|
|
 - Navigation - | | |
|
|
|
|
The Green Tulip
"Hey Tim, when's the next train to Liverpool?" Joe asked
"It's at... eleven thirty seven..." Tim panted, after having just run from the cafe to the ticket office and back again.
The five young adults, Hannah, Jess, Joe, Jamie and Tim were going on a luxury cruise to Australia. Two of them, Jamie and Tim, worked on the ship that they would be travelling on, The Green Tulip.
"Hey, what's wrong Jess, scared?" Jamie taunted his girlfriend jokingly "Don't worry," he added "This ship is unsinkable."
"That's what they said about the Titanic," Jess countered. The debate over the Green Tulip's safety, (or, the group trying to convince Jess that is was safe) went on for nearly twenty minutes.
After a while, Joe noticed that the train was arriving in five minutes. There was an initial period of anarchy, where everyone was hurridly gathering up luggage, and finding out which platform they had to get to, the group tore across the station, suitcases flailing behind them.
Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Captain James Roland, first officer Rnnie Melvin, Watch man Nathan White, and most of the crew were getting the Green Tulip ready for the ship's departure.
At 12:35 pm the group of friends arrived at the port. Tim and Jamie headed to the crew deck, while the rest headed to the customer queue.
Just as they had got on the ship, Hannah asked Joe a question
"Where are we going again? And, what rooms do we have?"
"You can't be serious!" Joe, and the others, exploded with laughter "We're going to Australia. We've got room 235."
"Oh, it's really not that funny." Hannah pouted, following at a safe distance from any taunts on the way to the cabin.
A few weeks later, The Green Tulip was about half way through the Indian Ocean, when, a storm brewed. Somehow, the weather predictions had been wrong. They had predicted plain sailing. But there was no mistaking it, the storm had arrived.
"Captain, this storm is getting pretty bad," Nathan, alerted from his birds-eye viewpoint.
"Stay on course," Ordered James, the captain. The waves were roaring like lions, all around the ship. Then Nathan saw the unthinkable.
"TIDAL WAVE!" he roared. James decided to stay on course however, ordering for the ship's speed to be increased. What else could he do?
The tidal wave only hit the tail end of the ship, and it managed to stay upright, however, enough damage had been done. The ship's course had been altered, and it now was heading towards Antarctica at a tremendous speed. But the trouble didn't stop there. The propellers had been significantly damaged, and were unable to change the ship's course.
By the time the Green Tulip was nearly a mile away from Antarctica, almost all the crew had been knocked out, or even killed. Nathan, however, despite taking a fall from his watch tower, was okay.
"Captain... Tim... Ronnie?" he croaked. No answer.
"N... Nathan?" A reply! Nathan rushed to see who it was. It was Ronnie, picking himself up off the floor. They both climbed up to the watch tower, and looked on in shock, as they saw Antarctica speeding towards them.
Jamie, meanwhile, was rushing down to room 235 to see if his friends were alright. When he had got there, and had burst through the door, he saw Hannah unconscious, while Joe and Jess were trying to revive her
"Good to see ya," Jess grinned at Jamie
The Green Tulip ploughed into through the ice coast of Antarctica. Ronnie grabbed onto a banister, but Nathan didn't react in time and was thrown down the stairs. At the same time in room 235, Jamie managed to hold onto the doorframe, and Joe pinned down Hannah whilst holding onto a bed post. Jess, however, had no such luck. She was launched head first into a dressing table. Blood spewed from her head. By the time the ship had come to a standstill, Hannah had woken up. She, Joe and Jamie rushed over to Jess's body.
Meanwhile, Tim, who had just woken up, set about finding the other members of the cabin crew. He eventually found Ronnie, who was helping Nathan, who had a twisted ankle, along. The three of them set about fidning other crew members. After a while of searching, they had foudn James, the third officer Jenny, and two other crewmen. They found warm clothes, and supplies, and left the ship to set about finding any signs of life in the white desert.
In room 235, Joe, Hannah and Jamie were trying to save Jess. But they could all see it was a worthless cause.
One wrong move could mean death. The small group fo crewmen were heading east, acting on intelligence from Jenny that there was currently an expedition to the South Pole in ths direction.
"Look! There's something!" Tim shouted, looking through his binoculars. The group started to hurry towards Tim's sighting, until Jenny commanded for them to stop
"Single file," She said "Thin ice, there could be a long drop,"
Meanwhile, in room 235, Jess had died. Jamie's cries could be heard through out the whole ship.
"Let's get out of here," Joe said softly, resting his hand on Jamie's shoulder
"YEah, c'mon Jamie," Hannah said, placing her hand on Jamie's other shoulder. Jamie shook his head, tears bruning down his cheek. He stood up vigorously, pushing past his friends, and running through the ship's corridors, eventually leaving the ship. Joe and Hannah followed.
Nathan went to speak to Jenny
"Are you sure about this?" he asked. However, before Jenny could answer, the ice collapsed dragging Nathan, Jenny, Tim and the two other crewmen down into the chasm of death. James and Ronnie leapt back in shock, and both lay back on the snow, dazed, as the ice cloud rained down on them.
When Joe caught sight of Jamie, he was running to the west. Joe set off in hot pursuit. Hannah, meanwhile, went to the east to investigate the giant cloud of ice.
This is probably my favourite short story I've written. It was the first one I wrote, and I was only 13ish, and so I think considering the circumstances, it's pretty good. We were only allowed to write two sides of A4 paper, so I had to cut down the ending quite a bit. Even then it still extended over the page limit.
And I don't know where on earth the name came from.
The sixth and final part of the 'old and crappy things written by emkay' series.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Comment here
Author: emkay
| This page was uploaded on 04/03/07
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
