The Ultimates (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 2

Seth seemed abnormally silent. I knew he loved Pizza Hut; I wasn’t really in the mood for food. I was the one that suggested we go there. Seth only took one slice. Andrew was eating fast; he loved pizza. I don’t think he liked it more than Seth. Andrew had already taken five slices.

“Something wrong Seth?” I asked him.

“No. Why?” Seth responded.

“You only took one slice.”

“I’m just not hungry.”

“Come on. I’ve seen you eat six slices when you were ‘full.’”

I made air quotes with my hands.

“Maybe he’s sick,” Ashley said.

“No, he’s eaten just as much when he was sick,” Andrew said.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” Seth said.

We didn’t normally talk about operations in public. We used to, but we whispered silently so nobody would here us. Eventually we considered it seemed a bit too suspicious. So we stopped doing it. We decided that was for meetings.

“Did you see the Bengals game yesterday Arckine?” Andrew asked me.

“No. I forgot. I was strategizing for Russia,” I said.

“Well, it was awesome! They beat the Raiders.”

“Score?”

“Bengals, 21. Raiders, 7.”

“Hell yes! Our team won.”

“Ugh. Can’t you guys talk about anything besides sports?” Ashley said.

“What do you want us to talk about? Nail polish?” I asked rhetorically.

“Seriously Ash. We’re guys,” Andy said.

“So? What’s your point?” Ashley asked.

“Guys normally like sports.”

“If you asked Torov that he’d probably go on a rampage,” I said.

“Oh please. There’s James,” Ashley responded.

James was an Ultimate. He was as strong, fast and as capable as any of us but he hated sports. And moving. He wasn’t very active. He was a German. Ashley was a Canadian and so was Seth. They didn’t know much about football. Torov loved sports with a passion. He even took the time to learn the rules of football. I played with him. He actually has a really good arm. He’s a very good quarterback.

“James does doesn’t like moving. That’s a cheap shot,” I said.

A waitress came with another pizza. Andrew took three more slices, I took two and so did Ashley. Seth took one. Andrew ate all of his pizzas even before I finished one.

“Damn Andy. You’re really getting into it!” I said.

“I’m crazy about pizza. Not Seth crazy but-”

‘Very crazy. We know,” Seth said.

“No one beats you Seth,” I said, punching playfully on the shoulder.

“Yeah and no one beats your love of being an Ultimate,” Seth said, punching me back. We weren’t scared. No one knew what the Ultimates were anyways. If anyone happened to hear, they’d probably think it was some kind of club.

“This is very true,” I said taking another slice. “And no one will ever be as damn out there as Andy.”

“That is one of the truest things ever said. And one will ever be as girly and strong at the same time like Ashley,” Andy said, taking two more slices. Ashley stuck her tongue out at him playfully. Andrew kissed her.

“Fine, I’ll follow the crowd. This is very true,” Ashley said.

“Anyways, I’ve gotta run. See you guys later,” I said getting up to talk out the door. I went out onto the streets and waited until I saw a taxi. I called out to it and it stopped. I entered it and told the driver to go to Tribeca.

“Here we are ….Tribeca,” the driver said. His voice knocked me out of a sort of daze I was in. I was thinking of Russia; of what I had to face in six days. I looked out of the window. It was Hudson Street. That was where my apartment was.

“Yeah thanks,” I said, reaching into my pants for my wallet. I pulled it out and opened it. The first thing my fingers touched was a fifty dollar bill. I pulled it out and gave it to him.

“Keep the change,” I said, exiting the car. I walked into my apartment building. There always seemed to be at least two people on the bottom floor of the building. There were three when I walked in a conversation they were obviously very engaged in. I used the elevator to get to the fourth floor; that was where my room was.

I walked down the hall, unlocked the door and walked in. The room was a mess, as usual. Dirty laundry lay on the floor and some of the furniture was turned over. I kept telling myself that I would hire a maid and always forgot. To get rid of the smell I just sprayed the room with Febreze. I lay down on my couch and said, “CNN.” The television in front of my turned on and immediately switched itself to CNN.

They were talking about the ongoing war in Afghanistan; the one the world knew about. I wasn’t actually paying attention; my mind always ended up subconsciously thinking about what I would have to face in Russia with Andrew. I wasn’t scared. I was just overzealous.

Something disturbed me. I kept hearing a strange metallic sound. Like the stereotypical robots seen on television that make a strange metallic sound when they walk. It sounded faintly like that.

At first I just tried to ignore it. I thought it was just my imagination. But when I kept hearing it I tried to locate where the sound was coming from. I looked around and eventually saw something on the window. It looked like a strange, silver spider.

“What the hell?”

When it realized that I had saw it raced down the building. I grabbed the camera that lay on the table beside the couch and took, quickly opened the window and took a picture of it before it raced out of sight.