Just Cruising

Chapter 14: The Last Day

I was jolted awake by a loud noise.

BEEEEEP!...BEEEEEP!

Someone was shaking me gently. I looked over, expecting Sam, but found Jacob. Last night came crashing into memory, and I jumped up and grabbed a sweater. Jacob was on his feet in a flash and he grabbed his few belongings that he brought, like his wallet and key card and shoes.

I ran out the room, my satchel full of things like my own personal belongings and a sweater for Sam.

I sprinted to the other boys' room, banging on the door as loudly as I could. My breath was shaky, my heart pumping, it's rhythm throbbing in my ears.

A groggy looking Fin opened the door, eyes bleary and hair dishevelled. I ran past him and started yelling at everyone to get up.

I saw Sam laid out, limbs wildly displayed on the edge of the bed. He must've been blackout drunk. I dragged him on the floor, and started doing the only thing I could think to get him to wake up. I started kicking him.

I got him groaning and muttering some colourful language, then finally he opened his eyes. He must've finally registered the blaring sounds coming from all speakers throughout the room, hallway, and outside. He jumped up, or really, got up and almost toppled over again. Poor thing.

Jacob and I got him up though, propped between us. I told him we need to evacuate and he nodded. We all started working to get the others up. Fin was shoving someone, and I was pushing someone else. Soon the whole gang was up and running, grabbing their things and getting out.

There was a slight smell of smoke, and it finally clicked. There was a fire on board. This was almost a Titanic moment... Close enough.

We jostled our way through the doorway and joined the crowd that had formed in a full surge towards the stairs, and exiting to the top floor, and going outside. I held Sam's hand the whole time.

Everyone was getting grouped and put on life boats. They all received a life jacket as well as instructions to town a little ways away for the massive ship, just a precaution.

We lined up in small groups, but I realized that we wouldn't all fit in one boat. We split in two groups. Fin, Jacob, Sam, Tyler, Josh and I would go on a life boat, while the other boys grouped onto the other. We tried negotiating a rendezvous, but knew that it wasn't that simple, so we said our temporary fairwells and headed off.

My group was called to a small life boat, and we were strapped into our life vests and slowly let down from the side of the large cruise ship, into the water.

We were then pulleyed down to the water and the boat started bobbing with the ocean waves. Sam and Jacob immediately took up rowing. They as fast as the could away from the burning ship. I saw the rest of our gang get into the next boat and start for the descent. They were about 15 feet from touching the water when the ship exploded. A giant wave of searing heat flew toward us. It felt like my skin was on fire. I screamed out. The boys weren't safe, they hadn't reach a safe distance. Neither did all the other passengers.

I turned around, tears in my eyes, and saw Sam holding Jacob back. He had a wild look in his eyes, filled with insanity and grief. Sam yelled at me to calm him down. I crawled toward him and tried to cup his face in my hands, but he kept batting my hands away, screaming at everyone to help his friends. His face broke my heart.

We sat there for a few moments, numb. I couldn't feel my fingers, my toes, anything. Then we heard something in a distance, kind of like propellers? Or engines? Then we saw the lights. Helicopters were coming our way. They must've been alerted when the fire started.

Everyone was moving in a flurry I their boats, yelling and screaming. The smell finally hit me. Scorched flesh, burnt hair, and meaningless sacrifice. I couldn't breathe. My lungs were being crushes by this feeling of... grief.

It was finally put turn to get away to safety. We were rushed to a hospital in Miami. We're on the news and everything.

I wake with this beeping going on beside me.

BEEP!... BEEP!... BEEP!...

I start panicking, thinking I'm on the boat all over again, when I realize the beeping has accelerated as my panic has grown. I open my eyes and realize it's a heart monitor, so I watch my heart beat slow down and feels my heart rate slow down. It hits me that I'm in a hospital, wearing a super unflattering paper hospital gown that's literally see-through in all the wrong places. There are nurses bustling outside my room and there's more beds in this room. Then I look over and see Sam!

I'm about to jump out of bed when a nurse comes in.

"Oh! Your awake! How wonderful!"

She's very cheery and tries to get me to eat some green jelly, but I refused and ask if I could get up to see my brother. She hurries out to get me a wheelchair, and we slowly make our way over to his bedside. I take his cold hand in mine. His fingertips feel like long, slender icicles in my warm hands. Tears well up in my eyes and my vision keeps blurring. They overwhelm the capacity of my eyes and spill down my cheeks, a steady stream of sorrow.

I hear hurried footsteps outside and some commotion but don't take note until I hear someone say, "Rachel!" in and exasperated tone. I turn slowly to see my parents at the doorway taking tentative steps toward me like I'm a ghost. Their pale faces reflect relief of my waking, yet sorrow for my brother.

My mom starts crying and running over to embrace me. She tries to be gentle, but her emotions overtake her actions quickly. She hugs me tightly, cutting off my air supply for a split second, but I don't mind. I'm so happy to see them.

Then my father replaces my mother. Theres tears welled up in his eyes, and I know he's struggling to keep himself together. This is a situation a parent should never have to experience, especially when their children are involved.

I hug him back, staining his shirt with my tears. I'm so happy they're here though. My mother joins the hug too, and we all sit there, in slightly awkward hugging positions. I'm trying to extend my arms as high as I can but I'm beyond sore though. We disentangle and I look over at Sam again. They look toward him too. Then I notice something. His finger. It's trembling...? No, more like twitching. I look behind me for the nurse but she's gone. I guess she wanted to give us some private family time. I try to turn my wheelchair around but fail, so my father grabs the handhold on the back, swerve us around, and we zoom off into he hectic hallway of rushing nurses and doctors. We both look from side to side, then I spot her first. I flagged her down by waving me around like a maniac and she comes rushing over.

"What's wrong?!" She asks, worry written all over her body language. I point to my brother and tell her I saw his finger move. She rushes inside and to my brothers many monitors. Then she tells us his heart rate is stable and everything else is reading as stable, and nothing has changed yet. But then I see it again. His finger. It moved. I point to it again and tell her. She gives me a weird look then tells me I'm to be in bed immediately and that all this drama has taken me by surprise and that I'm on bed rest for the next few hours. I refuse, but she keeps telling me that I need to rest and maybe I'm just so overwhelmed by the whole situation. So I get back to my bed and sit there, my head turned to face Sam.

My parents grabbed some cold uncomfortable plastic chairs and sit beside me, each one holding a hand of mine. I feel so helpless in that moment. I feel so useless. If Sam doesn't make it, I don't know what I would do! I'm so mad at that stupid nurse for sending me off to bed but I understand that I have no choice.

I fall asleep. I don't know how. I don't know when. But I know that if I had stayed awake with my thoughts for much longer, I would've gone crazy.