Oliver swam for what felt like hours, aimlessly gliding through his pool, watching the TV his parents had set up for him. He kept staring at the grass, thinking about how good it would feel to be able to walk through the grass with his feet. He looked down at his tail and scowled. He tried to pick up his torn bathing suit up from the bottom of the pool. Oliver decided it must have ripped and fell when his legs joined together. Anyways, he didn't really need it anymore since the lower part of his body was completely shark. Oliver tried again and again to pick up the suit with the fins at the end of his arms, but they were useless for anything except swimming. As the day progressed, Oliver noticed his tail was slowly changing color. It had been colored like normal human flesh when he woke up in the morning, but as the hours ticked away he noticed the tips of his tail were starting to turn grey. He wondered where his parents were, but since he had no way to check the time he had no idea whether they had been gone an unreasonable amount of time or whether it was just him. He noticed after a while that he no longer had any concept of how long it had been since his parents left. It could have been an hour or two or even four.
After what seemed like forever Oliver heard a noise coming from inside the house. It was the doorbell ringing, but he couldn't do anything about it. Then, a little while later, he saw a face peering over the fence. The door to the backyard opened, revealing Hunter.
"Hunter!" Oliver cried from within the tank.
"Oliver, I need to talk to you." said Hunter.
"You'll have to come up here." said Oliver.
"Wait a minute." said Hunter. "Since when can you can hear me from that far away?"
"Since this morning." said Oliver. "Look what happened to me."
"Hang on," said Hunter. "My eyesight's not that good."
Hunter came a little closer until he could see Oliver. His jaw dropped.
"But....you...you were injected less than two weeks ago." said Hunter. "How could you be changing so fast?"
"I don't know." said Oliver. "I accidentally spent the night in here and now I look like this."
"Well, you'd better come out. The water must be accelerating your changes." said Hunter. "Although I've never seen it like this after only 2 weeks."
"I can't come out." said Oliver. "My gills...."
"You can't breathe outside of the water anymore." realized Hunter. He started to run up the stairs to the top of the pool. Oliver swam up to the top to meet him.
"Where are your parents?" asked Hunter, sniffing the air. "No one's answering the phone or the doorbell. And I don't smell them either. What's happening to you isn't normal, not even for here. They should be here with you."
"They went out to get help." said Oliver. "They left this morning."
"What's taking them so long?" asked Hunter. "The doctors and the scientists who run this place are only a few blocks away."
"I don't know." said Oliver. "What time is it now?"
"It's 3:00." said Hunter. "When did you say they left again?"
"I don't know. Early this morning. Soon after we all woke up." said Oliver.
"I'm going to find them." said Hunter. "I'll follow their trail."
"Their trail?" asked Oliver.
"Yeah," said Hunter. "Their scent. Just like a wolf, remember?" He tapped his black nose.
"Okay." said Oliver.
"There's only one thing." said Hunter. "I don't want to leave you alone here."
"Go." said Oliver. "I'll be fine. Just find my parents for me, okay?"
Hunter looked at his friend, imprisoned inside his own pool.
"Okay." said Hunter. "I'll be back soon."
Hunter went down on all fours and put his nose close to the ground. He sniffed around for a while, before he stopped.
"I've found their scent." said Hunter, turning back to Oliver. "I'll be back in an hour." He turned and left the backyard on all fours.