Chapter 9
Smoke increased all over the islands. After new bombs exploded in the woods terrible wood-fires broke out. The midlands where now also affected. All over, fire-brigades tried to get the control over the fires. The population tried to save the fruits and other food from the fires.
Spud stood with his gun on the roof and saw the smoke from the fires. He also saw that someone cut down many trees on the tops of the hills so that the fires can't arrive the city. He walked up and down and looked around. Maybe every window in Guangseng was broken now. Many people nailed the windows. Spud looked on his watch. It was 6:15pm now. March the 20th. Spud had the feeling that they had war since years, although they had war since just one month. During he got lost in his imagination a huge explosion happened in Hebatov.
Spud was scared when he saw the explosion and the following fires in the harbor district. And he couldn't do anything, because the missiles just appeared.
In the basement all could hear the explosion. Even the anchorman on the TV stopped talking for a few seconds before he talked further.
"...That around 80 Huntsclan members have been captured when they tried to enter the islands. All are in arrest now and will be interrogate with truth-potion..." the anchorman told.
That was a good message. That mean that the protection of the islands worked.
Meanwhile, the situation on Manhattan also calmed down. Bomb attacks and gun battles damaged or destroyed big parts of the magical-cities. That happened across the whole East-Coast, and the people in the humans-world didn't realized it.
The crime-rate in the humans-world increased rapidly. Many people have been arrested just because they talked one time with a magical-creature without knowing it. Because the Huntsclan concentrated its work mainly on the East-Coast the Middle East and the West-Coast where not harmed. In the Republic of California and the Federal Republic of Tennessee sometimes a bomb exploded, but nothing serious happened.
In the Red House in Manhattan-City, the president of New York sat in a telephone conference with his counterparts from California and Tennessee. Both opened their borders for refugees. But Manhattan was still cut off from the rest of the world.
"The situation is extremely difficult, we can't use any planes or trains because the humans would see something." the New York president said.
"Yes, in our country we have an alert. Several hours ago I got a call... A dragon is exposed in the humans-world and now the army, the hunts punks and the police are hunting this boy now, who had no clue that he is a dragon... his adoptive-family is now arrested by the Huntsclan. We have no clue what they will do with this family..." the president of Tennessee told.
"We understand your situation!" the Californian president said but before he could talk further his counterparts could hear terrible noise in the background.
The Californian president could hear that someone tried to break open his door. He looked out of the window and could see thousands of angry and annoyed people in the streets of Magical-Monterey. Just seconds later the doors smashed open and angry demonstrators entered the office.
"Your time as president is over..." they shouted.
His counterparts in the other countries could hear everything and where shocked. They could hear a putsch, live!
For Magical-America this war was the worst disaster since the nuclear-accident in Harrisburg in 1979. During in the humans-world nothing serious happened a huge radioactive cloud contaminated big parts of the local magical-communities. 60 thousand magical-creatures had to leave their homes in Harrisburg, Middletown and other towns. For the magical-world this disaster was more terrible than the meltdown in Chernobyl seven years later. New York was under Soviet management for 4 years in that time. Short time after the independence the help for the victims of this disaster stopped.
All over the world the Huntsclan started to report about so called 'traitors'. Humans who supported magical-creatures. The Huntsclan called this humans: crazy, hypnotized or slaves who accepted their situation. But many humans thought it very interesting that humans are living along with 'things'.
On March 26th whole Europe celebrated. Today the Schengen Agreement goes into effect, which allowed all people across the European Union to travel across all member states without passport control. The Huntsclan was not very happy about that because many magical-creatures would now use this situation to flee. And exactly that happened in Germany, The Netherlands and Austria.
Vampires and werewolves left the area of the Benelux after the Netherlands officially declared the 'blood-crisis'. In Uruguay the police meanwhile found out that the Huntsclan triggered the huge gas explosion... which killed 70 people.
In Guangseng, Jake and the others listened to the newest reports on the radio. The voice on the radio also said that the curfew is over now for a couple of hours. The mothers of the other families and Susan took some dirty clothes to wash them. The stench in the basement was terrible. Jake saw his wife sitting with their son in her arms. She hold him since two days. She had to be tired.
"I go outside to get food. You should also go out. You need fresh air. You will feel better." Jake said but his wife shook her head.
"No, I have to stay here. Jonny need's me!" she said tired.
"Go!" Haley said and took Jonny into her arms. "You need a break. I will watch over him! Go!"
Jake's wife stood up and left the basement with Jake. But she was not happy about it. In that moment they left the basement, the others realized that there was no water coming out of the faucets. The water-supply collapsed.
Jake held his wife on her arm and walked with her threw the hardly damaged city. Both were shocked about the situation. All over stood people in long queues to get food in cans. Some factories in the midlands now put food in cans and conserved them. Although the huge wood fires, destroyed big areas of the useful land they still had enough food for months. All people could still see smoke increasing from the woods. Jake got two bags of cans for all people in his basement after he proved with truth-potion that he need food for 20 people.
