Open Your Eyes (9 page)

They
had struck mid-morning, setting off their car and backpack bombs amidst the
most populated of places. The financial district. The shopping malls. The
waterfront. The college. No place was truly safe. Those who did not choose to
sacrifice themselves in that way went on a murderous rampage instead, shooting
innocents left and right before they were brought down themselves by the police
and security forces.

They
all had left a wake of death and destruction across the city. They made it
burn, made it bleed. With hundreds already dead, the toll might be over a
thousand by day’s end...

“Stay
here.” Seth order Hannah, caught up in the chaos of both the evacuation and the
terrifying events unfolding just down the street. “I’ve... I’ve got to go.”

“Where
are you going?” she shouts after him.

“Help.”
he says to her.

Seth
races off, towards the scene of destruction further down the road. He runs
towards the billowing smoke, choosing not to blink ahead as he passes through the
throngs of survivors coming the other way; some nursing some minor cuts and bruises,
others with injuries much more serious.

Automatic
gunfire again rings out ahead. Everyone hits the deck, and Seth does too. He
glances up; still too far away to see what’s going on. There’s screams, more
gunfire.

Silence
once more. It seems to have stopped, at least for now.

Seth
picks himself up and continues on his way. The numbers of the walking wounded
grow, their injuries becoming more serious. Deep gashes, shrapnel wounds.
Missing limbs. People are helping each other. Where are the authorities?

The
crowd thins out as he finally reaches the scene of the blast: the city’s
biggest shopping mall, now just a smoking shell of smashed glass and broken
concrete and steel, splattered with the blood and gore of those unfortunate
enough to be caught up in it.

It
is near silent, save for crackling of spot fires and the moans of the injured
that still remained, seemingly left abandoned by others. There is an unpleasant
smell in the air, of burning plastic and metal. Of seared flesh. Unsettled and
sickened by it all, Seth dry retches as a bloodied man suddenly grabs him by
the arm.

“Help
me, help me please...” the injured man pleads pitifully. He drags a woman, legs
gone and barely awake behind him. Maybe not even awake. Dead.

Seth
stumbles away, in his fragile state unwilling to assist the man. He runs
through the zone of destruction, frantic, unable to help anyone, unsure what to
even do.

His
heart races, his anxiety rises. It’s a living nightmare for him. He’s unprepared
for this.

Gunfire.
A man in a balaclava and a bullet proof vest appears from around a corner, firing
at a man as he tries to flee. He goes down. He turns towards Seth, raises his
assault rifle. Fires.

Seth
blinks.

He
is dumped somewhere, doesn’t know where he is. Somewhere still in the city;
that awful burning smell still hanging in the air. He keeps running, doesn’t
stop. Scared out of his mind.

He
finally finds relative safety in an alcove hidden deep in an alleyway
someplace, seemingly shielded from the chaos on the streets outside. Gasping
for air, Seth finds himself unable to even breathe. He finds himself paralysed
by it all, all this death, all this suffering. He wanted to help, but what can
he even do? He’s just too fucking late.

Another
blast, in the distance. More screams. More gunfire. Seth snaps out of it.

“Emma...”

He
pulls out his phone, dials his sister. Can’t get through. Dials again. Nothing.

Seth
tries again. And again. And again.

He
never gets through to her.

With
the mass exodus out of the city centre, it was not until later that night that
Seth finally reached home.

The
television news replayed the events of the day. The bombings, the massacres.
The tales of heroism, captured by the cameras and the smartphones of citizen
reporters. The Blink was not in any of those images, and barely was even Seth.

A
terror group quickly claimed responsibility. The Scimitar had sent those men,
to teach all of us a lesson. He claimed Port City to be a symbol of corruption,
hedonism, greed amongst the heathens of the enemy governments, a place that
must be punished for those things like it was today. A place that was chosen to
show the whole world that he was serious.

“Open
your eyes, and see what I have accomplished.” he said yet again from the safety
of his bunker. “There will be more hell to come.”

Seth
turns off the TV in disgust. He tries his phone again. Lines still busy. He
tries again all night.

It
would not be for a few more days until he learns that they had pulled Emma’s
body from the rubble of that shopping mall, she being one of the first
innocents killed in the blast.

The
weather was shitty. It was cold and wet; miserable weather for anything
outdoors, let alone for a funeral.

Still,
many turned up. Emma was popular at school, at wherever she had worked. She
seemingly knew everyone on Facebook. Unlike Seth she had hundreds of friends and
acquaintances in her life, and was subsequently loved by many. Seth didn’t know
most of them, but he was grateful they had come anyway.

She
was that kind of person.

Seth
was the only one in the family who had the strength to come up and deliver some
words about her. As he stood there, he looked to his mother, quiet as always
and more so today. She was strong. His father, on the other hand...

He
had no words for how his father was taking the loss of his little girl. It
broke him.

“Emma
was my little sister.” he started. ”She was also my best friend.”

