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 Eleven
Waterlines

Water began to slowly pour into the ballroom. Screaming rang out throughout the room as they ran towards the now collapsed staircase in a bid for freedom. The crowd behind Tohru ran through the door behind them.
Tohru ran over to the edge, in a desperate attempt to look for Kyo

She looked down, and amazingly, there he was, clinging onto a metal bar the supported the staircase, which lay in a pile of rubble below. He was holding on with one hand, the other was held up, trying to grab the edge of the balcony to heave himself up.

"Kyo!" she screamed "Ohmigod! Grab my hand!! I'll help you up!!"


She reached out and grabbed Kyo's hand, who grabbed her and pulled himself up

"Ah!" grunted Tohru "You're.. Too heavy" she turned back to the others, who had to stop themselves being pulled away by the over-bearing crowd. "Help me!!!"

They fought their way over the now-thinning crowd rushing past, and helped Tohru drag Kyo up onto the balcony ledge.

"Thank you" said Kyo, out of breath "You really-"

"We don't have time for that now!" shouted Tohru "We need to get out of here, the ballroom is flooding!"

They ran over to the exit. No people remained to run through the doors, everyone else was trapped below. They ran through the door and looked behind them. The door had a sign. They deciphered that it read:

"This is an emergency fire-, water- and gas-leak proof door to seal the room. Break the glass and press the red button to lock this door. If you press the button and it is not in the case of an emergency, it is prosecutable by law."

They looked at one another. Kyo piped up

"If we don't lock this door, then the water will follow us wherever we go" he said, looking at the group, hand raised over the glass "If we don't lock it, we'll die..."

"Just do it," replied Shigure "Quickly, and let's get the hell outta here"

Kyo slammed his fist into the glass, and pressed the red button on the opposite side. A bell rang from the door and the red light overhead began to flash. The door began to close, and the people's screams in the ballroom began to die out as the door finally shut. A locking mechanism was heard as the door was tightly shut in place.
They looked at each other and began to walk on

Meanwhile, in the ballroom, the windows had began to leak more vigorously, and water was pouring in now. People were panicking and running around, looking for a possible way out. Huge cracks began to form up the length of the windows, as screaming pierced the room. Finally, the windows gave way, and imploded on themselves as water flooded into the ballroom at an alarming rate. People, fallen tables and chairs were swept away in the two waves that met each other in the middle, and slammed against each other. The people had stopped screaming as the water rose over them.
The lights began to fail as the room was then plunged in darkness, and the ballroom was now flooded completely...

Tohru and the others could only hear the pleading screams of the guests trapped in the flooded ballroom. There was definitely no turning back now. It also served as a huge reminder they had limited time before the ship plunged into the depths of the ocean.

They walked on, turned left and came to the lobby. It rose three decks above them, and four below, under the water. Beneath them, they could see the eerie light coming from the glass dome, drifting through.

"Which way should we go?" asked Kari, looking at the others, and above her

"Well, we're looking for people in the disco, so that's..." said Tohru.

"Two floors above us," interjected Matake, stepping forward.

Everyone immediately looked up at the balcony two floors up.

"Um, wrong way," said Matake, looking down into the water.

"What?" said Tohru, breathlessly "Y-You mean, the disco... Is down there?"

"Exactly," replied Matake, blinking slowly and stepping to the edge "We gotta get outta here" he added, pointing towards the rising waterline.

"N-No!" shouted Tohru, dropping to her knees by the water "T-This can't be happening! I know it's not! T-They made it out, right? Right?!"

She looked down at the watery depths. Were Yuki, Haru and Aya okay? Had they managed to escape? It was too much. She'd lost enough people on this ship. She burst into tears, as the water poured over the edge of the upturned balcony. Everyone else recoiled in fear as the water streamed past their feet. Tohru just stayed there, the water flowing past her. Nothing mattered to her any more.
The ship had claimed its next three victims...

Kyo grabbed Tohru by the arm "Tohru! We have to leave! NOW!" he shouted, pulling her up "This whole place is flooding! If you don't move, you'll die! No one is worth that risk if they can make it out of here – including you!"

