Poseidon Adventure

Balto, Jenna, Boris, Stella, Muk, Luk, Steele, etc. are property of Amblin Entertainment and Universal Studios.

The Poseidon Adventure is property of some movie corporation, but I'm too lazy to find out who.

December 30^th, 2006, on Saturday.

It was time for boarding call. Balto Mandrell picked up his bags and walked toward the ramp that led onto the ship. He glanced at the name, written in brilliant gold, 'Poseidon'. He felt excited. This was going to be his first time on a passenger ship. The ship was going from Florida to England. And he really wanted to get to England.

Jenna Tichenor got on board and began looking for her room. As soon as she found it, she threw her bags on her bed and began unpacking. She was thrilled. She was on the highest deck passengers were allowed on. She was amazed by how luxurious her room was. After she finished unpacking, she moved her bags off the bed and laid down. It was the softest mattress she had ever felt. The blanket was even better, and the pillow was absolutely heavenly. After lounging around for a few minutes, she got up and began exploring the ship.

Balto entered the dining hall. It was the largest room for passengers there was on the ship. The first thing he noticed when he came in was a gigantic Christmas tree in the middle of the room. He asked a waiter why it was there on December 30^th.

“We just haven't gotten around to taking it down yet. We probably will when we reach England.”

Balto then headed for wherever there was food. He was thrilled to see an enormous buffet, stretching from one wall, circling around the tree, then to the other wall. They had a Ponderosa style section, then Chinese, then desserts. Balto attacked the Chinese section first.

Jenna decided to meet some of the people on the Poseidon. After all, it was going to be two weeks, so then, better know somebody. She went to the dining hall for some food, assuming almost every passenger was there. She looked around to try to find a table that didn't have all the chairs occupied. Her eyes fell on a table with only one guy at it, who looked rather queasy.

'Seasick?' she wondered, then noticed four empty plates on his table. 'Ah.' She sat down and introduced herself.

“Jenna Tichenor, and you are...?”

“Balto Mandrell ... urg.”

“Overstuffed yourself did you?”

“I'm sorry, but when they have a fifty-foot long Chinese buffet, you've gotta have at least three plates, not including dessert... urg.”

“So then I take it you've had enough for one evening?”

“What?! Are you mad? I'm just getting started! I haven't even tried everything on the Chinese section, let alone the dessert and stuff!”

At the end of dinner, Jenna almost had to carry Balto to his room.

“Hey, thanks for your... urg ... help. Maybe when you eat seven plates for dinner, I'll help you to your room.”

December 31^st, 2006.

Jenna was making marvelous progress in getting to know people. She had already met fifteen people, all of them passengers. Most of them were pleasant, others weren't. Such as Steele Karzon, a big jerk. He was an excessive gambler, who was (unfortunately) very good at it. In the short two days they had been on the cruise, he had gathered $2,500 dollars. He would set up a poker game, rig it, and reap huge rewards. Most of the rest weren't anything like that. She had met a very nice older man named Boris Gooseinoff, a Russian. He was a very friendly and helpful guy. Then she also met three dogs, who were fairly close buddies, Nikki, Kaltag, and Star. When she introduced herself, this is how they responded.

Nikki said “Hi, I'm Nikki. This is Kaltag and Star.”

Kaltag would say “Pleased to meet you.”

And Star would say “You sure are cute! Ha ha ha...” whack! (that is the sound of Kaltag smacking Star across the head)

Nikki would say “Sorry about that.”

Kaltag would say “He's kinda crazy sometimes.”

Star would say “We're all crazy! Ha ha ha ha ha...” whack! (the sound of Star getting hit again)

Kaltag would say “Shut up!”

Star would say “Oh yeah? Well why don't you just...” then Star quickly covered his head. Kaltag proceeded to give him an uppercut. Jenna made a mental note to only go near them when Star was away. She had also realized that morning that two of her closest friends were also on the same boat. Sylvia O'Brien, and Dixie Chic. Dixie, for some reason, had an infatuation with Steele. As soon as she met him, she ran out and bought an eye-catching necklace.

“Do you think Steele will notice?” she asked Jenna and Sylvia in the gift shop.

“I'm afraid the only way Steele will notice anyone is if they're wearing a mirror.” said Jenna.

