Hero stories part 2 by Gordana Nenadic Stevic

Hero Stories EN GLISH 6, PROCIVITAS LUND

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The Return of the Past I woke up with a lot of energy today beside my beautiful wife, I got dressed and walked into the kitchen, I noticed that the photo of me and my unit, back when I was in the military was laying on the kitchen table instead of the window frame. The time in the military was a time that I wanted to forget forever, so much death and destruction for no good. The only positive thing was that I met my best friend, Mason Johnson there. My wife Rebecca was still asleep I met her at a big concert 5 years ago, it was one of those moment, that people call “love at first sight”. I knew when I saw her standing in a corner with her blonde hair and blue sparkling eyes, that she was the one for me and since that day we’ve been together. I opened the fridge to prepare breakfast but realised there was nothing to eat, so I decided to go to the grocery store. Before I left I checked on my beautiful daughter, she was still asleep. Her name was Alice, she had been my world for the last 7 years. I sat in the car on my way home from the grocery store, the clock was around 9 and I saw more and more people on the streets of New york. Out of the blue three cop cars swished past me with the sirens on. They were heading the same way as I and then further ahead I saw that they took a left onto our street. I felt the fear inside of me, I increased the speed and followed the cop cars until I reached my house. What I was worried about had occurred, there were paramedics and cops everywhere outside the house. They had cordoned off the front of the house and no one was allowed to enter the house except the investigators and paramedics. I pushed my way past the crowd gathered at the barriers and jumped over it. Two cops came rushing towards me, one of them pulled up his gun and pointed it against me and the the other one shouted -Step back immediately! You are not allowed inside this area! -No! This is my house, my wife and my kid are inside! I need to know what's going on! 1

- Take it easy man. We don’t want anything bad to happen here, just tell us your name. - My name is Jason L.... I was just about to say my last name when my eyes caught the sight of two stret- chers coming out from the house. Now I realised what had happened and I fell down on my knees. The tears ran down my cheeks, it felt like someone ripped out my heart and threw it away. After a while the head of the investigation came up to me and asked me to follow him into the house. I felt the coldness when I stepped inside the house. The investigator lead me to the kitchen table and there he took out two photos from his jacket and showed me. One of the photos were on a young beautiful blonde girl, lifeless, suffocated to death. The tears fell down from my cheeks once again. The other photo showed the most beautiful girl on this planet, the women that I loved, lifeless, with a hole in her head. I threw the photos away, the pain I felt before had been replaced with anger and it grew stronger for every second. - I know that this is hard on you but I need you to take a look at this. This is the only lead so far and it’s in this envelop, we found it next to your wife’s body. I opened the envelop and what was inside struck me like a lightning. Inside there was a photo with my military unit and a red marking on my head and on my backside there was a name “Dmitry” and know I understood everything. I took goodbye to the investigator, went on my phone to call Mason and told him everything that had happened and to meet me down at his gun shop. I jumped into the car and started driving to the shop and at the same time I took my mind back to when I was in the military and when we first encountered with Dmitry. Me and my unit got relocated to a city in the north of Afghanistan due to many soldiers had been killed by someone, someone they could not find, an untraceable man called the Ghost. Our mission was to somehow located this man and kill him, the only problem was nobody knew anything about him and he knew everything about us. It took weeks and many injured soldiers before we located

him to a small village 5km away from our base. When the time was right, we enga- ged an attack against the village in order to kill him but we failed. When we arrived several armed soldiers attacked us in a ambush. They were everywhere and it all turned out to a bloodbath, bullets flew from right to left and numerous of innocent women and children lost their lives. But their was no sight of Dmitry, a week after the attack we received a lot of information about Dmitry and a report which showed that Dmitry’s son and wife were killed in the bloodbath. Every week after that incident we received several threats from Dmitry that he would revenge the death of his wife and son. I arrived to the shop within 10 minutes, I stepped out of the car and walked to the entrees. The “closed” sign was up but the door was wide open, I felt that something was wrong so I pulled up my gun and pointed it at the direction I was going. I walked around a corner and there he was. He stared straight into my eyes, I saw the hatred in his look. His body was covered in tattoos. He held a gun pointed to Mason’s head and another one pointed towards me.............

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Shrunken It all began at that one moment a windy day two weeks ago. I was walking from my small gite up the long steep road leading to my laboratory. The great mountain was casting shadows over our village and it took a lot of effort to walk up the road along its side. I shouted towards Igwar, my blue little Poodle with perfect bouncy curls that almost covered his small brown eyes. His fur used to be dark brown, but unfortunately he happened to stand in the wrong place while I tested a colourtransformer. I was dissolving a colour-pill in water with the intention to water our trees with it. The blue water would colour the wood and make it easier to build our blue houses. Sadly my pill only worked on Igwar, who got the colour-transformer accidently poured over him. My blue dog seemed quite happy anyway. Due to this poor happening, the people living in Fantu called me clumsy Ethan. This is a bit ironical since my name actually means safe and strong in Hebrew. When I finally arrived at the big cage which acted as an entrance to my lab, I saw the door being wide-open. I always closed the door using my face scanner, but this now seemed to be broken. Igwar rushed inside as he probably sensed that something was different. I could hear him bark inside and guessed he had smelled the scent due to my clumsiness a few days before. I had forgotten the door open a few days earlier which had resulted in a family of squirrels moving in for some reason. I thought that it was a bit strange that the door stood wide-open but went inside to finish my newest creation, a powder to shrink matter with. My dimly cold laboratory where lightened by small spot-lights dangling from the uneven roof and the desk, where I was working, where a messy chaos. The new powder was standing right in front of me at the metal-table and almost glimmered in gold tones. Igwar had settled down under the table growling at something in a dark corner. I ignored him and went to sit down at a chair. As I walked there something came up behind me and pushed me forward, resulting in me falling to the ground landing 4

