Freezing

“What in the world are you doing, Robert old boy?” Victor asked, a maniacal gleam in his eyes. “We’re running out of time. You can’t just stand here! You’ve got to get into a boat.”
Robert stared at his former employer for a few minutes, not sure what to say. Of course, he realized they were running out of time, but there were still plenty of women and children on the Lusitania, and he wasn’t about to take one of their spots when he was a full-grown man.
Something told him Victor didn’t much care about that. In fact, Robert was a little surprised Victor was still on the ship.
“Come along!” Victor grabbed him by the arm and started leading him toward another lifeboat that was being filled. “I’ll pay our way in, and then, when we get back to dryland, you’ll be my liegemen again. Just like old times, huh?” He patted Robert hard on the chest.
Pulling his arm free, Robert said, “No, thank you.”
Victor stopped in his tracks and stared at him like Robert was the crazy one. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’d rather drown or freeze to death in the Atlantic than ever work for you again, Victor. I wish you good luck, but I will not be going with you.” With that, Robert turned and took a few steps away.
“Ha ha!” Victor’s laugh sounded deranged. Robert couldn’t help but turn and look at him. “You’re psychotic! You’d rather drown or freeze? Fine. Do it then. You were a lousy servant anyway. Good riddance to you.”
Saying nothing, Robert simply stared at him, wondering if God might use this opportunity to show Victor Anderson the error of his ways.
But the millionaire didn’t stand there long. Instead, he pivoted on his heel and headed over to the man in charge of lowering what would probably be the last lifeboat into the water. The promenade was so close to going under now, there wouldn’t be much time.
Remembering what Carrie and he had discussed about there not being many minutes to spare, Robert knew he needed to come up with a plan to survive this once the boat beneath his shoes was no more, but curiosity got the better of him. Watching Victor Anderson approach a desperate man trying his damnedest to do his job even in the midst of utter chaos was almost as entertaining as watching a Vaudeville act. Victor pulled several large bills from his pocket and showed them to the man. He glanced at him once and shouted, “Lower away!” to his crew.
Victor threw a fit, stomping his foot, and holding the money up right to the poor man’s nose. He only looked away, the calm serene expression on his face showing he’d already accepted his own fate and wasn’t about to help a man for money he’d never be able to spend.
Shaking his head, Robert turned around and surveyed the situation. He was startled to see just how far down the ship had sunk. He only had to take a few steps back the direction he’d come to have the cold water of the Atlantic wetting his ankles.
“This isn’t good,” he murmured, looking out over the scene around him. Because he was on the side of the ship with the severe list, he felt like he was almost alone. A crowd had gathered on the back side of the ship, particularly on the starboard side where he believed the ship must be sticking out of the water. If he stayed here much longer, he’d be floating.
He didn’t have a lifebelt, and going to find one at this point would be futile. He could swim well enough, but the Irish coast in the distance was way too far for anyone to swim in these conditions. The water was too cold. No, it wouldn’t be drowning that would claim most of these people. They would freeze to death within a few moments of going into the water–much like the poor souls aboard Titanic.
The scene around him was confirmation. Even though the ship had only begun to go down about fifteen minutes ago, there were plenty of people floating in the water who were no longer alive. Most of them wore life vests, but it didn’t matter. The frigid water temperature had been their undoing.
His eyes grazed over the boats bobbing on the water. More of them were upside down than right side up, it seemed. At least, that was the scene right in front of him. From this distance, he couldn’t see any of the individuals sitting on the lifeboats that drifted along like corks bobbing up and down in what was a relatively peaceful body of water considering it was about to consume several hundred people. But he imagined Carrie was out there now, probably ringing her hands and praying that he was okay.
He had to find a way to be okay.
“Listen, I’ve got another plan!”
Victor’s voice bit into his eardrums the same way the cold sank its teeth into his ankles. Robert didn’t even want to turn around and look at him.
The millionaire ran right past him, holding up a wad of cash. “I’m going to swim to that lifeboat over there and get them to let me on.” He pointed at the closest lifeboat that had people in it, but it was far too great of a distance for Victor to think he could swim in the freezing water.
“I don’t think that’s your best plan,” he mumbled.
“Hush. You’re just jealous that you don’t have the money to do it yourself, and I’m no longer offering to save your sorry ass.” Victor stopped to glare at him for a moment then shouted, “Hey! Hey! You in the lifeboat! I have money!” With that, he leaped off the sinking promenade into the water and began attempting to swim toward the boat with his cash held up in his hand.