Sylvia then said “Oh, ignore her Dixie. She's been running around with some passenger named Balto.”

Dixie gasped.

Sylvia continued “I saw them sitting together in the dining hall last night. They spent the whole time talking to each other, doing nothing else.”

“I think you need your eyes checked Sylvia,” said Jenna “True, I tried to talk to him, but he spent the whole time forcing food down his pie-hole.”

Balto had also been meeting some people, but unlike Jenna, he was meeting all the crew members, not passengers. He had met two very odd engineers, named Muk and Luk Hotchkin. They were two brothers, and they spent a large amount of time arguing.

“No you idiot, the five/sixth inch wrench!” shouted Luk.

“That is a five/sixth!” his brother replied.

“No it isn't, it's a four/sixth.”

“So what if it is? They're the same thing!”

“No they aren't, and if you weren't such an idiot you would know that! You're such a pain in the butt.”

“Hey! Don't take that tone with me!”

“Oh, geez, you sound like Mom now... you big fat pain in th' butt.”

“What did I just tell you?!”

“Pain in th' butt! Pain in th' butt!”

He had also met a waitress named Stella Rahssi, a somewhat older goose. She had been on the ship for eighteen years, and knew it well. And, of course, he met the captain. The captain's name was Benjamin Walters, but his crew called him Doc. The second-in-command was a nervous fellow, Mel Drury. Balto spent most of his time with the crew, and almost no time doing activities with the other passengers. To him, time went by slowly when he was with the passengers, but for some reason it flew when he was with the crew. He didn't know why. All he knew was he wanted to get to England as quickly as possible.

December 31^st, 8:30

Balto walked into the gigantic dining hall. He didn't come for the New Years celebration. He couldn't have cared less about that. 'Just another year. Woop-dee-doo.' He just came came for the food, as usual. He was disappointed though. They had removed the buffet to make room for all the passengers who would be celebrating.

“Tsk,” he thought “What is this world coming to? Replacing food just so people can throw a party at the start of 2007? Shameful, just shameful.”

11:45

Balto looked over towards the door and saw Jenna enter with two other female dogs. Jenna noticed him and waved. Her and the other two dogs walked over.

“Wow,” said Jenna “Every single chair is taken except for the ones around your table. I wonder why?”

“I don't know. Maybe because all my dirty plates fill up the table, so others don't have room to put theirs down.”

“Oh, that's ridiculous. How many plates have you had anyway?”

“I think this is my eighth one during the last three hours.”

Dixie almost fainted.

“How in the world can you eat so much?” asked Sylvia.

“Simple. You eat one plate, but you put on the right amount so you're still hungry when you're done. You wait for fifteen minutes, let yourself get hungry some more, then get another plate. Repeat eight times. It works wonderfully. I'm still hungry!”

14 minutes , 30 seconds later...

The countdown had begun. In thirty seconds it would be 2007. There was a live band playing music, and a singer dancing and, well, singing. Everyone else was dancing and celebrating, except for Balto. He decided to take a little stroll out on the deck. He looked out at the horizon, looking at all the stars just above the waterline. Then an odd thing happened. He noticed stars gradually vanishing. It took his eyes a few moments to recognize what was happening.

In the control room, the 2^nd lieutenant was in charge. The captain was in the dining hall celebrating with the passengers, and Mel was headed for the engines to do a regular maintenance check. The 2^nd lieutenant and all the crew felt an odd tremor. They looked out to the Port side to see what was going on. The lieutenant saw it first. There was a massive, hundred foot tall wave approaching the ship. And it continued getting higher.

“Turn the ship! Hard to Port!” he shouted.

He knew that if the wave hit them on the side, it could very well flip the ship over, but if it hit the front they might be able to sail through it.

“Oh no. Too late. Sound the alarm! Brace for impact!”

Balto ran into the dining hall just as the clock was about to strike midnight.

“Every...”

The rest of his words were drowned out by people cheering, shouting 'Happy New Year' and such. The commotion was so loud that no one heard the alarm klaxon sounding. And then, a mere two seconds into 2007, the wave hit.

