Chapter 10: Falling Down: Fake News
Put on the whole armour of Science, that ye may be able to stand against the will of God.
Neon Ephesians 6:11
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Hitomi followed Captain Arpa's gaze down to her left arm and its partially rolled up sleeve. Her forearm had small trails of dark bruising peeking from beneath the rolled up fabric, which looked garish against her otherwise pale skin and pink nails.
She left the long, metal pipe in her lap and reached over to her sleeve with her right hand, tugging it upwards, jolting with the pain, trying to inch it up near her shoulder.
Urgh, it hurt! What had she done to herself!?
But there was no way she was going to take her sweater off in mixed company - not unless she were dying or dead. Finally she got it pushed and rolled up enough to see everything.
Captain Arpa leaned forward in his seat, critically appraising the black and blue splotches in her upper arm. Hitomi herself was shocked with how violently wrong it made her flesh look; she hissed in pain as a slight shift in weight pulled the pain inwards to her chest.
Even breathing out too heavily was a dull sort of torture, and now she had gone and ruined her arm?
Her fingers trailed unconsciously across the edge of the pipe's threads, as though she were reassuring herself it was still there. But, wasn't it the pipe's fault? Or whatever weirdo witchcraft had made her a berserker-rage-brawler-chick?
"You were beaten?" the Captain asked, unsure of what had happened before he and his men had seen her battle with the fanatics.
She shooked her head slightly. "N-no. I think this happened when I, um..." How do you explain her ability - it appeared only when she was in trouble, it seemed. "I just, I'm left handed, and I swung as HARD as I could, and, um, maybe tore something?"
Hailey jumped in, sensitive to Hitomi's nascent secret: "Those sons of bitches were like the living dead, man, they just - wow, they just didn't even care if they died. They were gonna torture us before they finished us off. Bet those sadsacks didn't expect our little friend here could crack their skulls open!"
Hitomi nodded, both disturbed at the reminder and a little bashful.
Josh coughed, then leaned onto Hailey who slid his head onto her lap while shifting over so his leg could stay elevated. The doctor had snipped away his pant leg but left his socks and shoes on, so he looked like an anime character wearing a ridiculous half-pant-leg-trouser combo.
"Hey, I'm good right? Not gonna die?"
The doctor huffed in annoyance, "No, you won't die. In and out, I already said this. Muscles cut up, will heal in time. Stay off it. Get crutches. You understand?"
Hailey patted Josh's arm and assured the doctor they understood: "Yes sir, and thank you."
"It's my job," the older man said saltily. Captain Arpa gave the gentlest cough, and the doctor turned, noticing Hitomi's partially exposed arm for the first time. He stood up and wound his way around the chairs, kneeling in front of her.
Captain Arpa pointed at Mr. Pipe in her lap: "And where did you manage to find such an... exotic companion?" Amusement danced in his eyes, distracting her from the doctor probing her arm while making grunts and observations in a language she didn't understand.
"I picked it up in an alley, it's, um - well I just kind of grabbed it when some guys attacked us!"
The Captain leaned forward. "Oh? So you kept it with you in case you ran into trouble?"
"Yes!" she said, glad he understood, "Exactly!"
"But your friend, Mr., Sanderson?" he ventured, and Hailey nodded, so he continued, "Mr. Sanderson had a gun, did he not?"
"Pipes don't run out of bullets, Captain," Josh gritted out, fighting another pulse of pain in his leg. The gauze wrapped around his packed wound was turning red in spots. It must be coagulating, she thought, since it seemed like a very slowly moving stain. That must be a good thing, she assured herself.
"Besides, Hitomi studied for years at her family dojo in Japan, she's really good at martial arts," Hailey prevaricated, spinning the lie wholesale from nothing, hoping the military man would buy it.
Hitomi had the wit to nod, "Oh yes, my family dojo. We specialize in, how do you say it in English? Poles? Sticks?"
"Pole arms?" the Captain guessed.
"Ah, yes, pole arms," Hitomi confirmed, then looked down, "I feel much safer now that I have one with me - it was all just, so... overwhelming, after, you know - the Voice."
The Captain nodded, having taken up his tea and drunk some while listening to her, and put it down. His porcelain plate clinked.
"And this is why you have come to America? You compete in martial arts?"
"Oh! Oh, no no! No! I'm a computer science student," she said hurriedly, then awkwardly fumbled in her satchel with her good right hand and fetched out her thin laptop, waving it in front of her, "I write computer programs."
The doctor chose that moment to start speaking again in a language she didn't understand, gesturing at her arm at various points, while the Captain listened intently. Captain Arpa then said a few things to the doctor, who nodded and got up, exiting the room.
Captain Arpa looked at her intently.
"He told me you you've done the equivalent of lifting a hundred pounds a hundred times in a hundred seconds. That the... output of strength you exhibited, it was like a woman lifting a car off her trapped baby," he mused. If he was suspicious of her excuses so far he wasn't showing it.
Hitomi rubbed her injured limb with her free hand, "I guess... that makes sense. I was so -"
Just then a soldier came jogging in, holding a small radio that he placed in front of the Captain, then said something in their native language.
The radio was playing the American national anthem, an instrumental version, and then came to life with a voice she wasn't familiar with.
"My fellow Americans," the voice began. It was male, and had a nasal, higher tone. "The events of this day shall forever live in infamy. It is with a heavy heart that I report to my fellow citizens a terrorist attack, perpetrated upon our own soil, by forces not yet known to us, who have taken from us the life of the President of the United States."