on my knees. As I layed down on the cold concrete-floor, I could in the corner of my eye see that something pulled the bag of shrinking-powder from the table. Like falling snow, the powder dazzled down on top of me before I could react. I tried to roll over from my stomach to my back but it felt like clear threads held me down. Before it all turned black in front of my eyes I made a last effort to get up, but without any luck. It felt as though I lost track of time for a while. One hour, one minute or maybe just a second. When I finally began to feel my legs again I stood up. The view  in front of me could have been from another world. My laboratory looked different from the way I remembered it. From nowhere a blue hairy blob came rushing toward me. Terrified I began running, but fell over an unnaturally big needle. The blue blob followed me and then I suddenly saw that the blob was my Poodle Igwar with his beautiful brown eyes. I suddenly remembered how the shrinking-powder had dazzled over me. The world from my five centimeters height where spectacular but unreachable. I knew that I had made an antidote to the powder, but it was nowhere to be found. As I planned my next step I happened to fall into Igwar. My small body tangled into his curly fur while he jumped up and down to shake me off. He cantered out of the cage probably following a squirrel. From outside I had a great view over the small valley. The blue houses of Fentu seemed bigger than before from my position. Tangled in Igwar’s fur I felt protected from the gusts of wind. I could distinguish how something was heading down towards the village. In some way the creature looked exactly like one of the squirrels that had moved into my lab. Igwar seems to have noticed the same thing and he rushed down the rocky roads dragging me with him. Somewhere during the wild hunt I dropped my white coat but we came closer and closer to the squirrel. When getting closer to it and to the village I realised that it had grown to at least twenty times bigger than me. Standing in front of us on top of Fentu’s school where a giant orange squirrel. Igwar where growling at it. I saw the two bags in it’s small paws. The antidote made to grow things must have happened to grow the squirrel to the size of a giant and it was now threatening to shrink or destroy the school. People came rushing from all directions to save their children, but nobody acted. Everyone stood there froozen with fear and then it was too late. I could see how the squirrel poured the 5

powder over the building and it started to shrink trapping the small big people inside. The squirrel screamed “Give us back our oaks or I will shrink everything in Fantu!” Strangely we all understood what he said. It must have been because of  his size. From my view I could see how the squirrel dropped the bag of antidote near me when he outrageously jumped up and down on the shrinking building. I pulled myself from the long fur of Igwar but somehow I seemed to be stuck. I gave it one last try and pushed my small body back and forth. With all my power I managed to bounced to the ground and continued to roll towards the bag of antidote. I knew that this was my chance to act. I got on my feet and jumped into the big bag of powder. Just like a twelve-year old kid I grew a lot and was soon back to my normal size. I grabbed the bag and ran towards the school to attempt to save the kids from being smashed. I threw the powder over the building creating a big earthqua- ke when it grew. The squirrel standing on top of the building fell off due to the shakings and he dropped the shrinking-powder. I saw my chance and ran towards the bag but somehow Igwar managed to get there before me. My blue little Puddle took the bag in his mouth just like he used to do with his favorite toy, a beige moo- se made in soft fabric. He ran towards the squirrel and in some way he threw the bag over the still dizzy squirrel. I’m not sure he knew exactly what he was do- inging but it worked. I watched the big squirrel shrink to his normal size and then run away to the woods, while I made sure that the Fantunian people were alright. Standing in the centrum of Fentu where a big statue of me and Igwar. The Fantunian people treated us like heroes and had made a big feast in our honour. I was not convinced that I really deserved to be called a hero. I was after all the one who had let the squirrels in to my lab but I told myself that something else had made the squirrels evil. I knew that their oaks had been cut down so I made a commitment to make a serum for fast growing oaks, and so i did. All the Fentunian people could now live their lives in peace with the squirrels. I had placed the new oaks near our squirrel-loving-neighbors in the town of Tonga, so everybody was happy.

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Wrong place at the wrong time It was a completely normal day for James, he was driving home from work thinking about his family who was waiting for him to come home as they always did. He imagined the scene he soon was to experience. The scene when he opens the door and screams “I’m home” and two boys comes running around the corner  and jumps up in his arms saying “finally dad”. These two boys were his sons, Jason 5 years old and Nick 7 years old. James imagined him letting go of his view of his sons and raising his view to see a beautiful woman leaning on the wall admiring her family. Laura was his wife and also the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Her golden hair and ice blue eyes was a combination he had only seen in movies. “I am so lucky” James thought while letting go of the image he had in his mind. James started focusing on driving again when he suddenly realised that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. While daydreaming about his family he had drove wrong and entered the so called bad area of Los Angeles, also known as Compton. James knew that Compton wasn’t a place where he should stay long which was why he decided to take the fastest but the shadiest way out. This was a bad idea which he soon was to find out. After making a left turn he looked to the right as he saw a big crowd of people, at least 200. That’s when he made the mistake that was to change his life. It took not many seconds before people started to noticing him and the car and started to shouting and taking pictures of his license plate. James didn’t know why until he understood what was going on. He was being a witness to a drug deal between the town's biggest drug cartels. James realised that he shouldn’t get involved and therefore proceed to drive home as fast as he could. 7

Two days later James received a phone call from an unknown number. He decided to answer since he was curious. -Hello, you are talking to James, answered James -Oh finally, is it really you? James Smith, a familiar voice answered back -Yes my name is James Smith. Do I know you? - You used to know me, I am your old classmate Shawn from Wildwood School. -Of course it is you, I knew I’ve heard that voice before - Listen, we don’t have much time by now. Remember the other day when you drove past a drug deal in Compton? - Yeah, how could I forget? Why? Is it something special? - I don’t have time to explain how, but I was a part of that deal you witnessed and now I want to help you since they are after you, Shawn said with a upset voice - Hold up a minute, are they after me, James said while looking around to see that none in the family heard him - Yes, you witnessed the biggest drug deal in America's history. You have a  big big price on your head and many hitmen and mercenaries are after you, we have to act quick. Are you able to meet me at Wildwood School in 30 minutes? - I guess I have no choice  - Not really, it is either death or Wildwood in 30 James was in shock but knew that he didn’t have a choice. He figured that he wouldn’t tell Laura since it would only cause problems and unnecessary suspicions. Instead he finished his coffee, dressed and jumped in the car. He knew that it would take him around 20 minutes to drive to Wildwood if he didn’t drive wrong so he had no time to lose, especially not when he was being hunted.

