Sorry about the wait! I really have no excuse for taking this long. I have almost a month's break from uni now so I'm going to try and get as much written as possible!
Also, this chapter should (if I'm lucky) bring about the 150 review mark! Yay! Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to leave me a review, I grin like crazy every time I get one. :)
Thanks to Meli Peli, lucky333123, Melbi, Coni, AddieNiffler, NiffAreForever and R5 Girlo for reviewing the last chapter! And also to the Guest who left me a lovely review a few days ago that I unfortunately couldn't reply to :(
Please enjoy!
The icy water rushed through the coal burning rooms on the bottom deck; the smell of sweat and fire being drowned out by pure fear and desperation. The shouts of men as they tried to save themselves was barely heard over the pounding of the deathly water and the darkness it held. An alarm sounded through the panic, alerting the workers that the water tight doors were closing and just what it meant if they were still on the inside.
A middle aged man earning his way to the shores of America thought of his pregnant wife and two children – soon to be four with the twins on the way – remembering the last time he saw them; the smiles on his son's face, the laughter of his little girl and the homely smell of his wife as he kissed her hair.
He was too far away. The doors would be closed before he got within ten metres of either one on each side of him. He watched a young man dive through, his lean body fitting with centimetres to spare.
God be with you, son, the man thought as he watched the young man's feet disappear from sight.
The man pursed his lips as another came to stand beside him, bracing himself against the pace of the icy water, his gaze fastened not on the rapidly closing doors but on the sturdy walls of the burning rooms they had come to know.
The man looked over. "All the best to you, Matthew."
"And to you, Harry."
As the doors closed ahead of him with a solid groan, he squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head back against the wall, dreaming of the rest of his life that would never be.
After rolling up the blueprints and dismissing the crowd, the captain turned to the other man, his forehead creased.
"Just how bad exactly is this, Mr Andrews? And don't sugar coat it; I'm the captain and I have to know what's going on."
The man sighed. "It is bad, Captain Smith. I won't lie to you. Too many of the watertight compartments have been breached. The ship is going down, of that I am certain. The Titanic will be on the bottom of the ocean before the night is over."
The captain paled, running a hand across his face. "How much time do we have?"
"My best guess?" Mr Andrews pursed his lips. "Three hours, at the absolute most. But even I cannot guarantee that much."
"It's not enough time." The captain looked out over the dark waters. "There are almost two and a half thousand people on board, there's no way we can get that many people evacuated safely, especially not with the amount of lifeboats we've got."
"I should've pushed harder to keep the lifeboats." Mr Andrews picked up the blueprints and turned to head back up to the bridge, the other man doing the same. "I shouldn't have settled for anything less than the full amount."
"The decision was above you, Mr Andrews. Men like you and I had no say in such a matter."
"How could they get away with it? Their company has the lives of thousands of people in their hands." The man shook his head, his cheeks red both from the cold and from anger.
"Aye, I do not know."
They were silent as they climbed the stairs leading to the Bridge. Upon entering the room, the captain crossed to the wireless machine.
"Have there been any replies?"
The senior wireless officer turned in his seat. "No, captain. There does not appear to be any sister ships close to our coordinates."
"Keep trying. There's got to be someone."
"Aye, captain."
The older man turned back to Mr Andrews, a nervous sweat forming on his body. "We'd better hope we get a reply soon, Mr Andrews, or there'll be a thousand bodies in the water by daybreak."
The senior wireless officer paled behind the captain's back, his hand coming to his mouth briefly before turning back to relay the message in morse code again.
Thomas Andrews turned, his eyes stretching over the empty sea ahead of them. "May God be with us all."
Nick pushed open the door to his room with a bang, flooding it with the too-bright light from the hallway.
"Sebastian, get up." He flicked on the light.
Finn groaned as the light hit his eyes.
Sebastian yawned loudly, pulling the covers over his face. "What's going on, Nick?"
