Like a capsule, the lifeboat was filled with plastic orange seats and the basic essentials any sea dweller would require, from first aid kits and life jackets to walkie-talkies and various other life saving necessities.
“Hold on! Hold on! One person at a time! Kids first!” The security officer instructed, wedging himself between the lifeboat and the crowd.
He pointed towards Molly and Tyler, “Kids first I said. We’re all scared, but if we can be patient for just a few moments longer, we can all get out of this nightmare safe and sound”.
Molly and Tyler gazed up towards Rachel nervously.
Rachel shook her head at them in acceptance.
“It’s okay, you can go in, you’ll be safe”, she couldn’t guarantee that, but it made the process simpler. Hesitantly, the children released her hands and were led forward into the lifeboat. Rachel looked back expectantly.
“Rachel...” Lori murmured.
“They’ll be here...” Rachel replied.
They were down to seven minutes.
4:29pm - 3 hours, 19 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
Panting, Edward, Christine and Martha tried to catch their breath in a storage closet with only a tiny circular window leading out to the starboard outer deck. Edward had pushed a narrow metal locker down in front of the door, as well as anything he could find in the small closet, but it certainly wasn’t going to be enough to keep the twitchers at bay for very long, they were playing with tender minutes here.
Running as fast as they could with Martha in tow - that Edward had to lift and carry a quarter of the way - pursued by a swarm of twitchers, had left them utterly exhausted.
“They’re going to get through!” Christine yelped.
“We have to break through that window, find something to break through it with”, Edward instructed.
“Can we break through that?”
“We can, it's just glass, not the reinforced ones on the lower level. Hurry!”
The two women searched the room top and bottom and found nothing of use.
Christine ran her fingers through her hair hyperventilating and pacing back and forth.
“What are we going to do? What are we going to do?”
“There’s nothing we can do, this is it”, Martha replied.
“No! There’s still a chance”, Edward replied.
“And what would that be?” Martha insisted.
Edward looked around before his eyes locked on the door, he then glanced back towards the window and back to the door.
“I have an idea, it’s going to sound crazy, but I’ll need your help. That metal locker is easy enough to move around and perhaps heavy enough to probably break through that window, but only if it is pushed over and drops down on it. The problem is that it’s the only thing separating us from those twitc... crazy people outside. We move it and we practically open the flood gates”.
“So what? We just sit here? How is that a solution?”.
“Christine, I’m going to need you to take the lead here, use your strength to push it over”.
“What about you?”
“I’ll block the door with my back for as long as I can”.
“Are you crazy? You’re being the hero again!”
“Not now, Christine, for once on this dreaded trip can we not argue”. He turned to the locker. “We need to move fast, be ready. On the count of three”.
Christine rushed to his side, realising arguing was fruitless in this desperate situation.
“One… two...” he glanced towards her, “Three!” He yanked at the locker, lifting it from the door and standing it up, before immediately throwing his back against the door.
“Go! Push it into place and drop it down on the window!” He ordered.
Christine wasted no time, making her first attempt to push, but with little traction, she had little success. She stopped, knowing what she had to do now, rolled up her sleeves and threw off her cumbersome slippers to create more friction on the ground and then she attempted again with all her strength and the locker moved into place, she then threw her back into the top side with all her strength, lifting it off its feet closest to her until it balanced on its two remaining feet and finally after much effort, dropped down onto the glass, successfully cracking it, but not yet shattering it.
“You’ll need to go again! Quickly! I don’t think I can hold the door much longer!” Edward ordered.
Christine ran around to the other side of the locker and tried lifting it, but was visibly struggling from the awkward angle. That was when much to Edward’s surprise, Martha rolled up her sleeves and jumped in to help.
With their combined strength, they managed to push the locker back onto all four of its feet. All the while Edward struggled to hold the door at bay as the twitchers threw themselves against it, screaming obscenities and making threats. He could hear the splintering of the wood and the creaks of the door frame struggling to hold the door in place.
Together the two women pushed the locker down again with even greater force this time, widening the crack and creating a visible hole in the glass.
“Once more should do it! Quickly!”
They repeated the process once more, sweat trickling down their faces and this time much of the glass successfully shattered outwards. The rest round the sides they used a broom handle and anything they could find to remove. Their exit now secured, they need only climb out.
Placing cleaning towels over the shattered glass rims of the window, Christine first helped her mother through. There was a standard human height drop on the opposite side, so it was certainly no soft exit, but at least one of them was out.
“Okay, I'll go first, you come next okay?” Christine insisted.
“Just behind you”, Edward replied.
Christine hoisted herself out of the window, not noticing Edward’s eyes
