MetaWars: Fight For The Future

Chapter 31

The girl glared at Jonah and Sam suspiciously as they stepped out of their plane.

‘Where is Axel Kavanaugh?’ she asked in an accent Jonah had never heard before. She was young, younger than Jonah, and he guessed she was an Aboriginal Australian, descended from the earliest occupants of this continent.

‘I’m Sam Kavanaugh, and this is Jonah Delacroix.’ ‘My name is Kala. But where is Axel?’

Sam explained that Axel wasn’t coming and why. ‘My people agreed to join Axel,’ Kala said. ‘Not two children.’

Jonah couldn’t believe she was calling them children, but moreover, he thought she could have shown some sympathy for Sam’s situation.

‘The elders will reconsider the deal,’ Kala grumbled as she led Jonah and Sam to two bizarre vehicles. Jonah had never seen anything like them before. They looked like hybrids of racing cars, boats and rockets. Their shiny metallic bodies were long and narrow, and low to the ground, reflecting the red dirt underneath. They each had four giant wheels and ten-metre-tall, fin-shaped sails rising from behind their cockpits.

A driver was waiting in one of the strange vehicles. Kala waved him away as she, Jonah and Sam climbed into the other.

A moment later they were gliding across the desert. Jonah was impressed by their speed, given that he could hear no engines.

‘This is amazing,’ he said. ‘We’re sailing on land!’

‘A land yacht,’ Sam added. ‘No petrol to worry about. It’s brilliant!’

‘The wind is a great gift,’ Kala explained cryptically.

They were seated one behind the other. From behind Jonah, Sam said, ‘Kala’s tribe has a fleet of these things. They’re crucial to our plans.’

Two dozen people came to greet the land yacht as it sailed into the village. The majority of these were Aborigines too. Jonah guessed that few of the Guardians’ supporters further away in the cities would have had the means to get here in time.

The crowd reacted with dismay, as Kala had, to find that their long-awaited allies were two teenagers. Jonah could hardly blame them. Sensing their discontent, and worried that they might abandon the mission, Sam stood on the bow of the land yacht and addressed them all.

‘I apologise for my father’s absence,’ she said. ‘I wish he could be with us too. But Jonah and I are here in Axel’s place, and our objective has not changed.’

A murmur of doubt shot through the crowd, but Sam continued undaunted.

‘Thirty-six hours from now, we will cleanse Uluru.

We will remove the men who occupy its heart and taint its soul.’

Jonah didn’t know what she was talking about. What was ‘Uluru’? He was impressed, however, at how confident Sam sounded, how in control.

Kala just scowled. ‘We have heard these promises before,’ she said.

‘I know,’ said Sam. ‘I know you have, but—’

‘You promised Uluru will be restored to its rightful owners. That is why my people agreed to join you in this fight.’

‘And that is still our intention,’ said Sam. ‘My father told you that when we met in the virtual world. Although... Some things have changed, and it may now take a little longer than we thought before we can—’

The crowd didn’t like that. Feeling he ought to help somehow, Jonah spoke up: ‘Sam means what she says. You can trust her.’

‘Uluru will be yours again,’ said Sam. ‘That hasn’t changed, I swear to you.’