"We've hit an iceberg. The ship's going down."
The covers pushed back. "What?"
"As in, like, sinking?" Finn's face appeared from the corner of the room.
"Sinking."
Sam scrambled up in bed. "You're joking, right?"
Jeff shook his head, bending to pick up his friends coats and throw them in their direction. "No. We were up on deck when it happened. We saw it all."
Sebastian jumped out of bed. "How much time have we got?"
"The captain said the danger wasn't immediate, but once goes over the bulkhead it won't be long before the hull is breached. When that happens, not long."
Finn pulled on his coat. "We need to get rugged up, then. It's going to be freezing out there."
"Have they started evacuations yet?" Sam shoved on his shoes and walked the couple of steps to the doorway.
"Not yet. Soon though."
"Well they'd better start soon. There's an awful lot of people to evacuate."
Nick and Jeff shared a look and Sebastian frowned. "What? What's going on?"
Nick hesitated and Jeff squeezed his hand. "They're not going to evacuate everyone, Seb."
"Why not?" Sebastian looked across at Sam and Finn, who'd stopped dressing to listen.
"There's not even enough lifeboats for half the people on this ship."
Sebastian swallowed, the noise amplified in the silence of the room. "Well, we'd better get a move on then."
"Guys, they're not just going to let over a thousand people die." Sam pulled his scarf on, wrapping it around his neck. "There's bound to be another ship within a couple of hours of here. There's probably help already on the way."
"You're right, Sam. Of course you are. But let's get up on deck just in case, alright?"
As they hurried along the hallway, it soon became clear to Jeff and Nick that evacuations would soon be starting. Attendants were opening the cabin doors and instructing the passengers to put on a lifejacket and get up on deck, with no further explanation.
Ahead of them, a young family spilled out into the harshness of the corridor, pulling on jacket upon jacket and fixing their hats to their heads. Jeff watched a teenage boy – probably no older than him and Nick – picking up his younger sister, perching her on his hip and following after their parents.
Sebastian watched the scene too, realising – with sudden clarity – that they were all third class.
There would be no space for them on the lifeboats.
Women and children, perhaps, but for he and his friends, there would be no space open to them apart from the black depths below.
The thought sent a shudder down his spine. Even when faced with death, the poorer status would still lose. If no help arrived, hundreds of innocent civilians would go down with the ship, Sebastian and those he loved included.
Sam walked next to him, silent as he thought of his younger brother behind him and the other two and a half thousand people on board. The Titanic was on her maiden voyage; surely there'd be a support ship close by in case anything happened to the previously untried vessel. He was beginning to feel slightly nervous. It was quite obvious what was going to happen if there were no ships close enough to aid in the evacuations.
He looked at Jeff who was walking in front of him. "Do you have the time?"
Jeff looked back at him and nodded before pulling out his pocket watch. "It's just gone midnight five minutes ago."
"And when did we hit the iceberg?"
"About twenty-five minutes ago, I think."
"Right." Sam thought this over. He was no expert on naval architecture, but surely a ship of such size and capacity would only take a few hours to capsize completely. If it had been taking on water for almost half an hour already, well, they'd better hope the evacuations got started as soon as possible. Perhaps the captain had ordered it already.
He looked over his shoulder and caught sight of Finn, the brother he would do anything for. They'd never had a real easy life, but Finn had always been there for him. They were as close as brothers could get, despite their constant picking on each other. Finn had always been compassionate; even as Sam eyed the concern on his brother's face he knew he would be thinking of ways he could help others get off the ship, even if he didn't have that option. The thought almost brought a smile to Sam's face despite the situation they were in. If his younger brother could be that selfless, surely Sam could try as well.
If help never arrived and they didn't make it off the boat, he would do his best to make sure others did.
In reality the bridge and the wireless machine were each separate rooms, but it just seemed to work better if I made them into the one.
Thanks for reading, I promise the next chapter won't take six months!