Disney and Pixar own Gill, Nemo, and the Tank Gang. Mr. Skimmer, Stroke, Niches, and Chang are mine. I'll stop putting the names of characters in later chapters because this gets too long.
If anyone has been a little disappointed with the wimpy little Gill in chapters 1-3, don't worry. He starts to grow up, and during most of this chapter is a teenage fish. Our poor Uncle Roadkill has been facing many terrible things, but this chapter is the beginning of the end of it. I have no idea where horseshoe crabs live, but I don't think they live anywhere near the Pacific Ocean, so that's not accurate either. I think this chapter would be the most damaged if I fixed the story, and his fin wasn't injured yet.
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Chapter 4: Self-Reliance
The entire experience of living in the unfamiliar rocky area with Niches ended almost the same way it had begun- with me swimming to an unknown destination in open, lonely ocean. This time I was more conscious of my surroundings and I was always on the lookout for gray dots in the distance that could be sharks or dolphins. Even in the middle of a paranoid nightmare, there is just something about the ocean that always makes you feel safe. It could be the gentle back-and-forth rocking motion, the drowsy rhythm, making you feel as if you were home, safe in loving fins. For whatever reason, despite being utterly lost in the great expanse, I managed to remain surprisingly calm and collected. This was the way I liked it, and the way I would always want it- quiet and serene. I could delve into my own mind and feelings, and my mind was the easiest thing to talk to.
I didn't need anyone else to take care of me, I was on my own, and would always be on my own. At this point in my story, I was about the human equivalent of eight years old. Being this independent at this age is surprising, even in our world. Yet somehow, I didn't find it unusual at all.
Although I was free to do whatever I wanted, out in this wide world, I resumed my normal, long-distance swim routine, this time not quite as gleeful. This time around, I took less time for resting and snacking. Yes, I did have a destination, although I didn't know exactly where that destination was. The quiet, thinking moments in the never-ending blue spread were my most treasured moments. They weren't worth wasting, so I cut down on my extra, required activities.
Thankfully, there were still a few blue stones with crevices I could hide in. My entire journey did not go without another encounter with sharks, but every time I saw them again, I made sure to be safe inside a crevice before they approached. One problem I faced was the need to find bigger crevices to accommodate my growing body.
These independent periods were the longest ones, this one stretching the equivalent of seventeen human years. During this long time, I had many experiences with all kinds of creatures. I saw amazingly large schools of fish swimming perfectly in synch, giant tropical turtles, and even saw a few whales in the distance. None of these distant spectators I actually met. I wasn't a part of their lives, except maybe a second of confusion as they looked at me wondering, "What's a fish with a filamentous extension like that doing here?"
For fun, in my mind I made philosophical theories about life above sea level, or I would recall that strangely clinging story inside that destroyed book. Even in my young adult years, I would tell the story over and over in my head. This was possibly because that story was the only good thing I could recall about my childhood. It represented a love inside of me that could never be pursued. My internal optimistic spirit prevented me from ultimately giving up on this field. Every time I entered an area filled with thrown-away human junk, I would scour the pile, looking for another book. Once I managed to find one, but the language was not the one native to my area. This one factor told me that I was very far away from home now.
Sometimes when I grew tired of thinking and remembering, I would take a moment to find a stick and write out some words in the sand. As a child, I thought that maybe when I was older I'd retrace my steps and read my messages, but later I knew the pounding sea must have erased them all.
All this was basically leading up to the future event to come. (At this time, a hundred miles away, destiny was being formed.) However, there is one single event that I believe leads directly to future actions and a new way of thinking for me.
One day, I happened to be exploring a little off the beaten path. I approached a strange object jutting out among the familiar blue rocks. As I got closer to the object, I noticed a mass of horseshoe crabs gathered beneath it. I had never seen horseshoe crabs. This was yet another indication of how far away from the reef I had come.
