Tale of the Dead Town

by Hideyuki Kikuchi

  “I’ve seen too much,” D said dispassionately.

  “Still—” the physician began to say, but then a mysterious light filled his eyes. “Okay, I understand about the missiles. But what about the gangways being sent over after they pulled alongside us? You mean to say that was programmed into their computers as well?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I see. But . . . ”

  “Let’s go.”

  D turned around. As the physician was about to ask him to wait, he heard a low groan beneath his feet. The ship was starting to move. “What in the name of—”

  “It’s setting off on another journey. A new voyage of plunder.” D’s voice trailed off into the distance.

  The other two went after him. The whole ship was mired in an eeriness that staggered the imagination. Just as the three of them finished crossing the gangway, the pirate ship gradually began pulling away from the town.

  “Where do you suppose she’ll go?” asked Dr. Tsurugi.

  Lori gazed at D. The same question swam in her innocent eyes.

  Both of them had already noticed something—the dark destiny that hung over the pirate ship. Somewhere on it, something still survived: the will of the crew that’d grown tired, killed their compatriots out of that boredom, and ultimately programmed their computer with orders for indiscriminate destruction and marauding before they themselves disappeared. The ship would leave on another voyage. Without a destination, she was steered by a shapeless hand on a horrifying journey of nothing but murder and plunder.

  D and his companions watched the ship’s dwindling form for what seemed like ages.

  “Mayor’s not around, is he?” D said.

  “Probably at home. It’s kind of strange, though. Barring extraordinary circumstances, he’s not really the type to sit on the sidelines in a situation like this . . . ”

  “You should send Lori back to the hospital. And don’t forget to take those weapons. You should go back with her.”

  The physician scanned the area, a shaken look in his eyes. If a man who didn’t run without good reason had turned tail, there could be only one explanation—something big had happened. Taking Lori by the hand as the girl wondered what was going on, Dr. Tsurugi walked off toward the hospital.

  D headed straight for the mayor’s house. Ming’s daughter came out and told the Hunter her father was in the control room. Not even acknowledging the thick, syrupy gaze the young lady kept trained on him, D turned right around.

  As the town slid into a calm afternoon, an unnatural atmosphere hung over everything. D alone understood. Only he saw the resemblance between the mood in town and the eerie atmosphere that hung over the pirate vessel.

  As he slipped in through the control room door, a shadowy form blocked his field of view. Using just his left hand, D caught the man flying toward him like a rag doll. It was one of the men who worked in the control room. His lower jaw had been completely torn off, and bloodstains covered his chest like an apron. His eyes had rolled up in his head. Fear and massive shock had stopped his heart. It was the work of a monster, something beyond the human ken.

  Gently setting the dead man down, D turned his gaze forward to the perpetrator. Weapon in hand, the mayor was frozen in place. In front of him stood another worker. Several corpses lay at the worker’s feet. All of them had bulging eyes, and skin as pale as paraffin. There was no need to see the wound at the base of each neck.

  The worker turned toward the Hunter. He was in his forties. According to the list the mayor had given D, his name was Gertz Diason.

  “Careful, D! He’s a vampire!” the mayor shouted.

  The worker opened his mouth, displaying a pair of stark white fangs. Discarding the bloody lower jaw he had in his hand, he slowly walked toward D. He knew who the real foe was. His feet stopped moving. If the vampire knew who his enemy was, he also knew the extent of his enemy’s power. Fear left a clear taint on his cruel face.

  “When did he start acting strangely?” D asked. His tone was so tranquil in the face of this fearsome opponent that it absolutely beggared belief.

  “Been like that ever since he got back a little while ago,” the mayor replied. He was also rather composed. And not just because D was there. “About three hours ago, they let him go home for a nap. After he came back to the control room, it seems he attacked the nearest guy. When a second man went down, one of the workers came and got me.”

  “Where’s the town going?” D asked, his question on an entirely different track.