They later walked through the now empty park between the districts of Brjhildvet and Debilreer in the north of Guangseng. All trees disappeared. And also many trees which stood in the streets. Guangseng was a very green town, but now all looked grey. When the new districts where build the population planted trees in the streets. A architect saw that during a trip to the human's Soviet-Union in the Moldavian capital Chisinau and decided... 'We will build Guangseng as green as this city'. But now nothing remembered the good times. Both passed churches, synagogues and mosques full of people who lived there now. Both entered a church where all windows were broken. Around 50 people lived here now. All windows where covered with plastic sheets. Both walked further and arrived an place both remembered very well.
"Jake, this is the crossroad Jonny was born!" she said.
Jake recognized the crossroad and remembered...
The hospital was not far away. At that time it was a brand new district. But the street was not ready, so a terrible traffic-jam was here. Jake sat in a cab with his pregnant wife who screamed loud. It was February 23rd, 1992!
"Ahhh... please drive!" she screamed. "It's coming!"
"Calm down the hospital is right there... oh my gosh... It's really coming now! STOP!" Jake screamed and the driver stopped on the middle of a crossroad.
Jake opened the door of the cab and jumped out he decide to fly her to the hospital, but in that moment she stood up she screamed again very loud. All people and the other car drivers realized what's going on now. She said down into the cab again and screamed further.
"Is there a doctor here?" Jake shouted and a woman lift her hand.
"I'm a nurse!" she said and ran to the cab which blocked the crossroad.
The people looked that there was happen something in the cab. Jake's wife screamed extremely loud. Jake hold her hand but she just screamed.
"JAKE... I HATE YOU... THAT PAIN..." she shouted.
But just 30 seconds later it was over and the people heard a baby scream. During the people applaud a police-officer brought a jacket so that they could wrap the baby into it. In that moment Jake and his wife saw their son they forgot all. They kissed each other and than his wife got her son. In that moment the little Jonathan stopped screaming...
Today...
There was all over waste on the streets laying here. In many walls were holes from gun-shots and a big hole in the street from a grenade.
The Long's walked further. A half hour later they arrived a big-building complex which was saved with a high wall. In the wall around this area where also many shot-holes and they saw hundreds of people waiting in a queue in front of a well. All protected by the police. Jake's wife knew this place very well. Here she worked for a short time as an actress...
Years ago, in 1984 she walked with Jake threw the streets of Magical-Monterey. They visited the studio of the Californian Magical Television (the CMT). At that day there was a casting. They looked for an singer who will represent California in the Magivision Song festival here in Monterey. It was the biggest song-contest in the magical-world and because California won the last contest they would host the this year's contest. Both sat in the empty audience-hall and listened the casting. At the end the composer and the managers of the CMT weren't very satisfied.
"That's enough for today!" the composer of the song said in Spanish and left.
Jake and her where alone now. Both walked down and looked on the song lyrics which sat next to a microphone. The song was in English and Spanish because in Magical-Californian the main-language was Spanish and all countries had to sing in their own language. As a joke she started to sing the song, just Jake listened to her. What both didn't knew was that the jury was listening. Although she sang the Spanish-parts with a strong accent the jury was enthusiastically.
"YOU!" the composer yelled and scared both.
"Sorry... I just..." she said and was ashamed.
"No, no... stay, that was really good! We want you!" the manager said. "You are..., right?"
She just agreed.
"You are from California right?" he asked and she agreed again.
"I think we found our artist!" the composer said.
A few months later the contest began. After it was published that a human will appear for the first time in this contest they had more viewers than ever before. It was just the fifth contest after the magical Soviet-Union found it as an protest against the cold-war in the humans-world. During she stood on the stage she closed her eyes and ignored everything around her. Although nobody booed she was afraid. She switched of her mind and sung. At the end she just could hear loud applause and cheering.
At the end she won with just 3 points ledge before the second placed Draco's Islands and the third placed Soviet-Union. At the end the artist from the Draco's Islands congratulated her personally and invite her to visit him on the islands. It was the second entry of the Island's because the council prohibited the most TV-channels. Then she visited the Islands with Jake and the others a few months later and they saw than for the first time the brand new movie studios. After the revolution and the end of the Council-regime the movie and entertainment industry boomed.
In this studio, she played in two movies. Both very successful. For one movie she won a price on the new found Guangseng-Movie-Festival. She, Jake and the others had also several guest-appearances in magical-movies and series worldwide.
This year's festival was cancelled. The gates to the studios were open. Both walked through the area which looked creepy now. They arrived the scenery which was used for a disaster movie a few years ago. In that movie a high tsunami destroyed Guangseng. They looked on the model and remembered the scene when they saw it in the cinema.
Both woke up from there imaginary when they heard someone shouting: "No touching!"
Both screamed short and turned to see a around 30-years old man with a rifle. They raised their hands but the man put down his rifle immediately.
"Hey, It's you!" the man said.
"Magnus?" Jake's wife asked. "Magnus Jenstogdtihr?"
After she recognized him they hugged. Magnus was a old friend. A dragon who was a very popular actor on the islands. They made a movie together. They entered the empty studio-building and met another old friend.
