Superheroes In Denim

by Lee French

  “Agreed. They especially don’t need to know about Hanamidi or the caves. Or anything else after that, really.”

  “No, they surely don’t.” Bobby nodded emphatically. “If’n I could think of a way to put it, I’d say they don’t need to know we was in that country at all. Not rightly sure how to explain the uniforms without that part, though.”

  Stephen sighed. “No, we’d have to lie to do that, and I don’t think we should do that, not to them.”

  “Ayup.”

  They reached the house far sooner than he wanted to. All the cars sat parked in a row, and the front porch light shone in the gathering darkness. Bobby stopped where the two parallel lines of trees flanking the drive ended. So did Stephen.

  “Look, whatever happens in there, I think we done the right thing more’n we done the wrong thing. Ain’t nobody was doing nothing, and we done something. It didn’t work out as great as we hoped, but we got something, which is more’n nothing.”

  Nodding, Stephen clapped him on the arm. “Well said.” From the way a grin lurked around the edges of his mouth, Bobby suspected he meant the opposite and rolled his eyes.

  As they stood there, stalling, Andrew stepped out the door and immediately lit a cigarette. The Creole had a book under one arm, but was definitely more interested in smoking just now than reading. He didn’t notice either of them.

  “Guess we might as well get this going.” Bobby reluctantly forced his legs to move.

  Andrew’s eyes snapped open and he peered around. “Who’s there?” He called it out loud enough for anyone to hear him through the nearby open window.

  “No one of consequence,” Stephen responded.

  Movement on the roof attracted Bobby’s attention. “Thank God you guys are back.” Matthew flipped himself down to the ground, landing with a soft thump. He paced over quickly and gave Stephen a brotherly embrace, then clapped Bobby on the shoulder. “They’ve been harping on me since I spilled, and that was the morning after you left. It’s like having a bunch of cats watching you all the time.”

  Bobby chuckled. Stephen snorted. Andrew approached, smirking as he flicked ashes off his cigarette. “Did you boys at least get something worthwhile?”

  “Yeah. Where’s Hannah?”

  “Meeting room.” Andrew pointed with his lit cigarette. “With Alice and Violet. Kaitlin’s in there, too. Lily’s not. Everyone else is either out in the woods or screwing. You hungry? Soon as I’m done here I can warm up some leftovers for you.”

  “Starving,” Bobby nodded gratefully. “That’d be great, thanks.”

  Andrew took a step back to blow his smoke away from them. “Sure thing, Bobby. Just watch yourself, don’t talk stupid.”

  Matthew grimaced. “I’ll stay out here. Already taken enough, thanks.”

  “I’ll be up after,” Stephen nodded to the werewolf.

  “Right. Time to go get ass-whupped.” Squaring his shoulders, Bobby marched himself to the front door and walked in without knocking. Voices buzzed from different parts of the house, too quiet to be understood. Pulling off his hat as a form of contrition, he stepped into the doorway of the meeting room and put on his best smile.

  Hannah, Kaitlin, Alice, and Violet all looked up from their separate seats. They must’ve heard Andrew, at least, but all four seemed surprised to see him. Maybe they expected an encyclopedia salesman or something.

  “Hi,” he said with an uncertain wave. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

  Behind him, Stephen also stepped into the room. “Not interrupting anything important, I hope?” He sounded about as fake with cheer as Bobby felt.

  “Bobby! Oh my god!” Alice jumped up and threw her arms around him, giving him a firm squeeze of a hug.

  Kaitlin shrugged and returned her attention to her laptop. Hannah and Violet both stood and scowled. The former put a hand on her hip and the latter crossed her arms.

  Alice let go and slapped him hard enough to knock his head aside. “You ass! What were you thinking? ”

  Stephen coughed. It sounded like a stifled laugh. “Matthew explained?”

  “Yes,” Hannah snapped. “Nice leaving him here to carry your water.”

  Bobby rubbed his face. He could live with Alice slapping him. “We got some stuff, at least. It weren’t a waste.”

