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At one point during the battle, the ships crew had taken a spare spar that was stored at the base of the ship’s rail. Using it as a battering ram, they tried to push him off the boat and into the sea.

Crying “Leech by a hundred,” he sucked them dry as they crashed to the deck, the spar hitting the deck and rolling to the side. So much power being absorbed by the sphere had caused it to crackle like static electricity. James begins incinerating crewmen simply to release the pressure. The last thing he wanted was to have it explode in his hand.

Fire rages throughout the ship, most of the crew either lies dead or has jumped over the side. A scream from below rips through the air. The Girls!

Racing for the hatch, he sees black smoke billowing up out of it like a chimney. A quick glance around the ship shows it to be almost completely engulfed in flames. Taking a deep breath, he steps through the hatch and begins making his way down to the hold through the black smoke.

Unable to see, he uses the sound of the girls coughing and crying to guide him. “Over here!” he calls to them. “To me!”

A hand reaches out through the thick smoke and takes hold of his shirt. He looks down and sees little Daria there with several other girls in tow. “Where are the others?” he cries out.

“B…b,” she says then a coughing fit robs her voice.

Taking her by the hand, he leads her to the stairs and says, “Go up on top. I’ll get the others.”

A quick nod of her head and she begins leading the others up the stairs.

Coughing badly now, James pulls off his shirt and uses it to try to filter out the smoke. Helping only slightly, he begins working his way further to the back. “Where are you?” he hollers but there’s no answer.

In the thick smoke, he can barely see anything. A crack from above and a portion of the flaming deck falls in, crashing to the bottom of the holds several yards away. “Girls!” he cries again.

Moving as quickly as he dares, he tries to see through the smoke but his eyes are so red and burning now it’s all a blur. Useless, he keeps them closed, only peering out of them every now and then.

Suddenly, he hears coughing from up ahead. The coughing and crying of a small child. Using the sound as a guide, he comes to the barrels he told the girls to hide behind earlier and finds a small girl lying with her head on the chest of a larger. The older girl looks to be unconscious, the smaller one not much better.

“You okay?” he asks her when reaches their side.

The small girl looks up at him with red rimmed eyes and tries to say something but only breaks into a massive coughing fit.

All around them, the heat from the fire is increasing as more of the ship becomes engulfed.

“Can you crawl?” he asks her.

When the coughing spell lets up a little, she manages to nod.

“Follow me then,” he says. Grabbing the older girl, he gets on his hands and lays her across his back. Moving on all fours with an unconscious girl upon his back, he begins leading the other little girl to the stairs.

At this level, the smoke isn’t nearly as bad, though it is still thick. Glancing back every other step, he makes sure the little one is keeping up.

They make it about halfway to the stairs when he suddenly feels the ship lurch slightly and cold seawater flows across the floor. The hold begins to fill with water. He doesn’t have that much time.

“Come on!” he manages to yell to the girl behind him. He removes the girl from his back and then stands up. The water is now about ankle deep and rising. Picking up the unconscious girl, he carries her toward the stairs, the little one following, holding onto his shirt.

As they reach the stairs and start to climb up, the ship lurches again and begins to tilt. Scenes from Titanic run through his head as he climbs the stairs. Before he makes it to the top, another section of the burning deck caves in and lands upon a small stack of barrels lining one wall. He hopes they aren’t flammable.

Clearing the hatch, he sees an inferno all around him. The girls