by Kevin Rau
Multiple people in the crowd “ooh'd” and people pointed toward the sky. I followed their looks and saw a small stream of fire coming down toward the city. It burst in the sky, and created the effect of fireworks as the bits broke up and faded out of sight.
The meteor shower is still ongoing. I thought it would be done by now. I wonder how quickly people begin to change after one of those dropped over an area? Did my mom have a single one of those come down near her town when she changed, or were there a bunch? I'll have to give her a call soon to talk. I glanced around at the people; everyone appeared to be looking up. Now's a good time to get out of here, people are distracted by that meteor.
I jogged around the exterior of the crowd only to be cut off by a young woman. Her pose reminded me of a linebacker prepared for me to run past in either direction. Great … now what?
I slowed my pace, and held up my arms in front of my shoulders. She sprang at me as I attempted to walk past, and wrapped her arms around my torso. Whoa, what’s up with this? I stopped and said, “Excuse me, miss?”
She called behind her, “I have him! Come here!”
I tensed, my eyes searched for any signs of danger. Two more young women came forward; they were all likely close to my age of 21. It was obvious that the group had been out drinking or partying.
“I want your picture with me!” she said.
“Oh ... all right.” Holy cow, I've got fans already?
Her friends raised a camera and a cell phone to take photos, and the woman shifted her pose so she wasn't hugging me around my torso. She kept her hand around my back as they snapped a few pictures each. I put my arm carefully on her left shoulder and smiled. Great, I'm all dusty and have blood on me, and they think I look good enough for photos.
One of the friends said, “Wait, I want one too!”
She ran up and put her arm around my waist from the other side. I posed again with them. This is pretty cool! Spartan, babe magnet, yeah.
The remaining girl turned to walk away when the friend on my left ran over to her and dragged her back. She weakly protested, “I'm not sure, I can't….” The friend pushed her just in front of me, then stepped back to take the picture. I set my left hand on her shoulder and posed yet again. I was amused at the antics; this was the sort of thing that Stephanie commonly did to Rael and me.
The first one looked up at me and asked, “How much can you lift?”
“I'm not sure ... a lot. Cement blocks feel like empty milk jugs to me. I know I can jump about half a mile.”
“Wow! How do you land, doesn't that hurt?”
“Umm, yeah, it can be a pain sometimes.”
“You're a brick, right?”
“I believe so.”
“What's your name?”
“Spartan.” Chatty one, I hope she's not driving.
“Ooh, like in the movie 300?”
“Like that, obviously I don't run around in a loincloth.”
“You'd look good in one.” I raised an eyebrow at that.
The second friend asked, “If you're a brick, don't you have armor? You have blood on your arms and stomach.”
“He had sharp claws. The concrete that fell on me didn't hurt. I've been shot before and not been hurt. Listen, as much as I'd like to stay and chat, the city's a mess tonight. I need to get out there and help others.”
“Oh, sorry. Hold on!”
She dug in her purse and brought out a marker. She grabbed my left arm, wiped a little more dust off from it and wrote Debbie and her phone number on my left wrist.
She just gave me her phone number? Not that unusual to see that type of thing happen at Score!, but it's a first for me being as I'm always bouncing. John would frown on it if any of us bouncers had a bunch of names and phone numbers written on us. Very cool.
I smiled and she winked at me. I said, “Now I suppose I can't ever wash my arm again.” The other girls giggled.
“Good night, ladies. Drive safe if you've been out drinking, please – or better yet call a cab.” I waved and jogged toward my car. Wow, what a great first night so far. Hmm, I hope my door handle works from the outside....
Once I was out of sight I took out my personal cell phone and added her name, number and a note under contacts. Just in case, you never know….
Chapter 18 – The Cleansing
Lance's Perspective
