Nen (19 page)

“What are you doing, Kevin?” Mami asked as she ran past Kevin.

“Sarah said she would take the lead and I take the rear, you and Kenso just try to run as fast as you can.” Kevin said, panting like a pathetic prey that had been stalked for days by its predator.

Mami nodded and ran like crazy. She was more confident and could run faster as she knew at the back of her mind that there was somebody right behind her, and not some terrible monster at her heels.

The panicky group of four ran and ran along the dark winding corridor that seemed to have no end. At last they reached an intersection of hallways where they stopped for a moment. Sarah looked around and she noticed that everyone was sweating heavily and Mami was almost out of breath. Kevin’s belly heaved up and down and he looked as if he was going to have a heart attack.

“You alright, dear?” Sarah asked him.

“I should have listened to you and exercise more regularly.”Kevin grinned, not knowing that this would be his last words to his fiancée.

A hideous quadruped leapt out from the dark corridor behind them and pinned Kevin Tan to the ground. The damn creature was right behind all the while! The beast was huge and it took Kevin’s head off with one gigantic swipe! Kevin’s head rolled like a football to Mami’s feet, his eyes still wide, and his neck spraying blood.

“No! Kevin!” Sarah screamed at the grisly sight of her fiancé’s terrible fate and watched in horror as Kevin’s headless body twitched for the very last time and then stopped.

For an instant, Sarah felt as if time had halted. Kevin lay motionless on the ground, blood gushing from his neck and a hideous monster was sinking its claws into his back. About five feet away, Kevin’s decapitated head was spraying blood at Mami’s feet. All three of them stood frozen.

The beast with devilish green eyes finally let go of its victim and crept slowly toward Sarah. Its green eyes gleamed in the dark and they were riveted on her, the poor lady who had just lost her fiancé. There was a familiar luminescence emanating from the creature’s scaly skin.

A weird pulsating illumination of yellow and green phosphorescent light shimmered as the creature moved its furry arms and legs away from Kevin’s body. A nasty smell buffeted the corridors as the bioluminescent creature turned its huge horned head away from Sarah, its eyes now scanning Mami instead.

Mami fell to her knees and she tried to scream but nothing came out of her throat. The creature seemed to be able to sense fear and it crawled gingerly towards Mami. Sarah wiped away her tears with the heel of her palm. Her head throbbed gnawing pain but she knew that she must remained as calm as possible. Her years of experience handling crisis in E.R came back to her all of a sudden and she started to take in deep breaths to slow down her heart rate. She could see clearly from where she was standing that the creature was able to move with total silence which was why it could sneak up to them from behind without them noticing at all.

From the corner of her eye, Sarah saw Kenso trembling in fear and Mami sitting on the ground with her face as white as snow. Kevin’s decapitated head was still pulsing out blood right beside Mami. Sarah closed her eye for a second and then she took an unbelievable step, an action that would haunt her memories for the rest of her life if she managed to survive this ordeal.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Sarah moved gingerly toward Kevin’s headless body and knelt down beside him. She mouthed the words
I love you
and then she tucked her hands under Kevin’s under arms. Slowly and quietly, she got to her feet and lifted up Kevin’s body. With all her might, Sarah hurled Kevin’s body across the hall in a direction away from Mami and Kenso. Instinctively, the creature swerved its massive body and went after Kevin’s dead body, thinking that one of its victims was trying to get away.

“Run, run for your life!” Sarah yelled as the creature sunk its sharp teeth into Kevin’s torso. Kenso seemed to have awoken from his frozen state and he immediately groped his arms around Mami and pulled her to her feet.

The three of them ran toward the other end of hallway. Mami’s rubbery legs made her slipped and fell a couple of times while they raced down the narrow passage but Kenso managed to grab and heave her up every single time she fell.

The creature chewed and munched on its food, taking its time to savor its latest catch. It lifted its horned head and looked in the direction where Sarah and her Japanese friends had gone, took another bite on Kevin’s blood-soaked thigh before it began pursuing its newfound preys down the hallway.

