*Twenty-Three*

Death of Titanic

Zipper looked off towards the bow. No boats. And the water was rising so quickly. She knew Captain Smith was, at that very moment, taking his last breath of life. Going down with his great ship. Her mind raced. What was she supposed to do now? The lifeboats were gone. All except one, which was on the starboard side, and Cal was on it.

Over on the starboard side of the ship. Cal stood before Officer Murdoch.

"I'll shoot anyone who tries to get past me, get back!" Murdoch shouted.

Cal now saw he was being betrayed. Murdoch had agreed to giving Cal a seat.

"We had a deal, damn you!" Cal spoke hatefully.

Murdoch reached into his pockets and pulled out the stack of bills. Throwing them into Cal's chest.

"Your money can't save you, anymore than it can save me." He said, his voice full of disgust. "Now get back!"

A large mass of people tried to swamp the boat. Tommy Ryan was pushed violently towards First Officer Murdoch. Murdoch reacted swiftly, not thinking. He shot Tommy with his officer's pistol.

Fabrizio sank to the deck as he tried to wake up Tommy. Blood trailed out of his mouth. Fabri knew it was no use.

"No! No!" He pleaded with Tommy to rise up again. But he didn't. Fabri turned to Murdoch. "Bastardo."

Murdoch didn't hear the insult. He stepped away from Tommy's blood, which was creating a small stream at his feet.

He looked over to his men, who were working the davits. Then he saluted. He lifted the gun to his temple, and committed a noble suicide. His body fell backwards over the deck. Cal looked over. Murdoch's body bobbed on the surface, only a few feet down. Money floating on the water around him.

Cal ran back to where he had seen a lost little steerage girl. This being his only way out he raced back to her. He took her up in his arms and pushed his way through the crowds.

"I have a child!" He shouted. "I have a child!"

The Purser McElroy looks at him skeptically, then motions to the lifeboat. "Go on."

Cal climbed into the lifeboat. Looking around at all the people. He acted as though he was comforting the child. Which he wasn't very good at. What comfort can you offer a child so small, when all she is seeing is death and destruction. And comforting another living soul was hard enough for Cal as it was.

On boat 14, Officer Lowe stares back at something he thought he'd never be unfortunate enough to see.

The Titanic's stern rising higher and higher by the minute. The screams of her passengers echoed out over the water, and off the bergs. Lowe took in a deep breath. Michaela was still on there, he said to himself. Though deep down he thought she was dead. Four hours of marriage and he was already alone.

Back on the ship, Jack had Rose by the hand and was dragging her over rails, and ventilators. Decks and riggings. "We have to stay on the ship as long as possible!" He shouted back to her.

Rose struggled to keep up in her high heels. Jack looked over the rail, just in time to see someone slip to their death. He knew he couldn't dwell on this. All that mattered to him now, was Rose's safety.

They raced towards the stern, as she rose higher. They passed Father Byles. Dedicating his last minutes of life to God. He prayed, holding the hands of several passengers.

The band continued to play, "Nearer my God to Thee." Also nobly trying to calm the dying ship's passengers.

Fabrizio frantically removes Tommy's lifebelt, and puts it on himself. As he watched the horrific Atlantic rising onto the deck.

Inside, in the dining hall. Benjamin Guggenheim and his butler, having dressed in their best prepared to go down as gentlemen, sat watching as the water rose up around him. His eyes wide with fright.

On the grand staircase, Colonel John Jacob Astor runs up the steps. Clearly out of breath from running. And upset because he was forced to leave his expecting wife. He watches as the icy Atlantic washes up against the beautiful center-piece clock. Then he hears a cracking he looks up to the great dome light. Just as the water crashes in. Busting the beautiful glass, and crushing dozens of people. Astor turns away, awaiting death.

Back on Collapsible A. Cal watches as the crew sawed away furiously at the ropes. The boat was already in the water. The ship would bring it down as well. Screaming passengers in the water tried to board the boat.

Cal picked up an oar, and began hitting them with it. Fabrizio, after fighting the suction, tried to climb onto Cal's boat. Cal hit him back with the oar. "Get back! You'll swamp us!"

Cal pretended to care about the women and children in his boat. When really it was just a matter of saving his own skin. He turned around when he heard the ship make a sickening groan.

This image would plague a normal man, who knows what it did to Cal. He watched in terror as the forward tunnel's wires split and the heavy iron crashed into the water. Fabrizio was right in it's deadly path. One last scream is all Cal hears from Fabri, the one he had turned down.

The water splashed up onto Officer Lightoller's back and he worked hard to release Collapsible B. Which is upturned and still attached to Titanic.

Zipper held the screaming Cora tightly against her, protecting her from the rush of people. They too raced for the stern. She knew Jack and Rose would already be there. She was thankful for the future movie at least. It gave her some reference.

Cora screamed as Zipper and her fell over a man. He was kneeling on the ground, either praying or awaiting death. Either way, Zipper cut her arm on a broken deck chair. Blood stained through dress. It made carrying Cora harder than ever. But she had to keep going.