8 minutes later James found himself stuck in a traffic jam. Traffic jams were very common in Los Angeles which meant that James had learned how to cope 8

with it. His trick was actually to sleep, believe it or not. He sat a timer on 5 minutes and fell asleep quickly and every time the timer rang he would catch up. He knew that this would kill time so he decided to it despite the stressed situation. But first he contacted Shawn to inform him of the situation. *brr, brr, brr* - his alarm went. James opened his eyes to an unpleasant view. An unknown man with face mask sat in the passenger seat holding a gun against James temple. This is the end, James thought the same second as a gunshot was heard. The man with face mask didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t react nor shoot, he just opened his mouth and let the blood flow out while slowly collapsing.

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Superhero I woke up by the sound of sirens running outside my apartment in New York City. Tired I got myself out of bed and walked to the mirror to get ready. When I saw my tired blue eyes and my crazy blond hair, I seriously reconsidered getting back to bed. But as this city ́s hero I knew I couldn't do that. I had a responsibility and I had to live up to it. I mean it wasn't hard for me, I basically have every power you could have; strength,super speed,flying everything you could think of basically. I live alone in an apartment in central New York City. I am a photographer, I usually take pictures of myself when I'm saving people. So it's a pretty easy job.The only other thing you need to know is that I never knew my parents, They died when I was very young in a car accident. I know it ́s weird to wish for but sometimes I wish there was someone as strong as me to actually put up a fight. But enough about me, it's time to start saving people. I started by putting on my yellow suit and then I simple just flew out of my window. My day started pretty ordinary. I went in to stop a bank robbery and when the bank robbers started shooting me the bullets simple bounced off me. I grabbed to robbers weapons and bent them to circles with my super strength. So I was done pretty quickly with that. I went by my job and left some pictures of myself in action. And I got my day’s payment for that. After that I switched back to my regular clothes and went to my girlfriend Jenna, of course she didn't know I was a hero, that would put her in serious danger. When I came to her apartment I smelled the delicious food, she had done, we sat down and started eating. Jenna: So how was your day? Me: Oh you know nothing out of the regular, just took some pictures of ManSuper. Jenna: I don't like that you are taking pictures of that man, someday you are going to get into real danger. 10

Me: oh come on, Jenna you know I took that one karate class once. I am completely safe Both: Laughing. The night proceed as usual, I help Jenna get rid of the dishes from the food. We listen to some calm music. When I suddenly heard something with my super hearing, it sounded like it was going really fast and right at me. And before I knew it Jenna's window got destroyed, I flew back and everything went black for a couple of seconds. When I opened my eyes I saw a man in a black suit who lifted Jenna up.. She started screaming. I was so caught off guard. The man in black looked so weird. His eyes glowed red and even his hair was black. And before I knew it he swooshed out the window with Jenna in his hand and all I heard was her screaming. Sad,beaten and angry I returned to my apartment. When I opened the door I saw a note on the floor. There was something written on it “Stopping Bank robbers isn't nice” and then it clicked for me, I suddenly knew where this person was. He was at the bank where I stopped a robbery earlier today. I flew there with all the speed I had, I crashed through the wall and there I saw him “The man in black”. I saw that he had Jenna tied up to a chair. I screamed to him “Who are you?” He answered with a quick smile and said “ Your worst nightmare” then I threw me through a wall. I got up quickly and gave him a hit that would have killed a normal man. But this was no ordinary man. He just spat out some blood. We went at this for a while until he got the upperhand. He was standing above me with a pipe ready to pierce right through me. And as he started to send the pipe down on my, I grabbed his leg and made him fall. I quickly gained the upperhand on him and I pierced the pipe through him. I took the rope of Jenna and flew back to her apartment. Obviously I couldn't say much to her because I was in disguise. So I quickly changed costume and lied down where I was before I saved her. I got up and said maybe I should stop taking photos of ManSuper after all. And all I could think for myself was, “Maybe it ́s not so bad being the strongest man alive”.

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A Human Hero I woke up by the sound of sirens running outside my apartment in New York City. Tired I got myself out of bed and walked to the mirror to get ready. When I saw my tired blue eyes and my crazy blond hair, I seriously reconsidered getting back to bed. But as this city ́s hero I knew I couldn't do that. I had a responsibility and I had to live up to it. I mean it wasn't hard for me, I basically have every power you could have; strength,super speed,flying everything you could think of basically. I live alone in an apartment in central New York City. I am a photographer, I usually take pictures of myself when I'm saving people. So it's a pretty easy job.The only other thing you need to know is that I never knew my parents, They died when I was very young in a car accident. I know it ́s weird to wish for but sometimes I wish there was someone as strong as me to actually put up a fight. But enough about me, it's time to start saving people. I started by putting on my yellow suit and then I simple just flew out of my window. My day started pretty ordinary. I went in to stop a bank robbery and when the bank robbers started shooting me the bullets simple bounced off me. I grabbed to robbers weapons and bent them to circles with my super strength. So I was done pretty quickly with that. I went by my job and left some pictures of myself in action. And I got my day’s payment for that. After that I switched back to my regular clothes and went to my girlfriend Jenna, of course she didn't know I was a hero, that would put her in serious danger. When I came to her apartment I smelled the delicious food, she had done, we sat down and started eating. Jenna: So how was your day? Me: Oh you know nothing out of the regular, just took some pictures of ManSuper. Jenna: I don't like that you are taking pictures of that man, someday you are going to get into real danger. 12

