The Chronicles of Silverwolf: The Dawning of a Hero (16 page)

“Are you serious?” she asked.

She nodded her head.

“That's incredible,” Laura said.

Laura continued to listen with great interest.

“Well, I haven't heard from them since my father took me to Groom Lake two years ago. I just hope Jonathan and his friends will get us out of this mess.”

“Do you believe they will?”

Sarah sighed.

“I don't know. I would like to think so. It's been so long now.”

“You know I can't help but think humanity is somehow responsible for all of this as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the past, we've always put too much faith in our governments. Our system of checks and balances always seems to get overlooked.”

“Yeah...” she lost her train of thought thinking about Jonathan again which was soon interrupted by two Elite Soldiers standing at her front door.

“Grab her,” one of the soldiers said while the other walked over and grabbed Sarah.

“Hey! What's going on? Where are you taking me?” she asked as she struggled with him.

“Don't make this any harder than it has to be. Consider yourself lucky. We're taking you to see your father,” the solider said who gave the order.

“What about her?” the other solider asked referring to Laura.

“You,” he pointed at Laura. “Get back to your apartment. You know the rules.”

Laura watched helplessly as they dragged Sarah away while she headed back to her apartment. She wished she could do something but knew it would be hopeless without some kind of weapon, not to mention being outnumbered too.

Chapter
30
 

It was just after midnight. The stars were twinkling in the night sky. A light breeze could be felt coming from the east. It was eerily quiet except for the sound of a dogs bark coming from down the street. A radio transmission that was picking up cross talk from other guards in the area could also be heard as Jonathan silently landed on one of the cities rooftops cloaked in darkness.

It was obvious that the city was under some kind of lock down. There were no vehicles on the roads and every car and truck that could be seen looked like it had come from a junkyard. Some were on fire. Most of the buildings in the city were starting to rust away. Water and food were scarce. Peter had informed him that the poverty level was at an all time high. No doubt that a dystopian society was starting to unveil itself.

At one particular post, not too far from the Cable Car Museum, an elite guard stood watch at the top of a tall metal barrier with his AR-15 at his side. The barrier blocked off the intersection. In fact, there was a post at almost every intersection in the city. The guard continued to listen carefully to the reports on his radio.

Jonathan listened in as he silently approached the guard from above. Targeting him from a strategic position, Jonathan shot one of his wrist projectiles directly at the guard’s head. The foot long metal spear went right through his skull. He didn't even have a chance to cry out in pain as he fell to the ground.

“Nice shot,” said Peter who was with the others in the cloaked craft above where Jonathan stood.

“Thanks,” he said as he floated down behind the barricade.

“That new targeting system I added to the suit comes in handy,” Peter commented.

Jonathan found a nearby touch screen computer terminal with a list of names displayed. They were listed in alphabetical order. When he found the “L's”, he searched for Sarah before finding her listed along with the address where she was currently living. As luck would have it she was just down the street. That's when he heard voices approaching the barricade.

“Keep quiet, Miss Langston,” one of the soldiers ordered after he turned to see two of them dragging Sarah by the arms. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her but wasn’t happy how she was being treated.

He had to act quickly. Preparing himself, he quietly jumped down to the street and readied his throwing discs. Then he threw them at the approaching soldiers who saw him. They weren't quick enough to dodge them as they went right through the soldiers’ chests.

“Who's there?” Sarah asked.

Jonathan uncloaked the suit to reveal himself.

“Just your friendly neighborhood boyfriend,” he said.

“Jonathan!” she said getting excited.

She ran up to her boyfriend giving him a big hug. His heart was beating at twice its normal speed when he felt her arms wrap around him. He briefly unmasked himself allowing Sarah to kiss him.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“That's a long story,” he answered.

“Oh, crap,” Peter said ruining the moment.

“What?”

“I've been able to hack into a satellite that's peering down on the city and I'm detecting elite soldiers closing in on your position,” he said.

“Summeris, get Sarah onto the ship,” Jonathan told her. She and Gwork were hovering in the spacecraft above us as well.

“What?” Sarah asked confused.

“It's for your own safety. You don’t want to be down here right now. Trust me,” Jonathan said.

Suddenly a beam of light surrounded Sarah before she disappeared.

“She's aboard, Jonathan,” he heard Summeris say.

Then she appeared next to him in the same beam light along with Peter and Chen while Gwork stayed on the ship with Sarah. Peter and Chen were both carrying the same type of weapons that the elite super soldiers used.

“We need to hide and gain the element of surprise when they get here,” Jonathan suggested.

Jonathan looked over to his right and saw a four story rusted building that looked empty. They hurried inside and found a stair case that went all the way up to the top floor. When they found a room that looked down onto the street below, they waited.

“Are you still able to emit energy blasts from your hands?” Jonathan asked Summeris.

“Of course,” she said.

He could hear the soldiers getting closer as he looked out the window towards the end of the street.

“This is a priority alert. We have a breach of security. All residents are to stay in their homes until further instructed. We will be entering every building in the area to do an inspection. Do not resist,” came a voice over a loud speaker.

As Jonathan continued to peer out the window not only did he see soldiers, he also saw what looked a lot like a black tank that seemed to be hovering about a foot off the ground. Another triangular craft was also in the area.