On boat six, Ruth sat staring wide-eyed at the horror before her. Where was my daughter? She asked herself.

"God Almighty." Molly said in disbelief. But this point the ship's propellers were a good fifty feet above the water. And rising by the second.

Collapsible A finally frees itself from the ship. The suction still pulling on it.

"Pull you bastards!" Cal exclaimed. Trying to take control. Slowly the boat is rowed away from the ship. People still struggled to get aboard. But Cal kept them down with the oar.

Jack and Rose make it to the stern rail. Jack held on to the railing with his right arm. And with his left he held tightly to Rose. She looked up at the flagpole then into Jack's eyes.

"Jack! This is where we first met!" She smiled, despite her terror. She was with Jack. No matter what happened he was by her side. The way it should have been all along.

He kissed her lovingly, then held her tighter to him. Then he spotted Zipper climbing over the A-Deck aft rail.

"Oh God." He whispered.

"What?" Rose questioned. What could possibly be any worse than what was already happening.

"It's Zipper, and she has Cora." Jack said in disbelief. He knew she had known all this would happen. Why didn't she warn someone? He didn't know that answer at the time.

Rose turned her head back enough to see Zipper. But people sliding down the decks and hitting objects on the way, made her quickly turn away.

"Zipper!" Jack called down. His voice was so hoarse he could barely yell loud enough for her to hear.

But, she did hear. Her armed throbbed with pain. She still felt blood pouring from the wound. It stained Cora's faded dress. But there was nothing she could do about it. Her only concern was getting to the stern. Saving Cora.

She continued to climb. Holding Cora with her strong arm, and the rails with her injured one. "We're going to make it, okay?" She panted the words as she struggled against gravity.

Cora couldn't answer. She could only cry. She gripped her hands into the fabric of Zipper's soaking wet dress. She was so cold and tired she only wanted to sleep. But Zipper kept making her talk.

She clung onto a ventilator as the ship made an awful plunge. It rose higher into the sky, Zipper thought she would lose grip. Then came a loud cracking, and a flicker of lights.

In the pantry, the dishes fall out of their cupboards. Clattering to the floor and breaking into shards of fine china.

In the state rooms, the furniture breaks like kindling wood. Rose's painting swirl in the water. Their colors running together from the water.

In the engineer room Bell struggles with the breakers. He goes to flip them, when the water pours in. Electrocuting him, and causing the ship's power supply to flicker out for the last time.

Lovejoy held onto the rail at mid-ship. His face carried the blood and bruise from Jack's punch still. His eyes become wide with horror as the deck begins to split right before him. Electricity flickers through the opening. He can see clear down to the keel. With a sudden jolt he was thrown backwards. Meeting a fiery then icy grave.

The stern fell back, crashing into the water, almost completely level. Hundreds of people witnessed the same final sight. 30 tons of iron keel crashing in on them.

Jack helped Rose over the ship's rail. So they were on the outside. It was safer than getting trapped beneath the rails.

Zipper used this time to run to the stern rail. She felt sick in her stomach, because of descending so far when the stern fell back level. Cora had thrown up. But now was not the time to think about that.

"Zipper hurry, climb over." Jack extended his hand. But, there was no time. No sooner had he said this did the ship's stern start to rise again. It rose faster and faster.

"Hold on!" Jack demanded. He clasped his hand on Zipper's. Rose held onto Cora's dress. Cora screamed when she looked down.

"Oh my God! Zipper, please hold on!" Rose pleaded.

As the stern become fully vertical, it felt to Zipper as though her arm was being ripped off. The wound was tearing worse from the weight of herself and the child.

"Oh God, what's happening?" Rose asked, when she saw they were just bobbing in the water. Over a hundred feet to the water.

"I don't know!" Jack shouted.

"It's going to sink. Be careful!" Zipper shouted through her pain. She knew the stern rail would pull her and Cora down with it. She needed to get over on the other side with Jack and Rose. But she couldn't.

Then the stern flooded and began to follow the bow into the salty hollows of the North Atlantic Ocean.

"Here it goes!" Jack said, getting up on his knees, but not letting go of Zipper. "The suction will pull us all down. Kick for the surface. Zipper get from under the rail as soon as we hit the water."

Zipper nodded. Not knowing if she had the strength to do so.

"Take a deep breath when I say." Jack instructed.

"Do you trust me?" He asked.

Rose nodded. "I trust you!"

He then looked at Zipper. She didn't know how to trust anyone at that moment.

The stern continued it's descent.

On boat 14. Lowe commands his boat. "Bloody pull faster and pull!" He had to get the boat out of the suction and fast.

On boat 6 Ruth closed her eyes, not wanting to watch anymore.

"Okay now!" Jack instructed. Just as Zipper felt the icy waters on her legs again.

The next thing she knew was she was still holding onto the rail, and to Cora. She pushed away from the railing. So it wouldn't pull her down. Then she fought with her good arm to get them back to the surface. Cora didn't have a lifebelt. But, Zipper did, and she was glad of it. It helped greatly with the fight against the suction.