He
was calm, on the meds again. To cope.

“She
loved life, and all the possibilities of life. She also saw the goodness, the
potential for goodness in people, which is why she was always there for me in
the worst of times. She never stopped trying to make me the best person I can
be, I could be, even when I thought I couldn’t, even when I had let her
down...”

He
pauses.

“I
don’t think I would be here without her.”

Seth
stops. He hesitates. He can’t continue.

“I
let you down Emma. I’m sorry.”

Seth
takes his seat again. No one blames him for ending his eulogy early.

The
wake at the house was a sad, solemn affair. It frustrated Seth; Emma probably
wouldn’t have wanted it that way. She wasn’t that kind of person, one that
wallows in sadness.

He
searched for company. Pete had missed the funeral, nor did he expect for him to
show up here either. His mother was already being comforted by others. That
left his father. He finds him in her sister’s old room, sitting on her bed,
silent and staring at the floor.

Without
a word, Seth sits down next to him. Minutes pass before he finally says
something.

“Why
did they do this to us Seth?” he asks his son. “Why?”

“Because
they’re evil men.” Seth replies.

His
father bursts into tears. He cries out.

“Why?”
he moans. “
Fucking
why?”

Seth
takes a hold of him.

“Dad,
look at me. Dad.”

His
father looks to Seth, his son’s eyes filled with a fire, a determination he has
never seen before in his life.

“I’m
going to find them and kill them dad.” he says to him. “I’m going to find and
kill whoever did this to her.”

Seth
pulls up across the street from the house. It was still cordoned off even after
all these months; a flimsy chain linked fence, the remnants of police tape
keeping gawkers like him out. Still, it didn’t stop people from trespassing and
vandalising the place.

They
had good reason.

This
place, this ordinary, nondescript two storey townhouse in the old suburbs, was
the place where it started. The investigation had traced all of them back here.
It was the place where they built the bombs, hid their firearms, made their
final plans. 

It
was the place where those bastards had lived.

The
Blink had not been seen in months, and it did not take long before the people truly
noticed his absence. Although the streets were safe, safer than ever due to the
increased security and the haze of paranoia that appeared after the attack, his
presence as the people’s watcher of Port City was still sorely missed.

Some
say he abandoned the city, unable or unwilling to protect it after the horror
of what had happened. Others questioned why he was not there to stop the attacks
in the first place, some even accusing him of collusion with the perpetrators. However,
most people have chosen to believe that he was probably killed that fateful day,
just another victim, another son of Port City taken away by terror...

No.

No.
The Blink had not been seen because Seth has been occupied.

The
search for answers had consumed Seth. He never returned to work, instead
spending all of his time finding out all he can about the attacks, the men who
carried them out. From what has been said in the media, to his own research.
Information gained from the inside of their offices, their secure computers;
not even the thick impenetrable walls and security systems of the nation’s top
security and intelligence agencies could keep Seth out from finding all that he
needed to know.

Seth
found out many things about these men, these men that carried out the attack.
Their names, where they had come from. What the bombs were made from, where
they had lived before that fateful day. He discovered that the fire he and Lily
had come across that night was no accident too; it was one of their bombs going
off early, a test of sorts. It disgusted him; their callousness, their lack of
humanity.

All
in all there were eight of them. All disciples of The Scimitar. All murderers. He
paid the man for the gun, the ammunition. He’d never fired a gun in real life
before.

He
knew in a few days that will all change anyway.

The
cafe had recently reopened its doors. Close to the shopping mall, it had
suffered significant damage during the attack. Still, the patrons returned and
this morning it was moderately packed with them, as if nothing had ever
happened.

Seth
asked Hannah to meet him here.

She
waits at the table, feeling a little nervous and concerned about who she will
actually meet. She had not seen Seth for months; she certainly didn’t expect to
see him so gaunt, so tired, so unkempt when he finally appeared.

“How
you holding up?” she asks him.

“Barely.”
he tells her.

“I’m
sorry for what happened to Emma.”

“Thank
you. It means a lot.”

“Is
there anything I can do?”

“No.”

He
pauses.

“This
world is fucked up. It’s going to shit” he tells her bluntly.

“Yeah,
it is.” she agrees, looking for something to say. “They just announced we’re
sending more troops to the Middle East. Not exactly calling it an invasion are
they?”

“No.
It’s not.”

He
sighs.

“It
all started here, with what happened. In this city. It’s the tipping point.
It’ll just get worse from here.”

“Why
did you ask me to come here Seth?” she asks him.

Seth
hands Hannah a small object, a USB thumb drive.

“There’s
something on this that I’d like you to watch. Just some things I needed to say,
about what I am going to do, about what I have done.”

“What
have you done Seth?”

He
doesn’t answer her question.

“You
can tell everyone, or you can tell no one.” he tells her. “It’s up to you.”

Seth
takes her hand and kisses it softly.

“Goodbye
Hannah. Take care.”

In
front of her and everyone else, Seth blinks.

