by Tristan Vick
“An Alpha,” Rachael interrupted. “I’m going after it!”
The creature looked down at her. As if recognized her, it let out a terrible screech, then it stood up, flapped its wings, and flew off in the direction of downtown.
“Wait up,” Endo said, bending over one of his dead soldiers and taking his rifle and pack of ammo off of him. “I’m coming with you.”
“Just try and keep up,” Rachael said.
Dashing across the large terminal, they headed out of the exit and toward the city in pursuit of the winged lizard creature.
“Dammit,” Rachael cursed, as she watched the creature fly away. It was only a spec now. It would be impossible to track if she lost it now.
Vvvvroom!
Rachael looked over to see Endo revving the engine of a matte black Honda Gold Wing W Valkyrie motorcycle.
“Get on,” he said, handing her a helmet.
Placing the helmet over her head, she climbed onto the back and wrapped her arms around him. As soon as she was secured, Endo revved the 1832cc six cylinder engine, kicked in the clutch, held the break and throttled it as he spun the back tire till it smoked. Once he was satisfied that he’d made a big enough scene, they tore off down the road.
28
The Witching Hour
Tokyo Skytree, Main Observation Deck, Sumida Region
Rina Kobayashi sat on the white leather sofa and watched as Ijin Gen poured her a glass of sparkling champagne. She let out a coquettish laugh.
Raising his eyebrow, Gen asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Just the fact that the head of the Yakuza is pouring me a drink.”
“Yes, well, I am a man of many talents,” Gen quipped, shooting her a suave grin while his hands effortlessly tipped the bottle until the bubbles burst at the very rim.
Rina laughed again. She made sure it sounded authentic. Flirtatious even. She wanted to stoke his ego just enough to get him hard enough that she could snap it in half.
“No, I meant it just seemed so surreal is all. Like out of some kind of cheesy gangster movie.”
Gen made his way to the sofa and handed her the champagne, accompanied by his most charming smile. “I understood what you meant.”
Rina blushed and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes, gently pushing it behind her ear, then downed the whole damn glass of champagne. If she was going to do what she intended to do, then she definitely needed the liquid courage to take its full effect, sooner rather than later.
Before she knew it Gen was seated on the sofa next to her, refilling her glass. As he poured, he stared at her with an intense gaze. She tried not to let it rattle her; she took another big gulp to help alleviate the revulsion she felt toward him.
“You look tense,” Gen said, as he placed his hands on her shoulders and began rubbing. Soon enough his other hand found her thigh which he squeezed firmly.
Rina’s first instinct was to pull away, but she didn’t want to blow her cover. Instead she sighed a thick and heavy sigh filled with lustful allusions and pretended that it felt better than it actually did.
“Doesn’t the military pamper you?”
“If you call five AM wake up calls, cramped sweaty living quarters, and a steady diet of Nissin noodles pampering, then yes…yes they do.”
Rina hastily downed the rest of her champagne, leaned forward, and set the glass down on nearby dinner trolley. She didn’t want to get too drunk, just drunk enough to settle her nerves and make her act of seduction believable. As she sat back into the smooth leather, Gen wasted no time making his intentions known. Once she was next to him, his arms suddenly wrapped around her waist; he started groping her breasts and kissing her neck.
Rina felt like throwing up in her mouth, but she settled for rolling her eyes instead. Her job was to distract Gen by any means necessary until the mission was completed. She begrudgingly moaned in a lusty voice intended to convince Gen that she had pent up desires, sexual yearnings from months of sterile military life, and that, although a complete and utter lie, she was willing to fulfill those desires with him.
She continued to sigh and moan even as Gen’s lips met hers. She felt his hand slide into her pants, his fingers wasting no time in finding her clitoris, and she moaned again. Pretending to like it was the easy part. The hard part was holding back her vomit so she didn’t puke into his mouth. After all, that would blow her cover. Rina was still a soldier, and there was no way she was going to be the weak link in their plans, so she let him molest and grope her.
Just when Gen began to unfasten his belt, the elevator dinged and Gen leapt up from the couch and growled, “Now what?”
Rina couldn’t remember ever having been so glad to be “saved by the bell” in her entire life, and let out a massive sigh of relief.
Admiral Sakaguchi entered the room with Maya trailing close behind.
“Oh, it’s you, Admiral.” Gen said diplomatically, trying to hide his dissatisfaction. “Done so soon? I hope you found everything to your liking?”
“I was only in the mood for a quickie. The girls were,” the Admiral began, “quite delectable.”
“Everything was satisfactory then?”
“There was a bit of…tearing. You may want to stitch a few of them back up for the next customer.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Gen said with a sickening grin. “We have plenty of replacement girls. The great thing about zombies is that they are so easily replaceable.”
“Yes, well, I think we’ll be on our way.”
Rina stood up and took up her position by the Admiral’s side. She couldn’t even begin to express how relieved she was that he had come in when he did. There was absolutely no way in hell she was going to let Gen stick his festering, zombie-wanking, meat stick into her.
Gen put his arm on the Admiral’s shoulder, as if they were best chums, and walked him toward the elevator.
“I trust you’ll keep this our little secret,” the Admiral said in a stern voice.
As they strolled up to the sliding doors Gen assured him, “As I was saying, we don’t take our security issues lightly. Our rendezvous will remain confidential. In fact, Admiral, it must.”
Gen pulled out a gun, spun around, and pulled the trigger.
BLAM! BLAM!
Alarmed, Admiral Sakaguchi ducked away from the blasts and turned back around just in time to see Rina drop to the floor with two bullet holes in her chest. Dark crimson patches grew around the entrance wounds as blood soaked through her pristine, white officer’s uniform.
