UNKNOWN: NOT ALL HEROES WEAR BADGES

"We are all heroes & we are all helpless it just depends on the day". -Brad Meltzer.

Introduction:
This fictional story is inspired by real life heroes, here are the true stories that inspired this writing
-Arzell the Esoteric

Steve Matheson, an aircraft maintenance engineer for Utah’s Department of Public Safety, is one of those behind-the-scenes guys who makes things possible. He saw a problem while driving home on Interstate 215, when a car was stopped in the middle of afternoon rush hour traffic near 4100 South in Taylorsville. “I could see there were two small children in the back of that car,” Matheson said. “It was a small car, and people were driving high speeds I really knew that the amount of energy from a high-speed impact to a dead stop car could potentially have been extremely serious or fatal to those children in that car.” Matheson decided to stop his car directly behind the stopped car containing the children to protect them. About 30 seconds after he stopped to protect the car, he was hit by another oncoming car at high speeds just as he feared, severely injuring him. Matheson was taken to the hospital after being slammed into the steering wheel and dashboard. However, he is OK, the driver who hit him was also taken to the hospital. “The trooper said that he was going to be OK,” Matheson said. Most importantly for him, though, was the woman and those two kids he wanted to protect were OK, too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lt. Robert Milam, a 20-year veteran of The Kennesaw State University Police Department, suffered severe burns while rescuing his fiancé, Misty, from their burning home early Thursday morning. Lieutenant Robert Milam was sleeping when he heard a crackling noise in another room. He went to see what it was, and realized it was a fire. He had to go back to his bedroom to save his fiancée, Misty. “The fire had gotten a lot bigger and the only way I could get back to Misty to get her out was to go through it.” Misty got out uninjured, but the lieutenant was left with severe burns while his home was destroyed, luckily everyone survived. Despite his injuries, Milam remains in good spirits and focused on moving forward.
 
"We are all heroes & we are all helpless it just depends on the day". - Brad Meltzer.

THE UNKNOWN
I fall to my knees, exhausted, as the police takes this psycho into custody. Even as he is being dragged away, he continues making threats of revenge against me. Standing to my feet, continuing to catch my breath, I can hear the celebrations from the crowd of people outside, the police officers congratulate me on a job well done. I start walking towards the door, ready to go home and rest, it’s been a long week, and my body is sore. The news reporters are anxiously waiting for me to step outside, they have been trying to get an interview since this whole thing began, but just like before I prefer to be left alone. There is an exit in the basement that should serve as a perfect escape from the public eye. The sirens, police officers, fire trucks, ambulances and helicopters should be a great distraction so that I can slip away once again. The people of this town believe that I am some kind of mysterious hero, I’m not. I never wanted any of this attention, I never wanted to be in these situations, it’s still hard for me to believe. No one really knows who I am, and it seems like I’m forced to keep it that way, especially after today. A psycho calling himself “The Blast” set explosives at City Hall and called me out as a challenge to stop him. With the help of the local police, I’m glad we were able to put a stop to this guy, but I’m afraid that it’s not over. My Name is Christian Miller, and I’m just a regular guy. Regardless of what you may read on the internet, I do not have any superpowers, I’m not some kind of special person, I’m not trained in combat, law enforcement, or anything. I’m a guy that moved to this city a month ago with a friend trying to start our clothing business. Let me tell you how this all started.
For the last 5 years my best friend Steven and I have been trying to start our own clothing business. Steven is an artist, and he can create amazing designs, but I have been a salesman for most of my career. 5 years ago, Steven had his great idea that we could quit our jobs and create clothing to sale, he believed that we could make a living by doing this. Well, things did not turn out the way we planned. We learned that our product was not in demand in the city we lived in, however, moving to a smaller town with a lower cost of living was the choice we made and so we came here. Upon arriving Steven had to leave immediately as he received a message that his father was dying and his family summoned him home. Steven would be gone for about a month, leaving me alone in a new town. This wasn’t a problem; I enjoyed being alone and it gave me time to work on our website and overlook some of our designs before releasing them to the public. Out of all the designs we have my favorite is a simple jacket with a built-in hoodie and our company logo on the back. I like to wear this outfit with jeans and tennis shoes. Steven and I moved into our new home last week, Steven left to see his father on Friday, it was on Sunday that all the craziness started to happen.
