“We need to make sure,” he said to Haruto.
The door opened to an elevator full of blood and dead topless strippers. Squatting on the floor was Mr. Tada.
Yuuta was shocked. He pointed at the man and yelled, “Zombie!”—not realizing that his loud voice would draw its attention.
Mr. Tada turned around. Blood ran from his mouth as he chewed. He looked at Yuuta and rose.
“A zombie! Do something!” Yuuta told Haruto.
***
Isamu surveyed the carnage, and then stepped to one of the dead zombies and kicked it in the head.
“Useless government. They can’t even keep us safe. We suffer because of the quarantine and the virus still comes,” he said angrily, kicking the zombie again. “I hate zombies.”
A loud rumble of helicopters from outside passed overhead, heading west.
A noise came from the doorway. It was Yoshio. Isamu turned with his pistol in hand as zombie Yoshio lunged towards him. He pulled the trigger. The shot impacted Yoshio’s face and exploded his skull, sending brain matter scattering.
Zombie Yoshio fell at the clan leader’s feet. Isamu looked down at the young man, shaking his head with displeasure, and then turned his attention to Tohno.
Pointing at his former assistant, Isamu said, “This is your fault.”
“My fault?” Gaku asked.
“Yes,” Isamu told him, and then cocked the trigger on his pistol and pointed it at the man’s face. “If you hadn’t betrayed me, then my men would still be alive.”
“They’re dead because of ARS,” Gaku corrected him.
“No. It is because of your betrayal. We could all be at Nin Jin House drinking. But because of your theft, Clan Kudo had to come here.” Isamu turned to his assistant chief, ordering, “Put bullets in the heads of all the dead. I don’t want any more zombies.”
As Saito, assisted by Kimura, began to shoot, Tohno Clan Senior Advisor Kakusabaru Kitagawa rose behind Isamu.
“Boss!” Hizaki warned, and then jumped at zombie Kitagawa, knocking it to the ground. Kitagawa bit into Hizaki’s hand as he attempted to keep it at bay.
In a single motion Enforcer Matsumoto swung his wakizashi across the back of zombie Kitagawa’s neck, lopping off its head; the torso collapsed onto Hizaki.
Isamu looked down at the decapitated head, its eyes rolling up at him, gnashing its teeth.
“Stupid Tohno zombie. Not so tough now,” Isamu told the head, and then kicked it across the room.
The clan leader saw the bleeding hand of his accountant. He gestured to Akira Kimura, and then reached down to the man to help him stand, and as he did he said, “I promise to take care of your family.” Akira shot Yasuo Hizaki in the head. The bookkeeper collapsed with a blank look on his face.
“You see what I had to do? — Kill my men,” Isamu announced, directing his hostilities at the Tohno leader. “I want the serum, now!” he demanded.
Isamu aimed his pistol at Gaku, and as he did, a thunderous timpani of helicopters swept low over the building, followed by a series of nearby explosions. A loud, shrill squeal, like that of an oversized firework’s rocket whistling on ascension, passed over the building and was followed by a loud explosion in the parking area. Another rocket whistle followed near street level and struck the lower part of the building. A third came seconds apart from the last whistle and struck the upper part of the building.
The intense, violent blast shook the structure and knocked everyone in the suite to the floor. Gaku, his bodyguard Shimizu, Chief Yazawa, and one underling took advantage of the event and bolted for the door. As Murakami got his footing, he grabbed someone’s dropped pistol and ran, too.
Kudo Clan First Lieutenant Kimura saw his nemesis scramble by, and as Murakami passed, Kimura snatched up his dislodged pistol and fired from the floor; the bullet struck the casement as the Tohno lieutenant made it through the archway.
“Get them,” Saito yelled at his men, as he began to rise.
As Matsumoto ushered his boss out the door, Saito, Kurosawa and Matsui followed. Kimura sat up, holstered his pistol, and then picked up his sword. As he began to rise, the shrill whistle of a rocket bore down on the suite. The room exploded. The shockwave from the blast launched Kimura through the doorway and into the hall, slamming him against the far wall. He landed near dead Hamasaki.
