The bullet flew past my ear and the shock wave rendered me deaf for a short moment. I could not hear anything as I gritted my teeth and saw Christopher tackling John to the ground.
He shouted at me before he fought John, but I could not hear a thing. Nevertheless, I could still move, so I crawled my way to the corner of the room and found the gun that Christopher tossed away, pointing it towards the two.
That said, they were moving too fast, rolling about on the floor. I dared not pull the trigger for fear of hitting Christopher. “Stop moving or I pull the trigger!” I shouted. It was the only thing I could do.
I was not familiar with guns, and that particular one was quite heavy.
At that moment, I suddenly heard a sharp whistle coming from outside. There were faint screams as well.
“The ship is sinking! Everyone run!”
“The ship hit a mine and water is coming in! Run!”
The voices kept echoing in my head, and my heart sank. It was a one in a million chance for someone to experience a cruise ship leaking at that day and age, so, to make sure, I dived towards the door and opened it.
This time, the voices were much clearer. “The ship is sinking, everyone! Get out of here right now!”
“Yvonne, go! Don’t worry about me!” Christopher was caught in John’s chokehold at the moment. “The lifeboats are just outside.”
“No! I’m not leaving without you!” I shouted as I raised the gun again.
“Christopher Lane! You’ve killed so much of my men and destroyed my hideout!” John pulled a knife out of nowhere. “Today, you’re dying with me!” He stabbed the knife into Christopher’s chest.
“No!” Out of reflex, I pulled the trigger.
Bang! Another gunshot. This time, it hit the mark. Blood splattered all over, and John fell to the floor. His knife fell to the floor as well and made a clanging sound while I stared at the gun. “Ahh!” I screamed as I tossed the gun away.
I just killed someone. It was not the time for thoughts like that, but my mind was overwhelmed with fear.
Meanwhile, Christopher used whatever strength he had left to stand up and walk to me. “It’s alright! Everything’s fine now, but we need to hurry!” He grabbed my hand and immediately started running outside.
With a heavy heart, I stumbled my way outside the bedroom with Christopher. The corridor was already empty, but there were faint screams and cries coming from the direction of the ship deck. There were also explosions going on that sent heat waves throughout the ship, swaying it violently.
I used all my remaining energy to run forward, somehow losing my shoe along the way, but I had no time to dwell on it. Nonetheless, I kept stepping on things and it hurt.
On the second floor, I saw a lot of people running in front of us. Everyone was panicking as the space was filled with men cursing and women crying. A woman fell just beside me, but I did not even have time to consider helping her up.
“Don’t stop. We need to keep going. Everything’s going to be fine.” Christopher comforted me as we kept on running. His grip on me was very tight. I could tell that he was really scared about losing me.
That said, death was slowly creeping up to us as the ceiling above us suddenly collapsed. I did not have time to react and watched as the ceiling came crashing down.
“Eve!” Christopher wrapped his hand around me and rolled to the side as splinters of wood flew everywhere. Dust clouded the area, and I felt a sharp pain coming from my leg. My leg was hit by a log, so Christopher quickly pushed it away and pulled me up.
“Can you still walk?”
I gave him a firm nod. The fear I felt at the moment was strong enough to overwhelm any sort of pain. Other than that, there were other people that got caught in the collapse. Some fell to the floor and stopped moving after a bit of struggling. Blood was coming out of their mouths profusely as they cried and pleaded for help. Nevertheless, many left their wife and children to their demise, and there were corpses everywhere. It was a living hell.
I had to steel myself and act like I could not see nor hear the man that was holding on to my foot, pleading for help. I swiftly made my way out of his grip and continued forward. I don’t want to die. And I don’t want Christopher to die either.
