"I have found that being bigger actually gives me the right to do whatever I like." -Violet Parr
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Getting away was the only thought racing through Violet's mind. The grotesquely huge mushroom cloud continued to rise before her, now looming well over her head. Bolts of lightning crackled and spread like malevolent fingers across the it's boiling surface; the tremendous amount of dust within the turbulent superheated cloud was creating hundreds of millions of volts of static charge. The ground below the cloud was still an expanding ocean of flame. Violet began to scramble backwards fearfully as the ring of fire approached her leg. She pushed herself away desperately from the hellish scene. Her feet, digging into the earth for purchase, plowed canyon sized furrows deep into the otherwise flat landscape.
No longer feeling in imminent danger, Violet was able to catch her breath. The metallic taste of fission was still palatable within her mouth. She had been attacked! General Veers had not waited for Violet to make her choice, making good on his promise to try and kill her.
Violet looked back into her right hand, still clutched tightly against her chest. She hoped James was still there and alive but at her current size she had no way of knowing. Violet carefully closed her fingers back over her palm. Standing up, she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her momentarily as she experienced her new disorienting and towering perspective.
The cloud layer at her knees made it almost impossible to see what lay beneath. Violet was lost, the featureless cloudscape at her knees stretched out around her in all directions.
"What now?" Violet asked herself out loud. It was comforting and reassuring to hear a human voice, even if it was just her own. She still needed to get away, she needed time to think. Where she would go didn't matter, as long as it was away from here. Putting her back to the colossal dissipating mushroom cloud, Violet started walking.
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As the bomb hurtled towards them, James fell to his knees in the center of Violet's hand. The world around him then went dark.
He was dead. That, at least, was James's first thought. He could see nothing, the blackness surrounding him was total; darker than anything he had ever experienced. He was having trouble catching his breath and felt dizzy. James was still on his knees and, reaching out, he was reassured when he felt the warm skin of Violet's hand still underneath him.
James had to shut his eyes tightly as light suddenly flooded in all around him. Opening them, James quickly glanced around, squinting. He didn't understand what he was seeing at first. He was still kneeling on Violet's hand, but it's proportions were almost beyond his comprehension!
Looking up, James let out a scream of terror! The fingers of her hand were looming over him taller than skyscrapers, each rising almost half a mile into the sky. His perspective made him feel as if he was at the bottom of an immense canyon on some unexplored alien world.
What he saw beyond those towering fingers was the source of James's scream. Violet's face filled the entire sky beyond them. She looked frightened, her eyes were darting back and forth, desperately scanning the vast landscape that James found himself kneeling upon. The terrifying sight was too much for James's mind to handle. Before his mind broke, he mercifully passed out from shock. He slumped over as the titanic fingers curled back over him, casting his unconscious body back into total darkness.
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"We have a visual!" General Veers heard the call over the chaos of his command center. Ignoring all else, he turned all his attention to the large monitor that hung on the wall.
A high speed interceptor had been vectored to the scene. The broadcast from its onboard camera was distorted by intense electromagnetic interference from the bomb's detonation. Through the static, the general could just make out the telltale mushroom cloud of the nuclear blast rising high into the stratosphere. Beyond the cloud there was another form, looming even larger. The form was moving. The entire command center fell silent as everyone looked at the grainy image on the screen.
"Extraordinary!" General Veers' voice was a barely audible whisper. Violet had survived and was now at a scale he never dreamed was possible! "Do we have an estimate on her size?" The general asked calmly, placing his hand gently on the shoulder of the young man sitting at the console to his left. The General's calm and business-like demeanor put the man at ease from his initial shock and he quickly began working out the arithmetic on a loose sheet of paper.
"It's hard to say, sir, but my numbers would suggest between 40,000 to 45,000 feet." General Veers could feel that the man at the console was trembling.
"It's ok son, excellent work." The general squeezed the man's shoulder reassuringly. The screen's picture was becoming clearer as the interference slowly dissipated. General Veers could now clearly see Violet. She was standing and moving away from the scene of the blast, walking south. "Radio all ground personnel; I want them to clear a corridor 10 miles wide in the direction she is moving. We will continue to track her from the air."