CHAPTER 31

High above, the ground temperature had dropped drastically over the last twenty-four hours. The unexpected blizzard had grown in magnitude, cutting off all road access to the plateau where the old army bunker stood. The tour bus that was parked at the base of the plateau was no longer visible as it was totally concealed in thick blankets of sleet and snow. Nobody would believe that a few hundred feet below the buried tour bus, in an subterranean labyrinth of corridors and narrow hallways, three young people were running for their lives.

Kenso’s mind was literally blank as he bounded down the never ending hallway. All he cared for now was the safety of the woman who was merely three feet ahead of him, Mami-san. His heart thumped rapidly against his chest and every time when Mami slipped, his heart would sank and he would glanced over his shoulder to make sure that the creature was not behind him.

As they cut a corner, Kenso skidded to a stop as he realized that they were dashing into a dead end! Straight ahead, there was a rusty iron door at the end of the corridor but other than that, there was no other way out of this cul-de-sac! Kenso panicked but he also noticed stacks of wooden crates lining the grimy wall on his right. The crates looked empty and that gave him a surge of hope. He started pulling some of the crates off the stack so that they toppled over and formed a blockage in the middle of the narrow hallway. Sarah heard the crashing sound behind her when the crates fell and she turned around. “Good thinking, Kenso!” And she also helped to bring down more crates from the wall. Mami also chipped in to help but she could manage only one or two crates at most. In less than thirty seconds, the entire hallway was filled with old rotten wooden crates, blocking anyone or anything from coming through.

Kenso paused to survey his surroundings again, wondering if there was any other exit. He saw nothing promising but there was a steel cabinet hidden behind some of the wooden crates stacked against the wall. It was a waist-high steel box similar to the heavy cabinets that he came across in the army cookhouse. Instinctively, he gestured to Sarah who was right beside him. Straightaway, Sarah knew what Kenso’s intention was and she started to help him push the heavy cabinet to the middle of the hallway, thereby strengthening their makeshift barricade even more.

Just as they lifted their hands off the steel cabinet, a loud thud and a large force shook the barricade of crates. The creature was trying to lunge through by brute force from the other side! Kenso, Sarah and Mami hurriedly took a few steps back and they could only pray that the wooden crates could hold back the charging monster. Then came another loud thump followed by an angry roar. The barricade of crates seemed to hold up pretty well!

A few more jaw-rattling booms and then there was a moment of silence.

“Is ...it …gone?” Mami stammered, her eyes studying the wooden barricade that they had created in such a short time.

“I don’t know, dear. I think that animal has stopped barging.” Kenso replied, wiping beads of sweat from his face. He looked at Sarah who gave him an assuring nod.

When hope was just beginning to ignite in their hearts, the sudden turn of events was like fate pulling the world’s most distasteful prank on them. They realized that the hideous monster hadn’t given up on them yet!

Between the uppermost crates that were stacked in a haste and the ten feet tall hallway ceiling was a gap large enough for a human being to crawl in but definitely too small for that enormous creature. A leathery forelimb ending with sharp talons appeared suddenly and it went through that gap.

It was followed by another forelimb. A loud explosion quickly followed and several crates propelled down the barricade, almost hitting Kenso and Sarah when the splintering timber crashed to the floor.

The devilish creature crept through the bigger gap that stemmed from the effects of the fallen crates. It wriggled its scaly, light-emitting body and managed to squeeze itself through the gap near the ceiling, completely upside down! Sarah froze and gazed in fear as she watched the creature crawled on the ceiling like a house lizard. Its paws or talons must have had some suction enclaves that allowed it to hang from the ceiling without falling.

“Oh my god, oh my god…” Mami cried out as the dark shape of the creature moved slowly across the hallway ceiling. It let out a terrible roar of rage as its powerful tail swung and whacked hard against the clutter of planks, bringing down the entire barricade of wooden crates behind it. Kenso and his friends stood motionless but they could see that their make-shift barricade was no longer there. Standing in their way, half crouching on a mess of fallen crates was the creature and its muscled withers were glowing luminous green.

