This Is Where It Ended ... (R5 AU)

"And All Of A Sudden I'm Leaving"

Chapter 8

1:27 am

Riker's POV

The crew is still trying to organize the people as the ship sinks further and further every time. It's almost vertical in the water now and there are still some lifeboats left, but Rydel and mom are still with us.

Waiter: Are there still women and/or children here?

Riker: Yeah, here. My sister and mom.

I point towards Rydel and mom and they look with a shocked expression at me.

Rydel: Forget it Riker. I'm not gonna leave you guys here on your own.

Riker: Rydel, we can rather save ourselves when we know that you and mom are safe.

Rydel: No, forget it. Friends stick together, no matter what.

Stormie: Sweetie, maybe he's right.

Rocky: Please Rydel. Do it for us.

Rydel: What if you guys don't make it? I can't live without you. I already lost my youngest brother. I can't lose you guys either.

Ross: We're gonna make it off the ship alive, but right now your life is more important.

Ellington takes her hand and pulls her towards one of the last lifeboats that are still left. She tries to refuse, but we push her with mom to the boat. Ellington helps her into the boat and she's about to pull him with her, but he lets go of her hand before.

Rydel: Ell, please don't do this to me.

Ellington: I'm sorry Delly. But I promise you, I'll see you again.

Rydel stands up again and pulls Ellington into a passionate goodbye kiss, but the sailor on the lifeboat pulls her away from him and places her on the other side of the boat so she can't reach Ellington anymore. Tears stream down her cheeks and it just breaks my heart to see my baby sister this sad. This is maybe the last time I'm gonna see her. We guys wave at her and send her all an air kiss before we turn to mom.

Riker: Mom, get into the boat.

Stormie: Are you sure, you're gonna be alright?

Riker: We will be, when we know that you and Rydel are off the ship.

Mom pulls us boys into a group hug which lasts for at least 2 minutes, much to the complaint of the men on the ship.

Man: Hurry up, would you? There are other people on this ship who want to get off it alive.

Rocky: Hey, we can say goodbye to our sister and mom.

Man: There's no time for that!

The man pushes against us and we all stumble backwards. Bad idea. We release our hug and try to maintain our balance on the already to the side leaned boat, which is hard. Mom gets throw back by the sudden impact that she crashes against the railing so hard, it loosen from the stabilization and breaks away. Rydel watches the scene and starts screaming for mom as she sees her falling backwards. Ellington tries to grab mom's hand to pull her back, but he missed it. It's too late. Mom can't balance herself anymore and after some more seconds she falls back into the cold water, not coming up again. We look down onto the water, hoping she would come up again, but nothing. She was already weak when this whole drama started here. There's no way she's surviving this ice cold water. We get back up and turn away from the water. While Rocky just glares at the man, who shoved us, Ross just holds his hand in front of his face and Ellington shakes his head as his tears escape his eyes. We can still here Rydel's sobs and that's when we turn to her and watch her as she slowly goes down in the lifeboat. She looks up to us as we look down from the sinking ship. I look to my right and see Ellington with tears in his eyes. He sends her one last air kiss and Ross, Rocky and I wave at her one more time, before her lifeboat hits the water and slowly starts floating away. ... Most of the lifeboats are already floating on the wide ocean and there are still over 400 people on this ship. It's pure chaos. The last lifeboats are now getting prepared for the rest of the people, but I'm pretty sure that not even half of the people will survive this.