Chapter 7

Scarlet stood in Jess and Dana"s cabin, the ship pitching beneath her feet. From the en suite bathroom, the sound of Dana"s retching echoed, making Scarlet"s own stomach churn with nausea and guilt.

She left Robin because she felt bad about how little time she'd spent with her band so far on this trip, and it was true what she'd said about Dana. She didn't want to make her self-conscious as well as sick. But now she felt just as guilty for leaving Robin alone in the middle of the freaking storm of the century.

What kind of jerk does that?

"I should go check on Robin," Scarlet called, her voice tight. "She shouldn"t be alone right now."

Jess emerged from the bathroom, her face pale. "Dana can't stop throwing up. What if it's more than seasickness? Food poisoning, or something worse–"

"It's seasickness," Scarlet tried to reassure her. "Look what the ship is doing right now."

More retching from the bathroom. Scarlet's stomach did a sympathetic roll.

"Dana's gonna be okay. I'll go try to find some crew, they have to have anti-nausea meds onboard."

She was also going to get Robin while she was gone.

"No, don't leave me here," Jess said, grabbing Scarlet's arm. "I don't know how to help her–"

A deafening crack rent the air, followed by a shudder that seemed to run through the entire ship and up through Scarlet's bones. She and Jess lurched forward, grabbing anything they could to stay on their feet just the lights flickered and died, plunging the cabin into pitch darkness.

"What was that?" Dana"s panicked voice came from the bathroom, small and weak.

"I don't know." Scarlet was struggling to focus on anything other than Jess's fingers digging into her arm. The ship wasn't lurching back and forth anymore. It seemed eerily still, in fact. "I'm going to find out what's going on."

"No, stay, stay," Jess pleaded.

Scarlet peeled her fingers off her arm, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, illuminated periodically by more lightning through the small porthole window. She clutched Jess's shoulders, trying to reassure her. "It's okay. I'm only going to the door."

It was easier to walk now, without the ship pitching back and forth. Her hand was shaking as she fumbled for the door handle.

She found it and pulled the door open. It was dark out there too, a row of emergency lights on the floor casting an eerie glow. Other passengers were emerging from their cabins, their faces etched with the same fear and confusion Scarlet was mirroring back to them.

"Anybody know what happened?" she asked.

"No. We're not moving."

She could still hear the rain pounding down on the roof, and hear lightning cracking overhead. Scarlet looked back at Jess, who was staring doe-eyed and terrified at her. Dana had come to the bathroom door, too scared to keep retching, apparently.

"I'm going for help," Scarlet said. "I'll find out what happened and come right back."

"No…"

"Or you can come with me," she said. "But I gotta find Robin."

Dana ran back into the bathroom, and Jess followed her wife. Scarlet stepped into the corridor, where people were gathering, unsure what to do and getting in the way more than anything else. She pushed her way through, looking for anybody in a uniform, but these were all passengers.

She turned the corner of the U. She was aiming for Robin's cabin, but surely she'd run into a crew member first and she could ask them what the heck was going on. If they even knew, holed up in their cabins the same as the rest of them were.

There were fewer people in this hall, that was helpful, at least. Less people to push her way through. And the ship was a lot steadier than it had been before, even though she could hear the storm continuing to rage outside. That was good… wasn't it?

A sick feeling was building in her gut, and not from the waves.

The storm hadn't abated, but the ship wasn't pitching anymore.

What did that mean?

Scarlet was no sailor, but she knew something was very, very wrong.

A door opened ahead of her and a crew member stepped out, a radio in her hand, face taut with anxiety.

"What"s going on?" Scarlet asked.

The woman looked at her, and Scarlet thought she saw a flash of hesitation in her eyes. Was she going to run, avoid the question and just worry about herself? But then she held her arm out, barring Scarlet's path. "We're taking on water. Captain Russo has ordered everyone to the life boats. We need to evacuate."

Scarlet"s stomach dropped. "What?!"

"Come on, we have to go."

She was corralling Scarlet back to her own part of the corridor. "No, I need to get my friend–"

"Look, the ship is sinking," the woman relented. "We can't panic, but we have to go now."

Scarlet froze in place, just for a second.

Holy fucking shit, we're all gonna die.

The certainty of it hit her like a fifty-foot wave and icy fear filled her veins.

And then the crew member kept on shoving her down the hallway and Scarlet snapped out of it. Her brain did the only thing it could do in that moment: it switched into problem-solving mode. Scarlet ran ahead, back to Jess and Dana's cabin, and peeled Dana off the bathroom floor.

"We have to go," she told them. "To the life boats."

"What?" Jess had already been panicking, but now her voice was at a register bordering on insanity.

"Shh," Scarlet tried to calm her, squeezing her hand reassuringly as she guided them toward the door. "Walk, don't run, and just keep breathing. We'll be okay."

Jess"s face paled, but she nodded, looping her arm around Dana. She was weak, her skin clammy, and between Scarlet and Jess, they half-carried, half-dragged her out of the cabin and down the hall. All Scarlet wanted to do was head up the other side of the U and find Robin, but Dana didn't seem fit to walk that far. And anyway, there were more crew members in the hall now and they were all herding people out to the deck. Scarlet didn't have the opportunity.

I hope you're okay, she silently begged, then followed the group of passengers outside.

The storm raged around them on the deck, the wind whipping Scarlet's hair and the rain stinging her skin. Some of the passengers were huddled together, and a few crew members were preparing the life boats, shouting instructions at each other over the howling wind.

Scarlet scanned the crowd, and relief washed over her when she spotted Robin on the other side of the deck, helping people put on their life jackets. She seemed calmer than most, and she was effective in leading people to do what needed done. Admiration surged in Scarlet's chest, but there wasn't time to dwell on it. She could feel the ship beginning to list to the right already –not like the violent rocking from the storm, but a more gradual and insidious kind of leaning.