Early Sunday morning, I woke to the news playing, nothing special but they were interviewing people, asking how they felt about the upcoming festival. The city had begun decorating for a local festival that I was not familiar with, I didn’t care much, I needed to go out to the store to get food and supplies. I threw on my favorite outfit and headed out the door, this is when everything started. Leaving our apartment I begin walking towards the supermarket, it’s about three blocks way and the weather was good, not too cold not too hot, there were many people out setting up decorations and socializing, there were children playing ball in the middle of the street; however, the streets were supposed to be blocked off due to the upcoming festival. Across the street from our apartment in the parking lot of a local diner, there was a news crew there interviewing people. There was music playing and everyone seemed happy, this made me feel great. I continued walking towards the supermarket when I noticed a car coming towards me. Initially I ignored this until I realized that the roads were closed going in the direction the car was driving, and it didn’t look like he was going to slow down. There were no police officer out guiding traffic just two orange traffic cones to block the road. As the car continued to drive towards me, I suddenly began to have a series of deep thoughts and visions. I was completely taken by surprise as I was able to hear a voice in my head that warned me to look out, it was as if I knew that this car was not going to stop before he even reached me, but that was not all. I began to have visions in my mind about the outcome of the speeding car, I was able to see the car lose control. I saw the car speeding towards the children playing in the road, I saw a little girl not paying much attention and before I could say anything the car was speeding towards the little girl. Suddenly I snapped back into reality and noticed that the car was still speeding towards the orange cones, I panicked as I could see my vision about to become a reality. I screamed “LOOKOUT” to the children playing but no one heard me. A voice in my head said, “Save the little girl Christian” and before I realized it, I was running full speed towards the children playing in the road as the speeding car was getting closer and still no one noticed. Maybe they think that he’s going to stop at the cones, but I know for sure that he isn’t. I’m nearly out of breath when the car speeds past the orange cones as I predicted, people notice the car is out of place and begin yelling at the driver, the playing children still didn’t notice. The car continues speeding towards the children and at that moment I see the little girl, this is the very moment I saw in my vision. Reaching out my arm to grab her as I ran out of breath, I pulled the girl towards me, and we both fall safely on the grass on the side of the road. The car swerves to miss us, and he continues down the road. I can hear people still yelling at the car, no one noticed what I had done. I released the little girl as I stood to catch my breath, telling her to be more careful and to pay attention. She thanked me and ran off. I looked around, still stunned that no one really saw what happened, however, I was just glad no one was hurt. Taking one more moment to catch my breath and look around, it appears no one was able to see the danger of what almost happened, only me. Strange as this was, I continued walking towards the supermarket, trying to ignore my thoughts. This entire moment felt weird, I was able to see the future and I changed it. I continued to the supermarket smiling ear to ear, I felt good to have acted and it felt great to do a good deed even without the recognition, a part of me was happy no one noticed, being new in town me and Steven did not need any more attention than we already receive from those who do not recognize who we are. I made it back home from the supermarket and ended my day cooking dinner, on the News that night they were interviewing the little girl and her mother, it turns out she told her mother about what happened, and the news and the mother of the little girl were looking for this mysterious hero to offer a reward. This made me smile but I had no intention of coming forward or accepting a prize, I didn’t save her for acknowledgement, I saved her because I could. I can’t wait to tell Steven about this when he comes home, hopefully he is doing ok given the circumstances. I ended my night and went to bed. Tomorrow is Monday and it’s time to start the week, we need to sell clothes to prepare for rent.
