The Chronicles of Silverwolf: The Dawning of a Hero (14 page)

“Uh, no. I was just looking outside,” Sarah said.

“It's dreadful out there. I know,” she said.

“What happened here? This is not how I remember San Francisco,” she said.

“You mean you don't know?” she asked looking at Sarah like she was crazy.

“I'm sorry. I've been locked away in an underground facility for the past year,” she told her.

“Well, this planet was attacked.”

“Attacked? What do you mean? When?”

“The date was December 21
st
2012,” she said.

“By whom?”

“According to the government we were attacked by a malevolent race of extraterrestrial beings. But that's all we were told. Millions of people died during the invasion and those that survived were put into concentration camps in certain cities. What you see out there is all that's left of this city,” she said.

“I can't believe it,” Sarah sighed.

“You must be new here in the building,” she said walking over to her.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” she said.

“I'm Laura. What's your name?” she asked.

“I'm Sarah,” she said, finally smiling for the first time.

“It's nice to meet you Sarah. It looks like we're going to be neighbors for awhile,” she said, shaking her hand.

As Sarah stood there a sense of calm came over her knowing she had a female companion to talk to. She seemed nice but also as innocent as Sarah was. The only question in her mind was would she see any of her friends again; especially Jonathan?

Chapter
27
 

The portal Jonathan flew into had obviously sent him to a different place. When he came out of it he fell into a large pool of water filled with empty milk cartons, wooden crates and rusted metal pipes. As he began to swim to the surface he noticed the water was all murky and dirty. After he reached the top, the area was nothing like he had left it back in the tunnels. He was in some kind of large sewer canal surrounded by large concrete walls.

Where did the tunnel go?

He looked up and saw the nighttime sky peering down on him. There were hardly any stars. It was strange that he couldn’t even hear the common noises of the city.

To get a better look of where he was he decided to do a fly over. He then took off into the air and looked down at a city that, to his astonishment, was nearly in ruins. His heads up display told him that he was in Los Angeles but it wasn’t the Los Angeles he was familiar with.

“Peter, can you hear me?” he said trying to communicate with his friend.

He got no response.

“Peter, come in.”

It was still silent on the other end. He couldn’t contact Justin because his friend didn’t have a communication device during the time he was with him.

There was something odd about this whole situation. Everything seemed so quiet and out of place. Where were all the cars and people? Some of the buildings looked like they had been hit with a bomb. Others seemed to be rotting away.

Suddenly, something large and black was approached him. It was shaped like a triangle but didn’t seem to be using conventional Earth rockets to fly. It was nearly silent as it stopped in front of Jonathan before turning on a pair of lights that nearly blinded him.

“Identify yourself,” a mechanical voice said that seemed to be coming from what sounded like a loud speaker on the strange craft.

“What?” Jonathan asked sounding confused.

“You are in violation of security protocol 157. This area is restricted. What sector do you reside in?” the voice asked.

“This can’t be good,” he told himself.

“Where did you get that suit?”

“I’ve had enough of this,” he said then cloaked himself.

But it was too late. The ship fired some kind of laser weapon at Jonathan which sent him flying into a large sewer grate that was sticking out of the concrete wall down below. Jonathan tumbled over himself a few times before hitting a brick wall that led deeper into an underground sewer system.

His whole body ached as he tried to catch his breath. Jonathan knew he couldn’t sit around for very long, for someone was bound to come after him now that he’s encountered unknown hostiles who apparently didn’t like him.

Jonathan managed to get to his feet while enduring the pain from the blast he took. The tunnel ahead of him seemed pretty long and good enough to get himself lost in. Hopefully it would lead him to a quiet place and give him time to recuperate.

“Station three, this is air patrol. We have an unknown hostile who is in the sewer tunnels. Advise you send reinforcements to apprehend the subject,” he heard that same voice say.

“Crap,” he said then began running into the long winding tunnel ahead of him.

As he was running through the brick layered tunnel something on his heads-up display caught his eye that he hadn’t noticed after he first arrived.

It was the date.

It read September 21
st
2013.

“That can’t be right,” he said to himself then thought about it for a moment.
Did that portal that opened up send me two years into the future by accident?

He knew portals or wormholes, as they are commonly known, could do that. But could that electrical blast back in the cave cause a wormhole to open up and send him through time? Perhaps it short circuited the suit and caused a time rift somehow.

Peter warned him that the suit could generate an artificial wormhole but only to use it in emergency situations. It was never tested. Jonathan guessed that electrical blast did it.

Jonathan kept running turning another corner until he came upon a locked gate with a pad lock. He grabbed it ripping it apart which allowed him to open the gate and continue on. That’s when he heard voices behind him. They sounded similar to the voice on the craft as they got closer.

“I might as well face them,” he thought.

Jonathan had the suit prepare his throwing disc once more before cloaking himself. However, the cloaking field started malfunctioning. It was most likely from the laser blast he took earlier.

Finally, he was fully cloaked after the nanites adjusted themselves.

He soon waited for whoever it was to approach him. When he saw the first soldier round the corner he was astonished to see that a uniform that looked oddly familiar to his but with some minor differences.

The unknown enemy’s suit of armor which covered his whole body was black from head to toe. He had a face like a mask that seemed to act as a breathing apparatus. He also carried some sort of advanced rifle in his hand.

