Birth of a Hero

We ran the only direction we could: into the autumn cracked farmer's field. The hills were gentle but shelter was acres away in the trees fading into oranges and purples and reds. Behind us, toying with us, rumbled the tanks and jeeps and men with automatic guns. They went at a leisurely pace while we ran headlong for our freedom. For our lives.

I waved my friends on. The only reason they had not opened fired on us and stomped out the embers of the rebels who still clung to the last remnants of the United States, was because of me. They wanted me, as any army wanted a new, impressive weapon. These invaders wanted what I could do with the power deep inside me that I didn't understand. We had agreed to fight and stick together, but perhaps I could give them a fighting chance if I turned now and threw my hands into the air. A sacrifice for the good of all.

An old vet had stopped, a marker halfway between myself and the tanks. He had a little hand gun and even I could see his hand shaking as he raised it up. My heart stopped and I threw myself toward the old man, determined to stop him before he did something that would end up killing him. The rest of them would need his experience and his calm, comforting voice. This was not his time for sacrifice.

I wasn't fast enough and he pulled the trigger and so did they. I screamed, my heart cracking. Behind me, they stopped running and we all watched as he dropped to the ground in a pool of blood. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I whirled around and screamed at them to keep going. Over and over until they reluctantly began moving to the trees once again. I could see two of my closest friends hovering, their pace slower, watching me.

Our eyes met one last time before I turned my back to them and faced the army rushing toward me. If tanks could smile with glee, I was sure these ones would have been smiling. But let them smile, I thought. Let them smile and know that they had awakened a storm within my crying heart. If they wanted power, I was more than willing to give them a demonstration of my power.

I picked my way through the field toward them until I was standing even with the old vet, his face turned into the dirt. The tanks stopped. The men and the jeeps stopped. We all stood waiting and I knew that behind me, my friends had stopped. In that moment, the world ceased to spin and everything was still and waiting.

Except for me. I wasn't waiting. My fingers began to tingle first, then my arms and soon my whole body seemed to hum from within. An energy ran through me, filling me up and urging me to channel it. Slowly, letting it swell like a great ocean tide, I guided the tingling to my hands. The tears had stopped but I was vaguely aware that I was screaming, drawing breath and screaming again. My hands burned like fire from the energy I was sending to them but refusing to release until that burning traveled through my whole body. I was afraid, only briefly, that I might tear myself apart.

I felt the men shifting as they watched me rather than saw them. I felt my friends backing up but refusing to leave me and I wished they would just go. The world took on a hazy, red glow and the energy lit up my veins and my body.

Let them see their weapon first hand.

As soon as I felt the energy ready to burst, I let the flood gates open. Red energy shot from my hands, my fingers, my arms. A tank went first, then a jeep, but I wasn't done. No. These people had come to take over my country and kill my people. They wanted to use me like a weapon. They had killed the vet not ten feet from me. No, I wasn't done with them. Not until metal was twisted and flung wide. Not until their soldiers were scrambling to be free of my wrath. Not until this aching, burning power had extinguished itself from my body.

The ground was scorched and the line threatening my friends, dissembled. I turned, then, to face the pale, stricken faces of my friends. Now they knew the monster they traveled with; this uncontrollable vessel of energy. The destruction they faced suddenly bombarded them.

"Run!" I screamed and they jumped like rabbits. At least they took off for the cover of the trees.

But I had made an error. A sharp thud and prick pounded into my shoulder. I reached back to try and yank out whatever had hit me. It was beyond my grasp but the tranquilizer was already at work, slithering through my veins and slowing my body. I turned to find another, small group of men who had been trailing the ones I had just destroyed. They were walked toward me, cautiously.

My legs gave out and I tried to crawl toward the tree line. I didn't get very far. A boot pushed me into the ground. The sludge clouding up my body was doing its work. I felt breath on my cheek as the world darkened.

"What's wrong, little witch? Where's all the fight now?" The deep, male voice sneered before the shadows caved in on me.