As with most pearls of wisdom, the saying wasn't meant to be taken literally. Clearly, you don't want to be making a dramatically timed final step from your mother ship to the life boat as it gently gurgles and bubbles under the waves a split second later. The suction of a large ship going down could take you with it. The point is, don't leave your mother ship unless you know that its demise is imminent. On a ship the size of a cruise ship, there are other important considerations. The primary one is the time it takes to get thousands of people off and safely away. On a cruise ship with lifeboats suspended from upper decks, if the boat begins to heel too much, then it becomes impossible to launch the lifeboats. A good captain needs to understand both his boat and the situation he's in. Captain Strickland was a man who understood well the difference between panic and prudence.
Getting the lifeboats loaded was the easy part. The waves were increasing as the storm strengthened, but at least once you were inside the smaller lifeboat, there weren't sliding deck chairs and furniture to dodge. There were rows of simple benches, and plenty of handholds to make yourself feel more secure. Holly and Garrett found seats near the center of the boat, just in front of Damien and his parents. Holly noticed the short man they had confronted below deck getting on the lifeboat. She pointed him out to Garrett just as the short man noticed them. He stayed well to the back of the boat. The taller man they'd shot was nowhere to be seen. At least not yet.
The lifeboat was listing back and forth badly from the rocking of the seas. Passengers filed into the boat in a remarkably orderly fashion, considering the conditions. There were only a few small port holes in the boat, so it was difficult to see what was going on outside. There was a larger window in the front of the boat for the driver, but most passengers chose not to look. It was more comforting to allow the walls of the small boat to block the view. Passengers were mostly silent as everyone shuffled into a seat. It was tight quarters, as people sat shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. Personal space was at a premium, but the close presence of others was a comforting factor for most passengers.
"I don't even think this thing has a washroom in it," Garrett said to Holly.
"Really? That's what you're thinking about at a time like this?"
"I'm not even sure that there is extra fuel and rations on this thing. I can't imagine where those guys would have stashed it. We're squeezed in here like sardines."
"I think the benches around the edges of the boats double as storage lockers. I was thinking the same thing myself when we came in."
Garrett looked all around the boat, and saw that the storage benches did indeed circle the entire boat. "Right. Good eyes."
"What about our friend at the back of the boat there?"
"Not much we can do about him now, I suppose," Garrett said as he turned to look for him. The man caught Garrett's eyes staring at him, but quickly looked away.
"I don't suppose there's much either of us can do at the moment. Do you think he's ... " She made the shape of a gun with her thumb and forefinger, discreetly so others close by couldn't see. "Think he's got one with him?"
"Not really sure. It can't be easy to get one on board a cruise ship unnoticed, even if you've got connections. I would expect that it's doubly hard to get two on board."
"That's just wishful thinking on your part. They're small enough. If you can get one on, there's no reason why you can't get two."
"I liked my version of the story better. At least we have one. Even if he does have one, we'll be able to stand up to him. He knows we have one, so that should work as a deterrent."
Holly pursed her lips. "Yeah, that line of thinking really worked out well during the cold war."
"Hey, we won, didn't we? Besides, what's he going to do? Take over the vessel and drive us to Cuba? He wants the same thing we do right now ... to make it safe and sound out of this storm. There's no reason for him to go all Rambo."
"The same thing everyone here wants," Holly said, looking around the boat.
The davits holding the boat suspended over the deck during storage now moved the lifeboat out past the railing and over the water in preparation for launch. Lowering a lifeboat from a ship that is heeling from one side to the other is a dangerous task. Fortunately, few of the passengers inside the lifeboat knew just how dangerous. Suddenly, the cables holding the lifeboat in place slipped and the boat dropped. Just for a second. Passengers shot out of their seats. Children screamed. Everyone grabbed for the nearest thing or person. It was like that initial drop off the highest peak of a roller coaster, when the first thought rushing through everyone's mind is whether the safety harness is secure enough to keep them in their seats. Their second thought is how painful it would be to land on the roof of the refreshment stand below.
The secondary safety brake on the davit kicked in, and the boat stopped abruptly between decks. Most of the children stopped screaming, but a few took up crying ... as did a few adults. Everyone waited for the lifeboat to drop again, but it didn't. It hung there, precariously suspended as the main ship rocked back and forth. The waves below crashed into the hull of the main ship, and bounced back out to meet incoming waves, creating even more turbulence.
"Are we in the water?" a voice from the back of the boat called out. "Are we OK?"
There were close to seventy-five passengers in the lifeboat, along with a half dozen crew members.
The crew member in charge spoke up. "No. Not yet. Just be patient, and we will be down soon. I assure you, everything will be fine." Garrett remembered him as one of the junior officers from their visit to see the captain.
