Chapter 16: The Night the Stars Came Out
Charley slept a troubled sleep that night, having a bad dream about a room full of dead men. All dead by their own hands. So he woke with a start and sat up in the Captain's chair.
"What the hell is that?"
They all ran out on deck to see what was happening.
"I heard a loud bang?" shouted Natasha, as they all tried to look over the side. "Who was on watch?"
They all looked at the man talking excitedly to Raj.
"He says he saw nothing," replied Raj, as the ship took another uncomfortable lurch.
"So what's happening to it?" Natasha dashed back to the other side of the ship, as it shook and juddered.
"Sandbank!" said Charley. "We've hit a sandbank."
"But there is nothing on the charts?" replied Natasha.
"These things change every day, and some of those charts, the pirates gave us, go back to when the Japanese Imperial fleet came this way. No, we are in big trouble."
"We are just stuck fast right?" Raj looked at Charley, for an answer. "We can float off again?"
"If the tide is in our favour," replied Charley.
"And if not?" Natasha knew the answer to her own question but did not like how it sounded in her head.
"It all depends on the race of the sea."
"What makes you such a nautical expert all of a sudden?" Natasha wanted to know. "You spent most of your time in a damned factory?"
"All I know is what I've read, and this is a classic case of a ship stuck fast. If the tidal race goes against us, it could put a lot of strain on the ship.
"That's bad!" said Raj.
They could hear the water rushing past the bows of the ship, which caused it to swing round on its own axis. Slowly, and with sickening conclusions, they all knew what was happening. The old steel plates in the ship began to creak and groan. Slowly at first, then with a terrible roar, as if a huge beast was tearing itself apart. Moaning in its agony, the ship began to break up.
"Everyone get to the bridge!" shouted Charley, just in time, as the rivets began to pop out. They flew across the deck like bullets, as the plates began to split apart. "Get inside and close the doors."
"What will we do now?" asked Raj, slamming the steel door behind him.
"Get below and lock the big heavy doors. They are to keep the compartments watertight."
"You think it's going to sink?" said Natasha, looking out the window, and ducking as a rivet shot through it.
"It will break up. But if we can keep it watertight, or part of it, it may still float."
"What the hell do we do then? Just sit here?" She shook broken glass from her hair.
"No. Once it breaks up, it will be lighter, so we might float off the sandbank." Charley searched for an idea but could think of none, other than locking down the doors.
Screams echoed from below, as the tearing of steel filled the ship.
Charley left the others on the bridge, to see how they were doing below. What met him, was a scene of horror. The whole of the ship was now twisting to make the stairwell and corridor, look like a fairground ride. It reminded him of a child's toy, being twisted in the hands of a toddler with a tantrum. Sadly it would have been funny if not for the men who were caught in the middle of it.
This was the cause of the screams, as the steel plates twisted to grind them up with it. Blood flowed down the corridor when Charley found them. Several were already dead from the terrible crushing effects of the tide, and the rest were about to be flattened as the whole of the ship buckled in two.
Charley froze in panic, searching for a way out. Then something else took him over, as he saw the water flooding in, he simply turned and slammed the steel door shut. The water rushed in and flooded the corridor. Soon the dying men had drowning to contend with as well. The blood mingled with the sand from the sea bed, and everything was darkness.
Charley remembered thinking how quiet it all was down there. There were still the hollow groans of the ship, but not the rushing scream of the waves.
He just had enough time to take a deep breath, before the waters engulfed even him. It was a lot colder than he had thought, and he almost opened his mouth. What was more, swimming in this stuff was harder than his memories of the leisure pool back home. There you did not have to contend with sand; lumps of rust, rubbish and dead bodies. They all swirled around in front of him, as he scrambled for a way out.
In the dark of the ship, he swam down. There was no natural light coming from the surface, so Charley had to trust to luck to find a way out. Suddenly he felt the rush of water on his face and realised the tide was still flowing through the hole ripped in the ship. Following the force of the cold water, he found where the sand had torn apart the huge sheets of steel and tried to swim out.
Something stopped him.
Behind him were others, all trying to find the exit to this hell hole. In their panic and confusion, they grabbed at anything and had the terrible effect of causing several of them to lose their breath. The drowning men thrashed about as the bubbles escaped from them, and rose to the surface, where they were all headed.
Someone grabbed Charley by the arm and held him fast. At first, he panicked and tried to break free. But then he saw why the hand had grabbed him. It was Clare, and her leg was caught fast on a jagged piece of steel. She could not pull her jeans off fast enough to escape. Charley ripped at the denim material with his hands and gave thanks to the rotting conditions they had all lived in, it came away in his hands.
Thankfully they both drifted upwards and emerged on the surface. The waves lapped over them, as they coughed and tried to stay afloat. Charley thought he could relax now and float in the water, for the others to rescue him, but the tide had other ideas, and as he looked back at the ship, he realised they were drifting further away from it. The tide was still running, and they were now in danger of being swept miles away from what was left of the ship.
Up on the bridge, Raj could see what was happening, so he rushed out to find a long rope. Tying one end around the lamp, he threw it to Charley and Clare, the only survivors, in the water.
"It's drifting away from them!" shouted Natasha. "Throw it upstream, and it will drift to them."
So they hauled it back and threw it again, but into the foam coming around the ship. This time, Charley caught it and began to haul himself in. Things were going well until they both tried to pull themselves up the side of the ship. The ropes were old and rotten, and simply could not cope with the strain, and snapped to let the two people fall back into the water.
Raj and Natasha rushed to try and make another attempt, but it was too late. Charley and the other survivor, Clare; were swept away, as the tide rushed across the sand bank.
He thrashed around in the water for some time, until his hands caught a plastic drum washed off the ship. This kept Charley afloat, and he looked around for his comrade who had escaped from the ship with him, but she was nowhere in sight.
The night slipped slowly into dawn, and the daylight brought the truth of their situation home.
Charley tried to keep himself awake and thought he was dreaming as he saw the ship looming up before him. At first, he thought he was back with the others, but then he realised it was the other half of the ship. The bow had broken off cleanly and was drifting, if at an alarming angle, in the tide.
He managed to scramble on board, as the water washed over the remains of the deck. It sat with the point of its bow sticking up into the air, and Charley wondered how it had managed to stay afloat. The truth soon dawned on him as he made his way inside and found the air-tight door. It was firmly locked. Charley remembered why it was locked, and even remember that it was he that had shut the door in case they had any more visitors on board. Behind that steel door, lay the drive shaft of the old guillotine, and his £200 million.
"Fat lot of good it is now," he said to himself, as he crawled up the deck. Finally, he found a piece of the old superstructure still intact and lay down to await the heat of the day. The crazy angle of the deck now meant that he would slip straight into the sea, and had to find what was once a bulkhead to lay on.
