by Ben Stevens
And now here was this podgy teenager, filming this chaos – this screaming insanity.
‘Quit following me, you dumb little bastard,’ said Miyuki suddenly, viciously, turning on Henmi and almost lashing out at him with the weapon she had in her hand, so acute was her feeling of rage.
‘People are dying all around us; this city is in ruins and you’re treating this like it’s some kind of fucking opportunity for you to make a movie?’ she demanded, her voice wavering between severe indignation and utter incredulity.
‘I – ’ began Henmi; but Miyuki didn’t really want to hear him speak.
‘Your family – what about them? Have you tried contacting them, making sure they’re all right?’ she said.
Again, Henmi made to speak; and again Miyuki made to cut him off, when they were both startled by a wild yell sounding from very nearby.
They looked to see a young shop-worker – white shirt and grey apron still tied around his waist – poised precariously on an air-conditioning unit attached to a wall and to one side of a first-floor sliding window.
This window was open – and leaning out of it were two creatures, one wearing the same type of shirt as the young man. Their arms were outstretched, the claw-like hands missing their intended prey by mere inches. The young man was balanced awkwardly on top of the white, boxlike unit, his fingers awkwardly gripping a section of concrete that jutted out very slightly from the wall.
It seemed that at any moment he’d fall – straight down to the several creatures gathered below him, their own arms reaching up in their earnest desire to grab him and then rip apart his warm flesh with their teeth. The young man gave another wild yell, his tenuous grip on the ornamental concrete ‘lip’ obviously beginning to weaken.
Followed by Henmi – filming once again – Miyuki moved towards the creatures gathered directly below the air-conditioning unit. With a cry, she lifted the sword with both hands, hoisting it up above her right shoulder and then bringing it around and down in a slashing arc that instantly cut one thing completely in two, just above the waistline.
‘Shittu-sayku,’ sighed Miyuki, as the thing’s upper torso continued to squirm, the arms flapping.
‘…As I have shown in other footage already recorded, these things can only be killed with some sort of severe blow – or, preferably, gunshot – to the head. What has just happened now proves this concisely: one of these creatures cut completely in two, the upper half still living, still moving…’
As Henmi continued his breathless commentary, all the while still filming, Miyuki spared him a venomous glance. But the things gathered below the air-con unit were now transferring their attention to her, rather than the young man balanced above. They seemed completely unmindful of the danger presented by the sword, even with one of their members cut clean in two parts which were now lying there by their feet…
Miyuki knew that she couldn’t avoid killing now. The young man was set to fall and when he did he’d land right in the centre of those things. He’d be one of them within the space of a minute. Plus, she’d also now attracted their attention. So her intended actions weren’t entirely altruistic; there was also an element of self-preservation to what she was doing.
The sword lifted and slashed. Lifted and slashed. Even as she slashed and cut, some distant, almost remote part of Miyuki’s mind was astounded at just how familiar this weapon felt in her hands. As though she’d used it before, in some previous existence…
‘…And there, cut clean in half straight down the middle… The student named Miyuki… I’m sorry, I forget her surname – this student of Aoyama high-school clearly an expert at using a sword,’ stammered Henmi, then demanding of Miyuki –
‘Where did you learn to use a sword like that? It’s incredible!’
Miyuki ignored the asinine question, instead now shouting at the young man some ten feet above –
‘It’s okay; they’re all dead. You can come down. Just hang from your arms, and then drop. You’ll be fine.’
The young man did as told, escaping the two pairs of hands which continued to claw at him from the open window next to the air con unit. He fell to the ground, the chopped-up body parts of the things scattered all around him.
‘Thank you,’ he said, tears flowing as he got up to fling his arms around Miyuki. ‘Thank you so much…’
‘It’s okay,’ returned Miyuki in a mumble, arms down by her side, the sword still in her right hand.
Then, abruptly, the young man broke off his embrace, saying as he began to sprint away: ‘I have to find my way back home – to my mother and father!’
‘Just – just take care,’ returned Miyuki, the teenager who was only a couple of years older than herself looking so fragile as he mingled among the other survivors, who were all the while running past… Miyuki hoped he’d find his way home; hoped he’d be safe after she’d basically saved his life…
But…
Then Miyuki turned her attention towards the podgy form of Henmi, who now had the smartphone turned upon himself as he gave a summary concerning recent events, just like a television reporter.
Realizing that the attentions of the teenage girl carrying the sword were now focused upon him, Henmi resumed filming her…
‘You should take better care of yourself, Henmi,’ said Miyuki. ‘Just standing there, filming away without a care in the world. You knew what I was like before – a bully. So with society now breaking down, and this sword in my hand, why do you think my character’s changed at all…?’
