Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs 1: The Never Hero

by T. Ellery Hodges

  Jonathan looked up at them, but he could tell by their expressions that he wasn’t making any sense.

  He realized it had been there for a while now on the outskirts of his awareness. He hadn’t been paying attention to it. It didn’t feel unnatural, so it hadn’t stuck out at first, like choosing not to ignore the sound of the television while trying to study. It seemed as though he was feeling a new emotion, but could only describe it by comparing it to emotions that there were already words for. Instead of trying to explain it, he just said what it was telling him.

  “There’s something southwest of us,” he blurted out, pointing in the direction without looking. “A mile, maybe two.”

  Direction sense, but with proximity, and it felt instinctual. He might as well have been seeing or hearing it. Such a novel sensation should have been more upsetting, but it felt like something he’d always been capable of. An ability that had always been there, only he knew it hadn’t been conceivable a moment ago. Some kind of sensory input was being deciphered by his brain, but what was the source of the input? What was he sensing?

  “What’s something?” Collin asked as though reading his thoughts.

  “I don’t know,” Jonathan replied.

  “Jonathan, do you think it could be the man who…” Collin paused. “Did this to you?”

  That was a thought.

  “Guys, I need to tell you something,” Jonathan said, looking to each of their faces. “I didn’t tell the police everything.”

  They clearly hadn’t expected that. His story had been pretty unbelievable in the first place for him to be leaving out details.

  “The man; I didn’t think, uh, I don’t think he was human,” Jonathan said. “His strength was more than just overwhelming. It was impossible for a man to be that strong. His eyes weren’t just a strange shade of blue either. They looked like they were lit up from behind, like a computer monitor. I didn’t tell the police because I knew how it would sound. I thought I was crazy, but now that this is happening I know I couldn’t have imagined it.”

  All three roommates were looking at the floor now. All trying to process what he was saying into something that made the current situation make sense.

  “I still think we should get him to a hospital,” said Hayden.

  Paige seemed to agree, but Jonathan hardly saw the point. If whatever was in his chest had eluded their detection after they had run every test they could, he didn’t see how they would suddenly know what to do with him now. He needed time to think. He wasn’t ready to do something that might make the situation worse. Collin spoke up as though he were reading his mind again.

  “Guys,” Collin said, “am I the only one who saw E.T.? We need to think before we involve any authorities.”

  Suddenly, Jonathan felt the thing to the southwest move. The signal, if he could call it that, had increased the distance between them. It was farther away than when it had started.

  “No,” Jonathan said, starting to get to his feet and reaching for the table, “I’m not-”

  There was a loud pop followed by the sound of wood splintering. Jonathan found his butt still on the floor.

  The table had broken down the center as he’d pulled to lift himself. The two halves crashed in on each other, books dropping in a heap onto the linoleum. The room got quiet as they looked at the mess, the only sound was that of a pencil rolling across the floor.

  Jonathan didn’t understand. His roommates stood looking at the pile with the same confusion. Finally, Hayden and Collin looked at each other like a light bulb had gone off in both their heads simultaneously.

  “I don’t think we can blame IKEA for that,” Collin said.

  “Can you do that again?” Hayden asked.

  “What?” Jonathan asked, still sitting on the linoleum.

  “Er, break something,” Hayden said.

  Seeing what they were getting at, Jonathan carefully rolled over onto his hands and knees and gently pushed himself to stand. The roommates all backed away from him. Standing over the broken table he reached, slowly and carefully, for the chair he’d been sitting in a moment earlier. He looked to his roommates, as if to ask permission. They all nodded.

  He slowly started to put pressure on the wood of the chair. It creaked once before giving way to the force, the back of the chair broke free of the seat.

  He’d hardly pushed on it at all.

  “No one get close to me,” Jonathan said, putting his hands up as if they were weapons he didn’t know how to operate.

  It took a few moments to set in. First there was awe, then fear, then disbelief, but eventually, there was curiosity, and they all wanted to see to what extent Jonathan’s strength had increased. Hayden eventually ran and got the aluminum bat from the closet and handed it to Jonathan.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked.

  “See if you can bend it,” Hayden said.

  Jonathan held the bat with a hand on each end, then tried bringing his hands together. It wasn’t difficult; it bent under the pressure from his arms like it was made of rubber.

  Jonathan didn’t like it. He felt like they were children playing with fire. There was a reason for this strength and it wasn’t amusement. He walked away carefully, giving each of them a wide birth, and made his way to the bathroom.

  “Where are you going?” Paige asked.

  “I want to get a better look at this thing,” he said, pointing to the light in his chest.

  When he got to the bathroom he removed his shirt and examined himself in the mirror. His roommates crowded around the door. The glow was made of fixed straight lines. There seemed to be one main line to each of the three beams, but along the edges he could see that small threads of light were coming off the main lines and embedding themselves into his tissues. It looked as though the lights were interconnected with his muscle fibers, veins, and arteries. A glowing web of connection under his skin, and it was amazingly complex.

  He wasn’t in awe of it; this just confirmed his worries. Whatever was inside him was so permanently embedded no surgical operation was going to remove it. It was a part of him.

