Only a Storm

Hysterics and Waves - April 3

     I felt a sudden impact before tumbling down to the deck on top of a human body. Just like last time. And just like last time, I scrambled off of Gil as quickly as I could, kneeling beside him.

     He sat up and rubbed the back of his head, wincing. "Ow."

     "Gil! Are you okay? Did you get hurt again?" I fluttered around him checking for injuries. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any blood this time. A quick scan of myself showed the same. All the moisture on us was rain.

     He waved off my frantic search. "I'm fine. There's no glass here. By the way, did you know that you're way heavier than you used to be?" I smacked him on the arm and he laughed.

     "Of course I'm heavier! It's been two years!" I berated him.

     His brows lifted, but before he could get a single word of whatever undoubtedly rude reply out, Mitch and Andy had closed in on us, checking us frantically for injuries and cussing like, well, sailors. It was much more annoying to have a pair of adults fussing over us than it was when we did it to each other. I could tell Gil felt the same. When I had looked him over, his expression showed indulgent exasperation. Now he was plain irritated. I perked up a bit when the two men started talking about my climb - how in over two decades on various seacrafts, they've never seen anyone climb like me, so fearlessly and smoothly - especially not in a storm like this one! I preened under their compliments while Gil rolled his eyes.

     Eventually, they remembered that we were supposed to be downstairs. "Come on, we'll walk you two to the stairs." I exchanged a glance with Gil. We silently agreed that we'd done enough... for now. We followed the men down the steps to the lower deck. Just before we reached the door, it slammed open and the smiling woman shot out. "Chrissie!" Mitch exclaimed. "What's wrong?" He asked, suddenly serious.

     Because it was clear that something was very wrong. Not only had she lost any semblance of her smile, she was as white as her uniform, eyes wide as if she'd seen a ghost - the scary kind, not Casper. Before she could answer, there was a loud thumping from the stairs as twenty-eight third graders and two young women rushed up.

     While my classmates just looked nervous or confused, Miss Anna and Miss Amy were as pale and terrified as the smiling woman - Chrissie, apparently. Whatever had happened, they knew about it. Chrissie started talking with our two grown up companions in a shell shocked whisper too quiet for us to hear over the screaming wind. Rather than waste our time trying to figure out what was going on over here, Gil and I joined the pool of our classmates wandering aimlessly in the pounding rain. We meandered through in our best imitation of oh, yeah, we were here all along. Eventually we crossed to the other side and I ran over to Miss Anna, Gil close on my heels.

     "Miss Anna! What's happening? Why are we all on deck?" I asked pleadingly.

     She looked down at me with her haunted eyes and my heart lurched. What ever it was, I knew it was bad. It was something so bad that a woman who never lost her dry sarcasm was staring blankly through me, trapped in whatever hell her thoughts were playing. "We..." she swallowed hard, eyes focusing on my face. "We had to evacuate the lower levels. Somehow... somehow... they said..." she took a long, shuddering breath. "The glass floor - somehow the plexiglass.... it - it cracked." She rubbed her arms.

     There was a weird ringing noise in my ears as my brain blanked. Cracked? The floor? But... that meant that the boat had a leak. There was water coming in. There was water. Our ship was sinking. Oh god. We were going to sink. We were all going to drown and die. Oh god. Oh god. Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod. I don't want to die. The thought rang through my skull. Die... I was vaguely aware of the way my body was reacting, that I was shuddering and breathing too fast, unable to control my own movements as I wrapped my arms around myself, squeezing as if I was falling apart and had to physically hold the pieces together or I'd shatter into a million tiny shards.

    A stinging pain and I was rocked back on my feet. My mind cleared. I'd been slapped? My eyes focused on Gil, one hand on my shoulder, the other in the air from the momentum of his slap. He returned it to my other shoulder. "Hold it together Em. I need you to stay with me. No hysterics. Deep breaths." I nodded and did as he asked.

     A few seconds later I felt calm enough to speak. "Thank you. I - I know I need to keep my head. It's just..." my throat tightened. "We have a leak. And don't tell me it's probably minor," I added, seeing that he was about to do just that. "You saw Chrissie's face. She wouldn't have been that worried if it were nothing serious."

     He bit his lip and nodded. "You're right. It's probably bad. But that doesn't mean we're going to sink. They probably had to seal off the room. Remember how soundproof it was? I bet it was water tight too. The door fit like it was."

     I nodded, recalling how perfectly the door had blocked everything from the outside. At the very least, it would probably slow the escape of the water. I took one more deep breath and pulled away from Gil's grip, grabbing one of his hands for comfort. "We should move," I declared.

     He looked at me, startled by my sudden change in subject. "The class. We should move so we won't get in the way - maybe against the base of the upper deck," I said with a nod to the tall wooden box shaped structure we had just come down from.

     Gil nodded. "Good idea. And being up against it should block at least some of the wind. Let's ask Miss Amy."

     We looked around, searching for our class teacher. We located her on the opposite side of the group, near the crew members. She paced back and forth, chewing her nails. We wove deftly through the group to where she paced. "Miss Amy? Do you think maybe we should move over there? There would be less wind," I asked, choosing the most childish of our reasons for moving. Unlike Miss Anna, Miss Amy couldn't accept the fact that Gil and I were more grown up than our classmates, and insisted on treating any adult ideas we had like those of children playing at being grown-ups. We'd found she was more easily convinced if we presented a good idea with a childish reason - and it worked this time as well. Glad for something to do, she told Miss Anna what we were planning and had her help herd the class over to the relative safety of the wall. As we settled against it, more and more crew members seemed to pop up, coming out of nowhere and scrambling around the deck, yelling at each other and grabbing ropes. I was watching one of those men standing near the railing, yanking a rope as he yelled to someone behind him when a huge wave appeared. It swept over the deck, splashing those of us in the middle with salt water. When it pulled back, the man was gone. That's when the screaming started.

°•°•°•°

I know I don't usually post on Thursday, but I missed so many days last week, I'm trying to make up for it. So. As you can tell, we're reaching the climax of part 1. I hope you love it! And please keep reading Only a Storm ♡ Don't forget to vote☆!