Pulse of Heroes (22 page)

Where was the third wave? It had been a while
now and still had yet to come. It should have already been there,
and by her calculations a new set should have already begun, but
there was nothing.

Should she risk it and run across and then
down and around to the cove, or should she keep waiting for the
third wave. What Michelle really feared was being stuck halfway
through and having the third wave crash down on top of her. That
would be very dangerous, and she knew that her swimming was
mediocre at best. She was no match to the power of the ocean. The
waves crashed onto the rocks with a sound equal to that of an
earthquake and they flung pebbles and sand in a powerful spray. It
actually hurt when the sand hit her skin; it stung from the salt
and from the cold.

The third wave never came, and instead
another set of waves started coming in. Michelle waited until she
counted three of them, but the waves just kept coming, each one
louder and more violent than the one before. She began feeling very
nervous. She started shaking and she wasn’t sure but she thought
she might be crying.

Where were the sets? Michelle began to panic.
The little cove was so close, but in reality the brutal waves
stretched that distance into miles. Michelle tried to scream for
help, but realized that there was absolutely no way anyone could
hear her. She told herself to be brave, and that the worst thing
that could happen to her would be that she might get a little
wet.

When Michelle detected a slight lull in the
water, she took her chances. It was now or never. Without lifting
her gaze from the ocean, Michelle began her long journey towards
safety. The problem was that she didn’t realize that the lull in
the waves did not mean that they had stopped, but rather that the
wind and sea were gathering and storing an amazing amount of
energy. The peacefulness of the mighty Pacific Ocean was just an
illusion. At that particular moment the calm was only due to the
suction created by millions of gallons of salt water being gathered
and wound up tightly by the giant vacuum-like mechanism of the
ocean floor. But of course, no tether is strong enough to hold the
awesome power of the seas, and they will always break free. Just as
Michelle was making her way across a broad tide pool, a gigantic
13-foot wave appeared out of nowhere, crashing upon the rocks
without sound or warning and knocking Michelle off her feet.

Before Michelle even knew what had happened
she was completely underwater. It took only a second for Michelle’s
brain to comprehend the catastrophic event. She was being pulled
out to sea by the giant wave as it withdrew back to its origin. The
coldness of the water was sharp like knives and the salt stung
every tiny scrape she had on her body. Michelle gasped for air. She
tried to scream but each time she ended up swallowing more salt
water. There was no swimming in waters that rushed at such speed
and strength. She tried waving her arms, but giant sprays of white
foam hid her from view. Michelle realized that she was being
swallowed by the sea. She was going to die. She was going to be one
of those sad casualties of the abalone season that they talk about
every year on the nightly news.

Michelle thought about her poor parents, and
Toby of course. She thought about her friends out on the beach and
even about Francesca and Crumb. She thought about Elliot too. She
was cold and tired; she was giving up the fight. Another wave broke
over Michelle’s head and she was thrown back towards the shore. She
was underwater when her head crashed against a rock; she never even
saw it coming.

Michelle’s body went still and the strong
currents began to pull her away from the shoreline. Once Michelle’s
body was carried beyond the surf, it began a slow descent into the
bowels of the Pacific Ocean.

And yet, deep in the midst of the Pacific
Ocean there was land, dry land. There was land surrounded by walls
of churning waters. Columns of water swirled in the shape of
tornadoes, spinning fast and clearing a small patch of land in
their midst. In the middle of these columns of ocean water, There
was a man. Elliot was walking towards the shore, his eyes almost
white, carrying Michelle’s limp body in his arms.

As Elliot moved forward, the columns of water
behind him crashed back down into the ocean, while the waters
before him kept spreading upwards like wind tunnels. Eventually, he
walked up onto the sandy coastline and gently laid Michelle’s body
down. He bent over to her face to see if she was breathing. She
wasn’t. Elliot looked up to the sky and cried out in anger. A
lightening bolt split the gray clouds. He somberly tried to breathe
life back into Michelle’s wet and frozen body, but it was no use.
Elliot looked around to see that he was on a deserted stretch of
beach. With his eyes still shining the brightest of blues, he
carefully placed his right hand above Michelle’s heart and raised
his other arm to the sky.

