True Heroes

by Gann, Myles

  ‘She will figure it out?’

  ‘Stop worrying. Enjoy the sounds.’

  ‘There’s nothing to enjoy when she’s not here.’

  ‘Keep a watch if you’re that worried.’

  ‘You’re not?’

  ‘She stayed with me after we put her through hell. I doubt she’s going to run away because of a riddle.’

  ‘She stayed with us.’

  ‘She doesn’t kiss you.’

  ‘I kept us around her.’

  ‘This is what I was worried about.’

  ‘Shut up. She’s coming. I recognize her steps.’

  ‘There’s someone with her.’

  He stood up straight and extended his power to hear the faint conversation. “Well, he probably won’t be happy to see you.”

  “Oh, don’t worry miss. I’m not here to win him over.”

  ‘Who is that?’

  ‘An older male. Military outfit.’

  “That’s what the last guy said.”

  Caleb was at the base of the stairs quickly as they came from around a bush, Alice’s head instantly springing up to him. She smiled and quickly moved to his back as he kept his right shoulder forward. ‘Let me out. I’ll squelch this.’

  “Caleb Whitmor. It’s a pleasure.”

  The man’s hand extended. “You can’t be serious.”

  It retracted slowly. “Perhaps I shouldn’t be. I’m Major Howard.”

  “You’re a guy in a uniform following my girlfriend—loads and loads of unsavory things in that premise.”

  The man held up his hands. “I’d try to explain things, but there’s no way you’re going to trust me anymore through that, so what do you want from me? You can have anything I can give.”

  “Just skip ahead to the punch line.”

  “The military’s last pitch to you was…impersonal. We were using you as a test dummy. How about you end this whole damn war by yourself?”

  Caleb took Alice’s hand. “Thanks for stopping by.”

  She pushed on his body to keep him from walking forward. “He came on a four hour flight by himself.”

  “So I should listen to another pale of crap?”

  “You should be polite. Be you.”

  Her brown eyes seemed set to simmer. He turned around and looked tiredly at the Major. “In a metaphysical sense, I’d love to end the war, but the accosting nature of the military seems to hinder me from making that a reality.”

  “The military offered you a simple choice. The problem was in our judgment of messengers. General Fink is gone. Stockaded him myself.”

  “And the one with the silver spine?”

  “Stephen…is off the grid. He’s free.”

  Caleb brought his other shoulder forward. “Someone with that kind of power is completely loose?”

  “He’s not going far. He’s not you he can’t recover freely. The synthetic material we gave him burns off quickly. Some of it was stolen, but only enough for about seventeen hours of continuous use.”

  “Seventeen hours with that kind of power is a doomsday scenario.”

  “He’s second priority with his health problems and with you in the country.” The Major lowered his hands but made sure to keep them visible.

  “I suppose the war technically has priority.”

  “It does, especially when we can push you through it in two days to accomplish what it would’ve taken Stephen three weeks.”

  “Listen, Major, your predecessors tried this same crap. I don’t care who gets to what starting line first. If I’m going to be a part of this, then it will be for the right reasons and will be done in the right way, or I can’t be involved.”

  “Caleb, you can name your own terms at this point. We’re desperate. This country is aching for something to return to normal before the first generation of new millennium babies dies off.”

  Caleb looked back at Alice for a moment. “I’m not sure if it can be right at this point.”

  The old man opened up the front pocket of his green jacket and retrieved a small strip of paper. “A ticket for basic. Leaves tomorrow at about eight in the morning. You’ll be back in your lady’s arms by the end of next week. You look around for a reason, and please look hard.” Caleb extended his power lightly to retrieve the ticket, the Major looking amazed as the paper floated from his hand back to Alice’s chest. “We need you.”

  As the Major’s feet backpedaled and his hands jammed into his pockets, Caleb turned to Alice to find her analyzing the tickets carefully. “They’re real.”

  “You deciphered my message?”

  She looked up with wry springing from her eyes. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out. ‘Meet me where everybody walks.’ Where else does everybody walk?”

  “She walks here and there, they say.” Caleb came close and took the plane ticket from her hands. “So, I could’ve meant anywhere, really.”

  “You’re being romantic? Are we okay?”

  ‘Look at her eyes, boy, say yes!’ “I’m sorry. I just want to see you smile.”

  “Not fake smiles. Those are no good.”

  “You’re right.”

  “No, you’re right. What were we going to do here? You only have an hour until work.”

  “I was just going to be with you for a while….”

  Alice backed away from him. “How can you be with me and not be with me at the same time? These are your words, Caleb, you wanted to live by the right way.”

  “And I mean it. I don’t mean getting naked and running down the night. I just…wanted to be with you.”

  ‘Me too.’

  She seemed to thrash a little, but came closer, allowing Caleb’s arms to pull her shoulders under his. Her arms eventually unfolded beneath her flowing lips and hugged him hard. “You need to think. Your heart always beats fast when you need to think.”

  “Or when I’m happy.”

  “If you were happy, we’d be kissing our lips off and I’d be smiling until my cheeks hurt. You need to think. After that, maybe we can be happy?”

