Silence of the Apoc_Tales From The Zombie Apocalypse

by Martin Wilsey

  “What?” he called back to who he believed to be Souta, just as the elevator chimed again.

  As the elevator door opened, Isamu’s men burst forth, surprising Nobu and Yoshio. As they did, the rumble of a group of low-flying helicopters from outside shook the hallway.

  III. Akatsukicho Outlaws

  Boss Tohno’s arrogance was only exceeded by his self-centeredness. High in the penthouse suite, surrounded by his most trusted men, he believed he was untouchable. No one would dare challenge his power and no one was reckless enough to try attack him at his headquarters.

  Gaku did not even fear reprisals from his former boss, even though he had recruited many of whom he believed were some of his former clan’s best men and whores, and the most prized possession that could potentially make him millions of yen. Kudo Clan was too weak now to challenge him, and the sooner that he could replicate the antiretroviral, the sooner he would be able to sell it on the black market. This would make his clan wealthy and give him the financial ability to recruit more men, and then wipe out his former clan and take over their territory.

  He never thought of himself as over-confident and therefore never considered that Isamu was capable or desperate enough to seek revenge. Isamu had lost face, as well as significant clan profits. However, it was Isamu’s protégé’s theft that was the driving force behind the daring raid.

  Inside the penthouse, the heavy rumble of a group of low flying helicopters from outside shook the suite, nearly drowning out the celebration that was in full swing. No one at the party seemed to notice the noise or vibration, with the exception of First Lieutenant Masaharu Fukuda. He moved immediately out to the balcony to investigate. On approach he saw a group of AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters escorting four Boeing CH-47 Chinooks.

  The sight of helicopters was nothing new; they were on constant patrol twenty-four hours a day, and frequently passed over the building heading to their base. However, he had never seen such a large contingent of aircraft heading to Air Defense Command at Yokota Air Base in such a hurry. It concerned him.

  Stepping partly through the doorway, he addressed his superior with his concern.

  “Shitsureishimasu. Excuse me, Brother Murakami... I think you should come and see this.”

  Assistant Chief Haruki Murakami was seated on a sofa with a half-naked girl on each side of him, enjoying the company of the very attentive females. He looked at Fukuda who was gesturing to him from the balcony doorway.

  Slightly annoyed, he responded, “What is it now, Fukuda? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

  “There are a lot of helicopters. They’re heading towards Fussa.”

  Murakami became more annoyed; everyone knew why the helicopters made their flight path through the neighborhood.

  “Don’t be so stupid. Helicopters always fly towards Fussa. That’s where Air Defense Command is.”

  Fukuda knew this, but there was something different tonight. With urgency in his voice he responded, “This is different. I’ve never seen so many.”

  Reluctantly, Murakami rose. “Don’t you two move,” he told the girls, “I’ll be right back.”

  In the night sky Fukuda pointed to the distant flashing of aviation lights. “Do you see?”

  Murakami responded, “All I see are specks of flashing lights.”

  “But I know what I saw. There was—”

  From behind and out of sight came another rumble of distant approaching helicopters. This time Gaku and his bodyguard Kenji Shimizu, a handsome man with the exception of a jagged scar on his face, stepped away from a conversation with Chief Yazawa, having heard the helicopters’ approach. They moved towards the balcony to investigate.

  “That’s the second group, Boss, in as many minutes,” Fukuda said. Tohno and Shimizu stepped out just as the choppers came into view.

  ***

  At the entry door Kimura, Kurosawa, Matsui and eight underlings were poised to enter, when they too heard the approach of another group of helicopters.

  “Wait,” Saito stated, as his first lieutenant reached for the doorknob. “Let the chopper noise cover our attack.”

  When the hallway shook, they burst in, catching everyone off guard.

  A melee of clashing swords, swinging baseball bats and slicing knives ensued. All six topless strippers screamed and dashed for the door as blood splattered and intestines unraveled and fell out of gaping abdominal wounds.

  Isamu and Matsumoto entered as the half-naked girls ran out, nearly colliding with them.

