Ordinary Hero

by Ellis Michaels

  Skill Increase

  [Intellectual] Lie Detection: 1/10 (+1)

  “Actually,” I said, walking over to the side of the counter, “on second thought, I don't know if I want provolone cheese. What are these other cheeses here?”

  I pointed at the different types of cheese behind the glass counter. Pat walked over to answer my question, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was nothing more than a ruse. I already knew the answer to my own question. If you're talking cheese, you're talking my language. It was one of my favorite foods. There was provolone, American, Swiss, cheddar, and mozzarella – in order from left to right. I only asked Pat to get him to come closer to me so I could do what I was about to do.

  “So,” he said, standing right behind the counter, pointing from cheese to cheese, “we have mozzarella, cheddar, Swiss...”

  I took a couple steps behind the counter to get closer to Pat, making it seem like I was just trying to get a better view of what he was pointing at. When I was close enough to grab him, I did.

  “Shhhhhh,” I said, spinning him around and wrapping my arm around his neck like an anaconda. “Go to sleep, old man.”

  I put Mr. O'Sullivan in a rear naked choke. He tried to yell for help but nothing came out. Pat struggled for a few seconds before going limp. I carefully lowered his body to the floor, gently laying him down behind the counter. So far, so good.

  I couldn't risk him coming to and calling for help while I was in the basement so I needed something to use to restrain him. The thought of running out to the Tahoe to grab the duct tape crossed my mind but, if anyone saw me come out of the deli and return with it in my hand, that wouldn't have looked good. I dug through a couple drawers and found a large roll of packaging tape. It wasn't as strong as duct tape but it would have to do. He was an old man and I figured it would at least keep him secure until Kasie and I were long gone. I taped his wrists and his ankles tightly, then slapped a piece of tape over his mouth. I was confident that he wouldn't be alerting anybody about anything anytime soon.

  Not wanting to waste even a single second, I ran over to the basement door. I opened it and slowly walked down the stairs. There was a light on but it was very dim. The only things I could see walking down the stairs were pallets of food products and a few cleaning supplies. When I got to the bottom, I walked around the staircase and my already-heavily-beating heart began beating even harder.

  In the far corner of the basement, I saw my best friend tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth. Sitting a few feet away was a massive man made of solid muscle, so vascular that his veins had veins. He didn't notice me right away: His eyes were glued to his phone. He had headphones in and was watching some sort of video. There was no question about his gang status: He was definitely a member. Both arms had SS tattoos on them.

  When Kasie first saw me, she sat up straight and her face lit up. Had she not been gagged, I'm sure a huge smile would've grown across her face. Part of me was incredibly relieved to see that she was alright. But, more than anything, I was angry: Angry at Carter for taking Kasie, angry at myself for being the reason he took her, and angry at the thug sitting there watching a video – just because. I knew that he'd probably gotten a little rough with Kasie and that made me furious. Her hair was disheveled, her clothing was ripped, and her makeup had run all over her face, which meant she'd been crying. I hated to see her like that and wanted to get her out of that chair and into the safety of Melissa's Tahoe as soon as possible.

  “You've got to be kidding me,” the thug said, taking his headphones out and getting up from his chair once he saw me. “How'd you know she was down here?”

  “Carter told me,” I replied. “He told me to tell you to untie her and let her leave with me.”

  “Sure he did,” the thug replied. “Now neither of you will be leaving this basement.”

  He cracked his knuckles and walked toward me. I'd won a lot of fights over the previous few days, but none of them were against anyone even close to the size of that gorilla. He was at least six-and-a-half-feet tall, easily two-hundred-and-seventy-five pounds, and probably had a lot more fighting experience than I did. The only thing I had going for me was my anger. I was so livid that I didn't feel an ounce of anxiety – just pure, unadulterated aggression.

  “The only one who won't be leaving is you!” I yelled and jumped at him.

