Archive of Our Own

The ship lurched from side to side, the unexpected motion sending him flying. Leonardo hit the wall, scrambling to his feet. With a firm grip on the containers full of merchandise that were stacked next to each other in several rows, he moved to the nearest window.

Lightnings crisscrossed the pitch black sky, the shine so bright it made the raindrops visible. It thundered, the sound so deep it vibrated his bones. A wave rose from the ocean, blocking out his vision completely.

The ship twisted as waves crashed into it from different sides. The force caused Leonardo to let go of the container he had been holding onto. He didn’t get the chance to hold onto something else before the ship tilted to one side dangerously and he slid on the floor. He crashed into another container with a hollow, metallic thud, his breath knocked out of him momentarily. He shook his head, thankful for the hardness of his shell.

The ship tilted more, the gravity pushing him to the container more and more as the stern disappeared deeper and deeper into the ocean, the ship tilting sixty degrees more than it should.

The belts holding the container on the rear side of the ship stretched as far as they could. Further than they could.

Another wave crashed into the boat, sending tremors through the hull.

With a loud rip, the belts snapped.

Leonardo yelped as he threw himself to the right, just barely escaping being crushed by thirty tons of cargo. He caught himself on one of the parts of the snapped lashing belt. He slid down the floor a little before the strap stretched fully. The other end, which was mounted on the wall, screeched but held.

The force of gravity from one container crashing to the other caused the belts that were keeping the container he had been standing on before to snap as well, and in a cascade the containers went down, the force getting bigger and bigger with each added weight, until they collided with the vessel’s aft – and went right through.

To shell with turtle luck, Leonardo thought, staring at the hole in the space where used to be a wall just seconds ago. All of the containers spilled into the ocean and water took their place quickly.

The boat was sinking.

For a moment, he wondered how much he would risk revealing himself to humans if he went on the deck. But there was no way they missed something as critical as a literal hole in the ship, and definitely not when the ship had been almost halfway underwater for the past few minutes even before the water started going inside. Anyone sane would have evacuated by now.

Worst comes to worst, if someone saw him, people would attribute his existence to adrenaline and possible almost-dying psychosis.

Going up was not going to be easy, but it was better than risking being trapped under the ship.

The water was rapidly rising.

Leonardo gripped the binding belt with both hands and started climbing higher. It was a slow ascent because the boat shook as waves crashed into it from all sides, causing the belt and him with it to sway. The windows on the sides of the hull cracked under pressure, flooding the space faster.

The boat shook again, harder this time, then started twisting to the right. Leonardo yelped as gravity shifted all around him, the inclination of the ship declining a little. His shell banged into the wall and he groaned, but his grip on the belt stayed strong. Not waiting until the ship stabilizes, he continued climbing up. It was easier because now he could lean his feet against solid ground – or, to be precise, a wall for his right foot and the floor for his left foot.

The ship started inclining again, then sharply declined. He yelled as the ground disappeared beneath him, then hissed once his feet and knees collided with it again. The ship groaned and squealed. Leonardo narrowed his eyes, his senses going haywire, as the ceiling above him collapsed.

A well-timed lighting illuminated a boom of a crane. The crane that used to be mounted to the deck, he realized with growing horror. The metallic structure was twisted and dented as it made its descent down, deeper into the hull. Leonardo was forced to slide down, closer to the water, to avoid it. He looked around frantically, deciding that the best way to get up would be by climbing the crane.

At that moment, the ceiling above him caved in. He didn’t get a chance to move as the crane’s telescopic boom crashed down. While he managed to dodge the construction, it caused him to step right into the way of the swinging hook.

The hook collided with his head. He staggered back, the ground disappearing from beneath him as gravity overtook him. He blacked out just as his body hit the water.

It was unnaturally, blissfully silent.

And everything hurt.

Immediately, Leonardo was on high alert. He blinked a few times, but the darkness surrounding him didn’t go away. He waved his hands around, frowning when the motion was slower than it should have been.

Something collided with his hip and sent him floating. Or it would have, had his feet not been wedged between rocks and a piece of metal. His motion was stopped with a jerk.

Understanding filled him, his mind clearing and his memories returning. He narrowed his eyes as he searched around, but he could barely see anything in the raving ocean. The currents tried to sweep him away, into different directions all at once. Above him, the storm was still raging.