  Carefully, he put his shirt back on. He was going to need something thicker than a t-shirt if he didn’t want to attract attention. He left the bathroom, his roommates giving him plenty of space as he exited for fear he might accidentally bump them and send them sprawling across the living room.

  He began pacing in front of the television set. They watched him trying to make sure they could warn him if it looked like he might accidentally put a foot through the coffee table. He kept trying to reason it out.

  “Why?” Jonathan asked out loud. “Why do this to someone?”

  The signal moved again, farther away, toward the waterfront he thought. Upon noticing it, he remembered the last thing the blond man had said.

  You’ll know what to do. I’ll be there to help you, if you make it. Just follow your—

  “Instincts,” Jonathan said softly.

  That had to be it. He hadn’t been able to put it together because the ‘instinct’ the man had been talking about hadn’t triggered yet. Maybe it had taken so long because the man hadn’t finished whatever he’d intended? Maybe he hadn’t been sure if Jonathan would survive; that was why he’d said “if you make it.” The signal in his head was pointing the way.

  His roommates had become unusually silent.

  “I think you were right, Collin. This compass in my head, it must point to the man. It will lead me to him,” Jonathan said.

  His excitement hit a wall as he thought about it more.

  “Wait, no, why piss a person off, then give him superpowers and paint a heat seeking target on your own back?” Jonathan asked disappointedly as his theory unraveled.

  He stopped pacing and looked up at his roommates. They didn’t appear to be paying attention to him. They were looking past him at the television set.

  “Jonathan, I don’t think the blond man is what’s southwest of here,” Collin said.
>
  CHAPTER TEN

  THURSDAY | JUNE 30, 2005 | 09:30 PM

  HAYDEN had set the television to mute when Jonathan had broken the table in half, but the news had come on behind him as he paced the living room. He turned around as all of his roommates were pointing at the screen.

  At first there was just a newscaster with an alarmed look as she spoke. Hayden ran over to what was left of the kitchen table and fished out the remote to unmute the sound.

  “Footage of the creature has been scant. It appears to have come out of nowhere in downtown Seattle. Currently no creditable explanation of its origins has been brought forth, but theories ranging from alien to a biological weapon have been speculated. The video we just showed you was taken from the window of a local resident. The creature has moved on from that location. Local law enforcement has responded and the area has been quarantined until officers can assess the situation.

  “Again, for those of you just tuning in, be advised that a dangerous animal of unknown origin has attacked pedestrians in the downtown area. Not much is known at this time, but so far three deaths and an unknown number of injuries have been reported. At first this was thought to be a costumed man or a wild animal loose in the city, but as the footage we’ve received shows, this doesn’t appear to be the case. Reporters are not being allowed into the quarantined zone.”

  Jonathan could tell from the disjointed manner of the reporting that the newscaster was doing the best she could in a live situation.

  “Show the footage again dammit!” Collin yelled at the television, everyone in the room nodding in agreement with their growing impatience.

  “Here is the clip again, but understand that this footage is graphic and that some viewers may find it disturbing,” said the reporter.

  The video was taken from the second story window by someone who had his lights off to avoid getting the unwanted attention of the subject they were filming. The quality was hardly watchable as it was a home camera trying to film a poorly lit street through a closed window. The only light was from the streetlights lining the sidewalks. Nevertheless, the clip was surreal. It wasn’t one of the city’s main streets. Jonathan recognized that it was taken somewhere under the viaduct, a raised freeway that bordered Seattle’s waterfront.

  People on the street were fleeing. The creature, that must have been seven or eight feet tall, made its way into the center of the road, where it stood in the light of one of the street lamps. From what could be made out it looked like an overgrown gargoyle without wings. Its body was incredibly muscular, seeming to mimic a human male in form, as the creature was chest heavy and v-shaped. The video was too rough to make out a lot of detail, but its skin seemed black and leathery. Its face wasn’t looking at the camera, but it had ear-like appendages that stretched straight back from its head like two short samurai swords.

  The thing was dragging the body of a man in one hand. Its fingers held the skull like a NBA player palming a basketball. The body was horribly broken, dead. The creature swiveled in the street and let out a loud roar.

  Challenger.

  Jonathan heard the word in his mind in sync with the guttural roar of the creature on the television, almost as though he’d growled it to himself.

  It seemed to be yelling out to the whole city. It looked up and about, into windows, and everywhere it thought a person could hear it. It finally tossed the body of the man through a car windshield with such force that it made the three roommates gasp. The monster stamped the ground, beating its chest once like a gorilla showing its strength. The street lamps shook with it, parked cars rattled, alarms went off.

  Challenger!

  Again, Jonathan heard the words in his head like a thought, but a thought he hadn’t given rise to, an intruder in his mind using his own internal voice to speak to him. It was disturbing. He wanted to believe it was his imagination, that he was somehow unintentionally giving rise to that word.

  The person taking the video must have lost his or her nerve and ducked completely under the window sill as the footage came to an end.

  The reporter came back on.

