Invincible

An ordinary man becomes something extraordinary

Danny was a regular guy. Nothing extraordinary about him; well, maybe the fact that he played the electric guitar, but that never got him anything. He had moved to the city two years back with his girlfriend who would eventually break up with him a year later. He was stuck. Without the proper funds, he couldn’t move back into town where his mother lived. She offered to help him, but Danny, being as stubborn as he was, denied the offering.

            His job was monotonous. Every day was the same. It was always just office work. He grew tired of it. He did, however, have a slight crush on the woman a few cubicles away. She was nice looking and smelled wonderful, he thought.

            Danny sat at the bar, tired from the day. He had worked ten hours and had grown weary of the constant filing of papers. It was the screen of the computer that did the worst. It gave him awful migraines he couldn’t rid of.

            He flicked his cigarette and it tossed the ash into the glass tray. The smoke lingered in his nose and only exacerbated his headache. It pounded but he insisted on drinking his usual rum and coke.

            “One more, Gary, and then I think I’m calling it.”

            The bartender grabbed his glass and prepared him another drink.

            Danny looked into the mirror at his image and wondered why she had left him. What was it that he had done so wrong, he contemplated? I’m an okay guy, he continued in his head. I work, I’m a musician… I’m a catch. Gary slid the rum and coke forward to him. “Thanks.”

            Danny was a polite person who was always getting the short end of the deal. Growing up he was bullied for the bush on top of his head that his mother called, “A lovely lock of hair”. He hated it then. In high school, he discovered hair products; but then that back fired when the same group of kids who had always messed with him started calling him a greaser and a queer when he came to school one day with his hair slicked back.

            He slowly sipped at his drink and looked up at the television.

            Others were in the bar routing on their favorite football team, but Danny had no interest in sports and had no team. He was simply there.

            Half-way finished, he had to use the restroom. He got up and on his way to the men’s room he saw a woman sitting at the end of the bar with long dark hair that reminded him of summer. He strolled casually passed her, keeping his composure, but the excitement he felt inside of himself was boiling over.

            He leaned his head against the wall as he urinated into the urinal. You’ve got to say something, Danny, he thought to himself. You just need to say anything. Just a word, he told himself. The door opened and he backed his head off of the cool tile. A tall man walked past him and into the toilet. He didn’t want to stick around for what came next. He quickly washed his hands and exited.

            As he walked out, he noticed her again. She was just sitting enjoying her drink.

            Danny walked up to her and tapped her shoulder. “Hi…” She turned and looked at him. “I’m Danny.”

            “Not interested,” she said immediately after looking him up and down.

            His wardrobe was plain. The only nice thing about his attire was the leather jacket his ex had bought him for their first Christmas together. Why he still wore it, he couldn’t say.

            Danny went back to his seat at the bar and took another drink. She was probably a s**t anyway, he thought. I can do better. He set his drink down and looked back at the television. There was a commercial on about personal vehicles and how low the financing was and how great that particular model did on gas. His eyes strolled down the back of the bar and admired all of the bottles lit up by the light that shined beneath them underneath the glass which they sat upon.

            Lovely.

            The light against the bottles offered a kind of peace inside of him. He sighed and finished his drink.

            “You going to be okay, Danny? Would you like me to call you a cab?” Gary, the bartender, asked.

            He had six drinks.

            “I’m fine. You know my house is only a few blocks away from here.”

            “Watch out for the cops.” Gary smiled.

            Danny sat up and made his way out of the bar, slightly wobbling. Legs of rubber held him up and struggled to go one in front of the other. But he played sober pretty well and fooled Gary into letting him go as he looked back and nodded indicating his sobriety. He pushed himself against the heavy door of the bar and opened it.

            A chill air invited him out into the world. It beckoned him to walk the streets. Welcomed him into its’ arms.

            There were few cars parked on the curb. A light drizzle had come earlier and set on the ground. The sidewalk was moist and crunched under the soles of his shiny leather shoes.

            He took a few steps then his senses were bombarded as a car honked next to him driving slowly.

            “What in the hell?” Danny muttered. He looked over. It was a dark blue sedan with tinted windows which were up. It honked again. It’s headlights were off.

            Danny, being the timid man that he was, turned and continued on his way. But the car followed. He would occasionally look over his shoulder.

            Then, the vehicle turned on its high beams and sped its tires. Danny became alarmed and began to walk a little faster. The car pulled up next to him and someone from inside rolled down the passenger window. He stopped and peered inside. Greeting him was a handgun. Danny flew back after whoever was inside pulled its’ trigger. He fell onto the cold ground and lay, eyes slightly open. The car sped off.

            Danny looked up. He had no choice laying on his back. The only direction to look at was up. The stars were bright. Kind of nice, he thought. His hand ran over his belly and he then looked at his palm. There was blood all over it. An overwhelming sense of fear overcame him. He began to breathe heavily.

            Not yet, he thought. I don’t want to die. Maybe it’s nothing.

            He put his hand back on the chilled concrete and continued to lay.

            As he dozed off and the darkness overcame him, he could see in the corner of his left eye people rushing to him.

            Welcome!

            Danny woke up.

            He tried to move his arms but wherever he was, it was tight and narrow.

            I’m in a coffin, Danny thought immediately. They’ve buried me and I’m six feet under.

            Danny started to bang on the inside loudly. He started screaming, “Help! I’m in here! I’m alive!”

            Little did he know, he hadn’t been buried alive. He hadn’t been buried at all.

            It was the moment Carl Zimmerman opened the door to the cooler that Danny realized he was above ground. The light shined into the narrow space and lit it up allowing him to see his legs.

            “I’m alive!” Danny was thrilled as Carl pulled him out on the sliding table that moved in and out of the cooler. He looked up at a thin, young man who looked pale. His skin was the color of fresh milk on a beautiful spring day. White as could be. “Thank you!”

            Danny sat up on the table. He felt cold. “How come I am naked?” he asked after he looked down to see his bare body. “Where are we?”

            “You’re… in the… hospital… morgue…” Carl Zimmerman answered stuttering almost every word. He was stunned at the sight of Danny.

            Carl Zimmerman was use to the dead. He’d been working for the hospital for sometime now and seen his share. But this wasn’t the usual. It wasn’t natural.

            “Hospital?” Danny asked. Then, in that moment, a rush of a vague memory of being shot and thrown to the ground by the force came over him. He put his hand to his hand and screamed. It was the same feeling of the migraines that the computer gave him.

            Carl almost asked if Danny was okay, but then stopped. The man that sat naked before him was supposed to be dead. He came in cold… and dead. The medics had pronounced him at the scene.

            “What happened?”

            “You… were shot,” Carl answered.

            Danny examined himself. No bullet wound. “Shot?”

            Carl looked also to see no holes whatsoever. He was astounded. When Danny first came in, he had a large bullet hole in his gut, but now it was gone. “You were. Shot. It seems to have gone. I mean…” Carl had to rethink his words. “You’ve healed. It’s… a miracle.” He didn’t really believe in miracles. He was just amazed at the fact that this dead man was talking to him; or live man�" Carl wasn’t sure anymore.

            Danny tried to think about what had happened… outside of the bar earlier. He guessed earlier. He had no idea how long he had been in the drawer of the morgue.

            “You’ve somehow regenerated,” Carl said. “The hole is gone and you are alive. Do you mind?” he asked grabbing for a stethoscope.

            “I don’t mind at all.” Even in death, Danny was still a nice guy.

            Carl put the stethoscope to Danny’s chest and listened.

            Bump-bump. Bump-bump.

            “Your heart is beating. You are alive.” Carl couldn’t believe his ears.

            “Well, I know I’m alive,” Danny replied. “But what does all this mean? You say I was dead but I’m sitting here very much alive talking to you.” He paused a moment to gather himself. He was becoming hysterical. He let out a breath of air. “What do I do now?”

            “They’ve already written a death certificate. As far as the world’s concerned, you’re dead. I’m sorry.”

            “But there has to be some kind of mistake.”

            “I saw you earlier myself. I was the one who put you in there. You were shot and killed.” Carl began to pace around the room. “You have to be some kind of entity�" I think you are a mistake or rarity of nature.” He looked at Danny. His nose was less than an inch away from Danny’s. “I’m not a religious man, but maybe… just maybe… you’re some kind of gift from God. Are you an angel?”

            “Angel? My name is Danny! I live in an apartment on the west side… alone! I’m just a regular guy from the woods…” He was growing impatient with Carl. This was out of character for him. Danny looked down at himself once again. “Do you have anything I can put on?”

            “Of course.” Carl grabbed a long white lab-coat and handed it to him.

            The next few minutes they exchanged what made this fantastic thing possible.

            Danny had enough and told Carl he was going to leave.

            “You can’t just leave. You’re dead!”

            “I’m alive and well. I can leave if I want. There’s nothing stopping me except a young kid in a lab coat.” He pushed him aside and headed for the door.

            “You’re naked and about to exit out into a full staffed, busy hospital. You don’t know what you’re doing or what you will encounter. What about the police?”

            Danny stopped right in front of the door with his hand out. He turned back to Carl. “Then help me. Help me get out. I’ll… handle the rest.”

            “What we need to do is call a doctor… a physician… someone who could change your certificate.”

            “Can that even be done?” Danny had never heard of it. Why would he? No one had ever come back from the dead before.

            “I don’t know…” Carl looked down at the floor. “Let me call Dr. Grey. He’s a friend. He can help.”

            After being on the phone for a moment, Carl hung up the receiver.

            “He’s coming,” he said. Danny was standing now and walking around the room.

            There wasn’t much to the room except for all the drawers on the walls. They were made of stainless steel and were all cold to the touch.

            Minutes later, Dr. Grey walked in.

            “You better not be pulling my leg with this Zimmerman. I know I got you last year, but this is just absurd and I’m busy as all hell.” Then, he stopped in his tracks to see a man that was presumed dead hours ago. “What on God’s Earth?” He was stunned.

            “I told you,” Carl said almost smiling at him. “Now you believe me?”

            “Okay. Okay.” Danny interrupted their moment. “Can you help me, Dr.? I’m alive as you can see. No holes. I’m well.”

            Dr. Grey was an older gentleman with a white beard. He looked like the intellectual type to Danny. 

            The doctor calmed himself and removed his glasses. “There’s no way to reverse the process. Once the certificate is drawn up, I’m afraid that is it. As far as humanity is concerned, sir, you’re dead.”

            Danny was devastated. What was he supposed to do now, he wondered? “So, I’m a damn zombie with nowhere to go.”

            “I wouldn’t say you’re a zombie,” Carl interjected. “You’re more like… a superhero; a phantom, if you will, come back from the dead. In fact, you didn’t even really ever die. I mean… you did, but you healed.”

            “You are a supernatural being,” Dr. Grey added.

            Danny stood. His ordinary life had been changed forever. He was dead to the world, but really alive for the first time since he could remember.

           

             

Author's Note

I wrote this fall of 2016. I feel like I've grown since then, but I wanted to share anyway.