I have to apologize in advance if this chapter isn't very good. It's late and i'm tired and I just want to sleep, but I never disappoint! So here's your update. Enjoy!
Chapter Three: Ship is now SINKING??
Booth and Brennan looked at each other worriedly as they got shakily to their feet and grabbed each other's hand when the ship shook again.
"Are you alright?" Booth asked as they steadied themselves. Brennan nodded and stood as straight as was possible, then started to walk towards the front of the ship to see what was going on.
When they made it there, everybody was grouped around a man dressed in white, who Booth and Brennan assumed was the captain of the ship. He was fighting to keep them quiet.
"Ladies! Gentlemen!" He called, but it was barely audible over the worried shouts and screams that everybody was making as they tried to figure out what was happening. Booth observed this, and, letting go of Brennan's hand, hoisted himself on a railing and motioned for Brennan to cover her ears, as he let out and earth-shattering whistle.
All heads snapped towards him as they had all heard the whistle.
"Can you all just shut your mouths and let this man tell us what's wrong?" He shouted. "You're all panicking but none of you are going to make it better by talking over him, so just SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Just about everybody gasped, but they remained quiet as they turned back to the captain, who gave Booth a grateful smile.
"Good," he said, "Now that I have all your attention, I'm afraid that I have some bad news. The ship is sinking." Everybody gasped and started talking worriedly again, but were quieted when Booth let out another whistle. "Thank you, young man," the captain said to booth, and Booth nodded, "As I was saying, the ship is sinking, but there will be helicopters landing within minutes to take some of you to another ship a few miles away, and we have life rafts on the ship as well, but I'm afraid they can't fill all of you, so if you would like to get on a helicopter I suggest you go to the platforms on the upper deck right away. They will be making more than one trip each, so everybody should be brought to safety. And please...don't panic!"
Everybody began to rush in opposite directions. Those who wanted to take the helicopters headed to the upper deck and those who wanted to go by life raft headed towards the lower deck, leaving Booth and Brennan standing there, her looking for her family and him looking for Camille, both of them still holding to other's hand. Neither had any luck.
Brennan spotted the first of the helicopters and shivered. She never much cared for them. They seemed too unstable to her. She much preferred planes to helicopters any day, so she began pulling Booth towards the life rafts, with him gratefully following behind her, thinking bitterly that Cam must have gotten into a helicopter without him when he couldn't see her at all.
It was raining buckets all around them, soaking them through their clothes, but neither paid any attention as they made their way to where people were boarding the life rafts.
They were last in line when Brennan saw her mother and father sitting in a raft with Russ at their side. Her mother was crying into her father's shoulder, with Russ rubbing her arms and whispering soothing words to her. It was obvious that they were crying because of Brennan, that they couldn't find her and thought her possibly dead. Brennan wanted nothing more than to run to her mother and hug her, but it was too late as they were already being lowered to the water below.
"Mom!" she cried. "Dad!" Her mother looked up at her voice, but didn't catch but a glimpse of her daughter. Brennan tried to run towards the boat but Booth grabbed her before she could.
"We'll see them when we get to the other boat, okay?" he whispered in her ear as she buried her head against his chest. She nodded as she sobbed.
When it came time for them to get on their own raft, there was only one left, and it was the smallest they had.
"I'm sorry," the crew member said, "But this is all we have. It's usually saved for crew members to get to safety, but you may use it."
"Are you sure?" Booth asked.
The man nodded. "Of course, there are plenty more of these. Just follow the other boats as best you can and be careful." he handed them life vests and a pair of oars. Booth took the oars and handed one of the vests to Brennan.
"Thank you so much." he said, fastening his vest and helping Brennan into the boat, positioning the oars as they were lowered to the water.
When they got to the water and were released, they were pulled away from the boat by a strong current. When they were far enough away, Booth began to stroke, grunting as he did so.
"You don't have to do that all on your own." Brennan said, reaching for the oars, but Booth pulled them away.
"It's fine." he said, giving up. "We're not getting anywhere anywhere. It's best to just let the current carry us in the direction we need to go."
"What?" Brennan asked. "That's too dangerous, Booth! We can't just give up. We'll get lost! Give me those!" She grabbed for the oars, but Booth pulled them back, out of her reach, dropping one in the process.
"Now look what you did!" Brennan said.
"Me?!" Booth protested. "That was your fault! Not mine!"
Brennan glared at him, and he glared back, both of them completely unaware of the large wave about to strike them.
Oooooh! CLIFFHANGER! LOL! I'll update on Sunday! TTFN! Please REVIEW!!