"Sir?" The young man at the console spoke up hesitantly. "What about all the civilians in her path?" General Veers put his hand back onto the young man's shoulder but spoke so that everyone within the command center could hear him.
"Unfortunately, at her size and at the speed at which she is moving there will be no time to conduct any form of evacuation of the people in her path." The general smiled weakly at the young man, "I wish there was something we can do for them, but for now all we can do is watch and wait."
General Veers knew that, for the time being, he could do nothing to influence the situation. He turned and walked to the door. Before leaving, he spoke to the command center's CO.
"Colonel Peters, have the video feed connected to my office, that is where I will be."
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The feeling of ground beneath her feet was as alien as everything else to Violet at her current size. Having lost her shoes when the town was destroyed by the bomb, she now walked barefoot. Violet found the texture of the earth under her feet unsettlingly hard to describe; it was like stepping onto a layer of the finest sifted flour or powder that, in turn, covered another layer of coarser wet sand.
None of what she was experiencing felt real. Her perspective reminded Violet of the view that she had seen many times when traveling by plane. When she had seen this same sort of view from the air, it has always been accompanied by a feeling that the landscape under the aircraft was vast and almost immeasurable in scope and scale. That feeling was disturbingly absent from Violet now. What her eyes saw and what her body felt was creating a disorienting dissonance within her mind that Violet could not shake. Through the breaks in the clouds, Violet could see vast stretches of forest bisected by dozens of thread-like lines.
"Roads..." Violet said to herself. She decided to follow one of the relatively larger roads but she found it difficult due to her sporadic view through the clouds.
Taking another step, Violet paused. She noticed that the texture under her foot was subtly different. She waited for the clouds around her knees to drift by so she could see what it was exactly that she had stepped in. As the clouds cleared, Violet looked down. Her foot was planted in the midst of a grayish colored area surrounded by yet more minuscule farm fields and forests. There were also more of the thread-like ribbons of road, this time radiating out from this gray area in all directions. Bending down and peering closer, Violet was astounded to see that the strange gray splotch under her foot was in fact a town!
Violet crouched down onto her knee to get a better look. It was indeed a town or city. Her foot covered more than half of it's area. She could see smoke rising up from around her foot: fires were breaking out all over this unknown town. With this single step she had caused more damage to this place than she had done in a half hour of concerted effort in Rutledge, yet she felt none of the excitement or thrill that had come with that previous self-indulgent rampage.
She was still surrounded by overwhelming silence; the only sounds were her breathing and heartbeat. Violet felt completely disconnected from this microscopic world at her feet. Looking at the anonymous city under her foot, she felt absolutely nothing. Standing up, Violet gave the decimated town a last brief glance before continuing onward.
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James woke up. He was laying on his back. Looking up, he could see Violet's face once again looming over him. She was looking into his eyes and smiling, tears freely rolling down her cheeks. Immediately, James started screaming in terror! He began to scoot backwards desperately trying to escape.
"No, it's ok. You are alright, please calm down James." Violet put her hands on James's shoulders, stopping him. Feeling her touch, he froze. It took a moment for his mind to process what was happening. Looking back at Violet, James realized she was not a looming giantess but instead back to her normal size. She was kneeling over him as he lay on the ground. Violet's hands were still resting gently on his shoulders, it was a feeling James thought he would never experience again.
Sitting up, James looked around. They were in the woods. Beyond that, he did not know where they were and, for the moment, he did not care. Looking down and placing his hand on his ribs, James could feel that his injury had been carefully rewrapped.
"I hope you don't mind, you have some very nasty looking bruises under there and you were unconscious." James looked back at Violet with puzzlement as she spoke, his mind still unwilling to believe what his eyes were seeing. As if to test whether or not he was dreaming, James reached up and touched Violet's cheek. It was still wet with tears. Her face, filled with concern for him, wore a pained yet genuine smile. James finally spoke.
"W-what happened?" As his disorientation finally subsided, he looked Violet in the eyes and added, "why?"
The first question would be easy for Violet to answer. The second, was not. She wasn't quite sure why she saved him. Ignoring his second question for now, Violet explained to James the events up to the present.