Saito had not seen his first lieutenant blown into the hallway, but had turned in time to see him flop to the floor. He rushed to his aid. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Kimura assured him, trying to catch his breath. “Don’t let Tohno get away because of me.”
Saito moved several feet down the hall but turned back.
He waved him off. “Boss, please. Go. I’ll follow.”
Kimura staggered to his feet, and then stepped to the penthouse doorway and looked in. The bright light of a hovering Apache helicopter swept across the destroyed room revealing that his two underlings and the remainder of Tohno Clan were dead.
***
Some of the ceiling in the lobby had collapsed, but it hadn’t dissuaded Mr. Tada from pursuing the two Kudo underlings. A dirtied and dazed Yuuta and Haruto staggered towards the entry door.
“Hurry up. The zombie is coming,” Yuuta warned, as Haruto fumbled to get the lock open.
Haruto jiggled the door, hoping it would free the mechanism. “I think it’s jammed,” he told Yuuta with slight panic in his voice.
As Mr. Tada stepped within a dozen feet, Yuuta threw his baseball bat at him. It struck Tada’s chest but the pajama-clad zombie did not falter.
IV. Battles Without Honor and Humanity
Gaku and his men had run to the closest set of emergency stairs. They had made it down two flights of steps when they discovered the rest of the route, at least several floors below them, no longer existed. The four men ran back up one level and exited onto the eighth floor as Isamu and his remaining men entered the stairwell exit on the floor above. Hearing the door close one level below them, Saito signaled to Kurosawa and Matsui to hurry.
“Eighth floor,” he told them. “Hurry.”
The four Tohno Clan members had run for the stairwell on the opposite side of the hallway in hopes of evading the pursuing Kudo Clan. When Isamu and his men entered onto the floor, Tohno Clan was not in sight. The distinct sound of gunshots echoed from around the junction of the distant hallway.
From around the corner Gaku and his men ran towards them with urgency. Waving his arms feverishly in the air, he shouted, “Zombies! Zombies!”
Isamu stepped out in front of his clan members, pointed his pistol at Gaku, and pulled the trigger.
***
Outside the building, Yuuta and Haruto pushed hard against the door to keep Mr. Tada at bay, who scraped and banged at the door trying to get out.
An Apache Longbow helicopter hovered nearby, sweeping its large light along the street area across from the parking lot. A 30 mm chain gun rattled, alarming Haruto.
“Yuuta, do something before the helicopter sees us.”
“It’s your turn,” Yuuta told him, not interested at making another attempt at dispatching Mr. Tada.
“To do what?” Haruto questioned.
“I don’t know. But we can’t stay out here. We’ll get blown up.”
“Better blown up then being eaten,” Haruto said.
The helicopter’s light swept across the front of the eave, and then moved away.
“Don’t be a pussy,” Yuuta told him. “Stab it with your katana.”
“I don’t want to open the door. I don’t want to be eaten.”
Yuuta smacked him. “Just do it,” he insisted.
“We should take our chances out here.”
Yuuta turned around and pushed his back against the door. A shocked and frightened look came to his face, as he gazed out to the pathway. He aggressively tapped Yuuta on his biceps.
“Brother. Stop hitting me,” Haruto told him. “I’m not going to open the door.”
“Brother. Zombie. Zombie!” Yuuta said frantically.
Haruto turned and saw zombified Naoki with a gaping chest wound moving down the walk toward them.
“I don’t want to die,” Haruto said. “Now what?”
Yuuta pointed at the zombie and told him, “Kill it. Kill it!”
Haruto acquiesced and fearfully moved forward, but then faltered in his advance, stepping backwards.
Yuuta urged, “Brother, hurry. The old geezer is strong. I can’t hold the door much longer.”
Haruto drew a deep breath and then expelled it in the form of a war cry. As he did he charged with the blade up and outward, ramming it into Naoki’s mouth and out the back of his neck. But Naoki kept advancing, attempting to grab onto Haruto as he held the katana. The blade inched further out the back of Naoki’s neck as he drew closer.
