Chaper 5

“ Dear passengers, I have to make an announcement. As you maybe have already noticed, our engines stopped. Why we cannot say, however, we are stuck here. There is no way to fix this from the bridge, so I attempt to go down to the engine room and get rid of the problem. Any volunteers are warmly welcomed.” Said the officer to the whole crowd settled on the obsevationdeck.

“Guys, I need the guns back” was his next sentence to Arn and his group. As they got up to hand them over, a person rose up from the covering crowd and walked over to the captain. The person, a young assistant, stopped 2 meters in front of the captain and started screaming.

“It’s all your fault! You are the one to blame for this disaster. First you let this beasts enter, then the machine stops and now you want us to be food for this creatures for your escape. I am sick of this! I will sue you , and your company, and everyone who is responsible. “ started the assistant his ranting. He continued to scream at the officer without a pause, coming nearer and nearer to him. Meanwhile the officer stood unfazed and took the guns from Arn’s group. Until the assistant tried to give a bitchslap (open handedly slap someone). In that moment 2 sailors grabbed the man and put him on the ground, face upwards. Slowly, as it would be a nice summer day and not in the middle of a life threatening crisis, the officer put his right foot on top of the man’s chest and bended down to faze him.

“Excuse me, but we are in danger and if you keep on screaming nonsense like this and try to hold us up, we will just toss you down the stairs. Maybe the monsters have a moment of their time to listen to you.”

Arn watched this scene from the sideline. As the officer wanted to say something more, 6 students jerked forwards from their cover and grabbed weapons lying on the floor from the dead shark men. At the same time, 2 other students started to wrestle with gun holding sailors.

With the surprise moment on their side, the students could pummel them down until the other armed students pointed with their weapons at them and the officer. Aghast of their actions, the assistant used the time to get up and put on a wide grin.

“May I introduce myself ? My name is Zachelmann, George Zachelmann, and you are now all under my command!” stated Zachelman.

“As you all see, we are in a crisis. The previous command has been proven to be overwhelmed by the situation and is not enough to lead us. So I stepped up to bring us to a save end.”

Arn just watched him as well as the rest of his group and the not involved students in this coup d’etat. Zachelmann had changed his behavior in a few seconds from the in fear covering man to the senseless and in panic ranting to this final form of selfappointed commander. His eyes had taken a feverish expression as well as his face.

“Get the guns from them and give them some spears. Then shoo them down the stairs to let them test the waters .” ordered Zachelmann.

As he commanded, the sailors, including the officers, were lead to the left staircase. One student handed them some sawteeth-blades over. The now with guns equipped students then pointed to the staircase. The sailors gathered and then descended down one by one. As they disappeared out of Arn’s viewrange , he could still hear the following sounds of clashing weapons and cries, both human and monstrous. So the shark had indeed waited for the humans to come down and set up a trap. At least the beasts had a little intelligence.

The whole overtaker group watched the staircase in anticipation of the fights outcome.

“Guys, are you hearing me ?”

Suddenly Leon’s voice was in Arn’s head. Surprised, he turned his head in Leon’s direction and noticed that also Sebastian and Nils were focusing Leon.

“If you can hear me, nod 3 times.” Ringed Leon’s voice.

As a reaction, all other 3 partymembers nodded.

“Good, I just found out how to use partychat. Just think of the party and then think your message you want to send”. (Leon)

“Test, Test, Nils is stupid” (Sebastian)

“Whoa, are you nuts ?” (Nils)

“Flies fly after Flies” Arn

“Stop the chit-chat, what are we gonna do while these fuckers are distracted? Any suggestions? “ Nils

“Taking Zachelmann’s group down against guns seems suicidal. Could we maybe take Arn’s grappling Iron and make a hole in the windows of the backside of the observation deck to descend there ? The stairs seem pretty much guarded.” Leon

“We would be faster at the lifeboat.” Noted Sebastian

“Seems best plan we got. Hopefully they will still be distracted. Move slowly to the end back of the observation deck. They should only watch the 2 staircases in the front.” Nils

So the four guys crawled, unnoticed by the overtakers, slowly to the end of the observation deck. But not unnoticed by Giselle, who curiously decided to follow them. Already ¾ the way down to the back, the rest of the students as well saw their motions and decided to follow. To them, everything was better than to be closer to the fighting. Maybe they would be the next one’s send down, if the sailors should fail?

As more and more people tried to move backwards, the unrest alarmed the overtakers.

“Hey, what are you trying to do? Stay where you are and don’t try any tricks.” Yelled a blond woman with a gun.

“Yeah Yeah, don’t move you fucking cowards. Stay there.” Were her companions words, pointing his spear in the direction of the crawling people.

Arn and his group had already reached the end of the observation deck. 2 people at each side, the only thing that separated them from their escape was the glass of the deck and the 2,5 m distance in high between the decks.

Then,a loud scream of pain sounded from the overtaker group. A spear was stucked out of one of the overtakers. Afterwards, all hell broke loose. While the sailors were forced to fight in the left staircase, the sharks had sent another attacker group to the right, which lunged forward at the overtaker group. Shoots were fired and a melee broke out.

Sebastian used this moment and jumped up to break the glass at the rear with a spear. Arn handed him fast the rope of the grappling iron to toss it down to the rear of the middeck. Fasted was the grappling iron at a fixed plastic table of the observation deck.

Without a moment to think about the possible fears and what could await them down, Arn hangeled down the rope behind Sebastian and jumped down at the end of it. They both landed in a crowd of several perplexed shark men. Sebastian was faster in his actions then them and plunged his spear into the head of one of the enemies standing next to them.

“Come down fast. Need help.” Send Sebastian a group message and stabbed the next shark who had tried face him. Arn himself was also stabbing with his umbrella and both tried to advance at least a few steps to make place for the people from above. They could still hear shoots fired upstairs.

Beside Nils and Leon, also other people came down as well as Giselle and they put an end to the remaining sharks for the price of two other students. All of them had scratches and Sebastian suffered from a nasty stabwound in his upper leg.

“Anyone who can ready the lifeboat?” yelled Leon

Nobody wanted to volunteer. So Arn decided on the spot to try his best in this situation. The life boat meant for him a safe escape route besides swimming and without facing the sharks or the lunatic Zachelmann. The lifeboat itself was a modern closed variant, situated with the back to the ship and painted in a flashy orange.

“Look if there are additional securing ropes” told Arn his companions. He entered the lifeboat through an entrance at the back. His first impression was that this lifeboat was very big. All places had numbers, even reaching the 70tes. The operator place was situated at the front of the ship. It seemed like the lifeboat was already touching the water. When Arn sat down at the operator place, he looked over the panels and found several buttons as well as a regulator for the speed of the ship and a steering wheel. The most important thing was a lever next to the seat. It was a big lever with a red marking and a sign : ONLY PULL BEFORE DROPPING. CLOSE ALL EXITS BEFORE AND START THE ENGINE.

“Guys, I found the starter. Get in and take everyone who wants to leave with us.” Sended Arn.

A few moments later his group was inside the boat. Giselle and 2 more students were with them. After Sebastian closed the entrance, Arn started the engine and pulled the lever. Like a rollercoaster, the boat sank down into the sea, the engine roaring. When the boat was stable again, Arn oriented himself and steered the boat to the near docks, away from the slaughterhouse which was once a nice cruiser ship.