The storm…

Another piece of wreckage hit his shell and he let out an involuntary gasp. While they could stay underwater way longer than any human thanks to their biology, he had no idea how long he had been unconscious. It was improbable he would drown, but Leonardo still didn’t want to risk it. At the moment, staying underwater was unwise.

By now, his eyes had acclimatized to the darkness. He still had to grope around a lot, but crouching and feeling the ocean floor was easy to do. The rock was buried deep in the floor, so he focused on the metallic piece that must have been a part of the ship at one point. It only required some twisting back and forth before the metal shifted and he was able to wriggle his feet free. He swam up, barely dodging the various wreckage. He could see the outline of the ship not so far away from him, and he was only glad he wasn’t trapped inside. Once he was in the water, sinking, the currents must have dragged him down and away.

He managed to break the surface, promptly regretting it. Raindrops hit his face with unexpected brutality, waves pouring over him. The sky was still dark, the storm relentless. The ocean flung a piece of wreckage at him, the wooden plank hitting him right in his temple. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he went limp. The ocean immediately claimed his body, pulling him underwater.

It was only seconds before his consciousness returned, but the water had already managed to drag him further away from the ship. Deciding that staying underneath was safer than swimming directly on the surface, Leonardo headed for the ship. By now, it completely laid on its starboard, the port sticking out of the water. Leonardo swam to the left side of the ship, swimming along the hull until he found rungs that were attached to the ship. He climbed the ladder, reaching the top quickly. Holding onto the railing, Leonardo jumped on the deck. He remembered seeing lifeboats hidden by the parapet when he first boarded the boat. His ability to stay underwater for a prolonged period of time and swim notwithstanding, his stamina was limited. He was in the middle of the ocean and the only thing he saw far and wide was water, he had no idea how long he might be stranded.

He started going down the deck, feeling around with one hand while his other firmly held the parapet. The boat swayed lightly, the waves sweeping over the railing and dousing him from time to time.

It felt like the storm was mocking him.

With each step he took, his frustration grew bigger and bigger. This would be way easier if he could see.

Something clicked in his brain and he stopped, reaching for his shell cell. The water damaged the screen and his signal was non-existent, but when he clicked the built-in flashlight, it lit up.

“Donatello, you’re a lifesaver,” he muttered, staring in awe at the yellow cone of light. It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.

He pointed the light towards the upper part of the deck where he came from, glad that he hadn’t missed anything in the dark. He continued his descend, stopping only after a few more steps.

Safely tucked underneath the railing was an inflatable lifeboat, still in its protective casing. Without hesitating, Leonardo tucked the shell cell into his belt, the flashlight still on. He used his katana to carefully slash the straps, both the ones that were keeping the casing firmly closed and the ones that attached it to the railing.

He was ready to crack the casing open when he noticed the big, bold letters on the white case that said TO OPERATE: THROW OVERBOARD. After sheathing his katana, Leonardo looked around himself. He had done this all one-handed, still holding onto the parapet’s railing, but now he needed to let go. The ship’s tilt wasn’t so sharp that he would immediately slide down, but the deck was wet. He didn’t want to slip on accident. Deciding that he had to count on his training, he let go. He picked up the lifeboat, making sure to hold it according the THIS WAY UP warning written on the case. Surprisingly, the lifeboat itself wasn’t that heavy. Carefully, he threw the lifeboat over the railing.

He couldn’t hear it hit the water, couldn’t even see it until he shone his shell cell directly on the water surface. The ocean level was way closer than when he climbed up, he noted.

The case fell apart once it hit the water, the lifeboat started inflating on its own, swiftly growing bigger and bigger. Seeing to reason to stay on the still sinking ship, he jumped back into the water, swimming to the lifeboat that had been dragged surprisingly far away from the ship in such little time. He worried for a moment that it might not withstand the storm, but it stayed afloat.

Leonardo didn’t climb inside. Instead, he took the cord that was attached to the lifeboat and wrapped it around his torso, tying it securely.

He was not staying on the surface in a storm as crazy as this one. Not when he kept seeing flashes of black and red in the corners of his eyes, not when a part of him desired to grab his katana.

The turtle dived under. All sounds faded away and he closed his eyes, chasing away the unpleasant memories, keeping the voice that was whispering to him that he should have been trapped under that ship quiet. He tried to focus on his surroundings, tried to feel which way to go, but as usual for the past few weeks, the instinct that had been guiding him before stayed silent.

Maybe it never even worked in the first place. Look where it got them, where it got him.

