TITANIC SINKING IN REAL TIME THE FULL NOVEL

by Sunny Meadows

CHAPTER 2 THE SINKING

I was surprised when Evening Breeze agreed to go to bed on time. Usually she wouldn’t say that. Maybe she had matured since the last time I offered her something equally valuable…ha…but still, by then we were just happy with each other playing hockey until about 3pm, at which point I pleaded exhaustion and told Evening Breeze that I had to lay down for a bit. I experienced a bout of dizziness and then must of fallen unconscious for a couple of minutes. Evening Breeze yelled out for help and by the time I woke up I was in the Titanic's sick bay.

“Oh, what happened?” I asked.

“Mum, you fainted!”

“Did I? I…I can’t seem to remember.”

“Oh Mum, are you feeling okay?”

“Yes I feel okay Evening Breeze. Maybe it’s because I didn’t get enough sleep. I should have listened to you. I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright Mum.”

“What time is it now?”

“It’s around 4pm.”

I was shocked. I had slept for over an hour? That wasn’t like me to sleep in the middle of the day. I stayed in the small room to rest until around 6pm. I felt strong enough to return to my cabin by around seven thirty. Evening Breeze and I had talked for about an hour or so and then she went to bed without any arguments. She wasn’t even faking it, she genuinely went straight to sleep. This made me happy.

I fell asleep soon after and felt a satisfying sense of peacefulness. At around 10pm however I suddenly woke up. Feeling restless, I thought a nice warm bath would make me feel better. Luckily for me, I was in first class and I could have the bath all to myself. I sank under the warm water and meditated quietly.

It felt natural being in the water. Like it was my home….I wondered briefly what it would feel like to sink further under and swim amongst the other sea creatures that lived deep in the ocean. I shrugged the thought off and noted that it was getting late. It struck 11pm and I thought I'd stay in the bath a little bit longer before going to bed.

I yawned and worried I'd fall asleep in the bath. I cast a small spell to make sure that I would stay awake until bed time. I concentrated on my breathing and begun to meditate again. I could meditate in water – but only for a time. This time I meditated for a few minutes, which turned into tens of minutes which turned into twenties of minutes and then it was 11:25pm. I thought I had better get myself dry and go to bed. I fell asleep straight away.

Then it happened….boom, smash, creeeeeeeak! I was jolted out of my very peaceful sleep literally five minutes later.

“Oh! Huh? Oh, no what was that?!” I thought.

I heard a loud screeching noise, like metal against metal. This woke Evening Breeze up too. She was crying.

“Mum! What is happening? Is this a nightmare?”

She was getting so anxious that I had to calm her down with my magic.

“I’ll go and ask the officers what’s wrong,” I told her.

I left our room in search of someone in charge. I found Captain Smith soon after.

“What the heck is going on here?” I asked him anxiously.

“Just go back to your room," he replied sternly. "I don't have time to speak right now. I need to discuss something with my workers."

“But don’t you remember me? I’m Amber Spark! I helped you with the coal. Don’t you remember?”

“Oh right, you helped us with the coal…huh…”

“What’s wrong with the ship?”

“I don’t know…I can’t say anymore for now. But maybe later we will know what’s wrong. If you'll agree, I'd like to ask for your help again Amber Spark. You proved yourself to be a reliable worker and we may need all hands on deck, so to speak.”

“Well…what is going to happen to me now?”

“Consider yourself a Second Officer,” Captain Smith said decidedly.

“Thank You!”

“You’re welcome.”

“What the blazes is going on here?!” a voice came from further down the corridor.

Captain Smith and I looked back to see Andrews approaching and he asked the same question again.

“What the hell is going on here? What’s wrong with the ship? It sounded like we struck something. How quickly can we assess if there's been any damage?”

“I don’t know,” Captain Smith replied.

“Neither do I!” I added.

“What are you doing here? Oh…you’re that pony that…” Andrews stammered.

“The one that helped with the coal...” I finished for him.

“Yes, that's right...," Andrews said, looking about distractedly. " We need to know how bad this situation is.”

“You're right,” Captain Smith agreed.

Andrews and I made our way down to boiler room to make a brief assessment.

“Do you need to see any more?” somepony I'd never met before asked.

“No…we don’t. I’ve seen enough," I said fretfully, wanting to return to my daughter.

“Ok, let's head back up.”

I levitated myself up off the ground and arrived back onto the bridge. I told the Captain that the first five compartments were flooding. Andrews backed me up.

