Nen (12 page)

Howard knew that it was preying on them and in particularly Sarah for which he did not know the reason why. He reached out his hand to grab an iron bar so that he could swing himself more to his left. The purpose was to put himself between the creature and Sarah who was right below him. Sparks flew when his fingers touched the iron bar which had high electrical currents running in it. “Damn it.” Howard blurted, withdrawing his charred hand involuntarily.

Before he could do anything else, the creature scurried down the elevator shaft with great agility, went pass him and lunged itself at Sarah, sinking its razor sharp fangs into Sarah’s neck. Blood sputtered out of Sarah’s throat.

“Help me…” Sarah screamed with all her might, her glassy eyes looking furiously at Howard.

“You bastard!” Howard cried as he watched Sarah being yanked around by the monster but strangely he just couldn’t move a finger.

“Why can’t I move, what’s happening to me?” Howard wondered and then he sat bolt upright in a body of sweat. His heart thumped at the speed of a racing car and he was almost breathless. The first person he saw was Pete Chan.

“Uncle Howard, are you having a bad dream?” Pete asked, looking blankly at Howard’s sweaty face.

“Hey, did I frighten you?” Howard said, scanning the parade ground and realizing that the rest of the group were all gathered around the campfire and they were not aware that he had woken up. Pete looked into Howard’s slightly bewildered eyes and shook his head. Paul and his gang had not returned from their scouting trip and while Howard was having his long overdue nap, someone from the group had managed to light up a couple of kerosene street lamps located around the parade ground. In a few spots near the bunkers and the parking lot, Howard could see torches of orange flames burning on wooden sticks that were manually inserted into the ground. It was probably Wong who did that, Howard thought.

“Are you scared? Uncle Howard?” Pete asked.

“You bet I am, kid.” Howard smiled as he wiped off the perspiration on his forehead with the heel of his palm.

“Are we going to die here? Like Uncle Henry?” Pete asked the question that everyone was avoiding.

“No, Pete. We are not going to die here. Uncle Paul and his buddies are working hard now to look for a way out and also to search for supplies that can last us for a few days. And I will be joining them shortly.” Howard straightened his back, paused for a moment and then whispered, “Look, we may be locked in for a couple of days so I need you and your sister to stay positive, and be very strong here and here.” He pointed to his chest when he said the first ‘here’ and then lifted his forefinger to his eye level and tapped his right temple when he uttered the second ‘here’.

“Yes, Uncle Howard. Pauline and I will be strong and we’ll look out for each other, that’s what mum told us to do.” Pete said.

“Your mum is right, kid. As long as we look out for one another. There’s nothing to be scared of.” Howard said.

“But I’m really scared of those dead soldiers.” Pete said.

Howard got on his feet and bend down so that he was at eye level with Pete. “Listen, those soldiers have been dead for a long time. As long as everyone stays together, everything will be fine.” Howard pointed to the cave roof and said, “Somebody up there probably had found out that we are down here and they will definitely come for us.”

“That’s what daddy has been saying.” Pete said.

“Yeah, what your dad said is right. Now, go back to your mommy and don’t wander about.” Howard said firmly.

“Yes, sir.” Pete turned and strode towards his parents.

Paul and his team were standing before what seemed to be a hidden back door of the two-story building. They had moved away from the mayhem of half-collapsed blocks where the gruesome laboratory was located, went past the length of the dilapidated barrack and stopped in front of a wing block connected to the two-story building. The entire place had darkened and the low light condition had made their reconnaissance more difficult but Nelson was sharp to notice a red timber door hidden behind a heap of thick vines and overgrown shrubbery.

The four men took only a few minutes to clear out a decent opening in that dense vegetation piled up right in front of the door. On closer view, the red timber door that stood before them had rotten over time but it was still securely chained up and held shut by two big rusty padlocks. Behind that timber door was the two-story building, the unsightly building that was both mysterious and alluring. In fact, the building was located not far from the mini parade ground where the other tourists were nestling at that moment. But among the handful of bunkers, barracks and buildings that had been explored by Paul and his team that afternoon, this was the only building that was entirely locked down. According to Howard, he had not been able to step inside as all the doors and windows at the ground level were completely sealed either by iron chains with padlocks or by wooden planks nailed over the window and door frames.

