After several days of repeating the same stories with no new developments, something finally caught Neil’s attention. The President gave a press conference giving the North Koreans and Chinese an ultimatum. They had 72 hours to turn Neil over to the American government, or they would face a nuclear strike.
He stared in disbelief at the television set in the hotel room he had rented. What were they thinking? They had to know he was not working for the enemy. Either they were trying to find a way to justify nuclear action, or they were trying to draw Neil out of hiding. Either way, he wasn’t going to allow a nuclear war to start on his behalf. He decided he would turn himself in.
Neil dialed the public phone number for the White House and finally was connected to the information desk.
“Hello, White House tour information kiosk. This is Karen, how may I help you?”
A younger woman answered the phone.
“Hello Karen. My name is Neil Hitchens. I would like to speak with General Martin Dempsey, please.”
“Mr. Hitchens, how nice to hear from you for the eighth time today. This is just a friendly reminder that prank calls are an offense punishable by law. Have a great day.”
She reached over to disconnect the call.
“Wait!” Neil shouted.
She paused before the call was disconnected.
“This is not a prank. I can prove it.”
“Oh? This is going to be good. Ok, I’ll humor you. How are you going to prove it?”
“Are you sitting or standing?”
“Sitting.”
“Do me a favor, raise your right hand in the air.”
“Ok, my right hand is up.”
Neil scanned through all of the people inside the White House. There were children and families in tour groups, men and women in business suits walking around in a hurry, and uniformed Marines standing guard at their post around the building. He examined every single person in the building, but none of them were sitting down on the phone with a raised hand.
“You’re lying to me, Karen. I can tell when you’re lying. Raise your hand.”
There was a moment of hesitation before she responded.
“How did you know that?” She asked nervously.
“I told you, I’m the real deal.”
“Ok, it’s raised.”
This time she wasn’t lying. Neil found a woman sitting in an office chair with a phone raised to her ear. Her right hand was in the air.
“You’re wearing a long green dress. You have a golden necklace with a cross on it, and two fake diamond earrings. At the ground to your right is a light brown coach purse. Inside of it is your white iPhone 5, a lot of spearmint gum, a picture of your mother, and, oh dear, a vibrator, Karen? Is it really necessary to bring that to work?”
She stood up from the chair.
“Where are you?! Are you spying on me?” She shouted.
“Yes. I’m spying on everyone. By the way, you might want to clean up that mess.”
“What mess?”
Neil knocked over the coffee cup on her desk. It spilled onto the table and the floor.
“That one. Now can you please pass my message along to General Dempsey?”
“Y-yes Sir, Mr. Hitchens.”
---
Neil flew above Washington D.C. as he made his way for the White House. He had five minutes until the time he told the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to meet him in the Cabinet Room, and he planned on arriving just on time.
He didn’t know whether Dempsey would actually meet him or not, but he was sure that his entrance would gather some attention. If he wasn’t there to meet him when he arrived, he would assuredly be summoned shortly afterwards.
He approached the White House from the south lawn, flying close to the ground. He slowed his speed below the sound barrier, and heads turned to watch as he soared just a few feet above the ground, headed straight for the White House. The people panicked, thinking he was some sort of cruise missile, but there was no threat.
Neil reached the southern part of the White House and crashed through the outside of the building. He punched through walls until he reached the Cabinet Room. The holes behind him reversed time and sealed themselves shut, and he slowed to a halt and stood on the floor.
He was in a room with the President, General Dempsey, the Secretary of Defense, and the rest of the Joint Chiefs. The Secret Service in the room stood to their feet and pointed their weapons at Neil.
“Lower your weapons.” The President said. “They won’t do you any good anyways.”
They obeyed.
“Neil Hitchens, I can’t say I’ve ever been more terrified or more curious to meet anyone before in my life. That was quite an entrance. I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show.” The President said.
“Mr. President, it’s an honor. You have no reason to fear me. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead. I’m here because I want to end the destruction of lives, not to create it further.”
“Then our goals are aligned.” General Dempsey spoke.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Neil. You were responsible for the greatest tragedy that has ever befallen the human race. You single handedly killed as many innocent people as the worst genocide in our history. You are a terrorist, and you deserve the absolute worst punishment that anyone could ever suffer.” The President said.
“Terrorist? The lives I took were a necessary sacrifice to remind the world what horrors war could bring. If I hadn’t done what I did, how many more lives would have been lost from a global nuclear war? Who would be the terrorists then? I am a Saint, Mr. President. You should be thankful that I was so merciful.”
“You are not God!” The President yelled. “You don’t get the right to decide who lives and who dies!”
He was on his feet now, and both his anger and his helplessness were reflected in his face.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Mr. President. The one with the power makes the decisions, and I have all the power in the world. End the war now, or the next time I decide the world needs to learn a lesson, it will happen on American soil.”