“Crazy bastard.” Robert watched for a moment as Victor attempted to make a swim, but the offered money wasn’t enough to make the people in the boat come back his direction. A few strokes into his swim, Victor essentially stopped moving forward, his movement slowing with every passing second.
Robert shook his head, wishing him well, but he couldn’t continue to watch Victor try to make his way to the boat. He had to save his own ass.
The water was up to his shins now. Very little of Lusitania was still above water. No more lifeboats were being lowered on this side, and he imagined that the ones on the other side were probably too high up in the air and hanging at the wrong angle to be lowered down.
Then, he realized that the trajectory of the ship had taken it close enough to one of the lifeboats turned upside down and floating in the water that there was a possibility he could get to it. Whether or not he’d have the strength to turn it over, he wasn’t sure, but he had to try. If nothing else, he could possibly climb on top of it and maybe pull up a few other people. When this ship went down, it would essentially leave probably close to two thousand people just floating in the ocean until they froze to death. While he had to prioritize saving himself for Carrie’s sake, he wanted to be able to help others as well if he could.
Taking a few steps through the frigid water, Robert approached the railing and then swung his legs over, which wasn’t hard since they were nearly submerged now. The moment the icy water made contact with his torso, all the breath left his body. A thousand pin pricks of pain stabbed him from his ankles to his shoulders. Gasping, he did his best to propel his body toward the lifeboat, but he wasn’t moving quickly at all. He understood why Victor had only taken a couple of strokes before he seemed to practically freeze in place. Robert couldn’t let the same thing happen to him.
A pair of stunning green eyes appeared in his mind’s eye. The sound of her laughter echoed in his ears. The feel of her soft mouth pressed against his lips kept him moving even though every stroke seemed to take more energy than climbing an entire flight of stairs. Telling himself just to keep moving, he sliced his way through the water, telling himself it wasn’t as cold as he thought it was, that he’d been in colder water, that he’d be fine. For all of his efforts, the pep talk wasn’t doing him much good. The lifeboat seemed further away from his reach with every passing second.
But he was getting closer to it. Behind him, the screaming intensified, and he imagined more people were finding themselves with water lapping at their ankles. The reality of what was happening, of what was about to transpire, had to be sinking in now.
That wasn’t the only thing that was sinking. Robert was so close to the disappearing ship, the fear that he might actually be sucked down with it made him try even harder to move through the unyielding water. While he was fairly sure that the idea of the ship creating suction wasn’t true, at least not the kind strong enough to pull him under from where he was currently located, he didn’t want to take any chances.
Robert took a deep breath and kicked as hard as he could, moving through the water in the same fashion a snail might cut a path through a river of maple syrup.
But he was making ground. He could see that now. Either that or the ocean was displaying a rare moment of kindness and was bringing the overturned lifeboat closer to him. In his estimate, he was about five strokes away from being able to reach it. But then, he’d have to find the strength to swim those few more strokes.
The noises behind him continued to intensify as screams, shouts, and splashing filled his ears. Robert had only one goal–get to the damn boat.
He could no longer feel his feet, and his legs were beginning to freeze up as well. His head slipped under the surface, and suddenly, he was more concerned with not drowning than reaching the overturned lifeboat. If he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t swim.
“Come on, damnit!” he said aloud. “You can do this.” Taking a deep breath, he spit out the water that filled his mouth and pressed forward, stretching his shaking arm as far ahead of him as he could. He knew that even when he was in or on the boat, he was still going to be soaking wet–and freezing cold. But he had to keep trying.
Finally, Robert’s fingertips grazed the edge of the boat. It was the boost he needed to find the energy to pull himself over. Grabbing hold of the ledge, he tugged himself toward the lifeboat and did his best to tip it out of the water to flip it over. It was far too heavy, and he was in no shape to muscle it over. Instead, he used the little strength he had left to grab the top of the boat and haul himself as far out of the water as he could.
His first effort only managed to get him out up to his waist. HIs legs were still submerged in the frigid ocean. That wasn’t going to cut it. With one more bout of concerted effort, Robert propelled himself up and out of the water. Panting and still freezing cold, he swung his legs up and over the top of the lifeboat.
It was then that he looked back at where he’d come from, expecting to see a sinking ship. Where the Lusitania stood only moments ago, there was nothing but a void.
She was gone.
And all that was left were hundreds of hundreds of people in the water–screaming, trying to swim–and freezing to death.
Robert wrapped his arms around his legs and did his best to warm up, but he knew that being out of the water didn’t mean anything now. He was still too cold, and if another boat didn’t come along and save him soon, he’d be just like them.
Freezing to death.