by Chris Ward
‘After she graduated from the band her solo career flopped,’ Akane said. ‘I heard that she’d got into porn, but she kind of went off the radar after their relationship ended. So my cousin said, anyway. I always thought they were shit.’
‘What’s she doing here?’
Akane shrugged. ‘No idea.’
‘Feels like we’ve stepped into some Korean drama or something,’ Jun said, smiling.
Akane laughed. ‘Please don’t tell me you watch those.’
‘No, but my mother—’ He stopped. ‘Sorry.’
Akane shrugged. ‘Forget it.’
They had reached the lookout. Ken and Dai were inside, peering down the slope as Jun and Akane came up behind them.
‘Fucking snow is too warm to stick,’ Dai said, punching the wooden wall of the lookout. ‘The sun bakes it, then the cold freezes it, and it slips off. Do you think he’s alive down there?’
‘One way to find out.’ Ken cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, ‘O-Remo!’
An echo was the only response. He tried again, this time with Jun and Dai joining in. Akane stood and watched, frowning.
‘Can’t hear anything,’ Dai said.
‘Your ears must be as screwed as mine,’ Ken said. ‘Of course we can’t hear him.’
‘I can!’ Akane blurted. ‘There!’
Jun cocked his head. It could have been the wind, or it could have been the gentle settling of the snow, but he thought he heard a faint, ‘Help me!’ drifting up from the valley.
‘We’ve got to get down there and get him,’ Dai said. ‘We’ll need ropes and maybe digging gear. We have to get him before dark or he has no chance.’
‘Where is he?’ came the angry voice of Rutherford Forbes as he barrelled up into the lookout and pushed the others aside. ‘Where’s that bastard? I’ll string him up for this.’
Dai turned and knocked Forbes to his knees with a heavy punch to the cheek. ‘Shut up, you fat old turd.’
‘You’ll regret this!’ Forbes wailed as Ken dragged him back up. ‘I’ll make sure you get put away!’
‘Shh,’ Ken said, wrapping a hand over Forbes’s mouth. ‘Just be quiet now. Dai’s not in the mood for putting up with your whining. Just be thankful that I’m here.’ He marched Forbes back to the steps of the lookout. ‘Now, be a good man and go back and find us some ropes. We have a rescue to perform.’
As Forbes stumbled off back up the path, muttering obscenities under his breath, Dai turned to Akane. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said. ‘I hope I didn’t get blood on your clothes.’
Akane smiled. ‘No, I think I’m okay.’
Dai nodded. ‘I bet you kids didn’t expect this when you signed up for this trip, did you?’
Jun laughed. ‘I guess it beats learning English. Now, how are we going to find—’
His words were cut off as a huge roar echoed out across the valley. As the sound reverberated and then died away, the four of them looked at each other. No one said a word for several seconds. Jun was afraid to breathe.
‘I’d guess that wasn’t O-Remo,’ Ken said, in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
Jun looked back up towards British Heights, but Rutherford Forbes had disappeared. ‘Was that a bear?’
‘If it was,’ Dai said, ‘I really don’t want to meet it.’
28
Fun and games in the forest
Kaede had no interest in messing about in the snow any longer than she had to. As soon as she saw the others wandering off towards the staff quarters after the man had come running out, she went inside where it was warm.
In the reception area, Mika had got a fire going. Kaede sat down for a while, but after a few minutes of staring aimlessly at the flames, she got up. Mika was sitting at the reception desk, trying to look busy. As Kaede wandered over the receptionist looked up and gave an apologetic smile.
‘What time’s lunch?’ Kaede said.
‘I’m sorry?’
‘Not much else to do up here except eat, is there?’
Mika’s cheeks flushed. ‘I’m sorry about all this.’
‘Whatever.’
‘You could take a swim or view the rooms upstairs.’
Kaede shrugged. ‘I hate water and I hate old things. They smell bad.’
‘Well, there are some magazines in the recreation area.’