Haruto pleaded, “Brother, help me.”
Yuuta let go of the door and ran to Haruto’s aid, allowing Mr. Tada to push the door open. He grabbed zombie Naoki by the back of his suit jacket, pulling him, but the jacket tore free. Yuuta saw the pajama-man zombie almost upon Haruto.
“The old geezer is coming,” Yuuta warned. “Run brother, run!”
Haruto turned to see Mr. Tada reaching out. He spun out of the man’s reach just in time, but left the sword still lodged in Naoki’s mouth. Yuuta took Naoki’s jacket and tentatively tossed it at the old man. It haphazardly landed atop Tada’s head. The two Kudo brothers bolted for the door.
Yuuta locked the door behind them as zombie Naoki and Tada stepped under the eave.
Relieved, Haruto commented, “I think we are going to need more weapons.”
***
For a moment Isamu thought about shooting Gaku in the legs and letting the pursuing undead rip the flesh from his worthless body, but he thought better of it. If there were to be any chance of saving his daughter and those he swore to protect, he needed to know where Gaku hid the antiretroviral. It was a matter of honor and obligation.
The warning shot struck a nearby wall, halting Tohno and his men.
“If you let me die, you’ll never get the serum,” Gaku warned.
Isamu cocked the hammer back again. He wanted Gaku to know that the drug was not the only reason he had come to Nakayasu. As the zombies came around the corner, Haruki Murakami shot at the advancing pack, but after one pull of the trigger; the weapon was empty. Murakami threw the pistol at the oncoming undead, as he joined the rest of his clansman.
Isamu smiled wryly and then lowered the weapon.
***
Yuuta and Haruto were behind the guest services counter, picking up the swords of Souta and Nitta, when Yuuta made a perplexing discovery.
“Haruto. What happened to the other one?”
“What?” Haruto questioned, not having noticed the missing corpse. He looked down at the bodies. Souta was missing. His face lighted with alarm. “Shit.”
Yuuta and Haruto looked around the small lobby, but the Tohno Clan member was not in sight.
“Maybe he left,” Yuuta said.
“Don’t be stupid,” Haruto told him. “He couldn’t have passed us unnoticed. He pointed toward the restaurant. “Only one way.”
***
Scrambling for the exit door, Gaku Tohno, his headquarters chief Eiichi Yazawa, bodyguard Kenji Shimizu and underling Yoshiki Inoue made it to the stairs and headed back to the penthouse level under guard. Haruki Murakami was not as lucky. Haggard and clutching his bullet wound, he was slow and having difficulty standing. As he drew near the exit Murakami stumbled.
In the doorway Kimura watched as the man regained his footing, but he did nothing to assist the faltering Tohno member as the zombies were nearly upon him.
Murakami was feet away from the egress when a zombie grabbed onto his suit jacket, nearly dragging him down. “Help me,” he pleaded, seeing Kimura watching.
Akira Kimura gave him a self-satisfied grin, stepped back, and then shut the door.
With a fear-stricken look, Murakami appeared at the small window of the door Kimura was securely holding. He pounded wildly on the exit, as several zombies grabbed onto him.
“Kimura!” he shouted, hoping his Kudo rival would show mercy. But there was to be none.
“Traitor!” Akira said to him from behind the window, grinning as he watched his former associate be pulled away and devoured.
“Bastard!” was the last word Murakami said before his twisted right hand fell out of view.
Akira had gotten the revenge he had wanted, and it was much sweeter knowing Murakami would suffer far more being eaten alive than having been executed by katana.
***
The automatic doors of the restaurant parted, and Yuuta and Haruto cautiously stepped backwards through the archway with zombie Souta following. Haruto looked over his shoulder as they moved in reverse towards guest services. From behind the counter he saw zombified Ikeda and Nitta rise.
“We’re trapped.”
Yuuta responded, “Time to join our brothers.”
Zombies Nitta, Souta and Ikeda, with her entrails dragging on the floor, followed Yuuta and Haruto to the only escape route that remained—the elevator. Retreating, Haruto stuck Ikeda in the throat with his sword as Yuuta fumbled for the call button behind him.
