Visible Wear

The three riders entered the dwarven village, interrupting the quiet morning still with the pounding of their steed’s mighty hooves. They towered above the village inhabitants as the few dwarves still in their houses drew out. The riders passed a wary eye over the stocky villagers as the dwarves did likewise to them. Then, as the center rider, a tall human cloaked in weathered scarlet opened his mouth to say something, they saw it.

“Ogre!”

The humans drew their swords and charged, screaming a battle cry as they tore down upon the beast. Still waking from a slumber, the beast jerked his head toward the great noise and saw three men on horseback fast approaching him, their swords held high.

The first man, a figure cloaked in blue, came at the gargantuan beast from the right, only to be met by the ogre’s equally gargantuan fist. The blue rider flew from his horse and landed in a nearby trough. The second man, a rider cloaked in green, kept the beast occupied from the front while the scarlet cloaked figure quickly drew behind. He brought his sword down on the creature’s left shoulder, leaving a nasty gash and eliciting a deafening roar of pain. The scarlet rider readied a strike to the ogre’s neck when he found himself lying on the ground beside his horse, his head stinging from an unseen blow.

“Stop!” A voice called from where the blow had come. “Do not attack Orellan. He is not your enemy. Strike him once more and you shall meet the dwarves in battle.”

Startled, the humans turned, their heads filled with disbelief that the mighty dwarves, legendary warriors of good, would attack a human to save a loathsome ogre. A dwarf bearing a warhammer moved forward, unafraid of the ugly beast standing before them and instead appearing angry at the humans. As the three men had thought themselves beyond further surprise, the ogre opened his mouth and spoke.

“Father, it was not my fault. I awoke and these humans attacked me. I gave them no cause.”

The dwarf, his wrinkled face filled with concern examined the deep wound.

“I know, son. Now get to Tana’s – she’ll take care of this.”

The scarlet cloaked human picked himself up, staggering a couple steps from the dull throbbing in his head, and focused his attention on the old dwarf.

“Your son?”

The dwarf, a hint of amusement breaking through his scowl, leaned forward on his hammer and replied.

“Aye, that he is. And you best not be forgetting that.”

With that he turned and began to walk away, following the path the ogre had taken towards a white house surrounding by an herb garden.

“Wait!” The human called. “Are you the leader of this clan? We have matters to discuss with you.”

The old dwarf turned his head slightly and called back,

“Aye, this clan is in my charge. My first duty, however, is to Orellan. Then I shall listen to these ‘matters.’ For now wait in my house, my dwarves will show you the way”

The humans gathered themselves, rubbing fresh bruises and exchanging bewildered looks as they watched the old dwarf disappear into the hut.

—

The old dwarf returned to his house to find to riders standing together, grim expressions betraying their concern.

“Who are you and what is your business here?” he asked.

“We are the Dukes of Elaan.” The scarlet rider said. “You are Dogue Vandelis are you not? You knew our great-grandfathers, I believe.”

“Aye, I fought alongside your great-grandfathers in the Binding War almost a century ago.”

“Then you know of the many artifacts that were recovered from the Tyrants following the war. Among these was a blank scroll that seemed unimportant except that it could not be written on. The scroll, along with other artifacts, had remained forgotten in a vault for many years. It was only recently, during a children’s hiding game, that the vault was found. It was opened and the artifacts were re-examined.

“Many of the artifacts hadn’t fared the long years well. The scroll, however, was in immaculate condition. Upon further examination it was discovered to have writing on it. We thought perhaps that some youth that gotten in at some point and decided to play a prank but on testing the scroll could still not be written on.”

The scarlet duke paused. Dogue was clearly interested – and concerned.

“The scroll told a prophecy written in five languages. We’ve translated most of it, and what we have thus far has given us cause for concern. The prophecy spoke of the return of the Tyrants. They would arise from their slumber in the deep a hundred years from their fall. On their return the last of the champions who defeated them would be no more. The child of that warrior must then lead the descendants of the champions to battle the Tyrants once more.

“Dogue Vandelis, you are the last of the champions. The descendants of all the others are gathered at Castle Bairn. We need one of your line to lead us.”

Dogue scratched his beard and sat in an old chair.

“I have but one child, my son Orellan.” he said. “But he is no warrior, and he will not go.”

The dukes were at a complete loss. They had expected a dwarf. Orellan was clearly no dwarf. And not of Dogue’s blood.

Still, Dogue thought of him as his son, and the feeling was mutual.

The blue-cloaked duke was about to ask Dogue to reconsider when the door opened and Orellan stepped in.