In the front of the boat, there was a raised area with all the controls for the lifeboat. This particular lifeboat was designed to serve double duty as a tender for the main ship. If a port of call for the main ship didn't have sufficient dock space, then the captain would anchor the boat a safe distance away and use the tender to transport passengers back and forth from shore. The men that Holly and Garrett had confronted in the hallway knew what they were doing when they picked this lifeboat. Whereas this one had engines for maneuvering, many of the lifeboats could only float and wait for rescue. Given the current state of things, being self-reliant would be an advantage.
The junior officer on board the lifeboat began addressing the passengers and crew. "My name is Olaf. I am a junior officer first class on board your cruise ship. For the remainder of your voyage, I will be the captain of this lifeboat."
The other members of the crew took seats amidst the passengers, while one of them closed the doorway, and made sure the watertight seals were secure. The other crew walked the cramped boat to make sure that everyone had life jackets on and were appropriately seated. Olaf continued with his address.
"I want to assure you that although the situation may seem dire at the moment, you are in very capable hands, and in a very secure vessel. Even though it is obviously much smaller than our previous vessel, I want you all to remain calm. These boats are designed for and have been used in extreme conditions like the one we are now facing. It will get us through this safe and sound, I assure you." There were many concerned faces, and a number of the passengers started crying. "Myself and the crew have done many exercises for this very situation. It's essential that you do your part and remain calm at all times, and follow whatever orders the crew members deem necessary."
There was murmuring from the passengers. They weren't as calm as Olaf had hoped for. He tried again to calm them down. "I understand that you are all anxious, but I assure you, things will be fine. I myself am an open ocean racer. I've crossed the ocean in much smaller boats several times. I've been in much more violent storms than this. We will get through this, if we all just do our job."
"Who is coming for us?" A young voice sounded from the back of the boat. "There is someone coming to rescue us, isn't there?"
"Yes, of course," Olaf said. Holly and Garrett looked at each other with unbelieving glances. "The Coast Guard and the owners of the cruise ship are well aware of our s
ituation and have been for quite a while now. They are already taking action to make sure every one of us gets back home."
An older man in the middle of the boat, just a few seats from Holly and Garrett, started to get out of his seat. "I can't be here," he said. Olaf didn't hear him right away, but the passengers around him did. "I never wanted to be on this damn cruise, but my family insisted." His voice got louder and more agitated the longer he spoke. "I was content in my little house back on the farm. They thought I was lonely out there, but I wasn't." He started gesticulating about with his arms. "Now, damn it, I'm all alone and they're on another boat somewhere. They just deserted me!"
Olaf motioned to a female crew member, who moved towards the man. She put an arm around him and got him to sit down, then shuffled some of the people around him to make room for herself. She talked with him quietly, and that seemed to calm him down somewhat. He still kept talking, but in quieter tones.
Then, the short man in the back of the boat who had gotten into the confrontation with Holly and Garrett spoke up. "What's the plan? What do we do now?"
The boat started its descent as crew members on the main ship worked the davit. The passengers startled at first, but calmed when the boat moved slowly towards the water. It still rocked back and forth with the motion of the storm.
"Once we get to the water," Olaf said, "we will move our vessel a safe distance from the main ship. We have engines, and enough maneuverability to do that. We don't want to be too close to the main ship."
Another voice sounded from among the passengers. "But how will the engines work? We heard that none of the engines were working anywhere. That something disabled everything."
"That's simply not true, I assure you." Olaf raised his hands in a calming manner. "The problems with the main ship are completely separate from the lifeboats. You will soon see that the engines will work fine for us."
"Can we just head for shore then?" the short man from the back asked. "Wouldn't that be the responsible thing to do? Go to shore? Get all these passengers to safety?"
Olaf moved towards the driver controls of the lifeboat. "The protocols for just such a situation as this are quite clear. We are to remain within sight of the main ship, and as close as safely possible to the other lifeboats now being lowered into the water." He looked towards the man who had been frantic a few moments ago. "Even though you may have other family members that aren't here now, they will be in other lifeboats, and we will remain close. There is strength in numbers, and it's important that we stay as close as possible to one another to provide assistance if necessary."
"Assistance?" a lady said. "I thought you said that these boats were perfectly designed for these conditions."
"Yes, of course they are." Olaf looked out the driver's hatches, and started flipping switches on the dashboard. "It never hurts to take extra precautions though. We will all stick together and watch out for one another. Like a family." He smiled towards the previously agitated man, who seemed to appreciate it. He smiled back. "We'll be down in the water shortly. You will begin to notice the effects of the waves as we do. At first it may be very jarring, but you will grow accustomed to it. The longer we are in the water, the more you will be accustomed to the motion. It may even become calming to you." He looked back from his controls, smiling at the passengers. A few smiled back, but not many.
The boat finally touched down in the water. Olaf settled into the driver's seat and attempted to turn the boat engines on. At first, they sputtered and didn't start. He got up and moved to a compartment just under the driver's seat. The boat rocked violently with the waves as he fumbled in the open compartment. There was storage below, as well as pipes and lines with shutoff valves. He turned one, then got back into the driver's seat. He tried starting the engines again, and this time they fired up. The boat began to move through the waves, and away from the cruise ship. Olaf saw a number of other lifeboats already in the water, and navigated towards them. It was difficult going against the waves, but they made progress.
