“I’m going,” the steward said as he and another ran down the flooding hallway towards the mailroom, pool, and monsters. No one ever saw the men again.
“Foolish,” Stead shook his head sadly.
Several of the stewards locked the doors of the dining salons, and the hammering to be let out was faint and inconsistent.
“Why have they been locked away?” Maggie Brown asked, “What is going on with you? The water is coming.”
“Oh, mum, they’ve tried to rush the stairs several times, and someone will be injured. Some of the more daft ones have tried to run the other way, splashing along; it’s more’n a bit of madness ‘ere,” the stewardess said, shaking her head.
Daniels nodded and patted her arm as he told the others, “We’ve no practice except for life boat drills, and we’ve been told we must follow orders. I mean when we get orders….”
“We have told them to relax and wait,” the stewardess, Alicia said. She saw that some of the people before her were soaking wet. “Is the water rising? It’s still coming up? Is it true?”
“Just back there it begins. In a bit, this will flood, too,” John told her, “and you have to get everyone to the boat decks. It is just as Mrs. Brown said.”
“Oh, Sir, the ship is unsinkable. Surely, it will not come up this far? We have only to wait….”Alicia acted confused.
“The ship is sinking. We have confirmed it just now,” Maggie Brown said, as she got right to the point. “Get everyone topside.”
“I shall when we have the orders. We’re a’waiting the First Class to board,” Alicia snapped, thinking that these people were a prime example of why they could not go up yet.
“Send the rest to their rooms. They will not make it. We haven’t the room for all the passengers. There are not enough boats. Lock it down, and go up, yourselves,” Daniels told Alicia, making a decision.
“Not enough boats?” Karl all but yelled, “How can that be?”
As they argued, there came a queer sound from the other hallway, a sliding, thumping noise that was loathsome to hear. What could make sure a curious sound? It sounded huge, and from what they had just seen, the group of first class passengers was afraid to know.
Karl peeked around the corner, looked far down the hall, and saw light sucked into a wavering brownish-yellow mist from which several, huge, slimy masses emerged. Firemen, maids, cooks, and passengers ran from the hallway, screaming. What Karl saw was impossible, but it was real. Some of the men fought the creatures.
“Run upstairs,” John shouted.
Instead, the fleeing third class and crewmen ran to the other rooms, urging the rest to follow so they could lock the doors. Alicia motioned as many as possible to take the stairs instead, but it was chaos, and the noises grew louder as did the screams.
“What is it?” Alicia demanded.
Jets of blood misted and sprayed the floors, walls, and ceilings.
“Vermis.” Howard stood, unable to move as he saw the new terror approaching. It was horrible, and yet, he was fascinated, despite his fear. Three worms appeared from the brown-yellow mist, undulating and sliding on the shining, white slime they excreted from their bodies. The one in the lead humped and hunched along, its large mass thumping on the floor.
There was no mistaking which end was the front although it was eyeless. One raised its vile head and opened its mouth, gnawing at the air. The maw was a black hole filled with ichors and rows of tiny, sharp teeth that were already blood- stained. It did not make a sound with this oral cavity or lungs, but everyone could hear the infernal bellow as thoughts, ora cacophony in the mind.
Howard covered his ears, but it did not help; his ears did not hear the noise. He would have done better to claw the brain from his skull. How could he hear the clamor in his head?
A woman ran by, and the huge worm snatched her off her feet, bit her in half, and swallowed her in two gulps. As the worm swallowed, the large lumps of her body slid towards the other end beneath its grayish-pink, wet skin. A stream of white slime oozed outwards as the worm wriggled with satisfaction.
Helen Monypenny screamed as she ran after Maggie Brown, almost tripping up the stairs. They did not look back.
The big worm contracted his body and let loose a most foul stench of gas and then contracted harder and out popped a sludge of slimy feces so he could have room to digest the women he had just eaten. The fetid pile of bowel slime smelt reptilian, musky, and vile.
“No, oh this cannot be,” Charles Whitmore moaned. He, as the rest, had seen the frogs and spider-things, as well as the horrible fish outside the ship, but these creatures were so massive that they could not have entered with the water and thus, could not be sliding along the hallways. He thought maybe his mind had snapped; in fact, he hoped that it had so this would not be real.
“What folly is this?” Alicia asked Daniels as if he and his group had brought the creatures.
“Monsters,” someone said.
“So I see. Monsters indeed.”
“And there is a giant fish outside, frog things that have tongues that will take one’s skin, a small fish with a lizard’s tail that is like deadly piranhas, and the vermis here,” Howard said, “and these are the least frightening of all the creatures.”
“Worse? I’d rather not see. I shall stay with my charges,” Alicia said. The stewardess, her lips trembling, ran after the passengers, stopped to help a woman with a child, and closed herself into the lounge with the rest. The doors slammed closed.
William Stead motioned the rest to follow.
Jenny Cavendar ran, but one of the behemoths slipped onto her path, blocking her way. She froze; only her quick thinking saved her. If it swung to its left, it would swallow her. She moved only her eyes, looking to the rest for help.
Although she had thought clearly and rationally, her large eyes darted all about; in seconds she would panic and run, and would be eaten alive.
“How does it sense? Can it smell or see?” asked Karl. “We have to know that, Hurry. Think.”
“I do not think it can see.” Howard waved his arms trying to get the creature to turn away from Jenny. When he stomped his feet, it violently lifted its body and slammed itself towards him. “Vibration.”
“Step lightly and unevenly, Jenny,” Peter called to his daughter. Holding her breath, she tiptoed away from the creature.
Peter Cavendar dodged one of the monsters in his way, hugged a wall, and grasped Jenny’s arm to pull her along as they both made it to the stairway.
Howard was glad he was correct in thinking vibrations were the key, and he did feel heroic, but Howard was very afraid.
Little red-haired Bernice panicked when one of the big worms brushed against her, leaving thick, viscous slime upon her body. Had she stayed still, she might have been fine, but the feel of the slime and the musty, dead-mouse smell of the worm terrified her, so she tried to push it away and dart back towards the water.
Her hands sank into the thick goo.
She shuddered with revulsion.
“Not that way,” Daniels yelled.
“Come on, Bernice. Stay against the wall and slide back this way. You will be fine,” Stead called to her from the stairs. Exasperated, he wanted to run and help the girl but was petrified to leave the bottom stair. It was all he could do to keep from running up with the women.
“Oh, Bernice….” Jenny watched from the stairs, horrified.
The worm shuddered with a disgusting show of excitement and pleasure when Bernice pressed on its skin. It turned and opened its mouth, inhaling her scent as an aperitif. Saliva dripped as the rows of teeth beckoned.
The other two worms, sharing the excitement, bawled, the noise echoing in everyone’s head.