MetaWars: Fight For The Future

Chapter 25

About five minutes had passed. It felt more like five hours.

Sam lay in the back of the broadcasting van. Jonah was sprawled beside her, still in his meta-trance. Axel and Bradbury, too, had flattened themselves to the floor.  They had expected the Chang Corp gunmen to open fire. Axel was the first to raise his head when they didn’t. He peered through the shattered back window, saw something he didn’t like and dropped again.

‘They’re still out there,’ he hissed. ‘They’ve got us outnumbered, outgunned and cornered. I don’t know why the hell they don’t just—’

He was interrupted by a voice, mechanically augmented. ‘You in the van,’ said the voice. ‘Come out now with your hands in the air and you will not be harmed.’

‘They are lying,’ said Dimitry, his head down in the passenger seat. ‘They will shoot us as soon as we step outside.’

‘We don’t know that,’ said Sam.

‘If they wanted to kill us,’ said Bradbury, ‘they’d have done it by now. I would’ve.’

‘Then it is only because they do not realise who I am,’ said Dimitry. He was stiff with fright. ‘Once they see me, they will surely—’

‘What choice do we have?’ said Sam, exasperated. ‘They’re offering us a chance, and I...I’m going to take it. I’ll go out there first. I’ll talk to them.’

As she picked herself up, she realised she was trembling inside. She half expected her father to stop her from putting herself at risk.

Instead, it was Bradbury who barred her way. ‘No,’ he said gruffly. ‘I should be the one to go. It is my responsibility to protect—’

Dimitry had wound down his window. He leaned out of it and shouted: ‘You will not take us alive. We have explosives, many quantities of explosives. They are powerful enough to destroy this van and you also. So, it is you who who will lay down your guns an’ back away, please.’

Sam stared at him in horror. She didn’t know if Dimitry was bluffing or not. Either way, this wasn’t good.

Everyone waited with breath held, until the augmented voice came again: ‘I repeat, you will not be harmed. We have orders to that effect from Mr Chang himself. ’

A pause, and then the voice continued: ‘It appears you have a mutual friend – a Mr Jonah Delacroix. Where is he?’

                                                                                        *

Jonah had hoped the cat figurine would teleport him back to his school, back to his exit halo.

‘This device only works one way,’ Mr Chang explained. ‘But you can find your own way back to your halo through here.’ He guided Jonah to a wall- hanging tapestry. It depicted a dragon not unlike Mr Chang’s own avatar, surrounded by heaps of gold and jewels.

Behind the tapestry, there was a secret door.

‘Thank you,’ Jonah said, before stepping through the door.

Jonah emerged into a deserted alleyway, and turned to find a brick wall behind him. It was solid to his touch; there was no way back to the mountain temple through there. Rather than walk the streets, Jonah took to the sky to survey his surroundings.

He was in a Chinese-themed zone. He soared between skyscrapers and through archways decorated with singing paper lanterns. He was greeted joyously by many other dragons of varied shapes and colours.