  Caleb smiled. “The more I think about it, the closer I get. When I meet you there at the end of the path, we’re going to be perfect.”

  “And then what?”

  “Good question.”

  She pressed herself against him hard again before pushing off and stepping away. “Then go think.”

  Caleb lost his smile. “Do you want a lift back?”

  “Nope, I’ve been lazy lately. I need to walk more. I’ll stay up for you though. Joy said you’d be getting off early tonight.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to. Do you want me to?”

  “I can’t help but want you to….”

  She smiled again before Caleb’s eyes glowed blue for her. The next still image his brain could find all the pieces to didn’t arrive until the corner of his large work came into view. He slowed his churning legs and dulled his iris’ glaze to a more totemic state. Leaning against the reinforced glass door was a somber Joy.

  She turned and wiped at her face. “You’re super early today.”

  He continued to walk forward. ‘No bruises or anything.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure this fruit is quite bruised.’

  ‘Be a little sensitive.’

  ‘For what? Do you think she’ll hear me?’

  ‘God I hope not.’ “Are you okay?”

  Her skinny hands rubbed the tears from their ducts and tried to shape her face into a smile. “Yeah.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “What? No I got something in my eye.”

  Her hand rubbed at one eye while the other dropped a tear straight to the pavement. Caleb smiled with as much sympathy as he could muster and walked past her. ‘No help?’

  ‘She doesn’t want it.’

  ‘A new way of life equates to us helping people less. I think I can live with that.’

  ‘We help those who want it. You can’t force the truth on people.’

  He walked inside
the large warehouse and flashed his badge to security. ‘And the Major?’

  ‘They’ve done plenty wrong already. I won’t add to it.’

  ‘You’re worried about the reaction.’

  ‘I’ve got enough on my plate that has yet to be interacted with.’

  ‘Right by you before right all-together. Is this how we used to be? Is this how you were before me?’

  “Hey!” Joy approached with a jog on her mind but not within her legs.

  ‘No, and that’s the problem. There was always something before me, and always something after me. That’s the key. I just can’t find the door.’

  She slowed but kept walking past him. “We still got an hour if you want to talk about it in my office?”

  Caleb smiled a little and walked behind her massive smile under red eyes. The thin paint that signaled the safety zone washed by with Caleb’s eyes focused on the area between; grey cement filled and hardened his senses to anything beyond the scant stride ahead. They came in order until his mind was finally snapped by a cool breeze from a mechanical source in the office area. He followed Joy past the clean desks and into the separated space, to which a cluttered area claimed ownership. The floor was riddled with the tossed, missed paper of the overflowing waste basket while the desk held many more potential victims uncrumbled but no less scattered. He gave this all a cursory glance as he sat down with her at his side closing the door. The lock gently sounded, but she didn’t move to the seat across from him. She kneeled down and held her hands at his arm rest, causing him to instinctively lean to the other side. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Me and you.”

  Caleb looked down to her looming, gapping smile. “What do you mean?”

  She lost a bit of her smile. “We haven’t been okay for a while now have we?”

  “We’ve been at a distance.”

  “Too much distance.” She stood up and walked around the desk. “When you did that model thing the other day, what was the spot you put me at?”

  Caleb rubbed at his head. ‘She’s asking for it, boy. Find the backbone you preach about.’ “You represented the evil that influences, as I recall, the base line for most people. Someone can’t actually be there, understand, but as you were there, your intentions would be for everyone to notice only what you are drawn to and nothing else.”

  She pointed her face down and seemed to be laughing in the windowless room. Her hands snuck under a pile of papers, and removed themselves quickly with a gun clutched in both shaking palms. “How did you know?”

  Caleb didn’t flinch backward, but moved slowly in an attempt to calm her. “Know what?”

  “How did you fucking know?”

  ‘The glue’s come off the seams. Allow me a little room.’

  ‘No, wait.’

  “I didn’t know anything it was just a model. Didn’t mean anything personal.”

  She moved the gun to her right hand and leaned across the desk, separating her arm from her body enough to where Caleb briefly considered ending it, but didn’t. “You’re a liar. You put David and Alice and that prick Dyllo right where you wanted them. Even Christopher and his whore Angela, and that tiny bitch across from me got a twinkle from you. You put them in their place, so you damn sure put me in mine. How did you know?”

  “I didn’t know where to put you, and that was the only spot left.”

  “A natural fit, is that it? That I’m naturally base? I’m naturally a completely selfish bitch, that’s what you’re telling me?”

  Caleb felt his heart sink a little as the black barrel was shaking inches from his skull. “No, I’m saying you were there by default. What am I supposed to know?”

  “That’s my fucking sickness! I swallow everything around me and can’t see anything that doesn’t relate to me. I can’t name any other countries besides this one. I only know two state names. The idea of anymore scares the shit out of me and I get so nervous I want to scream.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “But you guessed right, didn’t you? You were right on the mark when the entire group fit right into your model.”

  “Things just fell into their places.”

  She pulled the gun back and held it tightly at her side. “I hate that little tramp you date. She’s always happy. I hate that she has you and that you make her happy instead of me.” Her hands swept the top of the desk clean. “I bet you to go at it like rabbits don’t you? Nobody’s that happy without sex in their life.”

