by Byrd, Daniel
"Makoto? Can you hear me?”
"I am fine," he assured her in a deep, but relaxed voice, "I was just thinking about last year."
"You still do it everyday too, huh?"
He only nodded, ever the strong silent type until words were necessary. That kept Alexis nervous. Unlike the other three of them, Makoto had only joined the battle against the PMC in the end. In fact, this very place was where the lone samurai had met the rest of the rebels, and at the time they assumed he was an enemy. Even now he was donning his old suit underneath the kimono, and the black with red trim around the shoulders and knees still added to his intimidating nature. Now it was Lewis they didn't trust. Fate was funny like that, Makoto figured…but so was the lack of a presence of any forces stationed near their destination. Alexis must have noticed it too.
“That's weird,” she uttered.
"It is abandoned…" he said solemnly, as if disappointed with the discovery.
"Did you expect a welcoming party?" Alexis joked as she slowed the car to a stop yards away from the structure. Makoto just got out of the car and ignored her comment altogether. After coming to terms that the man had no sense of humor to share, Alexis killed the engine and went to join him in front of the building.
Makoto looked up at the skyscraper that was the former headquarters of what was once the world's most powerful PMC. It didn't look creepy in the light of the sunset, but the damage everywhere made up for it. Just off of the coastline of Italy and only but a driving distance from a small town tourist trap called Eraclea Mare, the HQ was built right on the "Lagoon of the Dead" shortly after the start of the Gulf War. The tidewaters always left the area damp with a putrid stench, but more and more of it was being modified over the years, so Makoto could only imagine what it used to smell like back when the base was established. It seemed odd to him that the HQ was right beside tourist-filled beaches, but it made for good publicity when you allowed even the public that close to such a reticent organization. Besides, it wasn't like Tiamat Unbound ever tried to really hide things at first; they valued public opinion. Keeping it up is what kept the contracts coming. If only everyone would've known the dark secrets sooner, Makoto thought as his eyes dropped from the tower to the scene in front of him.
“Can you open the trunk of the car?"
“Yeah, sure," Alexis replied as she pressed a button on her key and popped the boot of the car open. Makoto wasted no time in going around the vehicle and removing the kimono before tossing it inside. Next he fixed the sling up over his neck for his dead arm before pulling his sheathed blade out of the space. The sheath was designed to clip right onto the waist belt of his suit to make it easier to switch out or, in his case, to make the process easier, so he maneuvered it around with his right hand, all the while his eyes on the tower in front of them. Alexis took his point and followed him over to retrieve her Kimber Warrior from the cache of weapons. After inserting a magazine and racking the slide back, she closed the boot and set off after Makoto, who was already a few yards ahead of her, cautiously scanning the environment.
The fountain at the entrance to the gargantuan structure used to be a sight for company photos year-round. At the center of the fountain was the bronze statue of the Babylonian dragon, standing on its hind legs with thick metal chains welded to it that were broken in places to complete the mimicry of the company symbol. Makoto always found irony in the image of the embodiment of chaos being used to depict a company with the intent to bring peace by stabilizing conflict in areas no government wanted to send their armies.
"This place must have been a sight before all of that stuff happened," Alexis commented to his right.
“You worked here,” Makoto pointed out.
“Yeah, for the company, but I was attached to the American branch in Pittsburgh.”
Makoto had never been there, but it was the location of the start of the fall of the company. A rogue member assassinated the boss there before taking a tumble from the highest floor onto the streets below. That kind of attention wasn't good for the mercenary company, and started to bring a lot of their inner workings into question. Luckily, it was cleaned out too when it all came to an end.
"Did you not get to behold this building in its prime last year during your raid?" Makoto inquired as he noted the lone flagpole in front of the fountain. The flag that once waved proudly in the wind was absent, much like everything else from the fortress.
"Shortly," she replied meekly, "before the helicopter crashed through the front entrance." She pointed to the gaping hole in the front of the building to emphasize her point. The wreckage of the chopper was long gone since the UN swept the place, but the evidence was still there. Makoto silently walked towards the tower as Alexis followed three steps behind him.
"I witnessed the wreckage when I entered the building that day.” Makoto remarked, eyes on the maw in the wall of the structure. “Who managed that feat?"
"Lewis," she said, almost as if she was surprised by what came out of her mouth. “We didn't think he could make the shot with that LAW, but he was happy to prove us wrong."
Makoto wasn't surprised at all. The man took Doberman's place as the leader of the Dragon's Talon unit for a reason. That was the strike team for the company. If something absolutely needed to be done, they didn't fail. That was how it was assumed up until Doberman himself took them all out at the expense of his own life.
"Makoto, what did we come here for anyway?" Alexis asked. “It doesn't look like anyone's here, and this building's condemned."
"Tell me," Makoto said over his shoulder, "did Doberman not teach you about the virtues of patience?"
Alexis took offense to that. “He also taught me that it's never a bad idea to confide secrets to someone in case of the worst."