Seth
steps out into his backyard, still and silent save for the rustling of the
leaves on the trees that surround his property. He looks up to the sky,
relishing feeling the warmth of the sun on his cheeks. He pulls the hood over
his head.

He
takes a deep breath. Closes his eyes. The light envelopes him.

He
disappears.

He
didn’t know exactly how far back he had travelled. Still, he wasn’t too
concerned. He travelled back far enough. Back before the day of the attacks.

Seth
opens his eyes, finding himself in the hallway of the house, the sounds of a
football match coming from an adjacent room. No one knows he’s here. Yet.

A man
comes out of the room, a beer in his hand. Seth instantly recognises him.

He
is one of the eight.

The
man yells as Seth draws the pistol. Raising the gun, he squeezes the trigger
and fires, shooting him in the head. The man goes down, blood splattering
across the wall behind him. Alerted by the shots, two more men come out from
the adjacent room. Seth fires again.

Three
down, five to go.

Seth
goes through the house, taking two more of those bastards down. They know he’s
here now, he can hear them yelling, panicking. They’re armed. Turning a corner,
he almost gets shot by one wielding a shotgun. He fires back. Another down.
That’s the sixth.

Seth
reloads the gun. Continues to sweep the house.

He
hears another one behind him, coming up a flight of wooden stairs that lead to
a basement under the house. Seth guns him down at the top of the landing,
barely even giving him a chance.

Stepping
over the body, he slowly heads down into the basement below.

Cold
and dimly lit, it was here, in this Spartan concrete basement, where it all
began. The planning, the making of the bombs, the stockpiling of weapons.
Everything.

Moving
cautiously forward, Seth steps around the cache of weapons, the boxes of nails
and ball bearings and other shrapnel on tables yet to be packed into their
explosive containers. He hears a sound. Seth raises the gun again as he corners
the last remaining terrorist. Raising his hands high, the man is unarmed...
save for the explosive vest he has on, and the trigger clasped in his palm.

Seth
squeezes the trigger on his pistol. Nothing. The gun jams.

The
man shouts to his creator. Seth lunges for him; however, he is too late.

The
trigger under his thumb, the man in the vest presses down on the button just as
Seth reaches him and blinks, taking the two of them into the void. Rendering
the explosive reaction temporarily inert, Seth transports himself and his
captive to where this had all ultimately started...

Out
of thin air, the two are dumped into a small room, in front of an audience of a
few confused men. Seth opens his eyes to find himself face to face with the man
himself, The Scimitar. The man responsible for all that death and destruction,
all that hatred, fear, and evil. Here he was, hidden in his bunker, the same
bunker where he had sent out all those messages of hate and war.

He
thought he was safe here. No, not anymore. Seth had found it, had found
him
.

Staring
at the terrorist leader with a fierce determination, the man with the vest
pinned under his knee, Seth tells him the first thing, the only thing that comes
to his mind:

“Go
to hell.”

The
chemicals become potent again. The reaction restarts almost immediately.

The
vest explodes, taking everyone out in the bunker with it.

Hannah
inserts the USB thumb drive into her laptop. Lights blink. On her screen, a
directory pops up, its sole contents a single video file. She double clicks on
it.

Seth
appears on the screen, his face looking directly at the camera, at Hannah.

“Hannah,
by the time you are watching this I will be gone. I have set out to try and
stop what happened to our city on that awful day many months ago. I am doing
this because I have ability to stop it. This is because I am The Blink.”

“Bullshit...”
she whispers nervously to herself, before his next sentence leaves her in complete
and utter shock.

“Do
you remember the lights Hannah?” he asks her. “From that night, when that
maniac came after you? That was me. That was me Hannah.” He pauses. “I know
that night still haunts you. That night still haunts me too. I knew that you
were being stalked by this man, and yet I kept it to myself. I kept it to
myself and did nothing about it until it was almost too late. I saw him attack
you, I pulled him off you, and sent him away, far away. After that night I
couldn’t let something like that happen to you, or to anyone else ever again. I
went out and became a hero.”

He
pauses again for a moment, contemplating his words to her. His fate.

“I
don’t know what will happen to me after this. Maybe I will survive somehow,
maybe I won’t. Maybe I will be successful and save all those people, including
my sister. Maybe I will change the future and you'll forget any of this ever
happened. Maybe life will go on, but you will know what I did. I don’t know...
I really don’t know.”

Again
he pauses, briefly. For the final time.

“The
one thing I do know is that for all those years I’ve worked at The Universe,
the best part of my day, the only reason I keep coming to work, is seeing you
at your desk.”

He
smiles. A sad but relieved smile.

“You
always wanted that big story Hannah. I guess this is it then. Take care.”

The
video ends, freezing on a still of his face.

Hannah
wipes the tears from her eyes. She never knew. No one did. The things he did
for this city, the things he did for her.

Although
sometimes he thought so, Seth was never a terrible person.

Far
from it.