The Chronicles of Shamballa

Dead space

"Is this the Chief's doing?" Johnathan forgot to talk about the most important question.

For now he was heading outside. Before he went, he took his Katana with him and a car with black window panes- with Freddie in his ears, he went into the city.

"So Freddie, do you see any supernatural activity in the city now?" he asked over the comms.

"Well I'm not sure, Um, it's strange out there-" Freddie replied.

"What? Clarify!" said Johnathan as he drove out carefully into the morning sun.

"I mean, it's everywhere- there's a lot of activity out there and I don't know which way to point you. This is really strange, never seen this before-" replied Freddie.

"How does it look in the map?" he asked

"Like little clusters forming all over the city-"replied Freddie.

"Do you see anything that is not a cluster and with huge energy output?" he asked.

"Umm.... yeah- one- but it's almost out of the city limits- woah! Whatever it is- it's huge!"replied Freddie.

"Send the GPS location and link it to my car-" he ordered.

"Okay but there are cops everywhere and roadblocks at every corner. How will you get past them?" Freddie asked him.

"I don't know yet but it's your job to find me a way- so get on it!" replied Johnathan.

Freddie immediately started scrolling through his computer to find him the safest way out of the city. The police have set riad blocks at all major points in the city, in search for the robbers- little did they know that it was pointless. A few minutes later, he was guiding him through back alleys to avoid being seen by the police. But there was a problem- the route to get out of the city was through one bridge that was completely blocked by the cops. This made it impossible for him to cross the bridge. He had to find another way out.

The passenger seat was red with Johnathan’s blood and Lisa was freaking out because she had never seen Johnathan in such a state before.

“Isn’t he supposed to heal or something?” she thought.

But Johnathan was showing no signs of recovery. It looked bad and it seemed like if he didn’t get medical attention soon, then he would surely die. She stopped at a crossroad intersection- to the left was her house, where Johnathan would most probably die and to the left was the hospital where he had a chance of survival but would be immediately arrested. She had to make a choice and she chose to save his life, she turned the steering and was about to go left towards the hospital but suddenly Johnathan grabbed her hand- he was awake!

“No! Don’t go there-“he whispered in pain.

“Oh God! You’re awake? But you need a doctor-“she said.

“No I’ll be fine- take me someplace safe-“he said and lifted his hand from the wound.

The blood had stopped flowing and he seemed to be recovering, so she took him to her house.

“What were you doing at the town hall?” she asked him.

“I could ask you the same thing- You were the last person I expected to see there-“he replied- he was still weak.

“I got a call from someone saying that your life was in danger and I need to go to the town hall immediately- I got there and saw the blast and knew something was up, I went through the back gate and saw you lying on the ground-“ she replied.

“Ah! Freddie, he called you- by the way, if anyone knew that you are helping me, then you’d be in great trouble-“he said.

“And that’s why I need to know about whatever the hell’s going on- what’s with this terrorist attacks and how are you involved- I put my career on the line for you- so you better tell me the truth-“ she said.

Johnathan replied – “Hell’s nothing compared to what’s coming-“

He was former military and he could tell from experience that these attacks were just the tip of the ice-berg, something far worse was coming…

Back in some desolate corner of the city, in an abandoned warehouse, Billy and Raven stood impatiently, waiting for the next instructions from the Chief. Raven showed Billy the aftermath from the town hall on her phone. The news said that there was evidence of a masked man appearing out of nowhere and somehow, like magic he got rid of the chemicals and save the lives of the people. The online community hailed the ‘masked hero’ as the savior. It was said that the police shot at him mistaking him to be a terrorist, after which there was a peculiar blast that cured everybody and he escaped in the chaos. Authorities are still looking for the masked man…

Billy was frustrated.

“What’s the point of doing all this if that son of a gun comes and ruins it? I don’t understand, what is the chief planning to do?”

Raven didn't respond.

"I've been meaning to ask you- why are you here? What's making you do this? I know you're tough and mean and I also know that you don't like to hurt people- you're not like me. Then why Raven?" asked Billy sincerely.

She still didn't respond. Instead she placed her phone on the table and recieved a call and put it on loud speaker. The Chief was on the other side.

"I presume you're enjoying your work..." he said.

"Enjoying? We've no idea what we're doing- we're turning Johnathan into a hero..." Billy responded.

"Good! That's exactly what I want you to do-" he replied.

Billy was surprised. For a moment he thought that the Chief had totally lost it.

"For many months now, Johnathan and his friends were helping people- saving lives- all from the shadows. What you did, made him come out of hiding, he's in the public's eye now. A hero can be turned into a villain but only if people know and love him at first... I think you catch my drift..." replied the Chief.

Billy didn't respond. He understood what he meant...

"Very well then, these attacks, I want you to continue them, I want you to start chaos in the city. Make the people suffer, destroy and weaken the system. I want Johnathan to be busy and distracted. Meanwhile you work towards the real goal ..." he said.

"So you want us to continue the attacks so that Johnathan could save people and be called a hero? And what real goal are you talking about? What's the endgame?" asked Billy.

But the call got disconnected and a text message appeared with an address to a safehouse. They were supposed to lay low for a day and recharge themselves at that place.

"Smart man- huh! So these are all decoys- these attacks. But what is his actual goal?" Billy wondered as they started to leave for the safehouse.

A few minutes later, they received a peculiar text from the Chief, it read-

"Unleash the beast!"

"Red Rover!" whispered Raven.

"What?" asked Billy.

"We gonna hit 'em where it hurts and we will have to work with a team!" replied Raven.

"I don't understand!" remarked Billy.

"Just follow my lead- we're going to meet some demons!" replied Raven.

They drove to the safehouse within the next few minutes. Billy wasn't surprised that she knew more than him about the plans. The Chief plans ahead- he probably knows what's going to happen next...

Johnathan rested a while at Lisa's place. It would be sunrise soon. She wanted to know what was going on in the city so he told her everything he knew. He also told her about what went down at the museum that day. The entire city was in danger and he was the only one who could protect it. He cautiously asked her if she'd like to help him. She agreed instantly, after all she trusted him and was already helping him.

He felt a lot secure now with someone he could trust, he literally had no one to rely on. The Elder clan wasn't so supportive and Brother Farid had been acting weird lately. Brother Solomon was nowhere to be found. But atleast he had Lisa by his side. But was it going to be enough to fight against what was coming? Was she willing to give up her duty as an officer of the law to help him? Only time would tell...r