1 Sinking

Rain whipped across the ships deck as waves three times the height of its mast came crashing down over the brow. Men yelled both atop the weatherdeck and below in the hold, doing their best to keep the already damaged vessel afloat while simultaneously trying to dredge an ever rising level of water from the bilges.

For all its worth, the shipping vessel might as well have been a child's toy being rocked by waves made from excessive splashing. It tilted one way and then the other, spinning when a wave struck across its front or back end and making its rudder completely useless. Propellor blades in the back sliced at the water but half the time they were hanging out in the open which made escaping the freak storm nigh impossible. All they could hope was for it to end as suddenly as it began.

Inside the vessel was no better than the turmoil going on outside its skin, in fact the crew was fighting harder inside its depths than anywhere else.

" You, go start the other eductor now! " A burly man who was the ship's cook shouted at a young man whose misfortune it was to be dealing with such a dreadful situation on his first time out to sea. Panic flashed in his eyes as another rupture broke through the bulkhead and rain rushed in with seawater towards the already too full bilge.

The control panel for the eductor luckily wasn't but a few yards away, the young man smacking at the green button repeatedly until a mechanical whir could be heard and with the second pump online it finally seemed like the bilge level was no longer rising.

"It's running, looks like it's going to hold out against the flooding." The young man breathed in momentary relief but knew that the small victory amounted to only so much.

After all, even if the ship was no longer bringing on more water it had still been weighted down haphazardly and threatened to capsize with each wave crashing across its hull. 

Many of the men had already been swept overboard by the storm and were lost in the dark surrounding waters, even the First mate had been caught by misfortune and was laying with his skull cracked open after being flung into a jutting beam of steel.

The captain was issuing orders as best he could over the comm circuit but many of the speakers had been grounded out thanks to all the water, leaving only a fourth or so to deliver his message.

The cook and the young man kept working with a shoring party to try and seal the hull back up, not aware of the issue of abandoning ship. It wasn't until the next wave hit that the two realized the ship was in far worse shape than they thought.

This time the wave hammered itself across the starboard side of the vessel, metal shearing away as if it had been little more than paper trying to hold back the onslaught. It was unnatural how much damage the storm was causing but what hope would anyone have to survive if the ship couldn't pull through?

The hull the shoring party had just propped up creaked before the I beam gave and with a sound like gunfire rivets shot free and pelted the men. Metal could be heard tearing free and the next thing they knew a sharp piece of steel had washed in on a wave and left a bloody wake behind it.

The burly man had just been able to shove the younger man out of the way before getting struck down, wearing a sad smile as he thought about how futile it all seemed. What would those next few seconds be to his friend after all?

The young man could only gawk in horror, luckily coming to when a wave of cold water rushed in and smacked across his face. He could hear the alarm going off thanks to the hole and see lifeboats dropping into the waves, yet they were lost within seconds as were any trying to escape.

What had they done to deserve such a fate? The weather was supposed to have been clear the entire voyage and in fact it had been so less than an hour ago. The young man himself had seen the calm blue and the open sky as far as his eyes could see, yet now the world outside was painted dark and the sea was alive with nature's fury.

Now the harsh blasting of wind, rain, and waves melded into a symphony of terror for the young man. The hole torn open in the hull added in the sound of a wailing alarm going off, letting him know just how bad matters were getting.

Would he risk finding his way up to the weather deck to try and board the lifeboats in hope that just one would escape the sea's wrath? Or should he have faith in the ship falling apart around him that even its own captain had given up on?

In his mind flashed images of his family, of his parents who had seen him off for his first voyage on the shipping vessel, of his sister who had gone off to college, of his brother who had joined the military. Would he ever see them again? Or would they be holding a funeral over an empty casket whilst his body sank to the bottom of the ocean?

Shouting snapped him back to reality and it was something which should not be possible that awaited. Off in the distance he could see a wave pulling itself to the surface, white water spraying forth from the tremendous power behind it as it hung in place. He and others could only watch as the ocean gave birth to this monster, and brace as it rushed forward once it reached over five times the size of the ship.

The shipping vessel wasn't small by any means either, it was a newer model that had twice the carrying capacity as most and spanned nearly a thousand feet. Yet when the wave struck dead center all its bulk was for naught, the proud vessel shearing apart and sending pieces scattering with the still charging wave.

All of the men on the weatherdeck had been flung into the sea along with what remained of the lifeboats. The main body had been torn into five large chunks, of which three instantly disappeared under the wave while the other two tumbled about in the crest. The young man held on for dear life as his world spun but eventually lost his grip and was flung out of the gaping hole.

Black water chilled him to the bone and the wave continued to toss him about as he struggled to find his way up. Seconds ticked away and soon became a full minute and then another as his lungs burned and his body screamed for air. Yet when he finally found his was free the joy was short lived.

Just behind the first wave had been another, carrying broken lifeboats and the smashed bodies of men with them. The young man had just enough time to see this scene before it crashed over him and his body was caught up in the wreckage.

He felt the pain of bones breaking, knew that his skin had been cut open in numerous locations, but worse of all was the fact he had gotten stuck in the wreckage and was now sinking into the abyss. Of course he struggled, but it was pointless as his world was filled with crushing black and endless cold. The sea would never again let him come free of its clutches.

Down and down he sank and his mind went from terror to a state of anger. The young man cursed his fate and cursed his world. He had just wanted a little adventure and this was how fate repaid him? What sort of luck did one have to lack for such a disaster to befall?

The fire in his lungs was now burning his entire being as the need for oxygen made him struggle to not suck in the water surrounding him in a fruitless endeavour. He felt his mind shutting down and realized that as the seconds ticked away he stopped being able to recall the faces of his family. In fact he wasn't even able to recall his own face or name for that matter. It seemed that death would not be kind and was going to strip away all he was before claiming him.

The young man lost everything as he plunged into the ocean's depth. He didn't even notice when the black surrounding him lost the water like luster, nor did he notice when the chill pulled away into a simple feeling of nothingness. When the wreckage finally touched the ocean's floor, it was without the young man who had been trapped with it.