I thought this would be the last of my excitement, I was wrong. Waking up early Monday morning I gather several of our clothing designs and prepare to sell them in the market square in town. A taxi picks me up and takes me and my things into town, and I set up at a vacant table neatly laying out the clothes I selected to sell for the day. Still smiling from the day before I feel good moving to this small town, I believe that me and Steven will be successful here. Once we make enough money, we will finally be able to afford a new car, this town doesn’t have public transportation like our old city so we will need a car here. Hours go by and the Square begins to fill with people and shoppers, I haven’t sold much more than a few hundred dollars of clothing and I’m feeling pretty good. I told myself I would give it one more hour then, I would call a taxi home. Well, it appears fate had a different plan for me, at that moment I begin to have more visions and thoughts of something going wrong. In this vision, I saw people panicking running around, there was smoke in the air, from a fire. This vision stressed me, and I began looking around for fire, I knew that if I saw it in my head it had to be true. I didn’t see a fire at first, so, initially I thought, maybe my vision was wrong. Suddenly without warning there was a minor explosion from the bakery across the street from the Square, I saw the smoke and the fire, and I knew this was what I saw in my vision. People began to panic just as I had seen in my vision. Everyone rushed to the building as the workers in the bakery started running out. This time, in my vision I did not see anyone in danger, I hesitated to approach the scene. It appeared that everyone was okay, the workers made it out, many of the town’s folk were already getting in contact with the fire department, so I thought, “there’s nothing for me to do here, I’m no hero Just like I figured.” Well, I spoke too soon, as I’m walking back to the town square to gather my things, there is a small house that sits behind the Bakery shop, during the explosion, some of the fire was thrown towards that house. Everyone was running to help the bakery, no one realized that there was collateral damage happening. I could see inside the window of the house and there was an elderly man sitting in a wheelchair holding his cat. I wasn’t sure if he was aware of the situation, but I was sure that he wasn’t going to be able to move fast enough to escape the fire coming his way. From where I was it was about two blocks aways and I couldn’t yell loud enough to get anyone’s attention, if I waited for the fire department to arrive, I’m sure the man would be harmed. Once again I sprint towards the house at full speed, as I watch the flames begin to engulf his home, first the grass catches ablaze, then the bushes then the fire is on his house. As I am running, I think to myself that this is insane, why am I the only one seeing this? There must be a reason. I arrive at the house exhausted, I’m no athlete and I can’t keep running like this. By this time more than half of the house is covered in flames, I look around again looking for help as I try to catch my breath, surprisingly, no one has noticed even yet, I look at the window, the elderly man is still sitting there holding his cat, he sees me but doesn’t speak. “Hold on Sir I’m coming!” I yell as I rush towards his front door, Weak and out of breath, I think to myself, “no way I’m kicking this door in”, but I try anyway and to my surprise it flies open effortlessly. “That was unexpected” I say to myself as I enter the house. The entire front half of the house is engulfed in flames at this time, I can feel the heat biting at my exposed skin, I’ve got to get out of here before this thing gets any worse. “Sir, where are you?” I yelled as I walked towards the back of the house. There are no stairs, it’s a one-story house so the man wasn’t hard to find, once I reached his room , I immediate grabbed some water in a jar sitting by his bed and I poured the entire thing on the man and his cat, as I unlocked his wheel chair and immediately began pushing him towards the front door, the fire had reached his kitchen by now, and I noticed that he had a gas stove, as we ran through the burning living room and onto his front porch. I stopped to catch my breath again as the man began to wheel himself down the handicap ramp of his home and onto the driveway near the mailbox. Before I could react, there was an explosion as the fire reached his gas line, The elderly man was at a safe distance by this time, however, unfortunately I wasn’t. The force of the explosion threw me off the front porch and into the next-door neighbor’s yard where I hit the ground rolling a few feet before coming to a stop. As I looked up, I saw people finally coming to help, they noticed the explosion and finally came running. The explosion disoriented me and besides feeling exhausted with minor burns I was going to be Ok. The fire department was arriving at the bakery shop, as people started to surround the man to check if he was Okay. Ironically, no one saw me again, I stood to my feet to clean myself off and took one last look at the crowd now gathers around the elderly man, I noticed he continued to stare at me even when no one else noticed. I began to walk toward the town square. I was ready to gather my things and go home. I need a bath, some food and some much-needed rest.
