Chapter 4: Little Boy, Big Land, Someone To Love Him
Tyler had endured a frigid night in the desert, using a fair sized rock as a pillow to take cat naps. He started to question himself. Maybe I should have stayed, he thought. No, this is the right thing.
Memories of his corporal punishment he received when he made minor miscues during his training flashed through his mind. Though he could heal quickly, there was still evidence of deep lash marks where he was beaten with an extremely sharp whip made of fiber-optic wiring.
"Run faster, Zero Four-Four!" a trainer barked from a microphone, the acoustics echoing through the cavernous area.
Tyler was already running as fast as he could, but he knew if he didn't speed up, it would be ten lashes and no water afterwards. With as much will as he could muster, Tyler silently pleaded for his legs to muster any reserve energy to make him run faster.
"Damn it, Zero Four-Four. I said speed it the hell up!" the trainer roared as he pulled out his personal weapon, a standard Beretta pistol, and fired it, nearly missing Tyler's head by scant inches.
Tyler shut his eyes and pushed himself with everything he had. And to his relief, he noticed he began to speed up–barely, but enough that the trainer would notice. His relief soon disappeared as his insides felt as if they were on fire. His stomach rumbled, twisted, and knotted itself, but Tyler didn't dare stop his pace. The pain, however, was too much and he felt a rush of something erupt from his stomach and burned his esophagus.
Tyler winced at that memory. He wished that someone would come, open his head, and take all those memories from his brain. Without another word, he kept on moving.
Soon, the sun was high in the sky. Waves of heat shimmered off the horizon, baking everything in sight. Tyler looked up and down the long, straight stretch of Route 66 and saw nothing but pavement and desert for miles. Sweat poured from his forehead, drenching his shirt and causing it to cling to his torso.
"Gotta.. Keep... Going," he chanted to himself. "Gotta... Keep..."
The heat began to take its toll and Tyler collapsed into the dust face first. High above him, he could hear the sound of a jet plane. He forced himself to lay on his back so he could see the tiny dot, thousands of feet up, leave a contrail across the clear blue sky.
"Wow," he whispered silently, not able to muster the energy to speak.
His eyelids started to feel heavy and his throat was dry. Strangely though, he felt at peace and he shut his eyes.
Twenty seven year-old Eva McGinnis bobbed her head to the beat of a song she listened to from her tape player as she drove down the empty highway. She was coming home from a family reunion in Chicago, and instead of flying back, she opted to take a road trip back home to Los Angeles by taking the famous Route 66.
Something off to the side of the highway caught her eye.
"Hmm," she thought as she, in her 1992 Jeep Grand Cherokee, rapidly came closer to the object, that looked like a pile of battered, dirty, and torn clothing.
"Holy God," she then exhaled as she soon realized there was someone still wearing the battered white clothing.
Quickly, she skidded the sports utility vehicle to a halt on the shoulder of the roadway, then dashed across the road to find a little boy with dirt caked onto his hands and face. Blood on his clothing dried and turned a mottled brownish-purple color. Eva's heart began to race. She had found a dead child in the middle of nowhere. At least she thought he was dead until his eyes began to flutter.
Tyler noticed it became somewhat cooler than it was. Slowly, he opened his eyes, only to find someone standing over him, blocking out the sun. A woman with dark sunglasses. Tyler then went on the defensive, sprang to his feet, and went into a martial arts ready position.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I'm not going to hurt you," the woman exclaimed, clearly startled as she put her hands up in surrender.
Tyler remained in his crouched position, ready to strike if he needed to. He had come this far and there was no way he was going to go back or get killed without a fight. And if he did die, he would make sure to take some of them down with him.
"I swear I won't hurt you, little boy." The woman pleaded. "I've got some water in my truck. You thirsty?"
Tyler was dehydrated, but was this a trick? Nobody had ever offered him anything when he was in need.
"I'll go get the water. Hang on, kid," the woman noted and jogged to her SUV parked on the side of Route 66.
Tyler's eyes tracked her, and he listened for anything that could cause a threat. Though she was a hundred feet away, he could hear her open the truck's door and the water in it's bottle sloshing about as if he was right next to the nice lady. Soon, she came running back with a large bottle of Crystal Springs water. Tyler relaxed his stance, relieved that someone was actually helping him. Him.
