Chapter 10- It's the dragons.
The thick smoke that covered the city like a dark quilt, was much lower now then it had ever been. This made visibility on the road almost zero. David had turned the high beams on, but even so, with the high beams attempting to brighten up the road, the visibility was still extremely poor, in fact the high beams actually reflected off the smoke and dust, making visibility even worse. David eventually had to make the decision to turn them off and just use the normal headlights. The roads were pretty clear, every now and then an obstruction would present itself, either in the form of rubble or something else and David would have to swerve to avoid it. Every ime he did so, he looked at his wife, to ensure she was ok. She was breathing heavily, which kind of worried David, but he then focused back on the road as he knew letting go to his fears could result in an undesirable outcome.
Such was the event, through no fault of David's that through the dark haze he had managed to swerve to avoid a fallen power pole, that he did not see the van approach from the side street. Nor did the van see him approach. By the time visibility of each vehicle had been established, it was too late, both vehicles were in such a hurry, that when they both slammed their foot on the break collision would still be inevitable. It didn't help, that although David's car had ABS, When he felt the car start to jar from it, he naturally relieved his foot from the break and the negative acceleration halted. The 2 cars hit each other at a high velocity, The van hit with its front, hitting David's car on its side. This caused David's car to spin uncontrollably on the road, sending it crashing into a nearby debris pile that would have once been a house. The van came to a halt as well, in the middle of the road, it seemed to suffer remarkable little damage considering the impact it made.
David awoke, a few seconds later, a splitting headache indicated that he had hit his forehead on the steering wheel. He covered his forehead with his hand, feeling something wet. He took it down to look at it. It was blood. His wife beside him coughed from the smoke. That was a good sign, he concluded, it meant she was still alive. He turned the key in the ignition, It didn't even try to show signs that it would start. He turned his attention to the van, as it was apparent that someone had gotten out of the van and was heading for him. He tried to open the door, but it was pried shut. He watched the figure approach, he was dressed in khaki camouflage, but it was apparent that he wasn't from the military. The figure drew close, and seemed to see David struggling with the door. The guy clicked his fingers, and suddenly almost by a miracle, David was able to open his door. David slowly and carefully stepped out, keeping his eye on the person. He looked back at his wife for a second, seeing that she was ok, but still breathing heavily, he walked up to the man. David jumped at the sight of the hand of the guy he had crashed into. It seemed to be made of metal. He eyed him suspiciously.
"Your car work?" The metal handed guy asked.
"ER no, it won't start" David replied cautiously.
"Sorry about that, I didn't see you:" the guy replied.
"That's ok" David replied. "I didn't see you either."
"You may call me Ironhand" The man replied.
"Listen Ironhand, my wife, she is hurt badly, I need to escape the city, would you be able to help us?" David asked.
"No can do, I'm transporting some very precious… cargo" Ironhand replied. He felt it would be best to omit the fact he was transporting a badly injured dragon. "I have to get it, to a place in a certain amount of time" Ironhand replied.
"Oh please, you have to help us" David cried, starting to really worry about his wife and what would happen if they had to travel through the city without transport.
"Im sorry Ironhand replied, but I have to go." Ironhand turned back.
"Wait, please, where are you going? Anywhere you can drop us off would be fine." Dave fell on his knees on the verge of tears. "Please, I ask you, I cannot let her die."
Ironhand sighed. "Ok, lets get her in the van" he said. I can take you to 123rd street. Its near the Brooklyn bridge. There may be an active hospital on the other side." Ironhand replied.
"Thank you kind sir" David replied, slowly getting up.
"Well the van doesn't work at the moment, but its not too beat up, so it should be easy to fix" Iron hand instructed.
"If it were not for these Damn Magical creatures we wouldn't be in this mess." The one who possessed the orb was standing on a pile of rubble, talking to his followers.
"We can fight amongst ourselves, and I cannot stop that, but lets not forget that our main enemy are the magical creatures here."
A cheer went up from the small crowd gathered around him.
"It doesn't matter who, magical creatures are the start of all this, magical creatures have caused the death of many of our brothers, magical creatures would kill us given the chance. We must RID the earth of all magical creatures, before we rid the earth of ourselves" he was shouting by now, and the audience gave up another cheer.
"We have this orb, the orb is ours, the power is ours. Only we can form our destiny and I see a destiny with no magical creatures. Some claim to be good, but they all brought this upon us, my brothers, today, we do not listen to their lies, we seer through their traps, and let the orb lead us to glory!" More cheers went up.
"Let the word be spread far and wide let, brothers across the land hear the news, I want the head of any Dragons you see. Let the streets run red with dragon blood for today, we end this" A massive cheer went up as he finished and he stepped back down off the rubble, where his wife of 10 years was waiting for him.
"That was a wonderful speech dear" She said, grinning.
