True Heroes (101 page)

              “Why?”

              “You know why.”

              “I’m telling the truth.”

              “Why won’t you open them?”

              “You don’t trust me?”

              “You’re hiding something else. I won’t let you protect me.” Caleb slowly opened his eyes. “They’re tired…and scared. You’re so scared. Caleb…,” ‘Widespread fear. Every rounded corner of his pupil is pleading with me to stop this any way I can. Please, don’t be scared. Don’t let him be this scared.’ Alice reached up to the rising moon and pinched her fingers. “There. This night will last now since I’ve got the moon. There’s no reason to look like that. To be that scared of something that’s not going to happen. We’ll just live in this night forever. Okay?”

              Her hand only remained raised for a bit before Caleb gently pushed it back to her side. “Don’t stop the night, or the moment that is coming next. Nights like these are sublime…. They’re perfect. They’re worth fighting for.”

              “Why did you tell me that then?” ‘He doesn’t know what you’re talking about.’

              “Because I wanted to tell you how much of my soul you really have at your disposal. No matter what happens tomorrow, it’s all yours. Every bit of it the world hasn’t already claimed.”                     

              Their hands dropped and Caleb quickly turned. “Where are you going?”

              “Early day tomorrow. You should sleep too.”

              Her hands gripped at her long shirt. ‘But I have so much to tell you….’

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              “Are you awake?”

              Alice rolled over lightly. She heard the soft breath of Caleb as he slept facing the same way as her, but nothing else.

              “Please be awake.”

              The blankets in her hand rumpled slightly and were pulled up to her mouth to muffle her whisper further. “You always used to come when I needed you. He told me you were gone, but I didn’t believe it. You really aren’t are you? You can’t be. No, you’re just waiting.”

              As tears began to well unto her brims, Alice ignored them and continued to speak. “I’ve been hiding everything from him. I’ve done everything lately I told myself never to do. You could always tell him when something was good or bad, even if you were brash and pretended not to care. We always knew you did, and that hasn’t changed. Maybe you can’t trust me anymore because you know I love Caleb. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I can’t love-that you can’t just be a part of him.” She inhaled loudly and sharply. Caleb wiggled around a little as Alice held her breath and let the tears stream down to the blanket that was near tearing in her white hands. “I need you,” she whispered as softly as she could. “I need him back. We’ve been around each other but tonight was the first time in so long we looked in each other’s eyes and completely forgot what the world needed from us. He told me he loved me.” She bit down hard on her own teeth to keep from wailing. “He told me that the night before he could be gone forever because of you. Because he has so much courage in his heart that he’ll stand up to what you won’t. He doesn’t think you have a heart, but you have to. I know you do. The things you told me were beautiful and couldn’t ever come from a soulless monster.”

              The wind blew through the tent.

              She closed her eyes. “I need you to bring him back to me. I need him to see how much I love him and how I would do everything to see him smile like that again. I need to give him what he gives the world.” She couldn’t help but reach at the back of his shirt and grip a bit of it in her hand. “I need to tell him this. Just one more moment. Please don’t take that away from us.”

              Alice rolled over and covered her mouth. Caleb’s breath remained even.

Chapter 27

             
Alice’s eyes opened as Caleb stood out of the bed.

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              Caleb stretched his arms and legs while keeping his eyes from the gathering convoy at the edge of the camp. He slipped into the large tent in the middle and back out, a bottle of water in his hand. The cap twisted off quickly and his mouth was full of the filtered cool, the volume of early morning flavor. Two small drinks coated his throat before the rest filtered through his hair and wrapped around the top of his spine. He shook out like a wild dog, combing his lengthy bangs into haphazard straights to which his natural brown hairs shined against the orange stratosphere. The collar of his shirt stuck around his thin neck, but the refreshing cleanse of the small area kept his mind at ease.

              He strode with his hands in his pockets back towards the gathering group and patted Stanley’s back. His friend cocked a gun and placed it in a holder with a smile before handing Caleb a scant vest that crossed over his heart. Various metal canisters hung every few inches and made a soothing chime with every adjustment to their situation. “What happened to your wrist?”

              “Cut myself.”

              “I thought you were a fast healer?”

              “Were.”

              Stanley gripped him hard where the vest buckled together and stared into his eyes for a long moment. His other hand came up and roughly shoved one end of the fastener into the clasp. “Alice is behind you in my world war two helmet. We’re moving out in a few minutes.”

              Caleb smiled and swatted his shoulder again before taking a deep breath and turning around. He quickly walked towards her, careful to not look directly into her eyes or near her small frame. They came within a few feet of one another before he looked upon her, and he instantly cracked a smile as she snapped to attention, the helmet covering down to the tip of her nose. “Alice, reporting for duty, sir.”

