The Ocean Princess seemed determined to be spiteful despite the fact that the survivors spirits had lifted at the sight of the rescue helicopters. After Julie had finished with the lines, and while the helicopter crews were readying the harness, with an agonized metal groan, the ship took on a further slanting list that had forced the four of them standing at the stern railing to grip it tightly or risk falling down the angled deck for sure.
The ship was heeled over to starboard so far now that every additional list was viewed by the four of them, as well as every other remaining passenger as cause for major alarm. The ship seemed more and more distressed with each passing moment and it seemed like the Ocean Princess was only a lurch or two more from falling on her starboard side entirely. If that happened, they knew they were all in serious trouble.
But just as surely as it seemed that the ship was about to fall over, she actually managed to recover herself just a little. This was not uncommon, Shaw thought as the slant re-corrected itself slightly. While Amanda only really knew about the Titanic from the film, Shaw, in his younger days, had studied the ship deeply, and knew that in the last two hours the ship was alive, she heeled from starboard to port and back more than once as the lower compartments flooded. The correction, while beneficial, was not the best of news, as he suspected it meant that water was now making its way into some of the dry areas of the port side, and the water weight now being dispersed more evenly was the real reason the ship was balancing out.
Of course, it was to be expected. And even thought it was bad news, Shaw admitted that a little bit of the news was good. It meant the ship would potentially be sinking faster, but they couldn't afford for the ship to collapse on its side as the Andrea Doria had in her final moments. Because of the modern cruise ship design of the vessel's superstructure, there were a lot of floor-to-ceiling windows that would collapse to the sea if they were pressed against it and submerged, and with so many open corridors, restaurants, lounges, and bars, the water would flood the ship way too quickly. If compartments were beginning to fill on the port side, it would prevent her now from toppling over onto her side.
Even though the slant got worse, and then better, the four of them at the rail were still having to grip the rail tightly in order to hold their positions. They needed rope, Shaw realized, or something, and they needed it fast. A rope for sure so the passengers could scale the deck, and maybe more to tie themselves to the railing or they would slide down the deck on their bloody arses. He shouted, "Find us a rope!" The passengers started looking for it.
This was untenable. Rogo and Jake were tightly gripping the railing. Being lighter than the rest, Amanda was as well, but she was light enough that she was also using her feet between the metal bars of the railing as a counterbalance to her weight. But Shaw knew they needed to have their hands free to put the harnesses on the survivors and help hold them while they did it. The survivors would not be able to raise themselves high enough for the harnesses to be put around them once they reached the top, and they certainly wouldn't be able to let go of the rope that would eventually bring them up here to put the harnesses on themselves.
As they waited, and even though Shaw felt that rope would work for them as well, he vetoed his internal thought. Rope would be good if it was the only thing available to them, but it was not as much security as he wanted them all to have. But Shaw had an idea. Maybe they had an option for something better than just rope. Shaw shouted into the radio. "Do you have any extra harnesses? Something we could clip to the railing to support us and keep our hands free? We're in an awkward position here and at the moment, the angle is going to really put a damper on our ability to harness the survivors."
It seemed less than a second before the helicopter's pilot spoke into his ear. "Hang on, You bet we do, for when we have to ride the harnesses ourselves." It was only a few moments later when the pilot said, "Heads-up."
Shaw shouted for the other three to watch their heads. The four of them pressed themselves to the railing as a bundle tied to an end of rope landed on the tilted deck. There were three body harnesses with a D clip, as well as a lanyard that could be attached to the D clip, then clipped to the railing to give them an extra foot or so of leeway. Shaw looked at Amanda. "Can you reach it?"
Amanda scooted herself along the rail, and when she was opposite the second rope, she draped her left leg over the railing on the outside and clenched her thighs to the metal as she grabbed the rope and pulled it until the harnesses tied to it were in her hands. She unknotted it, and passed one to Shaw, who let go with one hand to pass it to Jake, then took the second one for himself. Shaw and Jake, learning from Amanda, also pulled the same trick of putting a leg over the railing to support themselves while they attached the harnesses around themselves.
Instead of taking the third harness as her own, Amanda pulled her leg back over as the helicopter crew pulled the second rope back inside of the helicopter. She made her way to Rogo's side with the harness over her shoulder, and after Rogo held himself in place with his legs, Amanda again put one leg over the railing to support herself as she put the third harness around him. She was still sort of fucked, but three of them being secure to the railing was better than fucking none.