In the end, he picked a direction at random and started swimming. The added weight of the lifeboat slowed him down. The waves didn’t help either. He felt constant tugging at the rope, the force of the storm kept pulling him up. It took a lot of strength to fight the storm to stay under, but he managed somehow.

He swam until he ran out of breath. He went to the surface to get some air, the waves immediately taking hold of him and yanking him from side to side. The cargo ship was nowhere to be seen and neither was any land. With a huff, Leonardo dived back under, heading deeper.

The currents fought him. Above him, the waves catapulted the lifeboat in the air, and him with it. He was hauled up, closer to the surface where the currents were much stronger. He had no time to react, to even to try to swim deeper again, before the ocean seized him. Within seconds he couldn’t tell which way was up or down. The ocean flung him from side to side mercilessly. Leonardo moved his limbs, kicking with all his might, but the water was stronger. He was unable to get away as the current dragged him through rock foundations and corals. Gone was his careful threading close to the ocean floor, this was uncontrolled movement near the surface.

And the difference hurt.

He was thrown at rocks gracelessly, their sharp edges cutting through his skin. Leonardo scrabbled at the stone desperately, damaging his nails and fingers in the process as he tried to break free from the ocean’s hold. His endeavor must have angered the ocean’s spirit, for the current’s force suddenly grew stronger. Leonardo’s body twisted as he was thrown head first into a rock wall.

The fight was knocked out of him. He felt so heavy out of nowhere. He sagged, sinking deeper, and then he was picked up by the water again, moving fast. He couldn’t see it this time, but first his shell hit something very solid, then his head, and then his vision went blurry.

As he once again lost consciousness, a part of him hoped he won’t wake up.

He was drowning.

His eyes snapped open. He waved his hands in panic, kicking his legs as he twisted, angling himself up. His feet touched the ocean floor and he pushed himself off, trying to subdue his rising panic. He ignored the pounding in his head that doubled as the pressure around him shifted as he swam up. His vision blurred, his limbs grew weaker, but then he breached the surface.

Half gasping, half coughing, Leonardo breathed in. His vision cleared as oxygen found its way into his body, his strength returning. The headache eased up, although it didn’t go away completely. Considering all the hits to the head he had taken, he was probably mildly concussed, though he didn’t really have the time to worry about something as trivial as concussion. He had bigger problems.

Being stuck in the middle of the ocean, for starters.

Once he could breathe properly, he looked around, finally noticing that the storm has passed. Some of the tension in his body eased. It was still nighttime, but the sky was cloudless and covered with stars. His lifeboat was lightly swaying on the waves a few feet away.

With a loud sigh, Leonardo swam closer. Just now did he notice the stinking coming from all over his body. The scarce light was enough to see the half-healed scratches all over his body and in a series of flashbacks, his mind happily provided him all of the instances he had been dragged through rocks. He shook his head, reaching the lifeboat and quickly but carefully climbing inside.

For a moment, a horrifying thought crossed his mind. Back at the cargo ship, he hadn’t even thought about how he was going to row the boat. He couldn’t remember even seeing any paddles underneath the railing. His worry was soon appeased, though, for once he was safely sat in the lifeboat, he noticed a package tied to one of the buoyancy tubes. He opened it, finding an emergency kit. Inside was water and food, flares, thermal blanket, a flashlight, some tools and paddles.

His chances of survival skyrocketed.

The liferaft was open so there was some water on the floor, but once he checked it with the flashlight, he concluded that it didn’t pose an immediate problem. He froze mid-checking the lifeboat for any holes as realization struck him. Bringing his hands up, Leonardo let out a relieved breath once he felt the handles of his katanas, then he froze anew.

He searched his belt, the blood in his veins turning to ice as he realized that his shell cell was missing. A few of his smaller blades were gone as well. His belt was a little loose, something he hadn’t noticed until now. He tightened it, then untied the rope that connected him to the lifeboat, the moves methodical because his mind was on the missing shell cell.

It was only a matter of time before his brothers saw the shipwreck on the news. If his last traceable position was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…

Would they think he was dead?

Would they mourn? he thought, immediately wincing, ashamed that thought even existed in the first place, even if something in him still couldn’t help but wonder…

Of course they would miss their brother, of course they would miss Leo.

But he hasn’t been Leo in a while, and the person he was now wasn’t worth mourning.

He hurt Master Splinter. Could have killed him, had he just angled his sword a little differently. He didn’t even want to think about what could have happened had he lost control while fighting one of his brothers.

