by Tristan Vick
Kevin hated the fact that he had gone down like a lightweight and couldn’t protect her when she needed it. Kevin had to face it, he wasn’t her knight in shining armor. He was just a regular guy. A guy who liked a girl. He liked her enough to respect her wishes and not press the issue any further. “Fair enough,” he answered softly. “But if you ever do feel like talking about it, I’m here for you.”
Saeko looked up into his beautiful blue eyes, and for the first time in her life she just gave in to her instincts. She stood up on her tippy-toes and kissed his lips.
Kevin’s eyes grew wide as he gladly received her soft lips. After she pulled away, he stared back at her with a blank expression. “What was that for?”
Taking Kevin’s hand, Saeko looked him in the eyes and said, “I just felt like kissing you, that’s all.” Her cheeks turned bright pink.
Nearby, the glass window of an office building shattered, and glass rained down from overhead as a body flew out and crashed to the ground no more than sixty meters away. The person’s body exploded like a water balloon, their guts splattering all over the pavement.
Car wreck lady, still trailing after them, turned her attention to the dead body and went over to it. Bending over the bloody mess, she picked up some entrails and began chewing on them.
“Ew,” Saeko said, scrunching up her nose and squinting at the grotesque banquet.
In the distance, the wail of emergency alarms went off. Moments later half a dozen military helicopters roared overhead. At the same time explosions could be heard in uptown Tokyo, and orange and green flares shot into the evening sky, lighting it up like the Fourth of July.
“That’s the tsunami evacuation alarm,” Saeko said.
“Either that or Godzilla is attacking,” Kevin jested.
Saeko looked at him with a blank expression. Sensing she wasn’t amused by his joke, he switched topics. “Whatever is going on, it looks pretty damn bad.” Just then a car shot around the corner, tires squealing. It missed them by mere inches, but as it raced off Saeko picked up a rock and threw it at the fleeting taillights of the car.
“Asshole!” she screamed, her rock landing short. Calming herself down, she looked back at Kevin, only to find him smiling at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
After gazing into each other’s eyes for what seemed like ages, Saeko finally broke their moment and took his hand in hers. “This way,” she said, drawing him behind her, up the street toward the hotel at the end of the lane with the pink neon letters that read “Paradise Hotel.”
12
Waking Up in a Nightmare
Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Rising before the first signs of dawn, Saeko put on a change of clothes, a clean school uniform she kept in her kendo bag for those scalding hot days when she needed a fresh change. Careful not to wake her sleeping prince, she tiptoed across the room and slipped out the door.
After the strange events of yesterday, Saeko wanted to head back to the school early in the morning to see what the news was. Also, she wanted desperately to tell Eri and Makiko that she’d taken the blue-eyed American hunk with her to the love hotel and ravaged him thoroughly. They’d all laugh about it and ask for juicy details, which she’d be sure to deny them—after all, leaving it up to the imagination was so much more delectable.
As she briskly made her way through the city streets, everything seemed oddly silent. There was no traffic. No early morning joggers. No dog Walkers or kids on their way to school. Aside from a patchwork of litter and a newspaper blowing down the street from a small gust of wind, there was only the eerie silence. Saeko felt a little unnerved by it all, and thought it was probably best to get to the school as soon as possible. Somebody there ought to know what was going on.
Strolling up to the school, Saeko looked around for signs of activity, but the lights were off. It didn’t seem as though anyone was there. Granted, it was still only 6:30 A.M., so the only people who would likely be at school this early were the vice principal and school secretary.
Saeko checked the main doors to the school, but they were still locked, so she headed to the side entrance by the gymnasium. To her relief they were open. Just as she was about to step inside, she happened to glance over at the bicycle rack and noticed that Eri and Makiko’s bikes were parked in the bike rack. How sweet, she thought. They remembered.