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Mission Alert Twenty years after a horrible experiment went wrong the society has started recovering, accepting it as their new normal. Back then, they experimented with human mutation, wanting to create a new life form that could live longer and with be physically stronger. The experiment was performed by collecting all the stray cats and using their DNA to create a serum. When the first human testing took place something did go terrible wrong. The testing person stood in the testing room and the experiment started by filling the room with the serum gas. A few seconds went by with nothing happening. Therefore the scientists decided to increase the amount of serum. The machine turning the serum into gas stopped. Five seconds passed, then an explosion sounded and started a fire. This made the scientists scared for their lives and they left the building running. The test person was left behind in the burning building. When I walked through an abandoned suburban area 5 years ago I met my cur- rent best friend Haruka, a girl with long blond hair with pink highlights tied up inâ&#x20AC;¨ a ponytail. Through her my life took a turn for the better. I had previously lived as a stray just trying to survive. I never would have imagined that she would chooseâ&#x20AC;¨ to befriend me, when I looked like a wild cat with my brown tangled hair and yellow eyes. I am today a spy for my country employed by Haruka's father, the Monarch of Tottori. I have almost the same routine every morning. Getting out of bed at 05.00 and do my everyday workout. At 06.00, I make sure Haruka is awake. Then at 07.00, I drive us to school in our Au-Car. I still go to school, but not all the lessons, because I have my spy assignments. This day I had to go to the Radio Tower to see if they had noted any unusual activities. As I walked towards the tower I felt a strange feeling as if something was going to happen. 14

“Good Morning, Roxy, May is waiting on you in the conference room.” the receptionist said. I walked in to the conference room. “No time to talk, take your equipment and get on the jet.” May said, looking a bit concerned. I did as I was told. While on the jet, she started talking. “We have located atomic weapons pointing towards us by radar, it is located on the Toi Island. The Monarch has issued us to go and check it out.” “Do we have any idea of who it could be?” “Not at the moment, if anything changes we will be notified.” After twenty minutes it was time to get the mission started. I put on my backpack, made sure my Electro Gun was still attached. I walked towards the door. “Get into position” May said “Get ready...Jump!” As I was falling through the air, I saw the paradise island Toi. The island looked calm, making it hard to believe that there were atomic weapons. But the closer towards the beach we got, the more it felt wrong. As we got closer to the ground I prepared myself to pull the FAD (Flying active device), I got ready then I pulled the strap. Nothing happened. I pulled it again. “Mine isn’t working” I screamed, “Mine neither, prepare for a hardcore landing and protect your head” May screamed back. We rotated over to our backs, hoping the FAD:s would protect us a bit. The FAD:s did save us from harming ourselves in the fall. We left the FAD:s on the beach and ran towards the forest. We used the tracker to locate the atomic weapons. As we got closer we heard branches breaking in front of us. One more step. The next second we found ourselves being locked in a metal cage. “I’ve been expecting you” a voice said from behind. I turned my head and saw a person with black hair, flame coloured ears and burned skin. “Shima?” May asked. “Shima?” I asked confused “Who’s that?” “I am Shima and I am the person who survived the experiments, the fire from hell.” He breathed “I am the one who is going to take down Tottori. Everyone who was  a part of the experiment is going to die!” Shima said with a grin on his face. I took my gun and tried to shoot him through the cage but the electro shot came right back, hitting the ground. “That won’t work” Shima laughed. I looked around in the cage and found a part of the cage shimmering. “I have almost completed the

atomic bombs and I have aimed them at the chief scientist as well for some of the other scientist’s homes.” Shima said, walking other towards something that looked as the weapon. “I’ve now started the countdown. Soon the scientists will be no more”. I shot at the shimmering part of the cage. Sparks flew everywhere and the cage fell apart. I ran towards Shima shooting at him, I hit his leg as well as one of his arms. He started running away and I ran after. I was about to catch up when he jumped on a flying scooter and drove away. I went back to the atomic weapons trying to overwrite the codes. 50 seconds left until it was supposed to fire. I breathed heavily. 30 seconds. I felt the stress building up and increasing my typing speed. 5. 4. I was almost done. 3. 2. I pressed enter whilst still hearing the bombs engine starting. 1. It worked. The countdown stopped and we had succeeded. But we were not able to catch Shima. “Remove the nuclear material and insert the coordinates for this place to destroy the weapons, making him unable to use this again.” May said. I did as I was told. Then we started running out of the forest to the beach and saw a motorboat waiting for us. May took the steering wheel and drove us away. I looked behind us seeing a huge explosion taking place. When we got back from the mission, we wrote the report and sent it to our superiors. We checked for any other activity but there were not any new missions for us. I was told to go back to school and pick up Haruka. As I walked back to the school I thought about what Shima had said. What really happened? What is the reason for me not knowing who he was and what kind of experiments that had been performed? As I got to the school I had made up my mind, I was going to find out more about these experiments and also capture Shima next time I saw him. I picked up Haruka and all she wanted to know was how my mission went. I told her about the atomic bombs as well for the fact that we met Shima. She has always been interested in my missions because she isn’t allowed to come with me on spy missions. But I concealed the fact of me not knowing why I hadn’t been briefed about Shima. I drove us home and reported the mission to the Monarch and then I went back to help Haruka with her homework.

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When Everything Suddenly Ends It has been over a month now since everything ended, it all happened so quickly. People weren’t aware of the danger that was heading towards them. So many innocent people died. The first wave wasn’t that bad, but still, people were unaware and didn’t have time to prepare. It took about one minute for the wind to suddenly get stronger, strong enough to tear apart houses and move cars. I was home alone at the time. Firstly I didn’t notice what was actually happening on the outside, but when the rock flew through the window beside me and nearly hit me, I knew bad things were about to happen. The street was full of people running and trying to find shelter, kids that had lost their parents just stood there and cried of confusion. My first instinct told me to run and help them, but then I saw the big wave of water behind all of the buildings. I froze and was unable to move, I didn’t have a clue that this was just the beginning. My dad was always scared of things like that to happen, that’s why he constructed our basement in a way to manage situations like that. The basement was prepared with water and canned food, but it was impossible to know if that would be enough. I grabbed all the snacks I could manage to find and ran downstairs to the basement. It was difficult to close the heavy metal door, but after struggling with it for a while it was now closed and sealed. My body automatically took me to the corner of the room. My warm and sweaty back touching the cold wall, is the last thing I remember from that night. The sound of the increasing wind and floating water above me was impossible to ignore. After that night everything felt so strange, but still quite normal. I was used to being alone, my family didn’t spend much time with me and I didn’t have any clo17