But he wouldn’t be able to hurt them if he weren’t with them anymore. Maybe…

No.

Leonardo shook his head to get rid of this train of thoughts. Truth be told, he couldn’t imagine staying away from his brothers. He just wouldn’t be able to do it. He was sent away for a reason. To get better, to stop failing.

He was not going to let them down.

This whole situation was just a test, nothing more.

With a newfound determination, Leonardo gripped one of the paddles. He still had no idea where he was, so he had to guess the direction. Not willing to waste more time, he started rowing. His goal was clear: find land.

He couldn’t have been at it for more than half an hour when he suddenly swayed. Gripping the edge of the raft, he leaned over. At once, the headache was way more pronounced. His stomach twisted, a sharp ache split his skull in two, and then he vomited into the water below.

Alright, so he was definitely concussed.

Surprisingly, he felt better once he was done puking. He washed his face, then opened one of the water bottles that were included in the emergency kit. Slowly, he started rowing again, now noticing that his movements were a little sluggish, definitely less coordinated than they should be.

“It’s just one thing after another,” he muttered, waiting for the answering hum he knew would not come. The silence still stung.

Leonardo rowed.

Over the following days, Leonardo moved forward. Of what he hoped was forward. He was surprised that he hadn’t come across any ship, but he decided not to question it. He rowed and rowed, sometimes switching to swimming when his muscles started to cramp from the repetitive motion. He took breaks and ate some of the food from the emergency kit. He was careful with the rations; he knew how to get by with little food so that wasn’t a problem and he didn’t want to risk running out completely.

The ocean was calm. The sky clouded on the second day, the waves got a little faster, but overall it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. No storm in sight.

Leonardo hated storms. He was sure his hatred was lifelong at this point.

The ocean seemed endless. He rowed and swam with no clear direction in his mind and no observation point in sight. Even the night didn’t help because while the stars were visible, he had no experience at marine navigation. He didn’t even have a compass. His only way of navigation was the sun that told him which cardinal point was where, but even that got slightly confusing once the sun was high in the sky. He headed east and prayed that he hadn’t strayed off course too much.

The vastness was driving him insane. No matter where he looked, it was still the same. Water and water and even more water, and nothing else. Just endless sea of all shades of blue. And greenish blue if he was lucky.

The irony wasn’t lost on him.

Growing up in sewers, Leonardo was used to freedom of movement. He and his brothers explored a lot even when they were younger. Sure, they couldn’t venture topside, but the sewer system of New York City was enormous.

Right now, Leonardo had all the space possible to explore, and yet he had never felt as trapped as he did now.

He rowed and rowed, staring at the ocean. Sunlight glinted on the water surface and he kept moving forward.

It was just him and his lifeboat and the water. Water next to him, in front of him, below him, all around him. Surrounding him, trapping him, not offering any escape.

He started talking to himself on the second day. While he enjoyed silence, the sounds the ocean made were eerie. The sloshing of water as the paddles rippled through it or the murmur of the ever-moving waves didn’t let him rest. The ocean whispered, never silent, and he kept turning around searching for danger. His instincts were on high alert all the time. He was out in the open, not at all protected, completely on his own, and the constant humming noises did nothing to quell his paranoia. He had to speak aloud, otherwise he would go crazy.

For four days, he sailed the Pacific Ocean on his own. Just him and his thoughts that he desperately tried to force out.

Even if it got harder with each passing day. Even if the voices told him how much of a failure he was, that this was a sign that he never should have left New York, that he was causing his brothers distress even when he wasn’t with them, that maybe this was a result of his incompetence.

It definitely felt like a cosmic karma.

On the fourth day, when the sun started setting and the day slowly turned into night, he saw the distinct shape of an island on the horizon.

Immediately, he snapped into attention, stopping the repetitive rowing motion. There were lights not only along the shore but inland too. He considered the chances of there not being a harbor or airport that he could use to travel, deciding that the number was close to zero. Quickly, he repacked the survival kit, prioritizing essentials like water and food and tools. The kit was a bag with multiple straps so he pulled it over his should. He doubted that the bag itself was waterproof, but the food packaging was sealed so he didn’t worry too much about it.

With one last look at the lifeboat that had homed him for the past four days, Leonardo dived over the edge of the raft, plunging into the cold water. He had better chances of not being spotted underwater than on the bright red lifeboat.