“Come on!” he yelled in anger, his arm
outstretched. Dark clouds moved along the horizon, spreading out
above him and Michelle. He continued to wait, but nothing happened.
Elliot’s frustration was mounting to extremes. He looked down at
Michelle’s lifeless face with desperation, then back up at the
sky.

“Give it to me!” he roared towards the
clouds, and at that instant the clouds began to swirl above him and
the unmistakable sound of thunder began to rumble and growl. Elliot
looked at Michelle’s face again and his eyes appeared wet even in
their brightness. They began to glow in colors of blazing blue
combined with gold, and sparks of azure rotated around the pupils
that had turned almost completely white. He looked to the clouds
one more time and yelled out “Light!” and a single bright sharp
bolt of lighting split the skies and made it’s way to Elliot’s left
hand, only to have it’s energy transfer through his body and out
his other hand. The hand that was still placed above Michelle’s
heart. Michelle’s body jumped from the electrical force and she
started convulsing. Elliot rolled her onto her side and watched as
Michelle started coughing and vomiting up salt water.

“Come on Michelle. Get it all out,” he
whispered. Michelle barely opened her eyes to see Elliot’s
concerned face above her.

“Am I dead?” she asked in-between fits of
coughing.

“Almost, but you’re not,” Elliot said with a
slight smile.

Michelle began shivering in her soaked
clothes. “Where are my friends? Where is Sam?” she asked, looking
around and realizing that she was on a different beach.

“Your friends are fine. Packing up, I assume.
We need to get you out of these clothes. Do you have any dry ones?”
Elliot helped Michelle sit up and she leaned up against him. She
recognized that the beach that they were on was adjacent to the
campground where they had spent the night.

“We are camped over there.” Michelle pointed
to a wooded area about 100 yards away and coughed again. With
Elliot’s help, Michelle stood up and they slowly began walking
towards the campground when her legs gave out. She didn’t fall to
the ground because Elliot caught her and carried her the rest of
the way. Michelle pointed to the tents and Elliot laid her down
inside one of them and started rummaging thorough various bags
looking for dry clothes.

“Take your clothes off or you’ll freeze to
death.” Michelle did as he said and stripped down to her swimsuit.
Elliot grabbed one of the sleeping bags and told her to wrap
herself in it.

“My friends are going to freak out if they
don’t find me,” a worried Michelle said. Elliot found a button up
long sleeve shirt and passed it to her.

“Put this on.”

Michelle found the sweat pants she had slept
in and pulled them on, then pulled herself up and started to head
out of the tent.

“Where are you going?” Elliot asked.

“My friends, they’ll be looking for me.”

Elliot found a cell phone in one of the
backpacks and handed it to her. “Here, call them.” It was James’
phone and Samantha’s number showed up as his most recent call.
Michelle called and Samantha picked up immediately, demanding to
know who was calling her from James’ phone because he was standing
right next to her. Michelle told her that she was back at the
campgrounds.

“I thought you were hanging out with Tim. Is
everything ok?” Samantha recognized something odd in Michelle’s
voice. “Listen, we’re packing up anyway and we need to come get the
car. I’ll be there in 10, ok? Don’t leave.”

Michelle told Elliot that Samantha was on her
way.

“Good.” he said, then stepped out of the tent
and brushed the sand off his clothes. He was weakened by what he
had just done, and his body needed rest. Only then did Michelle
realize that the whole picture of Elliot being there didn’t make
any sense. She jumped out of the tent right after him.

“Wait a second. What are you doing? How did
you get here?” she asked, demanding an answer. Elliot brushed the
question away and said that he just happened to be in the right
place at the right time and that he was glad he was able to help.
Michelle stared at Elliot and put her hand to her head. She
immediately yelped in pain when her fingers found the large gash on
her forehead.

“No, you’re lying. I remember. You were there
in the water.”

“Michelle, you hit your head pretty hard. You
are confusing things. It’s normal under these circumstances.”

“How come your clothes aren’t wet?” Michelle
asked, suspiciously.

“Why should they be? I didn’t go in the
water,” he answered.

