Responsibility

Thomas woke up with his head pounding, he had no memory of losing consciousness. He looked around, thru the windows he could see trees flying by, and he quickly realized he was on a train. It was a nice train, the seats wouldn’t have looked out of place in a first class airplane. He was so confused! How did he get there? He was at work, his secretary had told him he had a guest, but he hadn’t recognized the man that came in, that’s when things went blank. This made no sense, if the man had knocked him out, no one would have let him be carried out.

That is when he felt something surrounding his wrist. He looked down and saw a handcuff on his right wrist, and the other end was attached to a briefcase. This couldn’t be happening, now he was very confused because not only would no one have let him out of the building unconscious, he was certain no one would let him leave with a brief case that he assumed held the weapon he had been working on! And that is when he noticed the man sitting to his right. He was so nondescript that you could easily look right at him and not even notice he was there. Light brown hair, light brown eyes, light brown suit. A man that could slip right by you, a man that could slip a blade between your ribs and you would only notice him after four inches of steel was puncturing your heart.

“Sleeping beauty finally woke up.” Even his voice was unmemorable! “I figured I would have time to finish my drink before our conversation.” He rattled his scotch, maybe half finished. “So let’s just start right in, shall we? You have probably noticed that you have a very non-descript briefcase attached to your wrist, the briefcase you have never seen. However, what is inside the case you are intimately familiar with, down to the last atom.”

Thomas couldn’t believe what he was hearing, something he had designed to be a threat that would end all war, something that maybe a dozen people knew existed, and this stranger seemed to know far too much about it! Not only did he know about it but he had been able to somehow knock Thomas out, find the weapon, attach it to Thomas’ wrist, get him out of the building that required three security checks, and get him on a train, something about all this was very very wrong!

“From the look of panic and confusion I see on your face I can tell you are trying to piece this all together and none of it makes sense. How could I have gotten a man of your size,” Thomas may have been in his late 50’s but he was still in amazing shape at 6’3, 200 pounds, “out of such a secure facility without raising any alarm, especially when you had something like that in your possession.” The man laughed, “You see, it’s quite easy when you, Thomas, just walk out on your own giving all the right clearances needed to not raise a single alarm.” Finally something that wasn’t nondescript, this man’s laugh was the eeriest sound Thomas had ever heard, had the quality of a roaring fire to it.

“Thomas, let’s cut to the chase, this train is headed toward Washington D.C at a rate that will put us at the center most point we can reach by train, in 90 minutes, about the time that briefcase on your arm creates havoc on a never before seen level! The conductor is dead, all communication cut off, the only safe guard is inside your head. You could detonate the weapon early and save a million or so people, but I have a way to make sure you don’t decide to do that!”

What could this man have that would make Thomas compromise his morals and not sacrifice himself to save a million people. “There’s nothing you could do that would make me sit by complacent. You know there is a dead man trigger on this weapon, if I die the weapon dies with me, I am necessary!” That laugh, again, erupts in the car, “You think I give a damn about your life? I know about the dead man trigger and I know there is only one thing you care about, your sick little Mia.”

Thomas looked confused, Mia was safely in the hospital, and she was dying from cancer at only 11 years old. She had lived in the hospital for the last two years slowly dying, decaying, in horrendous pain that got so bad that she was often sedated to just to give her peace. But in the hospital she was surrounded with dozens of doctors and nurses, no one would let her out, so what was the threat. “What could you possibly do to Mia? She’s closer to death than any child should be, she knows she is going to die and she feels no fear so what could you threaten her with?”

The light brown eyes flashed for a moment as a sick smile spread across his abductors face, “Thomas the threat isn’t her death, the threat is her life! Yet, a life without her father.” The man pulled out his phone and with a few key presses a video call was being made. It connected and a familiar face appeared on the screen and Thomas leaned forward to be seen on camera.

“Dr. Karga! Dr. Karga, is Mia ok?” Thomas couldn’t understand how this man seemed to know his daughter’s doctor. “Dr. Karga do you know this man?” He asked as he thumbed in the direction of the man who had shackled him to his life’s work.

“Thomas, I have known Asbeel for millennia! And my name is actually Artiya’il but you can just call me Deniz if that is easier.” Thomas leaned back into his chair, his mind was shattered. This man had been his daughter’s doctor since the beginning, he had comforted them through all the bad times and he had had a way to heal his daughter and had never told them about it, how sick was he?

Asbeel waited a moment before he spoke, looking at Thomas he slowly spoke, “Thomas, I know this is all shocking to you. That I turn up in your life one day and just happen to know your daughters doctor, that I claim we can give her her life back, that all it will take is millions of deaths and your daughter will walk out of that hospital an orphan tomorrow no worse for wear.” That laugh escapes his mouth again, now Thomas can almost see a fire roaring out of this man’s mouth as he laughs.

