Chapter 25
We swam. God knows how long we swam on for, but it seemed like weeks. Just to try and get as far away from the burning wreck of the HMS Hertford as possible. In reality, I think it was a couple of days. It was just under three thousand miles across the Atlantic in all, but I guestimated we'd already travelled about two thirds of that onboard the ship. Which left a thousand miles to make up on our own. It wasn't too bad. It gave as more than enough time to think, and reflect on what had happened.
Mostly, we went as sharks. It had been a shock at first, taking on the sharks' body, and in particular, its' mind. At first, I wasn't even aware that the morph was complete. I just suddenly experienced a crystal-clear clarity: an absence of everything that was not important to my sharks' brain. I swam slowly in a circle, my decent eyesight, my enhanced olfactory lobes sensitive tuned to one thing: the smell of blood. And this meant one thing to my shark's brain.
Kill.
Eat.
Kill and Eat.
Locate the prey. Search for the smell of blood.
--Guys!--
A voice. But it was not important. Searching for food was important. Kill...and eat. I could smell blood - where was the food?
--Philip! Ferdie! It's Maggie! Where are you guys? Are you even in control of your morphs yet?--
I felt another form brush against me, a rough shape made up of a variety of triangles. I twitched, uncomfortable in the presence of another creature.
--Philip! Is that you? Look, try and snap out of it, would you, guys? We have to get away!--
Philip? Who…?
--Oh!-- I exclaimed, suddenly realising who I was. --Sorry! I suppose I wasn't prepared for the shark's brain.--
Ferdie seemed to have finally gained control of his morph too. --Gosh. That's the second time I've done that,-- he laughed. --Once you get into the animal's brain it's really difficult to switch out of it!-- Then, he went quiet. --Anyone seen Sam?-- he asked, apprehensively.
--Coming up!-- I heard her shout, somewhere behind me.
--Sam!-- cried Ferdie. He swam up to her, briefly touching noses. --Thank god you're ok!-- I swear, if they could, they would be demorphing and embracing each other as humans. I smiled inwardly at the thought of their love for each other.
--I'm always ok, Flawless!-- she laughed. --Come on, we should get away from here as quickly as possible. I don't want us getting hit by any flying debris, or shot at by shipwrecked Controllers!-- The two of them powered their shark bodies into top speed, racing each other like innocent playing children.
Many hours passed. We located our way west, using the shark's ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field as a guide, demorphing roughly every two hours.
--Good endurance, this thing has, huh?-- said Ferdie, after our second remorph. --All I want to do is swim!--
--That's because sharks need to swim in order to survive,-- said Maggie. --They need to keep moving in order to let water pass through their gills so they can absorb oxygen from it. If they stop moving, they can't breath, and they die.--
--Wow,-- said Ferdie. --That's made me paranoid. What if we get trapped inside a tiny cave, or something?--
--I don't think there's too many caves around here,-- smiled Sam. --We'll be fine. This is probably the fastest way of getting anywhere. And it's out of sight of any Controllers who are searching for us. We might try going geese later, but I think it's best to stay as we are for now.--
--What are we going to do once we get to the US?-- asked Maggie.
--That's if we make it,-- I said. --God knows where we'll end up.--
--We'll get there,-- Sam replied. --Even if we end up in Canada, or somewhere else that is totally where we didn't plan to go, we'll work something out.--
And so we swam, our shark bodies doing what they did best. Ferdie and Maggie even tried out their dolphin morphs, which they loved. Their pure and simple childishhappiness couldn't fail to lift our moods. Occasionally we went goose, just for a change, once we'd left the ship well and far behind. It was great to get in the air again. A thousand miles doesn't seem like quite so much when you're the jumbo jet of the bird world.
We satiated our hunger by catching fish and eating them in shark morph, and trying to avoid being in our human bodies for too long at a time. Sam's theory was that the effects of water and mineral deficiency would only take place if we remained human for long enough at a time. I had no idea if this would work or not - there's loads we still don't know about morphing - but I didn't say anything for fear of bringing down morale. And right now, we were in pretty high spirits. Sure, it had been a shock to escape from a military ship just minutes before it blew up, it we'd failed to stop Visser Five. But we'd successfully prevented an important event the Yeerks were planning - one which, if we hadn't succeeded, would have disastrous consequences for the human race.
We made conversation. We talked about the past few hours, Sam's escape, all that. We chatted about our pasts and our backgrounds. I even told Sam and Maggie my greatest shame; my mistake in the army. They accepted it without condition.
--You did well out there, Philip, taking control like that,-- said Sam privately, sometime during the second day of crossing the ocean. It was late evening, and we were flying as geese, watching the setting sun paint beautiful red and gold strokes of colour across the sky ahead of us.
--Yeah, well, I guess…-- I started.
--I know you never wanted to lead,-- she continued. --I knew there was something in your past that stopped you from taking command. But you beat it, Philip. You saved us.--
I couldn't think of an appropriate answer to this, so I said nothing. But I didn't ignore what Sam said. I let her words wash over me, easing my fears. I'd made mistakes in my life. I'd done terrible things due to my own foolishness. I vowed never to take command of a group again, or make any decisions that could get someone hurt. Just days ago, I'd even tried to take my own life.
But during the life-changing events of the last week or so since we'd been rescued by that Andalite, I'd been forced to reassess my position on life. I had to accept what I'd done. We'd all had to leave our pasts behind us, and now it was time for me to do the same. I would never forget my soldiers in Iraq, or what I did to them. I would probably never forgive myself either. But I had to put it behind me, to learn from my mistakes. My memories would haunt me, but I would use them to give me strength. My name still conjured up feelings of shame and embarrassment. But it also gave me my identity. I was Philip Lawless, fool and fugitive. Philip Lawless, who had seen and done terrible things but had greater battles to face now. My friends and I had a world to save.