Nate's Call to Adventure (Flash Fiction)
"In fact, Nate had spent most of his life trying to get away from troublesome events like these. It was the reason why he moved to South Brunswick, New Jersey – nothing really happened here."
Author’s Note: This particular story was inspired by a prompt from my fellow Subtacker . To be more specific, it’s this one:
“Aww, heck no!”
Nathan Patrick ‘Nate’ Cinema shook his head at the scene in front of him. A car had earlier pulled into his driveway. At first, he thought that it might have been his wife back from grocery shopping. Of course, that would have been too good to be true. His wife was the type to spend ten minutes just to get the right kind of butter.
Instead, the car was of a completely different make, model, and color. In fact, it looked nothing like any car Nate had ever seen.
Not in this universe, at any rate. The car looked like it was centuries ahead of every other car in its vicinity.
More disturbing was the man at the driver’s seat. It did not take long for Nate to figure out that he was dead; clearly, this car was self-driving. Taped to the steering wheel of the car was a folded note, with the words “DON’T CALL THE POLICE!” scribbled on the front. If Nate was a heroic character, he would have tried to figure out who had killed the man and why.
But Nate was no such person.
In fact, Nate had spent most of his life getting away from troublesome events like these. It was the reason why he moved to South Brunswick, New Jersey – nothing really happened here. Stuck between the trifecta of New York City, Philadelphia, and the Jersey Shore, Central Jersey was the place to be if one wanted to avoid adventure.
But this strange cadaver was not the first time that Nate had his run in with adventure. His first was back in the continent of Antalya. After he drew the great sword Excalibur from the Great Stone, Sir Nathan was supposed to lead the last remaining remnant of humanity in the continent against the orcish horde. But Nathan lost his nerve, and he fled.
Nate was a coward, and he knew it.
The knight though that it was the end for him. But as he was escaping the orcs, he found a strange magical door and entered without hesitation.
Nate then found himself on planet Centralus. The ecumenopolis was a bustling center of humanity in the galaxy, and he would have been glad to spend the rest of his life there. Except that Centralus was the next target for the Klutuans, a horde of insectoid aliens hell-bent on consuming everything in its path.
Once more, Nate found himself called to adventure when a scientific experiment gone wrong gave him superpowers. The newly minted superhero was supposed to use his powers to save Centralus from the Klutuans. But again, Nate lost his nerve; he fled the planet, leaving trillions to die.
As he escaped Centralus, he got sucked into the same door that had brought him to Centralus. But this time, Nate was given an option of which universe to go. Nate had had enough of adventure; he did not want the responsibility to save Antalya or Centralus or any place.
Nate then realized that he took on different forms for every universe he inhabited. Thus, he decided to go into a universe of sentient bugs. He figured that as a literal insect, he wouldn’t have to deal with adventures and responsibilities.
Despite that, he quickly found himself being on the receiving end of yet another call to adventure. As a soldier ant, he was tasked by his queen to defend his colony from a deadly anteater. Yet again, Nate fled, leaving his colony to die.
The cycle continued. Nate consistently refused the call to adventure, and many died because of his decisions. Eventually, Nate was able to learn the pattern of these adventures. He figured out the place least likely to encounter adventure: South Brunswick Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States of America, Earth.
It was in this universe that Nate finally discovered peace. Mostly – he had to fight off some thugs to rescue a hapless girl. His adventuring days had given him the combat skills to easily defeat the outnumbering men. But other than that incident, Nate’s time here had been completely peaceful.
More importantly, the girl he rescued became his wife. Nate was not the type to crave companionship, but he couldn’t help but appreciate his wife’s love. She could not stop singing his praises, calling him ‘her hero’ and other such nonsense.
If only she knew all those people left behind to die because of her husband’s cowardice.
But Nate was more than happy to indulge her delusion. He also allowed his wife to call him by his middle name, Patrick. It was as if she had completely forgotten that her husband had a first name.
It was upon this history that Nate thought of his predicament. There was no way that he was going to get involved in all this. He imagined that this was some sort of murder case. By getting involved, he might draw the ire of the CIA or the KGB or some rich plutocrat who really controlled the government.
Nate quickly resolved his plan of action. He set up the GPS of the self-driving car to Yaviza, Panama – the southernmost point one could drive to from this location. He just wanted to send the car as far away as possible. The cadaver he left inside.
As he saw the car rolling away from his home, Nate couldn’t help but second-guess his decision. He thought of his wife who greatly admired him for his courage.
I’m sorry, darling. Perhaps tomorrow, I can be the man you think I am. But not today.
As if on cue, a blue medium-sized Toyota Camry pulled into the driveway. Patrick’s wife had returned from shopping.
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Unlike Nate, Aeneas doesn’t shy away from his duties. Check out his story in my web novel, Inquisitor’s Promise:
Inquisitor's Promise (Table of Contents)
Author’s note: I made this post so that people will have an easier time navigating through ‘Inquisitor’s Promise’ in the future. I will keep updating this post as I post more chapters.
Love it! Thank you for sharing your take on this prompt, its a suitably silly response to a suitably silly prompt. Well done!