The little boy stirred. “Opi?”
“Yes, yes. I’m right here.” The old man quickly tightened the straps on the boy’s life vest.
BANG!
And then I knew.
Torpedoes.
joana
I stood, not knowing what to do. Where were Dr. Wendt and Dr. Richter? I helped a screaming pregnant woman off the floor. She gripped my arm in terror.
“Please. Help me!” she pleaded.
Emilia grabbed Halinka. She wrapped her in a pillowcase and then quickly spiraled a sheet around her. She looked at me and shouted, pointing up with her finger.
The ship’s tilt increased. Everything in the room slid. The pregnant woman’s nails pierced my skin.
Emilia sprang into action. She put on her coat and pink hat, grabbed a life vest from the corner and tied it on. She held the swaddled baby in one arm and threw life vests from the corner to everyone. I grabbed a vest with my free arm and put it around the pregnant woman.
“Let’s all stay calm,” I said. “We’ll wait for Dr. Wendt or one of the captains to advise us. I’m sure they’ll make an announcement.”
“No!” Emilia yelled, gesturing frantically. “Coat. It’s cold. Up. Now!”
Emilia was saying we had to go up top into the cold.
Emilia was saying the ship was sinking.
emilia
The image of the burning, sinking wreath flashed before my eyes. Noise increased from the corridor.
I called out to the women. “Hurry! Take your coats. Wrap up. The cold will kill you.” Was anyone listening? Did they understand me? Didn’t they realize that we had to get out of the metal container?
The boat carried more people than the population of some cities. I thought of the ship’s many levels. Thousands of passengers would surge toward the top. The stairways would be jammed. No one was moving fast enough. I ran around the area, swatting at them like pigeons.
Joana wanted to wait for instructions. No.
We had to move. Now.
I looked down at the tiny baby. Her eyes were open wide, staring into mine.
She began to cry.
alfred
Emergency lights blinked on. A sailor ran through the heaps of refugees, instructing everyone to put on life vests.
“What happened?” I yelled to him.
“Torpedoes. A Russian sub.”
We had been torpedoed by a Russian submarine? The ship’s list increased dramatically. Things began sliding down the angled floor.
Suddenly, the grand piano in the music room rolled fast, crushing the little girl with the bear in its path before crashing into the wall and releasing a discordant cry. Passengers shrieked and wailed, trying to help the girl who now resembled smashed fruit.
Burning bile rose in my throat.
A woman sitting nearby held her infant out to me and screamed. “Help us! What do we do?” She reached for me.
I picked up the life vest near the feet of the mangled girl. I slipped it over my head.
“You should probably leave,” I told the woman.
I pushed my way to the stairs.
florian
The corridor was jammed with passengers.
“Torpedoes! The submarine is under the ship,” someone yelled. Panic flared into a desperate rush of yelling and pushing.
I slung my pack onto my back. I grabbed the little boy and picked him up.
“Do we have to leave the boat?” asked the boy.
“Yes. Hang on to my middle. Tight. Do not let go.”
“Opi!” yelled the boy.
“Yes, yes, Opi’s here,” said the shoe poet. “I’m here.”
“Do you have our coins?” called the boy.
“Yes, I have the coins,” he replied.
My mind raced through the layout of the ship. We were on A deck, front dining hall. We had to climb up, two decks to Joana. Then up to the sundeck. I thought of the four levels below us. The boat tilted farther. Frantic screams splintered through the dark passageway. We would soon be trapped.
“Hurry,” shouted the old man. “Wait, Florian, where’s your life vest?” he asked me.
Alarm bells continued to shriek.
“Walk in front of me,” I yelled to the shoemaker. “I can lift you if I need to.”
The boy on my front, my pack on my back, we pushed our way through the sea of people toward the stairs. The boy clung to my neck, his legs around my stomach, feet locked at the ankles under my pack.
The width of the crowd knocked the fire extinguisher from the wall in the stairwell. It fell and exploded, sending foam everywhere. People began to slip and fall. Others simply scrambled over them. I felt the crunch of bodies underfoot in the dark and the little boy’s panting breaths in my hair. I pushed Poet up in front of me. People grabbed and clawed at my back. I leaned forward, trying to stay upright. And then I felt a pull on my shoulder. It was the strap on my pack.
It snapped.
joana
Announcements crackled through the speaker system.
“Remain calm. Proceed in an orderly manner to the top deck.”
Dr. Wendt burst into the maternity ward.
“Don’t listen to the announcements. Get the women on deck and into lifeboats. Quickly!”