The officer, surrounded by children’s crying noises, was moved and a little embarrassed. He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance.
All tired and weary from crying, Ralph, Jack, and the other boys fell asleep in the storage space under the deck. The ship’s storage was dark and somber, and the humid walls were the perfect environment for grimy fungi. It was Ralph who first opened his heavy eyelid and heard a loud sound as if the water was insanely inundating from the outside. He instinctively noticed that something was wrong. Being panic-stricken, Ralph tried to find somewhere to let himself out of the suffocating storage. Ralph hurriedly grabbed the doorknob, and he furiously turned it as hard as he could, although the knob broke and the door stood still as a boulder. Ralph knew that if he did not wake the others up they would die, though he didn’t really want to help Jack as he was trying to kill Ralph just a few hours ago. Still, Ralph managed to wake him up.
“Guys, the boat is sinking. We have to work together to get out of here, now!” Ralph yelled.
Other boys quickly shook off the blankets and immediately bounced up. Beside them was a metal fire extinguisher, and they managed to break the door with it. In the hallway, only the madly overflowing water was trying to gulp boys down.
“When I say three, we’ll dive into the water together. One, two, three!” commanded Ralph.
With his voice, everyone dived, will all hands clasped tight. Water was engulfing their bodies, suffocating their necks and grasping their movement until-
“ugh-ugh-ugh, is everybody fine?” asked Ralph, looking around.
Jack and the other boys slowly came out of the water and climb up to the highest part of the quarterdeck that wasn’t underwater yet.
On the deck, it was peculiarly quiet without any adult’s voice, though the fierce wind was howling through the boy’s wet flesh. Ralph immediately knew that they have to escape since the ship would eventually sink. Even as he was thinking that the ship was slowly going down toward the bleak ocean surface, vanishing from the sight. Then they heard Jack suddenly shouting.
“Hey, there is a lifeboat. I bet we can use this and go out!”
The boys all gathered around. The boat was made out of rubber, and it was well equipped to support their basic necessities.
“Guys, get in. Little’uns, you may go first,” said Ralph.
Ralph was holding the boat until everybody got in. As he was about to lose strength and let the boat go, everyone finally got in. Then suddenly, the strong wave overwhelmed them; Ralph suddenly lost his balance and slipped down. Jack grabbed Ralph’s hand, but water’s strong current was difficult to stand against.
“Ralph, hold tight!” Jack yelped. However, he lost his balance and both boys fell.
“Ralph, stay still. I’ll save you!” shouted Jack.
As Jack pledged to himself, he was no longer savage. He wanted to become proud in front of his parents when he meets them again someday. Jack pushed Ralph toward the boat, and through the vigorous current, Ralph managed to grab the oar that Roger stretched. Jack, who was left alone, started to swim madly. Ralph’s heart started to beat faster in great fear of losing another person in front of his eyes. Still, Jack managed to firmly grab Ralph’s hand that was covered by the undistinguishable liquid of sweat and water.
Thankfully, the boat was filled with fresh fruit, vegetables, chips, and water. Ravenous boys started to voraciously devour the food that was inside the worn-out sack. While they were all crazy about eating, Ralph suddenly murmured.
“Hey, by the way, thanks for saving me.”
“No need to thank me. Please just say that you have forgiven me for the things that I did to you,” whispered Jack.
“I did, already,” answered Ralph.
The night also came to them as well, and Ralph looked up at the sky. The sky was filled with twinkling stars who didn’t have any idea about how he was suffering. Ralph cried out loud to the sky.
“What have I done wrong? Why are you doing this to me?”
The sky remained quiet. Starts continued to twinkle and the windless waves reflected the shining lights upon it. Looking at the ocean, he reminisced about his childhood memories. When he was young, his father, who was working in the shipbuilding industry, enjoyed taking him to the beach. Whenever the night came, he and his father would sit down on the cold sand and pay attention to the sound of the beach. Only this time, the sound was much larger and scarier. No one knew when this wave will start to gulp such weak boys down, and no one could assure that the wind will stay calm. He remembered that his father had once told him about the Pacific night, that the sky is devoid of the moon but it is filled with stars. He thought they were probably in the Pacific Ocean.
It was the next day morning when the other boys got up with Roger’s loud screech with pain that almost made other boys’ ears bleed. Roger’s right hand was bitten by the shark. His clothing that was obtained from the naval officers was all red from dripping blood. Without any emergency kit, Ralph and Jack wrapped his arm with more pieces of cloth, but the cloth was dirty and their poor method ensured that his arm was infected by germs.
Meanwhile, boys knew that their water and food were getting very scarce. Ralph and Jack knew that all of them wouldn’t live together. Looking at some empty sacks that hardly have anything left, boys cried out loud desperately. The ocean water was getting colder, and Roger’s condition aggravated. What stood in front of boys were not each other, but hunger and intolerable pain. That night, the sky was calm, and stars were obscured by the thick cloud. Jack took a glance at Roger who was sleeping; his infected right arm was now attracting more and more bugs. Jack woke other boys except for Ralph, and together, they grabbed Roger and pushed into the ocean. Roger was gone, forever.
The next morning, boys were confronted with a very empty sack, with nothing to eat and unbearable starvation. Their hands were shaking madly, and bodies were hanging limp, devoid of any energy. Ralph felt that he was becoming a counterpart of Jack somehow, but he had to admit that he was rather relieved to notice that one of his food competitors had eternally disappeared.
“Guys, how many days do you think we can survive?” asked Ralph.
“Not a lot, probably two or three days more” replied Jack.
The sky was already dark, and to boys, night and morning didn’t make any sense; sleeping was their only way to forget their situation. While Jack was sleeping in the corner, a sudden oscillating wave woke his consciousness. Jack looked around and noticed that everyone was sleeping deeply. Ralph was madly shaking and murmuring during his sleep, like a person who is hoping to wake up from a bad dream. In Ralph’s dream, he was with Jack on the unknown island, with Jack holding the fire. Then he threw the fire to where Ralph was hiding, and the smoke blocked Ralph’s airway-
Ralph suddenly opened his eyes and saw Jack trying to suffocate him with the empty sack. He felt demented fear that was suppressing him; through his blurry sight, he grabbed Jack’s hand and twisted his wrist, until he heard his wrist breaking and he could felt that Jack’s wrist was dangling from his arm. Ralph then pulled Jack to his feet, almost tearing out his skin. He heard the rasp of sack being torn down. Jack stood up with his trembling legs, grabbed Ralph by the scuff of his neck, and saw a bright light shining upon both of them.
Ralph and Jack both looked up, and there was light shining from the cargo ship. Blood was clotted on their hands, though it was hard to tell which was from whom
.
“We have heard your voice”, uttered the sailor.
“Were you fighting with each other?” asked another sailor, who noticed their deep cut and wound.
“No, we were trying to live,” replied Ralph.
“Is everybody fine?” questioned the first sailor.
Ralph, looking at the empty sack and piece of cloth that Roger used to wrap up his injured arm, solemnly replied.
“Yes, we are.”
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon (Lina)
Comentários