected on the water made it slightly easier to stay awake.
The sun had already started its descent, late in the afternoon, when a ship finally came by. The Captain shot a flare up and horns and lights confirmed that they’d been seen and were about to get rescued.
“We’re going home, Nance, did you get that? We’re going home!”
Nancy didn’t reply, she simply pulled Marjan in for a kiss, letting her feel her joy instead. They were saved and soon enough they would be back home, on dry land, and this would be nothing more than a bad memory.