It's been a while. In all honesty this story needs to be rewritten, but let's concentrate on finishing it first eh?

Disclaimer Insert comment about owning Castaways someday.

Titanic

Chapter 25

Ben stared out to sea, knowing that this image of the Titanic would be burned into his mind forever more. Even with the nightly light of the heavens giving him a view of the ship, the boy could no longer make out the people scrambling on deck. This did not stop the youth from imagining people falling from the deck and into the freezing waters below. Unless another ship approached soon, or a lifeboat went back to pick up those already in the water, there would be no survival among them. As for his own predicament, he wasn't too much better off. The chances of him freezing to death were still great. His clothes would not dry now, but freeze with ice.

The boy felt his body convulse with the idea of so much human life lost, and he retched violently. A bit of sea water was all that came up and behind him Ben felt someone pat his back awkwardly. With a bitter taste now in his mouth, he averted his eyes from the sinking ship until he heard and terrible groaning noise that drowned out the screams and shouts. The Eternal watched with a sense of horrified fascination as the ship of dreams began to bend before snapping in two.

The raised half of the ship that still had people on it slammed back into the water, most likely crushing dozens below. Even shocked, Ben's knowledge of ships still seemed to relay information to a conscious part of his brain. The ship had most likely not been severed completely, but simply enough to release the strain and pressure. The half of the ship that was now underwater would now drag down the still dry half, much faster than it had before.

The Titanic once more began to rise. Within the minute it was floating straight up; bobbing like a cork. Ben winced as he saw a dark shape fall from the top of the ship and unluckily hit the back of one of the propeller. At a ninety degree angle, the ship once again began to sink. Unable to stop staring, the youth found himself keeping a silent countdown until the ship would sink. At zero the unsinkable ship slipped beneath the waters, never to be seen again. All that was left of the ship of dreams were a collection of floating debris and hundreds of thrashing people fighting amongst themselves for survival.

The small craft drifted away from the single most devastating sinking in nautical history. Over a dozen people had made their way towards Collapsible B. Every time someone moved, the entire structure would rock crazily until everyone moved to balance it out. A couple of times a person managed to swim out as far as they had floated. They would try and climb aboard, but every time that person had spent too much time in the water and had been unable to climb aboard without help. And no help came. The men would ignore their pleas for help. With the arrival of Ben, the overturned lifeboat had taken as many passengers as it could hold. Any more would knock them all off. Eventually the survivor would turn and swim away…or either sink beneath the waters.

After an hour, the screams finally died down. It had taken much longer than Ben would have thought. The sound had dwindled from shouts to murmurs to whispers, until no sound floated across the waters. To Ben, the silence was a hundred times worse, because he knew what that silence meant. From that point on, the only noise he heard was from the men that surrounded him. He wondered if any lifeboats had gone back to rescue anyone. He hoped that Ned was safe, although he was sure that even though he couldn't hear the dog's thoughts, he would know if his friend was gone for good. No, Ned had proved time and again that he was a survivor. They both were.

Slowly, so as not to wake the sleeping man who was breathing just as slowly beside him, and to not shake the boat, Ben felt along his hairline and eyebrows. Just as he had expected, he found ice chips in them. With lack a better thing to do, he chipped a bit of the ice away and watched as it rolled off the side of the craft. With the sea as smooth as glass, he could just see his reflection if he craned his neck far enough out. Just as he had expected, his skin was as white as paper and the rest of his hair was coated in ice.

Tearing his gaze away, the Eternal noticed something had changed among the passengers of the lifeboat. It took several minutes of floating before Ben finally realized that the man who had been sleeping beside him had stopped breathing. The strange boy found himself unable to look away from the dead man who had just been alive moments ago. Ben had never been afraid of the dead, and he wasn't afraid now. Only surprised that death could have happened so quietly to as not alert him immediately.

He continued to stare until finally someone else noticed the dead man. With quiet voices and a muttered prayer, one of the men pushed the frozen body overboard. They all held on as the boat rocked. The body meanwhile slipped into the water with a splash, its life jacket still keeping it afloat. The silence resumed.

