Voyage (Powerless Nation #2) (11 page)

The assault on the cruise ship stopped when he turned to face the other lifeboats bobbing in the water. She realized what he was about to do and another scream tore from her throat. The bitter wind caught the sound and carried it out to sea where it mixed with the screams of the helpless victims in the lifeboats. 

It was a shooting gallery.

Sena looked again at the gunman. Though he was some distance away, she could see his face clearly. For the first time she saw an expression other than careful blankness or hidden contempt. 

The man was laughing.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

O
NE
BY
ONE
,
THE
lifeboats that had already been launched began to move away from the threat as they turned on their engines and fled. The Korean pointed at them and yelled a command. His lifeboat moved to follow them in a macabre, slow-motion hunt. Sena hoped the sea was too choppy for him to aim or catch up with them.

The last lifeboat was almost finished loading, and they shouted for the high school kids to hurry. Sena stood to run to the boat, then noticed Charity slumped on the deck.

“Come on, get up, we’ve got to go!” she said, shaking her shoulder.

Charity groaned and raised her head, and Sena noticed that her shirt was soaked with blood. “Charity, oh no! What happened?”

“The gun, I think. I don’t know.” She looked at herself and then back up at Sena. “You should go, or they’re going to leave.”

“What?” asked Sena. Then she realized the others were running towards the boat. “I’m not going to leave you.”

“You have to go. It’s the last boat.”

Sena ignored her. “Can you stand?” She put Charity’s arm around her neck and tried to help her up.

“Ow ow, stop!” cried Charity. “Are you trying to kill me? I’ll be fine. I think I might pass out anyway…”

Sure enough, Charity’s head lolled to the side and she went limp in Sena's arms. 

Sena looked toward the lifeboat again. Her classmates were almost to the stepladder which would take them onto the boat. She saw Kade get to the ladder and help Jessica and Paris aboard, followed by the woman with the baby. Rocky Road ice cream guy (she should have found out his real name) went up next.

Charity was unconscious but still breathing.

“Charity! Sena!” She looked up at the sound of her name. Kade shouted at her and waved for her to come.

She shook her head with exaggerated movement and gestured that he should go ahead. He put a hand on the rung of the ladder and she thought he would go too, but he spoke to the crew member and turned to point at them. The sailor shook his head and shrugged, then climbed aboard.

Kade ran back to her, jumping and tripping over discarded luggage and bedding, and shouting when he got close. “You have to come. They’re leaving right now!” He skidded to a halt when he saw that Charity was hurt. He looked from her to Sena and quickly took in the situation. “I’ll carry her.”

He leaned over and gently took Charity in his arms, then tried to stand. The angle of the deck under his feet made it hard to get his balance and he stumbled. 

“Okay, let’s go,” he said after Sena helped steady him, and tried to run. The awkwardness of the deck, along with Charity’s weight made it impossible.

Sena looked at the lifeboat and saw it was already being lowered to the water. 

They weren’t going to make it. 

Kade saw their chance of escape disappearing and a half-sob escaped his lips. “I told them to wait!” He took a few more steps forward, but it was too late, and they both knew it. Sena saw defeat on his face and in every line of his body. He carefully set Charity down on a mattress and Sena found a blanket to press to her wound and try to slow the bleeding. It was a useless gesture, she knew.

Kade straightened. “I’m going to go see if there are any boats left on the other side.” 

Sena nodded, and when he hurried away, she was not sure if she’d ever see him again.

She smoothed the hair back from Charity’s face and sang her a lullaby while the water slowly rose higher. The sun was almost down, and the coming storm brought a cold wind, making the water choppy and gray. 

Except for the wind and the groaning of the ship, it had grown quiet, almost peaceful, and she wondered how many people were still alive on the enormous vessel. Soon, it would be over for all of them.

She tried not to think of slipping beneath the waves into the darkness below. Instead, she thought of her mom. She hoped she was safe somewhere, either being cared for in the women’s prison, or released.