Since Shaw was right next to where they would lower the harness, the D clip alone was enough to allow him to attach himself to the thick top part of the railing and move back and forth by sliding the D clip back and forth around it. Amanda was on the opposite side closest, and Rogo was next to her while Jake was on the other side of Shaw. Since Jake and Rogo had to go around Shaw and Amanda, they used the extra distance provided by the lanyard before they attached their own D clips to the same part of the railing.
There was a shout at the base of Mount Princess. A coil of rope had been discovered. They tried throwing it several times but couldn't make the distance. After it fell for the third time, Amanda muttered, "Fuck this." Shaw looked at her, and she saw that he was about to open his mouth and tell her not to do something stupid, but they needed the rope and she felt that of the four of them, she had the best chance of being able to get back up once she went down. It wouldn't be easy, but once again, the small height and light weight of her body, which for so many years had been a disadvantage and made her appearance unthreatening, was now literally one of her greatest assets. She felt that she could get to anywhere she wanted no matter how cock-eyed the ship ended up.
She moved herself down the railing, held on as she sat, and as she heard Shaw start to speak the warning she was expecting him to, she let go of the railing and let herself slide down the sloping deck on her little butt as though it was a massive slide. Camera phones were out and several caught her wildly giggling as she came down the tilting teak, put her feet out, and then rose to standing at the base of the slope as she completed the slide.
She took the coil over her shoulder, and, as she had suspected up top, was able to begin to make her way back to the railing by leaning forward and using the skin of the soles of her feet for purchase. Because of the Starlight Cruise Line's combined classic/modern design, there was a lot of deck equipment that she'd had to avoid on her slide on the way down, equipment that would ordinarily only be mounted to the deck of a classic cruise liner. Now all that equipment, the deck cleats, the lattice grates, and the candy cane-shaped vent shaft housings were all over key areas of her return route to use as handholds.
The weight of the rope pulled at her a little, but she got to the halfway point and after sliding her toes into a lattice grate, she was able to reach a deck cleat to pull herself up. She let the sticky skin of her soles hold her to the deck until she could stand on the cleat, then pulled herself up another five feet using a vent shaft housing. She realized that relying on her feet for purchase between handholds was going to end up being a mistake, so she turned herself sideways as she held on and pulled herself up. Being in a sideways position allowed her to lay her stomach around the curved housing, and she pulled up a leg and got a foot on the metal so she could raise herself to standing and let her shoulder rest on the wood decking.
She looked up. There was one more cleat within reaching distance, and she grabbed it, arms taut, and pulled with all her might as a layer of sweat sheened her exposed skin and she did the same trick of laying around it on her stomach before pulling a leg up, getting a foot on it, and raising herself to standing. The got her within range of Rogo, who told her to raise her arms. He grabbed her outstretched hands and she started giggling wildly again as he pulled her as if she weighed nothing back to the rail, where she grabbed on. After looking at the purple nail polish on her toes, Amanda looked at Shaw and hollered, "You owe me a pedi!" The comment drew wry laughter from the tall Welshman who was shaking his head in amazement at her recent acrobatics.
Shaw called for a knife, and Rogo passed his to Amanda, who in turn passed it to Shaw with one hand. She slung a leg over the rail to hold her position while she let go to unsling the rope coil from her shoulders, then scooted over close enough to pass Shaw the large rope coil, and then Rogo's knife.
Shaw uncoiled the rope and measured that he had enough to reach the group of passengers with more than enough left over to tie firmly to the railing and doubled it over, tying it once. From the excess, he cut off a section from the rest. He passed the section he'd cut from the main coil to Amanda, then loosened the doubled-over knot to firmly tie it to the ship's railing and let it drape down the deck. Amanda noted Shaw used some sort of fancy knot and was dutifully impressed.
Amanda kept her legs pressed against the railing and shoved one end of the rope through the back belt loops of her cut offs, around her front belt loops, and back around through the remaining belt loops in the back, like a rope horseshoe. Her back was to Rogo so she slid to starboard until she was right next to Rogo again. He pulled one end of the rope out enough to knot it behind her back to the longer, hanging free end, then passed that to her. Amanda then knotted the hanging end to the railing, making her own D clip for her own home-made waist harness. While the knot was firm, she made sure there was plenty of space in the knotted loop to allow it to slide back and forth on the continuous metal bar so it wouldn't bind up as she moved.
