Ch 14

Leave No Man Behind

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Harry

I still hadn't seen Victoria. I heard from one of the other officers that Mr. Metcalfe had gotten off the ship with both of his daughters and then I heard it was just the younger one. When Officer Pittman told me about Rose and Victoria going down below decks for who knows what, I knew that she wasn't the one on the life boat with her father.

"Women and children only at this time. Please, we request that only women and children come forth at this time." I was watching Boxhall try to keep the crowd calm, but I think at this time, many realized if they didn't get on now, they'd never get on. I moved in closer to him to help keep the peace.

"It's starting to unravel. The passengers are getting uneasy." I looked up to see Lightoller standing next to me.

I shook my head. "Right now it's not that bad. But if we don't get off this ship now with one of these boats, we're not going to make it."

He nodded in agreement and had Boxhall board the lifeboat that he was filling right then. I saw a wave of relief as he got on board and asked everyone if they were alright. I helped lower the boat and when it hit the water, the crew and I undid the davits and moved on to the next one.

When I looked up, a mob of people were headed towards us. Lightoller and another crew person were doing their best to keep the peace while I loaded the boat with scared passengers. They did their best to break through the human barricade that Lightoller and the other crewmember were making. I saw Lightoller reach for his pistol. He pulled it out and pointed it at the crowd.

"Get back I say or I'll shoot you all like dogs! Keep order here! Keep order I say." He paused as he waved the gun around. He turned around to face me. "Mr. Lowe, man this boat!"

I watched as he turned around to face me and dug the bullets for his gun out of his pocket. I looked at him, horrified at what he just did. But I didn't have time to argue. I scanned the crowd one more time for Victoria. I sighed in disdain when I didn't see her. "Damn it."

I turned my attention back to the crowd. "Right. Is everyone all right? Nobody panic, we're going to be alrght." Truth be told, I didn't know if we'd be alright. I just didn't want anyone to panic and capsize the boat. We were on our way down into the water when I saw a body fly off the top deck and hit another one of the passengers square on the shoulders. She collapsed over in pain as the third class passenger took a seat next to her in the lifeboat. I got up to move over to her to check on her and another third class lady jumped into our boat too and sat where I was sitting. I looked up and saw another one about to jump. I had no choice. If one of them hit the wrong way, the boat bottom would get damaged and we'd sink.

"Stay back! I mean it, I said stay back!" I got my gun out and fired two shots over my shoulder, away from the boat. The rest of the people in my boat were starting to panic. I had to do something to keep us all from being killed.

Victoria

Rose and I were following the maze of hallways to find where the Master at Arms was keeping Jack.

"What hallway are we looking for?"

Rose studied the crew passage sign above a door. "This one. That's the one Mr. Andrews said to look for." Rose grabbed my hand and together we walked through ankle deep freezing water, on the search for Jack. She stopped at the edge of the hallway. "Now which way?" I looked to the left and to the right. There was nothing directing us towards the room where Jack was. All we saw was a hall full of white doors and the water was coming up fast.

"Rose, you go that way, I'll go this way. If one of us finds him, yell out." She nodded and took off in one direction while I went another.

"Jack!" I was running through the freezing water while yelling. "JACK! WHERE ARE YOU?" I heard a faint tapping on a pipe. I turned around to try to hear the tapping over the sound of the water coming up from below us. "Jack?"

"Rose! Victoria! In here!" I heard him yelling out while banging something on a metal pipe. "Help!"

It was Jack. "Rose! Down this way. I found him!" She flew past me and into the room where he was. I watched as she sloshed her way to Jack. He was perched on a desk trying to stay dry. Rose ran right to him and they kissed.

"Jack, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She kissed him.

"That guy Lovejoy. He put it in my pocket."

"I know, I know." She kissed him again.

Jack motioned that he had handcuffs on. "You two have got to find a key. It's a silver one. Victoria, you check the drawers, Rose, you check those key things over there on the wall." I found the desk drawer floating in the water. I dumped it upside down and papers fell out, but no keys. Rose was running her hands over the keys in the cabinet. Keys were falling off the pegs as she was looking.

"Rose." Jack called out to her. She looked up from the key cabinet. "How'd you know I didn't do it?"

I watched Rose's expression go from serious to a sincere and loving smile. "I didn't. I just realized I already knew." I watched Jack's expression soften before he reminded us both to keep looking for the key.

I dumped the rest of the drawers in the desk out. "Nothing, Jack."

"There's no key! Jack what are we going to do?" Rose moved over to him.