se friends. The moment awakening was kind of shocking, the first thing that I decided to do was to get the hell out of the basement, but that didn’t go as planned. So- mething was blocking the door, so I just sat there, stuck for about one week. Until the second storm came, the thunder storm, the hardest I’ve ever heard. The lightning came one after another. The only thing that scared me the most was the idea of the basement not keeping me safe through the whole wave. Eventually I lost the counting on the time. When everything calmed down, my decision was to try once again to open the door. I grabbed the handle and gently tried to open it, but of course that didn’t work. That made me go mad, I slammed the door with my whole body for about 10 times, but that didn’t give any results. Devastated and anno- yed, my leg just kicked the door. To my surprise that actually helped. The door was now open and ready for me to go through it, all though the big question was still in the air. Am I ready to go out? After finding a backpack and filling it with all the stuff I needed, I knew it was the time. It was dark outside. The beat of my heart increased by every step taken. The moon was shining and it’s light was shining on my face. The sky was clear and made it possible to see all of the stars. I was now aiming to get to the military shelter up in the mountains, it was about one mile north to get there. My parents always told me that place would keep me away from all the danger that would possibly come. About half of my house was gone, just few other houses was left on my street. Cars were lying all over the place. But I didn’t have much time for looking around. Who knew when the next wave would hit? My legs started to take me north, I walked through the street. The street that once used to be my neighbourhood, but it’s all gone now. The only thing that still remained were the memories I had. Just when I was ready to leave the street I heard something. The sobbing and crying was almost impossible to not hear. The sounds were coming from one of the cars. I tried to check all of the cars but suddenly the crying stopped. But that didn’t made me stop. Two cars left to check, I thought, what can I lose? When I came to the second last car and washed it windows with my arm, I was able to see Alex. Alex was the kid that lived across the street. That poor kid was 18

un- conscious, probably sat trapped in there since the first catastrophe. My brain black out for a second. Knocking on the window didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t help, the only way out was to break the window. That was a risky decision, because things could only get worse and the youngster could get hurt even more. There wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much time left, that was the only argument that made me break the glass. After getting the kid out from there I immediately started to do the first aim pro- cess. After repeating it for the 4th time, all hope that was left disappeared. Feeling of failure and disappointment replaced all the other feeling in my body. When I was just about to stand up and get on moving, something surprising made me look down once again. Alex woke up, the youngster was desperately liy trying to get some air into the lungs, my hand slowly and softly started hitting Alexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back. It was hard not to notice the confusing and sad way the kid was looking for the parents. When the whole situation calmed down and after explaining everything and feeding Alex with the food I had left, we decided to move on quickly. The kid hand- led the situation better than I thought, we both knew that there was no meaning to hope for people to come back here. Now we are here, on the route 34 heading north and trying to get to the shelter before the next wave. Our dreams and hopes are big, but those are the things that get us going.

KAPITEL 8

Henri’s Sacrifice This is a story about Henri. Henri, as all other knowing creatures have loved. Loved his wife. Loved her until her death and beyond. But they took her, took everything he hold dear, the savages of the north. They took her away from him and now? Now he paddles up the river. He left his home in Germania, but never left his love. His love is where she always was, around his heart, a necklace where her soul now resides. When they took her from him, he lost it, the voices came back, all the voices, including me. But he also heard her, she calmed him. She whispered. -It’s alright love, I'm here.  He answered.  - Sunya, where are you?  - Look at the necklace I gave you. -How? - I am where I always were, around your heart my love. Henri grabbed hard around the necklaces, as tears fell down his face, he whispered. -I miss you - I miss you too.   - What should I do? Help me. - Get revenge for me, revenge me, slay the savages of the north, kill the god of the underground, Hel. Kill him. Henri stood up and look around, his wife hanged in front of him, every limb had been torn up and individually hanged up in a tree. And in that time and place, we came back. The voices. -WE SHOULD RUN!! 20

-You heard her! Take revenge! - What if they come back? rUN - Fight them! - You can ́t  - RUN!  - You can ́t - You can't fight them! - Stop!!! Henri shouted. Then he saw them. The savages, the closed in on him. Panic grabbed him, and he ran. And the voices with him. He ran towards the woods but was cut of by them. They were menacing, blood all across the body, they came out of the mist, one by one. They had buck head on them. The crowns skeleton had blood on them. He could not see their faces, the faces that killed his wife. When they talk blood came spurting out of them. Tattoos all over their bodies. Henri stood there, terrified. I was there too. He screamed, as if his life depended on it, which it was. You can not imagine such a scream, a scream that is not ready for death. Not ready for Hela. As an axe was swept and seconds from removing Henri ́s head from his neck! They vanished. They weren't real, he was alone all along. He looked at the tree and saw her limbs. That was real. He cried. The bad dream was back. He had arrived in the north. He stood up from the canoe, the snowflakes was falling slowly, melting when they hit the ground. - TURN Back, IT'S tOO MUCH. -You are too weak, you're going to die. - You don't have to do this.  - You can still turn back. Henri kept going. The voices, he had them for all his life, his mother hated them. Hated how he was different. His father though, he had them too and encourage him. - Henri, you have a gift. You can see the world like no other. Use your inner eye and you will see the world from different perspectives, and the truth will arise.