  I threw a right hook at the thug's face. It clipped him right in the side of the head, but he didn't even flinch. With both hands, he reached out and grabbed me by the shoulders, picking me up off the ground with ease. I knew that, if I wanted to defeat this guy, I needed to get creative. He flashed an evil grin while holding me a few inches off the ground. Then, at the exact same time, he headbutted me as I kicked him right between the legs.

  The thug dropped me and fell to his knees, holding his crotch. I, too, fell to the floor, holding my head. It certainly didn't feel good, but it didn't hurt as badly as I expect it to. I think by kicking him at the same time, it thew him off balance, making the headbutt less effective. Whatever the reason, I got right back up to my feet. Unfortunately, so did he.

  “You wanna fight dirty, huh?” the thug asked.

  I didn't reply. He cocked his arm back and threw a punch straight at my crotch. I jumped back, narrowly avoiding getting hit. When he immediately followed it up with a punch to the center of my chest, I wasn't so lucky. It landed dead center, sending me flying back several feet, landing on my butt. I noticed in the corner of my eye that my hit points had been reduced:

  Level: 4

  Hit Points: 188/200

  That punch knocked all the wind out of me and it was hard to stand back up. He walked over to me as I was getting up and I launched an uppercut right between his legs. It wasn't my game plan to keep assaulting the guy's crotch – it just kind of happened that way. The punch landed and, again, it brought the massive thug to his knees.

  Wanting to capitalize on his guard being down, I threw a spin kick at the guy's ugly face. Not only was I surprised that I knew how to throw a spin kick, I was surprised that it actually landed. It hit him right in the side of the face and his massive body toppled over onto the floor, eyes closed. As soon as it did, the following appeared in front of me:

  Skill Increase

  [Physical] Hand-To-Hand Combat: 7/10 (+1)

  With the thug out cold on the floor, I ran over to Kasie. I could see relief in her face and it made me happy to be the one providing it. After pulling the gag out of her mouth so she could talk, I reached into my pocket and took out the knife I had with me.

  “Thank you, James!” she said as I cut the rope securing her torso to the chair. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  Since I was the reason that Kasie was there in the first place, I really didn't feel like I deserved to be thanked. If anything, she should've been mad at me, but that's not how she was. Kasie always looked on the bright side of things and that was one of the many reasons I liked her so much. I didn't want to get into a whole thing at the time and I was still catching my breath, so I just accepted her thanks.

  “You're welcome,” was all I said.

  I finished cutting the ropes around Kasie's torso and moved onto the ones around her ankles. Once I cut those, I just had to cut the rope around her wrists, which were behind her back, and she'd be completely free.

  “James,” Kasie said softly as I was cutting the rope around her ankles.

  “What?” I asked without looking up, focused on the rope I was cutting.

  “James!” she yelled, getting my attention. “Look out!”

  I glanced up and saw that her eyes were staring behind me. I turned my head around to see what she was looking at and, the second I did, I caught a fist to the face. The thug had come to and managed to get up to his knees without me hearing him. He must've still been in a daze because, as soon as he hit me, he fell back over onto his side. But he wasn't the only one. So did I. The punch didn't knock me out but I almost
wished that it had. When his fist hit my jaw, it made a loud cracking sound. I didn't know at the time if anything was broken but it sure felt like something could've been.

  “James, get up!” Kasie yelled.

  The room was spinning and I had trouble getting my eyes to focus. I was on my side on the floor and I could see the thug struggling to get up a few feet away from me. My head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and it took every ounce of strength I had to pick it up off the floor. I closed my eyes for a couple seconds and, when I opened them, the room was no longer spinning. It wasn't exactly staying still, either, but at least it wasn't spinning around in circles anymore.

  “Come on, James!” Kasie cheered. “You can do it!”

  Hearing my best friend encouraging me somehow gave me the extra boost I needed. Kasie had always been good at getting me to push myself, bringing out the best in me. I managed to get up to my feet before the muscular monster next to me. He was still clearly dazed, struggling to find enough balance to get to his feet.

