Wrapped up

If I had only minded my own business, called in sick and laid back down in bed, then I wouldn’t be standing here, at the doorstep of my old boss’s house. A bullet had graced me in a shooting nearby and several people, including friends on mine were injured, too many for me to help alone. My hand was pressing on the bleeding wound on my arm as the door opened. “Jesus Christ what happened.”, the man I only remember as Soldier76 gasped as he laid eyes on me.

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It’s been months since we last spoke, work kept me busy, always had to make excuses and still, I stumbled my way all the way to his front door to ask for help.” There’s been an incident. A few blocks away. They are going to die, I…I can’t save them alone.”, I said through gritted teeth and tears rolling down my face.

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He stood quiet for a moment, processing the shock of seeing me like this and my words but his instincts kicked in fast. “Show me!”, he demanded already running inside to grab his things.

 

But let’s recall, to understand how I ended up getting, then losing my job just to end up begging my boss for help we need to go back several years, to the year 2030. Humanity has made incredible advances in Biotech engineering. Prosthetics got more complicated by the day, until scientist built the very first humanoid Robot. 100% steel and wires, yet it could think, walk, speak, carry things, form bonds, and learn. It was the most controversial discovery humanity had made.

After the news came out ethics were involved, questions about social hierarchy or safety. Progressives were willing to accept those beings as part of our new technological advanced live, conservatives refused to even look at this pile of metal as sentient. Whether you hated them or loved them, Omnics would intergrade themselves into our society over the next few years.

 

Things seem so, surreal during the first decade. On one street you would see humans and Omnics walk side by side and the first Omnic was put into a government position. On the other side of the street, you would see people beating on one of these robots until it stopped functioning. Tensions were high, racism and hate crimes were at an all-time high. One spark was enough to lite the entire situation up, and eventually there had to be a spark. After a mass casualty even involving humans and Omnics protests began. Peaceful at first but soon things escalated. Members of both sides were losing their lives, Omnic factories were burnt to the grown and residential facilities were raided. The situation turned into a full-on civil war. Omnics VS Humans. People all over the world lived in fear every day and there was little they could change. Omnics were the smarter ones in this fight, taking over infrastructure and the internet. historians called it “The great Omnic crisis”

 

Something had to be done, and better soon, before humans would get extinct by their own creation. Ten years after the first Omnics were made someone finally decided to take action. Commander Jack Morrison and Commander Gabriel Reyes, two high standing military generals founded a small group called “Overwatch”, a handful of humans and Omnics worldwide that had enough of the suffering and swore to end this war and aid whoever was in need. And their efforts paid off, about a year later the war had been won, after Omnics were offered freedom and equal rights. Some laid down their weapons while others were continuing the fight to honour their fallen friends and family. Even if the official war had been declared as over many people were still dying, the world still needed Heroes. Overwatch made global stability its goal, and the world was happy to have them.

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These people could do extraordinary things, with the biomechanical adjustments they had.Commander Morrison worked with an endoskeleton that allowed him to lift things normal men couldn’t, run faster and aim more precise.

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Of course, there were many more, too many to explain all of them in detail. But there is one more person I should talk about, myself. You see almost everyone has some mechanical advancement in this day and age, some more some less. Mine stems from an accident I had when I was just a wee little thing. I was playing in my grandparent’s garden as I tripped and fell backwards in their prise winning rose bushes. I wiggle and struggled but only dug myself deeper into the thorny vines of the flowers.

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My fragile and old grandparents couldn’t pull me out by themselves anymore so they had to call the fire department, people trained for cutting people out worse situations and an ambulance to care for my wounds. The thorns had settled deeply into my skin, delivering me with a high dosage of xylem sap. The sap is considered harmless for humans but I was a mere toddler and the pure amount trickling directly in my bloodstream send me to the hospital and put me on a temporary detox. However, my body never fully recovered. Whenever I was around rose bushes or thorny vines the plants would emit a kind of aura that was drawing me towards them. At first, I was told that this was some form of trauma from what I’ve been through but I didn’t feel like that, it felt hypnotising, powerful. Over the years I became more interested in plant life, especially roses. I could hold a dried up, shrivelled rose in my hands and make it bloom again with my touch, the thorns no longer caused any pain, they could glide over my skin like silk while scratching others.

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The day I turned 18 I went to a specialist to tell me what all this meant. He listened kindly, let me demonstrate all the things I could do, taking stacks of notes. The results were shocking, my body had built a form of symbiosis with the flowers, flued by the detox and medications I had gotten 15 years prior. The vines “listened” to me and I could “talk” to them. I reached out my hand and vines would come crawling; I could point towards any point around me and vines would sprout where I pointed at.  It felt like magic but was just an unintentional form of biomechanical engineering.

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I left that office stunned and terrified of my own body but also impressed. My grandparents were no longer around for me to discuss this with them and learn more about the incident that led to this discovery, however I wasn’t angry at them. They most likely had no idea what happened in that hospital; too old to know what the new biotech could do, they just wanted me healthy again.

