The Mystery of Yamashita's Map

by James McKenzie

  Standing in the middle of the room, next to the bell, was a hideous, lizard-like creature, somehow both unearthly and yet neither male nor female. It was the size of a man, but moved quickly, in short, reptilian bursts of action. Its skin was a pale green, its features pointed, and it had a long, thick tail protruding from its lower back, the end of it trailing along the floor. Just about visible were the tops of two scaly wings, now folded into its shoulders. Its eyes darted from side to side, taking in the other people in the room, of which there were quite a few.

  The three doctors from before were there, as well as two more lab attendants – these ones still had their uniforms and ID badges intact. Joe wondered if the other two were meant to be at this little meeting, wondered if their presence would be missed. The two suited men were also there, their glasses still on, staring intently at their guest.

  Joe focused back on the hideous lizard.

  He hadn’t noticed before, but the lizard creature was holding something – two things, actually. Joe leaned forwards a little more to get a better look, and he could feel Kono do the same thing behind him. The lizard being was holding out two human babies, which two of the doctors took, carefully, as if they might break.

  They were so tiny, they looked as if they could be new-borns.

  Joe stood, transfixed, wondering what was going to come next. He heard one of the doctors muttering something about prepping another two for surgery.

  What came next was something that made his eyes widen and his jaw hang open, as if he was some stupid cartoon character.

  The lizard creature stood back from the others, creating some space in the small room. It then stood up straight and closed its eyes, as if trying to concentrate or meditate. The others in the room stood in silence, watching.

  Joe held his breath; he could feel the tension and anticipation emanating out of the room, and he felt a small tingle run up his spine as he waited to see what the lizard would do.

  Whatever he’d been expecting, it wasn’t that.

  The lizard creature opened its mouth, wide – wider than Joe ever would have thought possible – and a strange cracking sound floated over from the middle of the room. It was followed by a weird crunching noise, and Joe watched in horror as the lizard person started to morph into a human, its legs and arms and wings flailing about as it somehow balanced on its thick tail.

  The lizard’s mouth opened even more, and Joe felt sick to his stomach as a tuft of white hair started coming out of the hole. Due to the mouth opening wider and wider, the head of the lizard was now torn apart so much that its face was bent backwards, falling apart as the new head – the head with the white hair – got bigger and bigger.

  Kono groaned behind him and Joe instinctively kicked out at his leg to shut him up. He didn’t turn to face him, but he could imagine the look of complete horror that would be plastered across Kono’s features. He could feel it plastered over his own.

  This was all just too much.

  The situation, however, was about to get much, much worse.

  The human head that had seemingly appeared from within the lizard creature was soon followed by a human body, ripping apart the pale green flesh of the reptile as the full size of the man came into being.

  A pungent smell hit Joe’s nostrils then, making him reel back and gag. It was the fetid smell of an animal that had just died – which wasn’t really that far from the truth, he supposed – and it filled the room before filtering out into the corridor.

  The men in the room didn’t flinch. They must have been used to it.

  The man who had just burst out of the lizard’s skin was wearing an old white tee shirt with beige coloured knee length shorts, in stark contrast to the sharply dressed men in front of him. He was much older than them, however, and as he flicked a speck of lizard skin off his shoulder and looked up, Joe realised who it was.

  This time it was his turn to make a surprised moaning kind of sound, and it was Kono’s turn to kick him in the back of the leg.

  The man standing in the middle of the room – the man who had just morphed from a lizard creature into a human being – was Winthrope.

  Joe was sweating now; he could feel it trickling down his back like it had done in the jungle – in the jungle where he’d met this man in front of him. He’d always felt there was something off about him, and it looked like he was right. Something was off. Something was way off.

  Without warning, the doctors nodded at Winthrope and filed out of the room, followed by the lab attendants.

  Joe instinctively stepped back and looked down, as if searching for his watch to find the time. Kono followed suit, looking down to try and hide his face.

  The main doctor gave them a cursory glance, said, ‘You missed the meeting,’ and then carried on down the corridor with the others in tow.

  The two suited men hadn’t left, and after a few seconds, Joe tentatively moved forward and looked again through the open door.

  Winthrope was now addressing the men in black, as if what just happened was the most natural thing in the world. ‘How are the experiments going?’

  Suited man number 1 stepped forward. ‘They are going well. Doctor Pope is narrowing down the successful candidates. Soon we’ll know the exact qualities needed for the alien hybrid to live in this environment.’

  Joe froze, unable to move, unable to breathe.

  Winthrope smiled, a gleeful grin that made his entire face contort with madness. ‘Excellent news! It’s what I needed to hear today, it really was. I’m getting tired of living with humans, if only we didn’t need them.’

  The man in black tilted his head downwards and looked over the top of his dark glasses as if to make his point more clear. ‘We are also tired of living underground, never being able to see the sun, the sky. That is why you must continue to supply us with their new-borns to experiment on. If these stupid natives believe that a creature called the Manananggal is stealing their children, then so be it. As long as they never suspect that you are the Manananggal our secret is safe.’