“Stand back.” Paul said, drawing the hatchet from his trousers belt. In one clean swoop, he sliced the rusty iron chain into pieces and broke one of the padlocks. The bunch of broken chains and padlocks fell hard to the ground with a loud clank.

“I told you. He’s good.” Nelson nodded at Kenso-san.

“Yeah, I’m impressed.” Kenso-san said, lowering his raised eyebrows.

Paul pushed ajar the timber door and switched on his flashlight. He strode in and his eyes scanned the walls beside the door but they couldn’t find any light switches.

“Hell, we have to use our flashlights.” Paul turned around and said.

Paul and his buddies turned on their flashlights and they passed through the connecting wing block before stepping into the two-story building. Beams of bright yellow lights glowed through forty feet of darkness before it splashed on a spiral stairway directly opposite them. Next to the spiral stairway was a row of doors and windows, probably office rooms or living quarters.

“It’s like being in a small hangar.” Johnny said, looking at the dimly visible hall they were in and the tall ceiling above him. Paul shone his flashlight up the spiral stairway and moved the circle of illumination to the second floor which was nothing but a narrow catwalk that encircled the four walls of the hall. As Paul shone his flashlight in one complete round following the catwalk, the men could see neatly spaced-out grill doors lined up against the walls along the encircling corridor.

“Looks like prison cells up there.” Johnny said, craning his neck.

“Yeah, kind of like those in Alcatraz.” Kenso said.

“It’s far too many prison cells for a military camp. This ain’t a prison right?” Johnny said.

“God knows, this ain’t a hospital too, but how do you explain the operating tables and the freak show that we saw back there?” Paul said.

“Hey guys, is that what I think it is?” Nelson broke their conversation, shining his flashlight at a large entity straight ahead.

“Let’s find out.” said Paul and he moved forward, carrying the haversack of ammunition and grenades on his back and two rifles on his shoulders.

The four men shambled across the empty hall, making sure that they do not trip and fall in the stark darkness while zooming toward the sizeable entity. It was positioned about eight feet away from the spiral staircase, behind an old roller shutter gate that extended all the way to the ceiling. When they were almost there, all four beams of flashlight splashed onto the entity, revealing what it really was.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe this. Look at this beauty!” Johnny said, shining his flashlight all over the large entity. Some of the light bounced off its rough metallic surface, creating a dim glare that somehow seemed to brighten up the hall one notch. Paul and his buddies were just three feet away from a German infantry support tank, an armored vehicle developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively during the Second World War.

“Yes, Johnny, it’s the Panzer Four.” Paul said.

“What’s the Panzer Four doing in this crazy Japanese barracks?” Johnny uttered.

“I’m not surprised at all. The Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany were Axis nations during the war.” Nelson said, throwing a glance at Kenso who had been quiet throughout.

“But why do they need to have this killer machine here?” Johnny asked.

“Who knows, maybe they are gearing up for a battle here?” Nelson said.

“It’s more likely this armored tank was used as a defensive measure to guard against those crazy experiments.” Paul interjected.

“Hey, maybe this old tank can transform itself into a killer robot,” Nelson chuckled for a moment and then continued, “Japan is famous for their robotics technology right?”

“I think you have watched too many Transformers cartoons and anime, Nelson.” Paul’s lips curled slightly downwards. He wondered why Nelson, a friend whom he had known for years to be smart and meticulous, still had the capacity to crack jokes in the middle of such an undesirable situation and environment. Maybe this was how Nelson overcomes his anxiety and fear. Or perhaps by cracking jokes, others may be fooled by his silly outlook, thus shielding off the hardcore fear and nervousness underneath the surface. In fact, Paul knew one guy in the army who appeared relaxed and happy all the time but when nobody was looking, he left a suicide note and jumped off a building. Hopefully, Paul thought, Nelson was nothing alike that poor army chap.