I did the only thing I could think of to do. With my new attitude of not letting anyone else push me around I had also become a little more bold and friendly. I swam down among the brown teardrop-shaped crabs and tried to communicate with them. "Hello, all of you," I called to them. "Could you possibly tell me where I am?"
They totally ignored me and continued shuffling past.
"Excuse me!" I called, loudly. "I would please like to know where this is!"
Finally, one of the crabs paused to look up at me. "You lost, pretty-boy?"
I gave him my best dirty look. "Look, crabcakes, don't mess with me. By the way, I'm really not that pretty. Get a load of this." I turned to my right side and showed him my torn fin and scars from the slice.
The horseshoe crab shook his upper body. "Yeah right. That just shows how weak you are. You got beat up by somebody."
Not being one for angry exchanges of words, I realized that they weren't going to help me and began to swim away towards the lumpy object in the distance.
"Hey, tropical man, just where you think you're going?" The grumpy horseshoe crab's annoying voice called back to me.
"Anywhere," I called back. "Just as long as it's away from you!"
"No!" he yelled. "Seriously, don't go that way!"
I watched in surprise as the hard-shelled runt came scuttling back up to me.
"See that in the distance? That's Shock Rope Ship. It's very dangerous to go inside of it."
"Then why are you living so close to it?"
"Well, other predators don't like to come near, so we're safe from them, but it's dangerous to be living here."
I shook my head, not believing him. There was really no reason to believe him after hearing the names he had called me. Name-calling was one of my pet peeves, despite my uncanny ability to nickname almost anything. "I don't care. This is the way I'm going. Who says it even is a ship?"
I began to swim closer to the cloudy object and the horseshoe crab followed frantically behind, trying to persuade me to stop and turn back. I would do no such thing, determined to prove to him that I was tougher than I looked. As we neared closer to the object, I could see that it was indeed a ship- a small tugboat sunken in the ocean for many years.
"Hey, Chang!" a voice cried. "Who's your flashy partner?"
Chang, the horseshoe crab, made an about-face and yelled back to his friend. "He's not my partner! I'm trying to get him to go away, but he just isn't. Sheesh, they make 'em stubborn in the south."
There was laughing and some more conversation I ignored. I was captivated by the sunken boat, examining a nearby cargo hold.
Suddenly there was a cry of, "Watch this! I'll get rid of 'em for ya!"
Before I knew it, one of the horseshoe crabs was being catapulted into the water, shooting straight for me. His pointed tail smacked me like a baseball bat, lurching me backwards and straight into the cargo hold. It was just my luck that the force caused the hatch to flap down and lock.
"Oh my God!" Chang's voice yelled. "You hit 'em right into Shock Rope Ship!"
"Well you said you couldn't get rid of 'em," the other crab argued. "That'll surely get rid of 'em."
Alarmed, I glanced around the old rusted boat. It didn't seem dangerous in my mind. Of course there were a few sharp objects around, but those were only mandatory components of the boat. I swam a little further into it. In the back of my mind, I wished I had some extra time to make observations on this human device, but I needed to get back out and get back to my journey.
As I slowly turned a rusted corner, I noticed something's tail hanging out from above. I opened my mouth, ready to call out and hopefully get some answers to my questions that the horseshoe crabs would not provide. Soon, the fish began slithering out of its overhead hole, and I instantly shut my mouth.
It was long and brown colored, with a grumpy kind of frown to its face. Even though I had never seen one before in my life, I knew in an instant that I had come across an electric eel.
As I floated there in shock, more eels slowly crept in from the rusted doorways, the slit floorboards, and the piles of left-behind junk. For a moment, my breath stopped and I nearly coughed. I was entirely surrounded by electric eels. Now, it became clear why the horseshoe crabs had called this place "Shock Rope Ship." I was paralyzed with fear. One or two good shocks from these eels would be enough to kill me, and there already seemed to be at least twenty in the room.