Kaede rolled her eyes, but it was better than nothing. She waved a dismissive hand at Mika like someone shooing away a pigeon, and went to find something to do.
In the recreation room she found a bunch of fashion magazines, but they were months out of date and the only articles of interest she’d already read before. She still couldn’t get any reception on her phone and the computers in the recreation room wouldn’t connect to the Internet.
She would have seriously considered making a hike for it if she didn’t hate snow, hate forests, if the road hadn’t collapsed, and if she actually knew where they were. There was nothing to do to pass the time other than screw the drummer from that crappy rock band, except that now he’d run off to be a hero even that seemed out of the question.
Frustrated and bored, she went upstairs. She found nothing much to look at except a bunch of old rooms with dirty, dusty furnishings, so she headed down the west wing towards the gymnasium, wondering if she could at least find a TV that was working or even a box of DVDs. It was that or slit her wrists, she figured. There was only so much boredom any human could take.
In one room, which contained lines of wooden benches, she found a TV, but the only signal was a worthless fuzz and there were no DVDs anywhere. She banged her hands on the screen and screamed as loud as she could, but it made no difference.
There were two other rooms on the west wing before the gymnasium. As Kaede came out of the TV room, she saw the door to the next room standing a little ajar. A strange knocking sound was coming from inside.
She had grown up in Saitama, and while there wasn’t a lot of crime there or elsewhere in Japan, there was enough that she felt cautious enough to consider running away. However, she felt so close to dropping dead from boredom that she couldn’t resist.
She nudged her foot against the door, pushing it backwards until she could see inside.
The room was some kind of chapel, with an arched stained glass window set into the back wall; in front of it a tall wooden pulpit and a stone altar. Several rows of pews faced it.
She would probably have shrugged and gone back out if it wasn’t for the single candle burning on top of the pulpit. The candlestick had slipped and fallen to lie resting on top of a thick book that could have been a bible. As the wax melted down the fire crept closer and closer to the brittle paper of the old book.
Kaede didn’t stop to think. She marched up between the two rows of pews and plucked the candle up in her hands, blowing the flame out with one sharp breath. With a satisfied nod she put it back on the pulpit and turned around.
A grainy brown filled her vision and she screamed as a sack dropped over her face and pulled tight. She coughed as dust got into her mouth and the smell of wicker filled her nose.
‘Get off me!’ she screamed, but her protests were severed as a punch slammed into her stomach, bending her double, cutting off her breath. Winded, she gasped for air, but strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her hands behind her back and looping rope over her wrists. She struggled to get free, but she found hard wood pressed into her face as her attacker shoved her down against one of the pews.
‘If you’re going to rape me, use a condom,’ she gasped, but her attacker just chuckled.
‘Don’t get excited. I have standards, you know,’ said a voice she didn’t recognise. ‘Now shut up and don’t make this any more difficult than it has to be.’
More ropes were tied around her ankles, then she was pulled back up and dragged across the room. She felt the ropes on her wrists tugging, and then her assailant stepped away, his musky sweat smell no longer in her face.
‘Take a look
around,’ her attacker said.
‘I can’t see anything,’ she gasped. ‘Are you him? Are you that bird thing?’
‘I’m me.’
He ripped the sacking off her head and she gasped as cool air filled her lungs. Condensation from the oppressive heat of the bag dribbled down her face.
She was lying on her side on the front pew, her face pressed to a wooden seat that smelled of old oil and slightly newer sweat. Her attacker was somewhere behind her, out of sight. With her hands bound behind her back she was unable to lift her head, but part of her was afraid to look anyway, so she just stared straight ahead at the altar in front of her.
‘They are coming,’ he said.
‘Who?’
‘Those who will end us all.’
‘Um, okay. Any more details you can give me?’
‘They will come from the forests, and they will kill every last one of us … unless an offering of peace is made.’
Scared though she was, half of her felt like this might be some stupid prank. It definitely wasn’t Ogiwara or Mishima, and the voice didn’t belong to any of the other people she had seen. Maybe there were other students here that they hadn’t noticed, and a group of them had decided to have a little fun with her.
