by Amanda Rose
“Sorry we’re late Mr. Kane, there was an incident we had to tend to. Mack, Genjo Anami wants you imprisoned for treachery my old friend. He wants your entire terrorist group for that fact. I’ve been in charge of getting you back to Torusan,” the general explained. “I see,” Mack said without any sound of surprise. “My dear old friend, you should really be more careful,” Yoshida said coyly pointing to one of his eyes. Fuck you Mack mouthed without sound.
“You know Mack, I always knew you’d faked your death. No one believed me, thought I was paranoid. You did a good job; no forensic evidence could have proven otherwise. Only my hunch ever caught you. It seems my instincts have served me well,” the grin still glowed, now with pride. “Congratulations,” Mack’s tone was just slightly darker than monotone.
“I never understood your decision to leave, Mack. You had earned yourself a glorious living and status within The Company, then you gave it all up. What on earth for?” Yoshida’s inquiry faded his grin. “All of the money in the world can’t save this planet from its decomposing fate. I wasn’t about to sit idly by and let the world crumble around me,” Mack replied with conviction. Keiji turned his attention to Yoshida. “Mack, I don’t know what you’re saying. Nothing‘s happening, you’re delusional,” he flat out lied. Mack gave no sign of response, it was useless.
Tired of a futile game Yoshida was ready to take his prize, “Well enough of this prattling on. It’s time to leave. Lower your weapons,” he ordered. Mack Laughed. “You don’t have the upper hand here my friend. We’re on an equal playing ground. We are not going to simply surrender to you. We didn’t travel across two continents and the ocean for nothing,” Mack couldn’t shed the humour from Yoshida’s direct command. “I thought you might feel that way,” Yoshida said in all confidence, his words would be followed. He walked out of the room and just around the corner where he couldn’t be seen. Mack cocked his head to try and see what he was up to. “So, I brought along a little insurance…” his dulled voice came from around the corner. He re-entered the room with a firm grip on Okichi’s arm and a knife to her throat.
Kairu’s eyes grew wide, and his heart nearly exploded inside the cavity of his chest. “Okichi!” he screamed and tried to get to her. The sound of guns releasing their safeties stopped him dead in his tracks. “Now you wouldn’t want me to have to harm our dear friend here, now would you Mack? I’m sure the Quan chief wouldn’t be too pleased to have you compromise his daughter’s life,” Yoshida laughed.
Okichi stood there trembling, her white dress was stained with mud along the bottom rim. Her elbows bled threw cracked dry skin and her hair was matted badly. A wide split in her plump bottom lip contained a scab of dried blood. Mouse-like she coward away from Yoshida, knee’s buckling terribly. Desperately Kairu wished to go to her.
“Throw down your weapons,” Yoshida ordered with a firm voice. Mack tried to think, paining as he scraped at his brain to find a solution. One person was a small price to pay to save the planet, yet there was no justification that could leave him feeling good. He just sat there in thought, but he couldn’t lower his weapon.
The clanking of Kairu’s gun on the floor was as distracting as shattering glass amid the silence. Teary-eyed Kairu slowly rose from the floor, “Everyone drop them! Please!” he screamed in vain. A soldier seized him and another gave him a pat down. Mack’s forces were weakening. Yoshida pulled the knife tighter against Okichi’s throat, drawing blood. She yelped, and tried to pull away, which caused Yoshida to pull the cold metal up even tighter against, and into her. Kairu screamed for the group to conform once more looked to Mack for resolve. There was too much pressure. Mack spun his gun on his finger, releasing it as surrender. The rest, neglecting the desire, followed his example.
Like lotus the soldiers swarmed them, patting each of them down for weaponry, just as Kairu had been. Yoshida let down his knife. “Let’s go,” he told Okichi, his hold on her arm still as tight as ever. “Sorry for the disturbance Mr. Kane,” he told Keiji who sat there the whole time speechless. “Take care of the rest,” he addressed his men and left, dragging Okichi with him. “No!” Kairu yelled. Then the darkness came…
Expect the unexpected.
Chapter 24: Imprisoned
Dim… I can’t see… What happened? … Where am I? … It’s so dark… My head hurts…
“Everyone drop them! Please!”