Later that night after my bath and dinner, I saw the news. The elderly gentleman was being interviewed about what happened. He told the reporters that he witnessed a man running away from the bakery shop moments before the explosion, soon after his house was on fire and he saw another mysterious man running towards his house, kicked the door in and saved him and his cat. He told the town’s people that he had not ever saw either of us in town before and he didn’t know who we were. To be honest I thought that the old guy couldn’t talk, but it turns out he was simply in shock during the entire event. I laid to rest that night going over the events again in my head. Whatever is going on I can’t keep this up, my luck will surely run out one day while I’m out here trying to play hero. As I fall asleep, I wonder how Steven is doing with his family, and I anticipate telling him all these amazing stories. Two days have passed, and the town has been uneventful, especially given the last few days. The news continues to play stories of this mysterious hero in town and it’s giving people hope. I’ve spent the last few days inside resting, I figured, if I don’t go out, I won’t have any visions, and I don’t need to continue to press my luck trying to be a hero. For the rest of the week, I’m going to just relax indoors and wait to hear from Steven on his return. Pizza and a movie night would be a great way to take my mind off all this, besides, since Steven isn’t here, I can order my favorite, Pineapple and spicy sausage on flatbread pizza, maybe watch that new action movie that was released. I called to order the pizza and there is no delivery in this town pick-up only, sometimes I miss the big city benefits. Oh well, I grab my favorite jacket and head out to get the pizza, it’s only about three blocks away and a good night for a walk. Walking through town is peaceful, everyone heading home for the night, no loud city sounds, the stars are starting to show and the moon glows in the sky. It’s about 9:30 pm, not too late but not early either. I made it to the pizza shop and my food isn’t ready yet, so I decided to look around. They have a shopping area that sells little trinkets and souvenirs while you wait. As I’m looking around, I hear another customer enter the shop and begin placing an order, I pay no attention and continue shopping, suddenly, another vision. I can see the workers of the pizza shop tied up in the back-office crying, then I snap back to reality. This vision made no sense, The workers of the pizza shop are behind the counter, and they seem fine. The other customer waiting for his pizza began to complain it’s taking too long, and to be honest it shouldn’t take this long to make two pizzas. The customer goes outside to wait, and I pretend to continue looking at the trinkets in the shop. I notice that the guy behind the counter walks away towards the back of the store, I’m suspicious so I follow him with caution, he walks towards the back door of the shop and leaves the building, he gets inside an older looking car and drives away, it looks like the same car that almost hit the children the other day. Before long I heard muffled screams coming from the management office. Three employees are blindfolded and gagged as they lay on the floor, trying to get free, before I could free them, I heard a slight ticking noise. Looking around I saw a device connected to the electrical system with a timer on it. My guess was some kind of bomb, and I only had about a minute and thirty seconds before whatever was going to happen. There was no time to untie the crew members, we were close to the back door so one by one I ran each of them out of there and by the time I ran outside with the last crew member the timer had reached Zero. I was expecting an explosion so I ran as far away as I could, but to my surprise there was no explosion. There was a huge electrical shockwave that took out the power in the entire town and it would have killed the crew workers. Of course, once again, I saved the people and no one saw me, but this time I finally had an idea as to what was going on. These events were not just some random chaos that suddenly started happening, there is a mastermind behind it all. Someone is here trying to harm these people, another mysterious man but who. Furiously I want to stop him, but I don’t know who he is or how to find him. I walk home as people are coming outside to see what happened, I think to myself this town doesn’t deserve these things, these are good people, although I never asked for any of this, I can’t turn my back on them now.
It took the rest of Thursday night and most of Friday to restore the power back to the town, good news is that the pizza place was not damaged, so they still owe me a pineapple and spicy sausage on flatbread. Once the power returned, I spent the rest of Friday night and Saturday evening researching this phenomenon. There had to be more people like me in the world that have experienced this. Turns out I was right, there are hundreds of reports all around the world of mysterious people performing amazing and heroic acts before disappearing to never be heard again, the world calls these people, The Unknowns. From the descriptions none of the abilities granted to the unknowns have been the same. I thought my ability to see visions wasn’t unique however it is, some unknowns have lifted cars, some have survived deadly accidents without a scratch, still others have claimed they saw an unknown man flying. My gift isn’t as cool as flying but to see the future is better than nothing. I wondered why me of all people, based on the research there is no rhyme or reason for how we are selected. Whenever there seems to be an unbalance of negative energy in a location, the universe balances that energy with its opposite. This guy seems to like using explosives, I’m not an expert on that stuff, how am I, his opposite? I thought to myself as I concluded my research and decided to rest for the night, tomorrow is Sunday, and I have a feeling that it’s not over.