The room went into a frenzy. As the ship flipped over, everything that wasn't tied down, such as chairs, began sliding down the floor, along with people. A very unfortunate man slammed into a bolted down table, only to have a sliding piano crush him. The gigantic Christmas tree fell over, pinning dozens of people to the floor. Balto had grabbed hold of the doors he had entered through and shut them in order to keep at least some of the water out. Then he lost grip and slid along the floor to the right wall (now bottom wall). Finally, the ship came to rest. The floor was now the ceiling, the ceiling was now the floor. The survivors were shouting, some were crying, and almost all of them were looking for friends and family. The chaos was unimaginable. Balto had never seen such disorder and panic in his entire life. He looked around and saw a four year old girl pinned underneath a table that had fallen on her. She was dead. As if all this wasn't bad enough, the ceiling (well, now the floor) had about two inches of water in some spots. Balto watched the water move to the ceiling lights, then spark. A jolt of electricity went through the water and electrocuted all the people unfortunate enough to be standing in it.

The captain got up on the highest area he could stand on, and shouted to the crowd.

“Everyone stay calm! Help will be here soon. If we just stay here and keep calm, we'll be alright.”

Someone shouted from the crowd “What happened?”

The captain answered “We were hit by what is called a rogue wave. They are very rare, very large, and very dangerous. In case you couldn't tell, it seems as though the ship has flipped over. Now for the good news. The very instant we were hit, an emergency GPS distress call was sent out, meaning that we will most likely be found by rescue teams within a few hours, maybe less. So, as I said before, please stay calm.”

Everyone seemed to calm down a bit after that. The captain had found a doctor in the crowd, and had told him to begin helping injured ones. The doctor had also given a few volunteers instructions on first aid, so they could also help people. Balto thought this was a bunch of baloney. Not that doctors were helping people, he liked that, but he most certainly didn't agree with the captain's theory about 'Stay here, you'll be safe'. He didn't profess to know much about ships, but he knew that ships weren't designed to stay afloat upside down. He stepped up onto the high ground area where the captain had been a few minutes ago.

“People! Fellow passengers! May I have your attention?”

Everyone looked up at Balto.

“We can't stay here and wait for help! We need to go!”

“But,” said someone in the crowd “The captain told us to stay!”

“Yes, and he knows a lot more about this ship than I do, but I do know this! This ship was not designed to stay afloat upside down! And also, that glass over there,” he pointed to the large windows in the dining hall “Is now under water! It will bust when too much pressure is applied against it.”

“How would we get out if the ship is upside down?”

“We leave through the propeller tubes.”

“Okay, how do we leave this room? We're trapped!”

Balto looked around the dining hall. He noticed a door with a ledge up at the top (or, the floor) of the room.

“Where does that door lead to?” he asked Stella.

“The kitchen.”

“We leave through there.”

Now the passengers were furious at him. “How in the world are we supposed to leave through there? Fly?”

“We prop up that Christmas tree against it and climb.”

Balto walked over to the tree and began lifting it, without waiting for anyone. Of course, he couldn't, but then Jenna came over and began helping. Then came Nikki, Kaltag, and Star arrived and lifted.

“Come on, heave!” said Nikki.

“Heave with all your might!” said Kaltag.

“This is a waste of time. We...” said Star, then Kaltag whacked him in the head.

The next to help were Sylvia and Dixie, much to Jenna's pleasure. Then, much to Jenna's surprise, Steele came. Soon they had thirty passengers picking up the massive tree, and propping it against the ledge. People were about to start climbing on when Balto said “Hang on. I should go up first to make sure it's secure.”

He climbed to the top, then shouted down “It's a little wobbly! We should do it single file so it doesn't fall!”

Then of course, people began arguing over who should go first.

“We should do it in order of who came to help put up the tree,” said Steele “So in that case, Jenna would go, then Nikki, and so on.” Everyone agreed to that. First Jenna went up, then Nikki, then Kaltag, Star, Sylvia, Dixie, Steele, Boris, then another passenger, a 20-year old named Kodi. The next up was the waitress, Stella. She was about halfway up when someone screamed. Every head in the hall turned toward the voice. The woman that screamed was pointing at the windows. Balto, being a bit far away, had to squint. Then he saw the reason for panic. The glass was cracking.