  The enemy snarled. Whipping up the air, he attacked D. It was an ill-conceived attempt. As he passed D’s shadowy form, it became clear that the Hunter had his longsword in hand. The blade sank deep into the fiend’s chest, and, as the menace dropped, the mayor let his shoulders fall.

  “Is this the result of the Knights’ experiments?” D asked softly. “Is this what you wanted to get your hands on? Is this the peace you idealized?”

  “Stop it!” the mayor shouted. “The Knights succeeded in their experiments, I tell you. Right in that very house. I knew that much. What they produced was perfect. That’s why I wanted their method! Because my own efforts turned out imperfect.”

  “You kept what you’d created alive, and hid it somewhere. Kept the failure your experiments had created, when the Knights had been successful.”

  A frightening silence descended. It was D who formed the silence, and D who broke it.

  “What did you hope to accomplish by turning the people in your town into vampires? Did you want to make eternal travelers?”

  The mayor’s Adam’s apple bobbed wildly.

  -

  II

  -

  Before they had made their way back to the hospital, Lori noticed that a ghastly atmosphere had shrouded the town. Someone was watching them, she felt, through the keyhole in a closed door, or through a crack in drawn blinds, or from a back alley entrance. Lori was going to latch onto Dr. Tsurugi’s arm, but then thought better of it. He was the one who was really hurt here. This wasn’t a matter of who was a man and who was a woman. Maybe she couldn’t hear or speak, but the strong still had to take care of the weak. And neither strength nor weakness had anything to do with one’s physical condition.

  However, the road carried them back to the hospital without incident. Though the physician called out the nurse’s name, there was no answer. “Looks like she’s gone,” he clucked. Then, flopping down into a rickety chair, he quickly grabbed a memo pad and handed it to Lori. Stay in the hospital. You mustn’t go outside. And don’t forget that shotgun.

  Lori wrote a reply: Okay, but you need to be taken care of first. Where’s the medicine?

  Stored with the other drugs in the next room. You’ll have to apply it to me.

  Nodding, Lori straightened herself up. Her body brimmed with vitality. This was the joy of accomplishment. Leaning her shotgun against the wall, she hurried out of the examination room.

  For a hospital that seemed so cramped, the drug storeroom alone was huge. This room held the keys to life for the whole town. Lori knew the name of the medicine she needed—after all, she was the daughter of two chemists. The various medicines were organized according to their usage. The jars she was looking for were stored next to the artificial-skin patches back on the farthest rack, stacked one shelf below the acid. Grabbing two jars and a heap of skin patches, Lori turned.

  A woman in white was standing in front of her. It was the nurse. Her eyes were strangely red. Like she was angry.

  I’m sorry, Lori mouthed slowly. As a nurse, the other woman would be used to things like that.

  The woman’s lips slowly twisted and formed a smile. From the corners of it, fangs peeked out.

  Lori froze in her tracks.

  The nurse’s thick fingers latched onto the girl’s frail shoulders. Lips that loosed the winds of hell slowly climbed up her throat.

  Help me! Lori shouted. But no voice came from her. Of course it wouldn’t. Though the girl struggled wi
th all her might, the vampire’s hands didn’t budge. Help me! Lori screamed, not giving up. Help! Please! Somebody, help me!

  They were cries no one could hear. The voice of despair, frail and futile. Lori knew at last she was truly alienated. Left in a world where she sought aid, but no one would come. She was its sole resident. The significance of the sunrise she’d watched with D was swept away with everything else. Fear of the unknown filled the girl’s mind.

  When the nurse pressed her lips against the nape of Lori’s neck, the girl reached out with her left hand and grabbed a jar on the shelf above. She smacked it against the woman’s face with all of her might, and the jar shattered. White smoke enveloped the fiend’s hateful visage. The nurse reeled backward. Acid had gone into her eyes.

