Stern
Nick and Joe struggle to hold onto the stern rail. Some of those who are praying think that it is salvation.
"We're saved!" Some yell.
Nick looks at Joe and shakes his head, grimly.
Now the horrible mechanics play out. Pulled down by the amazing weight of the flooded bow, the buoyant stern tilts up rapidly. They feel the rush of ascent as the fantail angles up again. Everyone is clinging to benches, railings, ventilators... anything to keep them from sliding as the stern lifts.
The stern goes up and up, past 45°, then past 60°.
People start to fall, sliding and tumbling. They skid down the deck, screaming and flailing to grab onto something. They wrench other people loose and pull them down as well. There is a pile-up of bodies at the forward rail.
"We have to move" Nick informs Joe.
He climbs over the stern rail and reaches back for Joe. Joe is terrified to move. Nick grabs Joe's hand.
"Come on! I've got you" Nick reassured Joe.
Nick pulls him over the rail. It is the same place he pulled Joe over the rail two nights earlier, going the other direction. Joe gets over just as the railing is going horizontal, and the deck is vertical. Nick grabs Joe fiercely.
The stern is now straight up into the air... a rumbling black monolith standing against the stars. It hangs there like a long grace note, its buoyancy stable.
Joe lies on the railing, looking down fifteen stories to the freezing sea at the base of the stern section. People near them, 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.
Nick and Joe lay side by side on what was the vertical face of the hull, gripping the railing, which is now horizontal.
Joe stares down, terrified at the black ocean waiting to claim them. Nick looks to his left and sees a man looking at him, crouching on the hull, holding onto the rail.
He nods towards Nick
"Hell of a night" he says.
The final relentless plunge begins as the stern section floods. Looking down and hundred feet to the water. The ship starts to go down like an elevator.
"Take a big 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 will make it Joe. Trust me baby" Nick said quickly.
Joe stares at the water coming up at them, and grips Nick's hand harder,
"I trust you, baby" Joe whispered.
Below them the poop deck is disappearing, the plunge gathers speed... the freezing water engulfs the docking bridge and then rushes up to the last thirty feet.
The stern descends into the ice cold sea and Nick and Joe vanish under the water.
Where the ship stood, now there is nothing. Only the black ocean.
Ocean
Bodies are whirled and spun, some limp as dolls, others struggling spasmodically, as the vortex sucks them down and tumbles them.
Nick kicks hard for the surface... holding onto Joe tightly, pulling him up.
The surface is a roiling chaos of screaming, thrashing people. Over a thousand people are now floating where the ship went down. Some are stunned, gasping for breath. Others are crying, praying, shouting... screaming.
Nick and Joe surface amongst them. They barely have time to gasp for air before people are clawing at them. People driven insane by the water. 4 degrees below freezing, a cold so intense it is indistinguishable form death by fire.
A man pushes Joe under, trying to climb ontop of him... senselessly trying to get out of the water, to climb onto anything. Nick punches the man repeatedly, pulling Joe free.
"Swim, Joe! SWIM!" Nick yelled.
Joe tries, but his strokes are not as effective as Nick's because of his lifejacket. They break out of the clot of people. Nick has to find some kind of flotation, anything to get his boyfriend out of the freezing water.
"Keep swimming! Keep moving! Come on, you can do it!" Nick tells Joe.
All you could hear is tremendous wailing, screaming, a chorus of tormented souls. And beyond that... nothing but black water stretching to the horizon. The sense of isolation and hopelessness is overwhelming.
Guess in another chapter or two, I'll be wrapping this story... omfg.
