Zoe didn't even need to say anything else, Ashe could see in her eyes that she had come to the same conclusion that he had.

      They just needed to find Daniel and get to the deck, it was a simple task. They hadn't seen him go past, so Ashe knew for some reason Daniel was still somewhere in the ships interior.

      Hannah stumbled her way out of the banquet hall, occasionally Ashe had no choice, but to hold her arm or waist to steady her steps until she was clear of all of the broken glass.

     Her gaze was like a terrified rabbit who expected to be eaten at any moment. Her beauty and grace couldn't save her from the dangers around them and she knew it.

     She finally was gone.

     Ashe and Zoe resumed their search for Daniel. They yelled down the few corridors in the ship and tested each cabin door to make sure they weren't locked. If a door was unlocked they called out Daniel's name loudly into it, if the door was locked they banged on it and called his name just the same.

     Ashe growled with frustration. "Where is he? Zoe, what specifically did he say to you? Was he going to the bathroom?"

     Zoe dragged her teeth over her lower-lip and her shoulders dropped with a sigh. "He said he was getting something for me. Sounded like he had a present for me. I don't know. . ."

     Ashe tried to recollect his conversation with Daniel in their room the night before.

    "What do you think a girl like her wants for a gift?" Daniel had asked.

     Ashe had warned Daniel that it was too soon for gifts or presents and to just impress her with his personality. Gifts were for couples, not for trying to get a girl to date you. Daniel's family wasn't rich, but they were well-to-do. His parents originated from a poor neighborhood and worked their way up. The lesson Daniel gathered from their experience was that money could fix everything. He believed money could get you the girl you wanted if you showered her with enough gifts.

     Ashe knew a different lesson, showering girls with gifts only got you girls like Amber—his money-hungry current step-mother.

     Daniel still pleaded for Ashe's opinion so he suggested that he do something for Zoe, not simply give her a gift. He told Daniel to consider watching her favorite movie with her. Daniel seemed to like the idea and packed a projector in his suit case.

     The cabins were too tiny for a projector film and the decks were too bright for one, that left only one possible room—the VIP room.

     "Come on, I think I know where he is!"

     Zoe followed Ashe's lead without question or hesitation. They tried to run down hallways, and jump over the knocked over trash bins with piles of garbage and overturned potted plants. The ship shook roughly again, and this time they were both prepared for it. Their fingers grasped the railings and held on while sounds of low explosions beneath the waters surface rumbled through the ships core.

     "Why is it doing that? If the ship is having malfunctions, why wouldn't the staff or crew-members tell us to evacuate?" She asked him with exasperation.

     He didn't have the answers! It didn't make any more sense to him than it did to her.

     "We can question everything once we're safe at home, let's just focus on getting off this thing alive."

     She silently agreed with him.

     Ashe extended his arm to point at the set of doors ahead of them. "I think Daniel's in the VIP room. If he isn't in there then maybe he made it out onto the deck."

     Zoe's face looked concerned. Ashe knew right away she probably was thinking exactly the same thing that he was. If Daniel was in the VIP room, that meant something had kept him from leaving it. A large part of Ashe hoped they'd find the room empty.

     They could hear yelling that was going on outside of the ship. It had to be a chaotic frenzy out there.

     The two of them shared a mutual nod and grasped hold of the door handles. They opened both doors all at once and took in the state of the once glamorous room.

     All of the glasses from the bar were broken and all over the floor. Everything was in total disarray. The balloons were free and gliding along the ceiling of the room. Over by the back of the longest couch in the room there laid a very still hand against the floor.

     The sight of it made Zoe clasp her hands over her mouth.

     "Is he . . . " She didn't finish.

     Ashe rushed behind the couch to find Daniel there with his face against the rug coldly. He pressed his fingers against Daniel's throat to try and find a pulse and sighed with relief when he managed to feel one.

    "He's alive. Help me get him up," Ashe instructed.

     Zoe eased immediately. She stepped over the rolling cups and broken vases to crouch down at Ashe's side. Her finger reached under Daniel's shoulder to throw his arm over her.

     "What do you think happened to him? Did something hit his head?" Zoe questioned quietly.

     He was so tired of her looking to him for answers.

     "Stop asking me questions I don't have the answers to!" He snapped.

     "I'm scared, okay?" She hissed at him. "I ask questions to distract myself. If I'm forced to face the possibility that we might be stuck on a drowning ship and die out here it's more than I can handle. So yes, I ask stupid ass questions."

     They lifted with all their energy until Daniel was slumped up between the two of them. It was like carrying someone who had passed out drunk. Daniel released a low groan, but didn't wake.

     The task of two people trying to coordinate their steps while carrying someone aboard a rocking ship was difficult. Ashe tried to keep Daniel's feet from brushing against the things that were jagged and broken along the rugs. Zoe tried to just help support the dead weight.

     Once they were outside, they could see the complete chaos. The hysterical teens were crying, or hitting one another. They were fighting over the lifeboat and supplies that were left and how to even get the boats activated or in the water.

     "Zoe! Oh my god, I was so worried!" Adriana had ducked in to help them carry Daniel. "What happened to Daniel?"

     Ashe shut his eyes tight and held in the groan he wanted to release. Luckily, Zoe decided to speak for him.

     "We just need to get him on the lifeboat, okay?"