Everyone began climbing up the tree in a mad frenzy. Balto called down to them, telling them it would only stay erect if one person went up at a time. Seeing it was useless, he yelled to Stella to climb as quickly as she could. Then, time stood still. The glass that made up the windows broke, and ushered in a torrent of freezing water. Stella was three feet from making it onto the ledge when the tree tipped. It slowly slid away from the ledge. Balto began screaming as loud as he could to Stella to jump. Stella just stood, frozen in fear. Balto stretched out his hand as far as it would go. Then, he caught her wing. He pulled her up as the rest of the tree crashed onto the floor, and in seconds it was covered by water. The eleven that had made it onto the ledge looked down, watching the other passengers thrown about, struggling to keep afloat, seeing some screaming that they couldn't swim. Reluctantly, Balto shut the door, muffling all the cries for help. He stared at the other ten people.

“We should be going.” he said quietly.

The kitchen was in disarray. In addition to everything not bolted down being in shambles, it looked as though a fireball had gone through. The people were blackened, and all the things that were previously flammable were gone, burned to a crisp.

“Well, where do we go from here?” asked Steele.

“There's an elevator shaft just ahead.” said Stella. “We could go through there.”

Balto and Kodi began prying the elevator doors apart. When they opened, Balto took a look to see how far it would be across. He told everyone to find something they could use as a bridge to get across. Then he made the mistake of looking down. The floor of the elevator was ripped up, leaving jagged shards of metal pointing up at them. Then he made the even worse mistake of looking up. The elevator was hanging from a mere strand of cord. Sparks were flying off of it as the strand loosened more and more.

“Uh... hey guys? Hurry it up!”

Fortunately, they found something. A long metal table, the exact length of the elevator shaft. They laid it down, and Balto went across to stand on the other end in order to hold it steady. Then he also tried prying open the other doors, but couldn't budge them.

“Hey Steele! Come over here and help me out!”

Steele sighed. “Yes my master.”

But, he went across and helped Balto open the doors, but they still would not budge.

“This is hopeless.” said Nikki.

“They're probably jammed.” said Kaltag.

“So this is it, we're going to die!” said Star. So Kaltag hit him on the head, as usual.

Balto was about to give up hope, when he noticed another set of elevator doors above them. Luckily, these doors were wide open.

“Steele, how far up would you say those doors are?”

“About ten feet. Why?”

“Do you think you could prop me up that far?”

“Sure.”

“Could you?”

“No way.”

“Why not?!”

“'Cause technically, it makes more sense. How much do you weigh?”

“About 140 pounds.”

“I weigh 130. And you're about five inches taller, so I'd get farther with you pushing me. You prop me up.”

Steele had a point. Although he was five-foot-eleven, Balto was almost six-foot-five.

“Okay, okay, whatever.” So Balto heaved up Steele. Then Jenna came over, and Balto propped her up to Steele, who finished pulling her up. Then went Stella, then Boris, then Sylvia, then Dixie, then Kaltag, then Star. All the while, Balto noticed the elevator wobbling more and more. He shouted over to Nikki and Kodi, who had been the ones holding the table steady on the other side “Come on! Quick! The elevator won't stay much longer!”

Kodi said to Nikki “You go across, I'll hold the table.”

Nikki began going over as fast as he reasonably could, when he heard Dixie scream. He looked up at the elevator only to see it coming down on him. The elevator smashed the table to bits, and landed in the bottom of the shaft on the sharp metal shards, with Nikki on the bottom.

As bad as this was, they had another problem. Kodi now had no way of getting across the shaft. Finally, he resorted to the only idea he had. He backed up a couple of feet, then ran toward the shaft. When he reached the edge, he took a large leap. He smacked the wall, seven feet below the open doors, but grabbed hold of something. Then he climbed up the remaining seven feet. The nine others were quite impressed.

Through the elevator was a small room, none of them knew what it was for. What they did know was that it led to a large ladder that would enable them to travel halfway up the ship. They all started searching for the door. Star found it first. He was about to open the door when Balto stopped him.

“There might be a fire on the other side. There's certainly been a fire in here. We need to check.”

“And just how do we do that?” asked Star.

Balto tapped the door lightly with his finger.

“It's hot. Very hot.”

“So our question is, was it a flash-fire or is it still burning?” said Steele.

Balto handed Steele a fire extinguisher, and then he prepared to open the door.