"There you go," the kind woman said with a warm smile.
"Th-thank you," Tyler said with a dry throat, taking the water and gulping it down and letting the excess dribble down the sides of his mouth and onto his face and shirt.
The woman smiled. "So what's your name?"
Tyler panted after chugging down half of the contents within the bottle. "I am Infiltration Unit Tyler Zero Four Four."
Eva widened her eyes. "That's, uh, quite a name. Well I'm Eva"–she stuck her hand out–"pleased to meet you."
Tyler looked at her hand, then at her, then back at her hand, not sure how to react. Eva slowly retracted her hand, not really sure of what to do.
"So... how old are you, Tyler?" She asked.
Caught off guard by the usage of his name instead of his designation number, he answered. "I am seven years, four months, twenty four days, two hours, and seventeen minutes of age... well, now eighteen minutes."
Instantly, Eva noticed that there was something more than extraordinary with the kid. No seven year old she ever met knew their exact age up to the minute, let alone the fact that he had such a strange name. He must have been hit in the head, or the heat's gettin' to this poor kid, she thought.
"Why are you out here all alone? Where's your parents?" Eva asked.
Tyler looked down at the ground. "I ran. And I have no parents."
"I'm sorry you have no parents. Where did you run from?"
Tyler looked around briefly, as if searching for a road sign. He then pointed to a direction to the south and east.
"Oh," Eva responded. "Well maybe we should take you back there. Someone might be looking for you."
Tyler's eyes instantly locked with hers, fear riddled within them. "Please don't take me back there." He begged. "They'll kill me. Please?"
Something in his eyes showed Eva that he wasn't kidding or speaking figuratively. Not to mention the dried blood on his clothing could have been an indication of what he went through. Eva pondered for a moment, trying to figure out what to do.
"Well, c'mon. Let's grab some food. There's bound to be a diner somewhere along this highway and I'm pretty sure you've gotta be starving." Eva noted. "After we grab some chow, we can figure out what to do next."
Tyler nodded. "Okay,"–an idea soon hit him and his face lit up–"how about you be my parent? You could take me in and–"
Eva knelt down in front of him so her eyes were level with his. "I'm sorry but it's not that simple, Tyler. There's paperwork and then they have to make sure I'm fit to be a parent and I don't really know if I am yet–"
She wanted to say more, list all the reasons why she shouldn't be a parent, but the look in his eyes was too much to bear and from what she saw on those news shows like 20-20 and Dateline, kids who get turned over to the authorities have a rough time. And from his appearance, Tyler had been through pure hell. The last thing he needed was to be put in the system and shuttled off from family to family.
"Y'know what kid?" Eva finally said. "We'll work something out. Let's go"
Tyler's face lit up and for the first time ever, he smiled. Then he heard something off in the distance. He cupped his hand around his ear and focused.
"What are–" Eva began.
"Shh," Tyler hissed. His eyes then shot wide open. "Get to your truck. Run!" Tyler pushed her towards the street.
"What the hell!" she exclaimed.
"Go! They're after me, not you!" Tyler ordered.
Confused, Eva ran to her truck, while Tyler ran off, but first, clamped his hands around a Route 66 sign, and ripped the pole out of the ground as if it was nothing more than a weed in softened dirt. Tyler then sprinted into the barren desert, leaving a dust trail in his wake. Soon, Eva too heard something. The low rumble of jeeps and off in the distance, she saw a cloud of dust.
"Who was this kid?" she asked herself as she started up her own truck.
Tyler leapt over a boulder, never losing stride. He knew they were after him, but now he had to protect someone. There was no telling what they would do if they discovered Eva was associating with him
Tyler's eyesight adjusted and focused as if they were lenses on a camera. Mentally, the distance to the targets–a pair of Hummer Assault Vehicles–relayed into his brain. They were close. Too close. Suddenly, the buzz of automatic weapons fire filled the air and white-hot lead tracers tore past his body. He ducked, dodged, and dove away, a few bullets narrowly missing his head.
One Hummer tore up a dune and flew into the air. Things simultaneously slowed down and sped up by Tyler's perception. With the skill of a marksman, Tyler twirled the pole, then thrust it straight up into the Hummer's fuel tank as it flew overhead. Pungent liquid flowed from the hole in the tank and left a nice trail. Quickly, Tyler found two rocks and rapidly smacked them together in an effort to make as many sparks as possible.
