Ordinary Hero

by Ellis Michaels

  Carter threw his head back and let out a maniacal laugh. I struggled to keep my eyes open a crack and saw him cock back his arm. This time, he didn't hit me in the face: Carter punched me right in the stomach as hard as he could.

  I fell to my knees. The blow knocked the wind out of me but not my spirit. Carter could say whatever he wanted about me. It didn't bother me – not really. But, when he said that he was going to hurt Kasie or make her his girlfriend, it infuriated me. My body was still heavy and weak but my mind was on fire.

  “This wasn't nearly as fun as I was hoping it would be,” Carter said, looking down at me. “I thought you'd at least put up a little bit of a fight. You haven't even hit me once. Here,” he said, leaning over, pointing at his cheek, “I'll give you one shot before I put an end to you. Go ahead. I won't even try to defend myself. Give me your best shot, you pathetic loser.”

  Carter put his hands behind his back, giving me an open shot at his face. He towered over me, just a couple feet away. Between having the wind knocked out of me and the effects of the medication wearing off, I was hanging by a thread. All I wanted to do was shut my eyes and go to sleep. Every cell in my body was telling me to give in. But I wasn't going to give in or give up. If I was going to go out, I was going to go out swinging.

  I tried to summon every ounce of anger that I could muster. I thought about what Carter had done to Krystal, what he'd said about Kasie, and about all the innocent people in the bank lobby. I did my best to take a deep breath, even though my insides were killing me. Looking up at Carter's face through barely-open eyes, I cocked my arm back and swung as hard as I possibly could.

  Bam!

  My fist connected, but not with Carter's face – with his nuts. I punched him as hard as I could square in the balls. He grabbed his crotch and fell to his knees, so he was at eye level with me. The look on his face was priceless. It was... well, it was what every guy's face looks like after he's been hit in the balls: part shock and part panic, but mostly just pain. If I wasn't in so much of it myself I would've smiled, but I had something else to do.

  Using what I knew could very well be my last few seconds of consciousness, I pushed past Carter and crawled over to my inhaler. He toppled over, still holding his crotch. It doesn't matter how tough you are or how villainous you may be – getting hit in the nuts sucks and takes a few seconds to recover from.

  I wrapped my fingers around the inhaler and brought it up to my nose. Normally, using the inhaler would be virtually effortless. A little squeeze was all it took. But, in that moment, it took every ounce of energy I had to squirt a couple puffs up each nostril. As soon as I did, my eyes shut.

  25.

  I woke up what couldn't have been more than a minute later. My eyes popped right open and, hearing movement behind me, I naturally picked my head up to see what it was. Carter was rounding the corner carrying several duffel bags full of money.

  “Hey, Cartwheel!” I yelled, though I still don't know what possessed me to call him that. I guess my brain was still a bit foggy. “Where you going? We got a fight to finish.”

  Carter turned around and dropped all the bags he was carrying. The devious smile that he'd flashed more than once that morning was gone. Carter looked pissed which, if I'm being honest, made me kind of happy.

  “I knew I should've slit your throat before I went for the money,” he said and started walking toward me quickly.

  I hopped up to my feet. My head was still just a little bit fuzzy, but it was much better than it had been a couple minutes earlier. I raised my fists so I could properly defend myself against Carter this time. Now that the medication was working, I felt more and more like my normal self. And my normal self was ready to kick some serious ass.

  “You're right,” I replied. “You should've killed me when you had the chance. But you missed your opportunity and won't be getting another one. I'm taking you out, Carter, and I'm doing it right-freakin'-now!”

  We both ran at each other, closing the gap quickly. I launched a right hook at Carter's face, hitting him right below the eye. He was still wearing a Hazmat suit, which absorbed some of the blow, but it clearly still hurt him. Carter immediately countered, punching me in the stomach. I clenched my abs a split second before it landed, taking most of the power out of the hit.

  I threw another punch at Carter's head. Again it landed, hitting him in the chin. He seemed dazed for a brief moment, then tried to hit me with an uppercut. His punch missed, but just barely.

  Carter and I continued to throw punch after punch at each other. We seemed to be pretty evenly matched, despite him being several levels higher than me. My hand-to-hand fighting skill was maxed out so maybe that had something to do with it.

  I looked for an opening to try to take Carter down to the floor. We exchanged a few more blows and then I saw an opportunity to drop him. After I threw a punch and missed, Carter countered, throwing a wild swing at my face. He also missed and the swing threw him off balance for a moment. When he took a step back to regain his balance, I rushed in and grabbed him by the legs.

  While Carter was still a little off balance, I picked him up and slammed him to the floor, landing on top of him. I'd used that move in several of the fights I'd been in and it had become one of my favorites. It was especially effective against anyone wearing a Hazmat suit – which Carter was. When I slammed him to the floor, the oxygen tank on his back knocked the wind out of him.

  This was my chance to put an end to Carter Livingston once and for all. I dropped bomb after bomb on his face and torso, punching him over and over again. To his credit, Carter defended himself pretty well, but he wasn't able to block every punch. About one out of every four punches landed and I threw dozens at him, one after the other. I could sense that Carter was getting weaker. I knew I must've been getting close to knocking him out. Just when I was starting to feel like I finally had him, that I was going to put an end to Carter's reign of terror once and for all, I felt something else – an incredibly-sharp pain in my side.