Michelle had a small flashback of the columns
of water around her. The image of fish swimming around in a
whirlpool, shells spinning like tops, and sand rotating like a
hurricane. She looked at Elliot and started pacing nervously. Was
what she saw real? Did she imagine all of that? Was she in shock?
She looked up as she realized that Elliot had no intention of
sticking around. She had no words to describe what she remembered,
what she had seen. She was obviously mistaken.

“I need to go, Michelle. You really should
rest,” Elliot said softly, turning to walk away from her. He didn’t
want to be there when her friends returned. No, Michelle thought,
not this time. She wasn’t going to let him leave her with more
questions than answers. Out of the depth of her lungs came a scream
filled with fear, incomprehension, and agony.

“What are you!” she yelled after him, and he
paused for a second but then continued on. She ran after him and
violently grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling on it as hard as
she could.

“Are you freaking stalking me? Do you enjoy
this? Is this some sick little game of yours, making me beg for
answers?”

There was a couple in the next campsite just
beginning to set up their tent. The older gentleman looked at his
wife and asked her if he should go back to the camp office to ask
for a different, quieter plot? His wife looked back at him in anger
and disgust. “Absolutely not. Don’t you remember anymore? They’re
just having a lover’s spat. At least they still care enough about
one another to yell at each other,” she said, purposely raising her
voice loud enough for Michelle and Elliot to hear. Elliot looked at
Michelle and she gave him a look that taunted him to go ahead, walk
one more step, and she would make sure that their personal quarrel
would turn into a free-for-all entertainment for everyone within
earshot. Elliot didn’t want any more attention. He was already
uncomfortable with the older couple watching him and Michelle like
they were at a sports arena.

“Fine,” he said quietly, walking back to
where Michelle was standing with her arms crossed. The older lady
gave Michelle an approving wink before scolding her husband to mind
his own business.

“The more I tell you, the more I’m going to
change your life, and I’m afraid not for the better.” Elliot told
Michelle.

“Let me be the judge of that, will you. This
is my decision, I didn’t ask you to come here and be my guardian
angel, you did that on your own. So are you?”

“What?” Elliot asked, looking down the wooden
path to see Samantha approaching.

“An angel?” Michelle said, still shocked that
such words would fall from her lips.

Elliot’s eyes widened. “Oh God, no.”

Next to Elliot, Michelle felt confusingly
safe. After speaking with Samantha and halfway introducing the
ever-reluctant Elliot to her, Michelle grabbed her bag and asked
Samantha to tell the rest of the group that she had gotten ill and
was heading back to Willow’s Creek with an old friend she ran into.
Samantha didn’t have much to say; she was completely mesmerized by
Elliot’s mere presence. She stood there with her mouth half open
and nodded. She was by all means happy for Michelle, and finally
understood Michelle’s fascination with him.

Elliot drove back to Willow’s Creek while
Michelle slept next to him in the passenger seat. He tried to drive
as gently as possible because he didn’t want her to get any sicker
than she already was. He was deep in thought, and the only time he
broke from it was when Michelle stirred or coughed. He wasn’t sure
if he should take her home or to the school, but decided that since
her parents were gone for the weekend it would be better to have
someone watch over her. He touched her forehead, and just as he
suspected she was running a fever. So fragile was the human body,
he thought. A few minutes in cold water and the equilibrium went
haywire. He felt sorry for Michelle because of what her poor body
was going through, and everything her mind would have to process
once she woke up. For now, it was better for her to sleep as long
as possible.

The car passed through the school’s automated
gates. Elliot tried to gently rouse Michelle but she just shoved
him away with her hand and told him that she wanted to sleep and
that he could leave her right there because she was comfortable
enough. At
Hekademos
, hours of the day didn’t really matter
and it wouldn’t be surprising to see someone cooking in the kitchen
or watching TV and snacking on chips at any time of the day or
night. The lights were always kept on low downstairs, but that
night everyone was asleep. Elliot quietly climbed the stairs and
opened his bedroom door with his foot, paying special attention
that he didn’t bump Michelle’s head. He gently laid her out on his
unmade bed and covered her up with his comforter. He then quietly
exited the room and shut the door behind him.