She purposely omitted describing the destruction she caused along the way. The fact that it was unintentional, she knew, wouldn't matter to James. That small detail would not undo the untold destruction she caused or bring back the countless dead. If James asked her, she would tell him but otherwise, Violet decided, that information would only make things worse.
As James listened, he could hear the fear and terror in Violet's voice as she described what it was like being so monumentally huge. The mocking cruelty of the self-proclaimed goddess who saw humanity as only insignificant playthings or pests was completely absent from her descriptions. Violet instead focused almost entirely on describing her feelings of isolation in that cold and silent world.
"But the radiation...I should be dead!" James began looking himself over hurriedly, searching for any sign of radiation burns or sickness.
"I think my hand shielded you from it. I heard the doctors on the base talking about how the radiation was stopped by the thickness of my skin and tissues when they examined me after that test a few weeks ago." Violet's voice trailed off, "I don't know, I didn't understand most of what they were saying. What's important is that you're alive and safe."
"But the fallout! You're covered in it!" James started to back away again in fear.
"No! No! It's ok James," Violet moved closer and put her hand on his knee. "While you were unconscious I washed myself in a pond about a quarter mile away. I didn't have any soap but I figured it was better than nothing..." As Violet spoke, James noticed that her clothes were still slightly damp.
"We need to get you back to the base!" He said hurriedly, "They can check you over and make sure you're alright!"
"NO!" Violet said, her voice adamant. "It was General Veers who did this," Violet's mood turned dark. "He tried to kill me."
"But that doesn't make any sense," James said after he composed himself. "General Veers had you...you were about to go back to him. Why would he try to kill you when recovering you was his goal?" Violet shot James an angry look.
"Had me? As if my choice was a foregone conclusion!" As her anger grew, so did Violet. Still kneeling over James, she was now close to 175ft in stature as she towered over James.
"As a matter of fact," she continued, "I was asking you what you thought I should do before all of this happened!" James could see that Violet was now practically seething with rage. He looked up at her but was unimpressed.
"Do you really think that you can scare me like that anymore? I've had enough of your 'power' and your games! When you are ready to talk to me face to face let me know..." James stood up and turned his back to Violet as she, still kneeling, loomed ominously over him.
"Don't walk away from me." Violet muttered icily.
"Or you'll what?" James asked sarcastically as he began walking away from Violet without looking back. "Just because you're bigger than me doesn't give you the right to..." James's statement was cut short as he was roughly shoved from behind and he fell forward onto the ground. Laying with his face in the dirt, he angrily looked over his shoulder to see what had pushed him. Violet was still kneeling but she had extended her right leg and had pushed him down with her toe. She was now regarding him coolly.
"Doesn't it?" Violet asked James, mirroring his earlier sarcasm. "I have found that being bigger actually gives me the right to do whatever I like." James didn't respond. As he moved to stand up, Violet placed her toe on his legs, pinning him in place.
"Really? The right to do whatever you like?" James asked as he twisted around painfully and glared hatefully up into Violet's face. "Does it give you the right to treat people like vermin?...To make them suffer and murder them?" Violet looked away, scowling, as James continued. "Does it give you the right to be a monster!?"
James's words cut into Violet deeply. Today, she had become a monster and she hated herself for it. Her childish anger and frustration, combined with her power, had led to the deaths of countless people whom she had never met or had any animosity towards. She had used them to prove a point that she now felt was trivial.
"You have no idea what it's like, James." Violet's voice was now quiet, almost a whisper. "You have no idea what it's like to be me...No one does."
"Then tell me! Talk to me! Stop hiding behind this power of yours! Are you really so frightened of the world, and of me, that the only way you can cope is by being bigger than everything that scares you? You're stronger than that Vi!" James fell silent and stared at Violet. After a moment, she finally looked back down at him.
"I never wanted this, any of it! If I'm a monster, then it is General Veers' and the doctor's fault...and your fault as well." Now it was James's turn and looked away.
"I am sorry for my part in all of this," James said at last. "I've told you that. But we didn't make you do all those terrible things back there!"
"Are you forgetting that I saved your life? In fact, I saved your life twice today! Would a monster do that?" Violet's eyes met James's as he looked back up at her.