As the pilot of the first Chinook kept the helicopter hovering over the stern, the other airmen inside of it lowered a rope with two harnesses attached on either side. They were exactly the same as the ones Shaw, Jake, and Rogo were wearing. The other three were on the same page as Shaw had been. Even with the rope for the survivors to get up to them, they'd determined that with the list, it was going to take Jake and Rogo supporting each of the survivors while Shaw and Amanda clipped the harnesses around each of the evacuees.
The Ocean Princess continued to hold herself steady as a line of survivors climbed the rope in a lie-back form, leaning backwards with their arms straight and feet shuffling up the inclined deck. Jake and Rogo each held a hand against their backs as Shaw and Amanda quickly got them in the rescue harnesses. Two-by-two, they were lifted into the chopper, and both Amanda and Shaw found themselves surprised at how quickly the passengers disappeared into the helicopter before the empty harnesses were re-lowered for the next two. It only took about 15 minutes to load the first helicopter, and once the second one was in position, another 15 minutes to load it as well.
Finally, the third helicopter moved into position and was loaded as quickly as the others. The third pilot told Shaw before he left that the other three Chinooks had been recalled from their training exercises and had arrived at the airport. They were in the process of refueling, then they would fly out immediately, and take their place while the other three unloaded passengers and refueled themselves. The six helicopters would work in two three-chopper teams until they had everybody. Shaw hollered a farewell and the last helicopter flew towards Honduras.
Now that they had a few moments in the sudden silence, Rogo decided to strike up a conversation with the increasingly reckless little brunette that he found wildly entertaining with her selfless and matter-of-fact climbing heroics. Christ he couldn't believe how she'd managed to get back up after she'd slid back down. She looked pretty dainty because she was so short, but even without it, he admitted to himself that a part of it was male chauvinism. And who could blame him? It was natural to have suspected that the female passenger occupying the must expensive stateroom on the ship would not possess the physical ability to make that climb, but the muscles in her arms and legs had been clearly-defined in the sunlight as she'd strained on her quest to get back up here. He was goddamned impressed, there was a lot more to Amanda than her slenderness and short stature belied. Rogo said, "I been on a lot of ships in my time, but dis is the first time I been drafted to a sea rescue, how bout you?"
"This is as far out of my comfort zone as I have ever been," she said with a giggle. "Besides ,you know this is my first time being on a boat. I'm just praying it doesn't turn out to be my last."
"You do any mountain climbing? I never seen anybody move dat fast." Rogo's eyes took on a slightly-guilty cast. "When you slid down I wondered how ya was gonna get back up here and goddamn if ya didn't make it look easy. I'm ashamed ta admit it, but I had my doubts once ya got down, that ya'd get back up again."
Amanda smiled, "Honestly, never. You know I like to gamble. And when I get frustrated I sometimes do the first thing that makes sense to me, even if it might be the stupid one. I just guessed that since I'm small I could make it down and back up again, and thankfully, the gamble paid off. There's a lot of shit attached to the deck, and I was hoping that I could use it in the way I did, so that was another reason I took the risk. I wouldn't have made it, probably, if I only had my feet to use for purchase, but the rest of the shit gave me the help I needed."
Rogo grinned at her. "It damn well did little lady. If one of da rest of us went down youda never seen us again." He let out a belly laugh while she giggled.
There was the sound of another helicopter and the passengers turned expectantly, but it was not the next round of cavalry reinforcements. A brightly painted helicopter from some sort of TV station with its name written in Spanish flew towards the ship. She could barely make out someone in the window with a camera, and could barely make out someone else, likely the pilot. Of course, they were not the only ones filming. The camcorder and cell-phone wielding passengers took video of the station helicopter, and then the four of them, hooked to the rail to help the next group of passengers be airlifted, seemingly documenting everything they could for evidence to be passed along to investigators if the sinking of the ship resulted in fatalities.