Makoto stopped in his tracks after having cleared the massive hole in the front of the structure, noting the shattered floor tile scattered about in front of him. He turned back to Alexis, frowning. “There are secrets here that the United Nations could not have found, and I would like to believe that they could aid us in uncovering a truth behind this chaos."
"Now was that so hard?" Alexis jested. Makoto grunted and turned his back to her, heading for the stone front desk of the lobby. It was riddled with cracks from bullets that held whoever was behind it at bay. Alexis growled under her breath and decided to cover the big guy's six, keeping her eye on the entrance with her gun drawn and the safety off.
"I examined the documents we had copied from what Lewis had taken that day," Makoto continued, "and I found evidence of a room in the basement that may hold some answers."
"Answers to what?" Alexis asked, looking at him out of the corner of her right eye. Makoto stepped up to the elevator doors behind the desk and pressed a button to call for it. Nothing happened.
"Makoto, there's no power here," Alexis uttered with a tone that suggested that she expected the man to know that fact. Makoto grunted and took a step back.
"The floor I seek has no other possible way to access it."
Alexis sighed at that news as she turned back to the front. “So, what's the plan?"
There was no answer. Instead, she heard the grinding of metal that forced her to turn back around. Makoto was attempting to force the elevator doors open with just his one good arm.
"You could've asked for help, you know?" she scolded. Makoto merely grunted as he shoved against the doors with his right elbow and left foot, slowly but surely inching them apart. When he finally had enough space to fit his torso through, he heaved with all of his might and forced the division wider.
Darkness. That was all that existed above and below inside of the shaft. The elevator itself was nowhere to be seen, but the cables appeared to be intact.
"We have to descend two floors," Makoto stated as he peered down into the abyss, "are you comfortable with that?"
Alexis looked under his shoulder into the darkness, fear enveloping her mind. “Um…I can't really say that-"
Before she co
uld finish he jumped forward and wrapped his right arm around the main cables as he slid down the shaft into the shadows below. Alexis was too stunned to react, and it wasn't until she heard the thud of his feet hitting something solid echo back up the shaft that she registered what he'd just done. The sound of scraping metal came again, indicating that Makoto had found what he was looking for.
"Hawkins!" his voice boomed up the shaft, “I require your assistance!"
Alexis had to take a few quick breaths of air before stepping forward. She wasn't sure if she was afraid of the possible height, or the fact that it was hidden in the nothingness…or both.
"Hawkins!" Makoto's voice thundered, "I need a light!"
On second thought, she realized she was more afraid of the giant man down there. Resentful towards the task, she counted to three and leapt forward, grabbing the cables and hugging them as she slid down. The metal was painful against her arms, and they were layered by the jacket she was wearing, which led her to wonder how Makoto must've felt. Thoughts like that kept her from considering just how far down she had to go, but her feet finally reached a solid surface. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the small LED flashlight to shine around. The beam met the figure of Makoto, standing in the doorway to the shaft, his expression as plain as always. He stepped aside and allowed Alexis to illuminate a spot in the vast room in front of them. The tile floor reflected the light as she moved it back and forth, trying to unveil anything hidden in the dark.
"What are we looking for?" she asked. Makoto followed the light soundlessly, looking for anything abnormal that would be lit up. Finally, Alexis brought it back when she passed over a table. On it was what looked like a lone cassette player.
"Something like that," Makoto replied as he walked forward. His hand found the device as Alexis shined the light around, and noticed something shimmering in the dark. It was faint, but there was definitely something there…and as she moved the beam back and forth, she noticed that it trailed all the way to a door on the far wall to her right. When she traced it back, it appeared to lead right back to the table with the cassette player, which was now in Makoto's grasp.
"Makoto! Wait!" she cried, but he was already lifting it up. A winding sound was heard, and Alexis caught the glint of the wire again before it disappeared. There was a click, and the door to their right opened up. Alexis drew her gun and pointed it in that direction as Makoto tossed the cassette player back onto the table and moved his hand to his sword hilt on his left hip. A groaning sound came from the next room, accompanied by other disturbing noises. Makoto moved forward and stood next to Alexis, who was holding the light in her left hand against the grip of the gun. The flashlight's beam swept across to the whites eyes of the being and reflected back at her. It appeared to be a young man in his twenties, but Alexis and Makoto knew better than to assume he was just some guy who had been trapped down here. The details were all there; raspy sounds from its mouth, faded eyes, and pale, sickly skin. It was the first infected individual the two had actually confronted. What was it the Americans called them, she thought to herself? Deadmen.
To say that she was absolutely terrified would be an awful understatement. In just those few seconds in seeing one of the creatures that had brought the world's most powerful nation to ruins, fear gripped her mind and halted her thought process. She forgot all of her training. She forgot everything Terry Shields had taught her two years ago. All her mind could register was the affliction seeing this fiend in person had struck her with. Her hands trembled as the monster advanced towards them. Even standing against Tiamat Unbound wasn’t this scary. They were a human threat. This thing was something else entirely; something she didn’t understand.
