It was surprisingly easy to break out of the Navy base. I didn’t even wait till evening. It was set up in a hurry and was really for quarantine purposes, which means keeping out idiots so they don’t contaminate themselves. Everybody inside the quarantine was military and volunteered to be there. Well, almost everybody.

I took Buck for a walk around the building and found a place out of sight. I let Buck loose and climbed the fence. I then walked like I was meant to be there until I got to the docks, slipped off my shoes and dove into the sea. I didn’t surface until I reached the Auckland waterfront. I could almost constantly sense where South was now, so keeping a straight line was easy.

It was mid-afternoon when I climbed onto the Auckland waterfront's wharves. I found a tourist shop and bought a towel with a beach scene to dry myself and some Jandels to wear. I found it strange that a tourist shop would have jandals for sale, but maybe they are a unique Kiwi thing. These ones were blue and had white stars like our flag, so I guess they were touristy.

Then I went shopping. I had my phone as I had double-wrapped it in some ziplock bags I found in the kitchenette. First, I went to the bank and ordered some new bank cards. Then I ordered a new driver's licence. They issued me a temporary one with no photo, and the proper one would come in the post. I had them all sent to Carla at the Auckland Navy base, as I was not planning to be anywhere they could send them directly. Then I withdrew cash from the bank and went shopping.

First, I bought a good but slim backpack and some waterproofing if I ended up swimming with it. Then, I bought some supplies: clothes, beach gear, an e-reader, a laptop, decent walking shoes, a water bottle, and some snack bars.

I caught the dinner-time ferry to Waiheke. On the way over, I searched the websites for accommodation options. Contrary to the last time I searched, there were a lot of unexpected vacancies. I found a nice three-bedroom Rent-a-Bach overlooking a beach. It was surrounded by bush, so the dogs would have somewhere to run. There was a track down to the beach. Dogs were not prohibited. Available immediately. I booked it for two weeks starting immediately.

I walked from the ferry terminal to town and had dinner in a nearly empty beachside restaurant. I could sense Carla through the link and sent her a pulse to say I was on Waiheke. It took more effort to send the pulse from this distance, which was a learning experience. Distance does make a difference, and I would need to be close for her to transform.

I made my way to the Rent-a-Bach via the supermarket for supplies, including alcohol. I left my phone switched off and set up the e-reader and laptop. The place had internet and Wi-Fi, so I moved out onto the deck and watched the evening with my enhanced night vision. This was much better. Quieter. Calmer.

I was up early the following day, grabbed the towel and Jandels, and headed to the beach for a swim. It was mid-morning when I returned in a much-relaxed state. I hung my towel over the deck rail to dry and then did the same with my swimming trunks. It was going to be a hot day, so I rinsed the salt water off me but didn’t bother getting dressed.

I started with the internet news, which covered what was happening worldwide, particularly in New Zealand, and the anomalies. It was hard to tell from the news if the anomaly rate was increasing. They were out to sell stories, and facts were only relevant to achieve that goal. There was a lot of relief at the Navy's destruction of the Waiheke Anomaly, and no new anomalies appeared in NZ. Australia had found another one, and some Fijian fishermen had caught some mutated fish not far off the island of Vanua Levu.

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I just let the news sink in as I ate a leisurely lunch.

I started learning Morse code and found a website where I could practice crafting messages and deciphering the messages it sent me. Doing it works better for me than rote learning.

I went for another swim in the afternoon. I took my towel but forgot my swimming trunks. Oh, well, there was no one around to get offended. On the track to the beach, I channelled my inner Buck and tried to smell and hear what was around me in the bush. I was trying to make this a habit, despite some truly nasty smells.

This time, I swam near the rocks at the edge of the beach and watched the fish with my enhanced eyes. I went quite deep, but not deeper than the limits in our diving theory class. I sat on the ocean floor for over an hour, watching and testing my senses, including my smell. This water up my nose is a problem.

I was trying to get a feel for ocean life through my senses, firstly to get used to them and secondly to know when something might change around me. I would hear the occasional boat in the distance. Sea birds diving into the ocean and swarming schools of fish were loud. Some types of fish were quieter and moved more smoothly in the water. They were harder to sense. This would take some time. A lot of time, I decided. At least twice a day for as long as I could make it happen.

I also decided I needed some gear. I needed a diver’s watch so I could measure depth and time, flippers, a knife, and probably a spear. Sitting quietly on the ocean floor meant fish swam unexpectedly close. I could have caught some dinner with very little effort.

I returned to the cabin and remembered to get dressed before heading to town and finding the Divers shop. I stayed in town and had a nice fish dinner cooked for me by a quality chef at a nice restaurant. I had better not tell Carla and Soph about this. I might not survive.

After my “senses testing session” in the morning, I tried gutting and scaling a fish. This would also need practice. YouTube is a helpful tool. The flesh looked pretty munted, but I managed to get all the bones out, and it tasted good with my salad at lunch, finished with a nice cup of green tea.

That afternoon, I went to some of the more scientific websites I had used in my initial research on the anomaly to see the scientific community's progress. What I found was not encouraging. There was less information than when I had first looked. I checked the website's national origins, and some nations were censoring information more strictly than they had been. Articles I had accessed freely before were now behind authorised login walls. New information was scarce and from less reliable sites.

This told me things were getting worse, but not how much worse. It also did not tell me what new information had been discovered. Bugger. I guess this is something else I will need the Navy for. They will have access to this information.

However, I could rely on the internet to spread crackpot conspiracy theories far and wide. These were getting weirder and contradictory. How could the anomalies be the wrath of God and the second coming of Jesus? There were a lot of religious references to the book of Revelation in the Bible, the anomalies being the seven seals that were opened or something.

The New Evolutionists were hailing the next wave of evolution and the new age of the Super Man. I assume they also included the women, but they forgot about the Super Sharks and other terrifying mutations.

There was a whole cult dedicated to getting and cooking mutated plants and animals for the “positive health benefits.” People were encouraged to post their recipes and describe the health boosts they had received. There was a whole vegan section. I guess the ones who poisoned themselves wouldn’t be around to post. The guy that was smoking mutated grass was just weird.

The world was going to shit before the anomalies could destroy us.