Summary: Tohru receives tickets for the luxury cruise upon the Poseidon for her birthday, along with 9 other people from the Sohma family. Midway through the cruise, the ship is fatally struck by a rogue wave, and is capsized. Now Tohru must find out where everyone else is and escape the bowels of the ship before it slips under the ocean's waves. But not everyone can survive fate. . .
Poseidon
Chapter Eight
Dead Ends
Tohru panicked slightly as she jerked her head from side-to-side, looking desperately for a sign of Kyo. Shigure followed behind her; Ritsu's body had disappeared with the rubble as the ship shifted.
Tears were streaming down Tohru's face. How could this have happened? What was going to happen now?
She pondered over the rubble and wreckage. Everywhere, it seemed, was lined with bodies; unconscious, or not. Panic and adrenaline was still surging through her very existence, and she scoured the room, hopefully looking for her beloved Kyo, and that was fine.
She must have gone around the room three times, and it seemed Kyo was nowhere to be seen. All around her was devastation and chaos. People were running around, as she was, screaming for their loved ones, or cradling bodies in their hands. Cold, dead bodies with a glaze over their eyes; some with disfiguring injuries, and some looking peaceful and relaxed.
Tohru could see herself, cradling Kyo in her arms, asking God why he had not taken her instead. She stopped walking, overwhelmed with emotion, and collapsed onto her knees, sobbing as she did.
"Kyo," she sobbed, putting her hands over her eyes, her warm tears tickling her hands as they trickled off of them and to her lap
Shigure caught up with her "Tohru, it's going to be okay," he said, encouragingly "We'll find him. And we'll find the others"
"No," said Tohru, looking around, still rooted to the spot "We won't. We-We'll die here. I know it. It's useless to think we can get out of here alive"
"Tohru!" said Shigure, pulling her up (carefully) "Don't think like that! You're usually the optimistic one who tells us everything's gonna be okay!"
"Shigure!" shouted Tohru, tears still falling from her dirty, cut face "Don't you see?! This is it! This is where we die! There is no hope for us now!"
Shigure grabbed Tohru's wrist "Don't talk like that! We need to remain positive. When we find Kyo-"
"If we find Kyo" interrupted Tohru
"When we find Kyo," Shigure said, as though he hadn't been interrupted "We'll go out and find Yuki, Haru and Aya. And then we'll find a way out of here. We'll be fine"
Shigure smiled encouragingly to Tohru, who began to slowly smile back
"Okay," she said, smiling wider "Okay, we'll do it!"
She set off, a new, refreshed feeling within her as she set off, looking around for a sign of Kyo.
It was an awful sight, walking around the now upside-down ball room. It was hard to imagine that only around half-an-hour ago, everyone was happily dancing, toasting to a new adventure in their lives.
Tohru eyed the wreckage of the ballroom, it was very difficult to find any sign of Kyo, bodies littered almost every part of the huge room, he could be anywhere.
"Tohru," came Shigure's voice behind her. She turned around to look at him "I'm going to check over here" Tohru agreed and Shigure walked off to the other side of the room, looking for Kyo
Tohru tried to remain positive during her search, but it was becoming increasingly difficult as she saw body after body, some grotesquely disfigured, others in a state of shock. Tohru knew she had to search under the rubble for Kyo, and she began pulling away broken pieces of chairs, tables, banners, glass; pretty much anything that hadn't been bolted or secured down had shifted when the wave had ploughed into the ship's side, causing the Poseidon to capsize as violently as she had.
Tohru had to fight the urge not to be sick as she found bodies drenched in blood; the smells were just beginning to develop around the ballroom, of bodies, or burning.
Tohru looked up, and her heart jolted; she saw a flash of orange. She ran over to the body, only to find it wasn't Kyo, just another innocent victim to the ocean's mighty fury...
Tohru began to lose any hope she had of finding Kyo at all. The new, refreshed feeling she had when she had begun to look for Kyo had gone as quickly as it had come, it seemed.
After 15 minutes of searching, Shigure caught up with her; he hadn't seen Kyo at all.
This drained all hope from Tohru's very existence. Kyo couldn't have left this room, he was unconscious when the ship had shifted from her side to completely inverted.
She glanced the room once more. Going from the stage high above them, over to the opposite side, where an elevator shaft had crashed through the ballroom's wall; the damage was massive
Just then, the ship shook violently. The windows trembled and creaked in their brackets, and the lights flashed on and off. Every living soul in the ball room screamed, as the vessel groaned loudly around them, as though of a dying beast, were they going down at last? Or was it just an explosion in some remote part of the doomed ship? A staircase that lead of to other parts of the ship collapsed, crashing to the ceiling (now the floor) in a huge cloud of dust and debris, crushing part of the balcony.