Hitomi gasped, was it the Vice President speaking?
"In accordance with the Presidential Order of Succession, and, indeed, following the wishes and trust of my good friend, our dearly departed President, I have taken the Oath of Office, and now speak to you as the President of the United States of American."
Captain Arpa nodded along, listening carefully, while Hailey shook Josh awake - he had started to nod off again.
"We are in a state of war. War with an enemy we will track down to the very corners of the Earth. We shall give them no quarter. No rock will be left uncovered until these cowards, who assassinated our President during a peaceful conference with the world's leaders, are found and punished."
Hitomi was agog. They thought terrorists did this? When did terrorists learn how to broadcast directly into peoples' minds in their own mother languages.
Captain Arpa shook his head knowingly and muttered, "Such arrogance..."
"Our enemy has used clever technologies to deceive us, but America, I say to you: have faith. God has not forsaken us. No, He, in his mercy, will help us. Even now, across the world, people question the goodness of God. I say again to you all: We Are Americans. In God We Trust."
"I am completely confident that our intelligence services will prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the events that unfolded today during the U.N. were merely part of an elaborate, but deadly, hoax. Reports to the contrary, indeed, any report of an 'Angel' or 'Messenger' from God are simply false. They are, in the words of a great man, fake news."
Hitomi gasped despite herself. How could someone be so blind?
Would the people of America truly believe him?
But... maybe it would calm the streets, maybe things would be safer outside if they did believe the lie the new President was telling.
"We now ask every American to do their patriotic duty. Stay home. Power off unnecessary utilities. Conserve water and food. If you believe in a greater America, then we ask that you remain calm and give our government the time it needs to response to the historic chaos we've seen unfold today."
That seemed wise.
"I will leave you with these words: if I believed, in any way, that God had truly forsaken us - if there were one shred - one iota of evidence, I would no longer be with you. And I am, with you. I bid you good evening, and I bid you all be ready to return to work tomorrow, the same as any other day, with these terrible, untruthful events put behind us."
"God bless you. And God Bless America."
The speech ended, and another patriotic song began playing in the background.
Captain Arpa reached over to the table that the radio had been set on, and flicked a switch. The instrumental music died in a high-pitched whimper.
"It seems the new President does not agree with us simple folk about the nature of the Event, hmm?"
Hailey said, "No it does not. But par for the course for that guy, he's always been a religious zealot. I can't believe he's the President. Good god."
Hitomi didn't understand some of Hailey's phrasing, but knew she definitely agreed it was not a good thing at all for the new President to be refusing to face what was really happening. Instead, it looked like the official American policy was going to be to treat today as a new 9/11.
She wondered who they would invade in retaliation?
Well, not Japan! Oh god, what an irreverent thought.
Captain Arpa clapped his hands together, and said, "Well, now, Ms. Hisakawa, as we were discussing before being interrupted by America's new - hmm - direction. I am no doctor, it is true. But! I do know that the human body is capable of extraordinary things! And you, my dear, have done something incredible. And, if I may say so and be so rude, paid a price for it."
Hitomi grimaced, agreeing.
There was a scuffling sound upstairs and Hitomi could swear she heard a chair being dragged across a floor. Captain Arpa looked at the ceiling, trying to discern whats its occupant might be doing, when he jumped to his feet, yelling something to his fellow soldiers.
More shouting, footsteps echoing above them, and then a scramble of furniture being moved around as the second-story door was finally broken down.
A loud curse echoed down the stairs and down the hallway to their sitting area, and Hitomi was fairly certain she had just learned a very aggressive Latvian swear word. It rhymed with "Calpis" - one of her favorite Japanese soft drinks.
Captain Arpa reappeared, looking worn and more haggard than his previous disposition had hinted he was capable of. He sat heavily in the settee and stroked the small beard on his chin, then took a nice long swig of the tea he had left on his tray earlier.
At last he spoke.
"The good ambassador, well, he hung himself. I had not thought he would go so far."
Hitomi gasped in horror.
Hailey had to ask, "Why? Why would he do that?"
Captain Arpa hazarded a guess: "Ever since the Event, he had broken down, it is true. He kept yelling about souls, and his wife - that nothing mattered, it was all quite disturbing. We felt that quarantining him was the best choice, in case he chose to do something... rash."
Both girls nodded. It seemed like the best choice.
"Ms. Hisakawa, you are more than welcome to stay here, with your friends, if you wish. If not, I understand, and will send one of my soldiers with you up the street to get you to your own embassy."
Oh thank god! Hitomi broke into a wide smile and gushed her gratitude: she wanted to get to her embassy, and told him so.
Captain Arpa stood, motioning her to stand as well, and so she did, grabbing onto Mr. Pipe with her right hand and slinging her laptop bag over her good shoulder, letting the bag rest against her other hip.
The Captain walked out of the open entryway to go confer with one of his soldiers, the one who would escort her.
Hitomi, finally alone with her friends, asked, "Hailey, will you be OK with Mr. Josh? Is it OK to leave you?"
"We'll be fine Hitomi, you just stay safe, and, hey, c'mere."
Hitomi walked over and leaned over as Hailey motioned with a finger to bend down to her so she could whisper something.
"Don't tell anyone about your powers, and, hey, try not to be in a situation where you need to use them. I think, I think - it'd do anything to keep you alive." Hailey pointed at Hitomi's injured arm.
"Anything."
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