  In the hall Norito Yamamoto and Ryota Hamasaki were on guard, in case any Tohno Clan member entered the floor from the elevator. When the topless girls ran from the room, Yamamoto stepped away from the wall and watched as they ran to the elevator, unaware that there was one more exiting the penthouse. A large-breasted girl ran directly into him, knocking him off balance.

  “Looking for another party?” he asked her, as she dashed to join her companions. “Don’t be like that.” He watched as one girl frantically and repeatedly pushed the call button, and then he shouted to the group, “Come back later. Kudo Clan will show you a better time.”

  When the girls rushed into the car, Yamamoto turned to his partner and asked, “Did you see the breasts on that one?” He cupped his hands and motioned them back and forth at chest height. “They were huge.”

  “I’d eat her all night long,” Hamasaki crassly commented.

  “Eat her? What a waste of time.”

  Hamasaki snickered and then commented, “No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend.”

  ***

  Inside the elevator car the panic-stricken, large-breasted girl pushed the fourth floor button. An older small-breasted girl pushed her aside, and nastily remarked, “Stupid bitch. Your brains are in your tits,” and then depressed the lobby button.

  ***

  The fight between Kudo and Tohno Clans was over in less than two minutes. In the aftermath, two Kudo Clan underlings were dead, but eight Tohno Clan members, including Kitagawa, were also dead, and six Tohno juniors along with Yazawa and Sakurai had surrendered. The defeated knelt before Kimura.

  ***

  The elevator door opened to the fourth floor, revealing a man dressed in pajamas, standing before them. His head was down and he lightly swayed to and fro. He made no attempt to get on.

  “Stupid!” The small-breasted girl snapped at him. “Wake up! Elevator is here.”

  Mr. Tada looked up, revealing a sickly face, dead eyes, and blood running down his chin and neck. He lunged at the small-breasted woman, driving her from the doorway to the back of the car.

  ***

  Kurosawa and Matsui returned from searching the other rooms and shook their heads “no” at Saito.

  Saito knew there was only one place they could be and that was the balcony.

  “Boss Tohno,” Saito called out. “We know you are here. Come out now and surrender.”

  The assistant chief gestured to Kurosawa and Matsui to check the balcony. As he did, Murakami and Fukuda charged out with pistols firing, striking three Kudo clan members dead. Matsumoto immediately pulled Isamu out of harm’s way as Saito and Kimura returned fire. When the shooting was over, Fukuda was dead and Murakami had been shot through the shoulder.

  Matsui and Kurosawa dragged the Tohno assistant chief to the others and placed him next to Sakurai.

  “Fukuda is dead, Boss Tohno!” Saito loudly announced. He looked down at the bleeding Tohno senior. “Murakami. Well, he’s bleeding all over his nice suit. Maybe I should have him put out of his misery.”

  With that pronouncement, Kimura stepped to Murakami and placed a pistol to his head.

  ***

  Inside the hotel’s entry Haruto stood behind Yuuta who was shaking the main door.

  “Okay. All secure,” Yuuta confirmed, making sure for the second time within twenty minutes that the door was still locked.

  From behind them came a girl’s scream. They turned and saw a topless large-breasted girl in a mini s
kirt running toward them.

  Pushing between them, the girl hysterically shouted, “Zombies! Zombies!”

  Haruto and Yuuta looked at the girl, and then looked at each other.

  “Zombies? What do you mean, zombies?” Haruto asked her, incredulously.

  The girl was too terrorized to even hear the question. She shook the door screaming, “Let me out! Let me out!”

  “Not so fast,” Haruto told her, needing explanation to her odd pronouncement. “What do you mean, zombies?”

  The panicked girl fumbled at the door lock.

  “Let me out, I said!”

  Yuuta grabbed her, and told her, “No. Not until you tell us what you are talking about.”

  “A zombie. It got on at the fourth floor and ate everyone. Now let me out!”

  Yuuta shook her.

  “Bakajane! Zombies don’t wait for elevators.” He threw her against the door as Haruto unlocked and opened it. The girl didn’t hesitate; she bolted to the pathway and out of sight.

  Haruto scoffed as he locked the door. “Zombies on the elevator. All tits and no brains.”