Smiling, Saeko recollected the time all three of them had promised one another that if there was ever a serious problem they would all meet up at the school, in one of the practice music rooms. The rooms were soundproof, so they could talk in secrecy and share all the juiciest gossip without the fear of eavesdroppers and busybodies. Whatever the crisis, whatever the emergency, that’s where they had promised to meet.
Entering the darkened hallway, Saeko slowly made her way past the empty classrooms full of only unnerving shadows. She thought it was peculiar how spooky the school appeared to be when it was empty and dark. It instilled the same sense of dread inside her as that of a haunted house. But she didn’t know why that should be. After all, she spent most of her young adult life at school. She shouldn’t be afraid of it. But here she was, practically trembling as she made her way down one darkened corridor after another.
Saeko passed the school office, but there wasn’t a trace of anybody. It is just probably still too early, she told herself. But Eri and Makiko’s bikes were parked outside, and she thought it would be awfully strange if they hadn’t returned home last night. And if something was wrong, if something had happened to one of them, the other one would have surely called her to let her know before then. Regardless, if they had gotten into the school, Saeko imagined they probably had snuck through the side entrance like she had.
Walking up the flights of stairs in the empty stairwell, only the sound of her shoes clapping upon the cold linoleum steps as she went, Saeko thought she heard a noise. She froze in her tracks midway up the second flight of stairs. Listening intently, she strained her ears to catch what it might have been, but she didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary and chalked it up to the wind picking up outside.
Arriving on the third floor, Saeko turned the corner to head down the long hallway that led to the music room at the other end. She saw a dark figure standing in the middle of the corridor. She wasn’t expecting anyone to be there, and she accidentally let out a small scream from the sudden fright.
Touching her chest and catching her breath, she said, “You frightened me.”
Peering into the darkness, Saeko could barely make out the obscure form of a female student. “Hello?” Saeko beckoned. But the girl didn’t answer her call. As she cautiously made her way down the hall toward the mysterious individual, she asked, “Is everything all right?”
She inched closer. It seemed the closer she got, the more the girl looked like the spitting image of Makiko. She had the same petite frame and stout legs and wore her skirt several inches too short to give the impression that her legs were longer than they actually were. But something didn’t seem right about her. She just stood there, with her back turned to Saeko, swaying to and fro as if she were listening to music with her eyes closed—which wouldn’t be horribly odd, except for the fact that she didn’t have any headphones on.
“Makiko? Is that you?” Saeko asked, putting her arm on the girl’s shoulder.
Ever so slowly, the girl’s head turned to look at whatever had disturbed her. Recoiling in fright, Saeko immediately took back her hand and gulped down a scream.
It was Makiko, but her eyes were glazed over in a milky-white. Saeko noticed bite marks on Makiko’s neck and sternum. They were red and spongy, as if someone had tried to tear a chunk of her neck off with their teeth but only managed to tear a small bit. The rest had fallen back into place—mostly. Saeko thought it looked rather like a piece of raw steak dangling out of the open wound on her neck. Seeing her best friend mutilated like this made her even more emotional.
“Makiko! It
’s me, Saeko. Listen to me,” Saeko pleaded. “I need to get you to a hospital, immediately.”
Makiko awkwardly staggered forward, as if she had lost her sense of balance, causing Saeko to reflexively put out her hands to try and catch her if she should fall. Luckily, Makiko regained her balance. Looking as Saeko with those vacant, white-washed eyes, Makiko waited a few moments, then hissed and lunged forward. She grasped hold of the lapel of Saeko’s school uniform and pulled Saeko toward her snapping jaws.
Saeko pushed Makiko off her, and they stumbled backward. “Makiko, listen to me! You’re not well. We need to get you to the hospital,” Saeko pleaded, but Makiko didn’t listen. She merely wanted to take a bite out of Saeko’s hide.
Makiko was acting exactly like the strange man whom Saeko and Kevin had encountered yesterday. The same man who had digested Terajima’s butt-ugly face.
