[ WP ] Retell the origin of a superhero , but reveal the hero at the end of the story .

The ambulance raced along the motorway, its blue lights piercing the darkness. Inside, a man was unconscious. 
 Carl, the paramedic, was standing over Mr Blake doing chest compressions. He was trying to re-start the old man's heart. The man had been unresponsive when Carl and Karen, the driver, had arrived at the scene. A man, an elder son maybe, had been doing compressions when Carl arrived. 
 
 `` Twenty-one, twenty-two'', he counted. 
 
 The ambulance turned a corner sharply and Carl stumbled backwards. He grabbed a bar on the bed to steady himself. He placed his fingers on the pulse of Mr Blake's neck. Still no response. 
 
 The vehicle turned again and came to a stop. The back doors flew open and Carl saw a host of people there. He helped the hospital crew to unload Mr Blake onto a hospital trolley bed. 
 
 The crew disappeared through double doors into the hospital with the patient. Carl sat on the back of the ambulance and sighed. Karen appeared around the open back door. 
 
 `` Well?'' she said. 
 
 `` Ca n't see him making it,'' Carl replied. 
 
 `` Right,'' she looked through the double doors. `` I'm gon na grab a snack from the machine here before we head out again. D'ya want something?'' 
 
 She was almost out of earshot before Carl even answered. `` No.'' He was in a daze. `` Thanks.'' But she was long gone. 
 
 Carl was putting his seatbelt on when the emergency notification system went off. Karen threw her chocolate bar at the dashboard and had the ambulance moving in seconds. `` Where?'' She called. The blue lights and the siren were already on. 
 
 He read the screen. `` A26 northbound. Traffic collision. Possible fatalities.'' 
 
 Carl's heart lurched. He had been a paramedic for three years. His colleagues told him you got used to seeing people die. Carl had n't. He could not detach his emotions from his job and he struggled to work with people who did n't seem to give a shit about the lives they were touching. 
 
 `` Three miles,'' he read. `` Two adults and one child in vehicle one. One adult trapped in vehicle two.'' With every call out he tried to visualize the situation. He wanted to be as prepared as possible so that he could save lives. That's why he became a Medic. All of his life Carl had the urge to help people. Reality had checked that desire. Depression had set in. It broke his marriage to his sweetheart, Emily and it meant that he only saw their daughter once a week at best now. 
 
 Karen was speeding along the road and cars were ducking out of the way. He saw flashing lights on the horizon. 
 
 
 They arrived at the scene. There was one police vehicle blocking the road. Karen drove the ambulance beyond it. Carl saw an overturned car further up the road. Closer, there was a family car where the whole front had been smashed in. A person was lying on the ground in front of that vehicle. 
 
 `` That ones come out the window,'' Karen said. 
 
 The ambulance stopped and Carl got out fast with his bag. A police officer met him. 
 
 `` One man trapped in the overturned vehicle. Conscious but bleeding badly from multiple wounds,'' the officer said. `` My colleague is up there giving first aid.'' 
 
 `` Karen!'' Carl shouted. He did n't need to; Karen was already running toward the overturned vehicle. `` What about here?'' Carl asked as he reached the woman on the ground. 
 
 `` Two deceased I'm afraid,'' the officer said. `` And a child in the back.'' 
 
 `` The child's dead?'' Carl exclaimed. 
 
 The officer looked shocked. `` Jesus, no. In the back seat, strapped in and seems fine. Though she was crying hard when I got here.'' 
 
 Carl ran to the door of the car where he could see a child seat. The whole front of the car was crushed but the back doors were intact and would still open. 
 
 `` Why did n't you take her out?'' Carl snapped. 
 
 `` I... I do n't,'' the officer was out of his depth. 
 
 Carl opened the door and turned the rear facing child seat toward him. The little girl inside smiled at him. Her eyes and cheeks were red and full of tears. He looked at her face. He felt his heart race faster. He looked in her eyes. She smiled. 
 
 `` Maria?'' 
 
 The baby giggled. `` Dada.'' 
 
 He cried. The sound was a low and keening. He covered his mouth so as not to scare his daughter. He lifted her out of the child seat. Tears streamed down his cheeks but he tried to suppress sound to keep her from crying. The police officer looked at Carl with a puzzled expression. 
 
 `` She's my daughter,'' Carl said. 
 
 The officer's face dropped. `` Jesus''. 
 
 Carl then realized who the woman lying on the ground was. `` Emily!'' He ran to her with Maria in his arms. He knelt down beside the lifeless body. 
 
 `` Mama,'' little Maria babbled. 
 
 Emily had been thrown through the passenger window. Her arms were broken and her face was barely recognizable. 
 
 He stood up and handed the baby to the officer. He knelt down beside his former wife and felt her pulse, hoping that the officer had got it wrong. 
 