I quickly glanced around, desperately trying to find a free exit as they advanced on me like hungry snakes. In my frantic search, my eyes fell upon something else- a small pull-rope with a sign above it reading "Emergency alarm." In desperation, I grabbed the rope in my snout and pulled it as hard as I could. A loud, shrill noise suddenly erupted from a speaker in the wall. The sudden blast blew the crowd of electric eels backward. Some of the eels retreated back to their piles with their delicate ears ringing.
I tried my best to ignore the grating noise and swan for my life into a little hatch on the side of the wall. As the tunnel continued on, it grew smaller and smaller. I began to see the other side, but the path was now so small it had become apparent that I was going to get stuck.
As the corridor constricted around my body, I told myself to calm down. Thinking only of good things, I relaxed my body and got it to slide more easily. Instead of wigging out and thinking I would never get out of there, I focused entirely on that hole at the end, looming closer and closer with each slide.
The problem was, pipes and tunnels such as this one are made in a circular shape, and Moorish idols are made long and narrow like a pancake. I had plenty of room on the sides, but my head and underbelly were being squashed. This also made it impossible at this point to turn around. If I had even tried to head back and take my chances with the electric eels, I wouldn't have been able to. I could barely move my tail and my "beautiful" filamentous extension was useless, squished onto my back and crumpled. The only things I had to propel me forward were my fins.
For a moment, my positive thinking was broken by a mental comment of "You'll never make it with that injured fin. There's no way it will be enough to pull you out of this tunnel." I told myself that I couldn't waste time thinking like that.
The end was very near, but now I felt that my ribs and head would crack open. Panic surged up, but I pushed it back down, and with one final shove, I popped out of the opening, unharmed. I sighed for a while, and held my aching head for a moment in relief.
However, the rest and relaxation didn't last long. A strong rush of current smashed me back against the wall. This was the back end of Shock Rope Ship. Just past this onrushing current was a hatch in the ceiling, leading back to out to the horseshoe crabs' valley. All I had to do was make it through that current and then out.
My mind doubted if I would be able to have that much fin power after using it so much trying to get out of that tight tunnel. Still, the other side of me urged me forward, saying that I could do it, no matter what the circumstances- look what I had already been through.
After a few analyzing sessions I've come to the conclusion that this was the beginning of my two-sided personality. My two sides were a visual representation of my internal two sides. There was the left side, the unharmed side, the timid, doubtful side that told me I couldn't make it, along with the innocence of purity. There was also the right side, the scarred side, the side that had grown stronger by being wounded and slashed, both mentally and physically. This was the rough side, the side that refused to back down and give in, and slowly it was winning out over the other side.
My fins pumped furiously, and I wagged back and forth, shaking my tail with all the might I could scrape up. Coughs rose up in my gills, but I pushed these back down, concentrating on my movement and the pounding of my heart. I had never worked so hard in my life, fighting violently with the stinging current and dragging a crumpled filamentous extension along behind me. Before I knew it, I flung myself out of the hole in the roof and I was at last free of Shock Rope Ship.
The crowd of horseshoe crabs below looked up at me and murmured, "Ooooooh…" in unison.
Chang scuttled up in fascination. "Wow, I don't believe it. No other fish has ever gone into Shock Rope Ship before and lived to tell about it. You got real lucky, tropical man. Did you even see the…"
"…Eels?" I finished. "Yeah, there was a whole roomful."
"I can't believe you're alive…" Chang marveled.
I coughed a little bit and tried to fix my filamentous extension. "Well, what did I tell you? I'm tougher than I look." With that comment, I turned my tail fin and swam away past the ship into the future.
The horseshoe crabs sighed in shock and disappointment.
I only stopped for a short while after that and continued straight to my unknown destination, however now I was aware of my own strength. I knew that I could make a difference in this world. I might have only been a little fish with half a fin, but I could be very strong if I wanted to be.
This next crucial point shaped the next experience. One journey was coming to a close, and a new one was waiting to begin. This was the incredible, complicated experience in which I was to meet my destiny, looming bright, but ringed by darkness ahead of me.