Makiko, as if on autopilot, merely resumed her sluggish line of attack and lurched forward again. Again, Makiko attempted to grab Saeko’s jacket, but Saeko simply swatted her hands away. “Stop this! This isn’t like you.”
“Hisssssch!”
The sound came from directly behind Saeko’s head. Screaming, Saeko spun around and saw the blanched features of Eri’s face—except for the shiny red blood that dripped down the side of her head, trailing down her cheek and neck, from the spot where her left ear used to be. The wound looked relatively recent, perhaps no more than an hour or so old. Worse than all of this, she had the same white eyes as Makiko—the same as the strange man from yesterday.
Before Saeko could react, Eri lunged at her, pallid fingers reaching out to grab her. The two of them toppled to the ground, with Eri landing on top of Saeko. The wind was knocked out of Saeko from the sudden spill, and as she tried to regain her breath, Eri’s fingernails dug into her forearm. Saeko yelped out from the tearing pain, but other than a small trickle of blood no serious damage had been done.
Kicking Eri off, Saeko rolled over and crawled on her hands and knees to get away. As she crawled across the cold floor she couldn’t remember a time her pulse had raced so furiously. Not even during her most difficult kendo matches had her heart pounded so vigorously in her chest.
Rising to her feet, Saeko turned to see Makiko gracelessly staggering toward her, like a drunk. At the same time, Eri was getting back up again too. Both girls seemed to be stuck in some kind of trance, a trance that led to a dreadful automation that overrode their very humanity.
Covering her mouth, Saeko muffled the intense sobs that suddenly hit her as she watched both of her closest friends try to chase her down like she was wild game.
Slowly backing away, she slipped into the shadows of the hallway. With tears streaming down her face, Saeko turned and ran. The two girls continued after her, shambling awkwardly along at a slow, uncoordinated pace.
Running as fast as her legs would carry her, her heart pounding in her chest from the potent cocktail of fear and adrenaline, Saeko tore down the flights of stairs and rushed out of the school. Something is terribly wrong, she thought to herself.
“Oomph!” Saeko smashed into something, rebounded off, and crashed to the ground, landing flat on her ass.
Looking up at what she had collided with, she saw the face of Iwasaki sensei staring down at her with white eyes.
“No!” Saeko cried out. “Not you too, sensei.”
“Gruhhh!” he replied vacantly.
Scrambling to her feet, Saeko wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve and evaded her sensei’s swipes. Running back toward the school, she saw Eri and Makiko staggering out of the side doors and Saeko dodged their clumsy attempts to grab her. She ran past them back to the dojo.
Inside, she ran straight to the girls’ changing room and grabbed her backup bag. The one she used for out of town matches. Getting what she needed, she tore out of there as fast as she could and never looked back.
What she failed to notice, in her haste, was the dark figure lurking on the opposite side of the school gates, watching her with hungry eyes.
13
Best Served Cold
Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Sunlight pierced the shades and stirred Kevin awake. Rubbing his blurry eyes, he reached for Saeko, planning to wake her with a good morning kiss. But his fingers only found the cool smoothness of the chartreuse linen. Sitting up in bed, he looked around the room, and his eyes settled on the bedspread lying in a messy heap on the floor, proof that their evening had been everything they had hoped it would be.
Growing worried, Kevin rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around for Saeko. He checked the bathroom, under the bed, and the closet. But she wasn’t anywhere to be found. She wasn’t in the room. Suddenly, he felt his chest fill with panic. Where could she be off to? he contemplated.
Looking up, Kevin saw a message written on the mirror in bold purple lipstick. It simply read, “The roof.”
Kevin dressed and scurried out the door, hopping on one foot to get the shoe on his other as he went. Finally stepping into the elevator at the end of the hall, he hit the button, but there wasn’t any response. Rubbing his chin, he paused for a moment, then pressed all the buttons just for good measure. Still nothing. He shrugged, re-entered the hallway, and took the stairwell instead, climbing his way toward the roof, where she’d be.