In the letters they’d written back and forth they made plans to get a little house together when she was released. Her mom promised she’d make up for all the years she’d screwed up. They’d learn to garden and grow flowers, and there would be a whole room full of shelves and shelves of books for Sena. 

“Sena!”

She turned at her name, expecting to see Kade, but it was Ted and Claire, the couple who had shared their room with her. Claire was pale and walked with a limp while Ted supported her. Their clothing was singed and their faces were splotchy with soot. 

They scanned the deck looking for lifeboats as they came toward her, and Sena saw Claire's body sag. 

“They’re gone, they’re all gone,” whispered Claire, before turning on her husband in anger. “You should have left without me! Now we’re both going to die and Maddie won’t have anyone. Do you have any idea what that will do to her?”

“Settle down, Claire, we’re not going to die.”

“She’ll never know what happened to us. She’s going to need us, Ted, and we won’t be there. We failed Jacob and now we’ve failed Dee.” Claire covered her face and sunk to her knees. “Oh, my children.”

Sena looked away, an awkward witness to Claire's raw pain.

“Claire.
Claire!
Snap out of it. We’re not dead yet.” Ted shook her by the shoulders. “Look, see those barrels? Those are life rafts. They’re our ticket out of here.”

Sena followed his finger and saw a large white cylinder mounted at the railing of the ship atop a square bin. Ted was studying the safety poster nearby when Kade burst out of the lounge, followed by Danny. Lydia and Captain Crane followed close behind.

“Let me give you a hand with that,” said Danny to Ted, removing the railing around the contraption and adroitly unlocking the mechanism that secured it to the ship.

“Now we’re going to heave the whole thing over. On my count. One, two, three!”

Danny and Kade pushed an orange billowy cube overboard, connected to the white cylinder. The cube unrolled like a giant slinky made of parachute fabric, stretching down to the water. 

At the bottom of the slide-chute, a black and orange life raft popped out of the barrel and immediately began to self-inflate, unfolding and puffing up until there was a small life raft bobbing in the rough sea below them, tethered to the slide and the ship.

“Is that safe?” asked Claire, looking dubiously into the entrance to the escape chute.

“Safer than here,” said Ted. 

“Remove your heels,” said Danny, pointing at Lydia’s pumps. Everyone else was wearing flip flops or sneakers and Danny said they could keep their shoes on.

They were on deck four, and although the cruise ship was lower in the water than it should be, they were still over two stories above sea level.

The captain approached, awkwardly carrying Charity. He looked at Ted and indicated the slide. “You go first and help everyone as they land.”

Ted nodded and gave his wife’s hand a squeeze before jumping into the blackness at the top of the chute.

“You next,” the captain said to Claire, who limped barefoot to the opening and then slid inside. “Lydia,” he said, “can you go with this girl and make sure she doesn’t get stuck?”

“I want to take her,” said Kade.

Lydia nodded, and went ahead, saying she’d help him when they reached the bottom. 

Kade sat at the top of the slide, while the captain placed Charity in front of him. He wrapped his arms around the limp girl and then wriggled forward until they dropped out of sight.

Sena looked at the opening of the chute. It looked like a hole leading over the side of the ship and into dark, black nothingness. She tried to step forward but her feet were riveted to the deck. She heard a crackling sound and looked up to see the orange glow of the fire where it burned on the upper decks. The explosion earlier must have torn a hole in the bottom of the ship, and she wondered whether the ship would sink first, or burn down to where she was. Waiting seemed far easier and safer than forcing her feet to take her forward into the night.

Captain Crane and Danny were talking, and she heard Danny say, “And then you’re coming after me, right?”

“Not while there are people aboard.”

“But Captain—”

“No. I made that mistake once, and hated myself for it. I won’t do it again.”

“Then I’ll stay, I’ll help you.”

“You’re a good boy, Danny, and you have to go now, that’s an order. When your dad passed on I promised him I’d take care of you. Don’t make a liar out of me. Crew the life raft and get everyone away from here.”

“But —”

“There’s more life left for you, son. Your dad would be so proud of you.” 

The captain embraced Danny, and stepped away.

