“Wake Up! Wake Up! Get a life vest on.” I bolted upright, falling out of my bunk and hitting my temple on a metal beam.
“What”s going?” I muttered, rubbing my aching head.
“The ship is flooding. Captain wants everyone on deck. Get your ass up, clothes on – lets go!” he replied. Struggling to stand on the unsteady floor beneath me, I threw on the clothes Jeff tossed me and secured a life jacket.
David Black | Rawr
Flashing red lights replaced the bright fluorescents in the room and a blaring alarm beat against my ears.
I began to fill my backpack with textbooks and papers from my desk when the ship was hit by a forceful wave. I stumbled, falling into the desk, knocking papers onto the carpet floor. “Let”s go,” screamed Jeff. He gripped my arm and led me out of the door, slamming it behind us.
The sirens resonated louder in the hall. Red lights dotted the hallways glowing against our faces. I covered my ears, turning right then left, another right, through a door and another door until we reached a main hallway – long glass windows framed the walls. We sprinted across the hallway, gliding and shoving by people. Waves crashed against the vessel. The ship rocked in every direction making it impossible to keep a coherent stride. I followed Jeff outside a pair of double doors and made a hard left toward the life boats. Crowds of passengers stood in a clustered mess around the boats. Soaking rain washed our faces emotionless. My mortality struck me. I realized hope for my life was dwindling “¦
One by one the officers called out names to board the life boats. He called mine and Jeff”s names and we were shuffled onto the tiny boats.
In a flash of coherence, I saw my study guide, and remembered it was still in my bunk.
“I gotta go back!” I yelled.
“Are you crazy?” Jeff screams at me in bewilderment.
“I forgot my study guide man,” I told him.
“Are you stupid?” Jeff shouts.
“If I don”t pass the midterm. I can”t get anything higher than a C – I”m not failing marine biology! Are you stupid?” I answered with ferocity.
Jeff grabbed my shoulders to sit me back down, but I was too quick and abandoned the boat.
“Back in the boat sir,” one of the officers shouted. I attempted to run past him but he clamped my arm and pulled me into him.
“Life Boat,” he demanded. “The ship is sinking.”
“I forgot my study guide,” I shouted to him over the chaos.
“Go, quick,” the officer replied with an affirming voice, understanding of my dire situation.
I ran back toward the large double doors and down the hallways. Lights flashed, alarms blasted. I reached the now-flooded maze of corridors we navigated through on our way to the boats. Sloshing through sea water, I sprinted back to the room, wiping and spitting salt water off of my face and tongue. I swung the doors open to my bunk and stepped through the frame when a colossal wave materialized outside the bunk window. It crashed into ship”s side. Thrown with the ship, my head smashed into the wall.
Everything went dark.
I woke up amidst the deep ocean. An octopus darted by my nose and after it, a shark. Black ink encompassed the shark and it disappeared, as did the octopus. Emerging from the ink: a school of black fish, bunch by bunch, as the ink dissipated.
They swam through me and I”m immersed into their colony. We swam faster and faster, through the Atlantic into the Pacific. Sea life whizzed past us as we fly through the ocean depths. We swam higher and higher. As we reach the ocean”s surface the black fish leapt out of the water transforming into tiny white birds. Trailing behind them I approach the surface.
The sun”s bright white light shined through the now thin layer of water between me and my freedom. I leapt out of the water with the remaining little fish. Miraculously they transformed around me.
Now hovering above the ocean, I waited for my own transformation. The white birds flew above me into the atmosphere. Gravity pulled me back into the ocean crashing into the icy sea, the taste of salt filled my mouth again and I plummet back into the oceans depths. Another octopus breezed past me. I turned to the left and saw the same shark in pursuit. The carnivorous sea dweller swallowed me up in his path, crunching into my torso.
Everything went dark.
I wake in my room to my ear splitting alarm, and an aching head.
“Wake up dude!” A voice insists.
“Ehhbuggg” I say.
“Wake up,” they repeat. “You”re going to be late for your midterm.”
Waking, I pull a text book out from under my head; “Marine Biology” it reads. I look at the clock and it”s 8:15. I jump out of bed, knocking notes off my night stand. I file them into my bag, sling it over my shoulders and sprint out the door, leaving the alarm on and bed a mess.
Kevin Douglas Neighbors can be reached at [email protected]