While Paul and Kenso danced their circles of flashlights all over the ceiling and the other corners of the hall, Nelson and Johnny surveyed the armored vehicle more closely. They walked around the Panzer IV and found stacks of oil barrels behind the tank. One of the barrels was hooked up to a big generator by a rubber hose. Obviously, the oil barrels contained fuels necessary to power up the generator. On the far left, there was a heap of mining tools and machineries placed orderly against the flat wall beside the roller shutters. Johnny shone his flashlight at those machines.

“Hey, I think these are some kind of tunnel boring machines,” Johnny said, “you know, those that miners use to bore holes and tunnels.”

“How did you know about all these, Johnny?” Nelson asked, doubting Johnny’s ability to differentiate even a forklift from an excavator. Nelson was always the technical guru among his friends and colleagues. Over the years, he had become a person who was known to be well versed in information technology, mechanical engineering and electronics but Johnny was just not that kind of geeks he and his friends knew.

“Hey, I worked for Caterpillar for a short period a few years back.” Johnny said, “Didn’t tell you guys before as it was only a short stint, well, right after I got laid off from Compaq some time ago.”

Paul knew what Johnny was talking about. Although Johnny, Nelson and he were inseparable team mates while they were serving their national service for the Singapore army in their early twenties, beyond that, they met each other only once or twice a year when they were mobilized to serve their yearly military duties. Johnny wasn’t quite willing to talk about his career at some points of time during the past ten years and Paul had long suspected that he had been unemployed for a while. But other than that, the three of them shared almost everything with each other and they even went on overseas trips together.

“You were laid off? I thought you were promoted to the regional sales manager?” Nelson asked.

“Do we really need to have that conversation here?” Johnny said, his cheeks flushed into two patches of red but no one could see that clearly in the darkness. “Anyway, the interesting thing about this is that modern tunnel boring machine, also known as TBM, was not invented until the 1950s. Tunneling shields and some other stone cutting machines were available during World War Two but they don’t really work too well. But this really looks like the modern TBM.” Johnny said.

“Maybe this particular machine was invented here?” Kenso said, breaking his silence.

“That’s possible. See, some of these parts were soldered or put together in a rush.” Johnny said, pointing at the boring machine which was illuminated by his flashlight.

“Seems like the Japanese soldiers or scientists in this barracks had invented some really great tools during the war and they had even perfected the art of tunneling! Unfortunately, their invention had remained as dead as their disemboweled bodies here.” Paul said grimly, scrutinizing the ‘Made in Japan’ or more precisely, ‘Made in China (underground)’ tunneling machine.

Nelson walked back to the power generator and put his rifle and haversack on the ground. He managed to locate a crank that was attached to the power generator and said in a jovial tone, “Hmm, let me have some fun with this toy.” Using both hands, Nelson turned the crank in the clockwise direction. The generator sputtered to life in less than five complete turns and a metal-scratching kind of drone could be heard coming from the walls. It felt like the building was coming alive with all the electrical cables and conduits within the walls firing up all at once. About ten seconds later, the nerve wrecking drone stopped and the lamps on the ceiling lit up. One of the lamps flickered and its bulb blew but the remaining six to seven ceiling lamps brightened up the entire interior.

“Great job, Nelson,” Paul clapped Nelson’s on his back and said to the rest, “Let’s clear the upper deck, huh?”

The men could see clearly now. The hall where they stood was almost empty except for the Panzer IV tank, the generator and the mining machinery. A row of office rooms occupied one side of the hall, the side where the spiral stairway stood. There were some wooden boxes in front of the office rooms, probably used for storing books or folders. Directly opposite was an arched doorway where they had come through. The German tank was like an old dame, sitting on a small area of blacktop which stretched beyond the bolted roller shutters gate.