Hero's Call

Chapter Sixteen

Milo had never pedaled his bike so hard in all his life. Much of that had to do with the fact that his now genetically enhanced body could move quicker than his old body ever could. Had there been any cars on his route, they would have been baffled by the young man on a mountain bike that was leaving them in his dust. He didn't think about being discrete with his newfound strength and abilities. His spirits were so high he couldn't have kept them in check even if he had wanted to. The best Milo could do was taking a back way to meet Bill and Cali and hope he didn't pass anyone on his way. Luckily, the roads were more or less deserted.

Milo had told Bill to get Calliope and come to the small copse of trees that sat in the empty field behind the Pizza Hut. They had discovered the tiny contingent of trees one day when walking to have some lunch on a half day of school. There was an opening just big enough for three kids to fit through to have a little fun. The center of the copse was fairly well open to allow for them to do whatever they wished and not be completely exposed to any passers-by, although given the location of their secret hideout, there weren't many people prone to pass by. That had been some years before when the three friends were much younger. Now, as their ages and bodies rapidly approached adulthood, it was a little more difficult for them to get in and out, but that never really stopped them from doing so.

Milo skidded his bike to a halt in the yellowing grass that surrounded the thicket, dirt flying in his wake. He grossly misjudged his speed in relation to his distance when applying the handbrakes. The already worn break mechanism did what it could, but only slowed Milo's forward momentum down so much before it snapped free from the bike frame. Milo tried to put his feet down to help slow his progress, but it was too late. His front tire crushed into a fallen tree trunk, caving in the once perfect circle, and sent Milo headlong into the dense collection of trees. He was surprised to find that he felt next to no pain as he shot through the weak, low-hanging branches and collided with the sturdy trunk of an ash tree.

Laughing hysterically, Milo picked himself up and brushed himself off. There were no scratches he could see on any of his skin that was exposed. A quick once over of the rest of his body showed no real harm done. The skin on his shoulder was a little tender from the collision, but the pain was rapidly receding as his Hero Gene worked quickly to heal him. Milo tromped back through the trees to inspect the damage to his bike. The front wheel was obliterated as was a small part of the frame. There was no way of repairing damage that extensive. His parents wouldn't be happy when they saw the mangled remains of the bike he'd begged them ceaselessly for only a year previously. The upside was that he was unharmed, but he didn't think his parents would find that a comfort now that he was a Hero.

Milo let the bike drop to the ground and walked a quarter of the way around the copse of trees to the only opening that had ever allowed them inside. He knew neither Bill nor Cali had arrived because either of them would have come running at the commotion of his accident. Once he was inside the thicket, Milo couldn't help but notice how eerily quiet it was. They'd never really spent any time there at night and a chill started creeping up Milo's spine as he thought about all the horror movies that had come unbidden to his mind. A little more than a week prior, Milo's imagination would have had him pacing nervously about and jumping at any little noise until Bill and Cali finally showed up. Now that he was the first Hero to walk the earth in nearly half a century, he laughed at the thought of a hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding maniac attacking him.

Milo only had to wait a little over five minutes before he heard the tell-tale sound of bike tires tearing through the grass and coming to a stop. The sound was coming from the opposite direction that Milo himself had come, but he figured they would have taken a more direct route and only traveling at a fraction of the speed. It suddenly struck him as a relief that his friends had approached a different way as his damaged bike lay in the open and would only create panic among them, especially Cali. Their voices could be heard clearly as they got off their bikes and made their way over to the entrance of the clearing.