“We're going to have to take these guys out one at a time,” he suggested.

“If only we had some extra help,” said Summeris.

At that moment, to his surprise, he felt something hot brush up against him followed by a gust of wind. They both turned around to see a familiar face standing behind them. It was Justin, dressed in his fire blazing jacket and leather pants.

“Not a problem,” he smiled.

“Where have you been?” Jonathan asked with a shocked look on his face.

“It's a long story,” he said.

“A lot of that going around lately,” he said.

“How did you find us?” Summeris asked. She knew who Justin was now, thanks to Peter.

Before Justin could answer a spot light came passing by the window. They all ducked for cover so they wouldn't be seen.

“It looks like they're coming in from all directions now,” Peter said as he looked at his hand held computer device.

“How many?” Jonathan asked.

“I count at least twenty five,” he said.

“Damn. They take the death of their own seriously,” he said.

“I can take some of them down for you,” Justin said.

“Good. Then we need to work on freeing the people in this city,” Jonathan said.

“Peter and I can do that while you take care of the elite soldiers,” Chen said.

“Fine but be careful. I'll give you the signal,” Jonathan said and took another look out the window. The streets below were now filled with soldiers. Jonathan then looked at Justin nodding his head saying, “You're up, flame runner.”

“Flame runner?” he asked.

“Sorry. I meant it as a figure of speech,” he said.

Justin took off down the stairs and out of the building, leaving smoke and patches of fire in his wake. Summeris and Jonathan soon followed while Chen and Peter waited for him to give them the okay to proceed in freeing the people who were trapped in the nearby buildings.

When they got outside, they quickly took cover behind one of the charred cars nearby. Jonathan activated the suit’s cloaking device then readied one of my grenades.

“We should split up. You think you can handle some of these soldiers?” Jonathan asked Summeris while Justin began knocking out the soldiers on at a time.

“It won't be a problem,” she said readying her hands.

“Good. Let me take care of that craft hovering over us. I'll be back,” Jonathan said. He took off into the air throwing one of his sonic grenades at the soldiers below to give Justin and Summeris an edge.

“Gwork, can you take out that tank?” asked Jonathan.

“Of course,” the soft spoken alien said who was still in the stolen craft with Sarah.

“Peter, you have a go,” Jonathan told him.

Jonathan spotted the enemy craft close by, who then spotted him. He took off into the sky while it followed him. As he began to pick up more speed so did the craft. It began to fire its laser weapons at him. Luckily his force shield was protecting him from the blast.

He knew he had to bring this thing down soon. By literally putting on the breaks he immediately stopped in mid air as the craft approached him, then threw both of his discs at it which sliced right through the wings. The craft started to loose control while he landed on top of the canopy using all the strength he had to rip it open.

When it finally came off revealing another super soldier inside, he grabbed him and tossed him out of his seat. The craft then lost complete control of its flight capabilities and began its descent towards the Earth. He watched it for a moment before it crashed on the surface below.

Jonathan breathed another sigh of relief knowing that the innocent people along with his friends back in San Francisco didn't have to deal with that any longer. But he knew there would be more of them.

When he flew back to the city, Justin and Summeris had the situation under control. Many of the soldiers had been taken out and Gwork had put the tank permanently out of commission. It was apparent that the elite's over confidence was their weakness by giving themselves a more productive means of defending themselves.

Jonathan saw a few soldiers on the ground, still trying to defend themselves. He landed behind one of them shoving his disc into the soldier’s back. The hybrid soldier screamed as he fell to the ground. Jonathan picked up the rifle lying next to him and fired at the remaining soldiers in the area who were no trouble to take down.

When Summeris and Justin found Jonathan, things had quieted down but he knew that wouldn't last.

“Good work but we need to disable the microchips inside these people who are living here and get them back to the base before more soldiers show up,” Jonathan said.

“There aren't a whole lot of them. Many have been relocated to other cities,” Justin said.

“Then we'll do what we can for those as well in due time. Let’s get to it,” Jonathan recommended.

Chapter 31

“So where have you been hiding out?” Jonathan finally asked Justin.

They were sitting down in what resembled a cafeteria inside the base. The variety of food was in short supply. MRE’s had already been stored and ready to use thanks to what the resistance was able to confiscate since the war started.

“Mexico. Mainly Acapulco,” he answered.

“Why were you hiding? You could have done a lot to save these people,” he said.

“My father,” he answered.

“Your father? What does he have to do with this?”

For a moment he didn't say anything. Then he took a deep breath and said, “Jonathan my father is Shadowgate.”

“Your father is Shadowgate?” he asked Justin.

“Unfortunately,” said Justin.

“How do you know?” he asked.

“After you disappeared our fight got brutal. Finally, I had gotten the upper hand in putting him down for good. That's when he revealed his true identity to me knowing I wouldn’t have the courage to finish him. So I hesitated before he had just enough strength to vanish,” he explained.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

“No. I'm sorry that our fight caused your suit to briefly malfunction and send you forward in time,” he said.

“What's done is done. Now we have to focus on freeing the people on this planet. Where is your father now?” he asked.

“Houston. The city is devoid of people. Only soldiers reside there. My father is in command of them. He uses it as a command and control center. Its one of the strong holds of the Shadowgate Society.”