  “Close your eyes, Kasie,” I said as I picked my knife up off the ground. “You're not going to want to see this.”

  I needed to put an end to that thug once and for all. I would've preferred it if he'd just stayed knocked out until we were long gone, but it didn't work out that way. He was going to keep coming at me no matter how many times I knocked him down so I needed to take him out permanently. When he saw me grab the knife, the thug forced himself to his feet and held up his arms in defense, though I could tell his balance was still shaky.

  I lunged at him, stabbing at his chest. He just barely avoided getting hit, wildly swatting the knife away. I knew that his vision and balance were slowly returning to normal so I wanted to capitalize on my advantage while it was still there. Again I attacked, this time slicing at his face. His response was just a little too slow and I managed to cut him across the forehead. It was only a superficial cut, but blood began dripping down from the wound all over his face and into his eyes.

  “You son of a bitch!” he yelled, wiping blood from his face. “I'm gonna kill you!”

  He charged straight ahead and tried to grab me. I don't know if it was because he had blood in his eyes or if he was still off balance from being knocked out, but he missed completely. The thug reached out and grabbed nothing but air, a couple inches shy of getting me. It gave me a wide-open shot at his neck and I took it.

  “Aggghhhggghhh!” he screamed as I plunged the knife into his neck.

  Blood began spurting out of the thug's neck as he stumbled backward, clutching at his throat. He grabbed the knife by the handle and pulled it out of his neck while leaning back against the basement wall. They say that if your skin gets penetrated by something sharp, you're supposed to leave it there until you get to the hospital so the doctors can take it out. After seeing what happened to him when he pulled the knife out, I understood why. As soon as he pulled it out, blood just poured out of the wound, coming out several times faster than when the knife was in. Either way, he was going to die. I'm sure pulling the knife out seemed like a good idea to him at the time – and I'm not gonna lie: it looked pretty badass – but all it did was make him bleed to death a little quicker.

  “James?” Kasie asked. “Are you okay? Can I open my eyes? Is it over?”

  “Don't open your eyes until I tell you to,” I replied. “But yes, it's over and I'm alright. Let me finish untying you and I'll get you out of here.”

  I picked the bloody knife up off the basement floor and finished cutting the rope around Kasie's ankles and then her wrists. Taking her by the hand, I led my friend to the stairs with her eyes closed so she wouldn't have to see the sanguine-colored mess I'd made. I'm sure Kasie had already been traumatized by everything that'd happened and I didn't want to make it worse. I looked around the room briefly one last time before heading upstairs. It looked like a murder scene – because it was. Then, before we ascended up the stairs, in front of me popped up:

  Quest Complete: Rescue BFF

  1250 Exp.

  Congratulations! You've reached level 5!

  Stat Increase

  50 Max HP

  1 Stamina

  1 Speed

  Skill Increase

  [Physical] Hand-To-Hand Combat: 8/10 (+1)

  [Social] Ruthlessness: 7/10 (+1)

  [Intellectual] Quick Thinking: 5/10 (+1)

  Suddenly, I felt a lot more alert and full of energy. My jaw stopped hurting and, overall, I actually felt pretty good. I thought to myself “close” and it all disappeared. Looking into the corner of my vision, I saw that my hit points had been restored to full:

  Level 5

  250/250 HP

  I guided Kasie up the stairs into the kitchen. The old man was conscious, lying on the floor where I'd left him.

  “May I open my eyes now?” Kasie asked.

  “Yes,” I replied, then knelt down next to Mr. O'Sullivan. When he looked up at me and saw my bloody hands and blood-covered clothes, a look of panic appeared on his face. “You've got quite the mess to clean up down there. Tell Carter that he's next.”

  The old man didn't respond, not that he could've even if he wanted to. He just laid there and blinked his eyes a few times, thanking his lucky stars that I wasn't going to kill him – or, at least, I imagined that's what he was doing. I looked the old man in the eyes and slapped his face a couple times but not hard – just enough as to say, “You're lucky I'm not going to kill you – but I could if I wanted to.” I stood back up, took my best friend by the hand, and headed for the door. Looking out the window first to make sure the coast was clear, Kasie and I ran across the street and got in the Tahoe with Melissa.