Sarah turned and looked down the hallway. The rusty iron door at the end of the hallway was their only hope of survival. She ran towards it and tried to yank it open but the door was locked!!

“Come on, open up!” Sarah muttered, trying hard to push and kick the door but was unsuccessful. “Kenso, I need some help here.”

With a grunt, Kenso grabbed Mami’s arm and dragged her away from the approaching beast. He then leaped and lunged himself against the iron door with all his might. There was a loud crack and the door swung open. Kenso and Mami rushed in, Sarah behind them, slamming the iron door shut once she jumped into the dark room.

In the dim light that filtered down from hidden recesses, Sarah and the group managed to snake through rows of tables.

“Hide there! Quick!” Kenso whispered to Mami as he pointed to a large steel cabinet at the far end. He let go of Mami’s hand and glanced back at the iron door.

“What are you doing?” Mami asked frantically.

“Just go now!” Kenso gave Mami a slight push and that actually helped. Mami turned and ran towards the steel cabinet, ducking herself behind it.

“I need to block that door.” Kenso whispered to Sarah and he started to make his way back towards the door.

“Let me do it, Kenso” Sarah said. Her eyes lowered from Kenso to the corridor light that trickled in below the iron door. “Wait! We have to hide.”

From the lights that shone through the small gap below the iron door, Sarah and Kenso could see a dark shadow looming on the other side. The door creaked open slowly and they immediately scampered toward the nearest table and concealed themselves.

The doors flew back and something in the room clattered. Dim light rushed in and Sarah could felt a rush of air across her cheeks. She turned to look at Kenso who was squatting beside her. His face was deadly white and his body was shuddering.

The creature moved slowly into the dark room. It seemed to be slightly bigger than before. Could it be growing in size? Sarah threw away that thought as it was totally absurd to think that an animal could have such a rapid growth process. But this wasn’t an ordinary animal, wasn’t it? This thing was as large as a rhinoceros and it had sharp horns jutting out of its beastly head. Across its massive torso was a thick coat of solid reptilian scales and beneath the coarse black hair that covered its limbs and back, a mysterious pulsation of luminescence green and yellow seemed to continue glowing non-stop.

Even in the dim light, Kenso could make out the strong, sloping movement of the quadruped going past him and heading toward the far end of the room. Somehow, the beast did not want to come after him and Sarah but instead it was going straight for the steel cabinet where Mami was hiding!

“Sarah, I am going to distract the beast. Please get out of here with Mami.” Kenso whispered, his eyes welling up.

“No, you can’t just…” Sarah whispered back, trying to stop Kenso from executing his crazy plan. But Kenso was already on his feet and making his way toward the creature.

“Tawagoto no kotchi ni, minikui sakuhin!” Kenso shouted in Japanese.
Over here, you ugly piece of shit!

The creature swerved and its powerful tail almost swept Kenso off his feet. Kenso ducked from another swerving tail and scampered to one corner of the room, away from the steel cabinet. The enormous glowing body of the creature jumped and landed a few feet in front of Kenso and it almost blocked his field of vision but from the corner of his eye, he could see Sarah heading for the steel cabinet and then half dragging a terrified Mami-san out.

“Go now, Sarah! Run!” Kenso yelled, trying to fight off the slithering tentacles that suddenly emerged from the creature’s gaping mouth.

“No!!” Mami screamed as she was almost being carried out of the iron door by Sarah.

By the time Sarah and Mami emerged from the dark room, Kenso had been pinned down by the creature and blood had gushed out of his arms and thighs. The slimy tentacles had razor sharp ends and they were all over Kenso’s body. Before one of the tentacles plunged hard into Kenso’s face, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and whispered, “Mami, Watashi wa anata o aishite.”
Mami, I love you
.