Gods Among Men: Excerpt Chapter 10

[In the distant future, a race of super-humans have evolved, and have built a utopic city along the west coast of the U.S. called Theopolis.  It is protected by super-humans in an organization called the Panthron.  Troy Gaines wanted to become a Pantheon hero, so he was sent to investigate a potential threat to the city.  Accompanied by a rookie hero named Ohm, they followed their leads to the wasteland.  Deep in the desert, they accidentally came across a mine field, and were captured by a group of crazy bandits…]

When they were alone, Ohm relaxed in his imprisonment, and Troy remarked, “I never thought I’d end up like this…held prisoner by the carnival from Hell.”

“I’m sorry,” Ohm expressed. “I should have done something more when the mines went off.  I should have absorbed all that static energy, or rebuffed it, or something.  I don’t know, it just happened too fast, and I didn’t know what to do.”

“Don’t worry, this is how we learn.  Neither one of us could have predicted that the Carnival would be out here, with such an elaborate trap.  Where would they find the power for that minefield anyway?”

“It’d be easy to rig up a solar panel and a sensor of some kind.  They probably had a thermal-optic sensor set up that could see us coming, and it automatically set off the mines.  Even degenerate freaks like these guys could scrap it up from the ruins around here.”

After a moment’s reflection, Troy admitted, “You know, this is much more my fault than yours.”

Ohm waved his hand dismissively, “It doesn’t matter now.  We better stop worrying about the blame and think more about how we’re going to get out of here.”

Troy continued regardless, “There is a reason why I’m vulnerable to electronic discharges and energy fields…my power is not natural.  It’s purely mechanical.  I have no superpower of my own, just a teleportation device.”

Glaring at Troy through the bars, Ohm barked, “What?”

Taking off his vest and shirt, Troy revealed his teleporter.  He fingered the broken tubes, where blue fluid continued to leak out of it.  He remarked, “I paid a lot of money to an inventor in the wastelands.  He was probably the smartest man I ever met; he made this thing using every scrap of advanced technology he could scavenge.  It works so effectively, I’ve forgotten how vulnerable it is to physical damage.  Back at Skiapolis, Mandy took out the device’s recharger unit.  Physical movement usually regenerates its power pretty fast, but now…”

“Troy, if and when I get out of this damned cage, I’m going to kill you,” Ohm grumbled. “I can’t believe this…you really think you can join the Pantheon with some magical vest that makes you jump around as a ghost? What the Hell were you thinking? You’re not a superhero! Thanks to you, we’re both stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, with no backup, and we’re going to be killed by a psycho carnival! You killed us, Troy! This is all your fault! I wasn’t even supposed to be out here; I hate the wasteland!”

Ohm continued to rant and shout for nearly thirty minutes.  He finally ended the raving with, “You can take that teleporter of yours and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine!” He followed it up with a curt and vulgar curse.

Troy asked, “Finished?”

After a moment’s silence, Ohm replied, “Yeah.  I feel better now.  Got the hate out of my system.”

“Good.  For what it’s worth, I am sorry I got us into this, and got you involved in my own problems.  From what I can tell, my teleporter still works, it just can’t recharge.  Can you harness any electricity in this area and pump it into this vest.”

“Troy, if I could, I would pump 100,000 volts into your idiotic skull! The thing is, I can’t sense much power in this camp.  The solar panels these guys use are so dirty, I don’t even think they can power a wristwatch.  I don’t even think these people use electricity at all, they seem to make do without it.”

“What about all their cars? Or the taser that midget had?”

“Yeah, I saved a little bit of that taser’s energy when that little bastard zapped me,” Ohm informed. “It really isn’t much power, so I really want to save it for when we really need it.  I’m not sure how much power your suit uses, but I’m guessing it would only be enough for one quick jump.”

“I think you should harness more,” Troy suggested. “It takes a little more energy to transport both of us together.  And the more power I get, the farther I can go.”

With a sigh, Ohm warned, “We may have to consider the possibility that only one of us will make it out of here alive.  If it comes down to it, I expect that I’ll give you the energy, so you can make a clean escape.  You’d have to leave me behind, so I don’t weigh you down.”

Glaring at Ohm, Troy insisted, “I refuse to accept that possibility.  We’re both going to make it out of here.”