That night, I had the most vivid dream, explosions everywhere, people panicking, I jumped out of my sleep during the night in a cold sweat. If my dreams are true, this guy is going to make his move tomorrow and I may be in over my head. My intentions are good but how useful can I be against him. I lie down in the living room by the TV with hopes to clear my mind and get some rest. Hours passed, I fell asleep on the couch and was awoken by the loud sound of news on the TV. Standing to stretch I check the time and it’s just after noon. I stop for a second to glance at the TV before covering my mouth in terror, thirty minutes before I had awakened, A guy calling himself “BLAST” has taken over the city hall government building with plans to blow it up and everyone inside, and that’s not the worst part. He is calling me out to stop him, upset that I have spoiled his plans all week he wants to kill me in front of the people and if I don’t show up, he will blow the building and all the government workers. Terrified, I’m not sure what to do so I grab my favorite jacket and run out the door towards City Hall. On the way there I noticed that the entire town seemed empty as they surrounding the building I’ve been running the entire time to get here however I do not want anyone to see me or tip this guy off that I’m coming. I’m not even sure what I can do against him. As I walk through the crowd looking for a way in, no one knew who I was, I overheard one of the police officers mentions that the city hall building is connected to the post office through the basement. They were trying to decide the best way to enter. I made my way away from the crowd towards the post office hoping that I could enter the basement and into city hall. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do when I get there, I just cannot let this guy hurt anyone else. It’s just my luck that throughout the chaos, the post office was not locked, and I was able to make my way down to the basement door, however, I wasn’t alone. There was one officer, an explosives expert that was also looking to sneak in and stop this guy. He saw me coming. “You’re… You’re HIM, aren’t you? The Unknow Hero? Are you coming to stop this guy? He asked me in a frantic voice, which was confusing because he was an officer of the law. With everything I have gone through this week I’m sick of this guy, so I answer the officer confidently. “Yes sir, I’m here to do my best but, I’m going to need your help.” The officer listened intensively. I continued, “Once we enter this door we are on our own, I need you to find those explosives while I try to get the people out through the basement. If we work quietly enough, he may not know that we are even here. We should focus on getting people out, I really do not want to fight this guy. The officer agreed and we both entered the basement door of city hall building, as we entered, I informed the officer that this guy likes to set up his explosives in the kitchen area around open gas sources or electrical circuits and that he should start his search from there. We went our separate ways, and I went looking for the hostages. The city hall building does not appear large from the outside but inside there are halls and corridors everywhere. I have no idea where the hostages are. Luckly, I caught a break as I walked past one of the bathrooms, I hear someone crying. Slowly I enter the bathroom, and I am met with a small group of people hiding. Their faces light up as they know who I am immediately without me saying a word. I instruct them to head towards the basement, staying quiet and going through the door leading to the post office next door. As the group leaves, they thank me and they inform me that the group of their friends are tied up and gagged in the mayor’s office, they tell me that he’s waiting for me. My heart races as I head towards, he mayor office, I pray that the officer with me has found and neutralized the explosives, because once I face his guy, I’m not sure I can stop him, I’m not much of a fighter, Steven is, I wish he were here now instead of me. I made my way to the mayor’s office and now I am standing outside of the door. He knows I’m here, but I don’t care I need to stall for time to give the first group a chance to leave the building, at least I was able to save some. I hear his voice call out to me, “come on in HERO, I’ve been waiting for you.” He says as I open the door and make my way inside, upon entering I see there are five people tied and gagged on the floor near the mayor’s desk. This Guy is standing by the window looking out at the chaos and admiring his work. Once the workers saw me, they showed signs of relief, although I still had no idea how I was supposed to save them, the guy was holding a detonator in his hands and because of that I didn’t move one inch closer to him. Still trying to buy time until I know the others have escaped, I asked the guy in a stern Deep voice, “Who are you and What do you want with the people of this town?”. He smiled and looked at me stepping away from the window. “ I could ask you the same thing Stranger, you have single handedly stopped all of my plans for revenge on these people, and at first I didn’t care about you but since the news and the people of this town love you so much I thought it would be a good idea for you and me both to end it all here, together, The hero and the villain for the entire world to see.” He turns and points to a camera in the office recording himself and now me! My face is slightly covered from my hoodie, but I’m not worried about that now, although he wasn’t looking, I noticed the other group of people running out of the post office, they had made it out. Now here is hoping the officer was successful also. I began to get a little bold seeing the last group escape. “What makes you think I want to fight you on camera in front of these people?” I asked boldly. His response was, “You don’t have a choice hero, I press this button, and the building explodes” he turned to look back out the window only to catch the last person running out of the post office building freed. He was furious, “HOW DID YOU…?” I smiled, bad idea. “YOU ARE NOT GOING TO STOP ME