The closer he swam to the land, the more he saw. The ships anchored by the shore grew bigger and bigger. A few of them were inside a bay, lazily sailing through the water.

That view made him stop. He looked at the barrier of the bay. Even from the distance, he could see the road on it. But that was only a small detail; the most important part was the ship closest to him, the one that was slowly heading more inland, the long one with the distinctive shape and flight deck.

Leonardo had seen enough military equipment in his life to recognize an aircraft carrier even from the distance.

Oh shell.

He imagined a map in his head, going through every information he had before he came to a conclusion.

So the good news was that he was in a U.S. territory.

The bad news was that he was headed right for the Naval Base.

That was fine. That wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t like the military seeing him would probably cause a nation-wide panic. He could just swim around the port.

And he did so. He turned and swam away, praying that he hadn’t been close enough to appear on any radar. If he was right, then he somehow ended up in Guam. Luckily for him, only a part of the island was under military control so his chances of getting into Japan were relatively high.

If he was right. And if he won’t get caught. They would probably kill him on the spot, or ship him to Bishop’s lab. He wasn’t sure which option was worse.

Leonardo swam around the shore while keeping his distance until he reached a structure that led into the water. On the surface, it was connected to the land via a boardwalk. Underwater, the structure resembled a dome. On the surface, the building was a circle, and these two parts were connected by a cylinder-shaped tunnel. He dived, inspecting the underwater part closer, and then he immediately clung to the structure’s wall.

There was a window a few inches beneath him.

The building was an observatory. An underwater observatory, to be more precise.

Luckily for him, there were no divers in sight. The sunlight had disappeared by now too and when he had surfaced earlier to look at the elevated part of the observatory, he hadn’t seen anyone. It was probably closed for the night.

Small mercy.

Despite the darkness of the night providing him a lot more coverage than daytime, he still had to be careful. He was in an unknown territory and all his knowledge came from what he had read on the internet or seen on the news, which wasn’t a lot. The only reason he even knew that there was a U.S. military base on Guam was because he had done an extensive research on the U.S. military once Agent Bishop entered their lives. He needed to know what they stood against in order to prepare for what could happen. Sure, Bishop himself was a living proof that only a fraction of what the military consisted of could be looked up publicly, but it was still better than nothing.

He followed the bridge walkway, swimming past the colorful fishes. Under different circumstances he would be overjoyed to see the exotic sea life, but right now all those different fishes that swam around him earned nothing more than a fleeting look. Once he reached the shore, he hid underneath the bridge, quickly looking around.

There was no one in sight. On the land there was a small parking lot with few cars parked there, a road that copied the shoreline, and across the street was a relatively big building. The lights in the building were on and he hear loud sounds coming from inside – cheering and music –, but the street was empty.

He crawled from underneath the bridge on top of it. There was a small booth by the beginning of the bridge. It was closed, but the writing told him that there was where tickets for the Fish Eye Underwater Observatory were sold. On the booth’s window ledge was a small stand with leaflets. Leonardo flipped through them until he found one with a map.

“Bingo,” he muttered, looking at the paper. The whole island was pictured in the corner, with the area he was in the center.

He frowned at the map, not liking what he was seeing. He needed to get back to Apra Harbor – the harbor that he had swum away from. But the Harbor hosted Naval Base Guam and Port of Guam, and that was what interested him. The Port of Guam was his ticked away.

The path there was easy. Straightforward. He just needed to follow the main road. It didn’t seem hard, and that was what unnerved him.

In the end he decided to stick to the beach. The street lighting didn’t reach there and it was easier to hide in the water than having to duck between trees. He remembered the map as best as he could, then threw the soaked leaflet into a trashcan by the booth. Seeing no reason to stall, he started walking.

He felt a little like an idiot for going into the same direction that he arrived from, but approach from the distance – and from land – was safer.

The further he got, the more the vegetation thinned. He had to hide in the water once to avoid a giggling couple that trailed on the beach, but apart from them he didn’t come across other people. That didn’t surprise him much; the lived-in part of the island was on the other side. He walked for about twenty minutes before the beach started to coil right. He stopped by the edge of a part, creeping closer to the road.

The road forked. One side continued inland and it would eventually lead to the Naval Base. The other side would bring him to the commercial port. Leonardo continued his walk on the beach. He passed a power station and then he had to swim in the sea for a while because the road got suddenly a lot closer to the water. The road turned left and by that point he was forced to get out of the water and get on the land completely. He passed a factory of some kind, sneaking in the vegetation by the side of the road. As he moved forward, he came to the conclusion that swimming so far away might have been an overkill, but better to be safe than sorry.

