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*
I couldn’t see Clark.
I couldn’t see anything.
But I felt him take my arm, relief and the instinctive reaction to hold onto his in return.
“Generators—“
“They should kick in any second now.” I added quickly, saying anything to take my mind off the dizzying feeling that *I* might actually black out right there and then.
In those early moments, the power outage was a welcome distraction, like a magical cloak thrown on top of a big, fat, white elephant. My best friend and I had just shared either the most intimate, or the most embarrassing moment of my life, and in front of thousands who’d witnessed it.
I wasn’t sure what the kiss meant to Clark.
But I was ashamed to say that it meant the world to me.
I tried not to feel giddy or light headed from the true ebullience from my best friend’s innocent gesture.
I mean, it was just a kiss.
And I told myself that over and over in the dark while my body told me otherwise. My lips still tingled and I’d be lying if I said the rest of my body wasn’t warm and fizzy after. I kept swatting away the nagging fantasy that Clark would kiss me again under the veil of the blackout, while no one could see, a secret between us. Like all our other secrets.
But that moment of reverie came and went, leaving a residue of tingles and goose bumps from where an energy like static electricity had built around us.
I’m sure later on me and Clark would have that awkward conversation, like all the times we’ve brushed lips, even though this time, technically, he had kissed me.
But, whatever. It would be discarded quickly, and ignored, so that we could both get on with the rest of our lives and go back to the familiarity that was our friendship.
It was disappointing that I knew how the story would end.
But right now, I didn’t have to face that, or Clark. Or any face for that matter, I couldn’t see anything.
A few more seconds passed by, but nothing happened. Everyone in the Sharks stadium was waiting, shouting helplessly in the dark like a bowl of very blind moles. It was loud in there, and the amphitheater design of the complex didn’t alleviate the natural echo of the place. I swore my ears were going to swell up from the noise, and I couldn’t concentrate beyond the random shrill cry from behind me.
Further beyond the stadium I saw the rest of Metropolis shining brightly, so I knew the power outage must have been only local, possibly only one grid. Above us were clusters of stars, glittering bright, distant and wide. Typically you wouldn’t be able to see so many within the city, but I guess with the black out and all, there was an exception for everything.
Gradually, the stadium began populating with the blue lights of people’s phones, waving in air. I already had mine out, trying to call Lois.
The crowd began shouting and hollering, unruly and rowdy. The images of the Lima and Hillsborough disasters crept into mind, only tripled, considering the larger capacity of the Shark’s stadium. When a cluster of angry, desperate people clashed, the outcome was never pretty. If the generators didn’t kick in soon, the entire stadium would turn on itself.
I knew Clark was thinking the same thing. His bulky hand wrapped around my arm a little snugger, his senses on alert too. I could already tell Clark was strategizing and staging for the event of total chaos.
He made a comment how he his xray vision didn’t quite work the same as infrared, and couldn’t successfully see in the dark. After looking at my phone after several unsuccessful attempts to reach Lois, I suggested he use another one of his cards up his sleeve.
“Clark, can’t you find Lois and Lana through all of this? By voice recognition or something?”
Clark thought a moment, struggling with the deafening clamor too. “I don’t know.”
“What?” I stared at towards his direction, unconvinced. “Clark, you told me you once saved me purely from using your super hearing!”
“I did. But this is different,” he said, sounding almost embarrassed. “You’re the only one who it works on. At least, automatically…” He said, guiltily.
I blinked, not sure if that admission was flattering or a great disappointment. “Well surely you can focus enough to at least find Lois. I mean, *I* could identify Lois’ voice in a seventy thousand line up.”
I couldn’t see it, but I knew there was a smirk on Clark’s face.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Ok, I’ll try.” I heard him say before he listened for the nasal, tinny voice of my cousin. I was sure she was handling the situation perfectly fine considering she was always the one who was brave enough to sleep without a nightlight when we were younger.
A few moments later Clark did find her. “She’s with Lana.”
I blinked, both relieved and wary. “Good, they'll be safer together. Right?”
I felt Clark give me a nervous look.
“Yeah, I know they both hate each other, but in the meantime we have the generators to find. Any minute now this entire stadium is going to turn into Pamplona except with a boat load of bulls that wont exactly be cake to run from.”
I hadn’t mentioned it, but since the lights had shut off, I’d been connecting the dots. We may not have been inside the Smallville city limits, but I had the strangest inkling that something “weird” may have influenced the power outage. There had been a recent string of blackouts all over the state, and only recently had the surrounding counties been hit. The authorities blamed the grid failures as engineering flaws, but I knew better than to trust your common bureaucrat.
I never expected Metropolis of all places, the city of tomorrow, to be hit in the latest outage, crippling its greatest sport complex in seconds. But, like I said, there was an exception for everything.
So I already had the data gathered, mentally picking out the possibilities. Right before the power failed, there was a loud humming, buzzing as Clark put it, as if the electricity was surging past its limits.
If Clark had been hearing a strange noise all night, way before any human ears could pick it up, then that meant that what ever was draining the juice had been drinking it dry for a long time. Chances were that whatever it was could’ve still been in the area, searching for a new siphon spot.
Was it wrong to use inductive theory?
I wasn’t sure, but experience had always taught me that doing something was always better than doing nothing. If anything, we needed the power back on before any one got hurt.
Thankfully, I didn’t need to explain all of this to Clark. It was best part of working with him, knowing that I didn’t have to draw out all the tiny details. It just clicked that way for us.
I began wading my way through our row, stumbling over feet and purses in the dark, apologizing to cursing patrons all the way. I didn’t get half way through when I felt Clark catch my waist, stopping me.
“Chloe, it’ll be faster if… Well, I can see enough with my…” I heard him quiet his voice, as if he’d just remembered we were in a very public environment. “Well, I can see enough with my abilities without you having to trip and hurt yourself.”