***
Tohno Clan stood guarded by Kudo Clan at the elevator door waiting for the car that Assistant Chief Saito had called. Saito looked up to the overhead floor indicator light, but it remained at lobby level.
“Where’s Murakami?” Gaku asked.
“Dining with friends,” Kimura told him.
“You bastard!” he exclaimed, outraged.
As he moved in anger toward the man he knew had killed his first lieutenant, Matsumoto punched him in the side, knocking the breath out of him.
“In a hurry to join him at the All-You-Can-Eat buffet?” Isamu asked his former friend.
Saito impatiently pushed the elevator call button several more times. The light still indicated the lobby.
“What are those two clowns doing downstairs, holding the elevator?” Isamu asked. Then he pushed the call button as his assistant chief got out his cell phone.
***
When the elevator door opened, Yuuta retreated backward, keeping his focus on Haruto and the three zombies, and then pushed the penthouse floor button, never noticing what was behind him.
“Hurry!” Yuuta urged his companion.
Haruto turned just in time to see several zombified bare-chested girls inside the elevator car grab Yuuta from behind.
“Yuuta!” Haruto shouted in a warning that came too late. As the zombies dragged him down, Yuuta’s cell phone began to ring.
***
“Shitsureishimasu, Boss. But there is no answer.” Saito spoke, and then looked up at the indicator light, which still remained at lobby level.
“Useless idiots,” his boss said, and then asked Tohno, “Where’s the service elevator?”
“Down the hall,” Tohno informed him, and then continued, “but the stairs on the other side will be the fast way down.”
“Don’t be stupid. I’m not walking down all those stairs with zombies everywhere.” He waved the pistol at him, and then ordered, “Move!”
Approaching the service elevator, Saito arrived first and pushed the call button. When the door opened, a zombified Jiro Sato stepped out and seized him, biting off his nose.
Matsumoto grabbed Sato and drove his wakizashi through the side of his head, and then twisted the blade. Saito’s nose plopped out of the restaurant employee’s mouth.
Isamu shook his head in disbelief. “You fear motorcycles but not zombies. I don’t understand you, Matsumoto.”
Saito held a handkerchief to his bleeding face while repeatedly stomping on Jiro Sato’s head, abrasively reprimanding the dead youth.
“Son-of-a-bitch! You got my new suit bloody.”
Kudo and Tohno Clans watched the bleeding Saito as he stompe
d until Sato’s head caved in and brain matter oozed out, not once having cried out in pain from the attack.
Saito noticed them staring.
“What?” he asked, wondering what the big deal was with making sure the zombie was truly dead.
“You’re bit,” Kimura said.
Saito was well aware of his dismembered appendage and reached down and picked up his nose and pistol.
“I know,” he acknowledged, as he held his detached nose. “Do you think I can sew it back on?”
Akira raised his pistol and took aim at his friend and superior.
“Boss. I am sorry,” he apologized for what he was about to do. “But we can’t take a chance of you becoming a zombie.”
Saito looked down to the pistol in his own hand and then back up to Kimura. First Lieutenant Kimura cocked the pistol hammer.
Saito looked to him, and asked his clan brother for a favor.
“Kimura. Sew my nose back on for my burial.”
The assistant chief dropped his nose and then quickly raised his pistol and shot himself in the temple. Brain matter and blood splattered onto the wall.
“I don’t want a zombie getting me. Give me a gun,” Gaku demanded, looking at his former boss.
“Do you think I am stupid?” Isamu inquired.
“And if I die? Then how will you get your revenge?”
“Revenge is not the only reason I am here,” he reminded him.
“Then once you have the vials, how are you going to escape? By motorcycle? I have a car in the lot.”
“Maybe I brought my car.”
Boss Tohno knew this to be untrue. “Not likely. You’re wearing that stupid Brando jacket. You look like a cheap punk.”
“Cheap punk? You. You look like a third-class salary man in that suit,” he returned, which was one of the lowest slurs one could give someone of Gaku’s standing.
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