"I have not forgotten," James said in a tired voice well beyond his years. "But saving my life doesn't make up for the countless lives you've pointlessly taken." James shook his head, "If I thought you were beyond saving then I wouldn't be wasting my breath with you right now."
"Stop trying to save me!" Violet pressed down slightly with her toe to drive her point home, causing James to scream out in intense pain. "You are so wrapped up in trying to save me, but do you even know who you are trying to save? Did it ever occur to you to ask me what I wanted?" Suddenly realizing the pain she was inflicting on James, Violet stopped pressing down on him with her toe. She wanted desperately to apologize for hurting him but that voice, her voice, spoke for the first time in hours.
"Don't show that worthless insect any weakness, if he thinks you aren't in control he will take advantage of you!" Heeding the voice's advice, Violet remained silent as James slowly recovered.
As he lay on the ground, breathing heavily as his pain receded, James realized that Violet was right. He had been so sure that he was doing what was best for Violet that it had never occurred to him to actually ask her what she wanted.
"You are right, Vi," James said at last. "This is your life we are talking about but I've been making decisions about it without even thinking of including you in them. I love you, but I've treated you like you weren't even here...for that I am sorry."
That simple statement of understanding is all she had wanted from James since earlier that morning. Tears were now welling up around her eyes and flowing freely down her cheeks. She finally lifted her foot away from James. He stood up and, brushing himself off, turned to face Violet.
"You asked me what I thought you should do...I will give you my answer, if you still want to hear it." Violet wiped away her tears. Looking down at James, she simply nodded. James swallowed hard. "The general is right."
Violet blinked. Without a word, she slowly reduced her size back to normal.
"It's your only option Vi, it's your only future. You saw how close they came to killing you back there."
"But they didn't!" Violet countered. She smiled smugly as she continued, "no matter how big the threat is, I can always be bigger!" James looked at Violet sorrowfully.
"Is that really how you want to live? 20 miles tall and completely removed from everything and everyone you have or shall ever know? Do you really want to be completely alone?"
James's words were like a wrecking ball, smashing Violet's argument to pieces. That microscopic alien world she had just experienced could never truly be her home.
"And the general is right about the other thing too," James continued. "You can still be a hero." He was now smiling at her. "You saved my life, twice. That was never a part of the doctor's conditioning or the General's plans...that was a choice you made yourself, Vi, and it's a choice you can make again." Violet threw her arms around James and hugged him tightly.
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"What do you mean you lost her?" General Veers was irate as he spoke to Colonel Peters on the telephone. "She is eight miles tall god damn it!" The colonel repeated to the general that one moment she was there and the next moment she was gone. General Veers sighed with frustration. "Think, colonel! Did it not occur to you that she simply shrank herself down smaller?"
The general listened patiently to the colonel and he searched for an excuse before cutting him off. "You know where she was last; if you can't see her from the air anymore then she can't have moved far from that location. Cordon off a five mile circle around that spot and send in your recon teams and find her!" General Veers slammed the receiver down onto his desk, ending the conversation.
The general was actually more angry with himself than the hapless colonel in the command center. He had been watching the video feed of Violet but the photograph on his desk had drawn his attention away. Once more, he had sought escape in his daughter's face that stared out at him, forever young and innocent. He thought it had only been a moment but in truth he wasn't sure how long he had been staring at Josephine's picture.
When Violet first arrived on base, General Veers had used his daughter's photograph as yet another prop in the great lie he was weaving. Even the comparisons he had first made between her and Violet were simply a part of his grand scheme. At the time, he had rationalized it as a necessary evil. Now, he wasn't so sure.
The fact of the matter was, despite his intentions otherwise, he had begun to see Violet as a surrogate for the daughter he had lost so long ago. He knew such an emotional connection was dangerous, it could jeopardize everything he had been striving so hard to achieve and make the deaths of Lieutenant Walter's and all the others truly meaningless. But he had been a father and that is something that never goes away, even after the death of a child. He saw, through the eyes of a father, how lost Violet was and, for better or worse, he wanted to be the father he realized she so desperately needed.
He had received word that Violet's real father, along with the rest of her family, had been taken into protective custody by the government. General Veers knew it was the smart move; sooner or later he would have had to deal with them one way or another. Now, it was all irrelevant. The general knew Violet could never go back to them, not after everything she had done. He also knew that Violet was aware of this fact as well. It broke his heart to know that he had essentially made Violet an orphan...She was now as alone as he was.