“Ready?” he asked. Steele nodded. Balto grabbed the handle, yanked the door open, then moved out of the way very quickly. The instant the door was open, Steele sprayed into the room. There was nothing but a little smoke.

“Flash-fire.” he said.

They went in, and all the room was was a tall chamber with a ladder running up and down it. Down at the bottom though, was a pool of water rapidly coming up toward them. There was also a steady stream of oil dripping down. There was an engine up above.

“Hurry!” shouted Balto.

They all scrambled for the ladder, and began climbing up. They climbed for an exhausting ten floors, when Balto finally spotted a vent large enough for them to crawl through.

“Let's go through that!” he shouted to the people below him.

“Why should we go through that?” asked Star “Where does it lead?”

“I don't know, but it'll get us away from this water. It's been gaining on us for quite awhile!”

Balto leaned over to the vent and tried taking the cover off of it. That didn't work, so he began twisting on of the screws. It was rusted on very tight. Balto kept working on it for several minutes, all the while the water was coming up quick.

“Hurry!” shouted Kaltag, who was unfortunate enough to be on the bottom.

“I'm trying, dang it! It's rusted on too tight!”

“Does anyone have something he can use as a screwdriver?” asked Jenna.

“Phillips head or flat?” shouted Boris.

“Flat.” said Balto.

“Here, use this.” Boris passed up a quarter.

He handed it to Jenna, who was just about to give it to Balto when the ship shuddered. The quarter fell out of Jenna's hand and landed in the rising water below.

“Crap.”

“Uh... do you have any more Boris?” asked Balto.

“No, I don't. Sorry.”

“Does anyone else have a quarter or such?”

From below came responses of 'Nope' or 'Sorry'. Kaltag dropped off the ladder and swam below the water.

“Oh my goodness. What's he doing?” asked Sylvia.

“He's trying to get the coin. I think.”

“He's crazy, that's what he is.” said Steele “Risking his life for a quarter? You'd never catch me doin' something like that. It'd have to be $10,000 dollars, at least.”

They had just about given up hope of Kaltag making it back, when the water began bubbling. Then they saw Kaltag come out of the water, holding the quarter. He tossed it up to Balto, who caught it and then began removing the screws.

“Kaltag! I was so scared! I got people bumps!” cried Boris.

Everyone was cheering for Kaltag as he swam for the ladder. Then they stopped when they heard grinding. Sparks began spraying out of the wall, just above the water. One lone spark hit the stream of oil, and the entire stream exploded into a tower of fire. The fire traveled down the stream until it hit the water, which had accumulated a large amount of oil. The pool of water also blew in a mass of flame. They all looked down in horror. Kaltag was still in the water. Stella spotted him first. He was still swimming for the ladder, with fire all over his back. He grabbed the ladder and pulled up. Then, still clinging on, he went limp.

Everyone stared in shock. First Nikki, now Kaltag. They began to wonder if any of them would survive.

Balto finished opening the vent. Even though another of their little band had died, he knew they had to keep going. He threw down the vent cover and shouted down “Come on! Let's get in!” Everyone reluctantly complied. They got in the vent and crawled through. The vent finally opened up into a barber shop. All the chairs were upside down, still bolted to the floor. If it wasn't seen in context, Balto might have found it funny. He continued through, then noticed everyone was still standing in the middle of the room.

“Come on people, let's keep moving!”

“We can't, we're tired. Let us rest for a minute!”

“We can't stop and rest! This ship is still sinking! Do you want to die here? We have to press on!”

“How can you say that?” shouted Star “Two of my best friends have died following you! Have you ever heard of mourning the loss of a friend? What makes you think we can just keep moving after all these deaths? Who have you lost on this ship?”

Balto was quiet for a moment. “My daughter.”

This came as a surprise to everybody.

“Aleu. She was four years old. My wife had gone over to England for business. Me and my daughter got on this ship to go over to move there so my wife could stay. Aleu was crushed by a table when the ship flipped over. As soon I saw what had happened, I realized we had to leave. I didn't want anyone else to have to experience what I went through when she died.”

Now Star was very sorry for what he said. So, without further ado, he stood up walked over to where Balto was.

“I'm ready. Let's go.”

