When Gilligan woke up for the third time that day (once before breakfast, and once after the flood started, and now once again, he remembered), he thought maybe he was back home in California. His friend Skinny Mulligan had had a fair-sized pool and often did he drift off to sleep after swimming for hours in it.

However, before he could relax himself into going back to sleep, Gilligan realized that he was inside. And wearing his clothes. His sailor uniform. So, like waking from a good dream and falling back asleep to a nightmare, Gilligan processed all of the valid information: he was sailing; the SS Gillis; Korea; the navy; the admiral…..or was it the captain?; the room was flooding; water up to his neck now; pruny fingers; water still rising. DOES NOT COMPUTE, his brain tried to tell him. He stood up, and found that the water was up to his waist when he was standing. Corey was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was still on duty.

Gilligan's senses told him to leave the room, which he did. Then, on his own, he came up with the idea to check the other bunks. The others guys might still be sleeping and not know about the flood. Or, maybe the flood had only occurred in his bunk.

He knocked on the door next to door, the water from his open room flooding into the hallway. "Sam! Scott! Are you guys in there? There's a flood in my room!" he called to the two men that had occupied the next room. Too bad these rooms didn't have portholes.

He tried to gain the attention of the men who stayed in a few more of the rooms in the hall, but with no luck.

Then, a terrible thought gripped him: what if everyone else had drowned? He had to let the lieutenant know immediately! Or was it the commander?

Gilligan ran up to the top deck. When he opened the door, he found himself in the middle of the greatest storm he had ever witnessed. The sails had long since been ripped from the metal rings that supported them. Water, debris and even fish littered the deck. "And I just mopped it this morning!" he complained, as a spray of rainwater splashed in his face. It reminded him of why he had come to the top level in the first place.

Like a skinny tree trying to withstand tornado-force winds, Gilligan struggled across the deck to reach the captain's control room, all the while, crying, "Captain! Corporal! Administrator of Defense! Your Leadership!"

--

The captain stood calmly at the helm to his ship, watching the destructive force tear across his mighty ship. If ever he had been ready to die, this was the day. His sins had been unforgivable, and had cost two innocent lives. This was fair penance for such a mistake. He only hoped that when he made it to that great big ocean in the sky, they would let him come aboard.

His final moments would be the most peaceful he had had since the day he was born. But, come to think of it, birth wasn't all that peaceful. On second thought, this would be the most peaceful day since the day his mother had brought him home from the hospital……although, his father had fainted when he saw the bill…..in any case these would be a very peaceful, very calm, tranquil, placid, serene few moments.

"SKIPPER!" The door flew open and in ran a soggy, distraught boy.

The newly named Skipper could only stare in bizarre annoyance at the skinny little kid that was wringing his shirt out. "Gilligan," he said, calmly. "Why aren't you on a lifeboat?"

"Lifeboat?" Gilligan repeated, looking him in the eye. "How can you expect me to go off in a lifeboat to safety when all the crew has drowned?"

The Skipper jumped to his feet and grabbed Gilligan by the shoulders. "The crew's all drowned?" he asked, incredulously. "Oh, no….." He released the young man and went back to his helm. "I should have listened to Wassermann when he told me the lifeboats weren't strong enough."

"Sir?" Gilligan wondered.

The Skipper ignored him. "Now, I've gotten them all killed……"

"Um…..Skipper?" Gilligan said politely.

"All those poor mothers, never getting to see their sons again……"

"Sir?"

"Why, if I ever showed my face there again, they'd hang me!"

"Look, Skipper—"

"They'd put me up in the stockades and let the whole state of California jeer and curse at me!"

"Skipper, really, it's just a misunderstanding—"

"I'm a traitor to the United States Navy….."

"Skipper, didn't you say—"

"WHAT, Gilligan, WHAT IS IT?" the Skipper demanded, turning to face him.

"Uhh…..well, Skipper, did you say that the crew went out in the lifeboats?" Gilligan finally got to ask.

"Yes, Gilligan, weren't you with them?"

"Well, not exactly," the young man confessed. "I was asleep, and when I woke up the room was flooded, so when no one else would answer me, I figured that they had all slept through the flood and drowned."

The Skipper rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't be ridiculous, Gilligan! How could you have been asleep while the room got filled with water?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly asleep," he admitted. "You see, I hit my head on this thing that was in the ceiling—"

"Gilligan, I ought to wring your neck for scaring me half to death, making me think I'd sunk my whole crew!" the Skipper roared.

"Well, it shouldn't have bothered you, since you did such a fine job of sinking your whole ship," Gilligan added, helpfully.

"Never mind that now, Gilligan, we've got to find a way off of this deathtrap!" the Skipper exclaimed, heading for the door.

Gilligan headed him off, blockading the door. "Oh, no!" he said. "It's the captain's duty to go down with the ship, and I'm not gonna let you pass that up on my account!"

"Gilligan, cut that out!" The Skipper tried to get around him.

Gilligan maneuvered to impede the Skipper's exodus on every attempt the poor captain made. "No way! Even if you drown, which you should since the ship is sinking, at least no one can say you were a coward!"

"Gilligan, stop it! Sometimes there are circumstances in which the captain has to act above his duty to go down with the ship and do the opposite, which would be saving himself for a premature death!" Skipper insisted.

But, Gilligan persevered. "Because that's something I'll never call you is a coward! Why if someone ever says, 'Hey, was the Skipper of the SS Gillis a coward?', I'll say 'No way!'"

Finally, exasperated, the Skipper physically lifted his blight, and stood him aside. He turned the doorknob and said, "If you don't mind, Gilligan, I'd rather be a coward."

Just as they were about to go back above, a great flash of lightning struck the deck. Gilligan, frightened, jumped up into the Skipper's arms.

Crackles of light frazzled across the inch of water for a few moments.

"Gilligan!" the Skipper exclaimed, putting his ward down. "We could have been electrocuted! You just saved us by being foolish!"

Gilligan said, smiling, "Finally, I'm not in trouble for being myself."

--

NoV: That's chapter four, which I am very proud of! Let me know whatcha think!