"Josephine...what should I do?" The General's question to the picture on his desk was almost pleading. The photograph remained as silent as always, the eyes of his daughter seeing through all the lies to the heart of General Veers...her father.
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James awoke with a start! Glancing around quickly, he realized he had fallen asleep. He was laying in the same clearing in the woods Violet had brought him to earlier. He had no idea how long he had been sleeping but the setting sun told him it had not been long at all.
"Awake?" He whirled around at the sound of Violet's voice. She was sitting with her back up against a tree no more than a few feet from him. James was relieved to see she was still at her normal size.
Standing up, James stretched. The sharp pain from his injured ribs caused him to wince and double over slightly. Moving his hand down from his side, it brushed against his pocket. James panicked! The bottle of pills that Dr. Korlov had given him was missing! James began to scramble around in the dirt, searching for it.
"Are you looking for this?" Violet held up the pill bottle and gave it a shake. James heard that familiar rattle of the pills within the bottle. He crawled over to Violet, reaching out for it. "Wait a second!" Violet held the bottle up and away from his reach. "What are they?"
"Neuroinhibitors," James said without taking his eyes off the bottle. "Dr. Korlov gave them to me. He said they would only be effective when you were at your normal size." James reached again for the bottle but Violet held it again just out of his reach.
"So if I take these, it will help me not be so..."
"Violent," James finished Violet's sentence, his eyes still focused on the bottle. Realizing that she wasn't going to give him the bottle just yet, he put his arm down and sat in front of Violet. Seeing he no longer wished to grab it out of her hand, Violet lowered the bottle and examined it.
"It's worth a try I suppose." Violet opened the bottle. Reaching inside, she pulled out a single pill between her thumb and forefinger and looked at it. "To think such a little thing might be the solution to all my problems." Violet tilted her head back and opened her mouth. Still holding the pill between her thumb and forefinger, her eyes glanced at James as she dropped it onto her tongue and swallowed it.
Watching her, James began to shake uncontrollably. He did not see Violet taking the pill. Instead, he found himself once again standing small and helpless in Violet's palm. He was watching Violet drop Dr. Korlov into her mouth and swallowing him as if the doctor was nothing!
"What's wrong?" James didn't hear Violet's question or see the concern on her face. As she spoke, James fainted.
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"We found them!" Colonel Peters was relieved that he could give General Veers some good news after the fiasco of losing Violet earlier that afternoon.
"Them?" The general queried.
"The boy, James, is with her. They are in a forest south of route 26, about 85 miles away." The general was at first surprised at the colonel's report but after some thought he found it actually made perfect sense and could in fact be beneficial.
"Order the recon team to stay back: keep an eye on them but don't let them know they are being watched. I will take a chopper and speak with Violet personally."
"But general, do you think it is wise to go by yourself? You should not be taking such an unnecessary risk." Colonel Peters protested.
"Unnecessary? Colonel, do you remember your Clausewitz from the academy?"
"Sir?" Colonel Peters was taken aback by General Veers' odd question. "General you know history is your strong suit, not mine."
"Schwerpunkt, Colonel Peters. Carl von Clausewitz described it as the focal point: both the location and the moment where an entire battle is decided. A commander who understands both when and where this moment is and commits all of their effort to it can use it as a fulcrum to turn the tide of battle, even against a vastly superior foe." General Veers paused, letting the colonel process what he had said.
"I have never made a more necessary decision in my life, colonel! This moment, in that forest, is that schwerpunkt that will decide our fate and I will not let it slip away! I will not ask others to go if I am not willing to take this risk myself!" The colonel was silent on the other end of the telephone as General Veers finished speaking. The general chuckled, "and if I do not succeed...well, the world will simply be less one long-winded old man."
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"Are you alright?"
When James opened his eyes, he found himself laying once more on the ground. Violet was cradling his head in her lap looking down at him with a worried expression. As he regained his senses, he sat up but turned away from Violet.
"What happened James? You started trembling then you passed out!" Violet put her hand on his shoulder only for James to shrug it away.