"Both of you are going to have to go get some help. Something or find someone. Now go!" He motioned for the door. Rose moved in to kiss him goodbye.

"Be right back." Rose took me by the hand and we tried to walk against the current of the rising level of the water out of the room.

Jack called out after we were out the door, "I'll just wait here."

Rose led me to the stairs we had passed earlier. She pulled herself out of the water as did I. I followed her through the stairs and up to the next level. I had no clue where we were.

"Is anyone here? Hello? We need help! Please! Someone!" Rose was beginning to sound desperate in her voice. A foreign man ran around the corner. She ran up to him, "Oh thank God!" She began to lead him back to the stairs that would take him back into the water where Jack was. "We need help…" That was as far as she got before he ran off. "Damn it!" I watched her lean against the wall. She regained her composure and we ran to another hallway.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" I called out, giving Rose's voice a rest. A porter came up behind us. He grabbed me by my sore shoulder which sent another wave of pain shaking down my body. I winced as I tried to get the porter's attention and tell him about Jack, but he kept walking.

"You two shouldn't be here. Both of you, come with me." He led us towards the exit. Rose dug her heels in and stopped him.

"No, you don't understand." She motioned over her shoulders. "There's a man down here and he's trapped."

The porter, unfazed by her ramblings grabbed both of us again and led us to the exit. "No need to panic. This way."

This time I stopped him. "There is a man down here and he needs help. Now help us!"

Rose hit him square on his nose, which started to bleed. He touched his nose, noticed the blood and ran from us.

"Now what?" I asked. The lights flickered. "Oh shit." I didn't expect that to come out but it did.

Rose started to breathe hard. The lights popped back on and she noticed an ax in a glass container across the hall from where we were. She grabbed part of a fire hose and broke the glass. She got the ax in one hand, my hand in her other hand and dragged me back downstairs.

"Oh my." She looked at me. I peered over her shoulder and noticed the water was higher than we had thought. She took off her coat and put the ax on the grate at the top. I took off my coat and did the same thing. The water was like knives stabbing me. My feet wouldn't touch the floor. I started to try to tread water, but kept getting brought under by the current of the water flooding the hallway. I surfaced again and put my hands around a pipe on the ceiling and began to use that to pull me towards the room where Jack was. Rose saw what I was doing and began to do the same thing. When our feet finally touched the floor of the ship, the water was chest high.

She got back to Jack's captive room and after a practice session on a cabinet, she broke the handcuffs. He stepped into the water.

"Oh shit this is cold! Shit, shit, shit." Jack led us back the way he came from. The water was neck high, but we swam to a different stairway than the one we used to come downstairs. We got upstairs to a locked gate.

The water was beginning to climb up the stairs. Another porter ran by us.

"Sir, please help us!" The porter started up the stairs. He turned to face us, tossed Jack his keys and apologized for not helping. I watched, defeated, as he took off, not even bothering to look back as Rose and I called out for help. I rested against a wall while Jack went under the frigid water, trying to find the keys. He found them and when the water was waist high, he got the gate unlocked and shoved both Rose and me towards the entrance to the Third class exit where we ran into another locked gate.

"Damn." Jack said as he looked around. The crowd was too thick to try to open the gate. Jack turned around and met us at the bottom of the stairs. After walking around a moment, we found another crew passage and he led us to another gate, also locked. There were only a handful of people at this gate. Realizing what he was about to do, Rose and I began to move people back so the gate could be opened by force. Jack and two other men grabbed a bench off the floor and rammed the gate open. He led Rose and me out of our captive prison and up to the main part of the ship.

"Look at you both. You look like hell." Rose spun around to see who was walking up behind us. Her face fell when she saw it was Cal. He put his coat on her and put his manservant's coat on me. I wanted to throw it back in his face, but it was warm and I was freezing. I just wrapped it tighter around my midsection as Cal led us both to a lifeboat with Jack looking pained at us. Rose managed to break free of his grip and stopped to be with Jack.

She looked right at him. "Not without you!"

Jack looked at Cal, then at me. "I'll be alright. I'm a survivor. You and Victoria, get in the boat. I'll catch another boat."

Rose was unmoved, "No. Not without you."

"Get in the boat Rose." Cal moved in to Rose and led both Rose and me to the lifeboat. I stepped in first and reached out for Rose's hand. She kissed Jack one more time before she stepped in. An officer shoved us both to the side of the boat as he announced they were ready to launch.

Rose rested her head on my shoulder and began to cry as the boat was lowered into the dark, icy sea.