"Holy shit…" Alexis uttered as she took a step back. The creature took shambling steps towards them as two more appeared in the doorway, fighting to get through as they shoved into one another mindlessly. The groans echoed in the dark as more shoved into those two and pushed them through, allowing the undead to flow into the room.
"Hawkins, aim well," were Makoto's words of encouragement as he unsheathed his Masamune. Alexis tried to stifle the shock, but with so many of the creatures blanketed in darkness in addition to her tiny source of light and the small caliber weapon in her grasp, this was a nightmare beyond her dreams.
"Hawkins!" Makoto shouted as he readied his stance in the shadows, "Action or death!"
With that, Alexis took a deep breath and aimed for the first zombie she could get into the light. She squeezed the trigger and sent the first round scathing past the creature's ear and into the wall next to the door. While she struggled to keep her hands from shaking to prepare for another shot, Makoto approached his first victim and, with a swift swipe of his sword, send a head rolling across the tile as it was stained with a trail of dark blood. With such little light to guide their attacks, this fight was terribly one-sided, and that wasn’t even counting the traits of the undead menace. Then it hit Makoto; Alexis was a moving target in the dark.
"Hawkins! Turn off your light!"
"WHAT?!" she cried out from where the source of light was. The creature's weren't even trying to go for Makoto. He growled under his breath and charged, cleaving another head off of a deadman's shoulders in a clean swing as he made his way to Alexis. Upon reaching her, he swung the reverse end of the blade and knocked the flashlight from her hand, sending it flipping through the air before clattering across the floor as the beam spun about wildly.
"What did you-"
Alexis couldn’t finish her phrase as Makoto drove the hilt of the sword into her chest, knocking the air out of her. She collapsed to her knees as Makoto observed the creatures chasing after the flashlight. Now was their chance.
"Be silent," Makoto hissed as he moved towards the elevator shaft, taking a few seconds too long to realize he'd left Alexis in quite the predicament, still collecting herself from his attempt to save her life. In hindsight, he wished he'd have thought of something better than brute force. The light came to a rest pointing in his direction, allowing him to see the silhouettes of the monsters, along with the doubled-over Alexis between him and them.
Two of them spun around and saw the giant samurai only mere seconds before he started carving through them. One slice took an entire upper body off of one. Another slash took a leg from another. Even after dismembering more of the fiends, they still kept coming as if it didn't matter. Makoto knew of many unnatural beings from his grandfather's stories, but these anomalies were beyond even the tales of horror his ancestors spoke of.
“Damned onryō!” Makoto boomed as he stabbed the one-legged older woman who was going for his shin. He had initially assumed that there were only a dozen creatures that originated from the room, but now he wasn't so sure as he struggled to gauge the situation. Tearing the blade from the corpse at his feet, he stabbed forward to pierce another woman through the heart, but to no visible avail. She reached for him past the blade, pushing herself deeper onto it. Makoto went to pull the blade out as she wrapped her hands around it. The blade easily slid through her fingers, taking plenty of skin and muscle off with it as it came out of her grasp. Perturbed by the sight, Makoto stood back and readied for another attempt at ending the thing's life, when a gunshot accompanied the zombie's forehead rupturing. The room’s acoustics didn't do him any good, as he struggled to focus when Alexis stepped up to his side, gun raised and determination radiant. Taking no more time to hesitate, she put down another creature before loading a new magazine into the gun. Makoto grinned as she shifted from target to target, putting them down with shots that were proving more effective in keeping them down than his own attempts. This must have been the woman Doberman trained.
After the deafening cracks of two more shots, a muffled snarl came from behind Makoto that caused him to spin around to his right as he brought the Masamune across his chest, preparing for a strong attack. Right foot planted and torso twisted around, he swung the blade with a slash that was as precise as tracing a line across p
aper. Little resistance was given by the deadman's body as the sharp metal sliced through the skin, muscle, bone, and sinew. Two limbs hit the floor, followed by the thud of a torso. Though it was hard to see with the limited source of light, the upper body was still riling about at his feet, and the neck stretched as the creature reared its head back. Before it had the chance to attempt to bite into his boot, he had turned the sword around in his hand and raised it high above before driving it through the thing's head and into the tile. With that, he knew now that the method of defeating the infected individuals was not exaggerated by the Americans; fatal injuries needed to be directed towards the head.
Another gunshot rang out before Alexis ceased fire and looked to Makoto. Though he couldn't see it due to the backlight that made her a black silhouette, he could sense the concern coming from her. They were missing the freaks as they came in, and had no idea how many there really were. Groans were still emanating from the doorway that the initial aggressors came from, further supporting their worries.
"We need to leave, now," Makoto stated firmly.
"No complaints here," Alexis replied as they both began to move towards the elevator shaft, eyes skimming the barely-lit room before them for any of the hidden dangers it held within. Their own shadows blanketed large portions as they moved, and a sudden thought seized Makoto that had him running back towards the center of the room.