  “You’re not Head Cowboy here, Bobby.” Hannah glared at him. “It was your idea in the first place that we shouldn’t go off and just do whatever without the rest of the group agreeing to it. I mean, really, I can understand Stephen haring off, but I would’ve thought you’d be against something like that.”

  Glancing back, Bobby got the distinct feeling the vampire decided not to be offended by that in favor of not getting blamed for this. At least he’d come along, but still. Coward. “It weren’t like that.” Even to him, he sounded whiny. Time to cut that out. “Look, do you want to know what we got, or don’t ya? ‘Cause we can spend an hour telling Bobby how he’s a dumbass, or we can go straight to how it weren’t a disaster.”

  “I think they should apologize to everyone.” Violet reminded him of Momma. Maybe it was just her heavy Alabama accent, or maybe it had more to do with that stern, no-nonsense tone. He could almost imagine her saying ‘don’t you sass me, boy’. “For being arrogant, self-righteous dicks.”

  “Sure,” Stephen said, “but that can wait.”

  “Yeah, we got a place to go.” No, Bobby did not want to stand in front of the whole group and beg for forgiveness. If that would let everyone move on and get to work on more important things, he’d do it.

  Hannah quirked an eyebrow. “Is that it?”

  “We coulda just gone there and maybe had more, but figured maybe y’all’d like to know about it and maybe some come along. It’s White Sands Missile Range. The Maze Beset project was there, or at least part of it was, and might still be. There was more’n one project under the name, all separate parts.”

  “Alright.” Hannah’s glare softened. “Come in and sit down, spill it.”

  “What’s with the camo?” Kaitlin spoke without taking her attention away from her laptop.

  Alice hugged Bobby again, then shoved him towards a couch. “They both look good in it, at least.”

  Bobby cracked half a grin and dropped down on the couch. “We were kinda in the Army for a few days, but that ain’t important. They don’t know nothing they didn’t know before. We did a few missions for ‘em, and run across a guy what knew some stuff.” He explained what Hanamidi had told them, using the man’s words. When he finished with that, he added his own thoughts and ideas from his discussions with Stephen.

  “At this point,” Stephen said, “it seems clear that we were created with alien DNA. It’s a bit of a leap, but the evidence is piling up.”

  Bobby nodded. “I really do think somebody oughta break in at White Sands and see what there is to see, but it’s got some risk.”

  “By ‘somebody’,” Hannah said dryly, “you naturally mean you two.”

  “We are fairly good at this sort of thing at this point.” Stephen must have figured the worst had passed, because he leaned back into the couch and appeared to have relaxed.

  “It don’t gotta be us, but we’re willing and got the skills and uniforms now.”

  “Hannah, I’m done—”

  Bobby froze at that voice. He’d wanted to have a chance to change into regular clothes before she saw him. Turning to look, he found her staring at him in surprise, sliding into horror. Her eyes had gone wide and her mouth hung open, and she still took his breath away.

  He gulped. “Hi, Lily.” His eyes traced the lines of her face, wanting to etch them into his memory so well he never lost hope or his sanity again.

  The room held its breath while she stared at him. Then she blinked and broke the spell, looking away to focus on Hannah. “I’m done with the towels, they’re hanging in the basement. I’m going to bed. Good night.” She turned on her heel and marched away.

  His butt left the couch i
n a flash. As he reached the door, he heard Hannah say, “We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

  Nothing else mattered except that when he hurried into the hallway, he saw her back. “Wait, Lily.” He tried not to beg and knew he’d failed.

  The words made her stop, giving him a chance to take a few steps closer. She crossed her arms and looked over her shoulder. “You could have left me a note.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not just about me, Bobby, I had to explain to Sebastian. He thought you weren’t coming back, and I didn’t know if I should tell him otherwise.”

  He closed the distance and touched her arms, hoping for the best. “I didn’t mean to make things hard on you.” He’d told Momma that a thousand times, too. Somehow, he always managed to find himself needing to say it again.