‘Look, if you’re after a virgin, you’re about three years too late.’
‘The frequency with which you have spread your legs is of no importance.’
‘Why me? Why not one of those big band guys or one of the boys?’
‘A question of logistics.’
‘Meaning you’re a fucking weed and you couldn’t capture any of them?’
‘Logistics,’ her attacker said again.
‘Wimp.’
A hard hand closed over her shoulder, twisting her onto her back. She looked up into a pale face with thin, bloodless lips and over-large eyes, framed with two curtains of jet black hair.
‘You!’
‘You say that as if you know me,’ Bee said. ‘Sharing a bed with my hypersexual bandmate does not bring our relationship any closer than captor-captive.’
‘Thank God for that. So what are you going to do with me, you weird freak?’
‘I have observed, and I have determined that you are the best candidate among all of us that are left. I will therefore use you to save the rest of us.’
‘Go fuck yourself!’
She tried to kick out at him, but her ankles were too tightly bound together, and she succeeded only in slipping off the bench and landing hard on the thinly carpeted floor.
‘Had I possessed such urges I would have had plenty of opportunity to do just that while on the road,’ he said with a thin smile. ‘Life in a band can become a little … claustrophobic. Thankfully, my more illustrious bandmates spent enough time sowing the seeds of our success to leave me time to prepare for every possible situation, including such dire ones as this.’
‘You’re crazy.’
Bee rolled his huge eyes. ‘Oh, come up with another cliché, please.’
‘You’re insane!’
Bee threw his head back and gave a tittering, birdlike laugh. ‘Oh no, my dear. This entire situation is insane. I’m the one sane cog around which the wheel is turning.’
Kaede glared at him, a thousand insults on her tongue, but nothing would do any good. All she could hope for was a chance to slip her bonds and escape before he did something really crazy.
‘I’ll string that motherfucker up when I find him,’ Dai said, as Jun and Ken followed in his wake, their arms laden with rope they had found in a maintenance building near the south exit of the complex, behind one of the dormitories. Akane followed at the rear, carrying a bag of crampons Dai said they would need to get down into the forest. As they walked, Jun glanced up at the sky, grimacing at the clouds rolling in from the west. It looked like the forecast was right—more snow was on the way. Already the temperatures were dropping, and even if O-Remo was still alive down in the snow, he wouldn’t be for much longer once the sun went down.
Of Forbes or the young man from the pub they had seen no sign. Dai was practically spitting fire, while the rest of them had settled into a dumb numbness at the severity of their situation. Knowing that there was something down there in the woods didn’t make things any easier to deal with, but that the owner of the complex appeared not to care less about the fate of one of his guests lent everything a rather absurd air. Jun felt more and more like he’d stepped through a television screen on to the set of a Korean drama.
‘That bastard,’ Dai said. ‘I’ll cut his throat with a guitar string. In fact, I’ll use one of Bee’s bass strings. It’ll take a lot longer.’
‘Where the hell is Bee?’ Ken said.
Dai just shrugged. ‘Dead under a foot of snow for all we know.’
Jun looked back at Akane as he trailed after the others. She gave him a small smile. He wondered if she was still thinking about what they’d talked about, that it was better to stay here than go back. Trading a futureless but safe life for Akane’s smile and a bit of danger … it wasn’t a tough decision.
‘Okay, we can secure the rope to one of these support posts,’ Dai said, as they reached the lookout. ‘Two of us go down for him, two of us stay up here and keep a lookout and an eye on the ropes. Who’s coming down with me?’
Jun raised a hand without hesitation, then stared at it as if it had a mind of its own. Akane gave a little gasp, but Jun shook his head. ‘I want to help, really.’
Ken looked pained, like he wanted to go down but didn’t want to at the same time. Dai had clearly decided he was expedition leader, while Akane, by default of being a girl, had been nominated to stand watch via unspoken agreement.
‘We don’t have time to debate it,’ Dai said. ‘Get your crampons and your gloves on, kid.’