AGAIN HERO, I REFUSE TO LOSE THIS TIME. He yelled as he immediately went for the detonator and pressed the button. I heard the beep, and my heart stopped. It was as if time froze for a few seconds, I was sure we were dead. We did hear a small explosion in the distance but nothing in the building, maybe the officer was able to neutralize the bombs, good for him. Now to take care of this guy, still ranting he yells... “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? THERE IS NO WAY YOU FOUND AND DISARMED ALL MY BOMBS?! HOW DID YOU…? WHO ARE YOU? He yells in a panic as he makes his way towards me, I brace myself. “I WILL TEACH YOU A LESSON RIGHT NOW!! He yelled. Before I could react, he had begun punching me extremely hard in the stomach twice, then he kicked me in the knee, I fell to one leg, and he finished me with a haymaker to the face knocking me to the ground. I could hear the people outside gasping loudly as I fell, I forgot they were watching on camera. The hostages in the room looked at me on the floor, fear in their eyes, I could tell they were praying that I got up and saved them, but I was more scared than ever, I’m not a fighter, I’ve never trained, I don’t even go to the Gym, I’m not going to beat this guy, I wasn’t sure what I was thinking when I came in here. The hostages could see the despair in my eyes as the guy calling himself “BLAST” continued to kick me on the ground. I curled to protect myself and then Blast began to laugh and mock me. “Is this your hero, seriously, how did you ever stop me before, you are a pathetic excuse for a man.” I curled in pain as I thought about this week and all I had been through. I thought about Steven and how he would feel to discover I had been killed while he was away. The hostages began to cry as they felt it was hopeless. They wanted to see their families again and so did I. Then, Blast made his way over to the wall behind the mayor’s desk. “Those weren’t my only bombs hero” he touched a panel to reveal that he had another bomb planted in the room with us now. ‘My plan was that if I lost today, I was still going to blow up everyone including myself, but you are such a pathetic challenge I might as well kill you all now. He walks over to begin setting the bomb and I try my hardest to stand at my feet. He doesn’t see me stand, underestimating me. I’m in pain, tired and scared but If I don’t try something now there will be no tomorrow for any of us. Standing at my feet I yell out, “Hey, I’m not done yet” He turns to see me standing, “Now that’s more like it, let’s give the people what they want to see. Immediately he rushes towards me delivering two quick jabs to my face, my nose starts bleeding, he attempts a third, but I grab his hand and stop the punch. Holding it with all my might I stare him in his eyes as my face is bleeding, to let him know that I’m not afraid of him anymore. “Impressive but pointless” he says as he lifts my entire body and slams me on the mayor’s desk. I yelled in pain as I knocked over all the supplies on the desk, falling to the floor. In agony I roll to stand to my feet, as he turns to face the camera talking to the on lookers. “Is this the hero that you said would stop me” He laughs. I look beside me to see the stapler in the floor, I’m going to need weapons if I’m going to fight this guy, I grab the stapler with a firm grip, “HEY YOU LITTLE BITCH!!”, I yelled and as soon as he turned, I threw the stapler at his face, DIRECT HIT. His nose was bleeding, he was stunned. Grabbing his face in agony I knew this was my opening, I grabbed the keyboard and followed up with a strike so hard the keyboard snapped in half. He fell to the floor and the people outside began to cheer. I knew I had to prevent him from getting to the bomb on the wall or he would kill everyone. He stood up dizzy and attempted to throw a punch, I was able to dodge it and counter him, I grabbed the mayor’s coffee cup and smashed it into his head. He fell back against the wall trying to regain his composure; however, I couldn’t let that happen, this was it, this was my chance to save everyone, this was it! The mayor has a large and heavy chair at his desk. With all my strength I picked up the chair and swung it with all I had left, it connected and knocked the guy out. It was over, once the police saw that he was unconscious they rushed into the building. I was exhausted but I still tried to untie the hostages, when suddenly, I felt a hand on my back... It was the first response team. “You did well, we will take it from here” I looked over to see Mr. bad guy starting to wake up, I smile, and I fall to my knees, exhausted, as the police takes this psycho into custody. Even as he is being dragged away, he continues making threats of revenge against me. Standing to my feet, continuing to catch my breath, I can hear the celebrations from the crowd of people outside, the police officers congratulate me on a job well done. I start walking towards the door, ready to go home and rest, it’s been a long week, and my body is sore. The news reporters are anxiously waiting for me to step outside, they have been trying to get an interview since this whole thing began, but just like before I prefer to be left alone. I make my way towards the basement exit at the post office; I want to slip out the back door through the alleyways behind the post office but as I make my way through the tunnels in the basement I see where the explosion from earlier happened. Turns out the explosives specialist didn’t make it; he was moving the last bomb out of the building when the guy detonated it. Although he had a protective suit, his body lay lifeless on the basement floor, so I picked him up and walked him outside to the ambulance. The people watched as I walked out of the building, the crowd grew silent as I lay the officers body on the gurney, lowering my head to cover my face behind my hoodie, I turn around and begin to walk home, no one stopped me, no one said a word to me, and no one followed me. As I walked off into the sunset, my cell phone rang in my pocket, I answered and it’s Steven. Although it hurts, I smile when I hear his voice, “Hi Honey, how was your week?”
-Arzell the Esoteric