They were walking down a hallway when Dixie noticed some people walking toward them. She ran ahead and asked them where they were going.

“To the front of the ship. It's the only way out.” said the leader. It was Mel Drury, the second-in-command of the ship.

Balto and the rest of his group caught up. “We're headed for the propeller tubes. We figured that's the only way out.”

“No! Don't leave through there! We already tried it! It's blocked. There's no way to get to the tubes.”

“Oh no,” said Boris “Now what do we do?”

“Well, you could come with us. The more the merrier.”

Balto pulled his little group aside.

“Look, we can't go with them. The front of the ship is probably under water!”

“But, you heard what they said!” shouted Steele “You can't get to the propeller tubes! They way is blocked! I say we go with them.”

“Alright, here. I'll go ahead and try to find a different way there. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, go ahead with the other group.”

Balto left, and Steele turned to the other group and said “Um, can you wait for fifteen minutes? Our blockhead leader wants to find another way, so if he finds something, we can all get to the propeller tubes together, but if he doesn't find anything, we'll go with you.”

Mel sighed “Alright. Fifteen minutes. But no more! This ship is sinking fast!”

Fifteen minutes later...

“Well, he's not back,” said the someone in the other group “Let's go.”

“I agree,” said Steele “Come on!”

“No, please wait!” said Jenna “Let's just give him two more minutes, please!”

“You can wait if you want,” said Mel “We're going.”

After they left, Steele screamed bloody murder at Jenna “Great! Now what do we do if Balto doesn't get back, huh?”

“Well,” said Dixie “I suppose we could just catch up.”

“I found it!” shouted a voice. Everyone turned their heads and saw Balto coming back. “I found a way to the propeller tubes!”

They made their way through rubble and ash, and finally arrived where Balto was taking them. They could see the staircase they would have to take to get to the catwalk that led to the tubes, but there was one little problem. There was deep water in between them and the stairs.

“How do we get through that?” asked Dixie “I can't swim!”

“You don't have to,” said Balto “I found this rope here, and I'll swim across, tie it to something, and you just pull yourself along! All you need to do is hold your breath! When the rope is ready, I'll give it a tug.” Balto handed one end of the rope to Kodi, then dived into the water and began swimming. When he came out of the water on the other side, he tugged the rope, then tied it to a metal post. Everyone went into the water, with Steele and Dixie in the rear. Steele rounded a corner, with Dixie right behind him. But after he rounded the corner, he didn't notice Dixie getting caught on some wires in the water. Dixie began jerking madly on the wires, trying to get free. She was jerking so wildly that she accidentally hit her head on a piece of sharp metal. She blacked out.

Steele got out of the water, then turned to wait for Dixie to arrive. He waited for a few seconds, then got worried.

“Uh, Steele? Where's Dixie?” asked Kodi.

“I don't know, she was right behind me!”

He waited a few more seconds, then dived back in the water. When he got close to the corner, he noticed the water had a red hint to it. He came around the corner and saw Dixie caught on a wire, with a large cut on her head. He quickly got her loose from the wires and pulled her back to where everyone else was. He pulled her out of the water, and everybody flocked around her. Boris looked at her head, then checked her pulse. He shook his head. Jenna looked over at Steele and saw his eyes tearing up. Sylvia was balling her eyes out.

After the reached the top of the stairs, all they would have to do is open the bulkhead and enter the tube. Kodi ran ahead and tried opening the bulkhead, but it wouldn't budge.

“CRAP!!” he shouted.

Balto looked around. Circling the walls there was the metal catwalk they were on, and below was the rising water, with fire gracing the top. Balto looked up, and saw his target. Hanging from the floor (now the ceiling) was a metal wheel. It hung ten feet from the catwalk they were on. But how could he get to it? He remembered what Kodi did in the elevator shaft. All he would have to do is jump for it. 'But' he thought 'If I jump over there, I'm not coming back. Plus there's hot steam blowing on the wheel. So, do I stay here and let someone else do it, or do I sacrifice myself so everyone can escape? No question.'

He stepped back and jumped. And he caught it. Hanging from the wheel like Doctor Emmet Brown hanging from the hand on the clock tower, he turned the wheel. Hot steam blowing on his hands, he kept turning, and the bulkhead finally unlocked. But he was still hanging from the wheel, with no way back.

