Land Of The Thunder Dragon

by Dave Williams

  There was another mighty roar and bright golden flames washed down all over them. They flowed all over Skye’s shield, what looked like lightning crackled and sparked as the flames interacted with it.

  The one military figure that David could still see who had emerged in the ambush was vaporized by the flames and his dust just blew away in the breeze.

  Skye was mentally screaming. “I can’t hold it much longer Druk.”

  The flames stopped and there was complete silence.

  Finally, a breath was taken. The air was hot and smelled of burnt meat. David rolled over and realised that it was Tandin and his two brothers who had piled onto him, trying to protect him. He couldn’t believe that they would knowingly sacrifice themselves to save him. Why would they do that?

  His eyes met Tandin’s and he knew that an unbreakable bond had just been formed. He understood that it was actually Druk and Skye who had saved them all, but Tandin hadn’t known that at the time.

  Tandin held out his hand to help David up. He took it and got to his feet. His legs felt weak and were shaking. Their eyes met. David looked to Jasprit as well.

  “I have no words.” And then he vomited like he had never done so before.

  Chapter 44

  “It’s Genetic”

  The whole group stood around David in a loose circle and watched him vomit. David had a sneaking suspicion that Lurch was filming it all.

  “I am sorry David. I only had time to warn Skye. I felt your emotion as you thought you were about to die by my hand. I promise that I will never allow you to feel that again.”

  David finally got control back and slowly straightened. “No. It is me who needs to apologise Druk. I have no reason not to trust you, it was just an automatic response. I need to thank you for saving me once again.”

  “It was a team effort, I am sure you know that.”

  “Of course, I do.”

  David addressed the whole group. “Well I suppose we will never know who our enemy was now. There is nothing left of them at all.” David felt the bile rising in his throat again as he thought about the guy vaporising before his eyes. “Thank you, Skye and Druk. You saved the day again. I did see one guy before he got fried and he appeared to be of African origin. Did anyone see anything else?”

  “I got the whole thing in 3d,” said Lurch sheepishly.

  David developed a wry smile thinking of that. “For now, Lurch, please don’t show me that footage. But can you tell who and how many there were?”

  “I can indeed.” Lurch grinned. “There were twelve of them. And they were NAU Special Forces.”

  “Shit,” Yelled Grandpa Jack. “An Ethiopian Death Squad. That means there are twelve more of them. They always have twenty-four in a squad. We must run, and run now.”

  They broke into a jog and got themselves into single file.

  Skye opened a chat with everyone on Flashnet.

  “I have things that need to be said first,” said David. “The other twelve NAU troops will be coming from the side track that we just passed. We don’t know if this squad had time to get a message out to their mates. We must assume that they will be coming up behind us hard. I think there is no way that we can out run them, so we must go on the offensive.”

  Lauren looked Jack in the eye as they ran alongside each other. “Yes, I agree,” gasped Lauren. “He is turning into a great leader. I don’t even think he realises it. He is just leading, and everyone is following without question. Including me.”

  David continued speaking out loud so that Tandin and Jasprit could hear. “Tandin? We need to pick up the pace to the maximum we can do for the next thirty minutes. I’ll leave it up to you to judge.”

  “Got it.” Tandin replied. The pace slowly picked up. “That thirty minutes will see us at Jangothang anyway I reckon.”

  “Flynn and Lurch?” David asked. “I need you to get a link to the net through Priscilla and Raj. Then get in front of me, ready to do a live feed. I want to follow up with vision of the attack that just occurred. We need to get the world on our side and get them to stop the NAU somehow from outside Bhutan. We are not going to be able to stop them on our own.”

  Grandpa Jack looked at Lauren with a raised eyebrow. “Bet you wouldn’t have thought of that move S.A.S. Girl. This is so much fun, don’t you think?”

  “I’m really starting to worry about you Jack.” Lauren looked disgusted. Jack just laughed.

  Flynn was adjusting Lurch’s shoulder mounted camera to face backwards. Lurch wasn’t going to be able to run backwards at this pace. “There you go David, the camera is set, so just allow Lurch to get past you there and we’ll be away.”

  David moved to the side of the trail for a few steps and Lurch ‘Lurched’ past him.

  Flynn continued. “Just a heads up. We now have a ‘go to’ person at the BBC. She has just told me that we have stirred up a hornet’s nest as a result of the first feed you did. Apparently, the world is standing by, waiting to see what happens next. So, here’s our chance, no pressure.”

  Lurch held up his new hand and counted down his fingers, “Five, Four, Three, Two, One. And Rolling.”

  David took a few deep breaths and let the visual happen on its own for a minute. The world could see him running for his life, deeply stressed, and his family desperately trying to keep up behind him. He sent a quick thought to Druk and Raj, “I presume you guys have eyes all around us?”