  Knocking the nurse out of the way, Lori ran. A hand as cold as ice caught her ankle. The chill spread throughout her body, and Lori grew stiff. There was a strong tug on her leg. Pulling her back to the fallen fiend. Another pull. Her body slid across the floor. Something heavy clambered onto her back, and Lori tried to give a scream.

  No one came. The doors were closed. Something as minor as the sound of a glass jar breaking wouldn’t reach the examination room.

  Lori was mired in despair. Then, the pressure of someone sitting on her back suddenly vanished. Something black was oozing through the middle of the door. As the blackness took human shape, Lori looked up at it with teary eyes.

  How have you been? a cheerful voice said in her head. Today it sounded terribly bold.

  You can understand me, right? You understand what I’m saying, Lori thought back. Please, you’ve got to help me!

  Just leave it to me, the voice agreed readily.

  The nurse pulled herself up. She burned with a demonic urge to fight this new foe. As she held her hands out in front of her chest, the fingers were spread for clawing. Like an animal the nurse pounced, but the black shadow went right through her. A black semicircle jutted from the white chest of her uniform. The nurse collapsed in a heap.

  In no time, the semicircle had vanished. Lori couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of physical properties the weapon must’ve possessed.

  How about that? That’s what happens when a monster or two crosses my path. You wanna learn how to do this stuff, too?

  I do, Lori thought, wishing it with all her heart. Telepathy—a way to speak without using words. A flying disk that could kill a servant of the bloodsucking Nobility with one blow. Lori had to have these things.

  Then we should be able to do something here. I need to ask one favor of you, if that’s okay.

  Just name it. I’ll do whatever you want.

  Lori’s feverish, trembling thoughts were overlaid with a man’s cold laughter. Well, it’s like this . . .

  -

  Aspecial kind of death was racing around town. Just now, it’d paid a visit to one house, and, after meeting it for just a few seconds’ time, all five members of the family thudded to the floor. It couldn’t drink their blood, and this displeased it. But it was fated not to drink the blood of its peers. You might say it was performing the same role as a kind of infectious germ.

  Emanating from every inch of it were what could be called vampire bacteria. The bacteria entered into the unlucky people through their skin and then moved into their muscle cells, going all the way to the marrow of their bones. And then something else was born. Night’s baleful energy sprang from the marrow of their bones, and their muscles grew ten times stronger. No matter how much damage the skin cells might take, they’d regenerate in a few seconds. Surpassing humanity in every respect, and terrifying them in every respect as well. All because of their lust for blood . . .

  Less than five minutes after their visitor had left, the family members awoke. They felt the hunger. And there was another powerful urge as well. They had to make more of their kind. They’d been made to avoid competing with each other.

  More of our kind—

  Make more of our kind—

  And then the family left their home behind, each member off to separately fulfill their common duty.

  -

  When D came to the hospital looking for Lori, he heard from a deathly pale Dr. Tsurugi how the girl had been attacked by the vampire nurse. The Hunter seemed to have only the slightest interest in the incident. “Was she okay?” he asked.

  “More or less,” Dr. Tsurugi replied.

  And that was the end of it.

  Gripping a memo pad and electromagnetic pen in her delicate hands, Lori wrote, What can I do for you?

  D’s well-formed lips began to move. “I want you to go to your old house.”

  Why?

  “Your parents hid certain chemical and mathematical formulas somewhere in the house before they ran off. If we don’t dispose of them once and for all, there’s likely to be more trouble, and you’ve seen the abominable results of such experiments with your own eyes.”

  But I don’t know anything!

  “Was there any place in particular in the house where your parents often brought you?”

  Yes, there was.

  “That’s what I need to know, and that’s why you have to go with me.”

  Okay. Putting the pen down, Lori got up.

  -

  About the town—where do you think it’s headed? Lori asked D as they walked along. Her lips merely shaped the words. She got no answer. Perhaps that was because it didn’t matter.

  Suddenly, D said, “Apparently a new destination’s been programmed into the computers. That’s where we’re headed.”

  But where is that?