“No. This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to allow us to lock you up in prison, and you’re going to spend the rest of your life there until we find a way to kill you. If you don’t comply, we will torture everyone you have ever cared about until their spirit breaks. Then we will torture them some more, and finally we will kill them. Your friends, your family, your girlfriend, your first grade teacher, all of them will suffer because of you.”
“I have no friends. I have no family. I was placed into this realm of existence for a purpose, and you will not stop me until that purpose is fulfilled. End the war, or you will see just how much control I have over who lives and who dies.”
Neil burst through the wall and left the White House. He didn’t bother to seal the damage behind him.
CHAPTER 24
Neil continued to watch the news over the next several days, waiting for some kind of announcement that peace talks were being made. The talks never came, and there was no mention of Neil’s visit to the White House, either.
Just before the 72 hour ultimatum was up, Neil saw a video feed of his friends Alex and Bryan being arrested under suspicions of conspiring to aid the enemy. The authorities claimed that Neil was working with them to plot a terrorist attack on America. He didn’t know if they would torture his friends, but he didn’t care either way. That part of him was in the past. He was by himself now.
Neil tried to predict how the government would respond when the 72 hour time limit was up, but their actions were too unpredictable for him to make anything more than an educated guess. He wondered if the President was trying to catch him in a bluff. If they thought Neil wasn’t morally capable of attacking his home country, then they didn’t understand him. He had no home country. He had no allegiance, other than to his fate. If they were expecting him to be bluffing, then the deaths would be on their hands.
China and North Korea continued to deny any involvement in Neil’s actions. They insisted that the US Government recall their ultimatum, and said that any attack against civilians would be met with swift and devastating repercussions. They made it very clear that a nuclear attack would be met with an even greater nuclear attack in return.
Just a few hours before the 72 hour timer was up, the news released a story stating that a large amount of evidence had been uncovered linking Neil’s parents to his crimes against humanity. They were to be tried as traitors and would spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Neil saw it as an act of desperation. Whether they were found guilty or not, he would not falter. His reputation and his family’s safety were of no concern to him anymore. He was acting in accordance with something above himself. He was destined to save humanity.
Finally, the 72 hour timer had run out. The world anxiously watched as the President prepared to speak on international TV. Now they would find out if the US really planned on carrying out its promise to launch a nuclear strike.
Neil watched the President make his way up to the podium. He stood still and stared into the audience for several seconds with a solemn silence.
“My fellow Americans.” He said. “It is with a heavy heart, but strong conviction that I speak before you today. As many of you know, the United States government has given our enemies 72 hours to deliver the terrorist known as Neil Hitchens to us so that he could be tried for his crimes against humanity. They have refused to do so.”
“As President of the United States, I am responsible for the safety of the American people and her allies. As long as this terrorist is free, our people cannot be. Therefore, myself and my cabinet have come to the decision that the only way to ensure that each and every one of you can be free from the burden of fear…is by bringing about the complete and utter destruction of the enemies who mean to do us harm.”
The crowd erupted in chatter. Cameras flashed, and reporters yelled questions at the President. He waited several seconds for the commotion to die down before speaking again.
“In six hours, we will launch a devastating nuclear strike against North Korean and Chinese key military targets. The strike will completely cripple their ability to conduct war against the United States and South Korea. Now, before you worry, we are aware of their plans to counter attack against us, but I have utmost confidence in our Armed Forces and their ability to prevent any sort of long-range ballistic missile from reaching American shores. We have nothing to fear. Thank you, and God Bless America.”
Neil stared at the screen for several minutes, lost inside his own thoughts. He had tried to save humanity, but it seemed bent on self-destruction. He had shown the world how terrible war could be, and all he had done was make it more eager to bring that terror upon itself. Even with all of his power, Neil felt helpless to stop what was coming.
He began to sweat, and thoughts raced through his head chaotically. He felt dizzy, and then nauseous. The corners of his vision blackened. He tried to make it to his bed to lie down, but the floor came up to meet him before he could.
---
When his eyes opened, he saw that he was standing in a field of fire. The sky was covered in dark brown clouds, and everything around him was tinted red. There was a feeling of despair as thick as the smoke that filled the air.
He saw that he was standing in the middle of a burning city. Most of the buildings had been turned into a pile of smoldering rubble. The ones that still remained standing were a towering inferno.
There was no life around him. Despite the immortal flames that continued to feed on the destruction, there was an eerie feeling of emptiness. Not a single person, rat, dog, or plant remained alive in the city. Neil felt like he was the only person left in the world.
A bright flash in the distance blinded Neil. He raised his arm to shield his face from the light. When he lowered his arm to see again, he saw a mushroom shaped ball of fire off in the horizon.
