Leo turned to follow Taylor's stare and saw soldiers wearing black and green camouflage behind trees and rocks. He saw the one closest waving hand signals to soldiers on either side with the rifles aiming at him and Taylor. The deafening wind from the helicopter covered the sound, but Leo saw the leader's mouth moving. Seconds later, the soldiers aiming at Taylor moved to aim at Leo.
52
Ethan needed to stop.
Each time he'd thought to stop, Ray yelled for him to keep going. Ethan felt as if he would reach the top only to fall over dead on his feet, but, Ray would say you know you can do it Dad. You just have to want to. Nothing can stop you.
He didn't stop. He'd never let Ray down again, even if it did kill him.
His lungs strained to pull oxygen from the humid air. He'd run almost continuously since changing direction after spotting the white blur. As he ran down the first hill, he'd second-guessed himself at every step, certain he'd made the wrong choice. He'd crossed another ridge before hearing the helicopter moving in his direction.
When it had zoomed over the top of the ridge, he'd been in the valley below. Under normal circumstances he would have stopped and caught his breath many times as he climbed a mountain this steep.
He pushed on, gasping for air.
By the time Ethan slapped his hand onto the top surface of the last big boulder before the clearing, he'd lost track of everything except Ray's voice. He crouched low, running up the mountain, pulling himself with handholds on branches and rocks as he moved, eyes locked. He came up over the ridge too quickly and barely caught himself before tumbling headlong into space. He pulled up hard and took a step back from the boulder's edge for good measure.
The helicopter's wind blast was deafening.
Ethan struggled to understand what was happening.
The boy, Leo, was on the cliff's edge. In addition to the chest and arms he'd last seen, there were legs as well. The white suit stood with arms outstretched like a cross. It was so close to the edge Ethan couldn't imagine how Leo hadn't already slipped off with the grit and rocks blowing from the helicopter.
The copter hung at eye level, a soldier inside targeting either Leo or the man next to him, Ethan couldn't tell from his angle and distance.
The man beside Leo on the cliff held a large glass dish out as if he were about to put it on Leo. He faced Leo with his back to Ethan.
More soldiers hid in the side of the clearing opposite Ethan. They would notice his arrival within seconds, Ethan was sure.
Ethan's mind raced to interpret the chaotic scene.
53
The helicopter is too close, Leo thought. The suit has decided it is too close and a threat. Not sure if I felt something moving or what, but it's getting ready to do something.
A small dimple appeared in the glass-metal surface of the flightsuit's left shoulder. Because Leo was expecting the suit to do something, the slight movement caught the corner of his eye. He watched a BB-sized hole appear in the top of the dimple. The hole expanded and the dimple left a quarter-sized hole in the flightsuit's shoulder. Leo turned away from the hole as an eye-searing blue light floated out of the opening. For a second, it just floated, a shining blue pinpoint of light. Then it shot toward the helicopter.
The soldier in the helicopter put his hand to his helmet trying to hear instructions. He had seen the light coming but had no time to react.
The helicopter vanished. The wind blowing at Leo from the blades was swallowed by a whoosh of air toward the helicopter and a crack like thunder. Then silence. It happened so fast, Leo's mind was still filling in what he'd seen from after-images. The helicopter hadn't just vanished, it had been sucked into itself. He'd seen the beginning of a scream on the soldier's face in the instant before the bones crushed together into a pinpoint.
After a moment's silence, there was a sound as if the entire hillside had just crashed into the valley below. Dust blew back up over the edge. Taylor was peering over the edge.
That was the helicopter falling, Leo thought.
He glanced back to see Taylor grinning with delight. He lifted the helmet and arched his eyebrows. "Ready for company?"
Leo saw Ethan standing on a large rock looking at him, his jaw still hanging open from the helicopter's disappearance.
54
Ethan saw the man raising the helmet, but his focus was on Leo's eyes. He read the fear in them.
He heard Ray, yell "STOP HIM!"