Jonathan threw his discs directly at him. Both went right through his chest. Two other soldiers who looked identical were following him and opened fire the moment they saw his fallen companion. The lasers blast didn't penetrate the energy field he had put up around him as he headed towards them.

Lifting up his arms Jonathan fired a few of his wrist projectiles that luckily went through their suits. He grabbed one man's arm, broke it while kicking the other guard in the face. Finally, they both fell to the ground near the first body. Jonathan walked up to them and picked up one of their rifles which didn't require any ammo. He looked at their suits more closely for a minute as he uncloaked himself.

“Damn,” Jonathan cursed. He was almost positive that this technology came from his suit. When he got a closer look it became clear to him that this suit was much different than his. The armor wasn't as thick. It had no cloaking capability from what he could tell. And he had yet to see any of the soldiers fly. Plus, they were carrying weapons.

Assuming more soldiers would be on their way Jonathan formed a proximity mine in my hand and placed it on the wall. He then continued down the same tunnel until he came to a fairly large open cavern with running water. There were several tunnels leading in many directions. He had no idea which one to take. He didn't have a map so guessing was his next option.

Suddenly, his heads-up display gave him another warning message. The suit then deactivated itself leaving him wearing only the gloves. That's when he heard footsteps behind him.

“Freeze,” a voice said. “Put the weapon down and don't move.”

The voice belonged to a man wearing a pale blue jacket with pants. He was joined by three other people; All wearing similar outfits.

Jonathan slowly placed his rifle on the ground the put his hands behind his head. One of the others approached his running one of those airport search wands over both of his hands.

“He's clean,” one of the other males said.

“You're not one of them,” the first man Jonathan saw said.

“One of who?” Jonathan asked.

“Who are you?” the female of the group asked.

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

“First you tell us your name.”

“Jonathan Wolf.”

“Where did you get those silver gloves?” the man who first opened his mouth asked.

“They're mine. Now who are you?” Jonathan asked.

“I'm Captain Richard Stark of the Underground Resistance.”

“Resistance? I take it you're fighting those black armored soldiers up there on the surface?”

“That's right.”

“Well I just had an unfriendly encounter with them myself. So I guess this means we have a common enemy.”

At that moment they heard voices coming down the tunnel from where Jonathan just came from.

“Let's move quickly so we can lose them.”

“May I put my arms down? They're getting a little tired.”

“Yeah, you look normal enough,” he said as Jonathan followed them into one of the adjacent tunnels.

“Normal? Am I supposed to look normal?” Jonathan asked.

They all looked at Jonathan as if he were crazy.

“Who are you again?” the female asked.

“I told you already.”

“Yeah, I'm just surprised that you seem clueless about what's going on up there on the surface,” the Captain said as they approached a heavy metal door with a peep hole and camera in front of it. He banged his fist twice on the door before it opened. Jonathan followed them in to an even larger underground complex with a water spill way that ran down the middle. Dozens of people were either walking around or sitting down relaxing. A communication center could be seen with a few monitors along with other electronic equipment.

The door closed behind them. Jonathan found himself surrounded by even more people. All of them had their weapon in their hands ready to fire at him.

“Let me ask you a question. Is the year 2013?” Jonathan asked.

“Yeah, why?” said the Captain.

“That’s not good. Look this is not going to be easy for you to hear but you must.”

Jonathan proceeded to tell them the entire story of how he arrived. Surprisingly the expressions on their faces turned from callous to smiles.

“I must have said something right,” Jonathan said. His own smile had yet to surface.

“You did,” a female soldier said. She was an Asian woman. “You're a friend of Peter Stone's?”

“You know where he is?” Jonathan asked with profound interest.

“At our main base at Niagra Falls. Follow me. I'll radio him and tell him we found you,” she said. Jonathan began to follow her. Captain Stark also joined them.

They led him over to their communications center that had a computer terminal and some radio equipment. The woman sat down and picked up the microphone connected to their radio.

“Home base this is L.A. Central. Peter, are you there?” she said.

“You have a base at Niagra Falls?” Jonathan asked.

“Actually it's hidden underneath the falls. It used to belong to an alien race that was living there for thousands of years. The regime has never known of its existence fortunately,” Stark said.

“This is Peter. Hey, Chen. What's up?” Peter asked.

“I have a surprise for you, sweetie,” Chen smiled.

“Sweetie? Why is she calling him sweetie?” Jonathan wondered.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked.

“It's good to hear your voice again,” Jonathan said leaning over her shoulder into the mic.

“Jonathan, is that you?” Peter asked excitedly.

“It's definitely me,” he answered. It was relief hearing Peter's voice once again.

“My god. Where the hell have you been for the past two years? We’ve been looking all over for you.”

“It looks like the suit malfunctioned creating an artificial wormhole that sent me into the future.”

“So that's what happened. I'll be damned. Well I'm glad we found you. We need Silverwolf more than ever now.”

“That's why I'm here.”

“Look, there's a lot going on over here. So I have to go. Chen and Captain Stark can fill you in on all the details. We'll meet up later.”

“Wait, where is Sarah?” he asked. He could hear Peter sigh.

“She's still in San Francisco under surveillance along with the rest of the population there.”