There was a sign on the road that warned him that the port was a border entry point and that everyone and everything was subject to searched, but it said nothing about prohibiting an entry. So in theory, he wasn’t even doing anything wrong.

He moved for about thirty minutes before he had to stop because the vegetation that provided him cover ended abruptly. The beach on the right side of the road was rocky, and the land on the left side was hollow. There was a strip of road about three hundred feet long uncovered from both sides. He hadn’t met a single car the whole time, but he didn’t want to risk it more than necessary. Especially because he could see that at the end of the unconcealed zone, on the left side of the road, started a loading bay. He was sure that the gate was guarded.

With no better option, Leonardo jumped down, landing in the water. He was careful to avoid the rocks as he hurried by the concrete panels of the road, his feet making a way too loud slap slap sounds as he waded through the ankle-high water.

He didn’t immediately stop once made it past the unconcealed zone, instead he continued thirty more feet. The loading bay was bordered by a wall and it stretched further down the road, way farther than he could see. He climbed up on the road, then ran across quickly. He parkoured over the wall, skillfully jumping over the barbed wire on top of the stone wall.

The loading bay was huge, and it was filled with rows and rows of shipping containers. He gave the containers a loathing look, the memory of being almost crushed by them too fresh in his mind. Silently, the ninja ran deeper into the port, following the memorized map. The containers and the wall shielded him from two sides so he mostly had to worry about what was in front of and behind him. He had to climb on top of a container a few times when a guard walked by but other than that his advancement was quick and uninterrupted.

The deeper to the port and closer to the water he got, the louder got his surroundings. He could see cranes on the shore, four in total, and two of them were working – one was loading cargo onto a ship while the other was unloading a ship, it seemed.

He stopped at the next-to-last line of the containers and moved into the second row, closer to water. He got on top of one container again, crouching so he could look at the people working near the crate.

He counted half a dozen people in total, at least from what he could see. Three workers checked the cargo, one was motioning to the person operating the crane, two were on the boat and shouted instructions. They didn’t seem dangerous, they were mostly focused on their job and once in a while they laughed when someone said something funny.

Civilians, Leonardo concluded.

A guard walked by. He stopped on his patrol to exchange a few words with the workers, then he continued. Once the guard walked behind a container, out of sight of the workers, he pulled out a cellphone. Leonardo perked up. The guard walked away some more and then, once he was sure he was out of hearing range, he started a call.

Without having to think about it, Leonardo climbed down and shadowed the man. He tried to not listen as the guard called with what seemed to be his wife or a girlfriend, but he stayed close. The call wasn’t long, only a minute or so. The ninja waited until the guard ended the call and pocketed his phone before he struck.

One hand on the man’s mouth, other on his neck. The guard didn’t even manage to fight back before he was knocked out. Gently, Leonardo laid the man on the ground before fishing out his phone. He punched in a number, clicked the call button and waited.

And waited.

It occurred to him at once that he didn’t know what time zone he was in, or what time was in New York. What if it was the middle of the night?

What if no one picked up?

The call connected.

“Hello?” April’s voice was a mix of hesitation, confusion and caution. “April O’Neil speaking.”

“April,” he breathed out. “It’s Leonardo.”

A beat of silence. “Leo?” she repeated, rightfully shocked. “Is that really you? You’re alive!”

He winced, the words confirming his fears. “Yeah. I can’t speak for long. Are my brothers nearby?”

“No, I’m sorry. But what happened? The news said that the ship sunk, and the last position of your shell cell came is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean from almost five days ago! We thought you were dead. Where the hell are you?”

“I survived, but my shell cell got lost,” he explained impatiently. “I ended up in Guam –”

“What?”

“– but I’m working on how to get out of here. I’ll try to call again once I reach mainland, okay? Can you tell the guys that I’m alright? That I’m alive?”

The guard lying by his feet shifted. A soft sigh escaped him. He was running out of time.

“Yes, of course, Leo.”

“Thanks.” He paused, hesitating. “And please tell them I love them? And that I’m sorry.”

For worrying them. For thinking about not making it. For how he has been acting lately. For failing them.

For everything.

The man stirred.

“I have to go,” he hurried before she managed to respond. “Bye, April.”

