#clifhanger

Maximus was a goddamn hero. Just not mine. Years of flawless work had made him famous around the world. It all started with a burning building. So cliché. The black and bright orange billows of fire could be seen for miles. Later an unknown substance would be found as the reason. It appeared to be a hyper flammable concoction and the work of a more elaborate arson than the impulsive usual. The police maintained a perimeter around the blaze while looking on in horror as the city’s fire department struggled to put a dent in it.

His kinky coils bounced as he made his way through the crowd of terrified onlookers. With every step he gained speed until he broke through the perimeter in a mad dash to the building’s front entrance. Now past the authorities, no one could make it to the building to stop him before he got inside. He took a few seconds to focus his hearing on the heart beats of the people still in the building. His count was 34. With the entrance and first floor completely in flames, no rescue attempts had yet been made. But Maximus dove into the building and almost immediately came back out with four people. He placed them down a safe distance from the building and about-faced without skipping a beat before dashing back into the building. One floor down, nine to go. This time he was gone for a considerably longer amount of time. The Fire Chief nodded in disgust. A strong young man like that could have done so much more if he weren’t so reckl-  he couldn’t even finish his thought. Maximus had emerged from the flames once again. This time, he was holding nine people in his arms. The crowd burst into uproarious cheers and applause. He runs toward the paramedics and notices the city’s Fire Chief is also sprinting toward his destination. While placing the injured down, the fire chief informs Maximus that if there are any other people left in the building, he needs to get them all on his next trip because the building will collapse soon. He offered Maximus a fire fighter suit and Maximus cracked a big smile while refusing it saying, “it’d only slow me down”. He turns to the building and pushes off so hard that a cloud of dirt and dust swirl up from the force. He’s cleared floor 1-6 and he has less than a minute to cover the rest. By this point, bystanders had been live streaming the situation for well over 5 minutes. It was trending everywhere. A god? And angel? A scientific experiment gone right? No one knew but they were all praying for his success. Soon breaking news reports were covering the fire and just as reporters arrived, Maximus exited the building carrying eleven people. The crowd exploded with praise. Singlehandedly this unknown hero saved 34 people from a burning building in less than 10 minutes. It was just in time too. Not even 5 seconds after the last person was laid down the building began to slowly crumble. 

Maximus turned to wave to the crowd of now adoring fans when he heard it. A heart racing from adrenaline, and still in the building. There’s no time. The building is coming down now. He runs at top speed, takes a deep breath, and jumps through a window on the 8th floor. Upon landing, he expels the contents of his lungs, temporarily clearing the room of smoke. There’s a woman unconscious in the corner clutching her stomach. Just as he was accessing the situation, the floor in the room crumbles as the lower floors give way. A chunk of concrete breaks off the roof and plummets through all the floors beneath it with destructive speed. As it destroys the floor above the unconscious woman. Maximus realizes it’s now or never. Time slows as he dashes to intercept the slab. The woman’s limp body begins to fall through the crumbling floor and seeing this, Maximus gets in between the rock and the woman and pushes off of it, gaining the speed necessary to catch up to the woman. Holding her in one hand, he readies a punch as they near the ground. The crowd is once again horrified. For no apparent reason, their nameless hero ran back into the burning building and hasn’t returned. And now that building is collapsing. All they can hear is the metal twisting and the rubble making impact with the ground. It’s anyone’s guess.

 The fire is easy enough to douse now but no one could’ve survived that was the collective thought of those watching. There was a quiet rumble from the building that silenced even their thoughts in a curiosity induced gaze. A huge piece of concrete that was lying flat started to rise up. Dust escaped from the gap and masked everything near the opening until a silhouette appeared in the cloud. Maximus stepped out of the smoke and rubble holding the woman in his arms. Both are unharmed. His white clothes were now covered in soot. There’s a stretcher waiting, and he gently places the woman one her back. Everyone is dead silent. Staring at the scene of an impossible event and the man who made it happen. He turns away from the crowd and prepares to start running when a young girl shouts a question at him for fear she would never have another chance to. What is your name???

“Call me Maximus”, he said. Then he started running

He was out of sight almost immediately and realizing they hadn’t been doing so for far too long, the crowd goes hoarse cheering the victory of their new hero.

That was where it all began. The first video of the event gained 500 million views in under a day and the Internet experienced a worldwide outage for 20 minutes. He was an instant icon.

The next day the governor announced that’d he’d be honoring the selfless hero during a dinner later that week.

Medal made.

Invitations sent.

Tickets sold.

Anyone who was anyone was there. The only one who didn’t show was Maximus. He’d vanished into thin air and remained that way for 6 months.