Cruise ship: Galley w/ @zaidshair
Screams. Shrill yowls, sad sobs, long wails. The cries in the dark stuck to him, sticky as the saltwater. The worst nightmare Tej had in awhile. Another deep whine came from the... ship? Angled into deep water, the boat rolled slightly. Not on the waves, but as if to turn over in its sleep.
Tej slung his backpack over a shoulder, the one he'd clutched before opening his front door. But how the hell did he end up here? (It couldn't be real, none of it.) The urge to escape a sinking ship spurred him on (when the fuck would he wake up?? what the fuck was on his wrist?). Tej clawed and crawled his way over an incline with waterlogged hands slipping along the floor that had become a wall. Voices shouted from around the corner. The partially capsized boat tilted the galley on its side. Tej knelt down to look through the door at the people below. They bobbed and treaded water to stay afloat in the middle of a rush of rising ocean water and various kitchen items, like pans and pots, splatters of buoyant colorful vegetables.
'Here!' A woman yelled frantic to see Tej, with her hand jutted upwards. 'Help us, please!'
A fever swept through him, one that eradicated old feelings and infected Tej with a new anger that ached terribly. Yet he could not resist to twist directly into those chills of dull pain. "Zaid!" A bark of an unpleasant surprise and bitterness. It had been months since they'd seen each other.
A shock of ice water ran through his chest. Zaid could drown. (Zaid could drown!) A tendon jumped and tensed at the hinge of his jaw. Tej wanted to watch Zaid gasp and sputter. Look on as those large brown eyes filled with terror, and with the memory of someone else who didn't stand a fighting chance in the ocean. Then fall lifeless as an anvil to the bottom of this watery little kitchen-coffin. The woman splashed closer and matched Tej's deeply furrowed brow. 'Hey! Don't just stand there, help us out of here! Give me your hand!'
"I'll help you." Deliberate words, a line drawn. He'd help her, but Zaid was on his own. "There's shelving there," he pointed out, located underwater and against the wall. "Swim to it. You can climb up and reach my hand, I'll pull you up." He held a small handle near the frame of the door to anchor himself first, then leaned over to try and grasp the woman's arm above the wrist.
(Now the racing of his heart, the pounding in his head that this was real. Still a nightmare, but fucking hell, this was real.)