  “Kasie, this is Melissa,” I said to my best friend then looked at Melissa. “Melissa, meet Kasie. Now let's get out of here. Drive!”

  19.

  We left Southie and started heading back to Melissa's condo. I was covered in that thug's blood and did my best to not get it all over the Tahoe. I sat in the middle row behind Melissa with Kasie next to me. As soon as we started driving, she threw her arms around me, a river of tears flowing down her face.

  “Thank you so, so, so, so much!” Kasie said. “You are my hero, James. Seriously. You risked your life to come save me. I can't tell you how much it means to me.”

  “You're welcome, of course,” I replied, “but you never would've been taken in the first place if it wasn't for me.”

  “I wasn't taken because of you! I was taken because that Carter guy is a psychopath who has absolutely no regard for other people and he feels threatened by you. You're the only one who can stop him and he knows it. That's why he took me – so you wouldn't mess up his big plans.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said, incredibly curious to see what Kasie was talking about. “What 'big plans?' I thought Carter took you so I'd be forced to hand over Amber to him?”

  “He doesn't care about Amber. That was just a distraction. As far as Carter's concerned, Paul getting killed was the best thing that ever happened to him. It gave him the opportunity to gain control of the Southie Soldiers. He has no interest in finding out who killed Paul and why. Carter's only pretending to care to look good in front of the gang.”

  “Okay, so what are these 'big plans' you mentioned?” I asked.

  “I don't know much, but Carter and a couple of his guys – one of whom you just killed – talked a little bit in front of me. They're planning on robbing the biggest bank in the city: Boston Bank. But they're not just planning on robbing it like they have with the other banks. They're going for the vault, taking out everyone that gets in their way. Carter kept saying how he was gonna put everyone to sleep for good.”

  “Do you know when they're going to do it? Or how?” I asked.

  “When, I have no idea,” Kasie answered. “But how, they talked about in front of me a little bit. They're gonna use some kind of powder to neutralize everyone. Carter kept telling his guys over and over again how important
it was that they had their protective gear on. And he said that inhaling even a couple little specks of the powder can kill you. I can't remember the name of it, but Carter said it a few times. Fentil? Or carfentil, maybe?”

  “Carfentanyl,” Melissa said as she drove, her eyes focused on the road.

  “Yeah, that's it!” Kasie replied.

  “What do you know about this carfentanyl powder?” I asked Melissa.

  “You've heard of drugs like morphine and heroin, I assume?”

  “Of course,” I replied.

  “And you know that, if you take too much, if you overdose, your body stops breathing and you die.”

  “Yup, I know. Sadly, I've lost friends to that stuff,” I said.

  “Well, carfentanyl is just like heroin and morphine – just a little bit stronger.”

  “How much stronger?” I asked.

  “Oh, only about ten-thousand-times stronger. It's so strong, in fact, that you can die from just touching it. Like Kasie was saying, if you inhale even a few specks of carfentanyl and you don't get immediate medical attention, you're dead. Your lungs stop working first, then your heart and your brain shut down. If Carter and his goons go into a bank and start throwing around carfentanyl, he could end up killing a lot of people.”

  “We have to stop him,” Kasie said, then looked me right in the eyes. “You have to stop him, James.”

  She was absolutely right: I did have to stop him. And to do that, I was going to need all the help I could get. I took out my phone and texted Krystal. After giving her a brief update about everything that'd happened, I asked her to meet me at Melissa's condo and she agreed. I didn't know how we were going to stop Carter and the Southie Soldiers yet, but I knew that I couldn't do it alone.

  * * *

  We got to Melissa's condo a little while later and Amber greeted us at the door. Melissa was kind enough to offer Kasie a hot shower, which she gladly accepted. While Kasie was in the bathroom, Melissa and I explained everything that'd happened to Amber.