A faint, almost mocking smile played on her full lips as she advanced towards him. She raised the sword, staring directly into his face…
‘Wha – ? But… but Miyuki-san, what are you talking about?’ stammered the podgy geek, still filming even in the midst of his terror.
Down came the sword, Henmi giving a screech of terror, pulling his arms in towards him in anticipation of the blow that would cleave him in two…
And yet the sword missed him, cutting instead into the creature that at that very moment laid one of its twisted hands onto Henmi’s left shoulder.
The creature fell backwards, a section of it that ran from the right-hand side of its skull down to the top of its rib cage on the left-hand side separating from the rest of its body. The two parts slopped to the ground, where they twitched for a few moments before lying still.
‘Uh… uh…’ repeated Henmi, his facial color now a little green and with an expression that suggested he’d just pissed in his pants. But still he had his phone raised, filming the dismembered creature on the ground before again directing his smartphone at Miyuki.
‘Watch out, Henmi,’ said Miyuki, giving him a slight, almost mischievous smile before she began walking again.
She knew, without having to look backwards, that he was following her. Still filming, of course.
Let him. Truth was, she was beginning to enjoy – if only just slightly – the attention. She just hoped the geek would keep a slightly better watch on his immediate surroundings from now on. As it was, she was amazed that he had, somehow, so far gotten away without being bitten…
…Miyuki visited her mother three times in hospital. Basically every other day since her mother had been admitted. Doctors said she had some damage to her liver and kidneys because of all the pills she’d taken in her bid to kill herself, but that this damage should repair itself.
Said her mother had been lucky.
Lucky…
Miyuki held her mother’s hand and sat for an hour or so in the late afternoon after school. Not knowing what to say. Her mother shamed, avoiding eye-contact. Also sort of permanently drowsy.
And then Miyuki went home to the drab high-rise apartment. No one checking up on her. She just got up and went to school as normal each day, even with her mother in hospital after a suicide attempt. Miyuki didn’t know what to make of it all. Just met her friends in the evening, in some park, and talked too loudly, smoked cigarettes and never mentioned the fact that her mother
had tried to kill herself.
And sometimes Miyuki awoke in the middle of the night, felt guilty and started to cry…
…At last the hospital came into view. Miyuki had trudged for what felt like forever through screaming chaos, society breaking down all around her. Henmi at her side, alternately filming the sword-carrying schoolgirl and then the staggering, lurching creatures that were everywhere. Falling snarling on the survivors, very few people even carrying any sort of weapon with which to defend themselves…
What the hell’s wrong with people? thought Miyuki almost viciously. They basically just gave themselves up as being lost right from the start; virtually allowed these lurching creatures just to pull them to the ground and tear out their throats with those hideous snapping teeth…
A number of times, Miyuki used her sword. Spotting that a creature was about to bite a still-human – but hadn’t done so just yet – and so quickly decapitating that creature before it could claim another victim. On a number of occasions, Henmi trailed a bouncing head along the road with his smartphone, quickly making sure that he then captured the headless body collapsing to the ground…
Miyuki had realized that the lunacy afflicting Tokyo – or at least the part of Tokyo she was in now – needed to be recorded. Not by a TV news-crew protected by American soldiers; but by a student, here in the thick of it, law and order completely broken down.
There – an obvious yakuza gangster (tinted glasses, punch-perm hair, black suit) fought right alongside a hatless policeman, both men firing their guns at the things all around.
Now, they were aiming exclusively for the head.
They’ve realized, thought Miyuki; who then quickly went to the men’s assistance as they both found themselves having to reload at the same time. As though sensing their weakness, the things clustered around them quickly staggered forwards – which was when Miyuki struck out with her blade, fast and hard, Henmi filming at the same as he gave his breathless commentary, the severed heads of the things smacking onto the sidewalk.
‘Hey – thanks,’ grunted the yakuza gangster, his gun reloaded and again taking aim.
‘Where did you get that sword?’ demanded the policeman.
‘You just look out for yourself,’ retorted Miyuki, even now feeling a certain pleasure in back-chatting a cop.
The policeman made to reply; then realized he had his hands full shooting the things clustered all around…
…But here was the hospital. A car park outside the front entrance, a number of ambulances parked haphazardly, their front and backdoors still open. A trolley lying on its side nearby; bloodstains on the asphalt. The two huge sliding glass doors were open. Usually they opened and shut automatically but now, for some reason, they gave a yawning entrance into the cavernous ground-floor of the hospital.
Things staggered around inside, drooling, turning to stare in the direction of Miyuki and the filming otaku as the pair entered. The creatures were dressed in hospital uniforms – white-dressed nurses; blue-suited porters… A number of things were also wearing hospital gowns, slit up the backs so their backsides were exposed. Miyuki heard a strangely distant humming in her ears as she searched for her mother, certain that at any moment she’d spot her…
But, as yet, she did not.