  ***

  “Boss Tohno. Should I have your dog put down?” Saito called out to the balcony.

  Saito moved in front of Murakami and smiled knowingly.

  Though Gaku took the threat on his assistant chief’s life seriously, he also knew Saito would not pull the trigger himself nor would any other senior. A high-ranking clan member would never kill a leading clan rival; it just wasn’t done. They would, however, order a junior member to carry out the assassination.

  Gaku struggled between deciding on surrendering or making a Butch and Sundance style exit like Fukuda and Murakami had. But his indecisiveness was about to force his hand. From inside the suite a single shot rang out.

  “Those bastards,” Gaku stated, bitterness in his tone.

  Shimizu pulled out his two pistols.

  “I will avenge him for you.” he stated, ready to sacrifice himself for the clan’s honor.

  “You have no honor, Gaku. You sacrifice your men needlessly,” a voice called out from inside the suite.

  Gaku recognized the voice. It belonged to his former friend and boss. “Isamu. I didn’t think he had the balls,” he commented to Shimizu.

  “Give me permission to kill him,” Shimizu requested, cocking the hammers of his pistols.

  “No, Shimizu,” Gaku said. “I will not sacrifice anyone else. We must surrender.”

  With hands raised, Shimizu stepped into the room first; however, Tohno hesitated. Multiple flashes of light emanating from the Fussa area caught his attention. Rumbles immediately followed the flashes. Gaku Tohno knew something was seriously wrong at the air force base, but the matter of facing his old boss was at hand. He stepped off the balcony and into the suite. As Gaku looked to his kneeling clan members he saw that it was Sakurai who had been killed not Murakami. A momentary sense of relief came to his face, but then it turned to anger when he saw Saito with a cocky grin on his face as he stood above Sakurai’s lifeless body. Gaku took it as an insult, believing Saito was letting him know he took great pleasure in having ordered his employee’s execution, not realizing it had been Saito who had pulled the trigger as an act of reprisal for the betrayal he felt over Sakurai’s hollow words of integrity and loyalty having joined Tohno Clan. However, the perceived cocky grin was not over Sakurai at all; it was a smug smile of satisfaction at knowing that the former assistant chief was going to pay dearly for his treachery. Gaku gave Saito a look of disdain as Matsui and Kurosawa disarmed him and Shimizu, and forced both of them to kneel before Isamu. Gaku’s contempt turned quickly to one of his own men when he saw his accountant standing in the background.

  “Hizaki-san, you traitor!” Gaku shouted at the man.

  Isamu laughed at the outburst. “Traitor? That’s like the eye booger laughing at the nose snot. Hizaki has always been loyal to Kudo Clan. He is honorable.”

  Gaku snapped back, “You know nothing of honor.”

  ***

  Norito Yamamoto stood transfixed by the dead Nobu and Yoshio, who lay near the elevator unceremoniously, having been tossed aside like the dead, useless corpses that they were. However, Yamamoto was not staring at the dead bodies out of some erotic attraction; he was observing them with such intensity because he thought he had seen one move. As he watched keenly, he saw Nobu twitch for the second time and became alarmed.

  “Hey, I think one of them is still alive,” Yamamoto told his partner Ryota Hamasaki, as he moved a few paces down the hall.

  “Do you see him breathing?” Hamasaki asked.

  “No,” Yamamoto replied.

  Hamasaki warned, “Then get back over here before Boss Saito sees you have left your post.”

  Yamamoto ignored Hamasaki’s advice and moved to Nobu.

  “But I saw this one moving.”

  Don’t be stupid,” Hamasaki told him. “They’re dead.”

  ***

  “Just because you keep your business on the other side of the river, did you think I would not come for what is mine? You are an arrogant little punk. I gave you everything. You were blood to me, and this is how you repay my generosity? You’ve betrayed all your brothers and their families because of your disloyalty and greed.”

  Gaku repudiated Isamu’s admonishment.

  “You gave me nothing. I earned it. Who protected you when we were kids? Killed for you as we worked our way up the ranks? I did. And what did I get for my loyalty? To be your lap dog. I should have been boss.”