29
A Close Shave
Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Shinjuku Region, Tokyo
Spitting up blood, Saeko pushed herself up off the street and wiped her lip with the back of her hand. That thing was strong. Stronger than anything she’d ever encountered before. Worse than the realization that she was about to be beaten to a pulp, however, was the fact that her damned left arm dangled loosely in its socket. If it wasn’t one thing it was another. Having a dislocated limb in the middle of a no-holds-barred death match with a literal monster completely sucked.
She grabbed her dislocated shoulder, let out an unpleasant scream, and shoved the useless thing back into its socket. It hurt like a son of a bitch, but the alternative was to be made into the creature’s personal chew toy. No thank you, she thought to herself.
Determined not to be made the monster’s next meal, Saeko reached down to her waist for where her sword was supposed to be but came up empty handed. “Shit, shit, shit!” she cursed.
Panic filled her chest as she frantically looked around for her misplaced sword. Spotting it on the asphalt several yards to her right, where she had smashed into the bus, she made the bold decision to make a beeline for it. But the kaiju intercepted her before she could get more than a few steps. It crashed into her with the force of a runaway train and sent her reeling through the air.
Saeko smashed onto the roof of an abandoned, glossy red Toyota Camry, then crawled out of the caved
-in metal, rolled onto the crumpled up hood, and slid off the side. “Bad idea,” she grumbled, rubbing her shoulder.
Using the side of the dented car for support, Saeko pushed herself onto her feet. Her entire body shook from the adrenaline coursing through her veins. Her heart stopped as she turned back around. The beast was standing right in front of her. It was so close she could feel the creature’s breath on her head. Saeko stood toe to toe with the monster; strands of her hair jostled in the breeze of the lizard’s hot panting. She looked up at its reptilian face and said, “You’re one ugly motherfucker.”
The creature leaned forward and screamed at Saeko with the ferocity of a lion’s roar—what she imagined sounded more along the lines of a very angry dinosaur, like, a T-Rex, maybe. The stench of its hideous, carnivorous lizard breath about knocked her flat on her ass, it reeked of the decaying meat of its victims—zombie and human alike.
“Get down!” a voice suddenly cried out.
Reflexively, and without hesitation, Saeko dropped to the ground just as a very sharp but unwieldy Scottish Claymore emerged from the darkness, spinning through the air like the rotary blade of a helicopter. The colossal sword flew over her head, passing mere centimeters above her and clipping several strands of her wafting hair. Saeko looked up just in time to see the brute’s head get severed from its shoulders and, wobbling upon unsteady legs, the dinosaur lizard monster fell to the ground with a thud.
Saeko sat on her knees, her arms resting limp at her sides, and fought to take in a deep breath and stay conscious. The blows she had sustained that day were the worst she’d ever endured and the beating she was enduring was taking its toll on her. If it weren’t for the added trauma of the helicopter crash, she might be able to take this monster on. But with her body barely hanging together as it was, she was in no condition to continue fighting like a brawler. She had to be smart about it and think of a better way to defeat the creature. But none came to mind.
Just when Saeko felt she was out of options, out from the shadows stepped a gorgeous, American-looking woman with raven black hair. She wore a black leather corset over a yellow, wavy dress. Her sleek long legs were encased in black patent leather boots that zipped up the back and rose above her knees. With the heavy eyeliner and multiple coats of mascara accentuating her eyes, she looked like a gothic love goddess or something out of a heavy metal music video. A veritable Dark Angel, Saeko thought.
The mysterious woman marched over to her Claymore, which had lodged in the solid cement wall of the nearby office building, and slid it out like a knife from butter.
The woman narrowed her darkly painted eyes and looked back at Saeko, inspecting her from head to toe. She then grunted in approval before sliding the massive blade into her back-mounted sheath.
Saeko gripped her side and, using her barely passable English, asked, “And just who the hell are you?”
30
At your Own Risk
Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Shinjuku Region, Tokyo
“I’m Rachael Ramirez,” the woman in black replied. “The woman who just saved your ass.” She extended her hand for Saeko to take and said, “Come on, we can’t hang around here for long.”
After helping Saeko to her feet, Rachael turned and walked toward the dark mouth of the subway tunnel.
Saeko threw out her hand. “Wait!” she cried out in alarm.
Rachael stopped in her tracks and turned around. “What is it?” she asked.
“We can’t go down there.”
“Why not?”
“It’s suicide!” Saeko warned. “If you get trapped in the tunnels, there’s no coming back out alive. Didn’t you read the warning sign?”
“What warning sign?” Rachael asked looking in the direction Saeko was pointing. Sure enough, plastered on the entrance above the subway was a sign, but Rachael couldn't make sense of the strange red symbols.
“命を懸けて,” Saeko said in her native tongue.
“I’m sorry,” Rachael said. “But I don’t speak Japanese.”
“Inochi-wo-kakete,” Saeko repeated. “It means—enter at your own risk.”
“I see,” Rachael said.
“Actually,” Saeko added, “that’s a rather crude translation. It literally means you are gambling with your life. Either way, the message is perfectly clear.”
Saeko was well aware that eight million people rode the subways each day in Tokyo, as many as three million people riding the underground railways at any given time. Probably the worst place on the planet to be during the zombie apocalypse.
What this Rachael Ramirez woman didn’t put together, was the fact that meant there were three million people trapped underground—trapped beneath the streets of Tokyo—trapped in dark tunnels with the dead. Most assuredly, all of them had either starved to death by now, had been devoured, or had turned.
She’d seen all too many people flee into the tunnels to get away from a horde that was chasing them, but none ever returned. Once you went down into the belly of the beast, you weren’t coming out. