I dashed toward it, and gripped at what ended up being its arm. It reappeared, and shrieked in my face, igniting itself on fire; I suppose that’s how it was starting fires so quickly. Flammable skin.
I just readjusted my grip so that both hands were on its head, and I twisted as hard as I could in one direction, immediately breaking its neck and sending its body flying in a spiral toward a wall, where it lay dead.
Immediately, I flew back over to Sam, and continued to look him over. I couldn’t see him breathing, or if he was, he was hardly getting any air in or out.
“Let me take him to a hospital,” I insisted to Jessica, slowly and carefully picking him up into my arms. “I can get there right now.”
“I… Okay, but be fast! I don’t think he–” Again, I didn’t get to hear the end of that sentence, because I was already gone with Sam, on my way to the emergency ward of the hospital. I burst through the doors, and searched for help.
“Someone! Somebody please! He needs help, now!” I screamed, causing everyone in the main lobby to stare at me. They were surprised, to say the least.
They were all in shock of the Wanderer appearing, I’m sure, but I didn’t give a damn. Nobody was moving though, and that I did mind.
“For God’s sake, this man needs medical attention! I need doctors, now!” I yelled out, still shouting loudly. Everyone scrambled, and in a moment several doctors came out with a gurney and I placed him on it, they then moving him into a room.
“Uh, Wanderer, sir, you have to stay out here. Medical personnel only from this point onward.
“You’re not keeping me out of that room, so you can drop the professional act on me, and focus on him,” I said.
They worked on him for what felt like a lifetime, but in reality what was only about 20 minutes of trying. His heart rate was ridiculously low, and the burns were too severe for them to even attempt removing the tissue; it was all of him. They knew then he was on his last few seconds.
“Sir, I’m sorry, but… I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” a doctor broke to me. I shook, yet I felt totally frozen . How could this be happening? Right now? At all? This felt like a bad dream. I couldn’t seriously be losing my best friend, my brother, to an alien that I killed in seconds…
I heard thunder cracking outside, and rain sounded like it was shooting down to the earth like bullets. The wind howled against the building’s very structure.
“Leave the room, please,” I asked stoically.
“Excuse me?” one of the doctors asked. I didn’t like her tone.
I turned on a dime, and took a bold, impulsive step toward her. She and the other doctors all recoiled in fear, and held their hands up. I realized, but all I could manage was a sigh, and I stepped back.
“I just… Please, give me the room,” I said, trying to hold my composure.
“Sir, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing you can do to–”
“I know! Please, just… let me have a moment…” I pleaded. They all looked around at each other, and then hesitantly agreed, shuffling out of the room, leaving Sam and I alone.
I stood still for a few minutes, just listening to his heart beating; every beat became farther and farther apart from the last one. My breathing became more and more rapid, first from my nose but quickly exiting from my mouth in a hurried and unsteady pace. I walked over to the camera in the room and broke it with my hand, and then moved over to the door and seared it closed with my cosmic energy.
I walked over to Sam and collapsed my suit into the chestplate, back into my regular clothes. I was a bubbling mess, and tears were running down my face like a river.
“Come on Sam…! Come on…! You…You gotta pull through here buddy, please…!” I begged. “I…I need you to pull through… I can’t lose you…”
He said nothing, did nothing. He was practically dead already.
“Buddy, come on,” I begged. “Don’t do this…! I love you Sam, please don’t do this!”
I heard his heart monitor drop even further, and after a moment, it went still. That last beep droning on both in the room and in my mind for what felt like an eternity.
I started having a massive panic attack, and moved around uncontrollably. I was screaming, and crying, and breaking things with my bare hands– walls and desks and doors. It felt my whole body became unbearably hot, and the world around me seemed to collapse at my very feet.
“No… No…! No! NO NO NO NO NO!” I cried, falling to the floor. “Do something!” I yelled, though I couldn’t tell you who at. “Please! Do something! Anything! Bring him back! Bring him back!”
Nothing happened, and after a moment, I fell silent, lying on the ground in a swirling pool of hatred, loss, and self-pity. I was just waiting for the bad dream to end, and for me to wake up in my bed, with Sam just across the hall in his own.
My mind stretched back to every nook and cranny of our past; every little memory, every fight and joke and text and conversation. Especially that night at Alex’s, where he sacrificed himself for me, almost dying, just so Malek wouldn’t kill me.
And then…then I killed Malek. Only I didn’t kill him… did I…? No, no I took away his title, his very essence. I… took the title of the Wanderer.
I shot up off the floor, and stood right at the foot of Sam’s gurney, holding my hands out, and focusing hard. On everything the title was, and everything it meant. It’s history, it’s base elements, it’s holders; everything.
And then something happened. I felt something expel from me. Not my body necessarily, more so my being. I saw a yellow light enveloping Sam, and like vines, it wrapped around him. Soon enough he was entirely cocooned inside the light I was creating, and slowly, it constricted around him, taking form with a mold of his body. Then, I could see the details of his actual form again, the light slowly seeping into him. He was steaming, and the gurney was smoking and burning all around him.
Soon the light was gone from me entirely, and it was still falling into him. I felt like a part of me had just left my body– like I had just grown significantly weaker than I was a minute ago.
The gurney set on fire, so I grabbed Sam, and burst off through the hospital window.
I wasn’t sure how I was still flying, seeing as how I felt like I was about to pass out, and I was sweating excessively, but I pushed through the fatigue all the same.
I had the suit call Alannah, and had a small piece of it form around my ear and mouth to act as a phone.
“Jason!? Jason what’s going on? Did you find Sam?” she asked sporadically, she clearly just as nervous as I was.
“Alannah… I’m com...coming home… Ice in the freezer… m-make a… bath…” I stumbled, hardly able to focus on my words.
“O-Okay, I’m on it. Are you okay!? Where’s Sam!? Jason!” she yelled. I couldn’t respond, and just had the suit hang up on her.
A couple moments later and we were on the terrace of our apartment. I opened the door and sloppily made my way to the bathroom, where Alannah nervously waited for me. She saw Sam and the state he was in, and immediately cried.
“Oh my God…!” she cried out. “Is he…? Did he…?” I just ripped off what little there was left of Sam’s clothes, and put him in the bathtub, enveloping him in ice water.
Then, I turned to Alannah, and tried to say something. Of course, however, at that moment my vision up and left me, and I seriously lost my sense of balance.
“Jason!” she yelled, while I simply fell onto the ground, unable to carry on anymore. I tried my damndest to stay awake, but I was too drained.
And just like that, for the first time in four years, I blacked out again.
2
A Mind Is A Terrible Thing
A day. A day. A day. That’s how long it took me to wake up this time around. Which, compared to the last time I both passed out and gave/took Wanderer powers, was a pretty big improvement.
I was on the couch in my and Sam’s apartment, and woke up to see… no one. I was alone. My a
partment was… well no, it wasn’t empty; I heard noises, I was just alone.
I got up slowly, and cautiously made my way to the bedroom, where I heard whisperings and mutters. I felt a little wobbly on my way, and had to balance myself by holding onto the kitchen counter for support, but in a solid moment’s time I made my way to the (for some reason) closed door of my bedroom.
I cracked the door open slowly, and as I did, my closest of friends one-by-one appeared before my waking-eyes. Alex, Will, Julia, Alannah, and lying on my bed, still unconscious: Sam.
They all noticed me walking in, and I was still a little wobbly, so Will moved over to help keep me steady.
“I’m alright, I’m alright,” I waved him off, standing up on my own. It was true, in minutes, maybe ten at most, I’d be good as wood again.
“Jason, what happened?” Julia asked, a hint of fear in her tone. Good point, what did happen?
“Uh… hard to explain,” I explained… well, you know. “There was another challenger, one that could both disappear and ignite itself in a huge burst of flames. It was running rampant around the city; it was really fast by the looks of it. Sam was out on a date, and I guess somehow it attacked him; saw where he was and just ignited.” Everyone winced, if only they knew how I felt. “I found him, burnt to all hell, and I took him to a hospital, and, despite the doctor’s best efforts, he was still dying– I meant… I think he did. So, I think, I did something to save him.”
“You think?” Alex repeated.
“Save him? Will said. “What does ‘save him’ mean?” I took a deep breath, knowing this wouldn’t make much sense to them.
“Remember when I fought Malek, four years ago?” I asked, they all nodded. “Remember how I told you guys I sort of… took his essence away? His very being?”
“Yeah, and it didn’t make any sense,” Will said.
“Until he touched our hands, and showed us what he saw,” Julia remembered. It was true, I did do that, but I was never even totally sure about what happened, so all they saw was what I did, and all they understood was my theory.
“So you think you took that ‘Wanderer” title, that you took from Malek, the creator of the Wanderer, and gave it to Sam?” Alannah theorized. That’s my girl.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said. I looked over at Sam, and he was already majorly healed from when I saw him last. His skin was still blistered in most places, but overall it seemed like it was repaired.
“Why’s his body healing from burns, but your arm didn’t?” Alex asked, noticing the same, and then staring at my right arm. I shook my head.
“With my arm it was heavy, concentrated cosmic energy,” I guessed. “With this… I mean it was alien-based, but it was still just fire. If he’s got the same tolerance– same healing– that I do, it’s probably not as bad. He’s fixing himself.”
He really was, but still, he wasn’t breathing much, so maybe it wasn’t taking its full desired effect, or maybe it was just too much for him.
“But, if he has the same powers you do, why isn’t he awake?” Will asked, confused. I shrugged.
“Well, I don’t know. It could be a number of things,” I answered honestly. “Worst case: It ends up being too much for his body to take, and it kills him; but I could take it, and there’s nothing any more special about me than him, so I don’t believe that. Alternatively, when Haltz first gave me my powers, I was out for a good couple hours, and woke up in the woods, so maybe it’s just a matter of time. Also, when I took Malek’s being and abilities, I was out cold for four days.”
“Yeah, but you were also worn out from fighting so hard,” Alex said.
“True, but Sam got set on fire; that’s bound to be pretty tiring too,” I argued. The others agreed, but still no one seemed satisfied with my theories. All that really mattered was if he was going to wake up, and when.
Then something strange happened.
There was a popping sound. One that no one else really recognized or even picked up on to begin with, but that I had heard a number of times the past four years. Sam’s prosthetic arm popping off; lucky him it was made with “rare metals,” courtesy of the U.S.B., so it didn’t melt from the flames. He’d take it off whenever he’d go to bed, and sometimes when it got sweaty and itchy.
My gaze instantly shot over to him, and I saw it slightly off of his arm. It certainly wasn’t connected, but it wasn’t very far away from his arm, so it didn’t shoot off or anything. But it also popped, so it didn’t slide off either.
“What is it?” Alannah asked, seeing me looking all over Sam’s body, trying to read what was happening. I moved over to him and began inspecting his arm.
“His prosthetic arm came off,” I said.
“So what? It probably just slid off or something,” Will said.
“No, it popped,” I argued. “Why would it just pop off? There’s no friction, he didn’t just grab it and take it off, there’s nothing push…” Pushing. That’s what I was going for.
I stopped myself, however, because I noticed that something had in fact pushed his arm off. It was his arm; his real arm. The stub that was once scarred and rough was now about an inch or two longer, and was a clean, rounded end.
“His…His arm is growing back,” I muttered in amazement. The others didn’t hear what I said, only that I said something.
“What?” Will asked. “Jason, what’s up?”
I just started laughing, and I teared up a little, grabbing my hair and gripping it between my fingers in disbelief. My breathing became sporadic, and I felt like shaking a little bit.
“His arm, it’s healing,” I said to them. “It’s growing back.”
They all looked at me wide-eyed, and moved over to look at him too. Now, this was great, obviously, but it was awesome for me for two reasons. One: He was healing, which meant it really was working, and maybe he’d actually pull through. Two: The worst thing that happened to him, that I still to this day blame myself for was being reversed, and he was going to get a piece of him back again. It seemed like an all around win for him; for all of us, really.
“So… So what does this mean? Is it working? Is he healing?” Will asked excitedly, but also cautiously.
“I think so, but I imagine his body is doing damage control, and repairing the worst of it; that means his arm for the time being. It took care of the worst of his burns, and look, his arm’s skin is fully normalized. Now it’s just repairing the lost limb entirely,” I explained. Well, more theorized, but still, at least it made relative sense. My healing could always put things back together so long as some of it remained, and he did still have a stump.
“So, how long do you think it’ll take for him to wake up?” Julia asked.
“Don’t know,” I said, still focusing on his arm. “It could take a few days, maybe even a week. I’ve never gotten a limb removed before– and granted he still had part of it left– so I have no idea how long it will take to heal that up, but I imagine he won’t be awake before then.”
“Wow…” Julia responded, shocked at the news. Weren’t we all. I didn’t really know what to do, let alone feel. I was nervous, and excited, and sad, and happy. I was a goddamn mess.
“So Jason, are you gonna like, train him?” Alex asked. Everyone looked over to me, and I just curiously gazed over at Alex.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you had to figure out your powers on you own, right? But now you’ve got a good grip on them. If he’s going to have the same powers as you, wouldn’t it be better if he was taught how to use them?” Alex continued.
“Well, he won’t have all the same powers as me; the Wanderer default abilities sure: flight, strength, pain resistance, but the rest is all dependent on the individual. I have no idea what he’ll be able to do. Maybe he can do even more than me,” I wondered aloud.
“Well still, you could teach him how to fly, how to use his strength, and how to gain a better understanding of his pain tolerance and what he can and can’t take,” Will
said. It was true, I could do that. But would it really be the right move? I’m not the teacher-type, and this was already a really difficult subject to learn.
“Maybe, I guess we’ll see,” was about all I could come up with in the moment. Alannah walked over to me, and hugged my arm, putting her head on my shoulder.
“Why don’t we give him some time to rest guys, okay?” Julia offered, everyone else agreeing in small nods and whispers. We all started to file out, until I pulled away from Alannah, looking back at Sam.
“Hey, give me a minute, okay guys? You can all hang out in our living room or whatever for the time being,” I requested. They nodded, and I shut the door behind them as they made their way out.
I walked over to my bed, and pulled up a chair from the desk right across the room. I sat down next to Sam, and just stared at him. What are you gonna be when you wake up? I thought to myself.
And what would he be? Would he work with me, like a sidekick? Like a duo? Would he not want not use his powers at all? Just live a normal life? And what if more aliens came now because of this? Or worse, what if they listened to him, because I might have gave him Malek’s essence? And if I did, would that make him evil? Would I even have my best friend anymore?
It was some really tough stuff to have to think about, I’ll be blunt. And more than that, by just a bit anyway, I really wanted to know what powers he’d have other than me. And how many? One or two? Or like, a whole handful of them?
Then I thought of something. In the past, I was able to show people things simply by having them touch my hand. I could share information that I knew, in mere seconds, and pass it on to them. So, if he was going to be a Wanderer– or at least Wanderer-like being– maybe I could learn what he knew, even if it was subconscious. It was a long shot, but maybe it was true.
I put my hand on his, and closed my eyes. I tried to open my mind, and wait for something to come in from his. For a good long while, nothing happened, and I grew really disheartened about the likelihood of seeing what was going on in his head, but then I started to get flashes.
The Wanderer (Book 2): Stranded Page 2