“I will go, father.” Orellan said, soft yet firm. “I am needed, and I must go. I am your son, after all.”

Dogue sighed and looked at Orellan’s face.

“Indeed you are, boy. Indeed you are.”

“Come with me, my love,
To the sea, the sea of love,
I want to tell you how much I love you.”

Around the world Sea of Love by Phil Phillips began playing simultaneously in everyone’s mind. Everybody started humming, whistling, or singing it – even people who had never heard the song before were suddenly intimately familiar with it. Complete strangers were meeting and breaking out into chorus.

And across the globe, billions of people were forming the same idea – it was time to return to the sea of love.

—

“Sam, it’s time to go.”

“Go?”

Samantha rubbed sleep from her eyes and looked at Jason. He was dressed in shorts and humming something familiar.

“Honey?” Samantha sat up. “Where are you going?”

“To the sea, love.”

Samantha looked out through the window. It was a cold January day and they were in North Dakota. You just didn’t just up and go to the beach like that.

Sensing a joke, Samantha laughed but Jason only looked at her, humming that same tune all the while.

“Stop it, Jason”

Looking now at some distant point visible only to him, Jason turned away and a smile grew across his face. He started singing the words as he wandered out the door. Samantha jumped from the bed, not certain she wasn’t dreaming, and put on her robe. She looked down the hallway as outside, a car started.

Samantha clutched her robe tightly to herself and looked outside. With a choked gasp she stumbled backwards. The roads were packed with cars and pedestrians. The people were in all manner of dress, many in beach clothes and some even naked. All wore broad smiles and over the chill wind singing could be heard.

“To the sea, the sea of love.”

Back at the door Samantha looked to see her husband driving away in their pick-up.

—

Samantha had been traveling for five days now. After Jason left things had only gotten stranger.

Five days ago, she had stood at the door in the freezing wind until she finally became aware of the biting cold. She tried calling Jason’s cell only to hear the familiar ringtone chirping from their bedroom. She dialed 911 but the line only rang. She called her parents, her sister, and her in-laws but nobody was answering. The only one picking up was voicemail.

She had tried to convince herself that it was somehow a very crude prank. It didn’t make sense, but she didn’t care. She sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. On screen was a news desk with no anchor. She flipped through several other live morning shows and all were broadcasting empty sets.

It wasn’t a prank.

The closest neighbors were a mile away. Samantha had tried calling them but nobody picked up. She looked through the window at the gathering mass of cars and people lurching along the roads. As she watched she realized that some of them weren’t even on the roads and were driving through frozen low-lying crops and pastures.

As she leaned her head on the glass a broadly smiling old man missing half his teeth walked directly outside. He turned his head slowly to the right, seeing her before collapsing and hitting his head against the window.

Samantha screamed. She stared at the unmoving body before finally she ran outside. The old man was wearing a too-snug old-fashioned bathing suit – probably a souvenir from his younger years – and had laid there frozen solid, broad smile and open eyes still presented to the world.

Then, looking around she became aware of dozens of pale bodies scattered in the fields.

Samantha wanted to find Jason. She didn’t want to deal with this alone. She decided to ride the compact tractor to the neighbors to borrow their car so she could look for him.

—

An hour later she was driving a green Chevelle along the slow-moving line. Her neighbors weren’t in. Their front door was wide-open and the house was empty. A ‘his’ and ‘her’s’ key rack hung by the door and her’s was missing. Samantha grabbed the ‘his’ key and headed for the Chevelle outside.

It was impossible to go fast without running into or over somebody. Despite her caution, however, the other drivers found no qualms in running over the slow or the dead.

Samantha continued like this, driving faster when she could, looking for Jason in an ever increasing sea of people.

—

Five days later, it came to an end.

Through state lines it was always the same thing – increasing people, decreasing cars. As cars died people simply left them. As people died they were simply left as well.

On the fourth day Samantha had arrived in Washington. The Chevelle had blown a gasket and had to be abandoned. She moved forward with the mass, not knowing if Jason was anywhere near. After a day of walking she arrived at the beach.

People were playing on the beach and in the water. Samantha noticed some go under the water. Then she realized they weren’t coming back up.

She started forward when someone placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to find herself facing Jason. He was thinner and sunburned but still wearing that same smile.

“I’m happy you came, Sam.” He said.

“Why is everyone doing this?” Samantha cried.

Jason cocked his head. “Can’t you hear the music, Sam?”

Samantha squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

“Just listen, Sam. I promise you it’s beautiful.”

Samantha opened her eyes and looked at Jason. As she looked into his eyes she heard it.

