It began almost randomly, to the most random person you could think of – and yet it began…
On the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, a lone cargo ship battled with the fiercest of waves. It thrust and thrashed as its crew tried their best to stay afloat. The captain stood at the control center and tried desperately to steer the ship as he feared it would capsize with a slight wrong turn. Every crew member was working overtime to make sure no cargo would be lost. On the deck of the ship, a young cabin boy vomited into the raging ocean as he clung tightly to the rails.
Tobias wondered how he managed to get in this situation as the bitter taste of partly digested bread and pork and rum filled his throat. Every bit that came out was just a constant reminder of how his father saw him; a child. Just a burdening piece of flesh, constantly feeding and crying. He was never going to be a man. His father kept telling him – and he had come on this journey to prove him wrong. How terribly he had failed. After all, here he was, the 'man', unable to hold out through a mild storm. His father had endured worse (or so he believed).
"Get away from the rails, boy!" The captain shouted at him as he tried to steady the steering wheel.
Tobias, however, could not as another round of puke filled his mouth.
Even crying felt pointless. He was utterly disgraced. If they managed to get out of this storm, he was going to accept whatever name his father called him in good faith.
Just as he pulled from the rails, the ship thrust violently and knocked him off his feet. He tried to grab the rails as he slipped. And he might have been able to, if his arms were longer or if the ship wasn't so slippery. But alas, his arms were not long enough and the ship was simply too slippery and so, he fell overboard.
Immediately, his mouth filled with the taste of brine as he tried to keep afloat. The ship was already ten feet away from. Panic filled his heart and all he could hear was the sound of rain as it came into contact with the sound. And he tried, as much as he could, not to think about how deep the water was; but he knew as much as anyone else would know; the water was deep.
And once the realization hit him, he knew – he would drown. And so, his legs inadvertently stopped paddling and he went underneath.
Still, he clawed. Even as the water burned his eyes, even as the salty water filled his nostrils and mouth.
He still clawed. Even as he chocked on the water and even as his lungs shut down – He clawed.
And then, he thought of his mother. Her sweet smile and her loving eyes. He did not want to die.
And as his vision began to dim, he saw a fish and thought in that moment.
What if I could breathe under water?
Then, everything went dark…
***
On the 19th of January of the year 1990, a single news story filled every newspaper, radio and television; The boy who breathed water.
There had always been a single major critique against the theory of evolution; did man stop evolving simply because there was no longer a need for it or evolution was just a farce.
Approximately five hours after Tobias fell off his ship, he was found on the shores of the Forlo beach. He showed no signs of dehydration or asphyxiation – just tiredness. When asked how he managed to survive in the middle of the ocean for so long, he simply said,
"I don't know. I just breathed water."
A report by Dr Williams, a resident neurosurgeon, stated:
Upon further analysis of the patient, it was noticed that a gill-like structure had formed underneath his jaws. He had a greater muscle mass than most people his age or any age for that matter. Even now, as I write these words, I doubt myself and my intellect. If he really did fall at the co-ordinates we were given and arrive on shore the time that he did, it means he swam a speed of at least 70 miles an hour. This is nothing short of a miracle.
This, however, was not the last of said miracles. Over the course of the next few years, people began changing and developing unnatural abilities when faced with near death scenarios.
Experts in the field of evolution theorized that people had just chosen not to evolve over time. However, the untimely evolution of one man had led a chain reaction that split the world into two; the evolved and the stagnated.
Although everyone gave a different account on how it happened. Two things were constant among the evolved.
One, they all experienced a near death experience and two they all said,
"I just didn't want to die."