"There is nothing you can do about it, you..." James trailed off and fell silent.
"You asked me to talk, now it's your turn. Tell me what's going on please." James turned around and looked Violet in the eye.
"Dr. Korlov," he said flatly. "When you swallowed that pill...I saw the doctor when you..." James looked off at some distant, unseen point on the horizon and said no more.
Violet was speechless. She had no idea what to say or if there was even anything she could say to James. Without speaking, she moved over and sat down next to him in silence.
After what seemed like an eternity, James turned his head and looked at Violet. He was searching for some sign of remorse, anything that would tell him she understood what he was feeling. She refused to meet his gaze, staring instead at the ground.
"Nothing?" James broke the silence with a tone that was both hurt and angry. "He wanted to help you, atone for what he had done to you...and you killed him!"
"I...I" James cut Violet off before she could say another word.
"No!" James's anger was like a raw and open wound. "He was my friend! You were angry with me but he paid the price for it with his life! And you didn't just kill him...you...you."
Violet desperately wanted to feel something, anything, but she could not. Her complete lack of emotion in the face of James's pain made Violet hate herself all the more. She hesitantly put her arm around his shoulder. This time, he did not push her away. She pulled herself close to James and held him tightly.
"James, let's just forget about General Veers and all of this!" Violet said, taking James's hand tenderly and putting it in hers. "We can go somewhere far away with no people; somewhere where I can't hurt anyone else." James looked at Violet with a look of curious bewilderment.
"Go away? What, and live in the woods like this?" James softly chuckled as he gestured to the surrounding forest. Violet smiled, at least James was entertaining the idea and it was taking his mind off the doctor.
"Of course not!" Violet laughed. "We could build a house or whatever that will meet our needs. If we needed logs for a cabin, I could pick trees for you like daisies!"
"What about a nice tropical island?" James asked, excitement for her idea was seeping into his otherwise dour tone. "If we can't find an island then you could make us one by piling up sand in the ocean, just like a sandcastle on the beach!" James said, laughing.
"I'm serious," Violet wasn't laughing anymore. "Think about it, will you James?" James stared thoughtfully at Violet. The picture she painted of a future together was intriguing...and if it meant an end to all this death...
James gathered some wood and lit a small campfire as night closed in around them. They sat together in silence, simply staring into the flames. James felt Violet's head slump onto his shoulder as she finally fell asleep. Although exhausted, he could not sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about the day's events.
He looked down at Violet as she slept: How could this sweet girl laying next to him be the same girl who, only hours before, cruelly stamped out an entire town and its people? This girl, sleeping so peacefully, had killed thousands...maybe tens of thousands. James wondered if he could ever truly see Violet as anything but a monster who had revelled in the suffering she had cruelly inflicted on those helpless to resist her. Forgiveness for her actions was something he couldn't even consider at the moment.
James thought about Violet's idea of just going away, of just starting over. Using her power to scratch out a life far from civilization was something that he could actually support. But as James stared into the fire he wondered how long it would be before her emotions, or lack thereof, would result in Violet becoming abusive or violent again. He sat in silence as the flames of the campfire slowly died to embers.
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"Violet?"
Hearing her name, Violet stirred from sleep and sat up. It was morning. She looked over and saw that James was still sleeping soundly next to her. She looked around anxiously, searching for the source of the voice she was certain she had heard. General Veers stepped out into the clearing.
"You!" Violet's tone was vengeful as her eyes locked onto the general. Now James was awake as well and he quickly stood up as General Veers approached them both, his hands held up to show he carried no weapon or ill intent.
"What do you want?" James asked wearily, stepping forward and placing himself between the general and Violet. Before General Veers could answer, James felt himself pushed back forcefully. He fell backwards and landed hard on his backside. Looking up, he saw that it was Violet who had pushed him down. She had stepped forward to confront General Veers, growing larger as she did so.
Violet now stood 18ft tall. Without pausing, she reached down and took the General's neck between her thumb and forefinger and lifted him into the air so that he was level with her face. General Veers took hold of her fingers, fighting desperately for air as he dangled from Violet's fingertips.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your neck like a twig!" Violet demanded angrily. General Veers was unable to answer, choking and gasping for breath as his legs kicked wildly back and forth.