His inner eye. He didn't fit with the other children when he was young, his mother wouldn't allow him to leave the house. Fearing for his inner eye, it made him different. But you're probably wondering who I am? Well I'm no one really, only a small part of Henri ́s inner eye along with all the other voices. We were there from the beginning, when he was a child, but we were silent when he met Sunya. But now we are back. He hated us. He hated us because the voices told him to do things, doubting him, question him every second of his life. Well except for me. I like to observe and now I have you along for this adventure. You can't tell him what to do nor make him, you'll have to like me, observe. Henri stepped on the beach, it was the longest beach he had seen, it went on for miles and miles. He walked though the black grains and into the woods. It didn't take long before he saw them. The savages. They who had taken everything from him. Taken Sunya. Tears ran down his face. He would get his revenge. - Don't cry Henri, it ́s alright.  - How can it be alright? You're not here.  - I'm right here beside you. Close your eyes. He closed his eyes. - Use your inner eye my love.  There she was, in front of him. Beautiful as ever.  - You can do this Henri.  - You can ́t, you will die, you are too weak. You are no hero. - Forget her, go back! - Don't listen to them Henri, just because you haven't saved anyone or done anything heroic doesn't make you a hero. Believe in yourself. You can still save someone. You can still save yourself. As tears welled down his cheeks, he stood up. He was going to get his revenge. Henri lounged out of the forest, the savages were shocked and taken by surprise. He ran and cut one in the back, killing him. He thereafter slid down on his knees and served a savage leg in the momentum. He stood up realizing the were one more he hadn't killed. Ready to attack him. 22

- Behind You! He heard the voice, he ducked and saw an axe swinging where his head used to be. He swung around, shouted and swept his sword and severed the savage head. The battle was over. He had killed them all. He looked over across the camp and it. The gateway to Helheim, Helgrind. He ran towards it. His revenge wasn't done. He will kill Hel. - What is that`?  - A door.  - Where does it lead to? - Helheim stupid!  - Should he push it? - PUSH IT! - Don't push it!  - What is he doing?  - HE ́S PUSHING IT? - Stop! Don't push it! He heard Sunya’s words. He must believe in himself, he began to push. Push will all his power and strength pushed against the door, it opened! The gate was open. Henri walked through it but realized something was wrong. The bridge to Hel was broken. Shattered. In a moment of stress, he figured it out! He must see the world from a different perspective, and the truth about the bridge will arise. He saw a cliff off to the left of the door. He began to climb it, the wind started picking up and rain began pouring down. Hel knew he was coming for her. He was almost at the top, the whipped his back and the wind blowing away his body. He rocks had become wet. Henri slipped! He began falling from the cliff. He knew this would be his death if he doesn't do anything. He drew his sword and embedded it in a crack while falling down. The fall stopped abruptly. His arm began to crack and he felt something was wrong. He found a footing and took his sword out of the crack and began to climb again. While at the top he realized his arm had bruises all over it. But he must to keep going. Keep fighting. He saw the bridge. He looked at it from a different perspective. He used his inner eye. The bridge wasn't shattered anymore. All the pieces began to become whole again, every piece locked together with the other, forming it. Rebuilding it23

self. He saw the bridge. Whole. He began to climb down the cliff. His arm was in bad condition and it hurt. He ignored it. He ran across the bridge. On the other side was Hel ́s tempel. Henri entered. He was finally there. He was going to kill Hel and get his revenge. Inside the temple were only a big room and a throne. On the throne was Hel. He sat there. Watching him. His whole body were burned. Burned a long time ago. He couldn't see his eyes, his eye socket were covered in scars, burns and ash, as for his whole body. He didn't say anything. He sat there. Watching him. Henri raised his sword. - You can't kill her, you are too weak and soft. - Go home! it's safe there. - You can ́t. He began to run towards Hel. He was ready. He jumped and began to swing his sword! But there was a sudden stop. Hel had caught him in the air by his throat. He lifted him up in the air without strenuous effort and began to push against his Adam's apple. Henri could feel the taste of blood in his mouth and he couldn't breath. Henri took both of his legs against Hel ́s chest and pushed backwards. He landed on his back and used the momentum to roll back and up on his legs. Henri looked up, ready for another strike. But something was wrong. Hel ́s arm began to change. They wasn't just arms anymore. They had become sharp swords. He began to run towards Henri. Their swords clashed! They began to swing their swords against each other. They were evenly matched, Hel was strong but Henri could evade and block his attacks. The sweat ran down his face. Henri was beginning to become tired. He kept going to evade Hel ́s attacks, waiting for an opening. He saw and took it! In a motion he had served Hel ́s left arm. He didn't react and kept swinging at Henri. Henri kept evading and saw another opportunity. Henri shouted and cut Hel ́s other arm of ! Hel fell down on his knees. - HE DID IT?  - How did he do it? - He Couldn't?

Henri shouted.  - I did it! You all said I couldn't, but I did! Henri stood before Hel. Ready to kill him while on his knees. Henri raised his sword above his head. Henri could feel his arm. It was scared. It hurt and was numb at the same time, he could feel it ́s darkness. He could also feel drops of sweat running down his face. His lungs hurt, everything hurt. But he was ready. Ready to kill Hel. He began to swipe down his sword. But Hel tossed himself to the side! He grew his arm out within a second and took henri ́s sword! In one motion he stabbed Henri right in the heart! Henri stood there. Paralyzed. He felt death inside of him. His legs were beginning to become heavy. He felt tired so he laid down. As blood was running out of his chest, he saw Sunya, laying beside him. He looked at her. His necklace was glowing. She said. - I learnt the hard way, to not be afraid of death, Henri. Because a life without loss is one without love. Turn your back on death.... and you only see the shadow it cast. The longer you hide from it, the longer the shadow grows, until all you can see is darkness. When our time comes, we must look death in the eye and embrace it as a friend. Only then can we let go of fear, and emerge from our darkness. Henri took her hand. And shut his eyes. Above him stood Hel. Looking at him. Suddenly the doors of the temple opened! A strong wind swept along the temple. Hel ́s skin began to wither away. The ashes fell of. When the wind had settled and Hel ́s ashen skin was gone, there stood a man. It was Henri. His skin was bloom and clear. No more scars. He looked down at his damage body laying on the ground. He then looked out of the temple, the sun was shining. He went outside. This is where this story ends. I can not see further than this. But please follow him, there is still one more story to tell. Go my friend, this now will be your story to witness. Goodbye.