 

With time and a lot of practice I improved my skill set enough to be considered useful. I could trap people in twisted vines by simply pointing at them, I could grow roses on those thorny vines and pluck them, their petals able to heal minor and major injuries. A cut on the finger, no problem; a broken limp stabilized and numbed, but still broken. Strong branches could lift me off my feet and drag me places high above or catch me before I trip and land on my behind. I had my own version of the polices spike strip, a row of rose bushes blocking the rode, car tires would be slashed or could be stopped by tightening the vines until they were as dense as a wall.

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By the time I finished school and university I was in my mid-twenties and had a good grip on my abilities. I volunteered as a healer for hospitals, homeless shelters and elder care homes, to care for those who were affected by the ongoing conflicts and remints of war . It was the small things that made me feel useful while I looked for a job as a botanist. Plants have impacted my life for so long I wanted to dedicate my work towards nature and its wonders.

 

I travelled all over the world to collect, document, and photograph plants, from the simplest dandelion to the rare Wood's cycad. And that’s how I got wrapped up in the mess I was in. My latest trip was to the world-famous Route 66. It was late summer and the cacti were in full bloom. I wanted to see those in person so I rented a car and made it a road trip. Best of all: I would get paid for it. A state university in the USA offered me to be a contractor for them to collect samples for their biology students.

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Life couldn’t have been better, I was carefully selecting the flowers I would seal in a vacuum and take with me as I heard a loud bang from somewhere in the area, a second later I saw a flash of light and a fireball rising. The loud boom shook me to my core and made my ears ring; I could feel the heat of the fire reach me a moment later making me gasp, there must have been an accident. My first move was the call the police, or anyone at this point. Reception was bad but I could give one very short distress call about some explosion going off at my location. I didn’t want to be a stalker, I wanted to keep my distance form the situation but as the saying goes "curiosity killed the cat but discovery brought it back". I had to see what happened, maybe there was something I could do, I knew basic first aid and a bit more of what the nurses taught me.

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I packed up my stuff, my plants forgotten as I rushed to the car, stuffing my equipment into my trunk and jumping in the driver’s seat.

 

I followed the smoke up the Route, in the almost 4000 km long route the travel time felt like it took hours but it were probably mere minutes. I was in the middle of nowhere in the Californian desert, here is nothing but an occasional gas station and old, abandoned towns from ancient times. There was nothing in sight that could cause an explosion of that magnitude. I raced ahead until I could already see blue flashing lights and a crowd of people gathered. We were by some old diner / truck stop that served those who travelled this route. I parked by the side of the rode and jumped out, running towards the scene, some tape keeping me away.

 

I could barely see anything; they had put up screens to hide the scene of the accident. All those officers were glaring at me with professional and yet intimidating eyes. “I’m the one who called 911. I heard a bang and then fire in the sky, what’s going on?”, I asked the officers standing around me.

 

They just exchanged a look, adjusted their grip on their vest. “Ma’am, I need you to stand behind the tape, we have the situation under control.”, the officer said dismissively. There was no word about what happened, nothing about what this massive explosion was about. It was clear they were trying to hide something.

 

 I was about to demand an explanation as I saw a first responder carry what seem like a body bag into one of their ambulances. I looked between the officers and the literal black body bag with my eyes wide and my hands pointing around. “Ma’am my ass, I volunteer at hospitals, I’m a healer.”, I said confidently as I pushed the tape aside. The officers tried to grab me but I slapped their hands away pointing a warning finger at them, slowly pulling out my ID and badge that I indeed worked with medical professionals before. I handed it to one of them letting them check it all they wanted while slowly backing out of their reach. The moment I knew they wouldn’t be able to catch me anymore I turned around and bolted behind the screens.

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What I saw there made me want to throw up, I’ve seen infected wounds and necrotic limbs but this was worse. Ahead of me was a rail bridge, which had collapse, the wreckage of burning Wagons scattered everywhere. Dozens of bodies covered by thin cloth, those who weren’t covered were burnt beyond recognition. Firefighters were still trying to cut people free and the medics tried everything to resuscitate as many victims as they could but one after another died in their arms. Chaos was around me; more pieces of the rails broke off and plummeted down onto the street.

 

Routine kicked in and I rushed to the medics already taking off anything restricting and tying my hair in a pony tail. “I’m a licenced medic, tell me where to start.”, I called out and the first responders pointed me to the injured ones.

 

Broken bones, bleeding headwounds, burns that made the skin peel.

I spend hours using my healing roses on injured people, hoping to save as many from their agony as I could. Whenever the firefighters got another body out, we had to help wrap them up or try and save what little was left. If they didn’t die here, they sure would in a few days due to severe third-degree burns. It was gruesome, what monster would do something like this and why? Dozens were dead, hundred more injured, the sun had already set by the time we were loaded up the last person.

