Reality Hero

by Ashlynn Monroe

  “How on earth would you know that?” Farrah asked curiously.

  “Again, you’re the only person on Earth I’ve ever told this to, so please, for God’s sake, promise you won’t ever tell anyone any of this.”

  “Hey, Mind Man saved my little brother’s life a few years ago. If I can do him a solid, he has it. My lips are sealed. He deserves some help for all the good he’s done.” She stopped suddenly, looking at Dina with large astonished eyes. “You’re her. Rain. I see it now. Wow, how have you managed to keep that a secret working in TV?”

  “I’m not her. She’s my twin sister. Again, please don’t tell anyone any of this. I’m just a regular girl, but I run with an amazing crowd. Now let’s get going. He’s analog, not digital, so do you have anything that might work with that kind of a signal? He’s almost like a radio wave.”

  “How do you know all this? Even if you’re his BFF, you seem to know a lot of about how he works. Are you like his secret doctor or something?”

  Dina was getting frustrated with the questions. If she wasn’t so terrified she’d be amused, but right now she just needed to help her man. “Not a lot of time here,” she ground out. “Hero dying. Run now, talk later.”

  Farrah made a gruff sound in the back of her throat. Her question remained dangling. She grabbed an assortment of gadgets and whirlymagigs that looked like junk to Dina. Farrah handed her a shirt.

  “Thanks.” Dina slipped the shirt over her head. She grabbed some of the equipment and the two of them rushed back to Dina’s RV. It was late and dark. Dina hoped no one noticed them.

  Farrah began to set up. She made some impressed noises as her gizmo seemed to respond to the bloodied area on the floor. Expectantly, Dina waited for Farrah to come up with a location.

  “If he pops in again, slap this baby on him discreetly. It will track him anywhere on the planet. I can definitely pick out his particular signal, but it’ll only do us good if we get within a mile of him. I’m sorry. This is the best I can do.” Farrah went over and sat down on the little sofa next to Dina. “This had to be a hard secret to keep. Why’d he decide to do the show? Is he really that lonely?”

  “I begged him. I wanted to stay on top and keep my job. If I hadn’t had him burning the candle at both ends, he would probably be all right. I’m sure this is entirely my fault.”

  “Hey, you don’t know that for sure. You’re great, honey, but the world doesn’t actually revolve around you and your decisions. If he found you once, he’ll be back. We’ll take shifts waiting by that spot for as long as it takes, and I can set up a way to alert us to his signal. If he suddenly pops in we’ll get this tracker on him. It’ll be okay. So how did you find out how he works? Is he an alien? Is your sister an alien? Are you an alien?”

  Dina made a frustrated noise. Why did anyone who was “different” always have to be an alien? “No one is an alien. I feel like an alien sometimes, but as far as I know, we’re all human and mortal. It’s a long story, but the short version is we were unwanted children and a group of sick scientists set up an orphanage. They worked for the government, and tried to…change us. I don’t know why. Maybe they wanted to make super soldiers or something, but it got bad.”

  Farrah looked completely engrossed so Dina continued.

  “I think my folks were dealing drugs. Someone shot them. Ella and I were little, and we ended up in the system. We were moved to the Sunrise Home for Orphans when our foster parents had their own baby. I guess three kids were more than they wanted. Kids were there and then they were just gone. We assumed they’d been adopted, naïve of us since no one ever came looking to adopt. It was two years before they started with us. They caged us like animals and gave us chemical cocktail injections. Then they’d torture us until we were almost dead. They were trying to make us evolve. I heard one doctor call it Human Spontaneous Evolution, but all it was really was sick. It was minimally invasive and only a little frightening at first. Then it became horrific. I still have nightmares. I guess we were lucky that so many ‘adoptions’ had come before us, because we survived.”

  “God, that’s sick.” Farrah wore a disgusted expression. She reached out and squeezed Dina’s hand.