              He giggled slowly from somewhere deep in his throat before pulling her close. “Not a chance. You remember the deal.”

              The helmet rose slightly as she planted her face firmly against his shoulder. “I know, I know, I was kidding. Although I could be a soldier cheerleader.”

              He looked as far right as he could. “You’d lift their spirits.”

                  She kept her face completely buried for another second before pulling away, allowing the metal bill to smother her eyes in shadow again. “They’ve got you leading them. I don’t think their confidence could get any higher.”

              “Caleb! This train will be back in a few hours let’s move out!”

              Alice seemed to tense under Caleb’s tender grasp of her shoulder. His body stayed back, unable to brave some length between his mind and the need of the world. “Just like always,” he mumbled. “Alice….”

              “You’re moving out.”

              “There’s something—”

              “That you’ll tell me when you get back.”

              “What if there’s no coming back?”

              Her hand sprung out and pulled him into another hug by two fistfuls of his shirt. “You are, silly,” she said with a shaken voice. “Go.”

              He planted a kiss between the webbing of the metal helmet as she pushed him gently away, and as he back peddled, he said, “Only for you,” just loud enough for her to hear.

              As he turned, Alice bit her lip and clenched her fists as two tears streamed down either cheek from beneath the helmet.

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              “You ready?”

              Caleb looked forward to a pausing Stanley whose stride restarted next to him. “Will be.”

              “At this point you either are or you aren’t. You can’t flip the switch back-and-forth this deep into it all.”

              “Actually, yes, that can happen.” He took an unsteady drink of water. “You’re just along for the ride anyways.”

              Stanley sneered at him for a moment as they climbed a short hill. “Don’t be like that. I’ve been on board for this entire thing, but what was I supposed to do? At what point do I walk up and say ‘hey, don’t do that,’ or ‘talk to me about this thing I don’t understand at all?’ Tell me when and where I went wrong, and I’ll apologize.”

              The compound could be seen in the approaching distance. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”

              “Then what are you mad about?”

              “Have you come to do the right thing, or just to watch?”

              “Heh, Caleb, switch places with me. Please, give me the chance to tear that bastard’s head off. Let me earn my legacy now.”

              “Stanley, that’s not it.”

              “Not what?”

              “You’re choice.”

              “What is then? Do I have one?”

              “You can choose to forgive yourself.”

              “What?”

              They stopped and fell to the back of the group while Caleb looked at him directly. “Ever since the war, you’ve thought there was a larger shell that you had to fill to create a legacy. Not greedily, but you always felt that there was an obligation to the people that care about and know of who you are. There isn’t. There is who you are and what you’ve done. That never changes. If you want to be here, be here because it’s the right thing to do, not because of the hot air inside your goofy name.”

              Stanley smiled for a moment, but his eyes soon averted and scanned the lush ground. ‘I learned when I took this little gold ring that promises have to be kept.”

              “This will happen,” he said while a front line dropped into battle positions. “You will be here for it.”

              Caleb departed from the back of the group as they all began positioning themselves for the initial strike. ‘No alarms yet,’ he thought while running through the trees, constantly correcting his path to remain parallel to the wall on his left. He hopped over a bush and landed; so began the waiting and projecting the best path to a service entrance fifty yards in front of him. ‘No way like the straight way.’

              Deep thumps resounded, and the battle commenced at the front. Around the side, Caleb sprinted with his natural strength beneath the traffic of the focused moves of military soldiers. The door crashed inward, and a tensed Caleb found no one around. He sleuthed around the corner to see tremendous activity pointed at his guard. ‘They’re ignoring the back half. Stephen’s orders.’

              He took a deep breath and pushed off the wall, seeing a straight path ahead of him with a heavy humidity condensing the air beneath an open lid. An open door was radiating with the feeling. As his frame partially filtered the light, he could see a standing, focused Stephen. “Close the door behind you.”

              Caleb did as he walked in and adjusted the belt of grenades draped on his shoulder. “You sound normal.”

              “Not for long. In a moment, I will sound like a stronger version of you. I’ll be faster, bigger, more experienced, and more focused. I will make massive echoes with my smallest steps. I will be the one with the mistakes of my past studied and restudied. I swear they won’t be repeated. I will be unstoppable, and when this is over and I am standing over your twisted body, you will finally see with your one good eye that I am what was always meant to survive out of all this.”

              Caleb stretched and took a shuddering breath while carefully unclipping two flash bangs from his band. “If you say so.”

              A small remote appeared in Stephen’s hands as they came from behind his back. His hand jammed a series of switches to their opposite setting and he grunted. Caleb pulled the pins on the grenades in his hands and felt his body relax in preparation for the next move.