Nen (21 page)

The entire room was filled with a heavy mist of gun powder and the creature was just a blurry dark shape crouching before Howard.

“Is it… dead?” Nelson asked, coughing and waving off the smoke and dust in the air.“You guys…shot its head, didn’t you?” Paul asked frantically.

“We did, Paul. But the bullets were deflected,” Howard answered grimly. Taking a step forward, he squint his eyes at the dark shape behind the cloud of smoke. “It’s not moving.” He said.

By the time the smoky gun powder and dust in the air had settled, the three men knew that their fates were sealed.
The hideous thing was still alive!
The creature jerked its luminous body a few times to shake off some of slugs that were caught in its impenetrable armor of reptilian scales. Then it opened its mouth wide and a second set of jaws slowly emerged, like the pharyngeal jaws in a moray eel that was hidden in the throat and could extend out to grip struggling prey. The protruded pharyngeal jaws snapped a few brutal bites at the smoky air and then it retreated.

The three wide-eyed men had their backs almost glued to the wall as they watched the strange creature in horror. From the oral pharynx in the middle of the creature’s fanged mouth, four tentacles ejected and they swirled around in the air, ready to strike anytime.

“We are going to die now.” Nelson whispered in a trembling voice, his face white as paper. Howard nodded and his expression was a strange combination of fascination and despair. Paul closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as though it would be the last breath of air that he would be sucking into his chest.

An arrow swooshed into the room from nowhere and plunged into the furry hip of the creature with a thump. The creature swirled its massive glowing body around and let out a terrifying roar. Standing at the doorway beside the badly dented iron door was Dr. Sarah who fired a second shot with a loud twang from a cross bow. The second arrow dart missed as the creature ducked to one side. Sarah reloaded her cross bow swiftly and walked into the room. Mami was behind her and she was carrying a bag of arrow darts. Howard’s lips parted for a long time as Paul and Nelson watched Sarah and Mami tread sideways, slowly with their backs against the walls and their gaze fastened on the monstrous creature.

The creature jerked its head a few times but did not lunge at its prey. For some reasons, it was keeping itself a safe four feet away from the ladies. At one point, it even backed away a few steps when Sarah leaned forward. The two courageous ladies moved gingerly until they were right beside Howard. The beast produced a deep growl and it started to back away until its hind limbs were almost outside the doorway, but its devilish green eyes were still staring straight at Sarah.

“Watch this.” Sarah whispered to Howard and the rest. She then fired a couple of darts at the creature and at the same time she slowly moved forward. Almost all the arrow darts were deflected by the beast’s impermeable body but strangely, the beast seemed to be in pain and it bellowed a sharp shrieking sound. It almost fell on its side but quickly got up and darted out of the room, leaving the three men standing with dropped jaws and baffling facial expressions.

Nelson grabbed his rifle and scudded out the doorway.

“Hey, what the heck are you doing?” Paul shouted but Nelson was already gone. “You know what this crazy guy is up to?” Paul turned to Howard.

“I think I know, Paul. He’ll be back soon.” Howard said, shutting the iron office door behind him.

“I hope he is not trying to hunt down the animal by himself.” Sarah said.

Howard shook his head with a half-smile.

There was a long moment of silence before Paul spoke again.

“How…how did you do that?” Paul asked Sarah.

“Well, I was a silver medalist in the Athens Olympics. Archery” Sarah said.

“I’m not asking you that,” Paul asked again in an anxious tone, “I am asking you … how on earth did you to make that thing go away?”

“I have no idea, Paul. I thought you guys had already wounded it badly with your guns?” Sarah said, “I picked up this cross bow near the armory room and I thought some of my cracked shots had hit the beast on its soft spots?”

“That’s not possible, Sarah,” Howard said, his face grimacing, “we just blasted the creature with a thousand live rounds and it didn’t even sway or hurt a bit.”

“What?” Sarah was surprised but she suddenly realized that the guys were telling the truth when she laid her eyes on the scores of dispensed bullet cartridges all over the room and the smell of metallic gun powder lingering in the air.