  Winthrope’s facial expression became more serious. ‘The mother of those two new-borns saw me change back into this disgusting human form so I had to kill everyone to stop the story from spreading.’

  ‘Then you’ll have to start all over again.’ the man in black said authoritatively. Joe was no genius, but he was beginning to understand why Winthrope was so eager to populate his village. He began to think they were all aliens, maybe they had some sort of class system and the men in black were superior.

  Winthrope’s face brightened up again. ‘That will be no problem.’ He stared into the distance, his smile slipping slightly. ‘Our home planet doesn’t have much time left. The sun in our system will soon become a red giant, and all life will be gone in an instant – burnt to a crisp. These alien hybrids are our last hope. One day, we will be able to live in this world; we’ll be able to make this planet our own.’ His smile was back now, and Joe got the impression that the phrase ‘make this planet our own’ was more sinister than it sounded.

  That wasn’t the only thing currently cramming its way into Joe’s brain, however. The suited man had referred to Winthrope as Manananggal, and although a lot had happened since Joe’s time in the Philippines, he remembered that name well.

  It was the name Winthrope had given to the monster that terrorised his village, swooping in at night and attacking pregnant women. Joe had seen the after effects for himself, and the story of Manananggal hadn’t sat well on his shoulders. Now he knew why – but it wasn’t for the reason he imagined. He would never have imagined that Winthrope was actually some hideous lizard-like alien, sucking the unborn babies from their mother’s womb himself. Joe shuddered.

  ‘We’ll be in contact soon.’ The sound of suited man number 2 brought Joe back to the present, and again he looked down at his watch as the two men exited the room. They walked past him and Kono without a word, carrying the remains of Winthrope’s lizard skin in their arm. The pungent smell
followed them down the corridor.

  Joe sighed in relief before turning back to the door and looking in at the room. Winthrope was getting into the bell and turning to face a panel, one that Joe hadn’t noticed before. It must be how the bell was activated.

  Without really thinking, Joe grabbed Kono’s arm and dragged him into the room. He barely registered the look of shock on Winthrope’s face as he hurtled towards the bell, throwing himself into the structure with Kono hot on his heels.

  ‘You!’ Winthrope gaped at them as the bell started moving, the low hum getting louder and louder as Joe’s headache came back with a vengeance.

  He closed his eyes, trying to steady himself while the bell rotated around them. The feeling of nausea was strong, and the last thing he wanted to do was puke on an alien. Unless that would somehow help.

  A sharp pain suddenly pierced his skull, and opening his eyes, Joe saw that Winthrope was right in front of him, having just hit him over the head.

  Joe got into his fight stance – legs slightly apart, arms held to his chest – but before he could retaliate, Kono swung a punch at Winthrope, missing his head but getting him pretty good in his right ear.

  Joe thought of the two lab attendants they’d overpowered – how easy it had been. Winthrope was not a young man, and Kono was tough. Really tough. His nausea started to subside.

  It came back just a second later, however, when Winthrope turned to face Kono and hit him square on the head, knocking him to the floor.

  Kono moaned in pain, and Joe took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Winthrope wasn’t a young man, no – he wasn’t a man at all. He was an alien, and he apparently had superhuman strength.

  This wasn’t good.

  Joe tried to focus as the bell rushed around them. He could no longer see the structure, just whirling shades of red and black, offering the idea of movement but giving no secrets away as to how it was moving or where.

  Trying to think back to all the fights he had ever been in, Joe looked back at Winthrope, who was smiling at him smugly.

  Without another thought, he lifted his hand as if he was going to punch the old lizard man, and when Winthrope lifted his own arms in self-defence, Joe kicked his leg out with as much force as he could muster, knocking Winthrope’s legs out from under him. He watched in triumph as the alien fell on the ground, ass first.

  Joe laughed – slightly hysterically, it has to be said – and jumped on top of Winthrope while Kono slowly got to his feet.

  Winthrope struggled under Joe’s weight as Joe pummelled him with every punch in the book trying to render the grey haired man unconscious. For good measure Kono finished him off with a size ten boot to the face causing Winthrope’s head to jolt sideways and his body to flop limply at their feet.

  Amazed that he’d won, Joe turned to look at Kono, he did not see Winthrope’s twitching body, the mouth start to open wide, the claws beginning to protrude from the fingers. Joe spotted the look of pure fear on the gangster’s face just a few seconds too late.

  He suddenly felt a sharp pain all along his arm, and looking down, he was horrified to see that not only was his white coat in tatters, but there was already blood seeping through the fabric from what felt like huge scratches in his skin.

  Although focused on his arm, he suddenly realised that the body beneath him had changed, shifted, and looking down at Winthrope, he saw the alien lizard, his sharp claws dripping with his own blood.

  He thought back to the disgusting shedding of the skin he’d seen earlier. Perhaps that was just for show – something to do to intimidate the humans. Then again, wasn’t this normal practice for reptiles?

