CHAPTER 3
Pete, sitting at his desk after lunch in history, was still thinking over the simple statement that Clark Kent had made. To him it made no sense, surely it was better to be in the pack to avoid all the insults and cutting words then to stand alone and isolated without any back-up.
"Mr Ross, what is the answer?" barked Mr Travis from the front of the class as Pete realised he had been taking no interest in what was normally a topic of fascination for him. "Sorry Mr Ross, I missed the question as I wasn't listening," admitted Pete. "Don't do it again Mr Ross, otherwise you are on a Friday detention, what was the percentage of individuals in the second war who shot their rifles to kill someone?" Mr Ross asked again this time with Pete listening.
"50%" replied Pete taking what he considered an educated guess. "No, incorrect who else believes they know the answer?"
"No one, no one wants to have a guess, ok well I want you to consider the following," said Mr Travis, "In an army of 100 people there is generally 60 people that are what you would call front-line fighters the remaining 40 people's role is to support and ensure that they are fed, clothed, trained, lead and pointed where they needed to go with all the information they need"
"Out of those 60 people in the front line how many of them would be willing and able to kill a person?"
Silence was in the room as all the students looked at each other curious as to where this was going. To kill a person was very different to fighting in a war in which you could maybe shoot someone but to kill that was a different word. In the middle of Kansas, and certainly around Smallville, there hadn't been a murder in 40 years, the last one when an old farmer shot his worker when he found him with his wife in the barn having sex.
"No one wants to guess?" said Mr Travis as he looked around the room before finally saying "In the second world war there were only 20% of people who were willing to kill. Half of those were the psychopaths and sociopaths who have little empathy and could justify the killing in their own head and the other half, 10% of the entire army were the protectors. These individuals were hard-wired to do whatever is necessary to protect all around them. They aren't the leaders of the army these are the protectors who believe they need to kill so that others around them survive."
There was silence in the class after this statement. Sally Pearce put up her hand and asked "my uncle was in Vietnam and from what he has shared I don't think that number is right?"
Mr Ross responded to Sally by saying "We were talking about the Second World War by the time of Vietnam the US Army had worked out how to make more people kill and now every fighting solider in the army has the capacity to kill with advanced mental training. In the Second World War it was certainly only 20% of the soldiers in the army that ever killed anyone."
"Your end of year assignment for which you will gain 25% of your overall mark for the year is to research an individual in the Second World War who could be deemed to be one of the protectors. You are to research them, their upbringing, what made them different and how did they stand out from the crowd and what were their values. Work hard to find ones that aren't the war heroes but the ones who were known but didn't receive the accolades but were held in respect by their colleagues."
"I have talked to the Military retirement home and they have willingly allowed students from this class to visit ex-military personnel from the Second World War next Saturday morning. If you wish to follow that angle in your assignment let me know by the end of tomorrow and we can organise the details of the trip. Remember 25% of your overall year mark is at stake so its a big assignment and I am expected quality work."
"Class dismissed" said Mr Travis as the bell went and the students quickly packed up their stuff and left. Pete found himself sitting at his desk with a puzzled look on his face. Looking at Mr Travis he asked, "excuse me sir, but I have a question," and without waiting for a response he asked "would a protector be a person that would purposely behave in a certain manner to save others from harm and allow themselves to be treated with contempt?"
Mr Travis responded "that would certainly be within the bounds of what a protector would do. For them it would all be about doing whatever was necessary to ensure that the people they are protecting are safe. They would accept any pain or humiliation if they believed it was in the service of the ones they see as protecting."
Pete sat there stunned as it all clicked into place but how could Clark Kent be a protector when he couldn't protect himself and never had. There just had to be more to this than what he was seeing and he was determined to work out what it was.