"Should we say something?" Holly said to Garrett. "If what those men said was true, there could be enough fuel in this boat to get us to shore." The lady on the other side of her looked at Holly funny. Holly lowered her voice so the lady couldn't hear. "We know there's no one coming for us. It's pointless to stay here, isn't it?"
"Yes, I know," Garrett answered. "We have to let Olaf know discreetly though. We don't want to be starting a panic here."
"Why would they panic? This is good news, isn't it? We can get to safety quicker." She looked to the older man who had panicked earlier, then back to Garrett. "Not him though. He has family on some of the other boats. What about them? Maybe we should stay and help?"
"No. Absolutely not. What can we do? This boat is already full. There's no room for extra passengers. Just getting close to another boat risks damage from collision, and transferring people would be a nightmare."
"There were thousands of people on the cruise ship. They'll all be around us. It seems wrong to just desert them here."
"You can't think of it that way, Holly. We have to take care of ourselves first. Think about Becky. She's all alone in New York, without us. God knows what's going on there. It could be even worse."
"Worse than this?" Holly braced herself as the boat rocked violently then dropped hard into the water as it came off the crest of a wave. She bumped into the lady next to her. "I can't imagine it being any worse than this. All these people. That man in the back. He keeps glaring at us."
"I know. I know. We need to somehow get word to Olaf quietly. "We can't let the others know. It would just be a riot inside here. I'm going to work my way up to him, and explain what's going on."
Garrett started to get up, but Holly put a hand on his arm. "Just wait."
"Wait for what? There's no point in waiting. We don't know how far this boat can go. We don't know how much extra fuel those guys stocked away. They said they wanted more on board, but they ran out of time. The longer we wait, the less distance we can cover. We're just wasting time hovering around here with the other boats
."
"I know. I know." She looked around the boat at the faces of everyone on board. Some seemed calmer than she could imagine. Some seemed absolutely terrified. Most just seemed really scared. Even some of the crew members seemed scared. Olaf didn't though. He worked the controls with his back to the passengers as he stared out the narrow ports. It was hard to imagine that he was making any progress whatsoever from where they sat. They couldn't see anything. They just had to have faith that Olaf knew what he was doing. "All these people. They all have family and friends back home. They all want to see them again."
"Yes, and we have a responsibility with what we know. We should do everything in our power to get everyone home."
Holly looked deep into his eyes. "And the people in all the other boats. They're just the same. The same as us. We're all in this."
"We are, but we're not. We're with these people. Just the ones around us. The ones we can see. Those are the ones we can help. You can't save the whole world, Holly. I know you. I know that you want to do what's right, but this time, the right thing is saving those closest to us. The rest of the world will have to make do with their lot. We can only control what we see right in front of us. Right here. Right now." Garrett started to stand, and Holly let go of his arm.
Before Garrett could move beyond his seat, the short man in the back of the boat spoke up. "We're going to America." Only a few of the people around him reacted. They looked puzzled. He spoke again, but louder this time. "We're going to America!" Olaf heard him this time, and looked quickly back over his shoulder. One of the female crew members moved towards the short man to calm him down. Olaf pushed the crew member away, which, combined with the motion of the boat, knocked her to the floor.
The short man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Olaf. "This vessel will head for the shores of the United States of America. We will not bounce around here like a cork, waiting to die
. Captain, you will take this boat to America, and you will do it now."
Chapter 28 ~ The Return
The stairwell, and the whole building for that matter, seemed remarkably quiet to Becky and William. This was supposed to be a construction zone. It used to make the kind of noise that neighbors complained about. Shift workers from nearby apartment buildings would stop at the front gate and get in arguments with the poor security guard who could neither let them in, nor do anything about the noise. The banging and clanging was replaced by the muffled noise of their feet on the steps.
"How many floors up did you say your friend was?" Casey asked as they trudged onto the tenth-floor landing.
"Oh God. I think it's like forty-five. I can't really remember," Becky said. "It's going to be doubly hard getting back up."
"Maybe we don't all need to go up," William suggested. "Wouldn't it be faster if just one or two of us went? Casey here is the one who really needs to get to Wayne, and since time is important, maybe it makes much more sense to just send him up."
"Maybe." Casey thought about it for a bit. "Maybe it might be quicker for just me, but I've got all this gear, and that part of it will be tough to handle on my own."
"Do you really think you'll need all of this?" Becky said.
"You know, I probably grabbed far more stuff than I needed, but I'd hate to get there and realize I was missing something important. I can't just rush back to the station for anything once we get up there. I'd hate myself forever if this guy dies simply because I forgot to pack something in my kit."
EMP Survivors (Book 1): Destination Lost Page 14