Barbara thought she saw movement in the fading twilight as her friends started up the wide-open path leading up to the university. She had just turned around and headed up the hill when suddenly a yell filled the air.
“GET OVER HERE YOU DAMN IDIOTS!” yelled a female voice from behind them as everyone turned and looked back, floating just outside the remains of a ruined shop was another mermaid. She looked to be about the same age as them between 19 and 24, she had dark skin, lime short lime green hair, with a lime green and white tail. She wore a bikini top with what looked to be a large belt with multiple pouches on it. She was waving them toward her.
“What?” inquired Barbara
“Get over here if you want to live!” yelled the mermaid as the water began to shake as a rumbling filled the water causing some loss building fronts to fall. A groaning sound along with clicking reached them all and it was coming from behind them up on the university grounds.
“My God.” Said Lindsay as a large creature began to rise, from this distance it looked like a massive crab, but it had large arms coming out of the back of its shell and with a rush of water it began to fly over the remains of the university. Multiple lights began to flash up and down it is shell in strange pattern. Two larger arms came out near the front and two powerful blue search lights turned on and began to sweep the area around them. The creature had to be two or three stories tall and towered over most of the nearby buildings.
“That isn’t a creature, that is a machine.” Stated Oscar as he pointed toward one of it's legs where gears where clearly visable.
“Get over here you idiots! Before it notices you all?” yelled the mermaid as the lights began to turn their way but hadn't reached them yet.
“Guys, lets trust the mermaid.” Said Barbara as she pulled her sister and girlfriend back as they turned and swam as fast as possible back toward where the mermaid had been. She was not there anymore instead they moved swam into the building. Like the one they had been in before it was a mess with remains of what looked to be shelves and display stands. It reminded them as a store in the mall but with stone instead of plastic shelves.
“Kill that light and get behind something and stay quiet!” ordered the mermaid in just above a whisper as she poked her head up from behind a shelf. “Don’t get caught in the light."
Everyone panicked and swam around as the rumbling sound came closer and closer to them.
Lindsay found herself laying flat on the ground hiding under a bench which sat under a window. She couldn’t see any of her friends or that mermaid, but she did feel the ground shake as something came ever closer. Suddenly the room filled with blueish white light, it came from outside and it seamed to move backwards and forth using the windows to look inside. Lindsay felt her heart pound in her chest as minutes turned to hours. Somehow without her even noticing, she and Oscar had taken almost the same hiding spot, he was under a matching bench which sat under a window, they where within arm reach of each other and Oscar reached out to her and she took his hand as he wordless said.
“It will be ok.”
After what felt like a lifetime but was really around 30 seconds the lights faded, and the pounding sound began again but this time moving away.
“What was that?” asked Elizabeth’s voice
“Quiet…we aren’t out of the woods yet.” snapped a voice she didn’t know the mermaid she assumed. Everyone remained quiet and in their hiding spots for what had to be between five and ten minutes. Then light filled the room again, this time however it was a reddish orange light from what looked to be another one of those glowing stone lamps like Oscar found.
“You idiots are God damn luckily I spotted you when I was searching this place for items or else you would be dead.” Said the mermaid as she studied them.
“Thanks…what was that?” inquired James
“An Ancient Atlantean weapon which was turned against its makers and now terrorizes us.” Explained the Mermaid as she studied them “You must be new arrivals.”
“Yes…what happened, who are you and what was that?” inquired Barbara as the lime green haired mermaid laughed.
“You must be Americans.” she said with a laugh as she crossed her arms over her chest. It wasn't a large chest but respectable and like everyone she had perfect skin and a strong core, unlike them she had bags full of items and what looked to be a small crossbow on her back and a long knife on her belt. “So rude to someone who just saved you, well my name is Ebrah."
“Hello Ebrah, I am Lindsay.” Introduced Lindsay as everyone went around the room and introduced themselves. “We are in Atlantis but how did we get here and how long have you been here?”
“We think it has to do with a crystal which broke.” added Elizabeth
“You aren’t wrong, I have been here for 12 years now, since I was 13 when I broke one of the shards and was transported here from my hometown in Pakistan.” Said Ebrah with a shake of her head as she looked back on her life. “Nearest we can guess is that sometime in the past human wizards where able to trap magical energy into crystals and transformed magical creatures into humans, however like all energy magic can’t be destroyed so they trapped it.”
“And when we broke it and were transformed into merpeople is that what happened to us?” added Stacy as Ebrah placed a finger on her nose.
“Right in one try.” confirmed Ebrah
“That paper said we can change back.” said Elizabeth “Do you know a way?”
“Yes, that machine can transform you back to human.” confirmed Ebrah as Elizabeth’s mouth widened.
“Then why did we hide?” inquired Elizabeth
“Unlike the crystal it transforms you back to human and doesn’t transport you anywhere. You would find yourself a human floating in the remains of Atlantis. So unless you had gills before you became a mermaid you would die.” stated Ebrah with a cocky grin as horror filled Elizabeth’s face before sadness came over Ebrah lime green eyes. “My parents died when they got caught by that thing or one of its cousins. I watched them get transformed back into humans and drown before my eyes.”
There was a long pause as no one spoke, finally Barbara spoke up.
“There are more of those things?” inquired Barbara
“19 of them, that we know of. A few more looks like they were destroyed by the Ancient Atlantean after they were turned against their masters.” Confirmed Ebrah “They only come out at night and only stay on the surface, so once daylight comes, we can held back to our community.”
“Wait?” said James “How many merpeople live in this city?”
“Counting you six…we are up to around 100 now maybe even over 100 now.” explained Ebrah “Nothing like what this city used to hold nearest we can guess this city once held around a million merfolk maybe more, so we have room to hide. All of us are either transformed humans like you all or descendants of people who have been transformed.”
“So we are stuck here?” inquired Elizabeth
“As a mermaid?” inquired Ebrah as Elizabeth nodded.
“Yes.”
That one word caused tears to form in almost everyone eyes as they faced the reality of what was before them.
“I know it is hard, we will rest in the back room tonight and tomorrow we will head to our community, they will help you with your new lives.” said Ebrah "Follow me."