No one speaks for the minutes that follow. Thomas is trapped, literally and figuratively. This man had been able to get the most destructive weapon in history out of the building with no trouble, he had gotten Thomas on a train, killed the conductor, and was associated with his daughter’s doctor. This Asbeel had played the long game here, he knew every angle, every detail had been considered perfectly and now Thomas had to figure out how the hell he was going to finish all this and save as many lives as possible.

It wasn’t till ten minutes later when Thomas realized no one else was in the car with him besides Asbeel and a woman with a young daughter that seemed to be sound asleep. Thomas stands up and asks if he can stretch his legs and Asbeel seems fine with it nods his approval. Thomas walks over to the woman squats down next to her and nudges her arm. At first she didn’t awaken but after a second nudge her eyes pop open in alarm, “Zoey!” she shouts and looks around until she sees her daughter sitting to her right and she puts her hand over her chest in relief. She looks up at Thomas and asks, “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” And suddenly Thomas recognizes her from the hospital, he had passed her in the hallways many times over the last year but he had only exchanged mumbled courtesies with her.

“Yeah, I think your daughter and my daughter have the same medical team. Does she see Dr. Karga or someone else?”

“Hi, I’m Victoria, Zoey is Dr. Karga’s patient.” She looks down at Zoey, “She was dying, slowly, just like her father. He lived to be 19, Dr. Karga said Zoey would be lucky to see 15 at the rate the disease is going but yesterday he came in and said he had found a way to cure her!” Victoria started to cry. “I never thought she would be healthy, I’m still in a little shock to be honest.”

Her mom crying seemed to awaken Zoey who rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands and smiled up at her mom, “Don’t be sad mommy, I’m all better now. Deniz fixed me, remember!” Victoria laughed as she watched her daughter smile wide, giggle and snuggle into Victoria’s side.

Victoria looked up at Thomas, really seeing her surroundings for the first time, “Where are we? Dr. Karga said we needed to take this train to D.C to get some tests run before he could fully say Zoey was healthy, but once we got on the platform everything gets fuzzy, I remember seeing a bunch of people getting on the train but then the world disappeared till you woke me up.” She stands up and looks around noticing the lack of passengers and asks frantically if she had overslept and missed the D.C stop.

Thomas reassures her that they had not missed the stop that they were still about an hour from D.C. She was reassured and relaxed for a moment before looking around and pointed out how weird it was that the car was empty except for the four of them. Thomas couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed this detail and went over to Asbeel to ask. “How are we the only people in the car? You said the conductor was dead, have you killed everyone?”

Asbeel laughed, that furnace opening and issuing sounds fit for Hell, “Of course I haven’t killed everyone! If I had it would have made things too easy for you to just set the weapon off before we got to D.C. How easy would it have been for you to just set it off and kill you and I? How much more difficult is it now that you know two more lives are in this car with us? No, there are a good 200 passengers on this train, I just reserved this car for our little family. Please, go check on the other cars, you’ll see that they have no idea there is a problem.”

Thomas went to each end of the car, looking through the windows to see both cars filled with people. To them life wasn’t about to end in a fiery nightmare, to them it was just a normal Friday. “May I go in with them? Walk with people, hear the chatter, maybe see a pretty face and catch a smile or two.” He was coming to realize that no matter how insane all of this felt, he was indeed going to die today but he could choose how he was going to die. On his feet or on his knees.

Asbeel’s eyes never left Thomas, and now they seemed to burn with a pale red fire. “Thomas my boy, of course you can walk among them! I want you to connect with every single one of them so that you keep your hand fearful and allow my hand to be the one that brings about their deaths.”

Connect with them, that wasn’t quite what Thomas had meant, but maybe that was a good idea. If he connected with them maybe then it would harden his resolve to find some sort of solution out of this catch 22. So he opened the door going into the car following his. It was loud, there were a lot of younger business men in this car. They all seemed to be boasting to one another, some about stocks, some about political pull, and some about feminine conquests in the upcoming weekend.

As he pushed thru the ones standing in the aisle, one in the corner caught his eye. He was different, he stood out not in attire or build, but he stood out because he gave off this quiet power. His eyes were a strange blue, light, airy, it seemed to seep out of his eyes and onto his face. Thomas stopped, the man had been staring into Thomas’ eyes before Thomas noticed him, why? Did they know each other? No, there was a strength to this man that Thomas would have remembered immediately, an aura. The man patted the seat next to him, the only one open in a car that seemed to be standing room only.

“Thomas, you look confused. You look like a man that has lost everything but now has a few minutes to realize just how terrible that lose is about to be.” He sat down, not even questioning that the man knew his name or knew how truly screwed he was. For the first time he just looked down at his hands and took a deep breath. He was completely numb. He didn’t feel like he was still inside his body.

