I was awoken by someone hammering on my door and groggily dragged myself out of bed to see who it was. I opened the door to see a number of men in suits telling me that I needed to come with them immediately. I didn’t even have a chance to get dressed properly as I was then escorted to a waiting car.
I asked one of the other people in the car what was going on and he told me that the Titanic had arrived two hours ago. I started to laugh but my laughing tapered off as I gazed at the deadpan expression on his face. I sat there contemplating what he had said as the car sped along the streets.
We arrived at the docks that were teeming with people and had to go through numerous security checkpoints before we finally got out of the car. I was led through a series of temporary buildings that looked like they had hastily been assembled in the last hour or so.
We turned a corner and I froze in shock as my eyes caught sight of it for the first time. I stared in wonder at the ship that had sunk 110 years ago. My eyes kept roving the ship looking for any signs of damage but there didn’t even appear to be the slightest scratch on the hull.
My reverie was stopped when one of the men beside me coughed loudly to get my attention. We started moving again and my eyes kept being drawn back to the ship. It looked so beautiful yet there was something about it that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I was quickly debriefed and found out that the Titanic had arrived at exactly 5.37am. Somehow no one had noticed it until it had docked. There had been no sign of people on board but there were lights and they could hear noises on board. They had used drones to peer through some of the windows but were met by an impenetrable darkness inside.
I was going to be part of a team who was going to find out what the hell was going on. I was led to another room and quickly changed out of my pyjamas and into clothing that was provided to me.
A gangway was set up so that we could make our way onto the ship and I watched as the others slowly began moving on board. Every fibre of my being was screaming at me to turn around and flee as there was only death and misery on that ship. My brain didn’t listen though as my feet began walking up the gangway.
I felt a shiver run down my spine as I placed my feet on the deck for the first time. There was definitely something wrong here and I could see the same uncertainty mirrored on everyone else’s faces. There were a mixture of scientists and soldiers amongst us. The soldiers eyes were roving around looking for any potential threats.
We were instructed to move inside and check the interior of the ship. There were a set of double doors a short distance away so we made our way towards them.
Two of the soldiers grabbed the doors and pushed them open. We were greeted by the sounds of music and people talking which was coming from a short distance away. The interior of the ship was immaculate and it looked exactly like it did in the movie adaptation.
We hesitantly moved inside with the soldiers leading the way with their rifles ready. We turned a corner and I let out a whistle of wonder as we stepped into a ballroom.
There were chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling which was the first thing that caught my eye as they were breath taking. My gaze was then drawn to the passengers and crew that were moving around the room. A band was playing some random song and a number of passengers were dancing away.
None of them noticed our presence and continued doing what they were doing previously. We began to creep forward in an attempt to get a better look. I looked closer at their faces and knew something was wrong. Some of them appeared to be smiling but I could see the unmistakable signs of madness on their faces.
One of the crew was carrying a bottle of champagne and moved past us. I reached a hand tentatively towards him but had to wrench my hand back as his skin was icy cold and my hand had gone numb. He didn’t even register what I had done and began serving some of the passengers.
We were ordered to split up into teams and search the rest of the ship. I was partnered with two stony face soldiers and another scientist whose name was Chloe. We began making our way along our deck past the lifeboats that lined the ship. There was constant chatter over the radios as the different groups were sharing what they discovered
I called one of the soldiers over after spotting a trail of blood that led down a flight of stairs. We carefully followed the trail for the next few minutes until it abruptly ended at a large oven in the kitchen. We wrenched open the oven to discover the blackened remains of one of the passengers.
We were about to close the door when his head turned towards us. His eyes opened and his eyes locked onto mine. I backed away as the heat from the oven melted his eyes and they dripped out of their sockets.
Chloe slammed the oven door shut while we processed what we had witnessed. We were brought back to reality when screams of pain were heard over the radio. The soldiers turned and began moving back towards the way we had come.
Chloe and myself hurriedly followed behind them as we didn’t want to be left alone. We were moving along at a steady pace when we were suddenly attacked from all sides.
The passengers and crew appeared out of nowhere and the soldiers fired sporadically at them. I watched as one of the crew members head seemed to explode as a bullet ripped it open. The crew member continued moving even with parts of his brain falling out of his skull.
The two soldiers were overwhelmed as there were just too many of them. I watched as one of the soldiers was pushed to the ground and his mouth was wrenched open. One of the crew members stood over him and then opened his mouth. A flood of what looked like sea water began pouring out of his mouth and into the soldiers mouth.
The other soldier was grabbed by the throat and I watched as his face began to turn extremely white. Ice flakes began appearing all across his skin. Within seconds his head was cocooned in a ball of ice. His body was dropped to the ground and his head cracked into hundreds of pieces of ice that went sliding across the floor. I almost stood on a piece that contained one of his eyeballs before kicking it across the floor.
I grabbed onto Chloe’s hand and we ran away with their footsteps following behind. We passed numerous scenes of carnage as the other groups had been slaughtered. We kept having to change direction after finding a group of passengers blocking our path.
We must have got turned around completely as we arrived back at the corridor where the two soldiers had died earlier. I stepped over their bodies and tried not to look down at what was left of them. I had started moving down the corridor when I heard a scream from Chloe.
I spun around to discover that the two soldiers had grabbed onto her legs and she was unable to move. I rushed back to help as the soldiers attempted to sit up. I tried to remove the hand of the headless soldier but his hand was icy cold and seemed frozen to her skin.
Chloe looked at me and told me to run as the soldiers dragged her to the ground. I turned and fled while listening to her screams get brutally silenced by whatever they did to her. Her screams have haunted my dreams ever since as I keep imagining what they did to her that day.
I rushed back on the deck and was relieved to see the gangway was still in place. I ran down it and told them to move it away from the ship. They were reluctant to move it but finally listened to me.
The gangway had just been retracted when they appeared on the deck. They lined the sides of the ships staring down at us. I could see many of the people who had gone on board with me now standing alongside them. I refused to look at Chloe who now stood front and centre and her piercing blue eyes were looking right at me.
It has been a few weeks now and they are still standing there. They seem to be waiting for the gangway to let them off the ship and so they can finally end their journey that started over a century ago. I don’t want to know what will happen if we let them off and frankly I don’t want to know.