“Things can’t always go the way we plan, that’s a hard lesson you have to learn.”

“I’ve learned it, believe me.  But if it does come down to it, I won’t leave you behind.”

“Well, I appreciate the concern.”

“It’s more than concern.  You are a real Pantheon hero:  you should know that all lives are worth saving, and given the choice, we always choose to preserve life.  That is the prerogative that befits a hero, or a god.  For if we are gods among men, is it not our duty to protect each other, and our fellow men?”

“Yeah, I know,” Ohm said. “That’s why I’m trying to look out for your hide.”

“As I am looking after yours.”

“Well, I guess that makes us really swell partners after all.  But why you? What do you want to be a hero so bad? Do you really want to go down as some kind of martyr?”

“Not necessarily, but I’ll do what I have to.  Just like my father.  If it wasn’t for his sacrifice, I wouldn’t even be alive today.  Although, considering all the trouble I caused in the first place, I often wonder if he would still be around today if I was gone.”

“It’s funny how things work,” Ohm shrugged.

“Ohm...what is your real name?”

“Victor Henke.”

“Victor…you’ve never lived in these wastelands before, have you?”

“No, thank god.”

“I was born and raised in this desert.  A few hundred miles east of here, actually, in a small town just south of the Bread Basket trade route.  It was a wretched place, very run-down, and we were all very poor.  We had just enough to get by, but I used to spend endless hours staring at the lights of Theopolis glowing in the distant horizon.  I used to fantasize about being in the city, being a man of power, a man of wealth, and a man of respect.  I looked up to people like you and Link and Eva and everybody else, marveling at your powers and coveting them.”

“So, you went and bought your teleporter.”

“Yes, but not all at once, you know.  You remember that I told you about the man who invented this:  a very sharp and shrewd man.  He lived in the town with the rest of us, but he was mostly regarded with disdain.  Everybody thought he was just an eccentric lunatic.  My own parents thought he was dangerous, and told me to stay away from him.  But when I saw the teleporter he invented, and saw what it could do, I couldn’t resist.  I had to have it.  I did the only thing I could do best:  I gambled what little I had, hoping to double my money and earn just enough for it.”

“I didn’t take you for a gambler.”

“I was only fifteen at the time, so I really wasn’t supposed to.  In my foolish youth, I always feared my parents finding out about my vices, but I should have been worried about the men I was playing against.  I won nearly two thousand dollars in gold and silver from the wealthiest man in the area:  Bearly Buchanan, though you might recognize him as Buck.”

“Buck? As in, Buck the Red-Skinned?”

“Yeah.”

“You took money from the biggest, most feared gangster in the wasteland?”

“I won it fair.  I may have marked a few cards, but they were surely doing the same.  When it was clear that I had won too much from them, Buck gave me a stern warning.  He said that accidents will happen.  I didn’t listen:  I went straight to the inventor to buy his teleporter.  When I returned home, I found my family was taken hostage.  Buck’s men had them all tied up, and were demanding a two thousand dollar ransom.  It was money I had already spent.

“I only had one choice:  I had to release my family without Buck’s men seeing it.  So I made a distraction that drew them away, and I untied the ropes they had around my mother, my father, and my two sisters.  We all made it out of the house.  We didn’t make it out of the town.  Buck had men in the streets, patrolling around in cars.  We took a car and drove into the desert, but they followed us.  We were outnumbered and outgunned.  That was why my father had to make the choice between his life and our freedom.  He had me teleport my mother and sisters to safe spot, while he turned the car around.  He hit Buck’s vehicle head-on.  Neither one of them survived that explosion.”

After a moment’s silence, Victor said, “Sorry, man.  It must have been hard to witness that.”

“I think my father meant for it to be inspiring,” Troy reflected. “He knew who I was, and what I could have become.  We both knew that it was all my fault, because I was being selfish and greedy.  He taught me that only selflessness and sacrifice can make things right; I just wish I didn’t have to lose him to find that out.”

“Be grateful you actually knew your father long enough to miss him in his absence.  I never met my father.”

“The thing I learned from the teleporter itself is that everything in this world is transient.  It all comes and goes, and all I can do is take it all as it comes.  Yes, I am grateful for everything.  Even this moment:  as dire as it seems, at least we’re still alive.”

“Not for long,” Victor scoffed, regarding the corpse in the next cage.