  “Arrrggghhh!” I screamed.

  I looked down and saw one of Kasie's Chinese throwing stars sticking out of my side. Carter had grabbed it off the floor and stabbed it into me. The pain was intense and radiated throughout my whole midsection. For just a second, Carter flashed the evil smile he was known for. His nose and teeth were bloody from all the punches I'd landed and his smile was even uglier than usual. I certainly wasn't smiling, though. I tried not to display any facial expression. I didn't want to give Carter the satisfaction. I just wanted it all to be over.

  The throwing star wasn't lodged too deeply in my side and I was easily able to remove it. I took it out and tossed it across the room, which I instantly regretted. I could've used it to slash Carter's throat, putting an end to all the madness.

  On the floor a few feet away from us just out of reach was one of Kasie's throwing knives. It caught my eye and I looked over at it for a split second. Carter saw me turn my head and used the opportunity to get me off him. He grabbed me by my sides, pressing his fingers into the open wound from the throwing star, and threw me off him.

  “Arghhh!” I yelled again.

  The pain was intense. I toppled over onto the floor but managed to quickly get up to my feet. Carter also stood up and there we were once again, fists raised, facing each other.

  “This is turning out to be a lot more fun than I expected,” Carter said, cracking his knuckles.

  “You and I have very different definitions of fun,” I replied.

  I looked at the floor, trying to spot the throwing knife. This time, I didn't turn my head. I kept one eye on Carter while looking for the knife with the other. I didn't want to give him another opening to attack me.

  The knife was on the floor halfway between Carter and I. He looked down and spotted it at the exact same time. Our eyes met and we both lunged at the knife, trying to pick it up before the other one could.

  Carter snatched the knife up off the floo
r, getting to it a split second before I was able to. He picked it up and quickly took a step back. As soon as I knew he'd beaten me to it I, too, took a couple steps backwards. Carter held the knife in front of him, pointing it at me. Just barely noticeable through his blood-covered face mask, I could see a wicked grin grow across his face.

  “Too slow,” Carter said. “But don't worry: You're gonna die quickly. We gotta wrap this up so I can get out of here and start spending this money before the game is over. Why don't you just put your hands down and I'll slit your throat cleanly. It'll be easier for both of us. You look like you don't have much fight left in you anyway.”

  “Not a chance,” I replied, doing my best to sound confident even though I was in a lot of pain. “You want to slit my throat? Come get me.”

  I motioned for Carter to come at me. With raised fists, I stood my ground and waited for him to attack. His evil grin turned into a look of determination. As much as his smile pissed me off, I almost preferred it. Carter could be very cocky and his overconfidence made him more likely to make mistakes. The look on his face told me that he was focused and a focused Carter was a dangerous Carter.

  He took a small step closer to me, then another. Carter was being careful and that worried me. There was no room for even a single error. I needed to focus. I did my best to forget about how much pain I was in and all the other thoughts racing through my mind. My focus was one-hundred percent on the knife in Carter's hand. I kept both eyes on it at all times.

  He took another step toward me. Carter swung the knife, trying to slash my hands. I moved them out of the way with ease and then returned my hands to a defensive position. Carter took another step closer and, again, swung the knife at me. This time, he swung it at my midsection. I hopped back, pulling my stomach in and narrowly escaping getting slashed. It made my open wound hurt even more but I didn't let it phase me.

  Carter kept stepping toward me, swinging the knife. I had no choice but to keep moving backwards. Every attempt to slash me missed, but just barely. He took another swing at me, this time at my head. I stepped back, dodging the attack like all the others. This time, though, when I stepped back, my foot hit the wall. I was out of room and had nowhere to go the next time he swung at me.

  “Any last words?” Carter asked.

  I thought about trying to come up with a clever response, but resisted the urge. I needed to stay focused. Even if they would've been my last words, I didn't want to give Carter the satisfaction. I just kept my eyes on the knife and my lips sealed.

  “No?” he continued. “That's alright. I'll make something up. I'll tell everyone that you begged for your life and offered to do really disgusting things if I let you live.”

  I knew that Carter was just trying to psych me out. He was toying with me, trying to get a response out of me, but I wasn't going to let him. I just stayed focused and waited for him to make a move. When he realized that I wasn't going to respond, he finally did.

  Carter attacked me with the knife again. This time, he didn't try to slash me – he tried to stab me. Carter tried to thrust the knife into my stomach but I just barely escaped getting hit, moving to the side. With no delay, he tried to stab me again. I moved quickly to the other side and just barely dodged the attack.

  I could see that Carter was getting frustrated. He knew that the clock was ticking and every minute he was down in the basement fighting with me, his chances of getting away with the money got smaller and smaller. Carter took a half-step backwards, then swung the knife at my face with all his might.

  “Die!” he yelled.

  I launched my hands up in the air to try and intercept Carter's knife-holding arm before it reached my head. With the knife just an inch from my face, I grabbed his wrist with both hands, stopping it before it hit me. Carter wrapped his other hand around the one holding the knife and tried to use the added strength to press it into me. With both hands, he pushed the knife forward.