  “Tell me about it. My sister started showing signs of changing first. I was her twin, identical. They snatched me up and just went to town repeating what they had done to her. I don’t remember most of it, thank God. Some things are better blocked. I remember just staring up into the big, blinding light and thinking that I was ready to go see the angels. I wanted the angels to take me away and back to my mother. Ella said I didn’t scream except for the one time when they broke bones.”

  “Why don’t you have a power too? Did the creeps that tortured you go to prison?” Farrah’s cheeks were red. Dina saw anger in her eyes.

  “The bastards are dead now. All five of the others changed and became something different, but not me. I fought to remain as I am. Sorry to lay this all on you right now. I’ve never told anyone about it. I’ve never really even talked to the others about it.”

  Farrah said nothing. The sat for a while watching the drying blood and waiting for Zane, Dina fought her tears. She heard a sniffle and looked over at Farrah, who then threw her arms around Dina and began to sob. The embrace was extremely uncomfortable for Dina, and all she could do was pat Farrah’s back awkwardly.

  “I’ve never heard anything so horrible. I’m so sorry. I’m so mad for you. I feel like kicking those monsters’ asses.”

  “They’re dead, but I worry that the program might not have died with them. Unless a new generation of researchers come after us there’s really no way to know. Don’t worry about it. I’m a strong, secure woman, who is a survivor.”

  Straightening, Farrah grabbed a tissue out of a nearby box and wiped her eyes. She sniffed her running nose.

  Note to self: do not tell life story to anyone without having tissues on hand, Dina thought. She was just about to make a joke and distract Farrah from pitying her when she heard a bang. They both ran for the equipment. Farrah grabbed the gizmo to detect Zane’s special signal, and she grabbed the tracking device. Dina grabbed him as he blinked in a second time. He was hurt, but it looked like he was healing a little bit. He wasn’t curled as tightly into himself this time. She could see his shirt was mostly gone, shredded and burned. Large stripes of bleeding wounds on his back and chest made her swear softly. His face was bruised. He’d been beaten so badly that she wanted to kill the person responsible. Zane was almost unrecognizable.

  Dina quickly slipped the tracking device under his arm, she felt him hold it down under his armpit. He was conscious enough to understand what she was doing, and that was a good sign. She wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand. She hadn’t even realized she was crying until they started to tickle her face. “Is Ella with you? Is she all right?”

  He groaned. Dina couldn’t tell what it meant or if it was an answer at all. He was staying longer, and his flickering seemed to be more of a shimmer this time.

  “Please, Zane, take me back with you. I can save you, don’t die,” she begged through her tears.

  He moaned “no” and started to flicker again.

  “No, Zane, take me with you. I have to help you. I love you, and I want us to be together. I’ve been an idiot. Let me help you, take me with you.”

  “Love you…too much…can’t…risk you.” He flickered again, then was gone.

  Dina sat helplessly, crying. Farrah sat with her, letting her cry it out of her system. What am I doing just sitting here? He needs me. Dina yanked the other woman up so quickly, and with such adrenaline-fueled force, her new friend almost slammed into the wall.

  Chapter 13

  Farrah started to flip switches and get things up and running. Dina watched anxiously, unable to help. Biting her nails was a bad habit she’d thought she’d broken, but now she found one manicured index finger in her mouth and gnawed to the quick. Moving randomly, agitated with her impatience, Dina began pacin
g.

  Farrah glanced over, noticing the fidgeting, and scowled. “Not really helping.”

  “Sorry.”

  Farrah looked grim. She kept adjusting and tweaking her device. It all made no sense to Dina, and she was moderately familiar with most of the equipment. The parts were familiar items, but the modifications were extensive. Wonder if the studio knows what they’re paying for? What the hell is Farrah doing with this stuff?

  “Found it. I know where he is. Damn it. I think he must be blinking again. I get the signal, and then I lose it, and it’s jumping. I think he’s in Canada. Why would he be in Canada?”

  “Oh God, I’ll never get to him in time.” Dina began to cry again.

  “Wait, the signal is moving again. He’s back in the city. He’s back home.”

  Dina grabbed the signal detector thing up off Farrah’s table. She bolted for the door.

  Farrah called after her, “What do I do about the show?”

