Titanic: An Amourshipping Story

Chapter 21

Finally, Goh, Gary, and the other men with knives cut the falls, and Collapsible A leveled up, albeit half filled with water. People in the water tried getting into the lifeboat, but those still on pushed them back, afraid of the boat tilting again. Gary and Goh got into the water and tried to get on, but Mivashkama saw what they were doing and pushed them back with an ore. At the same time, Chloe was rowing away from the ship on Collapsible D and saw her husband and their friend trying to get in.

"Get back! You'll swap us!" Mivashkama shouted.

"Come on! Let us on! There's more than enough room!" Goh shouted.

"Back! Back, you animals," Mivashkama barked.

"We just freed your bum from the boat tipping over, you limey jackass!" Gary shouted. "The very least you could do is give us a chance to live!"

"I said get back!" Mivashkama roared.

The next thing Chloe saw was Mivashkama lifting his oar and slamming it onto Gary's head like a sledgehammer. He hit his head three times with the ore's edge, cutting Gary's scalp open. His body became limp, and he let go of the boat's edge, floating away with blood coming from the top of his head.

"Gary!" Chloe screamed.

Goh swam to Gary's side and lifted his head to see the damage. He shook Gary, but his friend remained motionless with his eyes half closed.

"Dastard! Murdering dog!" Goh yelled.

"So the world has one less lowlife to deal with. It's no skin off my back," Mivashkama said. "Now get back, or you'll be joining him."

Mivashkama pushed Goh away with the bottom end of his oar. Goh swam away from the boat with Gary still in his arms. He patted Gary's face as if to snap him out of a daze, but deep down, he knew that his friend was either gone or dying of his injuries no matter what Goh did. Accepting there was nothing he could do, Goh closed Gary's eyes and let his body float away.

Goh looked around for another way to get out of the water until he saw Chloe's boat in the distance. There was a good chance no one apart from his wife would allow him in the boat because he was a man, and getting him in might turn the boat over. Still, the only boats closest to him apart from Mivashkama's were Collapsible B and D, and the former was floating upside down. At least with Collapsible D, no one in the water was trying to get in, and he might be safe with Chloe. Goh swam toward Chloe's boat, and his wife's eyes widened with hope.

"Come on, Goh! You can do it! Come to me!" Chloe called out.

But just as Goh was halfway to the lifeboat, he heard loud snapping and something splashing into the water. He looked to his left and saw the galvanized steel wire ropes, otherwise known as shrouds, holding Titanic's forward funnel breaking off. The water reached the part of the Boat Deck and A Deck where casings carried the massive funnels. The comparatively light casing holding the forward funnel couldn't take the excessive pressure against the water, causing the casing to collapse, taking the seating from under the funnel. With nothing below to hold it up, the funnel began to buckle, creating pressure that caused the shrouds to snap.

"Goh, look out!" Chloe shouted.

The funnel tilted with the bottom bending like crushing a soda can until it completely disconnected from the ship and fell forward. Goh and dozens of other people in the water with him screamed and held their hands up before the funnel fell on top of them. The funnel created a tidal wave that nearly flipped over Collapsible A and missed Collapsible B by mere inches, sending Siebold and the other people holding onto the boat far away from the ship.

"Goh! Goh, no!" Chloe screamed. "Get back up! Please get back up!"

"Lady, whoever you're calling out to ain't getting back up alive from that," the quartermaster leading the boat said.