A LIFE SO CHANGED
Chapter Thirty
Captain Smith is standing, watching the chaos
going around him. He turns to see water pouring onto the bridge deck.
"Captain, Captain," asked a woman
with her baby in her arms. "Where should I go, please?"
He looks at her like she’s nuts. He leaves
without saying a word to her, and heads toward the bridge.
"Captain! Captain, sir?" asked a
steward, offering him a life belt. Captain Smith just moves it aside and walks
towards the wheelhouse. He looks at the land wheelhouse being flooded, and goes
into the sea wheelhouse and closes the door behind him.
At the same time, the band ends the music.
Wallace Hartley looks over at the water coming towards them. "Right.
That’s it then."
"Good-bye, Wallace. Good luck," said
a band member.
"Good-bye, Wallace," said another
band member.
The men departed from him, and Wallace looks
over and decides to play "Nearer my God to Thee." The men look back,
for they know they could not leave him, so they came back and joined him.
As the hymn is playing, Captain Smith,
closing another door behind him, has turned back to look at the bridge. He
walks over to the wheel.
Thomas Andrews looks at his pocket watch. He
reaches up to change the clock on the fireplace. Two glasses at the same time,
falls off the mantle. Andrews looks down at the fire and closes his eyes.
Peter and Amanda Foster are back in their
stateroom. They are lying down on their bed as the water rushes in. Peter
kisses Amanda on the cheek.
Back in the Steerage room, the mother is
telling her two children a bedtime story. The two children are lying in the
same bed, falling asleep.
In the Sitting room, the paintings are under
water.
Wallace is pouring his heart out as he plays
the last notes on the Titanic.
On the bridge, the water is coming up pretty
fast. All hell is breaking loose. The men don’t have enough time to lower the
lifeboat. McElroy tells the men to cut the rope if they have to. Many men help
out.
Fabrizio takes Tommy’s life belt off and puts
it on himself. Then, he goes to help too. Cal gets up. The men are trying to
pull the lifeboat back. Cal is scared. He is moving back, he does not want to
drown. For the upside down collapsible, the men are cutting over there as well.
Some were clutching the sides.
In the Grand Staircase, the water is rushing
in. First class passengers are trying to swim out of the water.
On the bridge, the passengers are either
falling into the water or running away from it. Near the band, more are running
from the emerging water. The band just ended the song.
"Gentlemen, it’s been a privilege
playing with you tonight," said Wallace, looks hard at the cold water.
In the wheelhouse, Captain Smith is
surrounded with light, green-blue water. He looks at the water, and suddenly he
gasps. The glasses break in front of him, and the water started pouring in. He
clutches the wheel as all the windows break at once.
Fabrizio finally cuts a rope, but at the same
time he gets pulled under. Cal is desperately trying to get away from the
water. He grabs a hold onto the rope and climbs. The lifeboat falls over, and
some fall into the water, some are screaming, just trying to hold on. On the
other side, men are climbing onto the upside collapsible. Cal is in the other
collapsible, trying to tell the people to get back. Some are running for
safety.
Jack and Rose run out of the Palm Court and
over to the railing. Both look over and see plenty of people in the water. Jack
looks down the hallway. Rose hears her father’s voice; she turns and faces him
from afar. She sees him and the others with him being scared.
Dad? she thought, but Jack cleared her mind
by grabbing her shoulders to face him.
"We have to stay on the ship as long as
possible, come on."
He takes her hand. She looks at her father
once more, before joining the others where they ran.
Passengers are being swallowed up in the
windows in the staircase. Windows break from the water, and the passengers are
being sucked in.
On the stern, Jack and Rose are at the
railing. They can’t go anywhere, so Jack helps her over the railing.
A man climbs up the side stairs in the Grand
Staircase and slowly walks away from the rising water. Many are being crushed
between the ceiling and the water. Hope and Glory read 2:15 a.m. and also being
washed over too. The windows break and many get sucked in from the outside.
Some passengers trip on the people falling in. Fabrizio almost got sucked in,
but holds on and swims away.
