The Shot

Jimmy knew that he would never take a more compelling or intense photograph. For a photographer it was sometimes pure dumb luck to be in the right place at the right time with a camera and take "the shot".

This shot would make his career and would ensure he never had to struggle ever again for professional recognition or a steady income.

He, like everyone else, had hidden out of sight as the two behemoths clashed throughout the city. The warning the city had received had given the citizens enough time to evacuate or to get down into the basements of the buildings.

They had arrived with the dawn and the city had taken an enormous toll as building after building had been leveled as the unrelenting physical violence continued. Each blow was struck with such ferocity that their indestructible bodies became missiles that had the capacity to explode against a solid object and render it to dust.

He had watched Lois as she left the basement of the Daily Planet. Her face was ashen and her whole demeanor screamed fear to him. He knew it wasn't fear for herself as she was quite ridiculously brave but fear for Superman. Without thinking he decided to follow her and arrived with her at the front door and looked out.

The image of the two behemoths locked together as they struggled was awe-inspiring and extremely frightening. Superman's arms were wrapped around the Dreadlord's head and its arms were wrapped around Superman's waist. Jimmy started to take shot after shot of the cataclysmic event.

With a heave the Dreadlord locked his arms and broke Superman's back. Superman screamed in total agony and with the last of his strength tore the Dreadlord's head from its body. Jimmy kept shooting as Superman looked at Lois and he could see Superman's lips moving. He watched as Lois raced towards Superman screaming "No, No, No, No" before she fell down next to Superman and pulled him into her arms.

Then the perfect moment for "the shot" occurred.

The man of steel's body was held across Lois's lap. His uniform was torn in so many places; blood was running through each of the tears. The brilliant blue was faded with dust from smashed buildings dimming the vibrancy. His head was lying against her chest and his eyes were closed in death. All the pain was missing from his face and the trademark S was nestled against his forehead. His arm was flung out and in death he still looked powerful and majestic as his red cloak had settled behind him and had pooled onto the ground next to them. The head of the Dreadlord, where Superman had dropped it as he fell, provided a counter balance to the cape as the blood from the torn head pooled across the rubble strewn ground.

Lois's head was thrown back and she was screaming at the sky. The anguish and pain on her face was terrible to view in its starkness. She looked like her world had ended and no one would ever doubt the love that she had lost. Blood had been smeared across her face where she had hugged Superman's cut and bleeding head to her. Tears were running down her face and mingling with the blood and she looked primeval in her anguish.

Broken buildings that resembled a disaster zone framed the tableau. The broken windows and smashed walls of the buildings was a testament to the ferocious power that had been unleashed during the battle. Holes, which had been punched through the walls by the combatants, were eerily silhouetted as the dust from the broken masonry filled the sky and the sun's rays were filtered.

It was "the shot" all photographers dream about, but would it ever be seen was a choice he now had to make.

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