"Violet!" James was up on his feet in an instant and had run over next to Violet, standing by her leg. "Put him down! Can't you see you're killing him!" James waved desperately to get Violet's attention but her focus was solely on the general held in her iron-like grip. Not knowing what else to do, James cocked his arm back and punched Violet's calf as hard as he could. He screamed out in pain, her leg might as well have been the trunk of an enormous oak tree. His hand was now throbbing in pain.
Feeling the punch on her leg, Violet turned her attention away from General Veers for a moment and looked down at James. Without a word she swiftly kicked her leg out sideways, knocking James back and throwing him to the ground some distance away. He was lying crumpled on his side and was not moving.
"Oh my God!" Seeing what she had done snapped Violet out of her murderous tunnel-vision. Putting the General down roughly on the forest floor, she moved swiftly over to where James lay. She picked him up gently. He was still breathing. After a few seconds James sat up. He was holding his ribs and his face was a grimace of pain. "Oh God I am so sorry James!" James looked up into Violet's face.
"Why?" James gasped at last. Violet just shook her head, the edges of her eyes welling up with tears. "Vi, the general came to speak...at least listen to what he has come here to say!" Violet nodded and, still cradling James, turned back to Where General Veers was sitting on the ground.
"The boy is right." General Veers said breathlessly as he stood up stiffly. He bent over and recovered his cap, brushing the dirt and leaves from its surface. He did not place it back on his head but instead held it in his left hand idly. Without his general's cap, General Veers looked like any other man in his elder years: balding and tired after a long life of hardships.
"I've known you two were here since last night. If I wanted you both dead, neither of you would have woken up this morning." Rubbing his neck, General Veers limped over to a fallen log at the clearing's edge and sat on it. Without looking up, he beckoned Violet to come and sit with him.
Not knowing what else to do, Violet obliged. She took a step closer and sat down on the ground in front of the general, crossing her legs underneath herself. When she sat, the log and the ground under General Veers shook as if subjected to a small earth tremor. He purposefully ignored the earthshaking jolt and, once Violet had settled, he looked up into her face.
Seeing that James was alright, Violet gingerly put him back down onto the ground. James stiffly walked over to her left and slowly lowered himself into a sitting position on the ground. The three now formed a triangle in the wooded clearing. It was Violet who spoke first.
"Why did you try to kill me?" Her tone was serious but no longer angry.
"I didn't," General Veers said flatly, still twisting his neck back and forth, stretching it. "A bomber pilot went rogue, he didn't return to base and I have no idea where he or his plane is but my guess is that he saw the destruction you were wreaking and decided to take matters into his own hands." Violet stayed silent. The General's explanation made sense. She looked to James and he nodded his acceptance of General Veers' statement. Violet thought about that pilot. Seeing an unstoppable giantess destroying a city and killing helpless civilians made that pilot's actions, in Violet's opinion, actually rather heroic. She cast her eyes down to the ground sheepishly, feeling ashamed of herself.
"The area is still too dangerous to enter but aerial photographs show the bomb completely wiped Rutledge and its population off the map. We do not expect to find many if any survivors." The General said matter of factly.
"Rutledge? That was the name of the town?" Violet asked quietly, her eyes still downcast. General Veers nodded but remained quiet. "Rutledge..." Violet said to herself in a quiet whisper. She continued to look down at the ground in front of her. She could feel James staring at her but she refused to meet his gaze.
"And," General Veers added hesitantly, "Timber Springs: the other town you destroyed on your way here."
"What! You did what?" James questioned Violet forcefully, his voice raising an octave as he was taken aback by the news that Violet had wiped out yet more innocent lives.
"It was an accident!" Violet blurted out quickly, "I didn't even see it because of the clouds I couldn't see where I was walking! It happened so fast I didn't mean to! I am so sorry! Please believe me!" She said all of this at a rapid pace, as if her words were flooding out of her mind like water and she could not stem the flow. Violet finally looked up at James but his eyes were now staring at the ground in front of him, his face expressionless and fixed as if made of stone.