I didn’t argue because he was right. I couldn’t see a damned thing.
I also couldn’t get past the fact that his hands were still wrapped around my waist, just like minutes before, and he was leaning down against my ear, whispering to me. I could feel his coarse side burns brush against my cheek, fanning the embers of want I selfishly still felt for him. I swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat that inhibited me from speaking.
I managed enough to say, “Okay,” to which Clark then felt for my hands, bringing them up to his shoulders where I locked them. He turned round, and bent down, to which I smiled. Piggy back ride?
I smiled again, hopping on.
His long legs levered up like nothing, striding, gliding. I sometimes forget how strong and yet, graceful Clark is.
I felt it.
With every precise move he made to avoid stepping on toes, in every sly shuffle to pass through a narrow channel, Clark carried me as we raced to the main aisle that parted the rows of seats. He was like one of those running backs we had watched from the game, only I could tell he was moving at faster than human speeds. I clung to Clark, holding on to the only thing that could pilot through the torrent of bodies. My arms were barely long enough to encompass Clark’s broad chest, but I managed, tucking my chin in-between his shoulder and neck. It was a very safe spot.
At either side of us, I could hear people yelling for the power to be turned back on, for the game to resume. In the undercurrent of their voices, I could hear the anxiety and restlessness; oceans of people tossing and turning in their seats.
I couldn’t see any of them of them of course, but I knew that once the dam broke, thousands of people flooding towards the same exit wasn’t going to be good.
We reached the stairs, and I swear it felt like Clark was taking them six or eight at a time, just LEAPING over them like no big deal.
I clutched his shoulders tighter, feeling as if I didn’t hold on hard enough I might fly off. He felt this too, his hands gently holding onto my legs that were wrapped around his waist.
“This is kinda fun.” I said into his hair, breathless even though he was the one leaping stairs, not me.
I heard him laugh. “Yeah, I feel like Luke in Empire.”
I laughed too, picturing myself as a green little alien and then laughed again when the irony finally hit me.
Clark carried me over the landing of the top deck that looked over the entire field and set me down. There were a stream of people wandering around; several of them bumping into me that in turn bumped me back into Clark.
“I bet the generator’s in the basement.” I said, scanning the dim area for any sign of Lois.
There was a crash and several panes of glass breaking to our left.
Looters.
People were actually breaking into cash machines, storage rooms, stealing anything that wasn’t locked down. Metropolis’ finest seemed to be in attendance tonight.
“I can’t believe people can’t sit five minutes in the dark without going crazy!” I heard Clark yell over the flurry.
Somewhere in front of us a woman screamed for help. I felt Clark stiffen and turn, ready to bolt into action.
I saw Clark’s shadow rush in the direction, stop, realizing that I wasn’t following, and then turn back.
“Chloe, I don’t want to leave you here.”
I agreed. I didn’t exactly want to be left alone either, but Clark had a duty to do and so did I. We both had different abilities and neither would work as well if we tried to fight this mess from one angle. We needed to split up.
“Clark,” I rushed up to him, grabbing his arm. “I’m going to find the generator room. The faster we turn on the power the faster we tap out this chaos.”
Clark seemed reluctant but before he could argue, we heard the screaming again but this time farther as if the woman was being dragged away.
I felt Clark speed away; leaving an eerie wake of wind that whipped the hairs from my face.
**
Navigating your way through a maze of unseen obstacles isn’t as impossible as you’d think. There were a few times were I tripped up, stumbling over who knows what but I followed the walls until I found the stairways that led down.
There weren’t many people down that way, and it was quiet.
Really quiet.
I guess my ears were still recovering from the noise upstairs because I couldn’t even hear my footsteps at first, only the slight high pitched ringing that crept from one ear to the other.
Being in a dark room isn’t so bad, but walking down spiraling sets of stairs in pitch black, not knowing if you’re alone or not, is kind of nerve racking.
My treacherous imagination kept recalling that one time I let Pete and Clark drag me to the movies to watch a zombie flick. In it was this doomed heroine who wandered blindly through a maze of stairways, like the one I was navigating, with the unknowing apprehension that a band of flesh eating skeletons were waiting for her at the end.
I embarrassed myself that night, reaching out for Clark’s hand when one of the zombies jumped on screen, spilling all of our popcorn and coke onto the floor. Pete and Clark laughed, of course. So did I. But Clark never let go of my hand the rest of the movie. And I, well, I never forgot about it, obviously.
I smiled then, trying to block out any irrational thought of a corpse popping out of the dark, trying to focus on the reassurance I always felt from Clark. He was always there. And I knew that if anything would happen he was only a heartbeat away.
Still, the muffled sound of my lonely footfalls against the cement was eerie enough and as I reached the set of double doors that told me I had reached the ground level, I pulled out the small taser I had kept since junior year.
Cliché or not, a girl never went into a basement without being prepared.
I flipped it on, and watched the small arch of electricity shoot between the front prongs, somewhat dousing the goosebumps and tingling sensation that ran up and down my neck. I turned it off with a fresh sense of bravery, making my way under the stair well where another set of doors were, and opened them.
Instantly, I knew I had found the ground zero.
The basement wasn’t dark like the rest of the structure; in fact, it lit up like fireworks had been set off. Cables and open wires were sparking everywhere, hanging out of consoles and generator boxes. A good chunk of the equipment and floor was on fire, smoldering with thick smoke.
I pulled the top of my shirt over my nose and mouth so I could breathe, and ran down the stairs towards the fire extinguisher hooked on the wall.
I swept the fire with the stream of white foam, trying my best to put out the worst of the flames, but the hairs stood on my neck, screaming for me to stop.
I wasn’t alone.
*
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