"Caesar… Is that you?" Carol whimpered, looking up at the carnival mask. Who else could it be? She received a nod from the man.
"There's a bomb attached to me!" She exclaimed. "It's going to detonate in forty seconds! Why did you have to come to me now? You'll die with me needlessly!"
"I know," was the calm reply.
Carol was spiraling into panic and couldn't even think straight. Why would the man come to rescue her, knowing death was inevitable? It was clearly a suicide run!
"First, we need to get away from this gas station," the masked Victor told her.
Before Carol could react, he snipped the chains that held her to the pipeline. Then he picked her up like a doll and heaved her on the shoulders.
"What are you doing…" the young woman murmured. "The bomb-"
Whoosh! Victor cleared the gas station in one horizontal leap and covered over a hundred feet across the road. He skidded to a stop at the edge of the main road, overlooking the valley below.
Without a second thought, the man jumped off the edge. Carol began screaming at the top of her lungs as the wind howled in her ears. Did Caesar just leap down the valley? What sort of suicidal action was it?
Splat! Victor touched down on flat ground three hundred feet below. His landing was casual as if he had stepped down a ladder. The man put down Carol and made her rest against a boulder. His eyes went to the bomb's digital timer.
[00:00:05]
Carol looked completely bamboozled and weather-beaten. Somehow, they landed in the valley without getting hurt. What the hell was going on? Was she dreaming?
Victor quickly snipped the bomb's straps, removing the device from Carol. He turned back, and for a moment, their eyes met.
"What are you-"
Victor took another horizontal stride, landing on the ground a quarter mile away.
Carol's eyes widened. Was Caesar superhuman? But why did he take the bomb with him?
Victor knelt on the ground and hugged the bomb, keeling over to cover it with his body.
"Nooo!" Carol exclaimed. "Don't do it!" Why was the man sacrificing his body to protect her? No matter how strong he was, he couldn't survive a bomb explosion!
BOOM! An inferno rose into the sky, followed by a shockwave. Carol jumped behind the boulder as a heat wave passed, charring the rock surface.
The bomb had detonated. If Caesar hadn't covered it with his body, the heat wave would’ve probably decimated her.
Carol waited for two minutes before popping up her head to see whether the explosion was indeed over.
A crater had formed a quarter mile down the valley. Grass and vegetation had been incinerated in a wide circle around it.
Overcome with emotion, Carol began running towards the explosion site. She tripped a few times and fell, scraping her knees and elbows. But she kept moving as if she were in a trance.
In a few minutes, Carol reached the smoking crater and peered into it. The spectacle shook her to the core. A phenomenally athletic man knelt at the center, covered in ember and ash. His clothes were burnt away, leaving him stark naked.
Carol climbed down the crater and came face to face with the man she knew as Caesar. The mask was burnt off, and his face was covered in black soot. However, she could easily recognize the person.
"Victor!"
Victor opened his eyes and offered her a bitter smile. "It's nice to see you after so long, Carol," he said softly.
The beauty's eyes flooded with tears, and she let out a heart-rending cry before running to her ex-husband. She collided with him like a train, sending him to the ground.
Victor embraced her wholeheartedly as she pinned him down and broke into uncontrollable sobs.
"I thought you were dead! Courtney told me she poisoned you! I didn't want to live anymore!"
Victor chuckled. "She tried her best, but I am difficult to kill! You can see even the bomb failed to land a scratch."
Carol rested Victor's head on her lap. "So you are Caesar? Why didn't you tell me about your identity before? Why did you protect me from the shadows instead? What made you live the life of an ordinary man? You even went through the divorce! I'm so confused! You're so horrible!"
Carol's tears dropped on Victor's chest and rolled down, forming lines of clean skin on his ash-covered body.
"I wanted you to love me as an ordinary man…" he replied softly.
Carol shook her head disapprovingly. "But you're not! You're not ordinary, Victor! You are filthy rich! You can stop bullets and survive bomb explosions! You're extraordinary!"
"Is that so?" He teased her. "I never noticed. Now that you know my secret, what is your opinion about me?"
Carol leaned over Victor and kissed him on the lips. "That's what I feel about you."
Victor kissed her back until she shook herself free.
"What's your opinion of me after I treated you so poorly as a wife?" The beauty asked. "I put you through a lot, socializing with other men, humiliating you in public, and putting my rotten family over you at all times! And in the end, they left me to die! You should hate me!"
Victor chuckled lightly and touched Carol's wet cheek. "You are you, Carol. I wouldn't change a thing. I see you the same way I want you to see me."
The young woman said nothing but shed more tears of both sorrow and joy.
Victor observed their awkward position. "Can we get up? I am kind of naked right now."
Carol's face immediately turned red, and she jumped to her feet. She removed her sweater and threw it towards him. "You'll have to manage with that until we get you something proper to wear. You're always dressed in bum clothes anyway."
Victor chuckled and tied the sweater like a loincloth around his lower body. "I own a farmhouse nearby," he said. "Let's go there to clean up."
Before Carol could respond, he picked her up and jumped further down the valley. In five minutes, they were standing before a modest wooden cottage.
"How much money do you really have?" Carol asked as they entered the house. It had rustic furniture and decor inside, reminiscent of gone years.
"Enough to run the entire world," Victor replied, switching the lights on.
"Then why don't you use it to end global poverty and deprivation? Make world peace happen."
Victor smiled warmly and opened a bedroom closet. "I wish it were that simple. Our country has an annual budget of trillions of dollars. Have poverty, homelessness, and crime been eradicated? No. Money doesn't solve problems without the right people spending it. As long as there is corruption and evil in this world, no amount of wealth can fix it. My organization is trying to build a new world order to make it happen."
Carol giggled. "It's like I am talking to a completely different person. We were husband and wife, but I barely knew anything about the real you. I have so many questions!"
Victor's features softened on seeing Carol's infectious smile. He threw a couple of bath towels at her. "Take a shower and come back, and I'll answer all your questions."
Carol nodded and entered the bathroom alone. Victor heard the shower running and stood by silently. After a few minutes, the door slid open a crack.
"Victor…” Carol offered in a shy voice. “Why don't you join me in the shower?"