Title: But A Whimper.
Author: marco
Fandom: Poseidon
Pairing: N/A
Summary: Dylan's final thoughts as he lays dying in the engine room.
Archive: Anywhere, but please ask first.
Rating: FRT
Spoilers: The whole movie, especially the ending.
Parts: 1/1
Status: Completed
Series/Sequel: N/A
Website: N/A
Disclaimer: Dylan Johns, and therefore 'Poseidon', belongs to Mark Protosevich, Wolfgang Petersen, WB and the Irwin Allen Production Company. I make no money off his living, dying, or anything in between.
Author's Notes & Warnings: Once upon a time, there was an Irish writer, James Joyce, who invented the 'stream of consciousness'. A few decades after, there was this Italian guy called Marco, who was trying to write something for his Dylan Johns claim at auabc, using the claim 'Killed', and just wanted to try his hand at writing it… This is what came of it. (Cue 'Law & Order''s 'Ta-Tam!'™)
It all happened in an istant; for him it was a blur.
One minute you're all geared up and ready to get out of the capsized ship, the other you're pinned to the floor by a heavy pipe and dying.
It wasn't meant to end like this, he knows it. He should be leading the group out, into the propeller tube, then diving into the water and swimming to an available lifeboat, and wait to be rescued.
(Well, if we're playing this game, the ship wasn't meant to capsize either.)
That damn nitrogen sent him right into this pipe, and now he was there, face down, helpless and alone, hearing the water come closer, closer, closer.
He'd never wanted to drown (Like Elena did; poor Elena, her corpse's already floating in water, just a few decks under – or should it be above – him, isn't it? Morbid, but seeing as his corpse would actually be too in a few seconds…), it was a really painful and slow death, and if he could have any say on how to go, it really wasn't his thing.
He'd never had a 'thing', actually; he'd just done what he felt was right – at the time, and hindsight was definitely 20/20, because he could have filled this whole damn ship with everything he'd left behind; friends (who probably will just shrug his death off as 'Another One Bites The Dust'), family (like they won't rejoice for the death of the 'constant disappointment'), former girlfriends (no use in thinking they would even remember who he was; sometimes he hadn't even removed his dick that they were already thinking of someone else, someone better), occasions (the Navy, for example; it probably could've turned out better, if not for his inveterate individualism)…
Regrets were everything he had left, regrets of the things he should've done and didn't, of the things (and people) he shouldn't have done and did, and of what he would never get to do, or be.
When he was a boy, he had a very precise outlook on life, he had dreams, hopes and goals; as an adult, until the Poseidon capsized, the only thing he had going was his professional gambler career.
After it capsized (the ship, obviously) he was just thinking of saving his own hide, and well… almost leaving Ramsey (he died anyway, and his corpse was floating, too, just below the floor he was pinned to), Maggie, Connor, Nelson, and Marco (the first who bit the dust) in the ballroom, to die with the others.
Then, bit by bit, he ended up being the hero; finally learning to work with others, as a group, caring for someone other than himself.
But Fate dealt him his last set of card, and boy were they lousy. Disattention and a slippery floor (ceiling?) made him stumble right in the propeller door, and when he managed to throw the nitrogen into the tube, it sent him flying into the pipe, which stopped his flight and threw him on the floor, bending to pin him down.
Those were the reasons it was Christian, and not him, leading the other survivors to safety. And what can be said about the irony of this situation, having been left behind after having left others behind himself for his whole life? Nobody can say Death hasn't a sense of humor.
'Looks like I'm gonna be the tragic hero," he thought trying to keep the tears at bay without succeeding; he didn't want to die alone. Hell, he didn't want to die period.
But it was unavoidable; he could barely keep his head above the water now, so it was going to be very soon.
And as he felt the water filling his lungs and the light left his eyes, a famous quote flashed through his mind:
Not gone with a bang, but a whimper
A whimper
A whimper…
END