  The tip of the knife was less than an inch from my face. I used every ounce of strength I had to hold his wrists, preventing him from pressing the knife into my eye. The knife didn't budge for several seconds. We were both pushing as hard as we could and the knife didn't move.

  I tried to summon every last drop of energy I had in my tank. I thought about all the harm that Carter had done. I thought about how he'd taken Kasie and killed Krystal. And I thought about how wonderful it'd been over the past few days to feel powerful and confident after a lifetime of feeling weak and insecure. I thought about anything and everything that could give me that little extra boost I needed to overpower Carter.

  He had my back against the wall, which gave him a big advantage – or so I'd thought. Then, I realized that I might actually be able to use it to my advantage. I couldn't use my feet to push off against the wall because, if I moved them from where they were, Carter could've plunged the knife into my face in the second it took to do that. But what I could use was just that – my butt.

  It was maybe an inch in front of the wall and I needed to lean back to push off against it. I slowly shifted my weight backwards until my butt was against the wall. Carter seemed to think that me moving back was because he was overpowering me. The focused look on his face never left but a tiny little grin was visible at the corner of his mouth – and that's when I knew I had him.

  I pushed off from the wall as hard as I could, using my butt. It wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped it would be but it was enough to throw Carter off balance. He had no choice but to take a step backwards and, when he did, I held his wrists as tightly as I could and swiftly brought the knife down and plunged it into his chest.

  “Arrrggghhhhhh!” Carter screamed.

  Our eyes met and, for a moment, we stood there motionless. The look in Carter's eyes communicated more than a thousand words ever could. He knew that it was over. He knew that he'd lost. Then, he slowly fell to his knees, looking up into my eyes the whole time. Blood poured out of Carter's chest. A few seconds later, his eyes closed and he collapsed to the floor.

  “It's over,” I said, standing over Carter. “You won't be able to hurt anyone anymore.”

  I looked around the room, breathing heavily. The floor was littered with bodies – Carter's, Krystal's, the bank manager's, and several Southie Soldiers'. There was blood and money everywhere. A cool breeze coming from the central air conditioning brushed past my face and it felt good. I tried to slow my breathing because my heart was nearly beating out of my chest.

  It was over. I'd finally defeated Carter. A smile grew across my face as it all sunk in. Then, in front of me appeared:

  Quest Complete: Defeat The Villain

  2000 Exp.

  Congratulations! You've reached level 7!

  Stat Increase

  50 Max HP

  1 Strength

  1 Stamina

  Skill Increase

  [Physical] Fighting Dirty: 7/10 (+1)

  I thought “close” and the words disappeared. I walked over to Krystal's body and knelt down next to it. Taking her hand in mine, I kissed it and then gently placed it on her stomach. I couldn't have defeated Carter had she not sacrificed herself for me.

  My heart rate slowly returned to normal and I started working my way back to the stairs. I needed to get up to the lobby to make sure the other girls were okay. When I got to the main floor, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

  26.

  I'd thought that all the people who had been exposed to the carfentanyl were dead. But, when I got back up to the main lobby, I saw Melissa going around from person to person administering naloxone. Everyone who had been lying motionless on the floor when we came in were sitting and even standing up.

  “James!” Melissa said when she saw me come into the lobby. “You're okay! Is Carter...?”

  “Yes,” I replied before she could finish her sentence. “Where's Kasie and Amber?”

  “They went outside to get the guys in the getaway vans.”

 
I ran outside to make sure the girls were okay. Naturally, I was concerned for their safety. The Southie Soldiers were dangerous and wouldn't hesitate to hurt the girls. But, as it turned out, it was the girls who were doing all the hurting.

  I got outside just in time to see the girls finish off the last getaway driver. They somehow got him out of the van and were chasing him down the street. It was a sight to see: two petite, gorgeous, barefoot women chasing a big, muscular gang member down the street with a crossbow and throwing knives. Amber stopped and took aim with her crossbow. Kasie kept running after him and threw one of her knives as she was running. At the same time, a bolt and a throwing knife landed in the guy's back. He collapsed to the ground and the girls high-fived each other.

  It made me happy to see Amber and Kasie getting along. They ran up to the gang member and rolled him over to make sure he was dead – he was. The girls turned around and started walking back to the bank. When they saw me, their faces lit up.

  “James!” they both yelled.

  The girls ran over to me and each gave me a long, strong hug. Even though my hit points had been restored to full, it still hurt my side a little bit where I'd been stabbed with the throwing star. I didn't care, though. I just blocked out the pain and embraced the girls. As we stood on the sidewalk hugging, the faint sound of sirens could be heard off in the distance.

  “Did you defeat Carter?” Kasie asked.

  “I did, yes,” I replied. “It's over. It's finally over.”

  “The cops are gonna be here soon,” Amber said. “What are we gonna do? Should we get out of here?”

  “No,” I answered immediately.

  “Are you sure that's a good idea?” Amber asked.

  “I'm sick of running and hiding. I'm going to tell them everything and let whatever happens happen.”