Trust
As fast as possible, Cait ran back inside the ship, looking for Mr. Andrews. It was scary how lopsided the ship already was.
She kept on running, past more ignorant rich people and worried servants, until she spotted Mr. Andrews talking to a maid in a corridor.
“Mr. Andrews, thank god”, she sighed. “Where would the master-at-arms take someone under arrest?”
Mr. Andrews looked confused, not quite sure why Cait was still on the ship.
“What? You have to get to a boat right now!” Even though Mr. Andrews meant well, Cait was sick of people shouting at her.
“No! I’m doing this with or without your help, sir, but without will take longer.”
Mr. Andrews sighed, admitting defeat.
“Take the elevators to the very bottom. Go to the left, down the crewmen’s passage. Then go right, then left again at the stairs. You’ll come to a long corridor. The last door on the right.”
Cait hoped she remembered everything, quickly thanked Mr. Andrews and immediately ran towards the elevators.
“I’m sorry, miss, the lifts are closed”, a man there said and blocked the elevators with his body. Cait’s anger rose again, and she grabbed the man by the jacket and pushed him against the wall of the elevator.
“I’m through being polite goddamn it! Now, take me down!”
The man did as asked, probably because he looked afraid of Caitlyn.
Slowly, the elevator went down. Suddenly, water started to fill the lift through its gates. Vi was right, the water felt like a thousand knives around Cait’s feet. She almost screamed, but she had to bite through the pain. She had to save Vi.
Quickly, she ripped open the gates and stepped out of the elevator. She stood knee deep in freezing water, trying to ignore the cold as much as possible before going through Mr. Andrews’ directions once more in her head. She turned to the left and found the crewman’s passage.
It was harder to walk in water than she thought, and she only got forward slowly. The water rose, floating furniture made it harder for Cait to walk fast. She called out for Vi, but no one answered.
Suddenly, the lights started to flicker. No, no, no, no. Without light she was lost down here.
“Vi!”, Cait shouted as loud as possible. “Vi!”
“Cait?”
She turned around. Did she just imagine that or did Vi call her name? Without wasting any second, she followed the shouts to a door and opened it.
Her heart skipped a beat as she spotted Vi tied to a metal pipe, alive. Cait couldn’t stop the tears as she waddled over to her and kissed her deeply.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“That guy Lovejoy put it in my pocket”, Vi said as Cait let her go again.
“I know, I know, I know”, Cait repeated over and over as she hugged Vi again.
Vi would’ve given a lot to be able to hug Cait back, to touch her face and run her fingers through her hair, but she was still cuffed to that stupid pipe. She’d already tried to rip it out, but it was too sturdy.
“Listen, Cait, you’re gonna have to find the spare key, all right? Look in that cabinet right there. It’s a little silver one.”
Immediately, Cait turned around and made her way through the rising water, past floating chairs, to a wooden cabinet filled with dozens of keys.
“Silver…”, she mumbled. “These are all brass ones!”
“Check right here, Cait”, Vi instructed and tapped on a desk with her foot. Cait walked there, ripped out every drawer and searched through them. Nothing.
“Cait”, Vi stopped her for a moment. “How did you find out I didn’t do it?”
“I didn’t”, she answered, her voice shaking. “I just realized I already knew.”
The water was rising higher and higher, already reaching Cait’s upper thighs.
“You’re gonna have to go find some help”, Vi said as Cait didn’t find the silver key in the drawers. Cait didn’t want to leave her again. The key had to be here somewhere. “It’ll be all right.”
It was their last chance. So, Cait walked back over to Vi, her legs already numb from the cold and the pain. She kissed her again, to remind herself that this wasn’t a fever dream, and left the room to look for help.
The corridor was empty, except for the water and the floating furniture. Cait looked around. There were little options: a corridor leading further down, one leading up, and the stairs to the D-deck. She decided to go for the stairs, since she and Vi were probably the only people still that far down.
Cait walked through the now hip deep water and shouted for help as soon as she reached the stairs.
“Hello? Is there anyone here? Hello? Help, we need help!” She ran along corridors, looking for any sign of other people. It was so much easier to run now that she was out of the water.
