I was able to open my eyes a crack to look around. It looked like water, normal water but it was cold and hard and stiff! I couldn’t swim. I could barely even breathe. The hard water was starting to open up. I felt the cold water fill my lungs. The regular water was coming back! I swam around everywhere trying to find anything to eat. Tiny bits of algae floated around. The sweet taste melted in my mouth. It’s been so long. I looked   around for my friends and family.

        “Himina!” I shouted.

        He’s maybe just also looking for food. I thought.

        “Ruwabear! Beawai! Minoa?” None of my friends or family were there. What happened? I started shaking before I could even think of what happened. I felt the water push me as my arms flailed and as I twisted and turned in the water finally coming to a stop.

        “Who is this?” asked a voice from behind me. My body made a quick turn, bubbles surrounding me. I saw three amoebas looking at me.

        “My name is Kumamushi.” I said.

        “A water bear? Here? In the lake?” asked one of the amoebas to the right of the one who spoke before. They were in a triangle formation, two behind one.

        “The lake?” I asked. “I only remember swimming then freezing, and now I’m here.”

        “Hmph,” one said. He was on the left of what seemed to be the leader of the pack. They inched closer and closer to me.

        “Please don’t eat me!” I exclaimed. The one on the left started to laugh.

        “Eat you? We eat human brains. Not water bears,” the leader said. Human brains? How could they?

        “No! You shouldn’t do that,” I exclaimed.

        “We need to survive so we’ll do what we want,” said the one to the right. They all started to move past me but I rushed in front of them.

        “You can just eat plants or algae,” I told them.

        “Algae isn’t enough to sustain our hunger, only the brains of human beings,” the leader said. They continued walking past me. I felt a rage building inside of my soul. I tackled the one to the right and started to scratch his face.

        “Tortellini!” the leader shouted. Tortellini whaled while I scratched him but I just kept scratching. I just kept scratching until there was nothing left. I turned behind me to see the two other amoebas staring at me in shock.

        “Who's next?” I asked. They swam as fast as they could to get away from me.

        I swam around my new surroundings, filling up on algae. I couldn’t see another water bear in sight. I could see hundreds, thousands if not millions of brain eating amoebas. I swam up to one.

        “Hello,” I greeted him. He seemed in shock to even see a water bear in a lake as there weren’t that many here.

        “Uh, hi,” he said. His eyes darted from left to right.

        “You eat brains. Correct?” I asked.

        “I do,” he responded.

        “So how many others of you are there?” I asked the amoeba.

        “This whole ocean is filled with us.”

I looked around the water, there were amoebas everywhere. All of the amoebas, killing humans and the humans don’t even know.

        “Is that all?” the amoeba asked. He seemed to want to get away from me, as if he knew I had killed that amoeba before.

        “No,” I answered. I ripped into his skin, shreds flying everywhere. His screams drowned out eventually. I swam up, seeing amoebas staring at me. “You’re next.”

        The water rushed past my face as I sped down it. It made my eyes hurt but I didn’t close them. I had to run from the mob of amoebas chasing me. There was nowhere else to hide. Besides, even if they were there they would still find me eventually, I was the only water bear in town. My legs began to get heavier and my throat felt like it was beeding. I couldn’t keep running. I had to fight. I stopped and so did the mob. There were about fifteen amoebas there. But I knew they could always just multiply. I lunged in and started scratching everyone and everything I could. I heard screams of the amoebas around. I honestly felt sad that they all had to go but they were hurting others.

        “Why are you doing this?” asked one of the amoebas, his breath shaking as I clawed him.

        “You are attacking humans, I have to defend them,” I responded.

        “But the humans hurt us. They destroy our waters and freeze us,” one of the amoebas responded. As he said those last three words I felt my whole body stop. It made more sense. Why the water was brown, why I had been frozen for weeks. It was all humans. They did this to us. I felt my feet lift up and I stared at all of the amoebas.

        “Then we must fight back.”

        I stomped in the water, my amoebas following me. About 100 amoebas were following me as I moved. Right. Left. Right. Left. I thought about the way my body swayed as I moved it. Some of the amoebas started to split into two as we all halted to a stop. A human was among us. I could see it’s head about to go down into the water, where we could attack.

        “Jessi, Gorden, Isabel! Go, go, go!” I yelled. Multiple amoebas went forward towards the human. They must have split. They were all just on target, the massive wave sent us back as the human's head went into the water. I could see it’s disgusting pores, it’s long black strings moving around in the water. I could see the amoebas rushing into the big long tube to the brain. I saw what seemed to be Jessie’s amoebas go in but right as the rest were going to, the giant thing started to pull its head back up. I felt the weight of the water on my back as we rushed forwards. “Gorden? Isabel?” I called.

        “Yes?” responded three of Gorden’s amoebas. Isabel arose from behind him. I could tell she didn’t look so happy.

        “Jessi got in!” I exclaimed. There was just silence among us. Why was no one shouting?

        “I just wanna go home and play baseball with my family,” Isabel said. She bumped past me and the crowd seemed to take interest in what she said and followed too.

        “Wait! But the humans!” I exclaimed. 

        “What about humans?” Isbabel asked. “Even if we eat some brains it won’t do anything.”

        “What are you talking about? Of course it will.” I responded.

        “They will keep destroying our home and putting those giant plastic things everywhere.” Gorden said.

        “Give it up Kumamushi. It’s never gonna stop,” said an amoeba named Rose. “were doomed.”

I watched as all of my amoebas walked away, all in a pack.

        “Wait but- but we…” I had nothing to say. They were all right. I was just some water bear with no friends, no family and no place to go. I looked around the big, brown water, giant pieces of plastic sat there, floating atop the water. We really were doomed. They doomed us. Forever.