"Muham!" Jake's wife jelled happily and hugged a man her age who stood in the studio cooked water in the employees kitchen.
Muhammed Fezlatogiç was a Bosnian human, the Long's met in 1985 during he made a movie in New York. A former Human-Supporter. After the beginning of the war in Bosnia he fled with his family to the magical-world which was not harmed by the war in the humans-world. He told that he came here 2 months before the war began because All four stood now in the empty building and talked above old times. But also about their current situation.
"The water supply collapsed!" Muham told. "And we are here because we hoped to find some drinks. Burglars robbed all out. The most props the studios had were now gone. The people urgent needed it."
"And I try to repair this phone!" Magnus told and pointed on a phone which was on a table.
Magnus start to work on it again. During Jake talked with Muham.
"You're English is much better than ten years ago!" Jake said.
"Yes! When the war in my country began I start to learn your language!" the Bosnian told and showed Jake a photo of his family. "I hope to see them again. I called them two days after the war here began. Bosnia is safe for the moment because the Huntsclan can't act because the war in the humans-world there.
Meanwhile, Jake's wife helped Magnus with the phone.
"After the magical-power was switched off more and more phones went dead.. We hope that... owch..." Magnus screamed after he got a little electric-shock from the phone. Immediately after that they could hear a weak sound from it.
"It's working! IT'S WORKING!" they shouted happily.
Jake and Muham also ran to the table now and all stood around the phone. They had now a chance to call into the humans-world. Magnus handed the phone to Jake's wife.
"Ladies first!" he said and she took the phone.
She waited so long for that moment. She already rehearsed what she would say. She tipped a number from the humans-world into the receiver and it worked...
In Monterey, California the phone in the house she grown up start to rang. Her aunt Mary was alone at home when she called. She picked up the call.
"Aunt Mary!" she said.
"Oh... Hello sweetie!" aunt Mary said happily. "Finally you called. How are you?"
"Oh... How I am? I'm... fine!" she lied to her aunt. "How is Sal? Sorry that I missed the marriage but..."
"Oh you don't know it?"
"What?"
"The marriage didn't happened! His fiancée left him. The poor boy, the woman broke his hearth!"
"Oh! And what is with Sal?" she asked.
"Pah... How he is? He is sad of course! She just said that she can't marry him and that he have to accept it. Then she disappeared." her aunt told her. "You have also this sad sound in your voice! Are you okay!"
"What... Yes, yes... I'm okay. I just wanted to hear your voice!" she said and start to cry.
"It's good that you call. Your neighbor called us... Rhonda was her name! She said that a guy burglarized into your house!" her aunt told and scared her with that.
"What? What kind of guy?" she asked scared.
"I don't know! She said that his name was Brad... Torton, Norton, Horton..."
"MORTON!" she shouted angrily.
"Yes... but he didn't stole anything. She also said that this guy was in the Huntsclan!"
That scared her much more. But they hid everything. There was no chance to find something.
"Is there something more you want to tell me?" she asked her aunt.
"Well just that we are happy when you all come back! Visit us when you are ready! And now tell me... How is Hong Kong?"
She was relieved. Their secret was still a secret. She talked more than one hour with the woman who replaced her dead mother and said goodbye. She cried the whole time. But now she was more worried about that what Brad maybe found out. After she finished her call, she handed the phone to Muham who immediately called his family in Bosnia. Jake and his wife left the studio and walked back. The curfew would start in 2 hours again and they had to go home before. When they walked across the streets they could see that all people started to run home... a ship of the Huntsclan appeared in the bay!
On the ship...
"This has to be their capital!" one of the original-members said to the others.
"There have to be their important authorities!" another original said. "Let's use the new gas!"
During the newbies, prepared some gas-grenades on the ship a man stood with a telescope on a roof in Hebatov. Threw the telescope he could see the grenades and knew that that had to be poisonous gas. The man took his phone and called the radio-stations. Just a few minutes later all radios on the islands switched on. The population was info warned for a following attack with chemical-weapons.
Jake and his wife ran through the city. During they ran, the pain in Jake's right shoulder became worse. All over they could see the police. The officers handed gas-masks to the people or covered wells and food-counters to protect them from the poison or whatever. After both got a gas-mask they ran further. Both could hear explosions when they arrived their basement...
On the ship, Brad Morton looked through a telescope on the islands.
"Where are you Long?" he said annoyed. "You can't hide!"
Brad looked saw how poisonous clouds increased all over the city. The black smoke from the wood-fires became less because the local fire-brigades could extinguish the most. Brad could see advertising-signs without posters (all removed) but with short messages. Brad could read the words 'Go to hell hunts punks' on a billboard near a wide boulevard near the palace. Brad looked further to see something what satisfied him. He saw a young man, for him that was Jake, the man wore a jacket like Jake wore in high-school, he had the same haircut and maybe the same size. It's wasn't Jake but for Brad it was.
"Hehe... Long... I swear you: I will get you, your too self confident whore and your little breed..." Brad said and walked back to his cabin to work further on his 'own' plans.
End of Chapter 9
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