Jump
“You know Bill, it’s not the fall that kills ya…”
“Shut the fuck up Steven.”
“Alright, alright. I’m just playing around. You gonna do it or what?”
“I don’t know man, seems awfully risky.”
“You saw what happened to the other guy. Hell, he hasn’t stopped bragging about it. It’s all over facebook this morning. I’m telling you, he’s onto something. Look, they have to come don’t they? Isn’t that like part of the deal that they made to stay here; you know with the government. Protect everyone in the country so long as in doing so, they don’t harm any other human beings in other countries. We’ve all seen the press conferences and the interviews on the news. That’s what they agreed to.”
“Still man, suppose they’re tied up doing something else.”
“Look, I’m not the one who wants a closer look and the photo op. It’s you. I just made the only sensible suggestion after seeing how well it worked for that other guy. This is your shot — imagine one of those photos on Time magazine — wouldn’t that be something?”
“You really think one of them will get here on time?”
“Yup. There’s four of them. They all travel at nearly light speed and have the strength of an army. They also have that extrasensory perception. They said it themselves, they’ve been studying us for years with their advanced technology. They can sense who’s in danger just by the adrenalin frequency we emit; something about a microscopic temporal wave that shoots out. I don’t know, I’m not a scientist; but in the three months they’ve been here, they’ve managed to rescue everyone from all impending calamities in the nick of time, including falling from a building. That’s why we picked this one — it’s tall enough so it will give them enough time in case they’re off rescuing another 300 people.”
Didn’t someone do stats on this — I think their average is like 500 events in the span of 24 hours?
“Yup, and we’re not talking minor stuff either. I think that day they put out a California wildfire and saved a train from derailing off a bridge. It’s not even noon yet — I bet you they’re sitting around waiting for something like this to happen.”
“Alright fuck it. Here I go…”
Steve watched his friend Bill jump off the ledge of the rooftop, his body in a free fall, and right before Bill hit the ground, he saw a flash of light. One of the aliens arrived just in time to scoop up the remains of his former best friend. The alien flew up to the rooftop and hovered over Steve. He remained there for a few seconds, piercing through him with his eyes, Bill’s body laying limp and deformed across his outstretched forearms. A second later, he was gone. It all happened so fast, so wrong, and Steve had no words in his mouth. It was like there was no wind in his lungs to form the sounds necessary to express what he couldn’t put words to. Shock would not even begin to describe it.
He silently walked back indoors, passed a few people in the hallway, and hit the elevator button. When he got to his 10th floor office he shut the door and went to his computer. All the news media websites were covering the same story. He clicked on one of the streaming services and began to cry as he heard the update from an attractive news anchor with bright yellow hair and perfect teeth:
“What started as a joke has ended in tragedy as hundreds, maybe even thousands, have lost their lives in the most senseless manner. Earlier this morning, one Jake Connelly posted a video on You tube that went viral. In this video, he recorded himself deliberately jumping off a bridge in order to summon one of the visitors to his rescue and capture the whole thing on video. As you all know, the visitors is an alien race that made contact with us a few months ago and have since pledged their lives in servitude to our government in exchange for exile on this planet. In fulfilling their promise, they have been seen doing miraculous things all across this country, causing the tragedy and mortality rate to plunge to almost nonexistent levels. These immortals, as some have named them, were believed to be omnipotent. Today, that belief has been proven wrong as hundreds of copycats, influenced by the video, took to rooftops, bridges, and towers and hurled themselves to the ground. The sheer volume of people doing so simultaneously proved too great for even our amazing allies in the sky and many today have lost their lives while testing the boundaries of their powers. Sources close to the group say…”
Bill closed his laptop and looked out of his office window. His shock was beginning to wear off, slowly being replaced by anger, and then madness. The sight of his friend lying on the ground coupled with his first encounter with one of the creatures had awakened another sense in him. His rage began to cool and the madness started to seep in to replace it. He began talking to himself,
“So… they are not invincible after all. Maybe they bleed too? Maybe they even die? Maybe what the world needs now is a counterbalance. Something completely and malignantly human to offset the presence of these flying boy scouts from space. Maybe the world needs…”
He let the last word linger on his lips before he broke into laughter, the tears still streaking down his face.
“… and this is how it starts.”