Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons #4)(71)

Tommy was there now, rushing past Clark. He was about to go after the guard on the ground before seeing how much the man was already suffering. Tommy backed off and turned to Clark. Paul was there now, too. And Kyle.

Clark hurried to Lana and crouched over her.

“What the hell’s going on?” Paul shouted. “She okay?”

Clark held Lana’s face in his hands. “I don’t know.”

Tommy was beside him, holding two fingers against the inside of Lana’s wrist. “Her pulse is strong,” he said.

Clark stood with Lana draped in his arms. His best friend in the world. All his strength was back now, and he wanted to stay with her, protect her. But he needed to handle the bomb before it was too late. “Take her to get help!” he shouted at his teammates. “And tell the police to go to your farm, Tommy!”

“My farm?”

“Trust me!”

His former teammates all nodded.

They were looking to him for direction again, like freshman year.

“Who are these guys?” Tommy asked.

Clark shook his head. “Just take care of Lana. And hurry. I’ll be right behind you.”

Tommy and Kyle dropped their bats, took Lana from Clark, and moved quickly toward the exit.

But Paul just stood there. “I’m coming with you.”

“No,” Clark shouted, anxious about how quickly time was slipping away. “Your job is to convince the cops to go to Tommy’s farm. There’s something dangerous going on there. Please go!”

They shared a brief look, and then Paul nodded and took off after Tommy and Kyle.

Clark rushed back into the room with the bomb.

His breath caught when he saw the clock.

1:01

1:00





0:59


He looked frantically around the room. Corey and the other man were gone. All that mattered was the bomb anyway.

Clark knelt in front of the device. He had no idea how to defuse it. Melting a bomb with heat vision seemed like a bad idea. So did freezing it with his breath.

00:48

00:47





00:46


There was no solution. And no one to turn to.

All the physical strength in the world made little difference in this moment. He ripped the bomb away from the pipe and held it in his bare hands, the numbers steadily ticking down in front of him.

00:42





00:41


Clark carried the bomb out of the room.

He raced through the halls, looking for a safe place to let it detonate. He ran so fast that his collared shirt ripped, exposing a large swatch of his blue-and-red suit.

There was no safe room to detonate a bomb. When it went off, it would blow up the entire square. And everyone in it.

He burst out of the building and paused to scan his surroundings.

The crowd had only grown in size. Everyone was milling about and enjoying the celebration, completely unaware of the bomb ticking down.

00:31





00:30


Clark looked around wildly. There were wide-open farm pastures outside town. He could throw it in that direction. But what if a farmer was working in the barnyard? Or what if there were day laborers in the fields? He couldn’t risk harming innocent people.





00:27


Panic rose in Clark’s throat.

He peered up at the sky. Scattered clouds framing a sea of blue.

The yellow sun glowing in the distance.

00:23





00:22


He’d tried once before and crashed through the roof of a building. It was impossible. Beyond him.

Clark glanced down at himself. The blue of his suit. The S emblazoned onto his heaving chest.

There was no other option.

He tucked the bomb under his arm like a football. Then he raced toward the square. When he’d gotten up enough speed, he took a leap of faith, extending one fist in front of him and rising up into the air, slowly at first, his cape flapping wildly behind him, his heart in his throat.

Clark clutched the bomb to his body as he ascended. Higher and higher. Keeping his weight back this time. His ears popping. Heart pounding. All these years he’d dreamed of flight. And here he was, soaring like a bird.

Because he had to.

Because there was no other choice.

00:11





00:10


Below he saw hundreds of people in the town square. Several looked up. Some pointed. Unaware that their lives were in his hands. But wasn’t his own life in his hands as well? Because all he had thought through was getting the bomb away from the masses. Saving his community.

But now it would go off in mere seconds.

And he would go off with it.

00:04





00:03


Yet a strange feeling of calm had come over him. There were no more expectations or desires or confusion. He was doing what was right. Because he was no longer lost. He had been found. This was his true self.

He was free.





00:01


And he was flying.





The blast echoed through all of Smallville.

It shook the ground below with the force of an earthquake. The brand-new Mankins facility trembled, and the large windows at the front entrance of the library shattered. People flung themselves onto the ground and covered their heads as the strange object flying overhead suddenly flashed brighter than the sun.