  “Always too impatient,” Isamu told him. “Always thinking with your fists and not your brains. I would have nominated you when I was ready to step down.”

  A few distant rumbles, like the sound of an approaching storm, came from the open balcony doorway.

  “Rain,” Isamu commented, hearing the faint thunder. “What a shame. But then again a good cleansing rain will help wash away the scum.”

  “I don’t think that is rain. I think its rockets.”

  Isamu ridiculed, “Rockets? Don’t be stupid.”

  Gaku replied, “I’m telling you, that’s the sound of rockets, not thunder. Go look for yourself.”

  “You first,” Isamu told his nemesis, gesturing to him with his pistol.

  ***

  The junior yakuza member was not convinced that the slain Tohno member was truly dead. He knelt down to check Nobu’s body.

  “I’m telling you,” Yamamoto stated with certainty, “this one moved.”

  Hamasaki responded, “Then just stick him in the head with your katana, and get back over here before you get us in trouble.”

  As Yamamoto drew his sword from its scabbard, Nobu’s eyes popped open, startling him.

  “Shit!” Yamamoto exclaimed. “He is alive.”

  Nobu grabbed onto Yamamoto’s leg and bit into him. Yamamoto cried out, and then leapt up and repeatedly stabbed Nobu in the torso in an attempt to get the Tohno junior to release his grip. But Nobu was unaffected by the multiple piercings and pulled Yamamoto down, biting into his face. The young yakuza let out a wail as he tried to shake Nobu loose.

  Down the hall Hamasaki stood paralyzed with a terrified look on his face as he watched his partner being eaten, and then saw Yoshio rise and join in at tearing chunks of Yamamoto’s flesh from his body and devouring it.

  Norito Yamamoto flailed and screamed as the meat was ripped from his torso. Hamasaki wanted to help, but all he could do was clasp his hand to his mouth in an attempt to prevent himself from vomiting. Yoshio turned from his chewing and glared at Hamasaki.

  ***

  Looking toward the east, all they could see were distant flashes of white emanating from the clouds, followed by low rumbles.

  “The sound of Hellfire air-to-surface missiles in Fussa,” Gaku said.

  “Don’t be stupid. Why would they bomb their own base?”

  This could not be the sound and sights of missiles; even at such a long distance they would have made a more powe
rful noise, Isamu thought. Besides, if the infection had extended from the islands of the North, then certainly it would have not reached Tokyo Prefecture without word of its spread onto the mainland. And why would the government bomb their own base? No, Gaku was wrong, of this Isamu was certain.

  ***

  Ryota Hamasaki had been horrified at the sight of the cannibalism. But what panicked him more than seeing his associate being eaten alive was that he was about to fall to the same fate if he didn’t immediately take action. He stepped through the penthouse entry and announced, “Zombies! Zombies! Zombies eating Brother Yamamoto!”

  The Kudo Clan members in the room looked at their comrade in disbelief.

  Kimura turned and demanded, “What’s all the shouting about?”

  Hearing the commotion, Isamu, Matsumoto and Tohno stepped off the balcony and back into the room.

  Without apologizing, Hamasaki began, “Zombies are eatin—”

  Yoshio seized and pulled him back into the hall before he could finish, and then bit into his face. Hamasaki let out an ear-piercing cry of pain-filled terror.

  At the entryway came the other undead Tohno hall guard, Nobu. A large gash ran from one shoulder to the opposite hip. From the gaping wound large intestines dangled, nearly touching the floor. His dead eyes momentarily surveyed the room. Nobu charged in, seizing a Kudo Clan underling.

  Those struck down in the first melee began to rise, going for the closest victims they could find.

  ***

  As the chaos in the penthouse suite was happening, Haruto and Yuuta returned to the reception area, Yuuta walking towards the elevator.

  “Yuuta. Don’t be stupid,” Haruto told him. “There are no zombies.”

  But Yuuta didn’t listen. Not that he believed zombies were in Hachioji, but something had frightened the girl enough to make her hysterical and want out of the hotel. Even if it was only what she may have suffered from witnessing their raid on the penthouse suit, he would be remiss in his duty if he did not at least look in the elevator car.