Don't Rock the Boat

He awoke to a loud commotion. An alarm blaring, people screaming, and the sound of running outside his room. Damn my head hurts, a reminder of his night's events. His second thought was, Oh shit! Fire! The realization of the situation forming around him. Without another thought, he jumped out of bed, tossed on the collared shirt on the floor from the night before, and the first pair of pants he could find; his running shorts. He went to sprint out of his room, but remembered, Shit my phone. Diving back across the bed he reached for his device on the bedside table. He nearly tore the cord out of the wall as the force of his dive bounced him off as the mattress protested. His feet swung around wildly and knocked over something on the other side table.

"Oh, Come on!" he exclaimed aloud. Once again he scrambled, a little slower this time, to avoid the broken bottle now on the floor, left his room. Opening the door to the hallway of chaos, it engulfed him. All the other residents were fleeing their apartments, instinctively carrying whatever valuables they could grab. One such resident nearly took his head off, carrying what appeared to be a safe.

"Watch it!" he shouted over the noise to the safe holder. As if he was invisible the man continued onwards down the long corridor following the other stream of people. Shaking his head he too joined the queue. Multiple times he got shoved in the back as impatient and panicked people attempted to get ahead of those also stuck in front of them. He turned around to the older lady behind him.

"What the fuck, Can't you see I'm also trying to get wherever it is we are going," his anger and confusion boiling over. She looked horrified at his profanity and that he spoke to her in that manner. Before she could respond he turned back around just as he reached the bottom of the staircase. Staircase... right, no elevators in a fire. What felt like ten minutes and two flights later he reached the main deck. The pandemonium was at a new level, at least with the hallway they all had one specific direction to go, up here it was free for all. Aware of the lady and others behind him, he quickly stepped aside just as they all made a mad dash. Unfortunately, the small-statured lady got shoved to the floor and no one seemed to care. Those behind her were now on top, trampling her as they too joined the stampede. Horrified he frantically began looking for help. He noticed a gentleman exciting a secured door that seemed to have a few more wits than the rest of the people. The two made eye contact before the gentleman noticed the scene and joined in helping him get the lady free and stopping the flow of people. Once they got her out of the way he could see that she was unconscious. He couldn't help but feel guilty for his outburst towards the lady, clearly, she had been pushed into him by someone behind her. Her breathing was labored, her hand looked broken and he face had a few scrapes from the fall. The Samaritan waved over a uniform that was rushing past. Hesitantly they slowed their pace but constantly checked around them, worry in their eyes.

"This lady is hurt, where is the doctor."

"I...I..." he stammered, continuing to move away, " I don't...I gotta go." The employee left them there on the floor.

"Are you fucking joking?" the other passenger shook his head and turned his attention back on the injured lady. "It's going to be ok, my name is Henry." As he said his name he glanced up, "What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm..." before he could finish the employee returned with a beautiful young woman.

"We thought you'd deserted us," said Henry. "Thank you. Ian," he paused to read his name tag. Ian gave a slight nod before rejoining the crowds. The doctor knelt next to them. Her light brown hair tied back in a simple up-do. She smelt wonderful.

"What happened?" she asked, as she started her examination.

Henry responded first, "I saw a herd of people stampeding over her but he saw the whole thing."

She turned to look at him and paused as she did. "Is that what happened?"

"Pretty much. We were leaving our rooms and everyone was pushing and shoving and once we got to the top of the stairs she fell and no one cared. Well besides Henry. Will she be ok?"

"She has a broken hand, a few cracked ribs hence the labored breathing, and most likely a concussion. However, we have more pressing matters," The doctor stood.

"What is going on, I still have no idea?"

The doctor gave him the look as if to say are you stupid, "We are sinking."

All the pieces fell into place. Before he could even react the doctor continued.

"Now if you can carry her to the nearest officer they can make sure she gets off safely and get yourselves safe."

Henry nodded in thanks to the doctor as she sped away. He found himself watching her as she left.

Henry interrupted his thoughts, "You gonna help me here, or keep staring at the doctor's ass."

His comment brought him out of his lingering gaze and together they picked up the helpless lady. At this time it was easier to navigate the throngs of people as they started to figure out the locations they needed to be, the boats. Once outside the main aspects of the ship and onto the large outer deck they found another man in a uniform doing his best to shepherd the sheep.

"Officer!" Henry shouted, "Officer!" The second time got his attention. Noticing the lady he jumped down from the small elevated platform. The very platform they had stood on to show everyone how to put on their life vests the day they had boarded. It felt stupid at the time. "What happened to her?" the officer asked waving over some extra help.

"Got trampled in the mayhem."

"Animals," He pointed at the two crew members he had summoned. "Take her to that boat

over there," The officer pointed at the nearest lifeboat

"Are you two with her, or...?"

Henry piped up, "Ya she is our mom." His glance said it all.

"Oh! Sorry, Sir. I had no idea she brought her sons. Then you go too. My men will take care of you."

The officer was about to go back to his platform. "Umm, how are we sinking?"

As if taken aback by the question he paused, clearly calculating what he should reveal. "Can't say exactly."

"Like you aren't allowed to say or you don't know?"

The officer looked around as if to check to see if someone was watching this conversation.

"There was an explosion, blew a giant hole in the aft of the ship. We don't know how it happened. Might have been a gas leak."

"A gas leak? Aren't the engine's diesel?" Henry asked. The officer gave him a weird look before retaking his place back on his platform and began directing once again.

So many questions: Who was this lady? Was she important? What caused the explosion? Henry interrupted his thoughts and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on." They turned to follow the sailors.

"I figured we'd need a sure way off the ship, just in case."

"What?"

"The old lady." His new companion Henry stopped for a second and looked straight in his eye. "You alright."

"Well... no, I dunno, super confused but what choice do I have."

Henry laughed, "Let's go." His calm demeanor in all this craziness should maybe have worried him but it was also comforting so he went with it.

The pair made their way, shoving through the packs, and eventually caught the two men with the lady.

Henry took the lead, "The officer said we could be with our mother." There was no argument from the sailors as they aided them onboard the smaller vessel and handed them a life vest. Only once the crew had packed in as many people as possible did they start to lower.

From the time when he had woken up until he was on board the lifeboat was not even thirty minutes. As the boat was lowered into the water the lady's eyes fluttered open and she awoke from her unconscious state. Too weak to move, she went back to sleep. Neither of them knew whether to keep her awake or not. As the lifeboat made its way from the sinking ship they could finally see the scope of the situation. Dozens of other lifeboats were already in the water, however, the cruise ship looked to be fine, until he noticed the black smoke billowing from the sterns portside.

"That doesn't look so bad." Just as he spoke a large explosion rocked the large cruise ship. Shrapnel flew into the ocean, just missing a few lifeboats that had gone to examine the initial damage. In front of their eyes, the ship began to heavily list to the more damaged side and the smoke cloud grew tenfold. The screams returned fueling the hysteria. In horror, they watched as impatient people started jumping off the ship, their bodies sickeningly smacking into the sea far below. Those that somehow survived the plunge began to make their way towards the closest boats.

"We have to rescue them!" someone from onboard their boat yelled. Everyone on board could feel the hesitancy in their skipper before he turned to aid the survivors. After a few minutes, they and a few other boats had managed to gather a handful of jumpers. One man they pulled onboard had broken both his ankles and it wasn't until he was safe aboard and his adrenaline began to fade did the pain register. He too eventually passed out from the pain. Or was it shock? After watching the cruise ship continue its descent there were no longer any lifeboats so the inflatable life rafts were being deployed for the remaining passengers and crew.