Nen

by Sean Ding

  “Are you okay?” Sarah asked, lifting the last few pieces of bones away from Kenso.

  “I’m fine. Scare the hell out of me, though.” Kenso said as he sat up slowly, staring intently at his girlfriend. “Mami, don’t cry. I’m fine, really.”

  Mami lunged herself forward and wrapped her arms around Kenso. Beads of tears spurted out from her eyes and rolled down her rosy cheeks as she stammered, “Honey, for a moment… I..I..thought you were…”

  Kenso burst into laughter and said, “I’m okay dear, look, it’s just animal bones…” Kenso stood up and froze for a moment as he finally had a better view of the animal skeleton that almost crushed him.

  “Kind of a strange animal this is.” Kevin interrupted, unconsciously speaking in a Yoda-like tone.

  “My goodness…what in the world was this… thing?” Kenso raise his voice and at the same time brushing dirt off his shirt.

  “Looks like a cow with a lion’s head.” Sarah commented, “But there’s a horn between its eyes. I have never seen such an animal before.” She moved closer to study the pile of bones on the ground.

  “It’s huge.” Mami added, “Could it be as big as a rhinoceros?”

  “It could be, Mami. Judging from the rib cage alone, we can assume that this creature was about the size of a full grown buffalo, it might be bigger than that, like a rhino.” Sarah said.

  “Hey guys, look here. What do you think this is?” Kevin asked, his widened eyes were glued to a slush of unknown substance on the cement floor right behind the storage cabinet door. Like a child who was playing in the schoolyard, he quickly grabbed a spatula from a shelf beside the kitchen stove and started poking at the mound of sticky substance without any second thoughts.

  Kenso and Sarah moved forward and crouched down to take a closer look at the slimy substance which appeared leathery and semi-translucent under the pale fluorescent lights.

  “Umph, could this be snake skins?” Kenso asked.

  “It does look like snake skin except for the fur over here.” Sarah said in a whisper, taking the spatula from Kevin’s hand and using it to prop up the skin-like thing. She held it against the fluorescent lamps and stared at it for a moment, then she touched the slimy substance with her index finger.

  “Hey, are you serious? What are you doing?” Kevin asked his fiancée, his face amusingly bewildered.

  “Yeah, it’s disgusting.” Mami muttered as she watched a blob of slimy liquid flowed down Sarah’s index finger.

  “Huh, it’s warm, which means that this skin or fur or whatever you call it, is not something from the past. Some animal or creature had just shed its skin here probably a few minutes ago, right here in this storage cabinet!” Sarah said, her face suddenly glowered with an expression of disbelief and a cloud of fear.

  Kenso stares around, expecting some sharped teeth animal to jump out from the dark enclaves of the kitchen and snapped his neck off but there was nothing. He shrugged his shoulders and said to his friends with a weary smile, “I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s grab as many biscuits as we can and get out of here.”

  “I agree with you totally, let’s go.” Kevin said.

  CHAPTER 30

  Mami’s pulse quickened as she tried to keep up with Kenso, Kevin and Sarah who strode briskly out of the kitchen and snaked their way fast through the toppled chairs and disarrayed tables in the huge dining area or cookhouse. They were almost sprinting toward the front door like angry diners who had had such horrible meals that they could hardly wait to exit that awful restaurant. Just like the rest of the group, Mami was juggling boxes of hard tacks beneath her arms and she found it hard to keep those boxes from slipping away while she increased her pace. She could hear Kevin cursing when he accidentally bumped his legs on some fallen dining tables or chairs. Finally, they were out of the cookhouse and back in the long corridor that was dark and creepy. Sarah flipped the switch on her flashlight and Mami had no idea how she could do that with all those boxes in her hands. Thinking that she could do likewise, Mami pursed her lips, took out the flashlight from her deep pocket and emulated the same action but two boxes of biscuits simply slipped away and fell to the ground.

  “Oops,” Mami said, her cheeks reddened but it was too dark for anyone to notice.

  Kenso turned around, bent over and picked up the fallen boxes. “Let me carry these, dear.” he said, his masculine voice firm and assuring, which made Mami almost want to cry.

  “Thanks honey. I am trying…” Mami said, almost sobbing full gear.

  “Is everything alright?” Sarah asked.

  “Everything’s fine, let’s go.” Mami said.

  “That’s good, I am starting to have a bad feeling about this,” Sarah said, shining her beam of flashlight down the dark corridor ahead.

  And at that juncture, a gurgling snarl echoed down the long corridor, approaching them like rumbling thunders from a distant.

  The group of four froze for a moment, their eyes as wide as saucers, goosebumps rash out across their backs and hairs on their necks stood up in a flash. Then Kevin said something about running and then all four of them bolted down the corridor in the opposite direction at top speed.

  Whatever that made that hair-raising snarl or growl seemed to be following them but when they tried looking over their shoulders as they ran, they could see nothing but darkness. Mami was the last in line and she gave it all to pick up her pace but was always three to four steps behind Kenso and the rest. Is there something behind me? Mami couldn’t help having that thought as she raced down the corridor. Kevin came to a halt suddenly and he let Sarah, Kenso and Mami go pass him.

  “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!