Chapter 6 – Inside the Trench
Day drifted into night, night melted into day, and they continued on their journey along the EAC, into the deeper ocean. Gill found himself feeling tired, irritable and ill, doubtlessly the effect of being exposed to the pollutants within the ocean once more. He tried to ignore these feelings. They were all alive, they were with friends, and they were making reasonable progress. The others seemed to be feeling sick as well. He often heard Gurgle whimpering about how ill he felt, only to be greeted with heartfelt agreement from one or more of the others. Gill considered snapping at them, telling them not to make such a fuss, but stopped himself. They had lived their entire lives inside a regulated environment, and had never been sick before. They did not know what it was like, did not seem to realise that it was only a temporary inconvenience, but found it to be an unknown and horrible experience, all the more so because they didn't know what to expect. It would take them time to adjust. Besides, they almost certainly felt a lot worse than Gill did himself, having never developed a natural immunity to the pathogens within the ocean. He knew that they were feeling really ill when a school of dolphins passed by them, creating a huge number of bubbles as it did so, and Bubble's didn't even comment on it, let alone try to follow the trail of bubbles. Which was just as well, as Gill was convinced that they would be a lot safer if they all stayed together.
In time, they came to the deeper ocean end of the East Australian Current. There was a large trench just beyond it. The fish that had escorted them safely here told them that they should swim through the trench, not over it. Gill was glad about that. In their current state, he doubted that any of them, with the possible exception of himself, would have been able to swim over it anyway, and it would have presented a huge problem for Peach and Jacques even if they had been in perfect health. So they said their thanks and their farewell to their guides, and made their way inside the trench.
Progress inside the trench was slow. The others had to stop several times, as they were feeling sick, and needed to purge their bodies of the toxins that had been building up within them. Gill assured them that this was a good sign, that their bodies were gradually adjusting to their new environment, and were trying to eliminate the dangerous pathogens from within them. This seemed to make the others feel a little better, although they were so distracted by their own illnesses and associated miseries that they were unable to take much notice of anything Gill said to try to reassure them. And, Gill reminded himself, it was probably better that, if they had to get ill, they would do so inside of the trench. This meant that they could not be attacked from a predator from the sides, and they would be able to clearly see one coming from the front, meaning that the only real danger came from behind them. Gill kept a constant look out, anyway, just to make sure. But there did not appear to be any other creature within the trench apart from the Tank Gang themselves, and the jellyfish far above them. Having never seen jellyfish before, the Tank Gang stared up at them in wonder, when they stopped to get some food and rest inside of the trench.
"Those creatures are amazing," said Peach, staring up at them in awe, "and so pretty."
"Pretty but deadly, just like the ocean itself," said Gill, "you wouldn't want to get close to one of them, the tentacles can give a fish nasty stings which could prove fatal, especially in our weakened state."
"But we'll be safe down here?" Peach asked, "Won't we?"
"We should be," said Gill, staring up at the tentacles of the jellyfish above them, "and the good thing is, no predator will be able to attack us from above, not without first having to fight its way through a whole jellyfish forest, anyway."
"That sounds familiar," said Peach.
"Hmm, 'a whole jellyfish forest,' yes," said Gill thoughtfully, "it does, doesn't it? And I know why. When Nigel was telling us all about Sharkbait's Dad coming to rescue him, he said something about him fighting his way through a whole jellyfish forest on his way to Sydney."
"That means we're going in the right direction, then?" said Peach.
"Yes, retracing back the way he came to find Sharkbait," said Gill, "with any luck, once we get out of this trench we will be near to our new home."
"That's good," said Peach, and stared up at the jellyfish above them for a long moment, "We'll have to get going again, soon, won't we Gill?"she asked.
"Yes," Gill replied, "the longer we wait, the less they'll feel like getting moving again. They don't understand what it means to be ill, and part of them just wants to stop, lie down and wait until it passes. But we can't do that, not for long, we have to keep moving to keep ourselves safe."
"I'll go and tell the others, then," said Peach.
