Hero Rising Read Free

died?
    I was busy flying back and forth, and concentrating on which people were in the most danger. I saved them first, leaving the people on the upper stories for last. I hoped that the smoke wasn’t getting to them yet.
    I noticed that a big crowd of people had gathered. Everyone was taking videos with their cell phones and a few people had better cameras. After about forty-five minutes, a news crew arrived with anchormen, then another news crew, and pretty soon, the whole parking lot was filled with newsmen and people cheering me on.
    It felt great. Every time I landed with another man, woman or child, sometimes two at a time, the cheers became greater. People were yelling, “Superman!” “Way to go!” and “Woohoo!” whenever I landed and flew up to save another life.
    It took about an hour and a half to get everyone out, and by the end, I was tired and exhilarated at the same time. The last person I saved was a young woman. She was crying with relief. She had waited patiently for me to save everyone else and when I finally got to her, she couldn’t say anything but, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
    I did feel like a superhero when I touched the ground with her. “You’re welcome, ma’am,” I said with a grin.
    But now that everyone was out, and the firefighters worked on just the building, people started rushing towards me. Especially the news crews. I was sweating now, but I couldn’t take off the wrestling mask. No one—not any of these people—could be allowed to see my face, no matter what.
    As they ran across the parking lot, the onlookers gave me one last and very loud cheer. But the news crews could be aggressive, I knew, and I couldn’t afford to talk to them at all.
    I made a couple of bows for the people, which drew more cheers and shouts and just before the news guys got to me, I flew up into the sky. It was time to get the heck out of there.
    I could see them all filming me and I knew I had to get far away. There were even helicopters by now, but they had to be careful not to crash into each other and I could fly much faster than the choppers.
    In a flash, I sped up, and flew far up into the sky. I flew like the wind and pretty soon, the building and all the people I’d saved—and those who had gathered to witness the first flying man they’d ever seen—faded below and disappeared from my sight.
    I hadn’t felt so good since I saved my people, the Mani. That familiar feeling returned and I realized how much I had missed it, that I was making a difference.
    It was exciting to do some good for others. I did wonder how fast the news of my flying around would spread. I made sure there was no aircraft following me, and as I changed to my white eagle form and headed for Tommy’s house, I wondered if Lena already caught wind of what I’d done and what she thought about it.

 
    Chapter Three
     
     
    I landed in the back yard of Tommy’s house in my eagle form. I didn’t want to attract any attention so I made sure no one was looking as I landed. Then I changed into my human form and knocked at Tommy’s sliding glass back door.
    Tommy ran to the door to let me in. I could tell he was really excited and a little concerned. As I came into the kitchen, he said, “Josiah! I know that was you! What are you doing, man? You’re all over the news. I mean, on every channel.”
    He brought me into the living room where his huge TV was on. There were clips of the burning building and me—dressed all in black except for my red wrestling mask—flying back and forth, bringing people from the building to safety. There were commentators wondering if I had some special flying pack on, and then they would zoom in on me to show I was really flying on my own. A couple of the people I’d saved had already offered a reward for anyone to find me as they wanted to thank me.
    Tommy handed me a soda as we watched the fireworks on the television that were set off by my unexpected experience at the fire