I awoke in midair, having just been tossed from my bed. I slammed head first into cabinet located on the other side of my room, almost knocking me unconscious as I was forcefully smashed to the floor by gravity. Coming to my senses was a rather tough feat seeing as my ears wouldn’t stop ringing from the impact. I staggered to my feet, finding it difficult to keep my balance, and wandered into the hallway of the ship noticing the bright red warning lights flashing. Apparently, I was late to the party seeing as everyone was already up and interrogating each other furiously about what had just transpired. Not that they seemed to be able to get a sentence in before being tossed about like ragdolls.

   I collided with someone midair and was knocked unconscious, waking up on the floor an undetermined amount of time later. Once again attempting to get to my feet, I hobbled as quickly as I could to a group of paramedics located at the other end of the hallway, looking to ask my own questions. One of them spotted me and immediately ran over, gauze in hand, and started to wrap it around my head. I had completely failed to notice the rather large gash on the side of my head, most likely from crashing into the many struts and pipes lined on the ceiling of the hallway, the coppery smell of blood all of a sudden filling my nostrils.

   After asking a few quick questions to assure I still had my wits about me, getting me to some quick reflex exercises,  he quickly ran off to tend to more of the wounded. In the meantime, I thought it an excellent idea to cling to the guardrail for dear life as I attempted to make my way upstairs just to see what the hell was going on. Halfway up the steps, as myself and another group of men carrying gurneys was crossing paths, we were thrown up into the air again. I watched them as they went sailing overhead, and with the surprising grace of a ballerina, falling down right on their arses at the bottom. I flipped a coin as to whether or not they were OK and continued trudging my way up upwards.

   The swaying was constant. Whether it was from the ship itself, or my numerous head injuries, I couldn’t tell. I only had one focus, get to the bridge. A daunting task seeing as I still had two more floors to climb. There weren’t any audible sirens wailing from the megaphones, so the ship itself wasn’t in any real danger, but I had to figure out what was happening nonetheless.

    I could smell the spilled food as I made my way past the mess hall. I garnished the sneaking suspicion that there wasn’t going to be much of a dinner for anyone, seeing as there were people, benches, and cutlery strewn about in an understandably haphazard fashion. I could only imagine the cooks throwing a fit with all the cleaning that would need to be done after this.

   I was only just starting to notice my pounding headache when my adrenal glands were kicked back into overdrive as I started to float upwards. I only had a split second to realize what was happening before the ship flopped into the water and sent everyone onboard crashing down to the cold steel floor, knocking the wind out of me.

   As I was laying on the floor reeling from the impact, I could see the figures of people dashing past me in a frenzied manner. One of them eventually stopped to ask if I was OK, then helped me to my feet. His blackened palms and fingers told me he was coming from the engine room. I asked him where he was going.

“Back down to the bunks.” he said with slight worry in his tone over the shouts and moans of the others onboard. “No one down here knows what's happening. There hasn’t been any news from people upstairs.”

“I’m going up to the bridge.” I told him somewhat abruptly.

Ending the conversation there, he wished me good luck and we parted ways.

   Up the second flight of stairs and a bit further down the corridor, the ship suddenly lurched back and I was sent flying a good five feet, crashing right into someone which only slightly reduced the impact of the fall. As it turns out, I acquired a partner unbeknownst to me somewhere along the way.

   “Bridge?” he asked after regaining his posture as best he could.

   I gave him a silent nod and we both came to the mutual agreement that locking our arms together and holding on to the rail would most likely be the safest way to go about things.

   With much effort, we both managed to drag ourselves up to the hatch. With a little too much giddiness, we threw the door open and were both greeted to the sound of a wave bearing down on the deck of the ship, and a spray of water hitting us like a brick wall, filling our lungs and almost knocking us off balance. From here we both finally saw the extent of what was happening.

   Waves, huge like the rolling hills of Scotland, enveloping the ship like nothing any of us have ever seen before. Wind, strong and loud like the screams of the spitfires coming home from the war, battering the ship, ripping away anything it could get its hands on. Pure and utter terror filled both our eyes as we bore witness to the worst storm in recorded history.