Her mother was on the fourth floor of the hospital. Strange that this whole thing should have started – for Miyuki, at least – on the fourth floor of her school that was several miles away. Miyuki took the stairs. The three elevators all in a row looked as though they were operational – power still on – but no way was Miyuki deliberately placing herself in a confined space.
Henmi followed her up the stairs, which turned at 180 degrees halfway up before hitting the floor above. There were things here, holding onto the handrail, and as they staggered towards her – almost looking as though they’d just miss their footing and fall downwards, but somehow never quite doing this – Miyuki struck out with her sword and cut them in two.
‘Why are we here, Miyuki?’ ventured Henmi, in the midst of all the bloodshed.
‘To find my mother,’ returned Miyuki, the blade flashing down yet again. How many of these things had she killed so far today? Too many; no point even trying to keep count.
They aren’t human – they aren’t human Miyuki forcibly reminded herself.
And yet, she couldn’t forget that they had once been human. Skilled professionals, some of them, working long hours for the benefit of others. Nurses, doctors – what the hell had caused them to become like this…?
Something released on the Tokyo subway early that morning, Trouble had said. But then, who was to say whether that would-be rapist had even spoken the truth…?
…Reaching the fourth-floor now, bodies littering the staircase below. Even Henmi reduced almost to awed silence (although he kept filming) by all the bloodshed – although, given that the things hardly bled if at all when cut, there was hardly any actual blood. But still the floor was sticky, from all the living people who’d had their throats torn out however many hours before.
Still Miyuki kept thinking she was about to discover her mother. Would she be able to cut her down, as she was almost casually cutting down all these other former humans? Would she not just freeze, wholly unable to use her sword, her mother now become a thing bearing down on her, that thin, overworked body given unnatural strength?
Miyuki having her throat torn out first, dropping down to the floor… Then rising back up again, joining her mother as another member of the walking dead, the pair of them descending upon the screeching, tubby otaku named Henmi, who still continued filming even as two sets of teeth tore into his flesh…?
But as the sword flashed this way and that, yet another thing falling slain at her feet, still Miyuki’s mother did not appear. And they were almost at the ward her mother had shared with four other people. It was empty, two beds heavily stained with blood. An IV stand tipped over; Miyuki stepped over it, walking towards the bed that was by the window. The bed her mother had occupied.
Next to it, smashed on the floor, was her mother’s mobile phone. As though in a trance, her vision curiously tunnel-like and that strange humming again in her ears, Miyuki bent down to pick it up.
‘Miyuki?’ said Henmi, quietly yet urgently. Irritably Miyuki shook her head; and then she realized. Realized that she didn’t have the time to get sidetracked like this – and there was a note on the table beside her mother’s bed.
Miyuki (read the note, written in a hasty, sprawling hand – the same one used by Miyuki’s mother when writing her suicide note) – if by the slightest possible chance you find this, I may be on the roof of the hospital, with a few others. We will try to get to the emergency hatch that is on the fifth floor. If I didn’t make it – I love you. And I’m sorry.
…Miyuki dashed away tears with the back of the hand not gripping her sword. She knew Henmi was filming her all the while and suddenly she turned on him.
‘How long does the fucking battery last for in that thing?’ she almost snarled, leaning in towards the lens. Henmi backed away slightly, but his body was tense with excitement. He’d seen the note also – knew that events were building up to some sort of climax…
Some things were staggering into this small ward…
‘How many of you do I have to fucking kill?’ demanded Miyuki of them, her voice almost cracking with hysteria. She’d taken about as much as any one person was humanly capable of withstanding; her sword flashed out again, almost even without conscious thought, and more body parts slopped onto the floor. She’d cut one of the things from its right shoulder down to the left side of its stomach; still the dismembered part of it – that which had the head and left arm still attached – grabbed at Miyuki’s ankle with the solitary hand as she passed. With Henmi leaning close in to film it, Henmi cut the hand and then the head.
Then she gave a small scream…
Up another flight of stairs, that was now almost crowded with the undead. All of them snarling, claw
ing at each other and almost fighting in their efforts to get to –
The emergency hatch onto the roof. It had been opened, a ladder leading up to it placed on one wall. And as Miyuki watched, one of the undead climbed the ladder – they could do this! Emerging onto the roof where oh please oh please her mother was along with however many other survivors…
But now many creatures had got up there already, the survivors having nowhere further to escape to…?
With this thought, Miyuki was once again spurred into action, forcing herself to ignore the aching tiredness in her arms as she hacked and sliced at the walking dead, making her way towards the ladder.
She cleared a circle around her, the things moaning and drooling several feet away, body parts scattered all around in front of them.
