Break: An Urban Hero's Journey Read online

  Break

  Wes Grant

  Copyright © 2011 by Wes Grant. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book was printed in the United States of America. To order additional copies of this book, contact: Xlibris Corporation1-888-795-4274

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  [email protected]

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2011900984 ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-4568-5575-8

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Opening the Door............................................ 3

  Chapter 2: Head Case ..................................................... 29

  Chapter 3: Shocking Development ................................. 43

  Chapter 4: Powerhouse ................................................... 59

  Chapter 5: Answers......................................................... 81

  Chapter 6: The True Master............................................ 93

  Chapter 7: Pupil ............................................................ 119

  Chapter 8: Reunion ....................................................... 153

  Chapter 9: Hot Headed ................................................. 179

  Chapter 10: Burning Hatred.......................................... 201

  Chapter 11: Face to Face .............................................. 237

  Chapter 12: The Five Pillars ......................................... 261

  Chapter 13:You Don’t Know Jack .............................. 313

  NEIL AND VON

  NICK SPEARS

  Nick SPEARS SPEAR

  Chapter 1

  Opening the Door

  Hey , what’s up? My name is Nick Spears. Growing up, I was just a normal guy. I’m now twenty-four and live at home with my mom. I live in the attic, which I have converted into an apartment. She raised me as a single parent. I work at a commercial hardware store in Jersey City. My job title is a little unique; I am an assembler. Basically, I’m the guy that puts everything together in the store, whether it’s a grill, lawn mower, patio furniture, fireplace, or kitchen cabinets. I don’t wish to sound conceited, but I can pretty much put anything together with or without instruction. But I guess right now you’re wondering, “Who the hell is this guy?” To answer your question, nobody really; at least I used to be a normal guy. You know that saying, “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” Well, you have no idea. They say the average person uses 10 percent or less of their potential. What if there were ways to use more, but we only accessed them in extreme situations or emotional states? You may have seen or heard on the news about a woman lifting a car to save her baby or a guy moving a bus to save some children. What if those situations or instances were moments when we tapped into only 11 percent of our potential? Moments when you use abilities you didn’t know you possessed; moments when you “break” past the boundaries of normal human beings. You don’t hear about it, but most of the time those people that do those amazing things damage their bodies severely by pushing it that far. But what if you didn’t damage your body? What if there was a special number? A special number of times where you tap into that extra percent, and once you do, you control that ability. What if the special number was three, like three locks on a door, and no matter when in your life, every time you tap into that extra percent you unlock one of those locks? When all three locks are opened, you unlock the door to your potential and you can take it as far as your will can take you.

  There were three situations in my life where I can’t expla in how I survived, but this is what I remember. The first time I was just a little kid coming from school; I was in the fifth grade. My mom didn’t have a car, so she took the bus everywhere. Usually she gets home before I do, but that day the bus was running a bit late. When I got home I did what any normal fifth grader would do if their parents weren’t home: I watched TV. I had only been home about ten minutes before I smelled smoke, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. At that time I had a ferret called Sniffs . He was a cute brown-andwhite one. I figured I’d go check to see if Sniffs was OK. When I opened my door I was shocked to see smoke all over my room, and Sniffs was going crazy in his cage. Without thinking I ran through the smoke over to get Sniffs out of his cage, letting the door slam behind me. It seems my electric blanket short-circuited and caught fire on my bunk bed. I took Sniffs and tucked him in my shirt. I then ran back over to the door and tried to open it; but it was jammed. The door was a solid heavy wood door and had swelled. I grabbed the door handle with both hands and twisted and pulled violently, but it wouldn’t budge. I was a little kid, so I started crying for my mommy. (Give me a break; I was ten years old in a burning building. I’m allowed to cry Mommy.)

  I kept pulling at the door; Sniffs could sense the fear in me, so he started going crazy in my shirt. My eyes started burning and I began to cough; then I heard Sniffs making a strange noise like he was crying. I loved Sniffs more than any toy or game so all that was going through my head was, I need to save him. I wiped my tears away and pulled on the door as hard as I could; I heard the door frame start making a cracking noise but then the door knob broke off. I panicked and began banging on the door pleading for help. I started coughing and my throat felt like it was on fire. It was getting hard to see. Sniffs started coughing as well and stopped moving as much. I wasn't going to let Sniffs die and I wasn’t planning ondying here either. I held my breath and backed up 10 feet to the other side of the room. I ran top speed and slammed my shoulder into the door causing the whole room to shake. I backed up again and tried once more at the door shaking the room once again. I checked in my shirt and Sniffs wasn’t moving at all. I backed up and thought to myself, “One more time,” one more time to save us. I felt a chill come over my body. I clenched my fist, braist my feet against the wall and kicked off the wall with a burst of energy from deep within and slammed top speed into the door breaking the door through the door frame sending it flying through the hall with me sliding on my side out the room. I crawled to my feet, stumbled down the stairs, and ran outside. I took Sniffs out of my shirt onto the grass but he wasn't moving. I remembered seeing in movies CPR so I began to lightly push on Sniffs chest and listening to his mouth. I kept trying as tears began to fall from my eyes. After the third time Sniffs gasped for air and I was so happy he was alive. I quickly picked him up and ran down the block to a telephone stand and called 911. I was telling them about the fire when a neighbor asked if I was OK. I told them about the fire then passed out.