Ben fought to keep his eyes open. He had no idea how much time had passed since the ship had gone down, but he knew that dawn couldn't be too far off. He was bone tired and the urge to give in and let his battered body rest was great. The idea of falling asleep scared him though; the possibility that he would freeze to death in his sleep was a real one. The youth no longer felt the cold; just a numbness that was somehow even worse.

Gradually, so slowly that he did not even notice, Ben began to drift into a doze. His mind began to wander over the events of the pass couple of days. It was strange, reliving his life. Details that he hadn't noticed before now stood out like a sore thumb. What was even stranger was now the events were happening in reverse. The last twenty-four hours flew through his mind, then the day before and the day before that one.

A month. A year. A decade. Centuries of memories replayed themselves; both the good and terrible times he and Ned had endured. Some things he had forgotten and others he had tried to forget. The only thing constant throughout the years was Ned by his side, never leaving him. Together they survived anything that was thrown at them.

The memories made a story, and now he had reached its end. As the Angle descended from the heavens, Ben's vision began to be blotted out by an ever increasing bright light. Is this that white light at the end of the tunnel?

Ben opened his eyes only to be met with pain. He blinked several times before he realized that he was staring directly into the rising sun. Hurriedly he averted his gaze, although it was several seconds until his vision cleared itself from an array of dancing spots. Once he had recovered, his aged eyes saw a sight that even he had not yet seen before.

The newly risen sun shone its light across the great expanse of sea. Dotted among the water were icebergs. The large chunks of ice shined different colors as the sun's slight reflected off of them. Pink, yellow, orange, blue and gray. He wondered what it would have been like to wake up on a normal day and see this sight, completely free or worries and traveling towards a new adventure. The air was filled with rainbows and a white light that would soon disappear as the sun gathered height. It was a sight that was beautiful, and yet these wondrous creations had caused the deaths of so many.

Moving his frozen body was difficult. His fingers seemed permanently stuck in a curved position from where he had been holding on to the side of the boat. His clothes were also frozen to the craft. Wincing as he forced his fingers to move, he rubbed them together and breathed on them in order to get some of the blow flowing back into them.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Ben surveyed his surroundings. The ocean was no longer as smooth as glass. Waves slapped along the overturned craft and suddenly Ben was glad that his clothes were stuck to the boat. Instead of its dark bluish black from the previous night, the sea was now gray and the waters were much choppier. As the youth counted the small craft's occupants, he realized that sometime while he was asleep two more men must have died. Vaguely he wondered if either of them had had families that had survived. Or had they been traveling alone? Or together?

Pushing the morbid thoughts to another corner of his mind, he of course began to worry about Ned, and then about himself. How far had they drifted away from where the ship went down? Now that it was light he couldn't see any other life boats. Even if a ship came to pick up the survivors, would they be found? The only reassurance he felt was when he spotted a floating deck chair a small distance away. Surely they weren't too far from the others.

Judging from the distance the sun had traveled since he had awoken; an hour went by before anything of interest happened. The men were mostly silent except for the occasion hushed whisperings. Suddenly a grubby looking man tried to stand up, holding onto the others to try and steady himself. The man began babbling in French and Ben was quick to translate to the others that the man said he had sighted a ship. Everyone wanted to try and get a better look, but soon the group realized that in doing so nearly capsized them every time. They took it in turns, each person rising up a bit to try and see their rescue. When it was Ben's turn he finally saw an outline of a large steamship.

Once everyone was settled back down, someone produced a whistle from his coat pocket and occasionally would blow into it. The ship was still some distance away, but Ben knew without a doubt that if they could see the ship, that the ship could see them. Someone would be scanning the seas with a telescope. They would be rescued.

They would be saved.

Okay, one more chapter and an epilogue. Now that I think about it, I might do another short oneshot about what Ben does directly after this story. I know anyone reading this just rolled their eyes and said, "Yeah, sure you will," but I still have lots planned for Ben and Ned. I won't discuss those ideas now, but will save them for when this story is finished. I don't believe I will write another Castaways that will be quite this long for a very long time, but I do have loads of short things planned.

As always, Reviews are welcomed.