What’s going on?
The people up on the deck are yelling and screaming. I can’t hear what they’re saying because of the engine noise right next to my ear.
They sound terrified.
The people down here have stopped scooping and are climbing up the ladder to see.
I don’t want to see.
I don’t want anything else to happen. Bibi and I will keep going down here till we drop, but I haven’t got the strength for anything else.
I keep scooping.
‘Jamal, come and see.’
Someone’s yelling at me from the top of the ladder.
It’s Rashida. Thank God. She’s alive.
‘Rashida, come down,’ I say.
She doesn’t hear me. My voice is too tired to shout. It doesn’t matter because I’m moving towards the ladder anyway. I still don’t want to go up, but people behind us do and I’m too exhausted to get out of the way so me and Bibi get pushed up the ladder.
We stagger onto the deck and my mouth falls open.
Towering over us, huge, is a warship.
Some of its guns are longer than our whole boat. Plus I can see rockets with armour-piercing warheads. And machine guns with laser sights.
All pointing at us.
People on our boat are panicking. Some of them are grabbing babies and toddlers and running to the railing and holding them up to the warship.
‘Don’t shoot,’ they’re yelling. ‘There are children on board.’
I’m not panicking.
Even though the warship could blow us out of the water with one press of a button, I’m not scared.
I recognise the warship’s flag. It’s a flag I’ve seen before, on the doctor’s t-shirt in the camp.
I’m shaking all over. I’m laughing and crying at the same time. I grab Bibi and Rashida to share the wonderful news with them.
‘Australians,’ I shout. ‘They’ve come to rescue us. We’re saved.’