Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs 1: The Never Hero by T. Ellery Hodges Page B

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.”
    Jonathan was visibly shaking. He held his hands clasped in front of him, trying to get them to hold still and failing.
    “This is reality, if I go out there, it isn’t going to matter if it was the right thing to do,” he whispered. “This isn’t a comic book.”
    “Yes!” Hayden said. “That is exactly what it is. It’s exactly what those stories are about. You have to get down there.”
    “I didn’t volunteer for this!” Jonathan yelled, his fear spilling over into anger at Hayden for taking some moral stance when the situation required nothing of him.
    “No you didn’t!” Hayden said, getting up off the couch, “and it isn’t fair! But what’s it going to be Jonathan? You want Paige to go get your pills? You want to go take a nap in your room while that thing kills a few hundred people waiting for you to show up!”
    “Hayden!” Paige exclaimed. “That isn’t fair!”
    Hayden ignored her attempt to defend Jonathan.
    “You think you’ll just live with that?” Hayden said. “You think you can just say to yourself ‘it’s not fair’ and all those people getting killed out there aren’t your problem anymore?”
    Hayden’s words were becoming heavy, the guilt seeping in. He wanted to ignore it, but couldn’t avoid seeing it for the unfair honest truth that it was. Knowing it still didn’t change the fact that it was a death sentence.
    “Just give me a minute,” Jonathan said.
    Panic welled up in him. He rocked back and forth on the couch. He didn’t know how to get up. He was stalling. All he wanted was for the seconds to stretch on into hours. He needed time.
    “Jona—”
    “Give him a damn minute Hayden!” Paige