The words echoed. Memory blurred as it came back to Kairu in scattered pieces. Cold… It hurts to breathe again… I’m not in an air dome… Where…? Moving fingertips, they pressed against a frigid metal surface on which he lay. It was hard and rough. His ribs dug into the floor as they expanded with impure oxygen, and the poison filled his body. Lazy eyelids fought to open. Blink. Blink. It was dark. There was nothing but shady figures that couldn’t be made out.
Drip! … Drip! … Drip! The repetitious fall of something sounded like a leaky faucet dripping. It sounded hollow in there. Where? His eyes began to adjust. Something was blocking his vision. With a sore arm Kairu reached forward to decipher what it was. “Bars…” he whispered to himself. He was in a cage.
Using all the strength he could muster he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He flinched once he was up, noticing an IV dug deep into his arm. He regretted to pull in free, he strength waning. Everything was foggy within his head. Reaching back with one hand Kairu felt the back of his head. Gummy-like drying blood stuck to his fingers, which he rubbed around in a circular motion. He felt a deep headache sprawling from the location; it was deep and agitating.
More things were becoming apparent, as his eyes adjusted to the dark, Kairu’s was picking up more detail now. Past the bars he could see wooden crates with the writing FRAGILE on them. There were stairs beyond the crates leading up. From the top of the staircase came in the only light, which was faint at best. A sloshing sound started to make sense. He was in the cargo hold of a ship. They were on the sea, heading back to Torusan. His head started pounding.
A few moments later he was back to exploring with his eyes. Kairu saw other cages surrounding him, everyone was there, except Okichi, and each was being held in their own separate cage. He was the only lucid one. He saw Masumi in the cage next to his. He lay down on his back. Masumi was on her side and he thought her awake.
“Hey Masumi… I’m sorry,” Kairu began to speak. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I… I’m in love with Okichi. I know the planet and all but… I couldn’t let them kill her.” He turned his head to look at Masumi. Masumi didn’t respond, she was quite still. He called her name, but she lay unmoving. It was now clear she was laying face down, not on her side. Her head was turned in his direction with locks of hair gracing over it. Kairu reached through the bars of his cage and hers, and he took her hand. She felt as cold as ice. “Masumi,” he called to her gently again.
Kairu rubbed her hand vigorously to warm it up. The heat would not keep. “Masumi… Masumi!” he yelled, but she didn’t stir. His voice echoed in the tin can. Reaching as far as he could into her cage, he swept the hair away from her face. Her eyes were wide open and looked lifeless, she was staring his way with black inkwells of eyes. In the dark he could just vaguely make out a bruise on her temple. It didn’t look fatal. Then he heard it, the dull raspy breath exhumed from her slightly divided lips. “Masumi!” He screamed.
Masumi’s body let free a deep cough. She had no energy. Masumi looked as if she’d lain there in agony for hours. Dripping out from her lips a puddle of saliva mixed with blood had formed. Her eyes blinked. Helplessly she lay there in vain. “Masumi… Oh no…” he looked on with horror. Slow breathing. Inhale… … … Exhale… It terrified Kairu.
Death had placed its unwanted hand on Masumi’s shoulder. Slower and slower her breathing dyed off. “Masumi, stay with me! Masumi, look at me!” he told her, fighting the lump at the back of his throat. Her eyes looked to him and she tried to speak. Nearly unheard, she spoke, “K… Kay… Kairu…” she coughed bitterly, “F… finish
… wha… what we… started… It’s… so pretty…” Her eyes still transfixed his way, she could see something beyond him. A moment later her eyes dropped shut. Kairu called for her.
The words of Otojiro’s letter came rushing back to Kairu:
“…You will be given a choice. Either road will cause a devastating consequence. Either way will bring loss into your life. The result of your choice will not be visible at first. Be forewarned. That is all I can say on this subject. I am sorry…”
No… No! Oh god, please no! “Masumi wake up… Please wake up…” She’s just sleeping, just sleeping that’s all! “Masumi, I’m here now. Wake up!” Just unconscious, she’s NOT dead… she can’t be... “Masumi… Masumi?” Kairu’s voice fell weak and he began to weep. Looking upon her in denial he prayed to see her stir, but no such movement came. He rubbed her hand between his vigorously. Masumi lay on the cold floor limp, her body was as still as a statue. Not even her chest expanded; she was no longer breathing that Kairu could tell. Kairu gave a tug on her arm and she joggled like a rag doll. He lay staring blankly. She was dead.
