The waves lurched onto the hull of the ship lazying around in the Indian Ocean. The air smelled of new places, new people, adventure and off course, tasted salty. The people were merry and brimming with enthusiasm, enthusiasm which was contagious. This was not my first journey on board ,sea bound but still it was not like any other.
I was 16 and my heart had started to function as dual- To pump blood and not to pump blood. I sound funny. But this is no joke. I saw him in the Diner. He was sitting on the dinner table with his family. He was eating some leafy salad with a (cute) scorn on his face. Suddenly, he looked towards me and I looked away. My face was flushed with blush. After that, I never took my eyes off my platter.I was a very shy thing.
Two days passed. I didn't see him(It didn't matter.It was just a crush).On the Sunday night, there was a KARAOKE NIGHT and I was thrilled. KARAOKE nights are still a big favorite with me. I put on my prettiest floral dress and went to the Social Chambers. The air was all music and the room was full of people of all sorts.
Everybody was volunteering and had to wait for their turn. Some were singles, some were duets and there were some freaky rappers too. It was just so awesome. And then it was my turn, the tapes rolled and it was one of my favorite Bollywood Number. The crowd seemed delighted with my performance. I got quite a huge number of pats.It hurt but it felt nice.(Pun Intended)
The next day, I was standing on the front decks of the ship and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and he was there. He smiled shyly and said , "Hi, I am Gotham. You sing very beautifully." and then smiled back sheepishly. I thanked him and then the conversation never ceased.
He was in his last year of High School too and this made us great buddies. Although, that was not the only reason.
That night, there was a huge storm at the sea. Our ship's compass broke, radio didn't function and we had completely lost our way. The whole night had been a nightmare. We had stood holding our bedposts. All the things were moving here and there, things were breaking, people were hurt. But the ship survived the storm. The compass was a goner and the propellers were in a sad state. Water pumps were set up on the deck to drain the water. The crew was exhausted, injured and in despair.We were moving with the waves into the unknown expanses of the Indian Ocean. There was not even a single vessel to be seen. Land was nowhere to be seen.
Hour felt like days and finally we saw an island, a tiny speck on the huge canvass of Earth. It had a huge mountain to its center. Luckily, the ship sailed near the island. We were wishing for some human life on the island so that we could send a distress signal. What we saw the next instant shaked us from head to foot. The mountain unfolded into a huge green DRAGON with wings like a Housefly, webbed and transparent.
It flew direct towards the ship. All the people started to run towards the inner chambers.Within seconds, we were running inside the corridors of the ship. The dragon grabbed the side of the ship with its hind claws and rotated it by 60 degrees. We couldn't make out where to put our foot. All of us had hurt ourselves. The already torn ship was totally losing it. I felt trouble with my left arm. The pain was so awful and blood was oozing out from every place possible. Everybody looked equally haggard. Gotham was there, lying on the floor ,unconscious. I tried to move towards him when the dragon tore off the upper compartment full of people like unwrapping a gift. It threw the compartment into the ocean with people falling off like ants.
It suddenly dawned on me that mom, dad and my brother were sleeping in that portion of the chambers. Everything was blurring out. The dragon was using its numerous hands to pick people out of the ship into his mouth as if eating popcorn.
I remember his face, right in front of my eyes, looking for any signs of recovery. We were in some dark room. Everything was moving and jerking around. We just stayed close. It just kept happening for a long period of time. I had lost a lot of blood and was drifting every moment.
The next thing I remember is that, everything became very silent. There was only the sound of the sea and muffled cries and screams. And then the room fell, as if falling from a great height into water. We somehow kept steady. After it stopped, we kept frozen, fixed to our spots, for hours till we could gather the courage to open the door which was like to our side now. We were sitting on one of the wall. The door creaked open and there was nothing outside except water. Not a soul. Few days back, it was a huge ship of merry people, big chimneys, excellent crew and all the luxuries you could name and now, there was nothing.
We knew the end was near. We had no food, no water,broken limbs and no hope. We had lost our families. We had no idea where we were heading to. I looked towards the bare ceiling(which was a wall actually) and everything dissolved into zilch.