He knew where he was. He was seeing a glimpse of the future. That hellish landscape is what would become of humanity if it continued on its current path. Somehow, he was being shown a vision of the despair that awaited him if he didn’t succeed in his task.
The shockwave from the blast in the distance reached Neil. It blasted dust and debris into his face, and knocked down several nearby buildings. It carried with it the screams of the deceased at the center of the blast, and the silence that followed the shockwave exemplified the permanence of the destruction it had caused.
Neil heard the sound of the tall building he was standing next to crumbling. He looked up to see chunks of cement and debris falling from where a crack had formed. The top half of the building leaned over, and finally it snapped from its supports as it came crashing down towards the earth.
A shadow fell over Neil. He watched the large structure falling from the sky straight towards him. He closed his eyes and awaited his demise, but it never came.
---
Neil woke up gasping for breath. He found himself face down on the carpet in his hotel room, right next to his bed. He had no idea how much time had passed since he went unconscious.
He stood up from the floor and looked at the clock. It had only been two hours.
Neil sat on his bed and thought about the dream he just had. Something about the timing of the dream just after he had begun to lose hope bothered him. He felt like someone or something had showed that vision to him on purpose. It was a way to guide him in the right direction, and pull him back into reality. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and forces beyond his understanding were compelling him to continue.
There were just a few hours until the missiles would be launched, and Neil still had no idea how he would stop them. He might be able to find the missile in time once they was launched and destroy them, but he had no way to guarantee that. Even if he did, it would only be a temporary solution. The second he stopped paying attention, they could launch another one and he would miss it.
He might be able to put a protective shield in the sky to completely close off China and North Korea to any attacks by air, but he wouldn’t be able to distinguish between an inter-continental ballistic missile and a passenger jet. Any commercial traffic would smash into his barrier and be destroyed. In the grand scheme of things, it would be better than allowing the missiles to go through, but it couldn’t be the best solution.
Neil thought and brainstormed for hours. With each passing moment, the tension rose and the clarity of his thoughts was diminished by his panic. He had less than an hour before launch, and still had no permanent solution.
Just when he was about to give up hope, a thought came to him from nowhere. It was so simple. He hit himself for not thinking of it sooner.
He had to destroy them all.
The only way to permanently prevent a nuclear Armageddon was to destroy every nuclear capable weapon in the world’s arsenal. Not just every weapon, but every factory that produced them, every uranium mine, and every weapon system capable of delivering them.
He didn’t have time to decide if it would work, or to think about the consequences. Something told him he was making the right decision. His time to act was now. Everything in his life had led up to that point. He had one chance to set things right, and failure was impossible.
For that, he needed focus. To be absolutely certain that he didn’t miss anything, he would have to hold the entire world in his influence at once. He had to feel every man-made object and understand what it was by its shape and texture alone.
He closed his eyes and opened himself up to planet Earth. Every tree, stone, building, creature, object, and person belonged to him. It all came rushing to his consciousness at once. He began to sort everything into categories. If it wasn’t something relevant, he tossed it aside and forgot about it.
He found the all missiles, the bombs, and devices that were nuclear. He found all of the uranium and plutonium that the countries of the world had in stock, and
the mines that produced them. He located all of the silos, the submarines, the ships, and the aircraft that could deliver them. He separated all of the factories that could assemble them.
Neil opened his eyes and exhaled deeply. In an instant, everything he held in his influence dissolved into the air like a mirage.
---
There was no nuclear war. The world had been saved, and no one knew how. It took a while for the world powers to begin to admit that their stock of nuclear weapons had seemingly disappeared into the air. The war was put on hold while both sides investigated the cause of the disappearance.
Many people had theories, and God was mentioned several times, but only a handful of people really knew what had happened.
Neil wandered around aimlessly for the next several days. He felt immense relief at first, but soon grew bored. With the threat of nuclear war over, he no longer felt like he had a purpose. Fate had chosen him to save humanity, and now that he had fulfilled that purpose, he had been cast aside like last year’s obsolete gadget.
The media stopped caring about last week’s massacre of Seoul. He was out of the spotlight as quickly as he had gotten into it. There was no way he would be able to live a normal life after what had happened. His friends were gone, his family was gone, and he had no home. No one would ever speak to him once they found out what he had done. He had lost all semblance of humanity within himself.
He found solace in flight. He visited all of the places in the world that he had never gone. For a while, it made him feel free, but soon the freedom turned into a feeling of isolation. He was the only one of his kind, and anything he did to remind himself of that just further pushed him into depression.
He wanted more than anything to have his old life back. Every time he tried to close his eyes and remember Alex, and Bryan, and Emma, the images were replaced with the death and destruction he had caused. The things that used to give him peace no longer did.
Superhuman Nature Page 26