Five things he could see, four things he could feel, three things he could hear, two things he could smell, one thing he could taste. Five things he could see, four things he could feel, three things he could hear, two things he could smell, one thing he could taste. Five things he could see, four things he could feel, three things he could hear, two things he could smell, one thing he could taste.

The numbness faded. He was back in his body. The dissociation was over. He looked up into the other man’s face, was it strength he felt or was it peace? Peace carries a tone of strength within it. This man had an aura of peace and at this moment he was looking down at Thomas with the most visible unconditional love one human could convey in their eyes alone.

“Thomas, you look like you are carrying a burden that no man was ever meant to carry. You look like you have the lives of millions in your hands. Thomas, I can tell that you have a deep love for mankind, you look like a man whose goal in life was to prevent pain, not inflict it. But sometimes an obstacle places itself in the middle of your plans, it is unavoidable, inevitable and it’s in that moment, in the way we face that obstacle that we truly become more than we were meant to be. Sometimes that obstacle becomes the solution to your very problem.”

Thomas just stared into the other man’s eyes, he didn’t hear the words as much as he felt them. He still felt the burden of responsibility but he felt love, he felt mercy from the decision he was able to make. “Thanks mister. You seem to have a way with words. I’m sorry for what is about to happen.” He chokes back a sob “I hope you know that what is going on was set in motion before you got on this car. Bad luck for all of you I guess.” He buries his face in his arm. He was never going to see Mia again. He was never going to hug her. He would never see his parents or his brother. And he wept.

Minutes passed, and the man next to him never looked away, he never shushed his moans or cared if anyone looked their way. The man just looked at Thomas and lightly set his left hand on Thomas’ back. “My name is Jegudiel, not mister, but all my friends just call me JD. Thomas you are in a situation that I don’t envy, but you are the only one that can accept responsibility for what you created and when you do God will be merciful, on that I can promise. Mia will be proud of her father, the hero, and one day you will see each other again, but it will be a long time and there are going to be other battles first.”

The blue aura seemed to flair for a moment and Thomas felt a little better about his situation. He stood and walked back into the car where his fate awaited him, but before leaving the car he looked back at everyone and whispered, “I am responsible, I am sorry.” He did the same as he passed Victoria and Zoey and walked back over to Asbeel. “So what are you offering me to let you kill millions? I have to know what my actions could effect.”

Asbeel looked at him and simply said, “You daughter will walk out of that hospital tomorrow, an orphan, and she will go on to play huge role in the history of this planet and one day you will be reunited.”

“And if I don’t” He asked.

“You both die, but you rot in hell never to see her again.”

Thomas stood up and walked to the window, they were still about 40 minutes outside the city and at the speed they were going he knew the weapon going off now wouldn’t impact the city. He turned and with a sick grin, looked at Asbeel and said, “Mia I take full responsibility, I am so sorry. I love you so much and I always will.” He pulls out his phone, he opens a small red app and punches in a 5 digit code. “Asbeel, my daughter was the obstacle that was standing between me and owning the fact that I had created something so terrifying and owning that it would cause untold death. But knowing she would see him as a hero, that she would love him no matter what. And her unconditional love was making him feel a merciful love from above that would wash over everyone he was responsible for killing on this train as he pushed the final digit of the code causing the weapon to erupt.

Suddenly JD was standing next to Asbeel watching Thomas’ hand, almost seeming in slow motion, pushed the final key while a loving grin crossed his face. When it became obvious what Thomas was doing a reddish black light surrounded Asbeel as his face contorted into something akin to a bat. He roared, “No he was mine!! If I cannot take him with me, I will make sure you cannot have him either.” He reached forward and directed the first stream into Thomas’ chest and he began to turn to ash. As quickly as that happened a blue light rushed out of his chest and shielded his body from any additional injury. He turned his face to the sky and screamed as blue white wings rushed out of his back and wrapped the blast in a shell as strong as the one protecting Thomas. In that moment Thomas was strong enough to contain the blast and save everyone on the train as well as everyone in D.C.

JD started laughing at the utter confusion on Asbeel’s face, all his careful planning thwarted in the eleventh hour by a simple lesson on owning ones actions to a man that felt guilt daily for helping to create something so evil. “Asbeel you lost him years ago, you were just too focused on this moment in the future to see what had happened in the present. His young wife dies and suddenly he is solely responsible for the life of a sick little girl. In that moment he wants to create something that protects the world his daughter loves so much. He wants to create something that makes his daughter proud of him. Little did he know then that destroying that which he created was the action his daughter would be most proud of. And in so doing he earned the merciful love and grace of God and was made into one of us, a general in the army that will one day defeat Hell and its king.”

The room turns a bright white blue and suddenly JD and Thomas are gone and the spot he had stood upon, where the weapon had gone off, showed no sign of either of them existing. Asbeel screamed in rage as the blue faded and an inky black red films the room as he disappears. He had failed to recruit a genius mind for his army and he knew he would pay for that dearly.