“Damn it”, she sighed. The rooms around her were empty, luggage lying around and belongings left behind. The rooms were incredibly small compared to the suite Cait shared with her…ex-family.
“Can anybody hear me? Please, hello!” She started to feel desperate, but as she turned around Cait spotted a man. “Oh, thank god. Please, we need help. There’s a woman back there and –“
The man didn’t even stop to respond, he quicky shoved Cait out of the way and ran off.
Cait felt helpless and desperate. What more could she do than run around and shout for help?
She took some steps forward as the lights completely went out and a loud rumbling noise echoed through the corridors. Cait leaned against a wall and held her breath, almost expecting to hear Vi screaming as she drowned or something fell on top of her. No, Cait had to stop thinking about this. Vi’s fine, at least given the circumstances, but she wouldn’t be for much longer if Cait didn’t find help right now.
Suddenly, the lights went on again and a crewman with messed up hair, a missing coat and a hand full of lifebelts walked around the corner.
“Ah, miss, you shouldn’t be here now”, he said and grabbed Cait’s arm, pulling her after him.
“Wait, please, I need your help”, she said, but the man didn’t even bother to listen. “There is a woman down here and she is trapped.”
“Come on now, there’s no need to panic.”
“No, I’m not panicking. You’re going the wrong way.” Cait’s desperation rose again and tears filled her eyes. Then she lost it.
“Let go of me, listen!!” The man stopped, wondering why Cait suddenly shouted at him, but before he could say anything else Cait rammed her fist into his face. Her knuckles hurt a bit from the impact with his nose, but she ignored it. The man stumbled back against a wall and his nose started bleeding. He rose his hand, examined the blood on his fingers and turned back to Cait.
“To hell with you.” Then he walked away, leaving Cait behind. She wanted to shout at the man, curse him and this damned ship to hell and back, when suddenly an emergency water hose caught her attention. Next to it was a red box with an axe inside. If no person would help, this thing should do.
Wasting no time, Cait grabbed the hose and slammed it against the red box, breaking its glass. Then she grabbed the axe and made her way back to Vi.
She quickly reached the stairs, to find them nearly fully flooded. As much as Cait hated to step back into the freezing water, she had to. So, she slowly stepped down and took a peek into the corridor. She would have to swim back to Vi.
Cait’s stupid pink coat would only slow her down, and it didn’t really do a great job at keeping her warm, so she took it off and left it, before taking the axe in one hand and holding onto the pipes on the ceiling with the other. The water was freezing and Cait felt as if she couldn’t breathe anymore, as if there was pressure on her stomach. She was gasping for air but forced herself to keep going.
She reached a point where the water was a bit lower and she could stand on the ground again, letting go of the pipes and holding the axe high above her head as another rumbling shook the ship. Finally, she reached the room and shouted her girlfriend’s name while shoving swimming tables out of her way. Vi was standing on a table, holding herself above water as much and long as possible.
“Will this work?”, she asked and held up the axe.
“I guess we’ll find out”, Vi answered and held her hands against the pipe. Cait rose the axe to hit before Vi stopped her.
“Wait wait wait wait. Try a couple practice swings over there.”
Vi knew they didn’t exactly have time for this, but she wasn’t really fond of losing one or both hands and bleed to death in the process of trying to survive.
Cait walked over to a cabinet and hit it.
“Good, now try and hit the same mark again”, Vi instructed. Cait did as told, but failed miserably. The knew mark was at the other end of the cabinet door.
“Okay, that’s enough practice”, Vi said. Not perfect but better than nothing. “Come on, Cait, you can do it.” First, she instructed her on how to hold the axe before Cait rose her hands again. “Just hit really hard and really fast. Listen, Cait, I trust you.”
Vi wanted to close her eyes, but she forced herself to keep them open. If the axe went down towards her hand, maybe Vi could still move them so that the axe can split the chain and not her bone. She held a breath to try and stop her hands from shivering, and waited for the blow.
It came, and suddenly, Vi was free. She turned, screaming and laughing, and hugged Cait tight.
“Come on, let’s go.”