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Speed

2023-08-13

Johnny’s ears were ringing. It was hard to see anything, the room was dark. He was in an unfamiliar house, standing in the living room. A glimpse of moonlight illuminating his arm in a mirror. His hand was dripping a dark liquid, pooling on the floor. Blood. This was not good.

Johnny’s ears were not ringing; this was the sound of approaching sirens, followed soon by the blinding lights. Two police Chargers plowed straight up into the lawn, skidding to a muddy halt right outside the living room. Blinding lights. Two more SUVs followed closely. No time to think. Time to run.

Johnny burst through the plate glass window, shards be damned, spotlights everywhere. He landed into a tumble in front of the first squad car and leapt forward, sprinting. Vaulting onto the hood of the second car and then up to its roof he leapt again, deftly landing on the roof of an SUV and using it as a runway to build up more speed. One more jump, almost clear.

Voices in bullhorns rang out as Johnny dashed across the street and into the woods. The rhythmic chopping of a helicopter was close overhead, but its spotlight could only catch the tops of trees. Johnny wasn’t in the clear, but he was in his element as he ran through the woods, dodging roots and branches, faster and faster, outpacing even the dogs he heard barking in the distance.

Johnny ran until his muscles burned and his veins pumped battery acid. At the end of the forest was the backside of a high-end shopping district, dumpsters and moldy boxes hidden from the throngs of shoppers pulsing through the neon streets. The helicopter was distracted and Johnny slipped among them.

Now, instead of running, Johnny kept his cool, pushed forward by the current of consumers, everyone too preoccupied to notice the blood spattered on his arm and hand. Was he clear? Johnny reached the entrance to a gilded, gaudy casino and walked inside.

Ignoring the sights and sounds of mass-manufactured hypnosis Johnny floated forward and into an elevator. A man pushed the door close button and Johnny looked. His heart sank. A security guard, and his face knew enough.

“It looks like you’re in trouble,” said the guard as the elevator descended. Johnny said nothing.

The back door of the elevator opened to the endless expanse of an empty parking lot stretching beyond the horizon, punctuated only to the sides by darkened big-box retail stores.

“Take this,” said the guard, holding out his hand. It was empty, but yet it wasn’t, because an aspect of time and space itself was there, warped, as Johnny joined his hand to accept.

A feeling came over Johnny, an energy running through and out of his limbs, impossible to contain, to control.

“Now go!” shouted the guard.

Johnny focused, his pursuers close behind, and the energy became power. He charged forward, faster than he had ever ran, not running, his feet not even touching the ground. Forward and faster through the indefinite expanse of parking lots and empty shopping malls, faster and faster, and reality started to bend around him, and then tear.

With a sudden ripping sensation and a jarring halt as his power dissipated, Johnny was floating, far above the planet. The remaining atmosphere brought through his transition was quickly being sucked into space. Johnny realized his time was short and focused on a familiar place, charging forward again.

Johnny was in his hometown, but it was different, changed, impossible to place. It dawned on him that this was a new universe, similar but not the same. Could he go home? Johnny charged again.

No. Again, a different universe, similar, but not quite right. Johnny had gained a new ability, but he could never go home again.