In the years since Ray's death, Ethan had stacked regret. A stick of regret for every time he'd told Ray he was too busy to play. Chunk, into the stack. A stick for every time he was too exhausted from work in the mine to play, into the stack. It didn't matter, now, that he'd been falling asleep on his feet trying to work nights and be at the hospital during the day. By Ethan's punishing self-assessment, he'd let Ray down many times, right down to the last time as he sat in the hospital feeling his son's small hand grow cold.
Ray had gone, leaving regrets to remember him. On the few occasions when Ethan felt a moment of simple pleasure, standing in the sun feeling the cooling fall wind, he'd catch himself and feel guilty enjoying something that Ray was missing. He'd wished thousands of times for a chance to go back and replace each of those memories and half-efforts with a better effort now that he knew there would be so few allotted. The weight of those stacked regrets had crushed Ethan for years.
Without a second's hesitation, Ethan dipped his shoulder, allowing the pack he'd carried on his back to slide down his arm. As it slipped off his shoulder, he jammed his right hand into the bag, grabbing inside. The bag fell to the ground and revealed the long silver pistol in Ethan's hand.
Ray yelled again, "STOP HIM, Ethan!" This time Ethan saw Leo's mouth framing the words. He leveled his right arm, closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.
Then he opened his eyes and pulled the trigger.
55
Taylor hadn't seen Ethan. He was lowering the helmet toward Leo when his face erupted in a spray of red, gray and white. As Leo twisted his head away, he heard Taylor projecting thoughts through the time-frozen, near-instantaneous mind-to-mind communication. What are you looking at? At first, the booming voice still sounded like an angry god in Leo's head, but then in a smaller voice, like a scared little boy, what's happening?
The connection broke, and Leo continued turning his head as bits of brain and sharp pieces of Taylor's shattered skull ripped past.
Taylor's body froze in place with one remaining eye locked onto him. The other eye and the top of Taylor's head was on its way over the edge. Leo watched the helmet drop from Taylor's loosened fingers. It fell too close to his feet to see if it bounced over the edge.
He heard, or perhaps felt, he wasn't sure which, a tremendous wind through his mind. He felt relief of a pressure in his head that he hadn't quite been fully aware of before.
He flinched away from the remains of Taylor's slack and surprised face as it leaned toward him. The body slid against the flightsuit before tumbling past toward the valley below, leaving a red smear, which instantly beaded and slid off.
56
When the helicopter vanished, Hack held his team back. "No one fire until I do," he spoke into his mouthpiece. He needed to stop Taylor from putting the helmet on the suit, there was no way to guess what would happen if he did, and he didn't want a kid injured by stray fire or ricochet. "Sowyer, target Taylor's leg or something non-vital, I want to get him away from the suit without killing him."
"Yes, sir" Sowyer replied, sighting Taylor's head. Put you away this time. For good.
Someone else just popped into view across the clearing. Hack was almost looking right at the spot when Ethan bounded into view and almost fell right over a boulder. Who's this guy? Before he could make any guesses, the guy threw off his backpack and was standing there holding a gun. In Hack's long experience dealing justice to men with guns, he'd never seen one pull a gun out and immediately fire. Everyone always waited to see how a gun changed the dynamics of a situatio
n. Even the worst killers would hesitate for seconds, if only to savor the power they'd gained. The guy across the clearing fired in one fluid motion, pulling the gun smoothly out of the backpack, raising it and punctuating the move with a BANG.
"Oh shit." What the hell is going on here?
Taylor's body fell over the edge. "Target shooter!"
Across the clearing, Ethan saw the soldiers sighting down on him. He lowered his right hand and the gun to his side and held his left hand up motioning the soldiers to stop.
Ethan said "Wait!" and again louder, not sure if they'd heard him. His ears were sharply ringing. He'd forgotten how loud the gun was without earplugs.