The lights kept flashing, as Tohru clasped to a pillar that supported the balcony above her. Shigure stood behind her, as the lights flickered back into life. "We're gonna find him, Tohru. I know we are"
Tohru breathed heavily as she looked up at the ravaged Shigure, his black suit scorched and ripped, his face dirty and cut. Tohru once more surveyed her surroundings. People were now frantically looking for their loved ones as they rampaged through the rubble of the ballroom, looking desperately for their loved ones, or cradling or mourning their deceased family members or friends.
She glanced at the balcony above them. That's when it hit her. Why wasn't Kyo with them? Because he was on the unsupported balcony above them! Tohru ran to the middle of the room, around the light fixtures, with the glass chandeliers tarnished and broken. Shigure followed her, an inquisitive look on his face.
"What're you doing, Tohru?" he asked, following her eye-line with his
"Finding Kyo" she replied, beaming at him.
She looked around herself, looking for any kind of way to get up to the balcony that ran around the room. She noticed the collapsed staircase, it had a clear path to the balcony, and even an escape route! She took off her high-heels and ran up the steep slope, grabbing on to twisted pipes and rubble that littered the edge of the destroyed staircase, and pulled herself up onto the decaying balcony.
Shigure followed soon after, as Tohru walked along the balcony. It groaned and creaked under her feet, it had become highly unstable after it had been battered so many times during the ship's capsizing. Then, her heart leapt; there, still unconscious was the definite form of Kyo, his bright orange hair glinting slightly in the lights on the wall behind him.
Kyo was crushed up against the wall, rubble and other items littered the balcony's edge around him. Tohru ran up to him, pushing a tipped-up dining trolley out of the way as she looked at Kyo.
"He's here!" said Shigure, amazed "Ingenious, Tohru! We found him!"
Tohru beamed, as she looked down at the ex-Cat below her.
Tohru knew she had to be careful, she couldn't necessarily move Kyo, in case he had sustained any form of injury. So, as gently as she could, she rolled Kyo onto his back. Shigure had taken off his tuxedo coat and handed it to Tohru, who used it to prop Kyo's head up.
Tohru lightly placed her ear onto Kyo's chest. A faint heart beating could be heard, and his breathing was slightly irregular.
"He's alive, at least" said Tohru, looking worriedly at Kyo below her "I think he's just unconscious, but I'm not too sure. If only there was a doctor-"
Tohru froze. Doctor. Hatori!
"Shigure!" exclaimed Tohru, whipping around to Shigure "Was Ha'ri with us when we capsized?"
"Oh my God!" said Shigure, an increasingly worried expression stretched across his face "Yes, he was! Tohru, stay here with Kyo, I have to find Ha'ri, alive or not"
And he ran off, sliding down the upside-down staircase and ran across the ballroom, shouting "Hatori!" as he went
Tohru turned her attention back to Kyo, who was extremely pale. Despite what he'd been through, Kyo had very few cuts. His handsome face was as white as a sheet, and Tohru rubbed her hand down it, hoping it wasn't too late for Kyo... For them... For the Poseidon...
Just then, a voice boomed from the now upside-down stage. It was one of the ship's officers. He was just as ravaged as everyone in the ballroom, and he was shouting to all who could hear him.
"Please!! Everyone, listen to me!!" he exclaimed, as the noise from the ballroom subsided, and every eye was upon him "Now, let me just say that what has happened is an extremely unlikely tragedy. We have been struck by what is known as a rogue wave. Now, these are extremely rare, they're big, very big in fact. And they're unpredictable. They can appear in even the most calmest seas, in a matter of minutes. It just so happens to be that our ship, the Poseidon, has become another victim to these monstrous freaks of nature.
Now, let me just inject some hope into you, as the second the Poseidon was struck, a GPS locater beam was sent out to the nearest coastguards, or vessels within a 500-mile radius of our ship. This means that rescue is already on their way, and we need not panic, and remain here until they arrive"
People didn't seem to be putting too much faith in what the officer had just said, as they immediately began to shout out:
"What, are we sinking?"
"How long is it going to be before they reach us?"
"What about them getting into the ship?"
"We can't just sit here if the ship's sinking"
"We need an escape route"
"Aren't we at risk of fire, explosions, or flooding?"
"Stop!" bellowed the officer "Now, I can assure you that we are very safe here. This ballroom is a gigantic air-bubble, holding up the ship, and these windows are fitted to absorb any kind of shock running through them, so they cannot crack or break when under stress. Rescue is more than likely about 2 hours at most away, so we only need to stay here. We will be safe. I repeat: we, will, be, safe"
Tohru wasn't convinced, this ship was doomed the instant the ship was hit by the wave, she knew it. She looked as people crowded around the officer, questions still being asked.
There came a cough below Tohru, who tore her eyes from the officer, and down at Kyo, who was slowly opening his eyes.