Jack and Rose are walking on the crane. He
tells her to jump. As she jumps, she fell. Baker Joughin helps her up.
"I’ve got you, Miss."
"Thank you. Jack?"
Jack was behind her. "Come on." He
takes her hand and leads her on aft.
Cal, in the lifeboat, is trying to row away
from the ship. He tells someone to get back or they will get swamped. Fabrizio
is swimming away on the other side. Suddenly, they hear the ropes on the tunnel
snap. Lightoller is holding onto the upside down collapsible. As for the ropes,
some getting hit by them, and die from the snap.
Cal turns just in time to see the tunnel fall
onto the people underneath it. Fabrizio screams, in a second he’s alive, now
he’s dead. A big splash of water topples over people and moves the two
lifeboats. Cal sees a victim and tells him that he’ll swamp them if he gets on.
Jack and Rose are trying to get through the
big hurl of crowds. All of the sudden, the lights flicker. The screams from the
crowd rise up. Jack and Rose get to the stairs. They are in front of a man, who
is acting like a zombie.
"Yea, I walk through the valley of the
Shadow of death--"
"Do you wanna walk a little faster to
that valley, there?" said Jack, pushing the man forward.
At the Grand Staircase, a man is holding onto
a statue of an angel. The dome breaks and the water comes crashing down on the
passengers. Many are screaming. Three girls are right in the middle of the
dome, and they are struggling to hold on.
In the hallways, the water is coming and
crashing in the doors, and the walls.
The Cartmell family is at the top of a
stairwell, jammed against a locked gate like Jack and Rose were. Water boils up
the stairwell behind them. Bert Cartmell shakes the gate futilely, shouting for
help.
"Help! Help!"
Little Cora wails as the water boils up
around them all.
The propellers are finally emerging from the
water. A lifeboat stares at them in amazing awe as they row away. Passengers
are falling in the water. The stern light flickers once again. Jack and Rose
climb with all their might. He takes her over the railing. They look over to
see many fall out of the ship. They leave and go past Father Byles from Second
Class. Hundreds of passengers, clinging to every fixed object on deck, huddle
on their knees around him, who has his voice raised in prayer. They are
praying, sobbing, or just staring at nothing, their minds blank with dread.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God. Pray for us,
sinners now, till the hour of our death. Amen...hail Mary full of
Grace..."
"This way," said Jack, leading her
again, passing the priest and the praying passengers. It’s getting harder to
climb. The propellers are out fully and many are still falling. A man loses his
footing ahead and slides toward them. Jack helps him.
"Come on. Come on." Pulling her
with his two hands. They make it to the stern rail, right at the base of the
flagpole. They grip the rail, jammed in between other people. It is the spot
where Jack pulled Rose back onto the ship, just two nights and a lifetime ago.
The lights flicker again.
The bottom of the ship comes out. Water is
falling off the propellers like a waterfall.
"So, I saw the new heaven and the new
earth, the first heaven and the first earth have passed away." Father
Byles struggles to hold on. "And no more to see..."
Jack is holding Rose in a hug, as he’s
holding her, he is holding his free arm on the rail. He watches everything
that’s going on around them. Suddenly a hand went over her face. She pushes it
away from, almost loosing her balance. Jack caught her with his arm tightly
that held her before.
On her left, she sees a woman clinging onto
her son. "It’ll be over. It’ll be over soon."
Rose turns to her right. There’s Helga, with
her father, and she finally looks at Rose. Rose just smile, assuring that
everything’s going to be all right.
"...and himself shall be with
them..." Father Byles continues.
Rose looks around, and at the end of the ship
looks familiar, then she remembers. This was where Jack saved her. She looks at
him with emotion and tears coming from her eyes. "Jack?" He looks
down at her. "This is where we first met." Her voice cracks.
Jack just stares at her, and suddenly he
brings her face to him, and kissed her forehead, and pulls her to him as
tightly as he can.
"...and God shall wipe away all the
tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death nor shall there be
sorrow or pride, neither shall there be no more pain. The former world has
passed away."