  “Given our present course, a place where there’s ruins and graves that belonged to the Nobility.”

  Why would we go to such a place?

  “We’d have to ask whoever input the heading. Though I have a feeling I might know.”

  What do you mean by that?

  This time D didn’t answer her. The two of them entered the old Knight house.

  “Now, then, if you could show me the place you mentioned,” D said softly.

  Lori nodded.

  Not surprisingly, the first place they went was the laboratory, someplace that’d been searched thoroughly by both D and the black shadow.

  My father was always tapping the top of that desk with his finger. He may have been hiding something.

  D reached for the pressure-resistant desk crafted of mahogany. “Where did he hit it?”

  Lori pointed at a certain section. Though the surface of the desk seemed perfectly normal, on closer inspection it appeared that just that one spot was a bit more faded than the rest.

  D stroked the surface. “How about it?” he asked.

  Although Lori couldn’t hear what he’d said, her eyes were riveted to him. There was definitely something rising grotesquely from the palm of his left hand. It resembled a human face. Lori watched silently as its lips moved.

  “Hmm. The surface has been finished with something to bring out the shine. But it’s oddly light in the part she just pointed out. The problem doesn’t seem to be the thickness of the coat, but rather the composition.”

  “Is the composition the same?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay. Stand back, please.”

  Lori backed away, just as she was told. After all, there was something she had to do to the young man.

  D’s longsword flashed out. The swipe of his steel was faster than any eye could follow. Cleanly sliced from the desk, the piece of wood in question landed in D’s left hand. “Analyze it,” D commanded.

  “Damn, you’re a regular slave driver,” the mouth in his hand remarked with discontent.

  D pressed the thin board into the palm of his hand. A second passed, then two, then three.

  “Good enough,” a cramped voice said, trickling out between the hand and the board.

  D opened his hand. The face on his palm had been reduced to just a pair of lips. A red tongue hung from them. Apparently his left hand had analyzed the material by licking it, as
evidenced by the fact the surface of the board was wet.

  “The atomic arrangement of each element forms a single letter or digit in the formula. That’s a real good hiding place. If any given element is too thick or too thin, the letter disappears.”

  “Yes, it certainly is clever. So—” D began to say, but, as he looked over his shoulder, a pale little hand slammed a wooden wedge into his chest. Staggering back, D thudded to the floor. Surely he never dreamed Lori would reach around from behind him to put a stake in him.

  But, in fact, Lori hadn’t driven a stake into him at all.

  With the realization that D’s body wasn’t moving in the slightest, the girl’s sweet countenance suddenly crumbled, and an indescribably crude smile surfaced in its place. The voice that came from her was that of a man. “Now that’s the way you do it! That’s one obstacle out of the way, I guess. I bet it never occurred to him I might slip into the little lady he trusted the most. No hard feelings, bucko. Everything in life just boils down to business.”

  When the girl smiled broadly once again, her expression was unmistakably that of John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII.

  -

  The town kept moving. D still lay on the floor with a stake through his heart. The mayor had come and was engaged in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic conversation with Lori, and somewhere in town Pluto VIII’s body wasn’t breathing at all, while his heart alone kept beating. Dr. Tsurugi knew none of this, but mantled as he was in a vague fear, he could do nothing but arm himself with a scalpel and a shotgun.

  -

  Those scattering the vampire plague were paying quiet calls on the houses in town, while those who had fallen waited impatiently for the sun to go down. And those intently watching the three-dimensional radar in the navigational control room discovered a vast expanse of ruins on the plateau some twenty miles ahead of them—and they were terribly shocked to find there was less than an eight-inch difference between the height of the plateau and their present altitude.

  -

  Okay, time to come up with a final price. How much are you offering, fancy pants?” Lori asked, her lovely lips twisting into a sneer. Needless to say, the falsetto voice belonged to Pluto VIII. “I’ve got the chemical formula and mathematical equations you need to become a Noble. You’ve gotta be willing to pay handsomely for that.”