Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs 1: The Never Hero (12 page)

At first there was just a newscaster with an alarmed look as she spoke. Hayden ran over to what was left of the kitchen table and fished out the remote to unmute the sound.

“
Footage of the creature has been scant. It appears to have come out of nowhere in downtown Seattle. Currently no creditable explanation of its origins has been brought forth, but theories ranging from alien to a biological weapon have been speculated. The video we just showed you was taken from the window of a local resident. The creature has moved on from that location. Local law enforcement has responded and the area has been quarantined until officers can assess the situation.

“Again, for those of you just tuning in, be advised that a dangerous animal of unknown origin has attacked pedestrians in the downtown area. Not much is known at this time, but so far three deaths and an unknown number of injuries have been reported. At first this was thought to be a costumed man or a wild animal loose in the city, but as the footage we’ve received shows, this doesn’t appear to be the case. Reporters are not being allowed into the quarantined zone.”

Jonathan could tell from the disjointed manner of the reporting that the newscaster was doing the best she could in a live situation.

“Show the footage again dammit!” Collin yelled at the television, everyone in the room nodding in agreement with their growing impatience.

“
Here is the clip again, but understand that this footage is graphic and that some viewers may find it disturbing
,” said the reporter.

The video was taken from the second story window by someone who had his lights off to avoid getting the unwanted attention of the subject they were filming. The quality was hardly watchable as it was a home camera trying to film a poorly lit street through a closed window. The only light was from the streetlights lining the sidewalks. Nevertheless, the clip was surreal. It wasn’t one of the city’s main streets. Jonathan recognized that it was taken somewhere under the viaduct, a raised freeway that bordered Seattle’s waterfront.

People on the street were fleeing. The creature, that must have been seven or eight feet tall, made its way into the center of the road, where it stood in the light of one of the street lamps. From what could be made out it looked like an overgrown gargoyle without wings. Its body was incredibly muscular, seeming to mimic a human male in form, as the creature was chest heavy and v-shaped. The video was too rough to make out a lot of detail, but its skin seemed black and leathery. Its face wasn’t looking at the camera, but it had ear-like appendages that stretched straight back from its head like two short samurai swords.

The thing was dragging the body of a man in one hand. Its fingers held the skull like a NBA player palming a basketball. The body was horribly broken, dead. The creature swiveled in the street and let out a loud roar.

Challenger.

Jonathan heard the word in his mind in sync with the guttural roar of the creature on the television, almost as though he’d growled it to himself.

It seemed to be yelling out to the whole city. It looked up and about, into windows, and everywhere it thought a person could hear it. It finally tossed the body of the man through a car windshield with such force that it made the three roommates gasp. The monster stamped the ground, beating its chest once like a gorilla showing its strength. The street lamps shook with it, parked cars rattled, alarms went off.

Challenger!

Again, Jonathan heard the words in his head like a thought, but a thought he hadn’t given rise to, an intruder in his mind using his own internal voice to speak to him. It was disturbing. He wanted to believe it was his imagination, that he was somehow unintentionally giving rise to that word.

The person taking the video must have lost his or her nerve and ducked completely under the window sill as the footage came to an end.

The reporter came back on.

“
We’ve received reports that police have engaged with the creature, but that it hasn’t been subdued with gunfire. This is purely speculation at this point, but a SWAT team will likely be called in to engage. If this proves ineffective, a military response may be approved. If you’re already in Seattle, please don’t panic, and stay in your homes
.
Local radio stations have been advised to air emergency announcements to instruct citizens driving into Downtown Seattle not to enter the city until the creature has been subdued to help reduce fatalities. Please, if you know anyone who might be headed to Seattle and unaware of what is taking place, call them and let them know not to enter the city.”

“It’s looking for a challenger,” Jonathan said.

The group looked at him, unsure how he had come to this conclusion. “It was just grunting and growling from what I heard. Seems more like a scared animal trying to establish a territory,” said Paige.

“No, it clearly said challenger twice in that video clip
.
I mean it was like a bear growling it in another language, but I could hear it,
”
Jonathan said.

From the look on their faces it was clear they had only seen a creature roaring. He let out a long breath.

“What in the hell could this have done to me to make me understand what that thing was saying?” Jonathan said pointing at the glowing lights beneath his chest.

Hayden was looking at him. He looked more worried for him than he’d been a moment earlier, more worried than Jonathan had ever seen him. Collin and Paige, a few moments behind him, took on the same expression, as though their own personal puzzle pieces had fallen into place. Whatever they now saw, they didn’t like it.

“Jonathan,” Hayden said, “I think... I think you know what is happening here.”

Jonathan was shaking his head.

“That man, whatever he did to you, he was fitting you to fight that thing.”

Jonathan paused for a moment, hesitated, then shook his head. It was too absurd.

“That doesn’t make any sense. That’s comic book nonsense.”

Paige looked at first like she wanted to agree with him, but couldn’t. “Jonathan, I think Collin is…” she trailed off, feeling the gravity of what she’d been about to say.

“What do we know?” Hayden asked. “A man, whom you don’t believe was human, broke into our house and embedded something into you. A few weeks go by and nothing seems to happen, then twenty minutes ago you lit up. Suddenly you’re impossibly strong. Suddenly you sense there’s something southwest of here. Roughly at the same time, a creature of unknown origin appears in the middle of downtown Seattle, southwest of here, and starts yelling for a challenger, but only you are able to understand what its saying.”

He finished, looking at Jonathan like the conclusion was obvious. It made perfect sense to the comic-book-blockbuster-movie obsessed mind. It made none to Jonathan.