Smile, you're on Candid Camera, Amanda thought. And her stomach knitted up into a ball of fear. She hoped that there weren't any close-ups. After all, it wasn't like she was in disguise, and there might be more than a few members of law enforcement that would wonder how the declared dead Amanda Young was alive and well and participating in a sea rescue. She could only imagine poor Strahm seeing the video in his office, his face white as a sheet as the woman he'd helped to fake her death was now galivanting around the ship, on tape, in front of a television crew. It would certainly not be the low-profile Strahm had suggested she assume for at least a little while.
But, she supposed, even if her face was splashed all over the news, it wouldn't matter. Any manhunt, if it started between when the video was posted and she and Jake went back to the realm, would be immediately reset once they returned from the realm back at the date and time Jake had returned them. If Strahm fainted in his office this time, he would not the next time because the footage recorded would not include her and Jake. She was of mixed emotions. Part of her glad the secret would be safe, the other part of her disappointed that their participation in the rescue, in a few weeks or months, would be wiped again from history.
Shaw and Rogo and even the distant Vandenberg had been a pleasure to meet. When they left for the realm, and then came back for another of their two-week realm vacations, she'd never have met any of them. She and Jake would likely be at the cabin the next time the Ocean Princess met the fate she was currently in now. She hoped that Shaw and Rogo made it out, even without their presence.
She had a bizarre thought right then and she looked down at the other passengers. Would Rogo even be up here without her and Jake having befriended him and without his kinship with them, in part, making him want to be part of the team? It was obvious that Shaw would likely take charge once again, but who would join him up here the next time?
And that made her mind spin even further. This had already happened once, so really, they were actually stand-ins. The world had gone on after Jake took her back to save her life, and now it was reset back with their first realm return. Therefore, the two of them, or all three of them, were replacing the original crew or passengers who had assisted in the evacuation the first time. Who had joined Shaw up here then? Was it Julie and Dr. Bricker perhaps? was the fourth member of the team one of the hospitality crew below who's name she had never been given?
Christ, she needed to stop doing this or she'd make her brain break. At least with the resets they couldn't fuck up anything that would lead to some sort of fucking nuclear war or a polar freeze or some fucking other calamity that they'd have to fix by leaving for the realm and coming back. She wouldn't have to wait very long to see the alternate, original events of the Ocean Princess. When they came back next time, she would wait until Nov. 15, and then could read all about it online and see who were Shaw's original co-stars in the Ocean Princess disaster.
But as it was, she was very wrong. She'd never get the chance to see who it was that aided Shaw in the rescue operations the first time.
The station helicopter flew over the bow, along the starboard side, around the stern, back to the port side, and hovered over the passengers on the rope before turning to get video of Shaw, Jake, Amanda, and Rogo in their lashed positions to the ship's railing.
A number of the remaining people in the hospitality crew uniforms were clustered at the bottom of the rope organizing the group of passengers in an orderly, tilting procession. Julie and Dr. Bricker were among them, and they waved their hands to the people to start climbing the rope in anticipation of the next round of choppers.
Shaw hollered, "Amanda, I wonder if you might be able to do me a favor?"
Amanda paused for a moment. And because even in danger, Amanda could not stop herself from being wicked sometimes, she decided in an instant to play get the goat with the hapless Shaw. "I suppose this is as good a time as any to give you three last-wish before death blowjobs...But Jake gets his first. And once I get past you, I'm going to have to let Jake lay me before I come around to give BJs to the two of you."
Rogo's gawked for at least five seconds before he let out a shocked belly laugh, Jake rolled his eyes, and Shaw's face reddened as deeply as a fire engine. He said," Oh my good lord, no, that's not what I was going to ask you at all. I hope I haven't made you think that I've thought about you in that way for even a moment..."
Jake stopped him and said loudly. "Mr. Shaw, that's just my wife. Off-color and no-filter. It's among the many reasons I married her. Sometimes, it's even endearing." He gave her a glare. "Amanda, behave yourself damnit."
Rogo laughed, "Holy shit, just like my goddamn Linda! She would absolutely have the same gem of a reply like that!"
Amanda grinned and made her fingers into a halo around her head. "I don't know what you could possibly mean, Mr. Park. Why I'm the sweetest person in the whole world, a complete angel, just as innocent as a little lamb."
Jake rolled his eyes again, laughing. "Uh huh, uh huh, sure you are." But inside, he found the comment and poor Shaw's startled reaction to be absolutely hilarious. Leave it to Amanda to not only say one of the most inappropriate things she could in the situation, yet have it still be entirely hilarious. He leaned his head around Shaw and mouthed I love you, and Amanda smiled and actually became bashful for a split second before she mouthed, I fucking love you to.