  The second situation happened a couple years later in my senior year of highschool. I was dropping off some friends of mine from school early in the afternoon. I was driving on a local street with my two friends in the car when I came to an intersection and stopped at the stop sign. I looked both ways then started going across when out of nowhere a lady in an SUV talking on her cell phone came speeding through the intersection and hit me on the driver’s side. The impact sent the car rolling four or five times. (I’m not sure how manytimes; it was hard to count when the car was rolling. You’ve got other things on your mind, such as “Holy crap, I’m gonna die!”) So the car went rolling down the block and slammed into the side off a tree landed upside down. I was disoriented, and it
felt as if my left arm was broken. The front windshield was cracked all the way through. I unbuckled myself from my seat and fell down to the ceiling. I had a cut on my head with blood in my eye making my vision blurry. I tried to open the door but it was jammed. I crawled to the windshield and pushed on it. The windshield fell out and I crawled from under the car. I climbed to my feet and started walking from the car when looked back and realized my friends were still in the car. I turned around then limped back over to the car.

  The car collapsed more in the front so I couldn’t reach them through the front. I went around to the passenger door and it didn’t look to bad. I tried pulling on the door handle and it opened an inch then stopped. My friends needed my help; so I had to try and do something. I pulled on the door and hoped it would come loose, but it wouldn’t budge. I smelt gas and noticed gasoline was dripping from the gas tank. I knew I didn’t have much time to save my friends. Smoke started coming from the engine and I could see flames starting to come out of the engine. My friends started to come to and began to cough. I put my left foot against the car and grabbed the door with both hands and pulled with all my strength. The pain in my left arm was killing me, but I knewI couldn’t give up. The flames got bigger and more smoke began to form. I got a chill over my whole body and kept pulling until I could hear the metal in the door start to make a bending noise. It was as if my hands were the Jaws of Life, and I wasn’t going to let my friends die here. At that moment the door ripped away from the hinges and flew across the street. In agonizing pain, I reached in and grabbed both of my friends’ arms and pulled them out the car across the street just before the car blew up tossing me back onto someone's lawn. I looked up and saw my friends were safe then passed out.

  The third situation was more recent and happened closer to my house. I was home from work but I had the munchies so I went to the corner store to get something to eat. My mom was out for her daily jog with her music headset on. I came out the store and started heading back toward the house when I saw my mom at the light waiting to cross. From where I was standing, I could see up the street and saw a car speeding as if out of control. The light turned green for my mom to go and she started jogging across. I dropped what I had in my hands and started running toward my mom yelling trying to warn her about the car. I was a couple houses away screaming for her to stop, but she couldn’t hear me with the headset on. The car barrelled down down the hill and in my head I was thinking I wasn’t going to make it. I ran as fast as I could, but there was no way I would be able to save her in time. I couldn’t lose my mom, she’s all I’ve got. She’s been there for me through the good times and bad; both as a mother and father figure. At that moment when the car was about to hit my mom, I got a chill over my whole body and my adrenaline kicked in and—wham!—somehow in a split second I made it down the block tackling my mom out of the way with my arms wrapped around her. I slammed into the side of a minivan, taking the full impact, knocking myself unconscious. During my unconsciousness I had a strange dream. I was in a dark room with one of those huge arched wooden double doors in front of me. The door looked like it had three large locks on it, but two of them were already unlocked. I started walking toward the door, and the third lock began to unlatch sliding slowly to the side. When I made my way to in front of the door, it unlocked and the door opened slowly. Light poured in, almost blinding me. When the door fully opened the light died down. I walked through the door and found myself in a dark hallway with it seemed an infinite amount of doors going down both sides. Light was shining from the bottom of every door, so I tried to open one. The door was locked, so I tried another with the same result. I tried door after door then stopped when I looked back and noticed a key hole of light floating right in front of the double doors. I began to walk towards the doors when I heard a noise. It sounded like a woman crying. I looked around then everything started fading away. I slowly opened my eyes a crack and found myself in a hospital. My mom was right next to me on the side of the bed crying. When she saw my eyes open, she was overjoyed. She got up and began to hug and kiss me furiously. It was actually painful but I happy to see her safe. I told her I couldn’t breath then she let go.