“Then somehow this monster was afraid of me, Or maybe afraid of something about me.” Sarah continued.

“Yes, it backed away when we were cornered in the Japanese garden a while ago.” Mami-san added, her reddened eyes welling in tears again.

“Japanese garden?” Howard asked, “Where’s Kenso and Kevin?”

“Kenso… Kenso is…” Mami stuttered, tears rolled down her face.

“He’s dead, Howard.” Sarah said curtly, “Kevin is dead too. We were pursued by this thing and it killed both of them.”

“Jesus Christ,” Howard said, touching his forehead with the heel of his palm.

“After it killed Kevin and Kenso, we were cornered in an enclosed garden within the labyrinth of hallways and the beast almost killed us. Then it just took off, as if it was afraid of me.” Sarah explained.

“Then how did you know that this creature was here?” Paul asked.

“We were so exhausted but Mami reminded me that we must warn the others. So we hurried back and we heard gunshots.” Sarah said.

“Mami is right. We must warn the others now.” Howard said.

The iron door swung open and Nelson barged into the room, panting. “I saw that thing leaping across the parking lot and squeezing itself into the man-made tunnel. It’s heading to the crystal caves. I think it’s going for Wong.”

Howard fumbled for his walkie talkie. He thumbed the call switch and spoke nervously into the mouth piece. “Wong, are you there?” There was only static. “Wong, this is Howard. If you can hear me, find a place to hide now. You are in great danger.”

Wong’s walkie talkie was half buried in a gory mess of human remains and dried blood. It crackled with Howard’s distressed calls again and again and the sound of static echoed down the long dark passageway. Wong’s decapitated body was a few feet away from his walkie talkie. His flesh had turned grey and mounds of scaly reptilian skins were like cross-stitched garments, gingerly folded and stacked beside his icy torso.

CHAPTER 34

Mr. Park was dressed in blue Pajamas and was getting ready to go to bed when a loud thud sounded on the door. His sister- Madam Kim was fast asleep on the other bed with her ear plugs tucked in and a Hello-Kitty eye mask spreading across her face.

Another thud on the door and Mr. Park marched angrily towards it his twisted lips grunting an almost inaudible vulgarity. He unlocked the door bolt and yanked the door open. Pale fluorescent light from the hallway immediately flooded in and Mr. John Chan was standing outside, his pudgy body obstructing some of the light and casted a long shadow on the living quarter’s floor.

“What do you want?” Mr. Park barked.

“Did you guys hear that?” John Chan asked.

“Yes, sounds like fire crackers.” Mr. Park said, “Maybe they are using grenades again.”

“I don’t think it is fire crackers or grenades. Those are definitely gun shots.”

Mr. Park glared at John and said curtly, “I don’t care, I am going to sleep.”

Just as Mr. Park turned around and swung the door closed, John had a chance to take a quick peep into the room and he saw bundles of fruits stacked all over the place- on the writing desk, beside the bed where Madam Kim was snoring badly, across the small area between the beds and the wardrobe and even inside the washroom. In a fit of anger, John Chan shoved the closing door and barged into the room.

“What the hell are these?” John Chan bellowed, pointing at the heaps of fresh fruits hidden in Mr. Park’s room. It was not merely a small portion of fruits that Mr. Park had selfishly taken from the vegetable garden that infuriated John. The room that he was in now was no longer a living quarter but a small fruit store overstocked with inventory!

“Please get out, this is our food.” Mr. Park yelled, the veins in his neck thickened.

“You bastard, you have stolen everything from the garden! What are my children going to eat then?” John grabbed Mr. Park’s right arm and shouted back, “Come with me now, you selfish man. We shall go to see Howard.”

Mr. Park tried to shake off John’s grip but before he could successfully do that, John had used his other hand to push him out of the doorway.

“Fine!” Mr. Park hollered, breaking John’s grip. “Let’s go to Howard then. I will tell that self-proclaimed leader that this is not his camp. What I have taken is all mine!”