  His thoughts were interrupted by the alien, who let out an unearthly wail and lunged forward to scratch at Joe’s face.

  Joe managed to lean back just in time, but this meant he lost his balance and toppled onto the floor, freeing the lizard creature.

  The alien that was Winthrope sprang up, snarling, glancing from Joe to Kono. Joe wasn’t sure, but it seemed like it was smiling.

  With the world – if it even was their world anymore – rushing around outside the bell, the three started to fight.

  Even with it being two against one – and even with Kono’s considerable bulk – the alien had the upper hand, or the upper claws, Joe thought. Those things could scratch your eyes right out, and they were no match for two humans with no weapons and no knowledge of this thing that was currently standing in front of them.

  After a couple of minutes of dodging and throwing punches, the fight escalated into a full-on brawl, with the three of them scrambling in a group, trying to get whatever punch or kick in that they could. At one point, Joe grabbed hold of the lizard’s tail and bit into it, stopping just seconds later when that awful animal smell came seeping out of it.

  Amidst the chaotic fight scenes and the swirling flashing lights of the bell spiralling through time and space, for a split second, Joe saw himself in the tunnel in the Philippines, trying to get his flashlight working. He remembered that moment. He remembered seeing the dark shadows that seemed to dance on the tunnel walls. Was he about to meet himself? He felt he was in the tunnel but how could he be two places at the one time? Was this another vision? Moments later, the walls of the tunnel started to spin and he realised that he was, in fact, still in the bell with Kono and the thing that used to be Winthrope.

  The whole thing knocked him off balance, but after finding himself in the tunnel, Joe was now more aware of the strange movements of the bell, and of the things and places that were rushing around them. Were they moving through time or space? Different dimensions? None of those things would surprise him anymore.

  The sound of Kono wailing dragged Joe out of his thoughts, and he looked over to see that he had huge, deep scratches all over his face. The front of his white coat had been almost completely scratched away, and a small pool of blood was appearing on the floor of the bell. He was on his knees, trying to balance.

  Rage surged through Joe then, and he turned on the alien, putting all of his anger and confusion and fear into his attack. Jumping on the lizard creature, he knocked him to the ground. The lizard landed with a thump with his left claw crashing against a panel causing flashes of electricity or whatever it was that powered this machine. It immediately gave out a blood curdling wail as it felt the pain shoot through its arm. Seeing an opportunity, Joe quickly clambered on top of it, his fear was gone, and he was purely running on adrenalin. With Joe on top, he had the momentum he needed, and he quickly grabbed the injured hand of the creature and dug its own claws into its chest, where he assumed its heart was.

  The alien started to struggle then, but Joe had the control, and the razor sharp edges of the claws – so life-threatening to him and Kono – were now being used on their owner, piercing its heart and making it scream out in agony. Joe thought he could see some humanity in the alien’s eyes, maybe there was still a way to discuss this situation, nobody needed to die. After all, they were all civilized. As Joe held the razor sharp claws deep into the alien’s chest he wished time would move a bit quicker.

  Die, damn you! Die, how ironic, here he was in a situation where he doesn’t know how long he can hang on, wishing he had control of time. A sharp pain penetrated Joe’s side and he realized that the alien had plunged the claws of his other hand into him. ‘How stupid could he be?’ he thought, ‘of course the alien has two hands.’

  The alien and Joe both lay beside each other, wondering which one of them would die first. For Joe, the pain was unbearable, he looked into the alien’s eyes again and thought he saw sadness, maybe even respect.

  Joe felt the pain from his side receding, he believed this was the first sign of him about to pass out. He felt sorry that he had failed. Failed Lisa, failed the world.

  Suddenly he heard a guttural voice telling him to hang on. It was Kono, speaking through the blood flowing from his throat. He had pulled the alien’s claws out of Joe’s side and was hanging on to the alien’s arm with
all of his remaining strength, not allowing the alien to plunge the razors back into Joe’s blood soaked side.

  A feeling of nausea crept over Kono as he tried with all his might to hold, that which was Winthrope’s, claws from stabbing Joe. The bloody sharp bones were just inches from Joe’s side, one slip and it would be all over. He could see Joe lying beside the alien pressing the aliens other claws into its chest, pushing as hard as he could, as if his life depended on it, and it did. Who could hold on the longest?

  Kono felt his arm muscles ache, just like they did when he played arm wrestling with his friends in Japan. He remembered the farm he was brought up on, where he always got the hardest jobs to do because he was the biggest and strongest. His mind drifted and he thought of the beautiful sunsets that lit up the farm and bathed the fields in a reddish glow, always stopping what he was doing and taking a moment to absorb nature’s chakras. He wasn’t an educated man, but he had the sensitivity to appreciate the wonders of the natural world. His eyes flickered as he watched the sun going down for one final time, a feeling of peace and tranquillity overwhelmed him; his grip in the real world remained steadfast, but the call for his soul to return to the farm was too strong.