Even Heroes Know Pt.1

(Please read the description for explo).

"For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world..."
--Ephesians 6:12



It was gray that terrible day.

Gray as the midday clouds threatened rain which most would say why it was terrible. But in the eyes of a 4 year-old girl sitting in the backseat of the family car, it was a day of fun and peace. Sammy knew it was going to be a fun day because she was promised ice cream, and peace because her grandmam was sitting next to her. The old woman nodded completely interested as Sammy articulated a dragon story her and her friends imagined in preschool. At that age, Sammy believed all grandmams defined peace. She remembered her grandmam for a long time.

“And den—and den the geen one tushes a sdar. And—and den his name is Dolphen,” Sammy struggled to tell the story quickly.

“His name is Dolphin?” Grandmam clarified, glancing at Sammy’s mother in the passenger seat up front. They exchanged amusement while trying not to laugh at the girl’s seriousness.

“Yeah,” Sammy confirmed, suddenly distracted as her father changed lanes on interstate 64. Charleston, West Virginia was the place for ice cream, Sammy knew. “Daddy, are we almost to town?”

“Almost,” her father said. “About ten more minutes.”

Sammy gave an exaggerated sigh. Waiting was hard.

The car was violently stopped as Sammy’s father slammed on the brakes, lurching them all forward in their seat belts. “Dan!” her mother yelled instinctively just as they came to a stop. The car in front of them had stopped in the middle of lane and had its reverse lights on. Sammy’s grandmam asked if she was okay, but Sammy wasn’t listening. Her parents had frozen in their seats, staring through the windshield at something up ahead. Sammy’s mother placed a hand on Dan’s shoulder and squeezed. For a moment it was quiet except for the honking all around them and the breathing inside the car.

A distant thundering could have easily been mistaken for the clouds above, but it was soon followed by the sound of screeching tires, car alarms and horns up ahead. Sammy’s mother whispered, “Dan…”

Her father responded by yanking the stick into reverse and slammed his foot on the gas pedal while saying, “Mom, hold on to Sammy!” Sammy felt her grandmam’s arms around her but the security didn’t last long as the car backed into someone who had also stopped behind. Within the next fifteen seconds, the interstate erupted with chaos as five cybertronians fought amongst themselves—two versus three, god versus god. The giants’ bodies screamed as metal clashed with metal, tearing a hole in the air with seismic clamor. Ton by ton giant fists smashed into iron faces—cars flipped and were crushed as massive legs and arms took the road by force for their battleground. A blue, red, and gray cybertronian was tackled by a larger beige and silver one and they landed next to Sammy’s car, their weight cracking the asphalt as Earth’s gravity added on to their colossal weight. The blue and red robot had its battle visor drawn over its face and it braced its arms against the enemy that tried to aim a wrist cannon at its head.

Explosions from alien ammunition shook the ground and made Sammy’s ears pop and she began to cry as the pandemonium ceased to end. She heard her mother scream, “Oh, Jesus, no!” before the engine of the family car was crushed under the fist of the larger beige and silver alien. The windshield shattered as the robots used the hood of the car to push themselves up. The red and blue cybertronian instantly formed a double-bladed axe from one hand and swung the weapon at its enemy. The other machine dodged twice before firing again. The bullet hit the front of the car, sending and explosion of fire through the windshield. Sammy was so confused she didn’t even know she was screaming until she started to choke on the acrid smell of burning fuel and intense heat. The metal feet of the giants stepped around each other in a dance of skill and combat before the larger bot tackled the red and blue one again, the momentum sending them over the turnpike and into the river but not without hitting Sammy’s car as they did.

The world spun as the car rolled over and over, flinging Sammy and her grandmam into a spiral of weightlessness and noise. One second Sammy felt the arms of her grandmam fighting to hold on, and the next that hold was gone and Sammy was at the mercy of velocity, her locked seat belt making her cling to the booster. She didn’t think it was real. She thought she was in the midst of a terrible nightmare.

She didn’t know she had blacked out until she woke with pain and gravity as the car was on its roof and she was hanging upside down. Grandmam was nowhere to be seen in the crumpled backseat but looking to the front she saw two figures pressed into the pavement, the entire front of the car crushed. For a minute she couldn't even be scared. All she could do was wonder what those mutilated things were doing wearing her parents’ burned clothing. Her face stung all over and she tasted metal in her mouth. It was then, when silence finally came slithering in like a poisonous snake did remembrance come with it and she began to cry.

It had been terrifying. The monsters. The monsters had come out of her memories of seeing them on TV and made a storm of thunder and fire around the car.

Daddy.

He had tried to get away. He had tried to save her and grandmam, and mommy. But the monsters were too fast. She focused through burning tears on the two things in front of her. Mommy and Daddy. Her crying turned into screams of denial and horror. How could this be real? The monsters. The robots. She had heard someone say they were heroes in a distant memory. But heroes didn’t do this to people. Heroes saved. They didn’t kill.

Sammy hung, and cried, and waited for someone to rescue her from this nightmare.