It was really happening. The ship was sinking and they had to get off.

"I'm gonna go make sure Raina, Tasha and Amanda got the message," she told Jess and Dana.

"Amanda's over there with Missy," Jess pointed across the deck.

The two of them were soaked and clinging to each other, and they both had life vests on. Good.

"I'll be right back," Scarlet promised Jess.

"Wait, take this." Dana grabbed a life vest from a big stack someone had thrown on the deck and handed it to Scarlet. She pulled it over her head.

"Thanks."

She ran back into the corridor. There were still people evacuating their cabins, some of them trying to hurriedly pack their things, others simply too scared to face what was happening. Scarlet peeked into a few rooms with open doors and saw crew members already there helping, so she kept going.

"Raina? Tasha!"

Their cabins were near hers, at the back of the corridor. She wasn't sure they were in them, but she hadn't seen them on deck and she had to check.

She made the turn into the crew quarters and actually had to fight her way uphill –the ship was listing a lot already. Scarlet's heart was in her throat as she climbed. She passed a couple crew members who came out of their rooms, then tried to get her to come with them to the deck.

"I'm looking for my friends," she explained.

They didn't seem interested in helping her –they just kept moving with gravity down the hall.

Scarlet came to an open door in the middle of the hall, and heard cursing inside.

"Hello?" she called.

"Fit, damn you!"

She peeked in. This was a much bigger cabin than any others Scarlet had seen so far –not just a bedroom and bathroom, but an entire suite. There was no one in the living area, but she heard banging further inside.

"Who's there?" she called as she went in.

In the bedroom, she found the cruise director sitting on top of a suitcase, bouncing up and down and trying to get it to close.

"Zoe?"

The woman looked up, panic in her eyes and mascara smeared across her cheeks. "What do you want?"

"We have to go –they're evacuating."

"I know that, what do you think I'm doing?" Zoe snapped at her.

"Packing a suitcase?"

Zoe huffed. "Oh good, she has eyes."

"Come on," Scarlet said, reaching for her.

Zoe yanked her arm away. "Get off. It's fine, they're not leaving without me."

"They might," Scarlet said. "Or the ship could go under. Can't you feel how much it's leaning?"

"I just need my things," Zoe said. "I can't get my bag closed."

She bounced a few more times. The ridiculousness struck Scarlet. Zoe was acting like she was late for a flight and the worst thing that could happen would be not having her luggage.

"Leave it," she said sharply, then grabbed Zoe's hand. "Your stuff isn't more important than your life."

"Spoken like a woman who's never owned a pair of Anna-Karin Karlsson sunglasses–"

"Your shit's not even gonna fit in the life boat with all the other people trying to survive this!" Scarlet snapped. "We're trying not to die right now, do you not get that?!"

Zoe"s face crumpled, and for a moment, Scarlet felt a flicker of guilt. She knew the shock of the situation must be overwhelming, and maybe Zoe was just trying to cling to her sanity and focusing on her luggage was how she'd chosen to do that.

But there was no time for sympathy right now. They had to get to the life boats, and Scarlet still had to find Raina and Tasha.

She dragged Zoe out of the cabin and down the corridor, fighting against the tilt of the ship. They went up the second passenger hallway but she didn't see anyone, and nobody answered when she knocked on Raina and Tasha's doors.

"Do you have a master keycard?" she asked Zoe. "I need to make sure my friends aren't in their rooms."

"You made me leave it with my sunglasses," Zoe snarked.

If they went back to Zoe's room, Scarlet wasn't sure she'd ever get her back out of it. She decided to take her to the deck, then go back for the keycard if she had to. The storm was still raging when they got there, and one of the life boats had been launched.

"Scar!"

She looked around and spotted Jess climbing into the second boat. Raina was sitting beside Dana, already onboard.

"Tasha's on the other one," Jess said.

"Oh thank God," Scarlet groaned, helping Zoe across the slippery deck.

"We told them to wait for you. Come on!" Raina called.

"You're the last two," a crew member said as she helped them climb in.

"Can you wait?" Zoe asked. "I just have–"

"Get on the fucking boat!" Scarlet said. She shoved Zoe in and wasn't proud of it, but damn it, the ocean was rising on the right side of the ship. She wasn't an expert in how long it took a luxury cruise ship to sink, but she didn't want to be onboard to find out.

She climbed in, followed by the crew member. Jess grabbed Scarlet, pulling her into a huddle with Dana and Raina, and for the first time, Scarlet realized just how cold and wet she was. She started to shiver uncontrollably.

A few of the crew stood, shouting instructions to each other over the storm, and the life boat slowly lowered down the taller side of the ship. When it hit the water, it started rocking with the waves and everybody screamed.

"Are we going over?" Zoe shrieked, clinging to the nearest crew member.

"Let go," the woman begged. "I need to untie us or we will!"

"No, no, no…"

Zoe was frozen with fear and Scarlet detached herself from Jess to comfort her.

"It's okay. They know what they're doing… right?"

Nobody answered her, and Scarlet held her breath for the next few minutes as the crew untethered them from the ship and shoved away from it with their oars. Then someone shoved one of the oars into Scarlet's hands.

"Paddle!" the woman shouted, barely audible over the howling wind.

Scarlet gripped the oar tightly, her mind racing, body shivering, heart pounding. They were off the ship, the storm was just as fierce as ever, and now they were in an even tinier boat with no captain, no navigation system, half the passengers in a separate boat somewhere beyond visibility.

"Did Robin get on the other boat?" she called.

Nobody answered, and Scarlet tried to put it out of her mind as she built up the muscle strengthto paddle.