The Hummer landed and skidded to a halt. Three armed guardsmen piled out, weapons at the ready. Tyler slapped the rocks together one more time on the gas trail, igniting it like the fuse on a stick of dynamite. The flame followed the path straight to the Hummer. Tyler dove behind a dune and covered his head with his hands just as the guards fired their guns at him. Suddenly, a brilliant flash, a crack of thunder, and a blossoming fireball erupted. Before the guards could react, they were swallowed in a hellish inferno of fire and shrapnel.
Tyler peeked his head out and saw nothing but the carcass of the assault truck.
"One down, one to go," he said to himself.
He noticed the other Hummer didn't bother with him. It was going in Eva's direction.
Eva jumped, startled from a thunderous explosion that just happened. She saw billowing smoke off in the distance. She could bring herself to say anything, knowing that Tyler had to have been involved with that. Just then, A large jeep came to a screeching halt and armed people filed out and surrounded her.
"Hold it!" One of the guards ordered, each of then with their guns at the ready.
Eva froze in place, terrified. She never had seen a gun pointed at someone in real life. The fact that they were pointed at her was almost too much to bear.
"Where's the boy?" another guard barked.
Eva took short quick gasps for air, not knowing what to say.
"Where is he?"
"Right here," Tyler said with as eerie calmness as he came up running, then leapt high into the sky, using the sun to block the guards' vision on him.
The guards pointed their rifles up and began to fire erratically. Eva darted behind her jeep and took cover as the rhythmic chatter of gunfire tore open the silence of the open desert. My God, he's dead, she thought to herself, until she saw one of the guards fall to his feet due to a crushing blow to the head.
Tyler landed, darted, and did a cartwheel to avoid the gunfire. He twirled his pole and swiped it under the last two guards. Before one of the guards had a chance to even hit the ground, Tyler brought up the pole and swung it with all his might like a baseball bat, nailing the guard square in the side of his head, killing the man instantly.
While his back was turned, the second guard regained his footing, leveled his rifle, then fired. Like he had precognition, Tyler darted out of the way, however, a bullet made connection with his arm and tore through his young flesh. Blood oozed from the wound, but Tyler didn't wince. He had a mission: protect Eva.
He let out a loud battle cry and rushed towards the rifle wielding man. Tyler reared his pole up, leapt into the air, and came back down, slamming the steel pole into the man's combat helmet with the force of nearly ten men. The helmet shattered, as did the guards skull. Blood shot from the guards facial orifices and bones cracked as if they were nothing more than potato chips. The third and final guard was still unconscious and wouldn't pose a threat.
Eva emerged from her hiding spot and stared at Tyler with awe and fear in her eyes. She then looked at the carnage of the downed guards and their blood flowed from their heads.
"We've got to get outta here," Tyler said as if nothing was fazing him. "There'll be others looking for me. We need to move fast."
"Y-yeah. Move," Eva managed to say while trembling.
"Are you okay?" Tyler asked.
"Okay? Oh sure. I just witnessed a child murder three people, blow up a Hum Vee, and save my life! So sure! I'm damn peachy keen!" Eva yelled.
Tyler tilted his head quizzically and calmly replied. "I didn't murder anyone. It was self-defense. And I didn't kill them, the pole did, plus one's still alive, as are the ones out by the destroyed jeep."
"Fine," she growled. "Lets get out of here before more of those bastards come up and they do kill us."
With that, the two jumped into Eva's SUV, and sped off, heading west bound. Eva took a glance over succumbs the boy, and noticed his arm was bleeding profusely.
"My God, you've been shot," she gasped.
"Oh?" He raised his arm and noticed a quarter inch hole in his tricep. "Hmm."
"Oh and Hmm? That's all you can say? We've gotta get you to a hospital!"
"That won't be necessary. My body will heal itself soon. And it's best that we stay clear of certain areas like hospitals or the local authorities." Tyler informed.
This was too weird. How does a seven year old kid know about staying away from the authorities and healing himself?
"Well then, I guess you're sticking with me then." she said, cracking a small grin.