  Dina stopped for a moment, turned, and said, “I don’t give a damn. Tell Vinny I had an emergency, and this is totally his baby now. He’ll love it. He wants to produce. He knows my concept.”

  Dina bolted from the RV without even shutting the door. She grabbed one of the company cars and sped away. She glanced back at the trail of dust and flying gravel in the rearview mirror. Farrah was watching her go.

  She surpassed the speed limit all of the way back to the city, and some miracle kept her from getting a speeding ticket to go with her parking ticket. Thoughts of Zane’s battered body, and her regret, were driving her crazy. Years wasted on trying to protect her heart from loss, and now it looked like all the pushing him away had been for nothing. Losing him hurt. He was as good as lost to her now if she didn’t save him. There were no other heroes coming to the rescue. She couldn’t involve the police. She was the best he had. Oh God, we’re so screwed.

  Pushing the borrowed car to its limits, she thought of the bumper sticker on Vinny’s car, Drive it like you stole it, and that was what she did. Thudding heartbeats reverberated in her ears. She kept glancing at the cellphone on the seat next to her, which clacked against Farrah’s tracker every time she hit a bump. No messages, no texts, only a very full and ignored email box, Ella would never have ignored her crying plea to help save Zane. She had to be in trouble too. Dina had always heard stories of twins knowing when the other was in danger, but she didn’t have that magical connection with her sister. All she had to go on was speculation.

  When she saw the city limit sign, she let off the gas, and gave a whoop of delight. Reaching over, she flipped the gizmo on. Her heart dropped into her stomach. It did nothing. It was working, but it didn’t indicate she was near Zane. What if Farrah had been wrong or worse, what if the person who had him realized they’d placed a tracker on him and sent her on a wild goose chase? Where would she find him?

  Worried and unsure, she drove around holding the device near her open window and trying to watch it while also trying to watch the road. It was dark, and she had to keep flipping on her dome light. Geesh, I’ll never bitch about people on cellphones when driving again. This is totally worse. Why can’t I find him? In her heart she was convinced that as soon as she entered the city, the thing would just go wild, screaming out his location.

  She drove around aimlessly until she ended up in the older section of the city. Abandoned factories and warehouses sat, overrun with violence and trouble. This was not a good place to be at night. Instinct pulled her here. Dina just felt like this was the right direction. Maybe it was some kind of twin thing making her so sure she should look there, if they had Ella anyway. Looking around at the graffiti, burning trashcans, and lack of working street lamps, she realized being carjacked wouldn’t help her friends. She stopped.

  For a while she sat in the car, it was still running, and she tried to decide what she should do. Backing up, she started to turn her car around, when the needle on the gadget jumped wildly. Her foot slammed on the brake so hard she jerked forward and her cell flopped to the floor. She parked the car, taking the gadget with her. Cautiously, she walked through the danger-wrought darkness. The whole time she prayed silently not to lose the signal. Her eyes never left the display as she walked in the direction the display indicated.

  Whoever had Zane and Ella must be strong—scary strong—to have overcome one, let alone both of them. With no strength or special ability, she was a total idiot for thinking she could help them, but she’d never been rational when it came to Zane.

  Dina crunched over broken glass and debris, walking toward very probable death. She thought about how badly beaten Zane had looked. She’d never seen him like that, and he’d been hurt before. In the vigilante business, encountering tough criminals was all in a night’s work. She’d no idea why he’d been flickering. That’s what scared her the most. He might be human plus, but he was still human. How long could his body keep that up before his organs failed, or something equally fatal killed him? She only had questions and it was about time she found some answers.

  Whatever was happening to him, she wanted to be ready to help him. Please God, don’t let me be too late. If he was hurt, she didn’t know what to do. Her skills were limited to basic first aid.

  It was very early morning. Gray light was just appearing on the horizon. Looking down at Farrah’s gizmo, she noticed it going crazy. The old building in front of her had to be the place. It was an abandoned warehouse. The faded sign and peeling paint didn’t look welcoming. She took her mag light keychain flashlight out of her pocket. The small light was better than nothing. Plant and animal life had already reclaimed a portion of the building, but she could see it was one of the most solid of the many relics in the area. There was a large sliding door, and she immediately noticed that it had a shiny new padlock on it. Yep, someone was there.