“Why? Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to see a man fight that thing? And why now? Why hasn’t it ever happened before? Why would there suddenly be a species on earth that man had never seen? How would it just show up?” Jonathan said, watching the replay of the creature on the news. His roommates didn’t appear convinced by his outpouring of questions.

The newscaster came back on. Her alarmed expression had changed; she now looked like she might be ill.

“
We’re now receiving new footage from a live helicopter camera circling the situation downtown. If you choose to watch the footage, please be aware that it’s far more graphic than the original video. The police seem unable to bring this creature under control with their available arsenal. Its exterior skin appears to be unnaturally resilient. SWAT is now engaging the creature.”

When the video came on, Jonathan dropped to his knees in front of the television. He understood now why the reporter looked sick.

It still stood underneath the viaduct, but had progressed a few blocks north. Bodies seemed littered in a path to where it stood, some viciously dismembered, others broken, lying dead in unnatural positions. Police and SWAT had formed a circle of vehicles around the monster and had opened fire with automatic weapons. It wasn’t being slowed by the attack, if anything the creature seemed to be getting worked up into frenzy.

It moved suddenly, pouncing onto a police car and yanking up an officer who had been crouched behind the vehicle. Lifting the man up as though he were a kitten, the fingers of one hand closed around the man’s legs, the other massive hand on his skull. The video cut out. Jonathan didn’t have to see it to know how it ended. He was grateful it hadn’t been shown.

The newscaster returned to the screen, at a loss for words. She stuttered that the National Guard had been called to respond to the threat as soon as possible. Jonathan staggered back from the television. He slumped down on the couch. The room was silent.

All he could think was that he didn’t want this. He was a twenty-two year old kid. He wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t trained to deal with this. He didn’t want to be within ten miles of that thing, let alone pick a fight with it. If he went down there, he wouldn’t know the first thing to do. He’d end up part of the mutilated dead lining the street, and for what? So some blond asshole could get a thrill from pitting them against each other.

That didn’t seem right to Jonathan though.

“The stranger, before he put me under, I thought I was crazy, but he said, ‘
You aren’t prepared, but you must bear this.’”

Jonathan looked up at the three of them. “He was right. I’m not prepared. If I go out there, I’ll die.”

Paige and Collin both appeared deep in thought. Hayden didn’t, he looked impatient, and Jonathan knew what the man was about to say.

He started to speak, “Jonathan—”

“No,” Jonathan said.

“Jonathan, everything happens for a—” Hayden started to say.

“Shut up!”

Hayden looked at him, “Jonathan—”

“Don’t! Don’t get self-righteous; don’t tell me I have to go down there. I didn’t ask for this! You want to trade places Hayden? You think you’d just march out there to die? I can hardly move I’m so scared.”

Jonathan was visibly shaking. He held his hands clasped in front of him, trying to get them to hold still and failing.

“This is reality, if I go out there, it isn’t going to matter if it was the right thing to do,” he whispered. “This isn’t a comic book.”

“Yes!” Hayden said. “That is exactly what it is. It’s exactly what those stories are about. You have to get down there.”

“I didn’t volunteer for this!” Jonathan yelled, his fear spilling over into anger at Hayden for taking some moral stance when the situation required nothing of him.

“No you didn’t!” Hayden said, getting up off the couch, “and it isn’t fair! But what’s it going to be Jonathan? You want Paige to go get your pills? You want to go take a nap in your room while that thing kills a few hundred people waiting for you to show up!”

“Hayden!” Paige exclaimed. “That isn’t fair!”

Hayden ignored her attempt to defend Jonathan.

“You think you’ll just live with that?” Hayden said. “You think you can just say to yourself ‘it’s not fair’ and all those people getting killed out there aren’t your problem anymore?”

Hayden’s words were becoming heavy, the guilt seeping in. He wanted to ignore it, but couldn’t avoid seeing it for the unfair honest truth that it was. Knowing it still didn’t change the fact that it was a death sentence.

“Just give me a minute,” Jonathan said.

Panic welled up in him. He rocked back and forth on the couch. He didn’t know how to get up. He was stalling. All he wanted was for the seconds to stretch on into hours. He needed time.

“Jona—”

“Give him a damn minute Hayden!” Paige yelled.

“People don’t have a minute. Jona—”

The balance between Jonathan’s fear and anger shifted toward the latter. Before he knew what he was doing, he stood, crushing the coffee table in front of them and nearly put his foot through the floor boards. It was just too much to bear being called a coward once more.

Hayden stood his ground but Paige and Collin were visibly worried that he was pushing their unstable roommate into a rage while he was capable of doing some serious damage.

“What? You holier-than-thou Asshole! What?” Jonathan yelled.

Hayden yelled back “I’ll go with you!”

Jonathan swallowed. He felt like he’d just been gut checked. His anger and fear dropped off a cliff. Hayden wasn’t posturing, Jonathan could see it. He was volunteering. The man’s bravery; it moved him, but it shamed him more than he’d expected.

He turned to look at Paige and Collin. They seemed to struggle with the decision but then nodded. They, too, would go with him. They were all volunteering to help him face this. He hadn’t done anything to deserve this kind of loyalty.

He took a deep breath, the word “dammit,” escaping as he exhaled. He thought of his father, imagined what Douglas would say if he could be there to say it.

You won’t be able to live with having done nothing.

Who was he kidding anyway? Hayden was right. He wasn’t going to hide in his house with all those bodies piling up on the street knowing he was supposed to be the one stopping it.