"Don't you see?!" retorted Tohru, pulling her arm away from Kyo "It's useless! No matter where we go, the water will follow us. And what happens if we come to a dead-end? Huh? Ever thought of that?"

Everyone stared at her in disbelief. Kari let out a slight moan, as the water continued to rise "Not to interject the drama, here, but we have to leave, now!" she said, walking to the edge of the balcony "Matake, what's the best place to go to get out of here?" she asked, looking up.

"All the way to the top," replied Matake, also walking to the edge, everyone except Tohru and Kyo joined them "It leads to the service corridor to the kitchens, which then goes to the elevator to the engine rooms. We need a way up, though..."

Just then, the Poseidon shuddered, and it seemed as though the ship plunged slightly. The water rose faster than before, and everyone screamed.

"Let's go, now!" shouted Shigure, ushering people to the edge "We need a way up? How will we get up?!"

"Look!" shouted Kari "Across the lobby, it looks like we could use it as a ladder"

A groan roared over their heads, as Kyo sat beside Tohru, who was still knelt by the edge, the water was almost up to her hips now. Kyo looked her in the eyes.

"Tohru, we're gonna make it out of here, I promise," he said, blinking "We will find the others."

"How can you know, though?" asked Tohru, looking back at him

"I can call it a Cat's instinct?" he said, winking.

Tohru smiled, and Kyo pulled her to her feet "Let's go," he said.

The others had begun to swim to a twisted pipe opposite – it seemed perfect for climbing, and it went to where needed to go to escape.
Shigure was first, then Kari, then Kyo ushered Kari's mother, Chihiro across, who immediately refused. She was too scared to go.

"C'mon!" shouted Kyo "You go or you die!"

Kyo then ushered Tohru into the water. It was icy, and Tohru immediately became soaked from head-to-toe. She gasped as the water fell about her body. She swan to the other side and began to climb the pipe. Kyo then followed.

"Get her to follow you, Harugi!" exclaimed Kyo, looking back at the couple still left behind.

The roof above them roared and groaned again. Everyone else was at the top now, only Chihiro and Harugi still remained.

"Come on, dear," he said, gently pushing his wife to the edge "You go behind me, and you can see how I do it, okay?"

"O-Okay," replied Chihiro, and she fell into the water after her husband

"C'mon, Mom and Dad!" Kari called, almost embarrassed her parents were the last to climb up.

Harugi was considerably quicker than Chihiro, who was still only halfway up when Harugi climbed up on the top with the others.

"C'mon, dear!" shouted Harugi "You're halfway there!"

The groan above them roared overhead again. It finally seemed to make a noise they could recognise; smashing debris. Suddenly, the floor above them caved in, as one of the ships diesel engines slammed through it, and it flew to the ground, smashing part of the balcony the group was stood on, who all jumped back immediately, out of danger.
There was a scream, a scream that was cut off. And then silence as the engine slammed into the water below. Metal groaned around them.

There was a few seconds of disbelief, before...

"CHIHIRO!!!!" screamed Harugi "CHIHIRO!!!"

"MOM!!!!" screamed Kari, as both of them ran to the edge of the balcony, which was now smaller and had a jagged edge where the engine crashed into it.

The devastation below was unbelievable. Fire encapsulated the water beneath them, the engine was in flames. The metal pipe that had once stood against the balcony had been twisted and bent to the water below, which was now only two decks below them. Kari and Harugi sobbed, as below, the corpse of Chihiro lay. Just another victim of the Poseidon.

"We have to keep moving," said Kyo after a while "We gotta go, otherwise this whole place will flood."

"Please, come with us," said Shigure, gently "I'm sure Chihiro would want you to survive this."

"Y-You're right," said Kari, wiping her eyes "We'd best keep on moving."

Both she and Harugi stood up, and looked below to Chihiro's makeshift grave once more, then followed the group into the kitchens ahead...

(A/N: The first update of 2009! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Updates will keep coming, as Poseidon finally comes to its final chapters)