And, at long last, he found her. Drifting below the surface. The fight worn out of her. Drowning.
He swam after her and when he caught up with her he nearly panicked. He had to get her to the surface. She had to breathe!
Suddenly, Zac was actually glad Isaac had spent so much time watching movies. Whoever said you couldn’t learn anything from movies obviously never watched the right ones. With a scene from Waterworld firm in his mind, Zac pressed his mouth against Mary Anne’s and started breathing into her. For Zac could breathe underwater, and he was not going to let her die. He used his power to keep water from seeping into her mouth and nose and wrapped his arms around her to keep them together as he started for the surface.
Then Mary Anne’s eyes opened, coughing up swallowed water – right into Zac’s mouth. Disgusted as he was, he stayed right there. She struggled, scared and unsure. Zac tried to calm her but it was all he could do to keep them together and breathe air into her.
Finally Mary Anne seemed to realise what he was doing. But her questioning eyes asked him how.
And then they felt it, something pushing, or maybe pulling them down. But how? Zac was making for the surface, not the depths! Mary Anne’s widened in alarm, moreso when she realised that Zac was alarmed too.
They went down further and further, Zac forcing himself to calm down, if only to concentrate on keeping Mary Anne breathing.
He felt Mary Anne tremble and saw her hand point. He maneuvered himself slightly so he could see what she was pointing at.
It was an underwater city. And there were creatures of all descriptions moving in and out of it. Water animals but also beings that looked part human, part animal, and others that were actually human. One word came to Zac’s mind then: Mutants.
They were being moved towards this city and as they grew closer they could see the sheer greatness and beauty of it. It was incredible. It may have also been breath-taking, except that breathing was slightly more important than the sight of the city.
They entered an archway, people around them looking at them curiously. A crowd started following. They met with a line of stairs headed up and whatever was drawing them, pushed them up these stairs. The stairs were wide and long and there was a passage on the landing.
As they can to the top of the stairs their heads made contact with the surface. Zac and Mary Anne pulled apart, finally able to breathe real air. It was not that they could she what – or rather who was pushing them. A man and a woman turned human from water as they stepped into the air. Mary Anne clutched at Zac’s hand and pressed into his side. They looked around in utter amazement.
They were on a bridge, except it was floating on the surface of the water. There was another bridge that crossed at a right angle to this one in the middle. There were spiral staircases and great pillars of water.
“Elevators,” Zac gasped, watching the mutants zipping up and down the water pillars.
“In a matter of speaking,” the man behind him said.
“Who are you people? What is this place?” Mary Anne asked.
“This is Oceana,” the woman replied. “Who are you?”
“I asked first!”
“Mary Anne, please,” Zac cut in. “These people, see, they’re mutants. There’s this gene that they have that gives them powers, but see, it’s mutated and they can do all this cool stuff like turn into animals – or water – or whatever.”
“Indeed,” said the man. “You’re one of us too, then.”
“Not quite. My gene didn’t mutate,” Zac admitted. “I, uhh, got electrocuted one day and my gene got triggered instead of mutating. I have Water, Electricity and Restoration.”
The couple looked alarmed. Mary Anne stared at him.
“What’s the Electricity do?” the man demanded. “All the water here, we have to know!”
“Relax. I, uhh, no offence or anything, but triggered have, umm, less limitations than mutants. I control my powers, they don’t control me. Electricity won’t do anything I don’t want it to, rest assured.”
They didn’t look convinced. Zac squeezed Mary Anne’s hand.
“It’s ok, really,” he assured her. “It’s how I could save your life before. I can breathe water see, and I breathed into you.”
“I, umm, I think I’m going to collapse,” Mary Anne had barely said this when she did collapse.
Zac caught her just before she landed backwards on the bridge. He supported her with one hand behind her back and draped her closest arm around his shoulders.