  “We’ve received reports that police have engaged with the creature, but that it hasn’t been subdued with gunfire. This is purely speculation at this point, but a SWAT team will likely be called in to engage. If this proves ineffective, a military response may be approved. If you’re already in Seattle, please don’t panic, and stay in your homes. Local radio stations have been advised to air emergency announcements to instruct citizens driving into Downtown Seattle not to enter the city until the creature has been subdued to help reduce fatalities. Please, if you know anyone who might be headed to Seattle and unaware of what is taking place, call them and let them know not to enter the city.”

  “It’s looking for a challenger,” Jonathan said.

  The group looked at him, unsure how he had come to this conclusion. “It was just grunting and growling from what I heard. Seems more like a scared animal trying to establish a territory,” said Paige.

  “No, it clearly said challenger twice in that video clip. I mean it was like a bear growling it in another language, but I could hear it,” Jonathan said.

  From the look on their faces it was clear they had only seen a creature roaring. He let out a long breath.

  “What in the hell could this have done to me to make me understand what that thing was saying?” Jonathan said pointing at the glowing lights beneath his chest.

  Hayden was looking at him. He looked more worried for him than he’d been a moment earlier, more worried than Jonathan had ever seen him. Collin and Paige, a few moments behind him, took on the same expression, as though their own personal puzzle pieces had fallen into place. Whatever they now saw, they didn’t like it.

  “Jonathan,” Hayden said, “I think... I think you know what is happening here.”

  Jonathan was shaking his head.

  “That man, whatever he did to you, he was fitting you to fight that thing.”

  Jonathan paused for a moment, hesitated, then shook his head. It was too absurd.

  “That doesn’t make any sense. That’s comic book nonsense.”

  Paige looked at first like she wanted to agree with him, but couldn’t. “Jonathan, I think Collin is…” she trailed off, feeling the gravity of what she’d been about to say.

  “What do we know?” Hayden asked. “A man, whom you don’t believe was human, broke into our house and embedded something into you. A few weeks go by and nothing seems to happen, then twenty minutes ago you lit up. Suddenly you’re impossibly strong. Suddenly you sense there’s something southwest of here. Roughly at the same time, a creature of unknown origin appears in the middle of downtown Seattle, southwest of here, and starts yelling for a challenger, but only you are able to understand what its saying.”

  He finished, looking at Jonathan like the conclusion was obvious. It made perfect sense to the comic-book-blockbuster-movie obsessed mind. It made none to Jonathan.

  “Why? Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to see a man fight that thing? And why now? Why hasn’t it ever happened before? Why would there suddenly be a species on earth that man had never seen? How would it just show up?” Jonathan said, watching the replay of the creature on the news. His roommates didn’t appear convinced by his outpouring of questions.

  The newscaster came back on. Her alarmed expression had changed; she now looked like she might be ill.

  “We’re now receiving new footage from a live helicopter camera circling the situation downtown. If you choose to watch the footage, please be aware that it’s far more graphic than the original video. The police seem unable to bring this creature under control with their available arsenal. Its exterior skin appears to be unnaturally resilient. SWAT is now engaging the creature.”

  When the video came on, Jonathan dropped to his knees in front of the television. He understood now why the reporter looked sick.

  It still stood underneath the viaduct, but had progressed a few blocks
north. Bodies seemed littered in a path to where it stood, some viciously dismembered, others broken, lying dead in unnatural positions. Police and SWAT had formed a circle of vehicles around the monster and had opened fire with automatic weapons. It wasn’t being slowed by the attack, if anything the creature seemed to be getting worked up into frenzy.

  It moved suddenly, pouncing onto a police car and yanking up an officer who had been crouched behind the vehicle. Lifting the man up as though he were a kitten, the fingers of one hand closed around the man’s legs, the other massive hand on his skull. The video cut out. Jonathan didn’t have to see it to know how it ended. He was grateful it hadn’t been shown.

  The newscaster returned to the screen, at a loss for words. She stuttered that the National Guard had been called to respond to the threat as soon as possible. Jonathan staggered back from the television. He slumped down on the couch. The room was silent.

  All he could think was that he didn’t want this. He was a twenty-two year old kid. He wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t trained to deal with this. He didn’t want to be within ten miles of that thing, let alone pick a fight with it. If he went down there, he wouldn’t know the first thing to do. He’d end up part of the mutilated dead lining the street, and for what? So some blond asshole could get a thrill from pitting them against each other.

  That didn’t seem right to Jonathan though.

  “The stranger, before he put me under, I thought I was crazy, but he said, ‘You aren’t prepared, but you must bear this.’”

  Jonathan looked up at the three of them. “He was right. I’m not prepared. If I go out there, I’ll die.”

  Paige and Collin both appeared deep in thought. Hayden didn’t, he looked impatient, and Jonathan knew what the man was about to say.

  He started to speak, “Jonathan—”

  “No,” Jonathan said.

  “Jonathan, everything happens for a—” Hayden started to say.

  “Shut up!”

  Hayden looked at him, “Jonathan—”

  “Don’t! Don’t get self-righteous; don’t tell me I have to go down there. I didn’t ask for this! You want to trade places Hayden? You think you’d just march out there to die? I can hardly move I’m so scared.”