  The doctor came in the room and called my mother over to talk to her. I overheard what they said. My mom asked, “Is he OK?” The doctor said, “I don’t know how, but your son is a very lucky man. No broken bones, no injuries really. It’s as if he wasn’t even in an accident. What happened again?” My mom said, “I don’t really know, I was jogging across the street when I saw a car coming straight at me then I’m in my sons arms with him pressed into the car. I guess he saved me but I didn’t even see him grab me. The doctor said, “Well you both are very lucky. He has minor bruises but no major damage.” My mom asked, “ So when do you think he can come home?” I interrupted and said, “Hopefully now,” as I sat up on the bed. My mom rushed over and said, “Lie back down, you just woke up.” The doctor said, “No, he’s right. We just need to do a couple more tests and you guys can leave.” After the tests, I got my things ready to head home. Before we left, my mom asked the doctor if everything else was OK. She said, “All the tests were good, the only odd thing was my adrenaline levels were still high, but she said to give it a day or so to get back to normal. And also be more careful when crossing the street.” She prescribed some pills for me if anything should happen.

  We headed hom e. I didn’t realize I was out for three days. My phone was filled with text messages asking how I was. I later found out my mom sent a mass text to everyone on my contact list regarding my situation. I didn’t even know my mom knew how to text. When we pulled in the driveway, it was just getting dark.

  We went inside, and my mom asked if there was anything I needed. I responded, “No, I’m OK. I’ll just go to the basement and hit the big punching bag a little.” She said, “Don’t push myself to hard I just got back.” I told he, “OK.”

  I put my gloves on and started my regular workout. I used to teach martial arts but that was years ago, so I was brushing up on my skills. Even though I might not remember everything, I still try to stay in shape somewhat. I hit the bag for about thirty minutes and worked up a sweat. I always finish off my session with one last hard punch to the bag to get all the energy out, but this time when I hit the bag, it broke off the chain sending it flying, hitting the basement wall. It made the whole house shake. When I looked at my arm, it was diesel, in fact my whole body was. It was as if I was in someone else’s body. My mom ran to the basement asking if I was OK. I got surprised and for some reason shrank back to normal. I said, “Yeah, I’m OK. The bag just fell off the hook.” She said, “OK, just be careful I just got you back and I don’t want to have take you back to the hospital the same day you get out.” I said, “OK, I be more careful.” She walk up the stairs slowly and closed the door. I’m not going to lie, I was a little freaked out at what had just happened. I went to the bathroom in the basement and locked the door. I stood in front of the mirror and thought to myself, “what the hell just happened?” I looked at my hands and thought, “I wonder if I can do it again?” I looked in the mirror and focused really hard and pop. I went diesel again. It sounded like a bone popped or a knuckle cracking when I did it. I wanted to see if I could turn it off and on at will too, so I focused again until—pop—I went back to normal. I stayed in the bathroom for thirty minutes just going diesel and shrinking back to normal until I felt like I could control it. I then thought to myself, “Is this body for show, or am I stronger in my diesel form?”

  I went to my little weight room and put on some weights. I started lifting in my regular form to measure how much stronger I would be. I was surprised to find out 250 pounds was my max in my regular form, considering that before the accident my max was 200 pounds. I then went diesel and benched some weights; in fact I benched all the weights. I ran out of weights at 500 pounds, and it still felt like I could have lifted more.

  Once I finished with the weights, I wanted to see if I was faster or more at
hletic with this body, so I went upstairs and put on a hoodie and sweat pants to go outside. When I got outside it was pretty dark. I wanted to see how high I could jump, so I went next to the house, looked around then scouted and jumped as high as I could. It caught me off guard when I almost overshot the house and landed on the roof. I thought to myself,Man, I’m so dunking from the three-pointer line with ups like this. I then remembered this thing I watched online about a sport called parkour or free-running. These guys run across rooftops and anything else that’s on their way. I figured,What the hell, I’ll give it a try. I’m already on a roof.

  I started running and jumping from roof to roof. I felt so cool like nothing could touch me. Plus I was moving fast in a short time I must have gone two or three towns over. I was right about to make a long jump to the next house when pop—I went back to normal and flew into the side of someone’s house and fell down into bushes. The owner came out, screaming, “What the hell are you doing to my house?” Before he got around to the side where I was, I got up hopped the fence and ran around the corner. I was a little confused. I thought I had these abilities down, and why couldn’t I go diesel right now? I kept trying to go big while walking toward home when after a few short minutes pop. I went big again. I took that chance and jumped on the closest roof and took off toward my house. Once I got home I snapped back to normal. I looked at my watch, and that’s when I realized I could only stay diesel for fifteen minutes at a time and had to recharge for at least three minutes.

  When I got inside, I felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. I went into the fridge and made me three bacon cheese burgers, four hot dogs, a ham, turkey and Swiss sandwich, a bowl of potato salad, and some curly fries from the freezer, oh, and a liter of soda. After eating my weight in food, I headed up to my room. I had a long day and couldn’t wait for tomorrow. Before I went to sleep, in my head I knew who I was telling about this.