The Twisted and Mysterious Life of Collin Pierce

Chapter Four: The ferry falls

Collin was struggling to open the car door, of course he chose the butterfly one that always jams. He only had ten minutes to get to the ferry terminal, not to mention he actually had to get on the ferry. "This stupid car door won't open." He exclaimed. He finally kicked the door and it went flying, hitting him in the face and knocking him to the ground. "Damn it." He said to himself getting into this mess of an automobile. "Dad I know that you're trying to save money but it would probably be cheaper to get a nice used car." Collin said in the nicest way that he could put these words. His father had never actually driven his test car before so when it took off it surprised everyone to see how fast it was. Collin wasn't sure they would make it in time.

They made there way down to the terminal with three minutes to spare. An old man scanned Collin, his eyes gave Collin a certain discomfort that he couldn't explain. "You'd best be getting on the ship boy." His voice was very deep and distinct. Collin rushes onto the boat with his bags and found himself a seat, it wasn't a long trip to Manhattan but certainly not a quick one either. "Mom, something feels weird about this, I ride this ferry everyday and this isn't right to me something seems off." Collin was very concerned, it might have been that man or the fact that his best friend had been killed less than forty-eight hours ago. He couldn't be sure, he thought on it for a while before getting up to go get some food.

Collin made his way up the stairs to the next deck where the food court was located on his way there a man fell into him. This man had never been on the ferry, at least, Collin had never seen him on this ferry. Who knows, maybe he was a regular here. "Watch yourself kid." The man said. Collin was around five foot seven but this man towered over him which made him a little bit intimidated but not to the point where he wouldn't defend himself. "Uh, you fell onto me." Collin darted his eyes at the man as he spoke. The man had been wearing a long jacket it was an odd colour as well, some strange blue Collin had never seen before. "You're Collin Pierce aren't you?" The man asked. "How would you know that." The man seemed slightly alarmed by Collin's bravery. How had the man known his name? "I've seen you on the ferry before you know." This made more sense. "I suggest you be careful Collin Pierce, danger seems to be coming your way." Collin didn't want to talk to this man anymore, he rushed up the stairs in confusion of what he just said, what danger could Collin be in and why would that man care?

Collin got into a line to eat, he grabbed a plate of French fries and then payed to leave. Collin decided to take another way down to the passenger deck so he couldn't run into that strange man again. He ate his fries and walked down the other staircase. On the way down Collin found himself in the car deck where his father had parked. He looked and tried to find his car which wouldn't be that hard considering the appearance of his fathers mad creation. But while he walked though the dark isles of cars in that nearly lightless room, he could hear a faint beeping noise. At first he thought he was just imagining it but as he approached the staircase heading downward near the other end of the deck the noise got louder and louder until he was at the stairs. He began to walk down the winding stairs as he approached the bottom he could here many voices, though soon he realized that those voices were of crew members and that this lower deck was a maintenance hall for staff only. He hurried across the hall but had only almost made it to the end of the hall before he heard a door open and watched a crewman walk up the stairs he must have heard Collin walking because he turned around and searched for a moment. As soon as the man had opened the door Collin had slipped inside of a large chest and covered his mouth. He couldn't how much trouble he would get in if he was caught down here. Collin thought the coast was clear but just as he was about to get out he heard footsteps coming toward him. Collin's heart was pounding harder as the footsteps grew louder, he could feel the blood coursing through his veins. Collin thought this was it, he closed his eyes to try and calm himself down. After a few minutes of what seemed like the scariest thing that happened to him the crewman left the deck leaving Collin alone with the only sound being that beeping that had lured Collin into this mess.

Collin was usually smart enough to know to just leave these things alone but ever since Alex died he had to be extra careful. He crept down the next stair case toward the sound he had heard two decks up, and now he was at the source of the noise he saw a flashing red light toward the end of the hall. Collin came closer to the light and found a box with a timer on it. Collin knew what it was but he wished he was wrong. He was staring at an bomb, the timer would go off in the next three minutes. Collin ran away from the bomb in fear and rushed up to the maintenance deck. The stairs were slippery and Collin hadn't noticed until he had become a victim of it. He got back up and ran into one of the meeting rooms and shouted. "Go, there is a bomb on the lower deck, it goes off in less than three minutes!" Crewman races up toward the passenger deck to warn others to get into there vehicles as they had already landed on the other side and were just lowering the dock. Collin bolted toward his parents and told them what was happening. Everyone on the ship raced down to their cars and turned them on. By the time the gate had finished lowering there was only forty-five seconds left on the timer. The crewman had already left with passengers, cars went flying out of the boat and onto the road. Collin's dad started the car but it had trouble going. It stopped after a few feet and Collin knew that his dad wasn't leaving behind his car. Collin began to push the car as his dad started it again this time it went but there was only twenty seconds to get out and quite some ground to cover. Collin rushed back into the car through that dreadful butterfly door and shut it. The car made it out and was safe but after getting only a little ways onto the road it stopped again. Collin didn't get out this time because they had already made it. They watched to see if that had really been a bomb and in hopes that it wasn't, the Staten Island ferry was blown to pieces and the dock had been set on fire in an instant. Flames went everywhere and the boat slowly sank into the water. "I told you something was off with the boat mom." Collin huffed, out of breath from running and pushing the car he realized something: if he hadn't met that man on the stairs then he wouldn't have gone the other way and found the bomb, if Collin hadn't been so curious than everyone on that boat would be dead, just like Alex. Collin felt both horrified by what happened to one of the most important parts of his life but was also relieved that he and everyone else was still alive. But then another thought made its way to the surface, the man on the stairs warned Collin of a danger, had he known that the bomb would go off?