Titanic

O.13

Authors note:
If you've read it this far, thank you!
You're almost to the end! I hope you like it so far. Vote and comment!
Thanks,
S.
_________________

Roses point of view:

People start to fall, sliding and tumbling. They skid down the deck,
screaming and flailing to grab onto somehting. They wrench other people
loose and pull them down as well. There is a pile-up of bodies at the
forward rail. The Dahl family falls one by one.

"We have to move!" Jack says.

I feel frozen, too terrified to move.  He takes my hand and I immediately feel the warmness I missed.  He climbs over the stern while helping me over.  It is like déjà vu because it is the same place he pulled me back over two nights ago. We are now horizontal in the air.  Jack grips onto me fiercely.

I lie on the railing, looking down fifteen stories to the boiling sea
at the base of the stern section. People near me, who didn't climb over,
hang from the railing, their legs dangling over the long drop. They fall
one by one, plummeting down the vertical face of the poop deck. Some of
them bounce horribly off deck benches and ventilators.

Jack and I  lie side by side on what was the vertical face of the hull,
gripping the railing, which is now horizontal. Just beneath our feet are
the gold letters TITANIC emblazoned across the stern.

I stare down terrified at the black ocean waiting below to claim us.

Jack turns to me, "Take a deep breath and hold it right before we go into the water. The ship will suck us down. Kick for the surface and keep kicking. Don't let go of my hand. We're gonna make it Rose. Trust me,"

I stare at the water coming up as we were sinking faster and faster down,
I grip his hand harder.

"I trust you,"

Below the poop deck is disappearing. The plunge gathers speed... the
boiling surface engulfs the docking bridge and then rushes up the last
thirty feet.

The water is just inches away, I take a large breath in and hold it as we were vanished into the black icy sea.

I can't hear anything, or see.  I still have Jack hand tightly holding on to mine.  I open my eyes knowing I will regret it.  Jack was right, the water does hit your body like a thousand knives.  Jack kicks hard and so do I. He pulls me up with all his strength. 

We finally surface among the other people who were yelling and praying into the sky.

I barely have time to gasp for air because people are clawing at me. A man pushes me under trying to climb on top of me.

I am taken back up by Jack and see him punch the man in the face repeatedly.

"Swim Rose! I need you to swim!" He demands.

I try, but my strokes are not as effective as his because of my lifejacket. We  break out of the clot of people. He has to find some kind of flotation, anything to get us out of the freezing water.

"Keep swimming. Keep moving. Come one, you can do it," he says with  encouragement.  We are both shivering at the freezing water.

All about me there is a tremendous wailing, screaming and moaning... a
chorus of tormented souls. And beyond that... nothing but black water
stretching to the horizon. The sense of isolation and hopelessness is
overwhelming.