The soldiers weren't lowering their guns. Ethan began to realize they might shoot him. His time sense was completely blown. Everything was happening so fast that it was all reaction. Rifle barrels sighting down. Too far away to communicate. Fingers pulling back? Are they about to shoot me?
Ethan's mind raced until suddenly, it stopped racing. Like a man running through a maze who notices a door he's not yet tried. He lost focus on the soldiers and considered the distraction with his full attention, and he thought, oh, there it is.
He'd had a metal puzzle as a boy. It was four triangular twisted shapes locked together. He'd worked with it for days trying to figure out how the pieces came apart. He carried them with him everywhere for that week and would be in the middle of doing something else whenever he thought of another move to try. He'd try it only to find the attempt only locked the puzzle in another way, then put it back in his pocket frustrated. He'd excitedly pull it out again hours later for another try. His conscious mind gave up many times only to be called out again to test out attempts unconsciously developed. Finally, he'd pulled it out, made a couple twists that he was sure he must have tried before, and the puzzle came apart in his hands.
Ethan realized he'd been subconsciously trying to solve a vexing puzzle for decades, ever since Ray's death and maybe before. He'd failed so many times that he no longer consciously tried to solve it, but hadn't realized until now that his mind hadn't given up. The feeling of surprise and satisfaction was much greater than the metal puzzle. He'd been pleased with himself then. Now, the answer to a lifetime of pain, isolation and loss came forward, and Ethan felt elation so great it was like a crashing wave of warm, long-hoped-for peace.
And the soldiers fired.
The sound the rifles made was literally deafening. It exploded in Ethan's ears. He stared at the soldiers through red smoke, but his focus was entirely inside his own mind and it didn't quite register on him that they'd fired.
He was inside his own mind. Exploring controls he'd looked for so long. He held them, concentrated on holding them so tightly. He was afraid that if he lost them, he might never find them again. He held them and didn't move.
Hack called for his team to hold fire. He looked at the boy still standing locked in the suit, and tried to understand how it had stopped their rounds in midair. There was no outward sign that the suit had done anything. The guy was standing there staring past them, still with his hand up, and there wasn't a scratch on him. There'd been no impacts in the dust and rocks behind or around him either, just a quickly dissipating red dust about twenty feet in front of the guy.
Hack noticed the grass in front of the guy had changed color. The grass directly in front of the man wasn't green now. It was bleached white and dry, but just in that one area. The rest of the grass in the clearing was still green, but in front of the target it was brown and dead.
Suit's not the only anomaly here, thought Hack. He told the team to keep weapons trained on the guy but to hold fire, and he weighed options.
Sweat itched Ethan's scalp, threatening his concentration. I can't believe it, he thought. How long? Then, I have to see if I can turn it loose and unlock it again. He was terrified that if he turned it loose and couldn't remember the exact way it felt in his mind, he might lose it again forever.
He looked for something to experiment on, temporarily ignoring the soldiers.
Hack saw the guy lower his left hand, still holding the big pistol at his side in his right hand. He spoke into the microphone to his team, "The guy's pretty accurate with that gun, if he raises it again, drop him – otherwise, we need to give this some time."
The guy was looking into the trees, Hack looked but saw nothing. As Ethan's left hand rose again in the direction he'd looked, the agents tensed, preparing to fire.
"Hold your fire, remember," Hack reminded them. What's he doing?
Then he noticed one of the trees in the direction the guy was looking was changing color. The leaves turned bright yellow, then orange, red and brown in the span of three seconds. The colors were so bright it seemed the tree caught fire. The leaves quickly faded to brown and all dropped from the tree at once in a brown curtain. Then a branch cracked and fell from high up in the tree. Seconds later, another fell. The tree's bark turned gray.
Hack kept looking from the tree to the guy and back. The guy still held the pistol down at his side. His other hand was half-raised toward the tree with the fingers only slightly moving.
Hack heard a loud creaking sound and a "WHOOSH!" as the giant tree with its now bare and bonelike limbs fell. It fell dangerously close to the guy - between him and the armor, hitting the hard rock clearing ground with a WHUMP! The top third of the old giant cracked in two at the cliff's edge, falling end-over-end out of sight.