Ken held up a small ice axe and a thing that looked like a thick red marker pen. ‘Take these. Bears have skulls as strong as iron so the axe probably won’t be much use unless you can go for its neck, but the flare will scare it off.’
Jun gulped. The bellowing roar they had heard had sounded like the kind of bear that would face down a tank. Still, any weapons were better than nothing.
‘You ready, kid?’
Jun clipped the end of his rope to the brace he had belted around himself and flexed a foot in the little metal crampon he had tied around his snow boots. He nodded. ‘Ready.’
‘Okay, let’s go. Ken, be ready to haul on the rope if necessary.’
With the ropes tied around one of the lookout’s support pillars, Dai began feeding it out through his hands as he climbed down through the disturbed snow. As Jun started to follow him, he understood why Dai had insisted on the crampons. He had expected soft, slushy snow, but the lack of sunlight and the deepening cold had made the surface crusty and hard like ice. It was easy to grip with the metal spikes underneath their boots, but without them they could slip down the slope at any time.
The lookout, with Ken and Akane standing beside it, became smaller and smaller as they descended, feeding the rope out as they went. Jun didn’t like to look down any more than he had to, so he kept his eyes on Akane as much as possible. Every few steps she would lift a hand and give a brief wave.
Beside him, Dai was working the rope like an experienced climber; step, feed, check brace, step, feed, over and over again, while Jun jerked and tugged on the rope, his feet slipping and stumbling beneath him. ‘You’ve done this before, I take it?’ he said, alarmed at how his voice echoed out across the still valley.
‘Grew up in Aomori prefecture,’ Dai said with a smile. ‘They get a lot of snow up there. The ski runs are crap though, so we spent most of our time snowshoeing and exploring in the hills. Good fun. Sucks if someone slips and hurts themselves. Getting a helicopter out costs a fortune.’
They reached the bottom of the initial slope, coming to rest in a deep gash in the hill where the avalanche had hollowed out a bowl, continued on over a flatter ridge and then begun descending again.
‘Ropes are out,’ Dai said. ‘We walk from here.’
The sky was barely visible through the snowy branches overhead, just a darkening grey smudge that looked laden with snow. As Jun looked up, he saw a few errant flakes drifting down.
Dai was making his way across the flatter part of the ridge, following the trail of disturbed snow. Jun hurried after him, wincing each time the snow shifted underfoot, as if at any point it might give way and bury him up to his neck.
‘There he is!’ Dai hissed, pointing over the ridge. ‘Oh my.’
As Jun reached Dai’s shoulder he looked downslope and saw O-Remo lying among the disturbed snow under the trees, his hands outstretched, his legs spread behind him. Jun’s eyes widened as O-Remo lifted his head, groaned, then reached out and pulled himself forward a few inches.
‘He’s still alive,’ Dai said.
When they reached him, it was clear that O-Remo was clinging on to life by a thread. His face was ashen and a trail of blood showed his progress up through the trees from the base of the avalanche. As Jun stared at the twisted, bloody lump that was O-Remo’s lower leg, he couldn’t believe the singer had made it so far on his own.
Dai climbed down to him and squatted down. He pulled a rucksack off his back and began rifling through it as O-Remo groaned on the snow beside him. Jun shook his own shock away and went over to help, unsure what Dai was planning.
‘This’ll do,’ Dai said, pulling a roll of tape from the bag. ‘Kid, get me a couple of sticks, about the same length.’
‘Sure.’ Jun turned and made his way off into the trees, looking for some loose branches. The hillside rose high above him, but as he climbed past a large stump it opened out, the slope easing off and arcing around towards a glittering pool of water, partly covered with ice, just visible through the trees.
Jun paused a moment, drinking in the beauty of the silent, snow-covered forest. He took a deep breath and looked around, trying to push the growing feeling of helplessness out of his mind. Then his eyes fell on the lake through the trees and what optimism he had begun to feel was crushed by its own damning avalanche.