  “You don’t know me, and you don’t know us. You can’t”

  She pointed the barrel of the gun down into the metal desk. “Get up here with your pants off.”

  ‘Here comes the limit.’ “No.”

  It rose quickly and was steady with its intent at the end of the short tube. “Make me happy.”

  ‘She’s pushing your limit. Push back.’ “No. Not in the way you’re asking.”

  Her hand jutted forward but the trigger remained in place. Her gritting teeth shone unevenly from her turned head while the protruding bones at her wrists could barely be seen beneath the constricted sinews locked within twisting intentions. She never quite relaxed, but her vision of Caleb’s clarity spread within her. “How could you make me happy?”

  ‘Ah damn. I was hoping the staring contest would end in bloodshed.’

  “I can tell you what’s happening to you now, but nothing more. Nothing in the future is ever certain because I don’t know what choices you’re going to make.”

  “That’s it? What the hell will that do?”

  “If you know what’s going to happen—”

  “What? I’ll be able to change it is that you’re huge revelation?”

  “Yes.”

  “To hell with that! What in the world would that do for me? I-I’ve been who I am forever. What the hell is having a map going to solve?”

  “It’s a map and a compass.”

  “A compass?”

  “It will always point where you want to go, but there will always be choices for you to make.”

  “It’s not about that, I thought? You told us it was about going north, not where we wanted to go.”

  “You can’t go north.”

  The barrel slammed into the desk. “Why not?”

  “Because you are stuck in an endless cycle. What happened in the beginning is that you were born thinking that you were all there was, and you did this to such an extreme that the rest of the world blanked out. What’s happened since then is that you’ve been brought up to believe that the only way to approach life is through immediate satisfaction of basic pleasures, which is apparent by your approach to sex. What is going to happen is that you are going to continue to believe all of this is the only way you can live, because it’s true, and you will live and die this way if these are the choices that you make.”

  Her hand shook violently until the weapon finally dropped heavily to the floor with a thud.

  ‘Bravo, Caleb.’

  ‘She’s crushed….’

  ‘So are you, but you still said what had to be said.’

  ‘I feel sick.’

  ‘Come now don’t ruin your moment of maturation.’

  “Are you sure?”

  Caleb stood up and stepped to the door. “I’m sorry. It is how it is how it was lived.”

  He opened the door and walked out to the empty office with Joy’s heaves sounding heavily before the slam of the door behind him. Caleb fell into a fake bench and barely caught his head in his hands. ‘Something is wrong. My stomach…my heart.’

  ‘You did just fine.’

  ‘We’re aligned. There’s something very wrong there.’

  ‘That’s my type of truth. It’s the way you’ve matured. Like you said, there’s nothing you can do about it. We are who we are.’

  ‘Why did I say that?’

  ‘The word of the true.’

  ‘No, no, no, this hurts.’

  ‘I can only say truth so many times.’

  The
work bell sounded and cranked Caleb’s knees into position. ‘No, lies hurt. Truth….’

  ‘Does what?’

  ‘I can’t see it. I can’t see the truth of what I was talking about anymore.’

  ‘Then you must’ve been wrong.’

  ‘No, just…incomplete.’

  The consciousness of Caleb subverted its senses, turning to slight emittances of Power to fuel every muscular curl or straighten for the better part of an hour. Monotonous action snagged as his scanning gun continually erred, drawing his external attention only to read on the display that there was an important meeting in the common area. ‘What’s this about?’

  ‘Nothing important.’

  From one of the open shutters against the near exterior wall, Caleb caught a twinkling glance of a red spinning light as he walked. ‘Something important.’

  ‘There’s nothing important here. You’re speaking paradoxically.’

  He walked into the common area and unstrapped his bag while tuning into the middle sentence of a paragraph. “So, we can’t answer all of your questions, obviously, as it is an ongoing investigation, but to answer your question, yes, bereavement time will be offered for tonight and tomorrow. I know that she was special to a few of us here.”

  ‘Who’s missing?’ Caleb searched frantically and felt coldly isolated. ‘Joy.’

  ‘What Joy, indeed.’

  Caleb felt something searing inside of him rocket into his fingertips and through his skin. Every body part he could feel was scorched in the agony of sensation; his power reacting heavily to the frightening pitfall he subconsciously perched atop. ‘Walk. Talk to him.’

  “Hey, Frank, I’m going to go to throw on lanes, okay?”

  Frank looked sideways towards him. ‘Confused. Please. Please say yes. I can’t stay still.’

  The boss nodded his head as Caleb was half turned and walking away. He sped down half of the large warehouse. ‘Walk. Step, step, step, step, step, step. Stop. Watch. Step, step, step.’

  The boxes flew from his hands off the pallet and into the back of a large truck. ‘Pick. Heave. Pick faster. Heave harder. Harder, Caleb, harder!’ One pallet was finished. The second one fell quickly. ‘Stop. Just stop.’

  He heard his own voice hold his will from setting his soul ablaze. His head leaned onto the downed tail-gate, and his lungs couldn’t find a breath deep enough. ‘There’s got to be more. There has to be a way. We’re not done.’