"Why thank you dear" he replied with little emotion.
"We have the power, now that the orb is ours" She laughed a bit.
"Ours?" Asked the man with the orb. "Oh no, I don't think your thinking straight, here let me correct your thinking"
With that he reached into his back pocket and pointed it right at his wifes forehead. He then began laughing.
"There's no us anymore, its just me." He said very coldly. "Honey I want a divorce" he said pulling the trigger, at point blank range shooting his wife not once but 3 times in the forehead.
"There's no us, Just me" he laughed walking off. "I have an idea to knock off a few dragons" he whispered to himself walking away.
His brother was not far off. "I want that orb" he whispered to himself. "I deserve that orb." He said once again. "I think its time I persuaded my brother to give it to me" He whispered holding a six shooting revolver close.
Ironhand turned a corner sharply, giving the occupants of the van a high inertial force.
"Careful you Idiot" David yelled out of shock, but then looked down and apologised.
"Don't worry man, I'm just trying to get you there quickly." Ironhand replied.
"What have you got in the back anyway?" David asked as Ironhand returned his concentration back to driving.
"Nothing you need to know about" Ironhand replied.
Jake let out a small groan from the back.
"Did I just hear it groan?" David asked.
"Nope" Ironhand replied, "Must have been your wife"
"It sure as hell was not my wife" David yelled, but then looked down and apologised again.
"Im sorry" He said. "It's just that I am scared, for my wife and for my son. You know he is out amongst all this and I don't know where he is?" David asked rhetorically.
"I was unaware of that" Ironhand replied anyway. "Is he lost?"
"Well, no, he is actually out there fighting the evil" David said, but he decided to omit the fact that his son was a dragon.
"Wow, you must be very proud of him" Ironhand replied.
"I bet he doesn't know how proud I am of him" David replied.
"If… If I could just see him one more time, Id give anything to see him, and Haley as well." Tracey said weakly. She then fell unconscious.
"Darling?" Mr Long asked, he shook her a little bit.
"Wake up darling" he said again, starting to panic. He started shaking her a little more violent.
"She is ok" Ironhand responded to calm David down. He did not want David to distract him from his driving lest another accident might happen.
"You sure?" David asked.
"Yeah she is still breathing." Ironhand replied.
"Don't die now honey" David cried. "We are almost out of this."
The man with the orb had begun to think up of a trap, which might draw the dragons to them, so that they could accomplish their goal in destroying the dragons. While he analysed the prospects that the dragons seemed to be drawn to the very orb he was holding, his brother stepped out of the darkness.
"Hello Brother" He said, with a small smile on his face.
"What can I do for you, Ivan?" The man with the orb asked.
"I hear that there's a dragon not to far from here and I want you to come with me, so that we can slay it… together"
"I'm not stupid you know" The man with the orb said. "The orb tells me that there is no dragon nearby. You just want to trap me"
Ivan froze at the realisation that he had been caught out, and expected some sort of retribution. He looked down, waiting for his brother to shoot him, just as he had done his wife, yet to his surprise, nothing happened.
"You will never get your hands on this, you would die trying" He continued. "Go make yourself useful and help with the hunting of dragons." He ordered, throwing his brother a gas mask. The usage of it was almost inevitable as the air grew thinner due to the smoke that swirled in the air.
Iron hand stopped the van. "Well I'm afraid I shall have to let you 2 off here" He said. "If you continue heading down this street for less then half a mile, it will take you to the Brooklyn bridge" he continued. "Hopefully you can find refuge there."
David opened the car door. "Thank you so much sir" He said, putting his arm around his wife and gently sliding her out of the car. The air made him cough a little, but where they were, the smoke wasn't too thick. He put her arm over his shoulder, she and stumbled forward. She was still passed out David looked down in sadness, he wished that he had fled the city when he got the chance. 'This is all my fault' He thought to himself as he lurched onwards, dragging his unconscious wife with him.
Iron hand was about to get back into the van, when a small static noise distracted him. He slowly walked towards it and after a few feet, he came across a few sandbags and some mesh netting. It was a small military post, iron hand called out, but there was no response. He slowly walked in, it was empty. There was a radio, it seemed like someone was trying to speak on it. Iron hand picked it up and slowly twisted the frequency dial till he could clearly hear what was being said.
"Bravo company pull out, I repeat, bravo company if you c an here me, we are launching a full military with drawl, so that we can regroup for our next stage of attack. We require you and any other civilians out within 10 minutes. The president has given the go ahead for a scorched earth Policy, Pull out now, or you may be targeted"
"Ah damn" Iron hand complained "This isn't good."
(For those who don't know Scorched earth is a policy whereby the military is given permission to clear all presence in a certain area, destroy anything that moves, even if its civilian, its pretty much just go all in, and don't worry about civilian casualties. Aacid or 70David would probably be able to explain it better then I).