“Be careful!” she yelled before he ended the call. He found himself smiling as he deleted the call from history. It would show on the bill statement but that was a problem for the future.

Leonardo put the phone in the man’s pocket and quickly hid. It was easy; the port’s lights were centered by the shoreline and by the various buildings that started at the end of the loading bay, so the darkness of the night concealed him adequately. From on top of a container, he watched the man wake up. The guard groaned as he sat up, looking around in obvious confusion. He seemed alright, so Leonardo swiftly moved away, knowing that it won’t be long before he sounded the alarm.

He sneaked to the containers that were set up by the crane to be lifted on the boat, and waited. He had to be careful, because the lightning this close to the shore was enough for humans to see him, but none of these workers even expected that someone unauthorized could be in the area so they paid no attention to their surroundings.

He looked at the cargo ship that was being loaded, wincing when he noticed the logo. It was the same logistics company as the ship he boarded in New York. He wasn’t really keen on getting onto another ship so soon, even less so when it was the same shipping provider, but he really didn’t want to stay on the island where he was practically isolated.

The main question was where was the ship headed – to the United States, or to Japan?

The port was still calm. No shouting, no sirens, no signs that they were looking for an intruder.

Leonardo frowned. That didn’t make any sense.

But the port workers still loaded the ship, and it was only a matter of time before they will be finished and the ship leaves.

He couldn’t wait anymore. The six workers didn’t notice him as he moved through the shadows underneath the crane, easily hiding behind one of the four girders of the crane’s supporting framework. There was a desk next to the crane where the workers have put mugs and the paperwork related to the shipment. Snatching the folder from the table was a child’s play. Leonardo quickly stepped back into his hiding spot, angling towards the only only so he could read the text.

He flipped through the papers. He didn’t understand half of what was written there but it was clear that the ship was headed to Japan and that was enough for him. He returned the folder back on the desk and a moment later, a woman walked by, took the folder, flipped through the papers, wrote something down and walked away again.

Still no alarm. At this point Leonardo doubted the guard even told someone about what had happened, which meant that he didn’t have to worry about the ship being searched or its departure being delayed. It also meant that he would have to get aboard without a distraction.

There was only one way to get on the ship, and it was by the extendable gangplank that connected the vessel’s stern with the port. The bridge were only dimly lit, and if he was fast enough, the workers on land won’t even get a change to notice him. It was the people on the deck that could be a problem, but they were standing on the opposite side of the boat, at the bow where they tightened the lashing straps of the loaded cargo.

He should send them an anonymous letter to check the belts’ quality once he’s safe. They sure wouldn’t want them to snap and possibly kill a crew member, wouldn’t they?

Thinking about it, they should check all their belts and ropes at home too. Leonardo made a note about it in his head before his focus shifted to his current objective.

The gangplank was anchored on the other side of the crane, away from the land-workers. He moved closer, then waited until all workers were busy with theirs tasks, and ran up the bridge.

The moment his feet touched the deck, a chill went down his spine. His instincts that were already on high alert intensified as his body prepared for battle. He forced his body to move, running around the bridge so he would be out of sight. He didn’t dare to stop as he searched for a way to get below the deck. The entrance was on the side of the bridge. He quickly opened the door, slipped inside, made sure that the door was closed, then descended a few stairs and soon found himself inside the hull of the ship. He had to use the flashlight from his survival kit to see because the whole space was completely dark. Finding himself a container in the corner, he climbed on top of it, curling into himself. He switched off the light and lowered his silhouette, although even if someone entered they wouldn’t see him unless they knew where he was hiding.

He laid there, staring into the darkness, listening to the sounds of his surroundings. The metal groaning, the ship’s slight shakes as the rest of the cargo was being loaded. It didn’t take long before cold started seeping from the container he was lying on, but he merely curled more into himself. It would get warmer once the engines were on, he knew, so until then he just had to deal with it.

Time went by. There was a part of his mind, small but loud, that screamed at him that he wasn’t safe, that the boat might sink, that he needed to get away. He hissed at it to shut up, reminding himself that there was nowhere where he could be really, truly safe.

He tried to stay awake. He needed to stay awake, just in case. But his sleep for the past few days was almost non-existent, and he had been running on adrenaline and spite. The bone-deep tiredness and ever present anxiety took its toll on his body. Even when he tried to fight it, his eyes eventually closed. After five days of trying to survive, his body finally gave up.

Leonardo really hoped he would make it to Japan this time.