The Phantom Riser

CHAPTER TWO - THE FIRST WAVE

The atmosphere in the restaurant was a lot different than when they entered. The usual life had been snuffed out by Azak’s apocalyptic message. He delivered it so gleefully, that one would think he was actually delivering pleasant news. But to his masters, it was pleasant news. Even more pleasant to watch the despair in the eyes of those who listened. For such was their twisted nature.

“Say what now?” Karenia retorted to Kiro’s bewildering comment. If anything, his words only made matters worse. But she could tell from his eyes that he was serious. Very, in fact. Kiro was quite the bluffer actually and the circumstances surrounding them would naturally make the best and worst time to pull a stunt. Best because of how real it would seem and worst because of how real the danger was.

“Look, we don’t have a lot of time before the first wave hits. We need to move now and quietly. The less people know, the better,” Kiro replied. His intense gaze was enough to deal with. The weight of his words was…

“Kiro, come off it. We know how it always ends. You…” Victor said but Kiro interjected sharply. They really didn’t have much time to waste and quite frankly, if he could just bundle them up and move, he would. But the last thing he wanted was to attract unnecessary attention.

“Listen Victor, all this might be quite hard to grasp. Understandably so. But we are in serious danger if we stay here. We need to leave the city.”

“I’m not buying it,” Victor retorted.

“I get it. I’ve become the boy who cried wolf. But understand that you guys are actually the sheep in this story. Everyone here is going to die and that includes us if we don’t get moving.”

Karenia briskly got to her feet and pulled Victor up along with her. She had heard enough. And the feeling in her gut assured her of how real the threat was. “Victor’s not going to believe you so easily. So how about this? Wager your computer,” Karenia suggested.

Victor’s eyes were lit. He knew that the one thing Kiro couldn’t part with was his computer. And he was more than convinced that Kiro would drop the act. But Kiro’s response brought more fear than comfort. “Sure. And my apartment too if you like,” Kiro said.

Victor gulped. This was real, alright. “So, where are we going?” he asked.

“Grimsley Town. We’ll take the train at Chuha station. We might not make it there on time but we should be out of range by the time the first wave hits,” Kiro said.

Victor looked at his watch. It was a few minutes past twelve. “The train moves by exactly twelve. Don’t you think we’ve missed it?” he asked.

“The power outage would have delayed it. Delays like that would move the departure time to at least thirty minutes after.”

“Then let’s go pack what we can,” Karenia said.

“Trust me, you won’t need them. It’ll only slow us down,” Kiro said. “Mostly because we’ll be running there for most of the journey. The roads will be blocked in a couple of minutes. We need to head out now,” he added. Karenia was about to speak but retracted her words. They had decided to trust Kiro and that was exactly what they would do. Questioning him was only taking time that they didn’t have. Hopefully, once things were calmer, they would have time to get a lot off their chests. But for the moment, they would follow him blindly. Except he started mentioning things like secret wall passages and flying cars. He’d have to test the waters first for that one.

“But no taxi will get here nearly fast enough,” Victor said.

“We’ll see about that,” Kiro chuckled.

In only a matter of seconds of getting out, a cab pulled up in front of them. “Mr Kiro Ner, I presume?” the driver asked. Kiro simply nodded.

“You called one before we got here, didn’t you?” Victor asked.

“Before I got here too,” Kiro responded much to Karenia and Victor’s bewilderment. “I’ll answer your questions later, but you really should begin to get used to things like this from now on. Because they are going to happen a whole lot.”

“As long as it keeps us alive, I really don’t mind,” Karenia sharply responded.

It didn’t seem like it at first, but Kiro’s prediction of the roads getting blocked soon became a reality. Everyone was trying to get to their loved ones. It only took minutes for the majority of people to come to the realization of how real the threat Azak made was. There was still yet to be any announcement from the government whatsoever. Even they didn’t know what to make of all that was happening. “I guess this is our stop,” Kiro said as he paid for the cab.

The driver had a pale look on his face. He was uneasy about the whole situation. “Do you have a family? Mother, wife, child?” Kiro asked.

“Brother. He’s all I have right now,” he replied.

“Friendly advice. Call him to get to Grimsley however he can. You should too. It’s your best bet of surviving this.”

***

It was a tasking run, but they made it in time, with a few minutes to spare. As the train began moving, the atmosphere got a lot darker than it was. Mind you, it didn’t get any brighter since the broadcast. “What is it now? Another message? Do we have to jump off the train if it stops moving?” Victor asked, with not the slightest hint of sarcasm.

“The first wave. A meteor,” Kiro said grimly.

And out of the ‘not so bright’ sky, a meteor pierced its way through. And the imminent location? Their city, Halesworth.

Victor and Karenia were petrified. They had barely escaped. If they hadn’t listened to Kiro, they were definitely primed to be meteor fodder. “A lot of people are going to die. We could have saved them, maybe,” Karenia said in disbelief. She felt the weight of all the lives that were going to be lost. Her conscience was starting to get the best of her.

“That sin is on my shoulders, not yours. I did what I felt would increase our chances of survival. And directing people here would condemn all of us to death. I’m sure you know that. The last thing you need now is a conscience,” Kiro said.

“But still…” Karenia still couldn’t accept it.

And Kiro understood why. Surprisingly though, Victor seemed to have acclimatized to reality almost seamlessly. But it was dangerous to be sentimental. Dangerous to care about others. Dangerous to have a conscience, much less listen to it. For the world that was about to begin had no place for good people.