The persistent throb of his headache flourished. Migrating partially to his temples and forehead, each thumping pound swarmed him. Tenser he became. The intensity continued to rise. He couldn’t sort out his thoughts. The throb… The emptiness… The dripping… Make it go away. Just make it all go away…
An ill sickly feeling built up within Kairu; he felt nauseated yet empty inside. Kairu squeezed her hand firmly in his. Tears welled up and began to stream down his face, down onto the floor. He curled into a ball and sobbed, refusing to release her hand. “Masumi…” he moaned remorsefully. Guilt overshadowed his conscience.
Kairu felt the anguish building within. Why…? he kept asking himself. His heart felt a piercing go through it. Eventually some soldiers came jogging down the stairs. He started screaming for them to help her. Kairu was hysterical in nature, and they looked down on him like a vile rodent infected with disease. “Please! Help! D, Dying! She’s sick, dying! Oh god, help! Help, sick, god… Oh dying!” He rambled. One man inserted his key into Kairu’s lock. “No!” Kairu screamed, extremely pissed off. “Not me, her!” he tried to explain. Still inward they came, towering over Kairu like giants, they looked down at him and then rose the butt end of their weapon high.
Darkness…
Every decision has a consequence…
Chapter 25: The Escape
“Kairu?” What happened? “Kairu, wake up!” I don’t remember anything… “Come on, time to get up!” Why can’t I think of it…? What was it? “Kairu!” The light hurts. I can’t see... Oh, it’s dark in here. The drip is gone. The sloshing stopped. Drip!? Sloshing!? Masumi! “Masumi!” Kairu screamed and bolted up to sitting upright, cutting his arm as he did on a jutting piece of wood, sticking out from the bottom of a thick door. He didn’t notice the cut, his mind frantic; everything came back in a flash.
Kairu’s heart started to race, and he began to pant as he hyperventilated. He could only see his resurfacing memories. The chilling sound of Masumi’s last words rung inside his ears, “F… finish… wha… what we… started… It’s… so pretty…”
Kairu began to cry uncontrollably. “Kairu? Kairu what’s wrong?!” Suako’s voice came from the cell across from him. “What’s wrong with Masumi?” she inquired after his comment. He let out a dreadful noise on anguish, as he felt that paining emptiness resurfacing. He could barely hear Suako, her words would not pass the chatter of his mind.
She… she looked so calm… so ready, ready to die. S, she was so innocent. Her last breath… she just compressed… like, like a balloon… Masumi… Denial left him, but acceptance was harsh. Every detail played in a sort of slow motion picture show in his mind. The horrible graphics did not cease. “Kairu!” Suako’s voice freed him. Silent tears streaked down his cheeks.
“She’s dead,” Kairu’s morbid voice said regretfully. Rustling from the cells all around him alerted him to the presence of everyone else. Individually caged like animals, they were trapped in the poorly lit cells. Through the tiny square-foot whole, on the bar on the door, torchlight brought a glow to the room. Kairu was alone in his cell, and he figured that they had all been kept solo. It didn’t matter now, Masumi was dead, and all other concerns seemed petty, and wrong to even think about.
“What happened?” Yu-Lee’s compassionate voice reached to him from some distance. Kairu lay back down on the hard floor. “You were all unconscious… we were on a ship. I… I woke up…” Kairu’s voice began to tremble fiercely. “Masumi had been beaten… she was sick… she must’ve been lying there for hours. No, not hours, days... in the cold, on the hard metal floor… In pain… The sound of her breathing, oh god... Masumi died right in front of me… I held her hand. With her last breath, s… she pleaded for us to… finish what we started…” he choked up and could go on. The dreary sound of sobbing infiltrated every cell, and sunk already lessened hearts. “I’m so sorry,” Kairu whimpered, wracked with guilt. Lower their spirits sank. The only other voice that came was the solemn one of Kato, “Kairu, I’m so sorry,” The exhaustion of Kairu’s emotionally distraught body finally gave in, and then a third darkness came; that of sleep.