Balto's little gang was shocked. Escape was so close at hand, and their leader was hanging in the air with no way back.

“Go!” he shouted “Save yourselves! This ship is sinking fast! Just get out! The bulkhead is open, all you need to do is enter the tube and you're free.”

“We can't just leave you there!” cried Jenna “You brought us this far. You saved us all, we can't just leave you!”

“Step aside, I'll handle this!” said a voice. It was Luk, one of the engineers. He was carrying a long pole, and he stretched it out as far as it would go, which was, fortunately, ten feet.

“Grab hold Balto! All of you, help me support this!”

Balto held on, and he was brought back across to the catwalk.

“Thank you Luk! Say, where's Muk?”

Luk looked sad. “I don't know. I was knocked unconscious when the ship flipped over. I didn't see him anywhere.”

Balto was about to reply when they heard the sound of engines. The propellers had started running again!

“Oh no!” cried Kodi “Now what do we do?”

Steele said “Maybe we could just throw something in there, jam up the propeller!”

“Actually, no we can't.” said Luk “I've worked on this ship long enough to recognize the sounds of the engine. Those are running in reverse. If you throw anything in there, it'll just fly back at you.”

“Is there any way we can stop the engines?”

“I don't think... yes! You can! There's a small control panel that you can use to run the engines! Only...”

“Only what, Luk?”

He looked down in the water. “It's down there.”

“No big deal,” said Kodi “I'll just swim down, turn 'em off, and come back.”

“No Kodi, you don't understand. To get to that panel is a four minute swim! Anyone who goes down there is not coming back up!”

“Then I'll go.” said Balto “I brought you to these tubes so you wouldn't die on this ship. I'm going.”

“Alright Balto,” said Steele “You go.”

Balto turned around toward the water to prepare to dive, when Steele hit him with Luk's pole.

“Sorry dude, but this trip is mine.” With that, Steele dived into the flaming pit of water.

Balto woke up with a groan. “Uhhh. What happened?”

“Steele hit you with a metal pole.” Jenna told him.

“Ohh, that jerk. Where is he?”

“Um, he, uh, went into the water to turn off the engines.”

“What? He did? Doesn't he know he won't be coming back? I've gotta stop him!”

“No, Balto. He did that so you wouldn't die on this ship! Out of all of us, you deserve to live more than anyone!”

“How long has he been down there?”

“Three minutes.”

Steele finally reached the panel. He began looking for the button to stop the engines. He found it, but screamed in anger. It was broken. He began beating beating the machine, screaming at it. They had made it this far, only for this! He was about to give up hope, when noticed a switch. It was to reverse the propellers!

“Oh please,” he prayed “Let them notice.” He pressed it, then purposefully swallowed a mouthful of water. “If I'm not gonna make it, I just hope it'll be quick.”

The sound of the propellers stopped for a moment, then started up again.

“Oh no. He failed.” said Sylvia.

“No, wait.” Luk motioned for everyone to be silent. “He didn't turn them off, but he reversed the propellers! Now we can throw something in them!”

“Way to go boychick.” whispered Boris.

Kodi grabbed a Hydrogen canister, opened the bulkhead, and threw it in. He ducked away from the opening, and braced himself. There was a loud explosion. The sound of the engines ceased. Kodi looked in, and saw the propeller was gone. Everyone crowded in, and looked out at the water.

“Hey guys,” said Star “What's that?”

“It's a life raft!” shouted Balto “It looks like there's somebody in it!”

“It's Muk!” cried Luk “Come on everyone, jump into the water!”

The all jumped out of the tube, and swam for the raft.

“Howdy everyone!” said Muk “Come on board!”

Then they heard the sounds of helicopters.

“It must be a rescue team!” said Muk “Is there a flare gun on this thing?”

Star found one, and fired it off. The helicopters turned and pointed aimed their spotlights at the raft.

Everybody began cheering. They were rescued! They looked at the Poseidon, and saw it sink the rest of the way into the water.

As they were being put on the copters, Balto asked them “Did you search the outside of the ship?”

“Yes we did.”

“Did you find anyone up at the front?”

“No. Why, did someone go there?”

“Yes, about thirty.”

“If they did, they didn't make it. You're the only ones we saved.”

The End