     It was easier said than done. Everyone wanted to get on the single lifeboat that remained, but no one knew how to lower it. A few girls were scrambling to click on life preserves and remember how to even properly use them.

     The boat looked really small, too small for everyone to fit without sinking it.

     "I know how to lower it," Ashe admitted with assurance. "Just start getting people on the boat."

When I was twelve I was really jealous of Ashe the very first time I met him. I was jealous of his skills and his strength. When Kyle gave him a difficult move, Ashe just kept doing it over and over until he mastered it, even if it hurt he didn't stop until he conquered the move.

     I was different. I always messed up the moves. I'd fall, or get hurt or just have the wrong form all together. I didn't give up, but my progression to master the moves were messy and without control.

     After a few weeks of watching him, my jealousy had turned into admiration. Then that admiration had turned into a crush.

     I looked forward to seeing him each week, I almost felt like I lived for it—lived for seeing him.

     Each time I'd open the door I'd look at him with a big and ridiculous smile on my face. I was an awkward pre-teen. My ears were big and stuck out on the sides, but I had to wear my hair in a bun. I had big bunny-like teeth and my body was thin and lanky. I looked like a lollipop with ears.

      Ashe at the age of twelve was still cute. His eyebrows would lift and he'd take in the sight of me in all my goofy glory and then he'd smile too. It was a beautiful smile that seemed to make up for the icy cold stare his eyes often displayed.

     I remembered feeling like a puddle of melting candy every-time he'd smile at me like that.

     Each time we practiced and our hands or legs made contact my face flushed and my body felt hot all over. I would be so distracted by the emotions inside me that I'd mess up and trip or fall. Each time without fail his hand reached out for me and helped me up again.

     When I asked him why he was always so helpful towards me, he said one simple thing: "Honor among thieves."

     I'd forgotten those memories and those feelings. I'd locked them somewhere far and deep inside myself.

     It wasn't until I saw Ashe carrying Daniel to place him safely into the lifeboat and helping the other guests to escape that I felt those memories rush back to me.

     Adriana and Eddie helped Hannah to slide onto the lifeboat. In that moment I dropped the idea that this was all some trick Hannah was playing. If this was a ploy to get closer to Ashe, she'd have stayed to his side like glue, but she didn't. She looked pale and distraught and kept staring off in total shock and denial.

     Eddie squeezed into the tight-cramped life boat space and loud protests began. Complaints of being stepped on, pushed or crushed.

     I quickly realized someone physically had to stay aboard the ship to lower the boat, and the boat was overflowing with people as it was. It would be a miracle if it managed to carry the passengers it already had on it.

    Ashe had to stay behind to lower it. He'd known it too.

    "Come on and get in!" Adriana called out to me.

    I looked between her and then to Ashe. I could hear the cords that held the boat in place tremble and warn that the weight limit was exceeded.

     "Lower the boat," I told Ashe quietly.

    "But—"

    "Please Ashe, just lower it. Anymore weight and that boat is going to break lose and fall."

     "I don't know if there's another way off this boat, Zoe."

     "There is, there has to be. There's got to be some emergency rafts on-board, I'm sure of it. We'll find it."

    Adriana kept screaming for me to get on and I let her voice blur into a garbled sound in my head. My eyes closed and it felt like slow motion. I could hear Adriana pleading and crying out to me as the boat lowered towards the water. The last few feet the cord had taken all the weight it could manage, hooks snapped and the boat dropped with a plunge.

    The nose of the lifeboat dug into a wave that slapped against it's surface and pulled it away from the hull of the ship.

    They had been rattled, but they were okay. They'd have to face the challenges of getting back to the mainland with low supplies and an overweight boat, but at least they had a chance at making it.

    Ashe and I watched their boat as it drifted away from us back towards the direction we hoped would lead them to the New England coastline.

     "Why did you stay?" Ash actually sounded irritated. "You could have tried and squeezed on with the rest of them."

    "It couldn't support my weight," I told him simply.

     Ashe snorted. "That didn't stop everyone else from stuffing in."

     I inhaled hard and figured since we were lost at sea what harm could it do to go ahead and tell the truth.

     "Fine. I didn't want to leave you aboard a possibly sinking ship alone. Happy?" I admitted, fully expecting him to tease me or make some insulting remark.

     He watched me with a poker-face. I couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling.

    The ship made another low croaking sort of sound. A turned over glass that was on-top of a table rolled off and fell into the deck, it kept rolling well past me until it reached the edge of the ship. My feet felt like they were tilting on a very small incline.

     I threw out my hand to hold onto Ashe's wrist just in-case the movement got worse. "I think the ship is tipping. It's slow, but I feel it."

     He nodded once. "It means the ship must be taking on water. If it's going at this rate, we might have a few hours to find a way off this thing."

    "There is a way off this ship, kids. . ."

    An unfamiliar voice caused Ashe and I to see a group of three men and one woman standing on the far end of the deck. They were dressed in black and armed with pistols and semi-automatic rifles.

    Suddenly everything made sense. The missing crew, the sabotage of the engine. It'd look like a ship malfunction instead of the truth—a hijacking. . .

    The tall man who seemed to be the leader of the group had a crooked smile on his grizzly, bearded face.

    "The way off—" The mans smile grew into an unsettling grin. "—is to hope you can hold your breath for a really long time . . . "