“Come with me, my love…”

She was smiling now and turned to the sea. And with Jason she walked into the ocean.

—

Under water, people were swimming. Ever farther out they swam. The humans had returned to the sea, to the waters their distant ancestors had left millions of years ago.

The sea had called to them and reclaimed its children to its loving bosom.

“Goddamnit, stop!”

I kept telling my legs to slow down or stop but they just weren’t listening to me anymore. The experiment had obviously failed, there was no doubting that anymore, but what had resulted was totally unexpected.

The past five hours were a blur – literally. My watch with built in GPS and speedometer read 501 mph. I had started out at 75 and had rapidly increased to my current speed an hour ago. I finally seemed to have leveled out but the biggest problem was that I couldn’t stop.

My body was keeping up with the speed but my mind was experiencing a slight lag. My muscles hadn’t torn themselves apart or my organs exploded but five hours of running through blurs was getting to be too much.

“Stop! Why the hell won’t you stop?!?”

I willed my hands down to grab hold of my thighs but my arms only jerked back into place and my legs surged. My watch now read 515 mph.

“So this is how it is? I’m a prisoner in my own body? You’re taking me somewhere and I have no say in the manner?”

Like I really expected my body to answer me.

But what else could I do? I didn’t know where I was anymore. My body was on full autopilot. I wasn’t getting physically exhausted, in fact my body seemed to get increasingly used to the speed and the blurs were starting to sharpen, but while that seemed like progress I still had no control over where I was going.

Did my body know?

It dawned on me to check the route tracking feature on my watch to see if I was just running in circles. But would my arms allow themselves to be raised so I could find out was the question.

I lifted my right arm and my body shifted to compensate for the awkward running position. Raising my other arm my body compensated again. I quickly navigated the watch’s menu and brought up the bread crumb display. A long trail of dots ran across the face of it, turning every so often, leading me towards the northern end of the East coast. The odometer readout displayed 2071 miles.

I did a quick mental map and connected the dots from my origin in a San Fernando lab. The likeliest destination seemed to be somewhere in New York, which made perfect sense, and at my present speed I would be there in less than an hour.

Unless I was completely wrong and I would run directly into the Atlantic, that is.

With that thought I renewed my attempts at stopping myself but now my body wouldn’t allow even the slightest suggestion of control. It had satisfied itself with giving me an idea of its course and then resumed complete control. All I could do was ride along.

I continued this way for half an hour more before I found myself slowing down. Looking around I started to recognize some of the sights and it dawned on me that I must already be in New York City.

The GPS watch readout, having reverted back to speedometer mode read 175 mph. I was definitely slowing down. Either my body had reached the point of exhaustion or it was approaching its destination.

So which was it?

The answer came to me as a loud explosion went off just ahead of me and people ran screaming from the scene. A massive grey humanoid, fifteen feet tall and as wide as a car, with a hard-looking exterior and a gaping mouth full of razor teeth lurched into view. It had an army jeep in its left hand and half a soldier in its other. The blood and entrails in its teeth told me where the other half had gone.

My body stopped about fifty yards from the monster.

“Now what?” I asked myself.

The answer to that was even less pleasant than the answer to my last question. My body began running with an acceleration far greater than what I had been doing for the last six hours. I realized in horror that I was headed directly for the monster and began screaming as my body launched itself like a projectile and landed with a hard THUD against the creature’s torso, knocking a rancid wave of air out of the surprised beast’s mouth. The monster took in a powerful gasp, looked angrily at me, and raised his arm to crush me with the jeep.

My body, still on autopilot, leapt up and began running only to be clipped by the crushed jeep and I was sent reeling into a parked car. As I wrenched myself away from the totaled vehicle I realized with amazement that I wasn’t dead. In fact, I was little worse for wear.

Again my body charged at the creature and launched at it just to be batted away and sent hard into a nearby building. Several times more my body repeated this until I started to actually hurt.

“Stop! This isn’t working. You’re not thinking this through.”

My body stopped as though listening to me.

“If we work together maybe we can defeat this thing without getting killed in the process.”

A moment passed and suddenly my body felt different. I stepped forward, raised my hands, clenched my fists and realized I was back in control.

“Now, let’s do this.”

The next attack I ran at the enemy, ducking under its arm as it swung at me and I struck its side with an explosive force, causing it to stumble and roar. As it learned to compensate I did changed attacks. With each new attack the creature showed signs of injury and fatigue until finally, the monster lay dead.

My experiment had been a success after all — I had become the first superhero, hopefully the first of many. Now, almost one year after the destruction began, humanity finally stood a chance against the invaders.