“Do you know how to release the raft?” asked Captain Crane.

“Yes, sir,” said Danny. He stepped back and gave a salute. Sena didn’t think she’d seen any saluting on the ship until now. It felt right.

“Let’s go,” said Danny, not turning to see the captain go back to his ship. Sena knew they wouldn’t see him again.

Danny took two steps forward and stopped when he realized Sena hadn’t moved.

“What’s wrong?” he said. “Are you scared of heights?”

“The dark,” she whispered.

She thought he’d try to drag her to the opening or talk her into it. Instead, he stood and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, studying her. Then he leaned toward her, and brought his lips to a small piece of plastic on the front of her life jacket. She giggled nervously.

When he moved back, a tiny light twinkled on the front of her vest.

“How did you do that?” 

“Water activated light,” he said. “Now, no more stalling, it’s time to go. I’ll be right behind you.”

Sena let him guide her to a sitting position at the top of the chute, and then she took a deep breath and held it. He gave her a push and she was falling, down, down into nothingness.

Inside, the chute was a tight spiral and she followed the curve of it around and around as she fell. The sides of the slide were slippery and wrapped closely about her. She made steady progress until she came to a sudden stop. 

The nylon material tangled at her feet and she couldn’t pass through. She was stuck, about halfway to the raft. Sena kicked at the knot, trying to loosen it and free herself. It wouldn’t budge. 

The shadowy fabric pressed in around her. She flailed and writhed, but although the material gave under her touch, it held her in place. She thought she felt hot breath on her neck and the image of a man’s face loomed before her.

Panic took over and she screamed. With her kicking and punching the fabric, it loosened, and with no warning she was falling again. 

Sobs of relief shook her body when strong arms lifted her from the bottom of the chute and helped her to a place in the life raft. She huddled there and watched Danny climb out of the chute and then reach into a pocket on the life raft and pull out a safety knife. He cut the lines that connected them to the burning ship, and they were free.

The raft had a nylon roof, like a dome tent, and Sena unzipped a small window and looked behind them. Flames rose high into the night sky, and she was ashamed their brilliance was a comfort to her. Ted and Danny struggled to paddle the raft out of danger, while Sena fixed her eyes on the ship, watching as it burned.

CHAPTER TWELVE

T
HE
PITCHING
OF
THE
raft in the turbulent sea and her constant shivering made Sena miserable. She forced herself to look around the interior in the dismal light cast by a small overhead lamp and had the disturbing thought that they might as well be at sea in a children’s birthday party bouncy house. The sides and floor were merely inflated rubber.

The only openings were in the canopy; the entrance and the small window she’d unzipped earlier. She closed the window to keep water out, but it poured in through the door each time a wave crashed against the raft. 

The seven of them sat in gallons of seawater that swirled around their lower bodies. Ted had a plastic yellow scoop which he used to bail the water out as quickly as he could.

The motion of the raft riding up and down over the breaking waves was nothing like being on the cruise ship. Everyone except Charity clutched at the handholds around the perimeter to keep from being tossed around inside or worse, slipping through the entrance and out into the raging sea. 

Lydia and Kade each braced themselves with one hand, and supported Charity with the other.

There was a terrible chemical smell in the air, like rubber and plastic. The smell, along with the constant motion, made Sena nauseous. She closed her eyes as a massive wave crashed over them, blasting water everywhere and collapsing the top of the raft. 

She held her breath, thinking it might be her last, until the canopy popped back into place and they ascended another wave. It was so steep she felt herself sliding and tightened her grip.

How long could the raft handle the pounding of the waves before it popped like a balloon, leaving them scrambling in a sinking trap of rubber?

In the flickering shadows, Sena saw Danny let go of his handhold and slide across the raft to the other side, where he busied himself with something lashed to a tie-down that looked like a bundle of tarp and ropes.

They hovered at the top of a cresting wave for a moment before it fell out from beneath them, leaving them to fall with a sickening slap and squeal of rubber into a deep trough. Danny lost his balance and fell heavily onto Kade, then righted himself and crawled back to the entrance.