Cheers

Two days and two nights.

For Webber's squad, hanging outside the hull of the "Northern Wind" and drifting with the waves in the icy seawater, these were the longest, most agonizing seventy-six hours of their lives.

Every minute, every second, was a brutal tug-of-war against strength, cold, hunger, pain, and the ever-present terror of death.

They could not board the massive warship that was so close at hand yet utterly out of reach. Mia's high fever and severe infection, the worsening of Juan's leg injury, and the weakness of the other women and Erich made climbing the wet, swaying rope ladder an impossible task.

Webber and Tom were the only two who still had the strength to try, but they had seen too many tragedies with their own eyes—refugees who attempted the climb, only to run out of strength or be struck by the waves and fall from midair, swallowed in an instant by the current from the ship's stern propellers.

They did not dare take the risk, and they could not abandon their companions.

Their only path to survival was to cling desperately to that rope that held their lives together, and trust that this warship would bring them back to land.

It was a desperate gamble, and the stake was all their lives.

Fortunately, the sailors aboard the "Northern Wind" had not forgotten them.

Though the warship itself was busy sailing, keeping watch, and caring for the refugees crowded on deck, kindhearted sailors still lowered a small bucket over the side from time to time.

Inside was a little broth so thin it had no taste, Black Bread as hard as stone, and even a small bottle of inferior spirits used to wipe the wounded and cool their wounds.

They also threw down some waterproof cloth, rope, and