Hack looked at the man, his mind racing. He aged it. He aged the tree in seconds. He did the same thing with the bullets. The red dust was rust. How do we stop someone that can do that? What would happen if he did that to a person?
Hack ducked a little lower behind his concealment. He noticed the others in the team shuffling down a bit as well, except Sowyer who was actually standing up and breaking his cover. He ordered Sowyer to get down, but Sowyer seemed oblivious. Hack shot a quick look at the guy and saw he was just standing there, his face vacant. Sowyer wrenched his helmet off, the strap pulling on his left ear. Dropping the helmet, Sowyer clenched his eyes shut and pressed his palms against both temples. Hack saw tendons strain with the force and feared Sowyer would actually injure himself. He yelled, "Stop!" almost reflexively. "Sowyer stop before you hurt yourself. What is it?" He looked across the clearing, but the guy was still just standing there, no longer grinning, just looking down at his hand. Sowyer's problem didn't seem related to anything the guy was doing. Hack had seen men freeze with fear before. Something else was going on with Sowyer. He was clearly in agony, and Hack had no idea why.
57
Ethan's emotions spun out of control. He was excited, afraid and frustrated. He'd reached a peak in a lifetime of frustration and loss, and now he was ready to let it all go.
He'd felt the power flowing past him toward the tree. Actually felt it. It was like sand blown by the wind, brushing against him as it flew toward the tree, tingling as it touched the skin of his arms and hand. He couldn't see it. Not quite anyway. The hair on his arms and the back of his neck stretched with the charge it left behind. It felt good. It felt…so…good to open the valve, and let it go. Here take it. Take it.
A huge smile broke across his face as he turned loose more and more on the tree. There was so much. It felt like he stood in the ocean with his back to the sea, with wave after wave flowing around and past him toward the beach. He had no idea where it came from, not from inside him, no person could contain this much, what, energy? He wasn't even sure what it was. Whatever it was, he unloaded it on the tree, directing, willing it, and encouraging the little tingly particles to fly. Fly.
He'd been holding back his whole life, clamped down, pulling back, trying to maintain control. Now, he let go. He'd held back every conscious moment since he could remember, and letting go felt as good as dropping a heavy load and feeling the blood rush back to your shoulders. He'd never realized how good it could feel to let it go. Maybe the tension and fear of turning loose was the problem all along.
It was
a surprise when the tree fell. He'd been so focused on flying energy into the tree that he didn't consider the likely outcome. There was a moment when the tree started to lean toward him that he thought it would fall right on him. When the top of the tree started to move, there was an instant realization of its mass. It was a gigantic, old (now) thing and it was leaning toward him. He'd let up and stopped encouraging the flow, but the tree was already coming down.
Ethan felt an overwhelming rush of excitement and exhilaration as the giant fell within feet of him with a loud and, for Ethan, satisfying sound of crushed air. He breathed, "Wow" and shook his head, smiling.
Wow, Ray agreed. That was great, Dad! You did it! Did you see that? Wham!
Ethan beamed. Yes! It was amazing. I found it Ray. I finally figured out how to let it go where I want without it slipping out bit-by-bit, aging everything around me.
All those years alone…
Ethan was young when Ray was born. Back then, in East Tennessee, it wasn't uncommon for a couple's first child to be born before they'd reached twenty. They'd rushed into life together, passing through daily life, passing milestones without ceremony as they passed by for a once-and-only moment of experience. Gone in youth's rush and beyond reach after it.
Ethan began piecing an understanding of his mysterious condition together in the weeks following the Ray's diagnosis. Ray was underweight at birth, but seemed fine otherwise. As the weeks went by, his failure to thrive became more evident. The Progeria diagnosis which had, at first, seemed an impossibly random catastrophe was a piece of Ethan's puzzling life.
Flightsuit Page 16