TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Lovejoy moved among the tables and ornate
columns, searching...listening...his eyes tracking rapidly. It was a sea of
tables, and they could be anywhere. A silver serving trolley rolled downhill,
bumping into tables and pillars.
He glanced behind him. The water was
following him into the room, advancing in a hundred-foot wide tide. The
reception room was now a roiling lake, and the grand staircase was submerged
past the first landing. Monstrous groans echoed through the ship.
Jack and Rose crouched behind a table,
somewhere in the middle. They saw the water advancing toward them, swirling
over the floor. They crawled ahead of it to the next row of tables.
Jack whispered to Rose. "Stay here."
He moved off as Lovejoy moved over one row
and looked along the tables. Nothing.
The ship groaned and creaked. He moved
another row.
A metal cart five feet tall and full of
stacks of china dishes started to roll down the aisle between tables.
The cart rolled toward Rose. It hit a table
and the stacks of dishes toppled out, exploding across the floor and showering
her.
She scrambled out of the way and Lovejoy
spun, seeing her. He moved rapidly toward her, keeping the gun aimed.
That was when Jack tackled him from the side.
They slammed together into a table, crashing over it, and toppling to the
floor. They landed in the water that was flowing rapidly between the tables.
Jack and Lovejoy grappled in the icy water.
Jack jammed his knee down on Lovejoy’s hand, breaking his grip on the pistol,
and kicked it away. Lovejoy scrambled up and lunged at him, but Jack gut
punched him right in the solar plexus, doubling him over.
"Compliments of the Chippewa Falls
Dawsons."
He grabbed Lovejoy and slammed him into an ornate
column. Lovejoy dropped to the floor with a splash, stunned.
"Let’s go."
Jack and Rose ran aft...uphill...entering the
galley. Behind them the tables had become islands in a lake...and the far end
of the room was flooded up to the ceiling.
Lovejoy got up and looked around for his gun.
He pulled it up out of the water and waded after them.
*****
They ran through the galley and Rose spotted
the stairs. She started up and Jack grabbed her hand. He led her down.
They crouched together on the landing as
Lovejoy ran up to the stairs. Assuming they had gone up he clomped up them two
at a time.
They waited for the footsteps to recede. A
long creaking groan. Then they heard it...a crying child. Below them. They went
down a few steps to look along the next deck.
*****
The corridor was awash, about a foot deep.
Standing against the wall, about fifty feet away, was a little boy, about
three. The water swirled around his legs and he was wailing.
"We can’t leave him."
Jack nodded and they left the promise of
escape up the stairwell to run to the child. Jack scooped up the kid and they
ran back to the stairs but a torrent of water came pouring down the stairs like
a rapid. In seconds it was too powerful for them to go against.
"Come on."
Charging the other way down the flooding
corridor, they blasted up spray with each footstep. At the end of the hall were
heavy double doors. As Jack approached them he saw water spraying through the
gap between the doors right up to the ceiling. The doors groaned and started to
crack under the tons of pressure.
"Back! Go back!"
Rose pivoted and ran back the way they came,
taking a turn into a cross-corridor. A man was coming the other way. He saw the
boy in Jack’s arms and cried out, grabbing him away from Jack. Started cursing
him in Russian. He ran on with the boy--
"No! Not that way! Come back!"
Double doors blasted open. A wall of water
thundered into the corridor. The father and child disappeared instantly.
Jack and Rose ran as a wave blasted around
the corner, foaming from floor to ceiling. It gained on them like a locomotive.
They made it to a stairway going up.
*****
Jack and Rose pounded up the steps as white
water swirled up behind them. A steel gate blocked the top of the stairs. Jack
slammed against the gate, gripping the bars.
A terrified steward standing guard on the
landing above turned to run at the sight of the water thundering up the stairs.
"Wait! Wait! Help us! Unlock the
gate."
The steward ran on. The water welled up
around Jack and Rose, pouring through the gate and slamming them against it. In
seconds it was up to their waists.
"Help us! Please!"
The steward stopped and looked back. He saw
Jack and Rose at the gate, their arms reaching through...saw the water pouring
through the gate onto the landing.
"Fucking hell!"
He ran back, slogging against the current. He
pulled a key ring from his belt and struggled to unlock the padlock as the
water fountained up around them.
The lights shorted out and the landing was
plunged into darkness.
The water rose over the lock and he was doing
it by feel.
"Come on! Come on!"
Jack and Rose were right up against the
ceiling.
Suddenly the gate gave and swung open. The
force of the water pushed them through. They made it to the stairs on the other
side of the landing and followed the steward up to the next deck.
*****
Cal came reeling out of the first class
entrance, looking wild-eyed. He lurched down the deck toward the bridge. Waltz
music wafted over the ship. Somewhere the band was still playing.
A little girl, maybe two years old, was
crying alone in an alcove. She looked up at Cal beseechingly. Cal moved on
without a glance back...reaching a large crowd clustered around Collapsible A
just aft of the bridge. He saw Murdoch and a number of crewmen struggling to
drag the boat to the davits, with no luck.
Cal pushed forward, trying to signal Murdoch,
but the officer ignored him. Nearby Tommy and Fabrizio were being pushed
forward by the crowd behind. Purser McElroy pushed them back, getting a couple
of seamen to help him. He brandished his gun, waving it in the air, yelling for
the crowd to stay back.
*****
Lightoller, with a group of crew and
passengers, was trying to get Collapsible B down from the roof. They slid it
down a pair of oars leaned against the deckhouse.
"Hold it! Hold it!"
The weight of the boat snapped the oars and
it crashed to the deck, upside down. The two Swedish cousins, Olaus and Bjorn
Gundersen, jumped back as the boat nearly hit them.