"Good," replied Gill, "the sooner they get moving again, the better they should start to feel."
Gill knew that they were all unwell since none of them complained, not even Gurgle, when he said that it was time to get moving once more. Instead, without a word, they started to make their way through the trench once more, without their usual squabbling. Gill found that he actually missed their constant arguing, as it had, in some ways at least, been a reassuring aspect of the Tank Gang; that they would argue constantly, but would always support each other whenever one of them was in need. As it was, progress continued to be slow, but steady. When night fell, they others stopped and slept, while Gill guarded alone. He stared up at the jellyfish above him, feeling tired, but knowing that he was the only one who would be able to fight off any predator that might threaten his little gang. At least he was starting to feel less ill than he had done previously. And he hoped that a good night's rest would help the recovery process for the rest of the Tank Gang.
It seemed to. As the early morning sun's rays could be seen shining far above them, peeking through the jellyfish forest, so the Tank Gang had returned to bickering and arguing with each other once more. Gill smiled silently to himself upon hearing them squabbling. It meant that they were feeling better, if they were well enough to argue again. And the edge of the trench was in sight, although far in the distance. He pointed this out to his little gang, and said that they could rest once more when they reached the edge of the trench. This appeared to give them renewed vigour, as they seemed to make their way towards it with an increasing enthusiasm, energy and sense of purpose.
They moved on, as the sun climbed higher in the sky, and the jellyfish forest slowly thinned out. Gill realised that he was pushing the Tank Gang to their limits in their current state, but assured them that they would have a chance to rest as soon as they were out of the trench. They reluctantly agreed to keep going. Gill himself was feeling the lack of sleep starting to affect him, and hoped that Peach at least would be well enough to keep guard when they next needed to rest, as he really did need to catch up on his sleep if he was going to be able to lead the Tank Gang on to their destination. And so, as they continued on their way, the Tank Gang constantly bickering and arguing with each other, Gill smiled silently to himself, secretly finding their squabbling very reassuring.
They reached the edge of the trench. They practically collapsed from exhaustion. Yet it seemed that they had made it through the worst of their illnesses, and were on the way to making a full recovery. But they needed to rest if they were to do so. Gill offered to go and find some herbs for them, to help with the healing process, and then swam above the little group, hoping to get a better view from above.
That was when he noticed the barracuda. He was sure that it hadn't been there even a moment before, but now it was just staring at him, eyes lacking any form of intelligence, a mind that thought of nothing except answering the most basic of needs. And right now its most basic of needs was the need to feed. Gill knew that he could not reason with it, could not intimidate it, could not hope to trick it, for all it was thinking about, looking at him, was that he was food, just waiting to be consumed.
"We're coming to help you Gill," came Bloat's voice.
"No," Gill insisted, his voice barely more than a whisper, "stay down, all of you, it's the only chance you've got in your present state. Gurgle, tell the others that I'm the only one who might have a chance against this thing right now."
"But Gill…" came Gurgle's worried voice.
"You made a promise to me, Gurgle," Gill reminded him.
"I…he's right," said Gurgle, sounding resigned, "we should all stay down. He's the only one of us that has even the smallest chance against that creature right now."
"But…" that was Peach's voice.
"Drab colours, no interest in chatting, large fish with very sharp teeth," Gill said in the same tone, "exactly the type of fish that I instructed you all to avoid. Peach?"
"Yes Gill?" she whispered back.
"If something happens to me, remember your promise, make sure that they all reach a place of safety."
"But I…"
"You promised, Peach," Gill reminded her.
"Yes Gill," she said, sounding defeated.
That was the last thing that Gill heard before the creature lunged for him. Gill jinked out of the way just in time, swimming as fast as he could away from the trench. The most important thing was to get the barracuda away from the Tank Gang, who would have barely had a chance of surviving a barracuda attack when they were in perfect health, never mind in their current weakened state. And so Gill swam further and further away from the entrance of the trench, knowing that the most important thing right now was to get the barracuda as far away from his friends as possible, so that it would no longer be a danger to any one of them.
Even if it cost him his life.