KAPITEL 9

An Anonymous Hero It was September the 10th. Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s horrendous and boring boss had made him work late this afternoon. At home, his two children, Lily and Joey, and his wife Linda were waiting for him. He was well aware of that, but still, he was not able to leave the office. The office looked like most offices do, impersonal and very business-like, but the good thing about it was that it was very centrally located. Outside one of the few windows of the building, John could see families enjoying the London Eye together. Every time he looked outside, it made him miss his own family at home. John was thirty-one years of age and he had spent most of his life studying. He had always been the top student in every class and he had always been well behaved. John had been working for this company for the past six years, and it had been his first ever job. The initial plan was to work at this company for approximately three years and then move on to something he would appreciate more and where he could get a better salary. His big breakthrough had unfortunately not come yet. He had been on multiple job-interviews during the past two years, but none of the companies had ever called him back for a second interview, and he had never understood why. It had taken a big beating on his self-esteem. It was nothing he wanted to talk about with either his parents or his own family. When John finally got his task done, he quickly gathered his belongings and turned off his desk light. He then took the elevator down to the ground floor and headed towards the Waterloo Underground-station. He had forgotten that Chelsea FC was playing that night against Arsenal, so he was far from alone in the underground, despite the late hour. He waited a couple of minutes for the Jubilee-line train towards Stanmore to arrive and was unpleasantly surprised when the automatic doors opened. The train was completely crowded by singing football fanatics, just when he wanted a calm, silent ride home. John managed to squeeze in next to the loud and drunk fans, just before the doors closed upon him. The ride home 26

had never felt longer, and Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patience was bound to run out. He thought to himself that he might be able to avoid football enthusiasts if he jumped off at Green Park and waited for the next train. Green Park station was as crowded as the train he just left, but only in the same direction as John was heading. He somewhat regretted his decision, but at this point, he could only wait for the next train. If he would change to the Victoria-line now, he could come home quicker. But for some strange reason he decided to stay and not change to the Victoria-line, and if he wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done this, hundreds of people probably would have lost their lives that night. As he stood on the platform, his eyes wandered around in the surroundings. A pair of headphones were lying between the railways, one fluorescent-lamp had gone out above him and a man with a large, black suitcase was standing on the opposite platform. The man was wearing a black, leather coat, dark-blue jeans, and sunglasses. The man looked around himself and then put down his suitcase next to a wastebasket, and left. John sought to find someone else who had seen what he had, but despite the crowded station, he could not see anyone else who seemed to have noticed. Was he paranoid? Had he seen too many action movies? John was nonetheless concerned about the item standing on the other platform, so he headed for the staircase, out of the underground. He then realized what he was about to do, he was probably the only one who had seen the suitcase and was now leaving everyone uninformed. He had a very bad feeling about this. He ran up the stairs, over the tracks and down to the other platform. He glanced over to see only a handful of people who waited for the train towards Stratford. He then continued towards the suitcase. It was made of black leather and looked brand new. He turned the suitcase upside-down to be able to take a closer look and saw four homemade drill holes at the bottom. A cable was hanging out from each one of them. The train to Stratford approached from the right, and John was standing on the platform with something that most certainly could be a bomb. As the doors of the train opened, he was still unsure what he was going to do. No one was on the 27

train so he got an idea which he thought might work. He shouted at the other people on the platform not to get on the train. He then ran to the end of the train and threw the suitcase through the last pair of doors at the last second before they closed. The train disappeared into the dark tunnel. Everyone at both platforms was staring at John, probably thinking he was insane. So John took the stairs up to the streets of London and paid for a cab home. When he finally came home, Lily, Joey, and Linda were already asleep, so he went to go to bed as well. The next morning, on the 11th of September, John woke up to headlines in the newspapers about an anonymous hero, saving hundreds of lives.

K A P I T E L 10

Boys Don’t Cry I remember everything like it happened yesterday. I could still feel his disgusting hands on me, his lips kissing my neck as he pushed my body against the wall. something fell down, maybe a painting but I couldn’t see. I tried to fight him off off but it was harder than I thought, If a man gets a firm grip around you, there’s not much you can do. He pulled me down on the bed with his body on top of mine, I will never forget that smirk on his face, it will forever haunt me. “Stop it, Leave me alone.” I said as a tear rolled down my cheek. My coach looked at me and his smirk grew even wider when he saw the tear. “Oh but Adam. Boys don’t cry.” he said, I didn’t respond, I was just frozen without any words able to come out. This moment and what came after this is what still haunts me in my worst of nightmares. ----I didn’t know what to do, the burning feeling of despair burned inside me and it was like everything was held together by thin threads. I felt so dirty, could you tell that I had been raped? It felt as I was the one to blame, like I am the one who did something to make this happen. I wanted to cry, but every time I even thought about letting one single feeling out of me, I heard his dark voice like he was standing behind me. I couldn’t, boys do not cry. I could imagine my father’s words. “You let a man rape you!? Gosh, what will people think?” No, no one could know. No one would believe. I will get over this myself, everything will be fine. Time can heal all kinds of wounds.

Everyday for three weeks I repeated these words. I was numb, unable to cry and the flashbacks came without warning. It wasn’t until my mother sat down with me after one of my nightmares that i finally could feel something. She couldn’t understand why I had changed so drastically. As soon as i started to tell her, the words just came out, everything I had felt after the assault and with it came the feelings. Finally the tears started running and then I just broke down. My mother didn’t blink, not once, as I spoke. But when I was done, she too started crying. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked with tears rolling down her cheeks. The room was dark but the moonlight shone through the blinds, making me see her quite clearly. It took some time for me to gather the courage to tell her the reason why, it was like I had used it all already just telling her what happened, “I guess I didn’t think you would believe me, or that you would be mad that I had let this happen.” My mother looked at me with tears streaming down her face. “Sweetheart, This is not your fault.” She said. “But it feels like I did something to make this happen, If I just hadn’t…” “No, listen to me. It is not your fault. You are not the one to blame. See if someone gets robbed for example, the robber is the one responsible. Even if the person robbed was wearing fancy clothing, walking alone at night, holding a purse with money in it, it’s not their responsibility not to get robbed. The same goes with this.” “I know mom, it’s just how I feel.” I said. Not really knowing what to do. I just waited for her to start forcing me to go to the police, to tell everyone about what had happened to me. But that never happened, instead she said:

“What do you want to do now?”

