April 15, 1912
1:38 am
Max didn't let go of Anna Marie's hand, trying to get away from Charles as fast as possible. He heard a struggle behind them, likely someone who was trying to stop Charles, but he didn't stick around long enough to find out who it was. He needed to get Anna Marie away from him, to keep her safe long enough to get her off this ship.
They waded through the now flooding foyer of C Deck, trying to find a way back up that didn't involve coming back the way they came.
Once they got to a place that was not quite submerged, they ran, Max holding onto Anna Marie's hand as they hid in a corridor, listening for any signs of someone following them.
Instead, they heard the sound of a child. Screaming.
They looked at each other, and quickly moved towards the noise, rounding a corner to find a young boy, crying and yelling for his parents in German.
"Vater!" The boy cried.
The corridor they were in was already starting to flood, the water up to their ankles. They didn't see anyone else in the corridor, no idea where the boy's family was.
"We can't leave him…." Those green eyes pleaded with him, and he was not about to deny her when there was a child involved.
He moved towards the child, speaking in German to calm him as he lifted the boy into his arms. Anna Marie understood what he said, and if it had been under less disastrous circumstances, she would have commented on how at ease he seemed with the child in his arms.
They moved along the corridor, and there was a set of double doors that looked ready to burst from the water about to pour out from behind it, spilling in from the cracks.
They couldn't go that way. Once the doors opened, it would be like a dam breaking.
"Turn around!" He called to Anna Marie, carrying the boy with him back the other way they came, but finding that way blocked in a similar fashion, water pouring in from all sides.
As they tried to find somewhere in the middle to escape, a man appeared, and judging from the angry look on his face, he was the boy's father. He snatched the boy from Max's hands, yelling at him in German, to which Max responded in kind, trying to tell him that they were trying to lead him to safety.
The man paid him no heed, and started walking towards the double doors that were getting ready to burst, his son in his arms.
Max tried to warn him, yelling desperately, just before the doors broke open.
"ANNA MARIE, RUN!"
They took off into a side corridor, trying to avoid the rushing waters coming at them at full force. They dared not look back, even as the water caught up to them, and swept them off their feet.
With quick thinking, Max grabbed a handrail to a set of stairs leading up to the next level, holding Anna Marie by the waist as they fought the current to get up the stairs. There was a moment as they looked at each other and realized that the father and child they had just encountered had been swept under, and there was nothing they could do for them now.
They reached the top of the stairs to be greeted by the same gate that had kept the third class passengers from going up to the top deck, and this gate was definitely locked. They tried with no avail to make it budge, both desperate to get back up to the top deck.
An attendant came in view, and they both got his attention.
"You there! Open the gate, please, let us through!"
"Please, help us, open the gate!" Anna Marie begged.
The attendant hesitated for a moment before fishing a set of keys out of his pocket, the lights flickering as he tried each key. The water level was rising quickly, the bottom of the stairs beginning to flood as the water quickly filled the level they had just been on.
"Hurry!" Max exclaimed.
The water kept rising, and came up to Max and Anna Marie's ankles as the attendant kept trying every key, the lights flickering.
The attendant's hand slipped, and he dropped the keys. He looked up at both of them in surprise.
"I'm sorry….I dropped the keys." He turned back up the second staircase, and Max yelled after him.
"Wait!"
Anna Marie made a split second decision, and she crouched in the water, fishing for the keys.
"Got 'em!" She held up the keys, and Max took them from her, trying each key with the limited visibility he had.
The water level was rising still, and he was doing his best to hurry. The water reached chest level, and he could sense that Anna Marie had started to panic.
"Hurry, Max!"
Finally, he got the key to unlock the gate, and pushed her through first as the water almost got to her chin.
"Go, schatzi, go!"
They both managed to make their way up past the now submerged level they had been on, racing to get to the boats.
They came across the smoking lounge of B Deck, and Max recognized the man standing there staring at the clock.
"Mister Andrews?"
"Mister Eisenhardt." The man acknowledged. "It seems my greatest accomplishment is now sinking around me. I have failed."
Anna Marie stepped towards him. "Come with us. Get off this ship before it's too late."
Mister Andrews shook his head. "I'm afraid it's too late for me, my dear." He handed her a life vest that he had sitting on the table.
"Good luck to you both. May God have mercy on you."
There was a silent exchange between Max and Anna Marie where she squeezed his hand, and they knew that if they stood a chance of getting off this ship alive, they needed to move.
With a quiet nod, Max led Anna Marie back up to the top deck, hoping and praying that there was a boat left to get them off the ship before it sank.