  Raj replied first. “Yes David. We have eleven bodies in pursuit, I’m keeping tabs on them, they are currently two kilometres on your six and gaining ground. Druk is scanning closely, trying to find the twelfth, if he exists.”

  “Thanks Guys.”

  David composed his thoughts, and then.

  “This is Outer Space Nature Boy. We are on route by foot to the base of Mount Jomolhari to receive our first mission. We are nearly there.” He paused for a moment. “We need some help.”

  “Yesterday our group was attacked by a Tiger which has taken several members and our horse team out of our group.”

  “This morning, we were attacked by twelve members of an NAU Death Squad. I am sending that vision to you now. Fortunately, the Thunder Dragon, Druk, was able to take them out.”

  “NAU Death Squads always have twenty-four members. Another Eleven are chasing us down from behind as we speak. We do not know where the twelfth member of that group is. We will not survive against this group if they can catch us. That means that all of you will also die when the planet re-sets, immediately after our failure.”

  “My message is to the underground leaders of the North African Union. Call off your attack squad, or the deaths of every human on this planet will be your fault. By the way your Death Squad is gaining on us, we have less than twenty minutes. Humans of planet Earth, I am calling you to action. You need to stop these people from stopping us.”

  “Outer Space Nature Boy, out.”

  Flynn yelled, “Cut,” and the little red light on Lurch’s camera blinked out.

  “Very impressive,” acknowledged Timothy. “I love how you did that.”

  “Imagine how the world media is going nuts on that one.” Said Wayne. “Not to mention, the North African population is going to be hunting their leadership down in their comfy bunkers somewhere. I wouldn’t want to be them right at the moment.”

  Timothy snorted. “What? You don’t think we are being hunted down right now?”

  “Sure, I get it,” said Wayne. “But. We’re going to make it. They’re not.”

  “Sure of himself he is,” laughed Skye. “Yeah, damn right, we are going to make it. Pick up the pace you slackers, we need all the time we can get for David’s plan to bear fruit.”

  The pace picked up a little bit more.

  “How can you guys be so light hearted,” said Tandin, looking concerned.

  David chuckled, “It’s genetic, we’re Australian.” He made a thumb gesture over his shoulder at Grandpa Jack. “That’s our Grand Father you know.”

  C
hapter 45

  “It Ain’t Over Yet”

  “Lurch?” David queried. “Can you keep your connection open and monitor the response to that please? Keep me informed of developments.”

  ***

  Four kilometres off the East African coast, five NATO submarines surfaced and were ordered to open their cruise missile launch doors. Vision of this threatening gesture was beamed around the world for all of humanity to see.

  ***

  An extremely over fed man walked breathlessly out of the North African Union embassy in Zurich, Switzerland, to address the waiting media.

  “I have been asked to speak on behalf of the NAU leaders in hiding. I will read this statement exactly as it was presented to me,” he wheezed.

  “The NAU has secretly inoculated it’s population against any threat posed by the failure of Outer Space Nature Boy’s mission. We have been able to do this through research into artefacts recovered by archaeologists in the North African desert near El Alamein many years ago. Furthermore, we look forward to the extermination of the rest of humanity, so that the environment may flourish once again under the guidance of the world’s original civilisation, us. We will not call off our so-called ‘Death Squad’. We wish you all an easy and honourable death.”

  The over-fed man gasped and collapsed backwards off his podium and onto the ground. No one bothered to help him, it was obvious that he was dead before he even hit the ground.

  ***

  The Chairman of The Nato Military Committee, General Georgina Worthington, ordered the submarines to stand down as per the committee’s decision.

  Exasperated, she sat back in her chair and folded her hands behind her head. “Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, next ideas please?”

  The room erupted in yelling, accusations and finger pointing. A few were just crying into their hands.

  Georgina leaned over to her assistant and said quietly, “We never could get consensus on anything. I would have launched anyway and see if we couldn’t call their bluff before impact. This lot just don’t have the balls for a fight. Why don’t you go. Be with your family. I’m going to go out with a bang and I don’t want you to be involved by association. Make sure people see you leave.”

  General Worthington’s assistant got up and left, which instantly quieted the room.

  “What’s going on?” The German delegate said accusingly. “What are you up to?”

  “I have sent my assistant home to be with his family in their last hours. Maybe all of you should do the same. You know, prepare to meet your maker as they say?”

  The room was silent as they all looked at each other with gaping mouths. A few got up and walked out, that started a stampede and soon there was only the General, the Secretary, and his assistant in the room. He smiled at Georgina.

  “Well played General.” The Nato Secretary said, clapping limply. “What a performance.”

