Uncharted Love (Camren)

[2.] That Sinking Feeling

"Camila? What the heck was that loud, scraping noise?" Normani asks with her eyes wide.

The short girl shoves another chocolate-covered strawberry into her mouth and responds, "No idea. I doubt that it was really anything. My girlfriend says that cruise ships are one of the safest modes of travel. So it's probably nothing to worry about."

Suddenly, a hand grabs onto Camila's shoulder, causing her to jump. When she turns to see who it is, she sees Niall with a look of horror spread across his face. She raises an eyebrow in confusion.

"Camila!" he shouts. 

"Niall!" she shouts back, still without a clue as to why he looked so horrified. 

"What was that loud noise?! Is the ship sinking?!"

Camila shushes him. "Don't ask those kind of questions so loud, Niall. You're going to frighten all of the passengers on the ship if you scream something like that." She pauses. "Now, I need you to calm down and take deep breaths. I'm sure that you're just overreacting to something that scares you as usual. Also, I'm sure that the noise was nothing. It was probably just a whale or something brushing against the bottom of the ship."

Niall does as he's told and slows down his breathing. "But I don't think a whale would make such a terrifying noise. I'm just going to assume that it was nothing, even though I'm internally screaming."

A couple of people run to join the group. One was a short Latina and the other was a brunette male with a buzz cut. Camila doesn't recognize either of the people, but Normani instantly did. It then comes to Camila's mind that the two must have been Normani's best friend Ally and co-worker Liam. 

"Mani!" The girl that Camila assumes is Ally shouts at her friend. "What was that noise?"

The boy she guesses is Liam adds, "Yeah! It was so loud that it shook the whole ship!"

"I don't know. We were just talking about it over here," Normani says.

The group's conversation comes to a stop when a voice over the loud speaker makes an announcement. "Hello, everyone. This is Captain Styles, here. I regret to inform you all that due to the foggy weather, the ship has made its way onto a mountainous rock. This means that you all should stay calm and formally make your ways towards the life boats that the staff are so kindly preparing for you all. Please make it a priority that you all get off of this boat, rather than going back in for anything."

The whole crowd of people in the ballroom start to go crazy, despite the request that the captain has made for them to be calm and formal. Camila scans the crowd in search for her her girlfriend, but can't find her anywhere. Normani holds onto her friends hands in a prayer circle that's being led by the smallest girl, and Niall trembles with fear while holding his head in his hands as he cries. Everyone ran around the room, clearly not understanding what the captain has asked of them. With everyone doing everything but saving themselves, Camila knows that it was up to her to get her newfound friends onto a lifeboat, hopefully finding Lauren on the way.

"Guys!" Camila screams, causing the group to look up and gaze at her. "We have to get to one of those lifeboats. It's our only hope for survival, so we should get there now. There is plenty of time to cry and have a prayer circle when we're not panicking to save ourselves."

Everyone nods their heads, then holds each other's hands to prevent them from losing each other. As they walk towards the outer deck, they stay close as everyone flips tables and throws chairs. It doesn't make sense to them why everyone wants to throw things, when they could just save themselves easily. Just as the group are about to exit, one of the flying chairs hits Niall in the head, knocking him out. The chair that hits him creates a gash on his head, which causes him to lose blood rapidly. The group looks at each other, not knowing what to do.