The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter XLIV: Towards the land of snow

Carey watched as his arm bled. The Black Witch was long gone and he tried to stand up. The Princess and the others came running to his aid. They helped him get up, she tied a piece of cloth to his bleeding arm. From the elevated position, they saw that most of the train’s compartments were already burned to ashes, many of the Thugs lie dead, and the foreign passengers were rescued by the injured commanding officer. The Princess scanned the situation and thought of an idea. Although the compartments were on fire, the engine didn’t have a single scratch upon it. The pilots had long left the scene in fear, this was their chance, the only way to get out of the valley and reach Tibet on time.

“Mr. Carey, I hope you are okay?” she asked.

“Yes, I think I can manage,” he replied.

“Good, everyone follow me, I have an idea,” she said and ran down the hill, the others followed suit.

She ran towards the train. The foreign passengers who were still in shock screamed in fear when they saw her, thinking she was another one of the Thug. The commanding officer watched her unable to move due to his injuries- he recognized the woman from somewhere. But then he saw three other men, running after her. His mouth open wide when he saw the foreigner. He somehow managed to raise his hand and call out-

“Hello, excuse me Sir, where are you going?” he said.

“Please don’t mind us, we are not the ones who burned down this train, we just want to get out of here,” replied Carey standing next to him.

“What? You’re with these locals? Wh- What about us?” he said as the crowd of helpless passengers gathered around.

Suddenly, the steam engine started to honk loudly. The Princess and the others were waving at him to come along quickly. Somehow she managed to start the train while Raza and Ram unhooked the Engine from the rest of the bogeys and quickly started to gather all the supplies they could.

“Look, Sir- there’s nothing we can do, I have a job to finish, look over yonder, I see a group of military men approaching, you will be fine, see ya,” replied Carey and ran towards the engine.

The officer and the other helpless passengers watched in surprise as the sole engine started to run leaving all the burning bogeys behind. Carey and the others went storming at full speed ahead now that the bogeys were detached.

“How did you learn to drive a train?” asked Carey in surprise.

“I didn’t, I just looked through the manual for a while and lo and behold,” said the Princess “Okay, I threatened one of the drivers who was hiding here and he told me everything,”

“Ah, I see, wait, where are my bags? Oh! Here they are- Halloa! What’s all this?” he remarked staring at the huge pile of supplies ranging from food, clothing, medicine and weapons.

“Mr. Carey, I think we are safe for now, but we have lost a friend- Kali, I feel guilty for bringing him along, huh, anyway, I think we will reach Tibet within the next few hours, we should take a look at your arm, you don’t seem to be healing,” she said.

The train sped ahead and they could slowly feel the weather change from warm and temperate to cold and chilly. The Princess dressed his wounds and let him get back to his notes. Raza and Ram Babu sat there gossiping about something. They had averted danger for now but there was one last piece to obtain and both the Princess and Carey knew that there would be more surprises waiting for them. But Carey was now confident that he was capable of handling it after all he had almost defeated the evil witch.

Meanwhile the Dutchman made his way to the group of foreigners who were taken to the nearest hospital for treatment. Soon there were medical carriages and policemen crawling all over the place. He could easily mingle with the group owing to the fact that he looked exactly like one of them. But his main concern was that he could not follow Carey. He and his group had managed to surprise him more than once- the way he fought against the witch and the quick thinking of the Princess to escape on the sole Engine. He knew they could handle any trouble that would come next. All he needed to do was to keep following them from a distance. He knew that the train went to Tibet and that’s where they were going. He just had to find a way to reach the Tibet station…

On the other hand the Hard Chief was at the brink of death. After the Dutchman had shot him down from his horse, he fell head first onto the road and lay unconscious bleeding to death. His men had long fled the scene like cowards and the rest were already dead. A shadowy figure approached him from the distance. He could barely see with his face covered in dirt.

“So Chief, you lied to me, huh?” said a female voice.

The Chief saw the blurred image of a woman dressed in black. It was the Ashanti, was she there to finish him off?

“Wh- What? How did I lie?” he said.

“You said that he was just a normal person, incapable of fighting back and there were no other parties interested in him,” she replied.

“Yes- but,”

“Shh- I know, you are an incompetent man, about to die, but it seems I can use you to get back at them, say, how would you like a shot at revenge?” she said.

“But- how?”

“You got to die first Chief, and then I will resurrect you back, you will be different- more powerful, so what do you say?”

The Chief could only nod and agree, she was not making any sense. But Ashanti immediately went and choked him until he ran out of breath. Then by using her powers, she chanted some dark verses- a black cloud formed over her…