There were 20 boats floating near by and only one came back. One. Six were saved from the water, myself included. Six out of 1500.
— You don't understand. If we go back, they'll swamp the boat. They'll pull us right down.
— Knock it off. You're scaring me. Come on, girls, grab an oar. Let's go!
— Are you out of your mind? We're in the middle of the North Atlantic! Now, do you people want to live or do you want to die?
— I don't understand a one of you. What's the matter with you? It's your men out there! There's plenty of room for more.
— And there'll be one less on this boat if you don't shut that hole in your face!
— Okay, here we go. She hits the berg on the starboard side, right? She kind of bumps along... punching holes like morse code, ditdit-dit along the side... below the water line. Then the forward compartments start to flood. Now, as the water level rises... it spills over the watertight bulkheads... which, unfortunately, don't go any higher than E deck. So now as the bow goes down... the stern rises up, slow at first... then faster and faster... until finally, she's got her whole ass sticking up in the air. And that's a big ass. We're talking 20, 30,000 tons. Okay? And the hull's not designed to deal with that pressure. So, what happens? She splits, right down to the keel. And the stern falls back level. Then... as the bow sinks it pulls the stern vertical... and then finally detaches. Now the stern section just kind of bobs there like a cork for a couple of minutes... floods, and finally goes under about 2:20 AM... 2 hours and 40 minutes after the collision. The bow section planes away...landing about a half a mile away... going 20, 30 knots when it hits the ocean floor. Pretty cool?
— Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course, the experience of it was... somewhat different.
It will be a spectacular wreck. Too bad no one will be around to see it.
Earth changed in the black sky.
It caught fire.
Part of it seemed to come apart in a million pieces, as if a gigantic jigsaw had exploded.
It burned with an unholy dripping glare for a minute, three times normal size, then dwindled.
“What was that?” Sam looked at the green fire in the sky.
“Earth,” said Elma, holding her hands together.