Stunned into temporary silence, Wash lowered his gaze numbly to the wound at his side. The harpoon. The ship. "I have to get back," he finally muttered, though squeezing the seaweed tighter to his side as he spoke. Regardless of what sort of creature Tucker was, it didn't change the fact that they were in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight for miles and miles.

"I have to get back to the ship before they get too far away."

I can't get left behind. Not again.