2: Underneath A Thousand Skies

214 Vixen Above, Mensao Below (28)

"What?" Ye Minzhe asked, stunned.

The information came so sudden and so fast, that he couldn't process it at all.

Song Jia paced back and forth, muttering under her breath. The rest of them watched her while sitting down, their expressions showing varying stages of disbelief. Only Ye Minzhe looked calm, simply leaning against the wall and observing Song Jia.

Although he had been surprised by her words, he never doubted her. Subconsciously, he had already believed her words.

"When the entire cruise ship went under a power black out earlier, it shook right? I should have already noticed it before, why did the ship shake? And then there was the fact that we haven't seen any of the crew...and most passengers are gone..."

"Ye Jia, what are you talking about?" Gong Qiye said impatiently. "If the ship was sinking, shouldn't we have been notified about it before?"

Song Jia looked at him. "How could you? Didn't you and most of our classmates locked yourselves inside the casino? In casinos, where the noise of people and machines in the gaming section can become overwhelming, it's practically a requirement to use sound-absorbing fabric!

Even if there was an emergency alarm, without a crew staff coming inside to alert you, would you even be able to hear it?"

Gong Qiye was suddenly speechless.

"Then Ye Jia, what about you and the others who weren't locked in with us?" Ouyang Che sounded doubtful. "How come you didn't hear it as well?"

"Teacher Gu and I were locked inside an elevator between decks, the walls would have insulated other sounds from us. With Wen Yan and Sheng Li...I don't know what game they were playing, to have not noticed it. Maybe they were playing loud music? But when their other friends went out, why did only one come back as a zombie? Could it be that the original intention was to warn them that the ship was sinking? But he had been bitten along the way..."

Song Jia closed her eyes and tried to think. "The ship's sinking probably happened before the outbreak, so they were already starting to evacuate the passengers...but before they could sound the alarm and alert the entire ship, the zombie outbreak happened, so all hell broke loose. That's why those at the lower decks haven't been evacuated entirely, and some passengers didn't know about the situation."

Her thoughts were a mess, which was why her words weren't organized, making those who listened to her become even more confused.

Song Jia suddenly stopped and opened her eyes. "That's right, the sounds I've heard probably aren't fireworks at all! Flare guns...maybe normal guns fired at an interval of one minute...those aren't the sounds of fireworks, they were emergency distress signals!"

Ouyang Che was still confused. He went back to the original question.

"Then what does the ship's shaking had to with it sinking?"

Song Jia shook her head. "Didn't I tell you, not even tsunamis would affect the cruise ship? Unless there was a very heavy storm or a typhoon...but when we were out on the lifeboat deck earlier, we didn't hear any thunderstorms. It wasn't even raining, so why should the ship shake? That's what I couldn't understand...until I saw the rat earlier."

Ding Xiuixiu visibly shuddered.

"What about it?" she asked.

"I remembered that when the lowest part of the ship—the bilge area—is flooded by water, it would cause the ship to shake and tilt, because the water inside the hull moves back and forth. The loss of buoyancy also makes the ship susceptible to the waves outside. Rats usually stay at the bilge area, the lowest part, but if it gets filled with water, then they would run to the upper decks."

The blood drained from Gong Qiye's face. "So the ship is really sinking? But what caused it to sink in the first place? No, that's not important for now. First, we should go to the top deck as quickly as possible and have somebody rescue us!"

"No, we need to rescue Teacher Gu and the other students at Deck 11 first!"

At Song Jia's words, all of them fell silent.

Ding Xiuixiu hesitatingly said, "We should call for rescue first, before we come back for them. What if it was already too late? At the very least, once we're rescued, we could help them..."

Gong Qiye stood up. "Ye Jia, do you know how far Deck 11 is? Do we even have the time to go back there? We're already in Deck 15, and there are only two decks left! Xiuxiu is right, we should be rescued first. If the ship is sinking, then that means we have no time left. We have to go!"

Long Aotian agreed with them. "If we go back for them, what if the ship sinks before we can reach them? We need to call for somebody to rescue us first."

Song Jia pursed her lips as she stayed silent. Human nature was just like this. Once their own life was threatened, their sense of empathy would be overwhelmed by their instinct for survival. After all, it was a difficult thing to risk one's life to save others. Not to mention the five of them, even if it was Teacher Gu and the rest of their classmates that were standing in front of her right now, if she asked the same question, Song Jia thought that they would probably respond with the same answer.

"Ye Minzhe, clear the remaining two decks as quickly as possible, and try to contact your...our father to rescue us. I'll go back to call Teacher Gu and the rest of our classmates."

Ye Minzhe didn't even think twice about it before his hand grabbed her wrist.

"No!"

Song Jia tried to persuade him.

"We've already cleared the decks from zombies below, so if I run fast enough, I'll probably catch up to you in no time."

"Then I'll come with you!"

Song Jia looked at Ye Minzhe. She was stunned. She didn't think that he of all people would volunteer to go with her on a suicide mission. Wasn't he scared of risking his own life?

"Brother Minzhe, we can't clear the remaining two decks without you!" Ouyang Che said helplessly. "And Ye Jia, just come with us. It's not as if we're abandoning Teacher Gu and the rest of them. Once we're rescued, we'll definitely come back."

Ouyang Che clearly disliked her before, but when thinking of Ye Jia risking her life, he suddenly became anxious.

"That's right, Ye Jia, don't be stubborn. Come with us first," Gong Qiye added.

Song Jia shook her head. "No, it'll be too late by then."

She turned towards Ye Minzhe.

"Ye Minzhe, listen to me. If you come with me, then all of us will never get out of here alive. I need you to pave the way up, you're the only one who can do that. Once you're done calling for rescue, I'll already be back. So do your best and call for rescue quickly, okay?"