Mrs. Chan and Pete were awakened by the din and they were at the hallway watching the head of their family breathing fire at the rude Korean man. John noticed that and said in a completely different tone, “Go back to bed and lock the door. Mr. Park and I are going to see Howard. It won’t take too long.”

“Be careful. Just knock softly when you are back.” Mrs. Chan whispered gently to her husband and she prodded Pete to go in with her before closing the door.

John paused for a moment to make sure that his wife had bolted the door properly. Then he turned toward Mr. Park and said, “You are a very bad example to my kids.”

Mr. Park ignored John’s remark. He yanked his own door shut and walked down the hallway, heading toward the caved-in entrance where he assumed Howard would be. John Chan shook his head and followed him.

Madam Kim sat bolt upright when the door banged hard. She rubbed her eyes and stared blankly at the door, and then she gazed at the fruits around her. There was a satisfied grin on her face when she uttered something in Korean before falling back to sleep. Howard Smith fingered his colossal walkie talkie and spoke in a clear, precise manner. “Johnny, this is Howard. Can you hear me? Over.”

A burst of static sounded from his walkie and then silence. Howard glanced at Mami who was sitting on an armchair and was whimpering and tearing profusely. Dr. Sarah was trying to console her even though her own lost wasn’t any less painful than Mami. Paul and Nelson were still carrying their rifles and they were both looking intensely at him, as if they were school children waiting for their teacher to give them an instruction.

Howard talked into the walkie again. “Johnny, Stop the drilling now. Please come to the Command Centre room.”

At the far end of the subterranean military facility where the caved-in entrance was, Johnny was adjusting the levers and knobs on the burrowing machine that roared and rumbled as its sharp mining drill bit spiraled into the rocks. His walkie talkie was clipped on his leather belt but shifted to a position near his trousers’ back pocket. His walkie talkie crackled again but the drilling noise was so deafening that Johnny was unable to hear Howard’s call at all.

CHAPTER 35

Sarah thumbed through the pictures that were stored on her mobile phone, looking at the joyous moments she had spent with Kevin just a few days ago.
What have I done? Sacrificing your body to the creature so that I could escape? I was out of my mind! I should have died with you, sweetheart! I should have…
Sarah thought.

Sarah lifted her gaze from her newly acquired cross bow to Mami-san who was sitting opposite her, whimpering and shuddering. She stood up and went over. “Mami, please be strong. Kenso wanted you to live. So you must not let him down.” Sarah whispered, clapping her hand on Mami’s shoulder.

“Damn it.” Howard barked, making all heads turn in the stuffy World War Two Japanese command center office.

“Still no answers from Johnny?” Paul asked.

“Nope. No replies from Wong either.” Howard said, shaking his head.

“They must be all dead by now.” Nelson said with a smirking face.

“Cut that out, Nelson.” Sarah said with irritation. “We survived, didn’t we?”

Nelson stole a glance at Mami-san who was still sobbing and he decided to zip his loud mouth for a while.

Howard inhaled deeply and then he said to the rest. “I have to go to the elevator landing for Wong. The creature went to him and I can’t leave him to die.” He paused for a second, studying the down casted expressions of everybody and continued, “I will go to the living quarters as well to warn the rest. There’s Johnny too at the far end.” His lips curled up on one side and he said slowly, “It will be a few places for me unless you guys want to split the jobs?”

Paul was the first to react. “Are you outta your mind? You saw what that thing can do.”

“Of course I know it is insane to go out right now. But they need to know.” Howard said.

“Hey, we’re against a killer monster that doesn’t die. I don’t want to be eaten alive.” Paul said. He cocked his head and glared at Nelson who was sitting on a stool fiddling with his rifle. “Maybe Nelson doesn’t mind going out.”

“Hey brother, I wasn’t thinking just now, in fact I almost shitted my pants when I tailed that monster. I wasn’t thinking then. Trust me, I am not taking chances and I won’t be going out this door for now. Not with this killer thing lurking outside.” Nelson retorted, as he tried to eject the ammo magazine of his rifle with trembling fingers.