Page 62 of A Hero in Hiding

I do feel a little frazzled though, so I’m going to blame that for the level of destruction I’ve caused. I’ve seen dead people before… but there’s this weird sense of guilt that maybe if I hadn’t kept dragging Dave back into my path by insisting that he was the only one allowed to get interviews from us, he wouldn’t have kept scouting things out that led him to getting shot. Although… he’s a reporter… isn’t that what they do? They stick their nose where it doesn’t belong and pester all of the people around them?

Fuck… I really hope it wasn’t because of me.

“The rest of this side is clear,” Ellison says. “Let’s wait for the others outside. There’s the possibility that there are security protocols such as cameras in place that could help us identify the killer.”

As we leave the building, sirens begin sounding while a crowd gathers. Wherever Superheroes United end up, it seems that a crowd is insistent on making it harder. It’s like we’re some spectacle for all to see, instead of here to help save lives and do our job.

The police immediately set to work at pushing them back as others rush into the building and onto the second floor. There’s instantly noise and people pushing the line in order to get a video or something for social media. It makes any progress we might’ve made here just disappear.

“Please return to your homes or vehicles,” August says as he moves forward, but it just causes more onlookers to move in tighter, encircling us. Some even reach for him, but I dislike the idea of them even getting close to August when this shit is going on, so I use my telekinesis to gently push them away. “Please return to your vehicles or leave the areaimmediately.”

I hear a gunshot and jerk August back as Deus rushes past, his rifle out. “There,” he says as he slides into position, pulls up his rifle and fires, but what he doesn’t account for is a group of people who run right into the shot.

Thankfully, I manage to stop the bullet in time and use my telekinesis to separate the crowd, but I can no longer see the gunman. The people I’d pulled back turn on me, likeIdid something wrong by keeping them from having a bullet in their head.

“What the fuck? Why’d you stop us? We had him cornered!” one wannabe hero barks at me.

“Fucking hell, man, what is with this?” Deus asks as he looks uncertain of what to do. “This shit always like this?”

“Constantly. Everyone thinks they can do it better than us,” August growls.

Ellison is busy pushing us back toward the cover of the building. “Get inside, where we at least have cover.”

“Uh… how do you kill them inside the building? That makes absolutely no sense,” Deus says.

“This is how you refrain from gettingkilled,” Ellison argues.

And that’s the moment I hear something explode. The blast shakes the ground at my feet as my mind registers that a bomb or some type of explosion has just gone off, and then suddenly, the world is snapped still.

I turn to look at August who grabbed my hand a moment before he’d frozen time.

Then I look over at the building Dave’s body is in as the entire right side of it is caught up in the explosion. The side to the left seems to have begun caving in from a second bomb that’s wreaking havoc on the building. Walls are sinking down, bricks from the building caving in around us. As if this isn’t bad enough, I’m reminded that there are gawking people all around us, well within the radius of the explosion because they wouldn’t stay back. Because they let their curiosity overrule the simple part of their brain that reminds them that they could die by putting themselves in danger like this.

“There are people inside,” August says as he starts tugging me toward the building. “I don’t want to put you in danger, but I can’t do this alone.”

“Fucking hell,” I say as I turn to the crowd that’d been watching us, and with my mind, I push them hard. It’ll send them flying, and I’m sure most will be displeased by the bruising and scratches, but August has a minute, less than a minute now, and I have to work fast.

“Okay. Let’s go inside,” I say as I start moving toward the building, hand in hand with August.

“Landon, this is risky. We have to be out within a minute.”

“I want to find the source of the explosion and push it out… maybe into the sky or something. There are two bombs or whatever it was. The first one might already be too far gone to stop, but this one…”

I rush over to where the blast had just started, knowing full well that if August loses concentration, we’ll both immediately be killed.

Grabbing onto everything in the area is harder than just one individual thing, and I’m not even sure if I could do this if time was running normally, but since it’s standing still, it’s almost like the blast itself became a moveable part.

Lifting it, I push it straight up, knowing I’m buckling the building but having little choice—I’m pretty sure it’s going to buckle no matter what I do. All I know is that I have to get itaway.

“Landon, it’s getting harder,” August says as his hand tightens on me.

“I can hold the building up until people get out once time starts, but I’m not sure what else I can do,” I say as I see someone on the stairs. August reaches out and pulls him back toward the door leading out, but neither of us know where the rest are.

“Landon, I can’t. Time is starting again,” he says as I realize things are slowly beginning to move just a little.

“Can you fight it? A little longer?” I say as I realize that maybe the only thing Icando to bring them all down fast enough is to drop the hallway floor down and make them fall onto the first floor. It might not save everyone, but if I can at least pull them down…

I grab onto the floor, focusing on the parts weakened from the blast, and draw it down just as time starts up again. I hear screams as someone hits the ground next to me, and in the next moment, I push my hand out, sending the focal point of the detonation out as August grabs me and covers me while debris rains down on us.

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