“Is she going to sink?” I asked.

“Mmm…I’m afraid it looks she will.”

“Well she can’t sink!” I declared. “She’s unsinkable!”

“She can’t float,” Andrews said. “The pumps are keeping the water down in this boiler room but the first five compartments are flooding!”

“So? What’s the answer? Can she float or not?”

“She’s only designed to withstand the first four compartments flooding – not five!”

“Look,” Andrews went on, “the compartments don’t go higher than ‘E’ deck. So as The Titanic sinks, the water will flood into the compartment and then when it gets to the fifth, it flows into the sixth and the sixth into the seventh and seventh into eighth and so on as she gets lower.”

“How long will she last?”

“I'm just trying to work that out now. She took on around fourteen feet of water inside the keel within the first ten minutes after the collision…that’s not very fast…not very fast at all actually. I thought it was a wider gash but maybe it’s not."

“So…what’s going to happen to us?”

“We have to get every single passenger off of the ship immediately.”

“An evacuation?”

“Yes.”

“Abandon ship!" Captain Smith suddenly shouted out. "She's gonna sink!”

“But can’t we just use some bed mattresses to...” I spluttered out, scrambling for ideas.

“She’s made of iron Amber! I assure you, she can sink and she will.”

“I’ve got to go and prepare Evening Breeze to abandon ship!” I cried out.

“Wait…you don’t want to stay here?”

“No…I want my daughter to be prepared for the evacuation…what's the plan with that? How are we going to go about this?”

“Women and children first of course,” Andrews replied.

“Good thing I don’t have a husband here,” I quipped.

I ran off to find Evening Breeze in our cabin.

“Evening Breeze! Are you alright?” I asked worriedly.

“Yes Mum. I’ve been waiting for you this whole time.”

“Listen, don't be alarmed but I have some bad news. The ship has been struck and she's going to sink.”

“What?! But she can’t sink - you told me she’s unsinkable!”

“Well she can’t float Evening Breeze! She can only handle four compartments flooded – not five.”

“Oh no…” my daughter said in dismay.

“We have to abandon ship. Come with me to a lifeboat. You understand?”

“Mmm hmm.”

We teleported to the lifeboats. My swift use of magic meant we were one of the first to get on.

“Okay. This is the lifeboat....in you get - we can just rest in here for a while.”

Evening Breeze cradled herself into my lap and fell asleep, despite the commotion around us. I let my mind drift into a meditative state and was alarmed to suddenly find ourselves back on board the ship. Somepony had plucked us out one of the only remaining lifeboats to take it for themselves!

“Hey!" I cried after them. "Come back!”

I pushed toward the edge of the ship.

“Keep back I say!” yelled an Officer named Will as our life boat floated away.

The ship was now half sunk underwater and was a lot lower than before.

“How dare they?” Amber Spark wept at the Officer. “It was women and children first!”

“C’mon Amber Spark,” replied Officer Will. “There's nothing to be done about it now.”

“That was our only chance of survival” I moaned. "What about that other lifeboat?"

I looked at him pleadingly as I pointed at a boat that was situated further along the side of the ship.

“I’m afraid that one is full…go on with you now.”

“What? But I can only see twelve ponies in there!”

“Yes. But we are afraid that at their full capacity, the boats will buckle.”

“Ah…that’s why it's called full capacity,” I sighed. "What am I supposed to do then?”

“Go to the other side of the ship - there may be more boats,” Captain Smith instructed. “Try to keep away from the water as much as possible.”

“This is going to be bad isn’t it?” I cried.

“I’m afraid it is. If I get off this ship, I’ll send word to your husband.”

“Ohhhh…no…”

“I’m sorry, but I must follow Captain’s orders.”

“But the orders were women and children first!” I reminded him.

“Go to a lifeboat that isn’t full.”

“Alright then, I will…surely there can’t be…”

My words were interrupted by the sound of screaming.

“Ahhhhhhh! My god!!”

“Keep back I say!” yelled Officer Will, in an effort to regain some control.

The sound of gunfire rung out as he shot a bullet into the sky.

“Oh no…there's no escape,” I said fearfully. “Oh no wait. I need to get back down to my cabin to get something.”

“But Mum!”

“I’ll be back in a millisecond Evening Breeze,” I promised as I teleported away.

I was back as promised with my treasured necklace that I needed.

“Told you I’d be back.”

“Oh good Mum,” Evening Breeze exhaled in relief. “Very good.”