  He’d expected her to flinch, to haul off and slap him, to melt into his arms, to do something. Instead, he stood there and did nothing. “I’m tired, Bobby.” His stomach chose that moment to rumble. “Go eat,” she said wearily, walking out of his hands and away from him.

  This time, he watched her go, wondering if he’d done worse than she could forgive. He took heart from her not slamming her door for half a second. Then he realized Sebastian must be sleeping already. Hanging his head, he sighed and trudged to the kitchen. He found Andrew setting a plate heaped with food on one of the picnic tables.

  “She’ll be happier to see you in the morning,” Andrew said

  Bobby dropped onto the bench and shoveled food into his mouth. What had he expected? That she’d run and jump into his arms? Yes, actually. As stupid as that seemed now, he’d genuinely hoped she’d do exactly that. Obviously, he’d been a dick to leave without a word. Then he showed up in a uniform, probably reminding her of Sebastian, Sr. and how he never came home after putting his own uniform on. Dumbass. Stupid, stupid dumbass. Yesterday, this was the only place he wanted to be, and today, this was the only place he didn’t want to be.

  “Sulking is bad for digestion, Bobby.” Andrew brought a glass of milk over for him. “I don’t care if you eat that without tasting it, but you might. Best to pull your head out of your ass and pay attention to it.”

  “How long you reckon before she forgives me for being a dumbass?”

  Andrew smirked. “Probably about as long as it takes for you to do something else stupid.”

  “So, just a day or two.” It could have been a joke, but Bobby grumbled it, glaring at his food.

  “Give or take, sure.” Taking some pans to the sink, Andrew turned on the water and scrubbed them. “So long as you can accept it’s your fault, I’m sure it’ll turn out alright.”

  Bobby grunted and forced himself to slow down. The food, simple and bursting with fresh vegetables, surpassed everything he’d eaten lately. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” Andrew set one pan aside and moved on to the next. “My advice would be to ask John for some flowers to give to her. Not all women appreciate that, but she would. Best wait for morning on that, though. Far as I know, he’s in bed already. Here’s hoping it’s with Ai, because I swear those two are driving me nuts with the looks and awkward conversations.”

  Though he found that funny, he couldn’t muster more than a hint of a smirk. “I’ll wash my plate and stuff.”

  “Don’t worry about it, just leave it in the sink.” He turned to go, but stopped and fixed Bobby with a particularly piercing stare. “Was it bad?”

  “You could say that, yeah.”

  Andrew nodded. “Get plenty of sleep, then.”

  It was good advice. Bobby lifted a forkful in acknowledgment and farewell as the Creole left the kitchen. Not wanting to brood over food, he forced himself to stare at a knot in the table rather than think as he finished it. In his own room, he stripped the uniform off slowly, each piece feeling like a heavy load he could finally pull off and discard. With it, he was Mitchell, the freak who killed all those people for God and country. Without it, he was just Bobby. Was that how his daddy handled it when he came home between tours? The uniform did it, not him.

  He balled up his shirt and threw it at the wall. That felt right, so he hefted a boot and hurled it as hard as he could. The other one followed, and within minutes, he crouched naked on the floor. Choking, gurgling noises filled his head and he grabbed his hair, trying to yank the death gasps out.

  Had expecting her approval been the one thing holding him together? He bounced back up to his feet and paced back and forth across the tiny room. The walls closed in around him, too confining to breathe. Lashing out in frustration, he hit the wall with enough force that it exploded into dragons. Rather than pulling them back in, he flew apart.

  The swarm surged to the window, yanked the screen out, and poured outside, spreading out and flying around like that would solve everything. He saw Stephen sitting on the roof with Matthew, talking. Light from the barn suggested Greg hadn’t gone to bed yet. He might find Tiana or John out in the trees. But he didn’t want other people, he wanted… He wanted Lily. After everything he did and saw and went through, he’d expected the hero’s welcome and got the scapegrace’s one instead.

  He noticed Stephen give Matthew a hearty handshake, then take off straight up and head off to the southwest, probably for Denver. What he really needed was to exhaust himself, to make himself so tired he couldn’t see straight. Alternately, he could beat his head against a tree trunk until he lost consciousness—that would work, too. It occurred to him that alcohol might also work, but he’d never been the type to drink that much at once.