  Crouching low, she tried to stay as close to the building as she could, hiding in the shadows of the night. There had to be a way in other than the sliding door. The building was enormous. She knew there had to be a broken window or loose panel somewhere that, hopefully, had been overlooked. Tired and frustrated, she found herself back at her starting point. There’d been no way in. She looked up and saw a broken window. Obviously, the current occupants didn’t see it as a risk.

  Could she climb the wall and make it to the window? It was too sheer. Looking around at the other buildings, she saw one very close to the window, and it looked accessible. It had a window matching up to the other building’s window almost perfectly. If she could somehow make a bridge for herself from the window in the nearby abandoned building, she could crawl across. It was risky, very risky, but it might be her only chance.

  She ran into the dark, abandoned building and turned on the little flashlight, scanning the building. There was a rickety stairway up to the floor with the windows. She began to search for her bridge. Dina hated heights. An old, wooden ladder stood in the corner. It was very rickety, but it didn’t fall apart when she picked it up. She leaned it against the wall and began to climb it, wiggling each wrung, testing its strength. With relief, she realized that it would support her weight. She carried the ladder to the window and took a deep, shaky breath.

  The glass was long gone in this window, but the other window had a bit of jagged glass around the frame. Can’t anything go my way? As carefully and quietly as she could, she began to feed the ladder across the three or four feet that separated the two windows. She was glad not to be wearing heels.

  It’s only a few feet—no big deal. Sure, it’s a long very long way down, but, hey, I just have to not fall. Her inner voice’s pep talk wasn’t helping at all. She took her first tenuous move onto the ladder bridge. Zane, you owe me one. If you aren’t here I’m going to be totally pissed off. The ladder shook, and she heard an ominous creaking.

  Please, just hold up a little longer. Her mind silently screamed the plea as she felt the ladder bouncing. The rotted wood began to give under her weight. I wish I hadn’t eaten that cheesecake last week. Oh
great, is self-depreciating sarcasm going to be my last thought? Dina waited. Her body was still and ridged. She held her breath. Her makeshift bridge didn’t break. Creeping across the expanse, she tried to be as light and gentle as she could. Almost there, just hold me a little longer, ladder.

  She finally made it to the other side, and her held breath escaped in a woosh. Then she felt the rush of air as the ladder broke, sending her free falling down. She’d felt a surreal moment of slow motion when she reached out, grabbing the windowsill. To her relief, she was alive, on the precipice of death, but currently still breathing.

  Swinging her other arm up, she reached for the windowsill and caught it. She gasped as she felt a sharp pain. At the sight of thick blood oozing down her hand and arm, she shuddered. Her left hand had found some of the old glass. Fuck. Pulling herself up, with her wimpy girly arms, adrenaline was the only thing giving her strength. So totally going to use my gym pass again if I survive this. Sliding over the edge, she cut her side on some more glass. Dina had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. Her pained hiss still escaped, and when she’d achieved access, she lay for a moment in a curled ball of agony, clutching her damaged hand. Then she lifted her shirt and pulled a hunk of glass from her side. Blood oozed freely. She hated blood and did her best not to let her mind dwell on the sight.

  She listened as hard as she could. No sound. Had she just risked her life for nothing? Dina began feeling panicked and foolish. She crawled to the wall and slowly stood up. Taking careful, light steps, she found the access point to the lower level. A sound made her pause, and her ears strained to make out what it was. Zane’s hearing would really come in handy right about now. She realized it was a voice. Dina backed herself as tightly into the wall as she could and began to inch her way in the direction of the sound. She had no idea if it was Zane’s captor, just squatters, or a meth lab, but someone was definitely there. Whoever it was, she doubted they’d welcome her visit. People in abandoned buildings usual had nefarious intentions. She’d learned that during their homeless years after the escape.