If Tomorrow Never Comes

Two Tragic Bullets

The three of them burst through the A deck entrance to the grand staircase, across the foyer towards a very obvious and scared Cassidy.

"Oh, Bobbsey," Miranda breathed with much effort and enveloped her other daughter in her arms.

"I'm sorry, mom, I'm so sorry. We jumped back and we got scared and Caroline went to find you and we couldn't so I stayed here and thought maybe you'd come and I'm sorry I'm sorry," the girl kept repeating.

"God, Cass, no, never," Miranda cried for them. "Never be sorry, my darlings, I love you both so much.

They stood there for awhile, Miranda crouched down, both girls holding her as tight as they could before the editor let go. She turned to Andy.

"You followed me," she said, not at all surprising, but still amazing.

"You jump, I jump, right?"

From above the stairs along the balcony railing, Irv Ravitz came down just in time to see that Miranda had Andy locked in an embrace all the while she was kissing her. The twins clinging beneath them.

Christian approached the chairman and put a restraining hand on him, but Irv whipped around, grabbing the pistol from Christian's waistband in one cobra fast move. He ran along the rail and down the stairs. As he reached the landing above them he raised the gun. 

Andy saw the gun before he screamed in a rage and fired. She only had a split second to react and grabbed Miranda and the girls, pushing them away and towards the staircase leading down. The carved cherub at the foot of the center railing exploded as Irv fired. He fired again quickly, running down the steps toward them. Another bullet blew out the divet from the oak paneling inches from the back of Andy's head.

Irv stepped on the skittering head of the cherub statue and went sprawling. The gun clattered across the marble floor. He stood up drunkenly, reeling, he went over to retrieve it.

The bottom of the grand staircase at the D deck reception room was flooded several feet deep. Andy, Miranda, and the twins came down the stairs two at a time and ran straight into the water. Miranda, with surprising strength, lifted Cassidy straight out of the water, making intense eye contact with Andy hoping she would follow. Andy picked up on the non verbal order and pulled Caroline out of the water and into her own body before it got too deep.

They trudged through the freezing water across the room to where the floor sloped up until they reached the dry footing at the entrance to the dining saloon.

Irv reeled down the stairs in time to see Andy and Miranda carrying the twins through the water, splashing toward the dining room. He fired twice, big gouts of spray near them, but he was not a great shot. The water boiled around his feet and he retreated up the stairs a couple of steps. Around him, the woodward groaned and creaked.

"I hope you enjoy your time together!" he called after them. A few moments later he was joined on the steps by Christian, and Irv chuckled to himself.

"What could possibly be funny?" Christian asked.

"I put the diamond in the coat," the chairman explained. "And I put the coat on her."

...

Miranda, Andy, and the twins sprinted across the first class dining room and straight into a galley. Behind them, tables turned into islands in a lake and at the far end the water has reached the ceiling.

Spotting stairs, Miranda pulled Andy and the twins down, crouching behind a wall on the landing, waiting to see if they were followed. A couple footsteps were heard above, and just steps above them, Christian Thompson wandered upstairs, assuming that they've gone up (who wouldn't?).

After the footsteps receded, the group let out a long breath and then, there it was, the sound of a crying child. Below them. They stepped down to look along the next deck.

The corridor was awash, about a foot deep, and standing against the wall, about fifty feet away from the stairs was a little boy, maybe around the age of five. The water was swirling around his legs and he was wailing.

"We can't leave him," Andy said, and Miranda nodded. They scrambled about across the hall, leaving the safe escape of the stairwell. Andy scooped up the kid and they turned to flee back up, but a torrent of water came pouring down the stairs like rapids. In seconds it became too powerful for them to go against.

"Come on," Andy pulled the others, charging the other way down the flooding corridor, blasting up spray with each footstep. At the end of the hall were heavy double doors. As they approached, they saw water spraying through the gap between the doors right up to the ceiling. The doors groaned and began to crack under the tons of pressure.

"Back! Go back!!" Andy yelled and the four of them pivoted and ran back the way they came, taking a turn into a cross corridor. A man was rushing the other way, towards them. He soon saw the boy in Andy's arms and cried out, grabbing him away all while cursing heavily in Russian. He ran the opposite away and Miranda cried out to him.

"No! Not that way! Come back!"

But the double doors blasted open and a wall of water thundered into the corridor. The father and his child disappeared instantly.

As a wave blasted around the corner, Miranda and Andy yanked the twins into their arms yet again and ran just as a wave blasted around the corner, foaming from floor to ceiling. It gained on them like a locomotive. They made it to the stairway going up.

They bounded up the stairs with the girls in their arms as white water swirled behind them. On the landing they finally reached a steel gate that blocked their escape. Andy slammed against the gate, gripping the bars. A terrified steward standing guard on the landing above turned to run at the sight of the water thundering up the stairs.

"Wait Wait! Help us! Unlock the gate!" Andy pleaded.

The steward ran on. The water was now well up around the pair, pouring through the gate and slamming them against it. In seconds it reached their waists and the twins feet which were wrapped around the women's bodies tightly.

"Help us! Please! We have children," Miranda attempted.

The steward stopped and looked back, witnessing Miranda and Andy, their arms clutching a scared Caroline and Cassidy while the water poured past them and onto the landing.

"Fucking 'ell," he muttered and ran back, slogging against the current. He pulled a key ring from his belt and struggled to unlock the padlock as the water fountains around them. The lights shorted out and the landing plunged into darkness. The steward was doing it by feel now.

"Come on, come on!" Andy growled, now up against the ceiling with Miranda and the girls.

Suddenly, the gate gave in and swung open. They were pushed through by the force of the water, making it to the stairs on the other side of the landing and following the steward up to the next deck.