  Mad to get away from everyone and everything, he fled for the edge of the property. There, he landed and re-formed, and let out a primal scream, then another. A third croaked out with less force. Nothing changed, except his throat hurt and he had less of an urge to fly apart.

  Standing there, he took in several deep breaths, letting them out slowly, just trying to calm down, to force away the memories, to get a grip. Maybe ten minutes later, he realized her come out here buck naked and broke apart into dragons again. It reminded him of the first few days after he discovered his power.

  Having spent the last week or so on a sleep cycle that kept him awake at night, he had no interest in sleeping now and let the dragons loose to do whatever they wanted rather than try to deny he needed to settle. Some of them zipped through the trees, playing a weird game of chase, some dug around in the dirt, some hunted around in the trees, some found whatever surface they fancied and walked or rolled around on it. He’d never just let them do as they pleased outside of killing, and it surprised him to discover that they had different preferences.

  “Welcome back, Bobby.” Tiana’s voice had him direct a clump to trill at her. “If you don’t mind, the goats actually like to eat those plants you’re digging up.” The tall, slender black woman picked her way through the undergrowth towards him. Her hair, usually up in a tight bun, hung straight and loose with twigs and leaves stuck in it. The look suited her.

  Bobby pulled the dragons up from the ground and figured she’d probably want to actually talk to him. If he could sigh, he would. Instead, he called the dragons back to re-form his body on the other side of a tree, out of respect for her more than any real sense of modesty on his part. “Thanks. And sorry. Here I thought I might go a full day before screwing something up again.”

  Her rich, rolling laugh invited him to join her. “Aw, I’m not all twisted up about you haring off like a half-cocked idiot. Otherwise known as ‘being male’. Truth be told, I’m surprised you guys were the only two that ran off to do something. I would’ve thought Jayce would get a bee in his bonnet well before you two did. I guess he’s got enough to keep him busy with lifting and moving things for Greg.”

  Grinning, Bobby huffed an amused not-quite-snort. “Yeah, well, he don’t strike me as the type to come up with dumbass plans.”

  “No, I suppose he doesn’t.” She leaned against the same tree he’d squatted on the other side of. “Is there any particu
lar reason you’re naked and chewing up nature?”

  With that question, all traces of amusement fled. “Stuff.” He waved a hand vaguely, hoping she’d leave it alone.

  “You want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  “Mmhmm.” She stood there in silence for a few minutes. Neither of them said anything at all and neither of them went anywhere. It was kind of nice, having someone there without asking or telling or demanding or needing or wanting or judging. Stephen could do that. Stephen had gone off to get laid.

  For some reason, thinking of the vampire made him think about All of That, and he discovered he had to say something. “We killed some folk, and it weren’t real clear if’n we oughta or not. We done it on account Privek sent us to work with the Army. Saved some lives and all, but it’s kinda messed up how saving lives can mean taking others away.”

  “You’ve killed people before, Bobby. Why were these different?”

  “I didn’t have to kill them. I coulda…just—” That felt like a lie. It was true in the same way that saying ‘the sky is blue’ is true: sure, it’s blue, but ‘blue’ covers a lot of colors. “No, it’s really not so much that I killed them, or how many, or the ones what didn’t deserve it. It’s how. The dragons went all rage-monster and— We found some soldiers, our guys, being held prisoner, and they’d been beat up and tortured some. It pissed me off, and the dragons too. We…ah…found a new way to kill. A few dragons climb down into a body’s mouth, fly down, and punch their way out through the middle parts. No screaming, just funny gurgling noises and a little hacking.”

  “Wow.”

  “I ain’t never seen lungs from the inside before, or a heart up close. I don’t even know what all the parts I saw from in there were. And I can do a bunch at once, with hardly no noise. I throwed up after I done it to some three dozen guys in maybe ten to fifteen minutes.” He peeked around the tree at her, afraid of what he’d see there. “After that, there was more, it was less…justified and stuff.”