 But he had n't. She was gone. Carl could not control his tears now. They flooded his face as he cried over the body of the only woman he ever loved. 
 
 `` Emily,'' he whispered. Memories flashed across his mind. That first kiss when they were both eighteen at the carnival by the beach; the night they became lovers. Simple things too like their countless Stargate SG-1 marathons huddled together on winter nights; their wedding day; Maria's birth where Emily had almost died. 
 Carl screamed into the night air. The scream touched the bottom of his inner self, a place where only darkness and pure, intense emotion resided. 
 
 It frightened Maria. She began to cry in the police officer's arms. Other emergency personnel had arrived at the scene. Carl saw men with yellow helmets. Firemen, he thought. 
 
 He could not accept her death. He refused to. He started CPR. 
 
 `` Mate,'' the officer called. 
 
 Carl ignored him. 
 
 The officer shouted. `` Can I get some help here?'' 
 
 Maria was crying louder. `` Mama,'' she cried between sobs. 
 
 Carl zoned it all out. `` Come on Emily,'' he called to her. There was no response. 
 
 He breathed into her mouth. Her chest rose and fell again. He breathed again. 
 
 No response. 
 
 He started chest compressions again. `` One, two, three...'' 
 
 A hand touched his shoulder. `` Let us take over Carl.'' 
 
 It sounded like Brian Lawton, his friend and colleague. More ambulances must have arrived. 
 
 Carl ignored him and continued with the compressions. `` eight, nine, ten.'' 
 
 No response. 
 
 After some time he collapsed and lay beside her. He was exhausted. He put his hand on her bleeding face. 
 
 As a child he read comics. His hero was Superman. He loved the films. Christopher Reeve's Superman was Carl's childhood idol. 
 
 His life had been shaped by that character. He found in Superman someone to relate to. He was a man who was at heart decent and good, but who also had the power to overcome incredible adversity. He became a medic out of a dream to be a hero, to use his power to save those in their hour of need. Real life was not like the movies though. 
 
 People died all the time in the ambulance and Carl had no power over death. He felt hopeless. 
 
 Carl was logical and a realist, yet deep inside him he harboured a desire for the fantastical. At last, he embraced it. 
 
 He got up onto his knees and leaned over Emily. He felt hands on his back and words being spoken but he paid no heed to them. He placed his hands on her head, at the temples. `` Live, Emily.'' 
 
 There was no response. He vaguely heard a commotion behind him. 
 
 `` Come on darlin!'' he whispered. `` Come back to me.'' 
 
 Still nothing. 
 
 He felt desperation in the pit of his belly. He closed his eyes. 
 
 With all the force of his will he poured the command through his arms, into his hands and into her head. `` Live!'' 
 
 He was pulled away and his friend Brian came in to cover her feet with a white sheet. He was about to pull the sheet over her body. 
 
 Emily gasped for air. 
 
 Carl sat on the ground as the chaos erupted. Brian and his team surrounded Emily trying to make sure that the flicker of life did not slip away again. 
 
 But she got up. She was panicked and confused. 
 
 `` Maria!'' she screamed. The shocked police officer pushed through the paramedics crowding around her and handed the little girl to Emily. She kissed and hugged her daughter then looked toward the car. `` Jacob!'' She had seen her husband lying on the steering wheel of the car. `` Jacob!'' She ran to the driver ’ s door with the child in her arms. 
 
 Emily was pulling at the driver's door but it would n't open. `` Jacob!'' she screamed. `` Somebody help him!'' 
 Brian approached her and tried to lead her away. 
 
 Carl got up from the ground. 
 
 `` Carl,'' Emily said as he approached the driver's door. 
 
 He moved Emily aside and looked inside the broken window. Jacob was dead and trapped in the car. The airbag in his steering wheel had n't deployed. 
 
 `` Somebody help him!'' Emily screamed at the others. `` Why wo n't you help him?'' 
 
 `` He's dead.'' A voice replied. 
 
 Emily cried and little Maria cried too seeing her mother in that state. 
 
 Carl laid his hand on Jacob's forehead. 
 
 He reached deep into the pit of his stomach to find the will for this man to live. He found nothing. This was the man who had taken his family away from him. He tried again to will Jacob to live but nothing happened. 
 He hated him. Deep down, he wanted him to die. He knew it was wrong but he could not change it. 
 
 Until he thought of Superman. He thought of Christopher Reeve. He thought of being a hero. He felt shame at his previous thoughts. 
 
 He pressed his hand to Jacob's forehead again. It was easy this time. He did n't even need to speak. 
 Carl's will brought Jacob back to life. 
 
 He watched as Emily embraced her husband and how Jacob kissed little Maria on the cheek through the broken window. 
 
 Emily turned and looked at Carl. She mouthed the words `` thank you''. 
 
 It was the first time, but not the last time; that people would pronounce the name of Earth ’ s greatest hero, the man who healed the world, Carl Johnson.