I was so shocked by her question, a bit relieved that she asked me. Like I for once in three weeks really could control what was next. And that was all I needed. ----Eight months later I heard the words I wanted: “Sam Davis, I sentence you to six years in prison for sexual assault of four 14 year old boys.” After the judge had hit the table with the gavel people started to cry in relief. I couldn’t breathe. The other three boys who apparently also were victims of our coach, stood up, embraced me in a hug and all cried of relief. Finally I could relax. Even if you don’t say, you still feel. Even if you don’t show, you still care. Even if you don’t cry, it still hurts. Crying doesn’t indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you’re alive.

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The Story About a Hero Hi, my name is Oliver and I’m 17 years old. I’m about to tell you what happened to me my first day in high school and how I met my best friend. I had been looking forward to that day since I started secondary school, which was a while ago. But now the day had finally come and I was so excited to meet my new classmates and teachers. I was wearing a green shirt that my mom gave me as a birthday present, and a pair of blue jeans that I had been wearing ever since I got them. This was going to be a good day I thought to myself and smiled. I was walking down the hallway when a group of boys and girls suddenly stopped me. I could see that they were older than me and they looked intimidating. They were standing in a semicircle around me and there was no way for me to escape, except if I turned around and ran. But I decided not too, or I guess I was too scared to run. For a moment everything was still. It was like the people around me stopped moving, the sound from the roaring speakers quieted and it felt like the whole world revolved around this very moment. I clenched my fists together of fear and I could feel my nails dig into my skin as sharp needles. My heart was pumping fast and I could feel the blood in my veins rushing to find oxygen. The only thing I could think of was what they would do to me and what I had done to deserve this? One of the boys in the group wandered his gaze around the room as though he was ashamed and he couldn't look me into my eyes, while the rest of the group was looking at me with an imperious look. I tried to get the boy’s compassion, maybe he could help me get out of this situation, but I guess he was too scared to go against his group of friends. And then suddenly everything turned black. 32

*** We were standing in a semicircle around the innocent boy, he looked terrified and I couldn’t look him in his eyes. He must be afraid I thought to myself. I felt sorry for the boy but I couldn’t do anything about it, or could I? Suddenly, out of the blue, one of my best friends punched the boy in his face and he fell down on the cold floor. His head hit the floor with a loud noise and everyone started laughing. They kept hitting him and kicking him while he was lying on the floor begging for his life. I HAD to do something. “STOP IT!” I screamed and everyone turned quite. They looked at me as if I was an alien and I could see the confusion in my best friends eyes. I couldn’t believe what I just did, but it felt good, even if I went against my best friend. I stood up for what I believed in and I didn’t just follow the stream like everyone else. “This is wrong, this is bullying!” I said. It was still quite and you would probably be able to hear a pin drop. I went to help the boy up and we walked away, without looking back. Since that day me and Oliver have been best friends and if something like that would happen again I would stand by his side no matter what, and I know he would too. *** The day that I had been looking forward to ever since I started secondary school didn’t turn out as I had imagined, but it still got to be the best day of my life. Because I met Simon.

K A P I T E L 12

The Story of the Lonely Samurai To live and to choose death, if there was an option. To labour of an honoured death. Nevertheless the importance of glorifying and worshiping the Daimyō. To show adherence to the master and the promise to sacrifice life in the name of him. The holy samurai codex of Bushidō. There was only one problem, I didn’t want to die. I didn’t believe in this. Why would it make me a better person to die for a certain person? I wanted to serve my region, not my master. And that was also what I told him. I just didn’t understand and, not to surprising, he threw me out. My long black hair blew slight in the fresh breeze. I put up my hair in a small ponytail to avoid getting the hair in my face. I looked out over the harmonious meadows in the middle of the deep japanese wood. The small Bonsai-trees and the soft pink Sakura-trees created a melodious serenity. I still wore my kimono from the temple. I knew this wasn’t the first time it happened. Samurais just had disappeared several times before and various samurais were close to be expelled. And I knew my companions didn’t like our master. I played with a blade of grass and thought of my ulterior opportunities. “Someone has to do something. I have to do something.” I said quietly. I couldn’t endure the thought of my friends suffering under him, my previous master. The anger inside me grew only bigger. I would rescue my companions. I went down to the small village. The roads were crowded and I took off into a suspicious valley. I continued the way through a dark cellar and finally I was there. 34

“I’ve been waiting for you” “The time is in”, I answered. He handed me the two swords, together called daisho. The longer of them, katana, was forbidden for non-samurais to wear because it contains the soul of the samurai. But right now I was a samurai of myself. The lonely samurai. The sharp edge told that this was going to be a bloody fight. I began my trip to the temple. It wasn’t located too far away from the village but the way ahead was filled with temptable nature. Slowly but still so quickly the sun went down and the moon appeared. It was a beautiful and starlit night. The cold October air rasped in my throat. My adrenaline started to pump. The tremendous temple appeared in front of me like a grand dark beast. Of course there was guards outside the port and samurais got ears like cats so I knew they were going to wake up. I tripped out from the darkness and exposed me on the path. “Who’s there?” “Someone you know too well”  “Aiko, that is you?” I walked forward as they began to walk towards me. “What are you doing here?” they wondered. “I’m going to save you from our so beloved Daimyō, are you with me?” They hesitated a bit. “Our most important rule is to always serve and venerate our master” Same nonsense every time I talked with someone. “...But he’s not my master” one of them continued. That’s the spirit! I didn’t hug them because 1. they could have a dolk right there and 2. men don’t hug. Silently they opened the port and the real mission began. Astonishingly no one woke up and we walked the hallway down. The hallway was dark, you could only distinguish the profile of the well-made bamboo door. I attacked the door with a quick kick. The master already sat up in the bed.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” he said as he slowly raised up. An abrupt attack with a knife and I almost couldn’t be in time to defend myself. The fight was on. I attacked him and after a long and honouring fight my sword was right through his body. Red of blood and full of happiness I proclaimed me as the winner. My companions thanked me from their heart. “Finally we’re free” they said thankfully, so was I. And from that now I was never a lonely samurai again.