Huffing and puffing, Kevin made it to the rooftop and stepped out into the open. Looking around, he saw Saeko standing off to the right, near the edge of the building. She was dressed head to toe in her full kendo armor. She held her face guard at her side and turned toward him when she heard his footsteps shuffling toward her.
“Hi,” he said, with a lazy yawn. Saeko looked at him grimly. It wasn’t the bright cheerful smile he remembered from the evening before. It was her competition face—a look that meant business. “What’s going on? Why are you wearing your armor?”
Saeko pointed out at the city skyline and said, “Look!”
Kevin stepped up alongside her and looked out across the Tokyo cityscape. Large portions of it were on fire. Other areas were completely blotted out by black smoke. Eerily, though, there were no emergency sirens. No alarms. Just silence as the city slowly burned all around them.
Saeko’s face was grave. “I think we’re at war.”
“What? You really think so?” Kevin asked.
“It’s gotta be. What other explanation could there be?”
Scratching his chin, Kevin agreed. Saeko’s theory made the most sense. “Terrorists? North Korea, perhaps?”
“I don’t know,” Saeko said. As they made eye contact, a helicopter dropped out of the sky, smashed into the tall building a couple blocks away, and exploded. They ducked just as the boom shattered glass around them and a large fireball erupted over their heads. Getting back up, they watched as burning debris fell to the street fifteen stories below.
“What do we do?” Kevin asked.
Saeko thumbed over her shoulder. “I went back to the school and picked up a few things while you were still asleep.”
Kevin turned and saw a full duffel bag overflowing with a second set of Kendo armor, some bamboo swords, a couple of baseball bats, a first aid kit, and some other supplies.
“Get suited up,” Saeko said. “We’re going to have to fight our way out.”
“What do you mean?” snorted Kevin. He rubbed the back of his head, which was still sore from yesterday’s beating. Saeko pointed down at the street on the other side of the building.
“Down there,” she said.
Kevin walked over the other edge and looked over. What he saw caused him to shuffle back in fright. Edging forward, he looked over the ledge again and looked down at a throng of bodies surrounding the hotel. It looked like Black Friday bargain shoppers massing out front of the outlet stores, ready to burst inside and stampede one another into the ground to be the first to snatch up all the bargain deals. Only these people weren’t entirely people. They were zombies.
Down below, the loitering
horde consisted of torn-up, mauled, and mutilated bodies. Muscle sinews exposed, skin peeling off, all of them looked as though they had been through the wringer and then the meat grinder. But they were somehow still alive.
Kevin murmured, “...the hell?” Looking back over his shoulder at Saeko, he asked, “What do you think they want?”
“I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do. But it seems everyone is getting infected by … well …whatever the hell it is.”
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Kevin said.
Saeko smiled at him, brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and continued on with her story. “You haven’t heard the worst of it though. On the way to the school I saw Terajima’s friends, the ones that attacked us yesterday.”
“Did they see you?” Kevin asked. Without letting her have time to answer, he added, “You should have waited for me. You could have been in danger.”
“No, you’re not letting me finish. I saw them, but they weren’t themselves. They were like that man from yesterday. They were like the throng down in the street. They were crazed—like a bunch of rabid animals.”
“What happened next?” Kevin asked, chewing on his lip nervously.
Tears filled her eyes. “I was too late,” she said with a sniffle. She rubbed the teardrops from the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand and then broke down. “I was too late,” she sobbed.
Kevin pulled her to his chest and hugged her tight. She felt as though she could melt into him. Oh, how she’d love to melt into him.
“There’s nothing you could have done,” he told her gently. “It’s not your fault.” He didn’t know what else to say.
“No,” Saeko said as a tear trickling down the side of her cheek. “It’s worse.” She sobbed softly into his chest.
“What do you mean?”
“I saw them.”
“Saw who?”
“Makiko, Eri…even Iwasaki sensei…they were all...” her voice broke as she closed her eyes and gulped down a torrent of sobs.