 

The faces of the medics said it all, they were just as horrified as I was about the scene in front of us. Everyone sat together on the ground, debris all over the floor. The police officers who were so hostile before offered us some water and snacks they had in the car. They handed back my ID saying everything checked out and that I was indeed licenced to jump into action. Apparently, there were still decent people out there.

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More authorities had arrived while we were working behind the screens. Journalists, news stations and “influencers” had found their way to the scene. I looked over, watching all those people trying to film as much of the horror as they could see. But if we were to remove the white screens, they would most likely all faint from the sight.

 

Among all those wannabes was one person, one man. Standing tall, dirty blond hair, clean shaven, wearing a blue uniform. He stood behind the line of tape the police had drawn up, one of us I assumed. Things became clearer as he turned around and I could see part of his face. It was indeed the one and only Jack Morrison. If the commander was here then this situation was bigger than all of us.

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After his conversation had ended, he walked over to us lot. The captain of the first responders greeted him in the name of everyone. Many heartfelt thanks later his eyes fell on me, because I wasn’t like them. No white scrubs, no red cross on my clothes, no nametag sawn into my clothes. I still wore my botanist clothes, my olive shirt stained in blood, my cargo pants ripped from the pieces of metal I ran through to save people out of the wreckages. “You’re not with them, are you?”, he said with a soft laugh, probably just as surprised to find a civilian among them as I was to see him.

 

I smiled back and went to get up to greet him personally, he was one of Overwatch’s finest. Nothing and nobody would take away the opportunity to talk to a real-life hero in person. I dusted off and tried to clean my hands from blood, dirt and crumbs. I had never spoken to anyone I looked up to more than him, so I was understandably a nervous mess. I couldn’t decide if I should salute to him as a soldier or shake his hand like he was some celebrity. So, my body did both. One hand at my temples, standing straight with my feet close together, the other arm stretched out for a normal handshake. I felt like an idiot for a moment before I decided to ease up and just leave my hand outstretched.

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 I earned a good laugh from the commander seeing how I was acting so awkward around him. He shook my hand and officially introduced himself as Strike Commander Jack Morrison as if he wasn’t a legend. I eagerly shook his hand, my smile brighter than I realized. “The name’s Caitlin and you’re right, I’m not with them, I just met these incredible people today.”, I spoke in high regards of the miracles those first responders and firefighters worked over the last hours.

 

We got to talking, on how a botanist ended up in the midst of a collapsed railway bridge. His face lightened up as we talked about my volunteer work. I haven’t yet mentioned my special skills, thinking that they were nothing compared to what he could do. However, even without knowing about my abilities he seemed impressed by my initiative to jump right into action.

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During our conversation my tongue loosened up and sentences slipped that I didn’t speak aloud yet. “Whoever was behind this must be brought to justice. This wasn’t an accident, there was a fireball in the sky, and that wasn’t from the train crashing down. Between us, if you investigate the rails, I bet someone tampered with them, explosions must have been involved.”. His face twisted under my speculations, he visibly tensed up after I mentioned the possibility of an attack.

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He looked at me then to the officers and the news media he just convinced that Overwatch will investigate this accident. First the police and now even Overwatch’s most famous was acting off when confronted about it. I pressed him more, even if it wasn’t my place to question him on this.

 

After more questions that were plaguing my mind, like why he was here, and why he was so convinced it was an accident he finally gave in. He took his visor off and put it aside to look at me with clear eyes. He reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a calling card. “We should talk”, he said in a serious tone, nodding his head to the crowd of people watching us.

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I took enough acting classes to quickly play along with the prompt he set. I put his card away like it was a normal business exchange and shook his hand “Yes we should.”, I said quietly keeping a loose smile on my lips as we exchanged contact information.

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The first thing I did when I got to my hotel was to take off my clothes and throw them in the trash. I wouldn’t even attempt to wash the stains out of the fabric. I jumped in the shower, taking a well-deserved break from the day. My studies of the local plant life remained incomplete; I would have to note that into my report for the university of California.

 

I had stepped out of the shower wrapped in a towel and drying my hair as my music was interrupted by an incoming call from an unsaved number. I put the phone between my shoulder and my ear picking out something fresh to wear. “Go for Caitlin.”, I picked up.

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The voice on the other side of the call was exactly who I had been waiting for “Cait, It’s Jack. I couldn’t talk freely, not on scene. We should meet up again, there are things to discuss”, He was speaking in a hushed tone, keeping his words short.

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I had stopped picking out clothes and sat on the bed, waiting for any crumb of information I could get my hands on. Not to post it, not to send it to a media station, but to see those who killed over three dozen people to justice. “How about dinner, I’m at the Parker Hotel near 66.”, I offered casually.

 

The silence on the other side of the phone made me snicker, “I can drive by your base and pick you up.”, I mocked him as he didn’t respond.

I could hear a deep sigh coming from his end of the line, he was probably already done with my antics. “I’ll be there in an hour.”, he then just hung up. With new found motivation I went to pick out an outfit, a different one now, for a special occasion.