“Kairu? Kairu? … I think he’s sleeping now. He said he woke up on a ship? Where the hell are we?” Jenko said with a weighted heart. Suako shuttered, “We’re in Torusan… the bottom of the C.D.F.P. headquarters…” Suako said meekly from within her captivity. “How do you know?” Mei asked. Suako closed her eyes. “Let go of me! No! No! You are not taking me back there! No! … Argh! No!” shrieks emanated. “Because this is my old cell…” she whispered, terrified. She pulled in her knees and held them as she rocked back and forth. Again, conversation halted.
“Mack?” Vince’s voice travelled quietly from the cell next door. “What is it Vince?” Mack, depressed, returned the call. “What are we going to do now?” Vince asked sadly. “I don’t know… I never expected this. We’ll have to get out I suppose. Though, I don’t know how…” Mack’s voice was vague, that of a ruined man. His vision of their supremacy over the C.D.F.P. had been dissolved. Mack was still coming to terms with it all, and he felt lost. A real sense of devastation swept over him, and now compounded with Masumi’s death, guilt was now riding on his conscience.
Vince said no more. Looking around his tomb of an enclosure he felt drab. The floor was dirt and stone, and a tattered blanket lay in the grit of the floor. The walls were stone, cool and damp to the touch. Vince sighed and heard Kairu weeping in his sleep. He thought of Masumi, and his head hung low. He’d never thanked her for everything she’d done for Suako’s birthday, which now seemed like a distant dream.
Vince wondered what day is was, and how long he’d slept while he’d been transported all the way to Torusan. His arm was sore in the crease of his elbow. He squinted at it and could see a faint puncture wound where an needle had been. The cell was uncomfortable, and he wondered about how Suako dealt with it for all of her years here. Then a thought came: If we’re in the same cells, are we all guinea pigs for the C.D.F.P.? He shuttered and prayed his imagination was just being cruel.
The problem was, it was all too possible. Why else are we still alive? Suako was being kept too far away for him to question her about her time here in private. Lying awake for hours he stewed in his thoughts, and they became muddled until he couldn’t separate them. It was then that he noticed his clothing, it was different. He felt it, it was a cheap cotton weave that wasn’t very soft. Vince had been too preoccupied up until now to notice. He wondered where his clothes were, it was cold. Then it hit him that his journal was in his jacket pocket. He prayed it was safe. Cold… Begrudgingly he grabbed the filthy sheet and crawled into a corner wrapping himself up in it.
Vince thought then about Masumi, he could imagine her in his mind, lying there in the hull of the ship, caged like an animal, unable to speak and every breath a torture within itself. Like inhaling nails and broken glass, slowly drawing
them in, unable to stop. She was another piece of cargo on the ship. No one came to check, and if they had, no one would have cared, would they? Vince watched her, in his mind, dying there like an animal. Prolonging her pain with an IV keeping her from dehydration and starvation.
Vince tried to erase the image he’d created, but it wouldn’t leave. Masumi lay helplessly there in his mind looking for help. Searching for mercy on her poor soul. It had come, but not soon enough from what Kairu described. Self-pity felt greedy. Trying to shut off his mind, he sat there trying to sleep. Just as death took it’s time gracing Masumi, sleep did the same to Vince, it took a painstakingly long time reaching him…
Ching- Ch… C… Ching! A weird tingling noise woke Vince from a nightmare he had been having about Masumi. Like chimes the jingling continued. Disoriented by the dream, and waking up in the dark, he didn’t know what to make of it at first. It stopped. Then a smack against his door and the jingling commenced once again. They were keys unlocking his cell. His eyes widened and he felt himself pushing against the floor and at the wall, as if to try and go through it. His heart sped; true terror had announced itself within him.
The key sounded as if it were caught in the lock. Vince looked around, but there was no way out, and there was no where to hide. He thought he might try and get past the guards at the door, but he thought twice about it. They’d likely be armed, and then he’d be killed or wounded. Options were running low. Adrenaline began to stream threw his circulatory system, he couldn’t think, the door was opening…