“Put this on,” I say near the man’s ear, indicating the life vest. “And then we’ll get you two out of here, okay?”
He’s in shock or something, and the woman just stares up at me. Her wrist is twisted at a strange angle, and she says her hip hurts and she can’t sit up or walk.
I put the life vest over her head and slide the belt around her back the best I can without hurting her, and I put her husband’s on him as well when it’s clear he’s unable to do it himself. And then I look for help.
“Ben!” I yell when I spot him. He turns and sees me. Soon he’s kneeling next to us. “She can’t walk. And he’s . . . not really responding to anything. What do we do?”
He looks around, his rain-soaked hair whipping and sticking to his face. “Ah. There’s one,” he says. He gets up and grabs a backboard from the wall and lays it on the deck next to the woman. “Help me lift her,” he says. “On three.”
We get the woman on the board and Ben straps her down. I spy my duffel bag and crawl over to it just as all lights except a few emergency ones go out. A cry goes up. Luckily, it’s not dark out yet, but the clouds are keeping any sunlight from shining in. I can still see, but not well. I grab the rope and sling it around my arm, and crawl back to Ben.
“You’re going to get this man on the lifeboat,” Ben says, “and then we’ll come back for her once it’s cleared out a bit and we can maneuver the board, okay? I see two of my people—I’ll be back.” He grabs his stack of life vests and goes.
I take the man by the arm and lead him to one of the lifeboat stations as the emergency alarm drills into my head over and over again.
When I turn around, I’m climbing uphill, and I realize that the ferry must be already starting to list to one side. Every few minutes I feel the ferry shudder, and I think the cars below us must be shifting as water pours in. I fight panic and strain my eyes trying to find the rest of my people. I don’t see any of them, but I catch a glimpse of Trey getting some of his people out.
“Jules!” Rowan screams from behind me, in the doorway to the first-class cabin. I turn and run over to her. “I got four of them out of here, but this guy . . .”
I look beyond her and see a man facedown on the conference table in a pool of blood and glass everywhere. “Oh my God,” I say. “Is he dead?”
“I think so. There’s glass stuck all in his head.”
“Let’s go—we’ll tell Ben. Lifeguards can probably tell if someone’s dead or not, right? I still need to find three of my people.”
“Which ones?”
“Brown-haired small man with blue-and-white pinstripe shirt. Twentysomething woman with big earrings and hair in a bun. Light-blond, rosy-cheeked middle-aged man in a red Windbreaker.”
“I saw Sawyer helping the woman with the earrings get into a lifeboat,” Rowan says, peering around. “Let’s check outside on the decks. They aren’t in here.”
The ferry shudders and tilts even more. We both instinctively drop to our hands and knees, slipping a little. A guy running past us totally biffs and falls over me. He gets up and keeps going, slipping and falling every few steps. Rowan looks at me. “We don’t have much time.”
We crawl at top speed to the outer deck. And there I see my little brown-haired man, without a life vest, jumping off the railing.
Forty-Five
“No!” I shout. I slide over to the railing and look out after him. “Shit!” I look at Rowan, knowing I need to go after this guy, but remembering the matching sweatshirt woman. “Ro! There’s an older woman on a backboard not far from where we were sitting—Ben knows about her and will help you get her to the lifeboat. Don’t worry about my red sweater guy. Just get the woman and then you get in that boat too, you hear me?” The ship groans and tilts more, and I slip on the wet deck and land on my back. “Shit.” My panic shows in my voice. “Okay, Rowan?”
She can tell I’m freaked. “Okay, I promise! Are you going after him?”
“Yes, I have to. I’ll be fine!” I whip my sweatshirt off and toss my shoes aside, clip a life vest to one end of my rope, and then, without allowing myself to think, I climb the railing and balance there for a second, looking at the horrible scene below. Waves churning. The runaway empty lifeboat floating far away—we didn’t even have a chance to try to save it. People struggling in the water and hanging on to the sides of the lifeboats, unable to climb in. It’s a long enough drop to the water to give me pause.
I spot my little man in the water as the ferry shudders and tilts again. My foot slips off the railing, I lose my balance, and suddenly I’m falling. Before I can take a deep breath, I hit the water and keep going. The cold on my face makes me want to gasp, but I fight it, and before long my life vest has me popping up above the water again.
Wiping the water from my eyes, I get my bearings, and as a huge swell lifts me high, I see the little man. His head is tilted back and he’s not yelling or trying to swim or struggling or anything, which Ben says is a major warning sign of drowning. I swim toward him as fast as I can, dragging my rope and extra life jacket with me. As I get closer, he bobs under the water and comes back up again.
“Sir!” I scream, unclipping the extra vest from my rope. “Take this!” I throw the life jacket at him and then swim the rest of the way as his head slips under the water again. I grab his shirt and lift him, and he grasps and clings to me and coughs, almost pulling me under the water. I thread the vest underneath his armpits to keep his face above the water, and I can only hope he can hang on, because I can’t risk trying to get the thing on him the proper way.