Shaw collected himself and laughed with the rest of them for a moment. He said, "You got me good. Actually, what I was going to ask was if it would be possible you might be able to make your way towards the bow and see how things are looking that direction? If any portion of the bow is underwater...We're running out of time. The crew down there will be focused on maintaining order, and the passengers will be too worried to lose their place in line if I ask them. You've gotten a crash course in ships over the past few hours, and I know what you observe will be accurate. You're also the lightest of us, and I'm guessing you'll be the fastest, as you just demonstrated a little while ago...Oh bloody hell." He looked down the rope and saw there were several people already climbing up it to wait for the arrival of the next helicopters to evacuate them. "I'll tell them to get off so you can climb down, unless you want to ride the big slide again." He winked. He'd heard those wild giggles coming from her practically the entire way down.
Amanda looked to starboard. If she went past Rogo, the list was tilting things downward, and when she got to the starboard side, the rail was between her and the water. She said, "If I can get past Mike, can I just go down and around? It's downhill. Then I can keep the starboard railing between myself and the water and just walk along there to the bow, right? No one will have to get back off the rope, and I won't have to worry about bumping into anyone or anything if I get off course sliding back down the deck again."
Shaw looked at it himself. It was out of the way, but she was right, her entire path would be unobstructed by passengers in that direction. "Might be a touch longer. But you're right, you'll just have to keep a hold on the rail until you're fully past the curve of the railing to the starboard side. But you can definitely go that way. You won't have to move anyone out of the way."
Amanda turned to face him, "And then I'll just come back the way I came and use the railing for handholds until I get back here." Shaw nodded.
Amanda, using Rogo's knife to dig into the knot, untied her makeshift harness from the railing but left it tied around her waist. She tucked the loose end into her waistband. Rogo stuck out a beefy right arm. "Grab on, I'll get ya past me!" So she did, and as she involuntarily giggled in delight for a third time, Rogo turned his body as Amanda's whole body weight hung on his arm and he swung his body and arm to his right. The guy was probably in his 60s but was built like an ox. He held her on his arm until she could get her hands on the railing, and then she settled her feet under the gap between the bottom of the railing and the deck. The station helicopter got it all on video.
"Thanks for the lift!" Amanda winked. Rogo flashed a big grin. Behind her, she could hear the thunder of more helicopters approaching. She turned and saw that three Chinook helicopters were returning. She hollered at Shaw to see if he wanted her to stay, but he hollered back that the three of them could handle the airlift rescues themselves temporarily.
So, she turned to starboard and she pulled herself along the raised stern's railing and once she got past the curve, she could basically just walk. She kept her body from rubbing against the warm metal by moving her hand over the railing and pushing her body outward. Her feet hit the deck as they would if she were walking normally, but the rest of her was out at an angle. The video shooting chopper followed her as she muttered and grimaced.
The asshole with the camera was probably lingering on her ass. Leave it to horny men to probably be trying to get a little T and A into the video of a cruise ship sinking. After all, she was in her preferred attire, and it exposed her legs and her waist. Amanda wanted to turn and flash him the middle finger. A bunch of people may end up dying and these ghouls wanted it all on video, including the woman now on some sort of mission who's ass she was now convinced they were zooming in on as she moved. Amanda grumbled, "I'm not ready for my FUCKING close-up Mr. DeMille."
She seemed only feet from the water, and she forgot all about the zoomed camera and the following helicopter as her mind started imagining that the railing would give way and since she was walking basically with her entire weight pressed against the railing, once it collapsed she would immediately fall into the sea. She was betting everything on the shiny chrome railing she was leaning fully against, but it was too late to do much of anything now.
Being alone, well, as alone as she could be with the buzzing helicopter filming her progress, she found herself more fearful. It was one of the reasons that personally, she'd been so quick to stick to Shaw. He was only a bit more knowledgeable of ships than she was, but despite that, when the situation had needed someone to step up, he had, and his natural leadership had shown through and he was easy to follow. Having him issue commands and keep her and Jake and Rogo and the rest busy was distracting her from the situation and making her forget that they were currently trapped on a doomed boat.