  “It ain’t over yet Mr Secretary, I need you to issue an immediate communique to the governments of the Nato members.” First, she picked up the phone and called the missile strike back on. She quoted a twelve-digit authorisation code that confirmed the order.”

  The communique will read as follows. “Mass walk out of the Nato committee. Under section 47:B of the Nato articles I have taken over sole command of the Nato forces as of two minutes ago. I have confirmed the launch of nuclear cruise missiles on the twenty-seven targets nominated in our previous security briefing. I hope we can call their bluff before impact.”

  One wall of the meeting room raised up into the ceiling revealing a crowded tactical command centre, buzzing with excitement and dread all at the same time.

  General Worthington walked in and connected her Flashnet to the command and control system within the room. There was nothing to do now but watch the missiles track, and hopefully, receive a phone call. If the NAU had really been able to inoculate their population, they may just take their chances with the nukes.

  Chapter 46

  “And Then There Was One”

  “David?” asked Lurch. “NATO have launched a tactical nuclear strike against twenty-seven targets in North Africa.”

  David wanted to just stop and give up at that point. Nuclear war had become a serious threat again after orbital platforms and kinetic energy weapons were banned following the last conflict that saw the East coast of Australia and the UK wiped out from orbit. This kicked off a new nuclear missile arms race, which in reality, would be far worse than the effect of KEWs. But if he stopped running at this point it was all over anyway.

  Suddenly, Grandpa Jack and Lauren were at his side. “David, we know what’s happening. It doesn’t change our mission at all. We keep going, OK?” Lauren said.

  Grandpa Jack spoke up as well, despite his heavy breathing. “It looks like we will reach Jangothang before the Death Squad. Just. Lauren and I have a plan, but it’s a risky one, do you trust us?”

  “How is that even a question Grandpa Jack?” David said calmly. “Of course I do.”

  “This may be the hardest thing you’ve been asked to do yet David. But we are going to use you as bait. You need to understand that it is you they want, the rest of us don’t matter, so you are going to have to convince these eleven guys not to kill you. But you will have a dragon at your side.” Lauren smirked when she saw the look on David’s face.

  They turned a corner and saw the gateway to the abandoned village of Jangothang. Everyone had left for the winter.

  David spoke to the group as they passed the gateway. “Ok, they are less than a minute away. Tandin and Jasprit, I want you to find food for the next couple of days while we sort this out, be ready to move on. The rest of you, spread out into hiding places nearby. Skye, you will need line of sight to place a shield if needed, but I don’t want one to start with, and keep an open comm line with me so that you know what’s happening.”

  They all spread out as David walked back out of the gate. He left enough room for Druk to land next to him. Once she did, her head came right alongside David’s and her massive eye looked right into his soul. He felt like there was nothing he could hide from her, not even if he had wanted to. But Druk knew that there was nothing he needed to hide.

  “WYSIWYG,” She said quietly.

  David was about to query her when he finally got it. “Oh, What You See Is What You Get.” He felt only love for Druk at that moment and knew that she totally understood him.

  “You could just let me burn them all, like the last lot.”

  “Something tells me it won’t be that easy Druk. And don’t forget about number twelve.”

  “Hmmm. Wise you are.” She smiled that dragon smile. A little smoke escaped her lips.

  David laughed, “Be prepared hey?”

  The troop of Ethiopians ran around the last corner and stopped dead when they saw a lone boy and a sparkling blue dragon standing confidently in the middle of the track.

  They spread out instantly to each side leaving one man walking up the track towards them, presumably their leader.

  “I’ll do the talking.” David sent to Druk.

  “No problems. I’ll do the burning.”

  David just looked at Druk, dumbfounded. “You are actually enjoying this aren’t you?”

  “Hell yes,” she smoked.

  ‘Death Squad Guy’ stopped when he saw the smoke coming out of Druk’s nostrils.

  David spread his hands, palms forward in a conciliatory gesture. “Not as brave as a twelve-year-old boy then?” He called out.

  The man spoke with an unusually British accent. “I saw the twelve piles of ash of my murdered comrades a few kilometres back. Cautious would be the right word to describe me, at the moment.”

  “Murdered?” queried David. “That’s an interesting concept from a man trying to murder a group of innocent children by ambushing them.”

  “We are only here to kill you David, we have no interest in the rest of you. Submit to us and the rest of your family can go free. Well, not the Dragon.”
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br />   “I have things to discuss with you, but there is no time, we are minutes away from twenty-seven nuclear detonations in your home land. I am guessing that your honourable leaders haven’t kept you informed of that particular issue? If you come closer and stop your troops from spreading out further, I will guarantee your safety while we talk.”