Swimming Among Mutants

I was treading water several hundred feet below the surface, trying to figure which way I could travel. The compass I stole from the government laboratory, where I was created, stopped working as soon as it hit fifty feet below. They should get their money back, I had thought.

Scientists from the "outside," as I was told, created mutants that could breathe and live underwater to escape the dynasty. Many soldiers have been killed by these few, special individuals, and that's where I came in. Originally, I was made to hunt them down and destroy the kids of the Neptune Project, but I had seen things. I wasn't the only innocent stranger to be experimented on, but I was the only one to survive. No matter what they said, what they programmed into my mind, I knew the government was a group of evil goers, bent on domination of every breathing creature.
Somehow, I had managed to make it past the traps set everywhere and security. Using everything in their power, the scientists and politics had chased me down right to the shoreline of Utah, where I just jumped in. I dove and swam as far out as I could before disorienting. So, here I was. Lost in my own time and thoughts, trying to figure where to go and what to do.

I decided to swim in a random direction, hoping it wouldn't bring me into deeper water, but at the same time praying it didn't lead back to shore. I swam past several rock structures, thinking nothing of them until hours had past. Suddenly, the underwater works of art looked like good places to sleep the night. A lion fish flew past me, causing me to bare my genetically sharpened teeth. Hungry for meat, or anything, for that matter, I chased after it. Frantically, the beautifully etched creature swerved through tiny cracks and crevices. I had no choice but to go around such formations, causing a larger gap between my prey and I.

Suddenly, an arrow shot through the water and speared my target. The arrow continued, with the fish now impaled, until it hit a rock painted as a target. I looked in the direction the arrow came from to see a boy around my age emerging from a nearby cave.

"Fifty points," he cheered in my head, fist pumping.

Living underwater, I learned from my creators that I must communicate telepathically with everyone. My voice box, nor any other water mutant's, doesn't work well, and once the transformation is finished, it doesn't work permanently. We, as in all us mutations, start off as regular human beings, but the genetics change our sight and respiratory system. Above the water, we had to wear sunglasses to protect our eyes and usually had to bring an inhaler around for our "asthma." Once a certain chemical was injected into our bloodstream, however, we had to be immediately forced into the water. I know from experience that pain surges through you at rapid, undeniable speeds and you just want to die. Rumor has it that most kids were u contours so they didn't have to suffer through this stage. When they woke up, or when the pain was over, you were one hundred percent water-human. There was no more land for you unless it was really quick.

I chuckled to myself, still wary of the stranger. "You shot my fish," I stated, no emotion in my voice.

He shrugged. "It can feed two. Besides, you weren't even close to catching it."
I growled at him, checking out his attire. He wore a swimsuit like mine, but his sleeves had been ripped off and his flippers were painted with a fire decal. A crossbow hung from his utility belt, along with a couple aerosol cans, and a pocket knife.

He suddenly spiraled to the surface, returning a couple minutes later. "Sorry," he coughed. "I take it you're a Neptune Project Kid, yeah?"

"I wish," I sighed. "Runaway government experiment."

"Damn," the boy sighed, swimming to his catch. "I was supposed to be a Neptune Kid, but my body didn't accept the changes. Instead of being able to completely live in under the sea, like fish, I'm more of a dolphin. I have to go up and breathe air every so often."