But even though she was scared, and even though she shouldn't really be because they could think and return to the realm at any time, she was also feeling excitement. In a situation like this, there were people who stood up and did what they needed to do to help, and there were the quitters, who gave up and complained and caused problems. She was happy she and Jake were among those who had done, and were still doing, what they needed to help.
She also felt that they had proven themselves to the new "Captain" Shaw. When the helicopters arrived, he could have easily just sent them back to wait with the passengers and called on the remaining crew to help with the evacuation, but the "deal" they'd struck to be the last to leave with him, she felt, had pleased him, despite the fact that he probably also truly felt like they were crazy. He'd certainly said as much. When they had joined him at the rail to help with the airlifting, he hadn't offered a single protest. They were now an official four-person team.
She'd made it halfway down the railing on the starboard side to the bow, but her path was now being hampered by fallen deck chairs and other piles of shit that had slid from against the outside walls of the superstructure with the ship's list and were now piled in her path, leaned against the railing. Christ, did they really need this many fucking chairs? Who wanted to sit out here in the fucking heat anyway? She picked up something to toss out of her way, letting her body press against the rail. It was hot but not scalding. Then she looked to her right at the wide-open sea, and tossed the fucking thing over the rail.
She picked something else up and tossed it the fuck over the rail too. She found the experience quite freeing, and started throwing everything in her path over the side.
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Above her, the cameraman watched and filmed. He could be back and filming the group of passengers waiting to climb the rope, and the others who were already partially or mostly up it already and waiting for the helicopters to return, but he couldn't help but find this solo survivor more interesting to watch.
Also, the reason was a lecherous one. The cameraman could appreciate a nice-looking woman when he saw one, and this female survivor was not only barefoot, but wearing shorts that exposed sexy, tanned legs and a cropped tank top that showed her narrow and slim waist and very flat and toned and tanned stomach.
Her long, dark hair was hanging to the right with the ship's list. Occasionally it slapped against her face as she leaned forward and with a flick of her neck, she would carelessly toss it back. He wasn't sure what her mission was, but he was enjoying watching her sexy body as she did it. He decided he needed to make a special copy of the footage he got of her for himself.
And if she had known, Amanda would have been quite irritated to know that he had indeed been occasionally zooming in as closely as he could to her ass more than once as she had bent over to pick up something else blocking her way. He asked the pilot if they should pick her up for a drink, a threesome date. She definitely looked like she would be a lot of fun, and it was obvious she knew how to move her body.
The pilot laughed and joked that he wasn't into a threesome with a guy involved, but he would settle for first dibs on her after those drinks. He agreed that she was sexy, even not being able to see her up close. And of course she would want to reward her rescuers. He had a nice big bed where she could show him her gratitude. Maybe if she agreed to start with doggie style, they could throw down a rope or something and pick her up right now. The cameraman laughed and jokingly made a move to stand up and go search for something to toss down to her.
He shook his head and laughed at himself. There was no way that was going to happen. Shame though, the American female tourists he'd bedded had been a Hell of a lot of fun, and he knew this one would be no exception. She had to be American, there was no way she'd be up with the other men helping with evacuations if she did not possess the American female's bossy, independent streak. The pilot let his mind wander to ridiculous thoughts.
In his mind, they'd picked her up, and she'd clung gratefully to her heroes. She had offered to make it up to them right there. The pilot imagined showing the cameraman now to hold the helicopter steady while he joined her in the back of the helicopter, stripped her from her shorts and tank top, and took her on the floor of the chopper as she screamed wildly in her passion. He hadn't been laid in a few days, and had a little bit of pent-up steam to let off. This woman would have been perfect in releasing tension. He sighed. Only in his dreams.
The cameraman was also thinking lustful thoughts of the unnamed female. He loved brunettes, and he especially loved tanned brunettes, and this woman met both of his personal expectations. In his own mind, he'd taken her back to the editing studio, and she'd rewarded him for her rescue by sliding out of her shorts and letting him take her, standing up, as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he pounded her against the soundproof wall with the door securely shut and latched.
As he was zooming in on her, one of the times she raised something to toss over, the cameraman saw the shiny glint on the ring finger of her left hand and muttered with chagrin that the American female was married.
The pilot was undeterred. That meant that she was locked into sex with one man. He'd found from experience from the tourist bars that they were very quick to forget about the rings on their fingers, and once they were in bed with him, another man, they were absolutely passionate wildcats.