"Kyo!" she exclaimed "Kyo! You're okay!!"
Kyo muttered something, and began to shift himself upwards, which Tohru stopped him
"You can't do that!" she said, her hand on his shoulder "We don't know what's wrong with you. You may have a broken back for all we know"
Just then, Kyo opened his eyes fully, and took in his surroundings. "What the hell happened?" he said, gazing from the water outside the windows to the rubble and destruction around them "Tohru," he repeated "What happened here?"
"We... We were struck by a rogue wave, and we've now capsized" she said, looking anywhere but Kyo. Now he was awake she couldn't bare to look into his eyes. Those red, deep eyes...
"A-And everyone else?" he said, looking desperately at her face
Tohru had been dreading this question, she knew it was coming up eventually, and she was regretting that she was going to answer it
"W-Well..." she stuttered, still looking away from Kyo, and into her lap "Shigure, myself and you are fine..." she dropped off there, tears forming in her eyes
"And the others?" Kyo asked, still trying to look Tohru directly
"W-Well-" Tohru started, and she felt Kyo's hand brush her check, wiping away her falling tears. She gazed into his eyes, those deep red eyes. They seemed to gaze at each other for a century, as though all their troubles had left them, and they were going to be fine.
Tohru's vision was shattered however, by Kyo cutting in "And the others?"
"We-We don't know about Yuki, Haru or Aya... They went to the disco, so we're not sure if they're okay or not..." she said, still looking into Kyo's eyes "And Shigure has gone to find Ha'ri, but that was like 15 minutes ago, so I don't know how he is. And Ritsu..." she broke off, she couldn't tell him. It was impossible...
"Tohru, tell me" said Kyo, a little more harshly this time
Tohru mustered up her strength, she could tell Kyo knew what was coming "Ritsu... Is... Dead..." she said, tears streaming down her face now "He was crushed by that elevator shaft that crashed through the wall there..." Silence met the end of Tohru's sentence, as Kyo peered over at the hole in the wall, as twisted metal and rubble littered the huge hole that had appeared in the hole opposite.
"How're you feeling, Kyo?" said Tohru, after what seemed an age since they had last spoke
"Better than I was earlier" he said, and Tohru could see that a little bit of Kyo's colour had returned to his cheeks and face "I think I can sit up, at least"
"Kyo, I'm sure you want to risk that. We still don't know whether or not you've injured your back"
"My back feels fine" replied Kyo, pushing himself up
"Some people don't even think they've injured their back when they've in fact broken it" retorted Tohru, she didn't want to see Kyo leave her forever "But, if you insist, please, please, please, do it slowly, and go straight back to lying down if you feel discomfort"
Kyo pushed himself up slowly, just as Shigure appeared, sombre looking, towards them. Tohru knew there was no good news to this. She braced herself for what she knew would be a tragic story
"Well," Shigure said, kneeling next to Tohru and Kyo "I'm glad to see you're okay, Kyo" Shigure smiled slightly, but it faltered almost immediately "But, I'm afraid Hatori has... died"
Even though she had expected this, it hit Tohru like a ton of bricks to the chest. Poseidon had claimed its second victim from their group.
"I found him, he was under a lot of chairs, and he was covered in blood," Shigure began, tears now streaming down his face "He was awake for some parts of it. We spoke. He said he knew he was going to die here. I held him in my arms for a while, as we spoke of as much as possible, and we spoke of anything. But... Then, he began to become faint. His answers become smaller and smaller, and his breath became shallow... He then said 'Goodbye, Shigure, my old friend. Tell everyone I send my love... Even Tohru'. And then his closed his eyes and he-"
"Stop it!" said Tohru, as she sobbed loudly into her hands "Just... Stop it..."
Kyo grasped Tohru, and embraced her. Tohru continued to sob as Kyo's body pressed against hers, his warmth radiating through her body as she felt his heart beating in his chest, his breath on her neck
"Tohru..." he whispered gently into her ear, so only she could hear "These are not the final moments of our lives. Don't lose hope, we'll get through it, and I will be with you every step of the way. To kiss you, to hug you, to help you, to love you... And when we get off this ship, we'll grow old together, and remember this disaster as a tribute to those who have died. I just want you to know that I love you. More than you know, and you are the one I want with me for the rest of my days. I love you, Tohru... I love you"
He let her go, as she looked into his big red eyes, and he looked straight back into hers. Tears in his eyes, and tears down her face, she kissed him, as though nothing had even happened to them... As the reality of the Poseidon disappeared around them, and they were in a dream world, away from the disaster...
(A/N: I'm sorry for the extremely long update! It's been so difficult to do this chapter, from lack of ideas, and I hate talking of death in fics – so morbid, but not everyone can live, can they? Anyway, enjoy the gap between these chapters, as Tohru and co. begin to come up with a plan to escape the Poseidon)