"2,433 is the current death toll, but they are still pulling bodies from the rubble. Another thousand were injured." Violet shut her eyes tightly and shook her head, wishing to shut out General Veers emotionless statistical analysis. Seeing her reaction, the general looked over at James. No words were spoken between the two but James could read in General Veers' eyes that he needed to do something. His eyes locked with James, the general nodded almost imperceptibly towards Violet.
Violet knew she should have told James what had happened but she had been too weak and frightened of what his reaction might be to do so. Now, not only did he know but he also knows she kept it from him. Violet's self-loathing redoubled. She just wanted to get away!
Before she could act on that compulsion, she felt a tiny hand touch her skin. Opening her eyes and looking over, she saw James. He had stood up and walked over to her, gently placing his hand on her knee. He was looking up at her. He said nothing but his eyes were enough. She could see in them that James, while not condoning what happened, accepted Violet's explanation and apology. She smiled down at him warmly and nodded her head in thanks. General Veers caught James's eye as he returned to where he had been sitting. Another, almost imperceptible nod told James he had done the right thing.
"Violet, you saved James's life I see. Quite heroic in my opinion." General Veers changed the subject, seeing that Violet needed to be buoyed up from her self-inflicted despair.
"Actually it was the second time that day she saved my life," James added. He could see what the general was doing and agreed with its necessity. "She saved me from a landslide, scooped me right up and out of it!" James could barely hide his enthusiasm as he recounted the event. He looked at Violet and grinned. Violet's demeanor was slowly shifting away from one of self-loathing as she nodded, verifying James's account.
"I didn't even think about it, I saw he was in trouble and I just acted." Violet said. General Veers was pleased to hear a hint of pride in her statement.
"Forgive me if I don't act surprised, Violet. But I would expect nothing less from you under such circumstances." General Veers' tone had switched to his familiar warm and fatherly tone. This put Violet further at ease.
"I am afraid I did not come here for idle chit chat, no matter how pleasant it might be." The general smiled up at Violet for the first time since his arrival. "We need to discuss your future Violet. I have already told you my opinion on the matter so I won't waste your time rehashing it. The fact of the matter is, Violet, the only thing that really matters in this decision is what you think. It's your life after all."
James looked at General Veers stunned! He realized that the general clearly understood what it had taken him up until only yesterday to realize. For all his intrigue and manipulation, James had to give General Veers his grudging respect. James looked at the general but General Veers did not look back at him. His attention was solely on Violet. Following his gaze up to Violet's face, James could see she was deep in thought.
Violet could feel both men's eyes upon her. What would she do? The general was offering her a future and James was right: just because she had been conditioned for violence didn't mean she still couldn't make heroic choices...to be the hero she had always thought was beyond her. But that future still included death and destruction: both of which she would cause.
She could refuse General Veers and follow her heart with James. It's true that her idea of going and living far from civilization with him was really only a dream but from such dreams reality can be made. She understood that such a future was far less certain than that of the General's and that uncertainty frightened Violet.
She had never liked making such important decisions; what if she chose the wrong one? First she looked at General Veers. She said nothing but with her eyes she was asking him what she should do. The general sat poker faced, she could read nothing from his expression giving any hint at what choice she should make.
She then looked at James. He too was watching her, waiting for her decision. Unlike the general, James's face was warm but no less inscrutable in terms of giving her a clue about what she should do.
Violet's eyes were now darting back and forth between the two men, frantically searching for the slightest hint from either that would tell her what they wished her to do. It was then that she heard it; that voice, her voice, answering her desperate plea.
"It doesn't matter which path you choose." The voice spoke in a soothing and comforting whisper that made it impossible for Violet to ignore. "In the end, they are all just insignificant bugs that you can dispose of when you know the time is right."
"I don't want to be alone!" Violet protested.
"We don't need anyone," that voice, her voice, persisted. "You know in your heart that none of these insects understand you anyway."
"No! You're wrong, I don't believe you." Violet furrowed her brow in concentration. She wanted the voice to stop but it's sweet whisper promised her an end to all her fears if she simply did as it suggested.
It was then that James spoke. His voice banished that voice, her voice, back into the dark shadows of her mind.
"Vi...I see what you are doing. This is a choice you have to make, neither I or anyone else should make it for you. No matter what your decision is, I will support you 100 percent." Violet nodded at James but said nothing.
Violet made her choice.