The two had a long laugh, and then had dirty thoughts about all the excitement and pleasure they would awaken that had been buried in this American woman if they aided in her rescue. If she stuck to being barefoot and wearing shorts, Hell, they both agreed they'd let her stay for as loooong as she wanted. Oh, and she'd have to keep wearing those midriff-exposing tops as well. Based on how comfortable the woman seemed to be wearing them now, they didn't think that a continued request for her to wear them would be any sort of problem.
The ship was clearly sinking but didn't appear to be in major trouble at the moment, though later, both would be disgusted over the thoughts they were having of her when it became clear she wasn't going to make it. And when her death had been confirmed, it had taken them several days to get over the shame.
They watched the woman as she continued to ignore their presence and continued tossing chairs and other fallen items that were piled against the railing blocking her path as she moved forward.
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Amanda of course had no idea the two strangers were already picturing the things they wanted to do to her in bed with their minds. In fact, she was focused on her own goals and was almost ignoring their presence completely.
The thud of the station helicopter's rotor blades was annoying as Hell, however, and she was constantly aware of the helicopter's presence. Didn't they have better things to do? For fuck's sake, there was an airlift going on, surely the Chinooks would be returning. Why were they enamored with her?
And even in the ridiculous fucking situation she was in, her mind started panicking about her former life. Shit, could they tell that she was Amanda Young? Was the Jigsaw case world-famous? Could the zoom on their cameras actually see her face that closely? Fuck if she knew.
She kept throwing over everything in her way. It wasn't particularly heavy and every time she felt guilty about being on-camera and actively conducting her littering of the ocean, she stopped herself. it was gonna be in the water soon anyway. Above her, she heard a stronger rumble as the first helicopter, loaded with more evacuees, turned and flew back to Honduras with its passengers. She wondered if she'd need her passports or photo IDs so she and Jake could get back to...
Amanda froze, wide-eyed, halfway through tossing one of the small drinks tables that had once sat next to the deck chairs. Her shit! She's forgotten all about her fucking shit!
Her purse, with all of the new documents Strahm had given her, was still in the cabin. She'd been obsessed, now that she had it, with keeping it with her at all times. She'd packed it all in her purse before leaving New York, as she hadn't wanted to leave it out of sight in the apartment, even though the apartment was well-secured. Some of it she'd needed for boarding, but the Social Security card and birth certificate could have been left behind. Instead...FUCK. It was all with her.
She decided when she got to the nearest deck access door, she was going to collect it. She HAD to. The purse she could live without, but not those items. At the next "reset," the envelope Strahm had sent her might once again reappear among the mail if they went back to their apartment, as that was basically what the Entity had said would happen, but she would not risk it. If for some reason they didn't, if for some reason that part of the matrix glitched, it wasn't like she could just call Strahm for others, especially if he saw her antics on whatever videos came out of all of this.
If certain things did not reset when they left and returned, then these documents and cards were it. She'd never have them again. No. She was not going to let them go down with the ship. Would she have time? She would have to make time. She would be on an upper deck when she got back to their stateroom, she would have to find a way to have enough time to get through the stateroom and get the things that she needed.
Amanda cleared shit and made it another 20 feet and she was opposite the door that led to the interior hallway on deck six. She awkwardly made her way across the slanted deck until she could reach the handle and the door fell open. She gripped the handle on the inside of the door to pull herself through the doorway.
The cameraman and pilot exchanged words over why the small woman had crawled around the deck and disappeared inside the ship. The cameraman joked that maybe she was camera shy. He hoped she returned soon.
Then the pilot joked: She was an American woman and obviously realized she was going to be on T.V. Obviously she had gone inside the ship to do up her hair and make up. They both cracked up with laughter.
Then the cameraman let himself have another lusty thought. Maybe she was putting on make up so she'd accentuate her beauty before she flagged them down to take her off. And if she surrendered to both of them, he knew that she would let him have her first, after all, he was younger and more attractive than the pilot. He hoped she did not like the use of condoms, as he certainly didn't.
The cameraman sighed. She was now out of camera range, for whatever reason, so the cameraman reluctantly told the pilot to return to the main group of survivors, and the pilot reluctantly did as he was instructed. The pilot turned the helicopter back to the rescue efforts, making sure to keep well out of the way of the Chinooks.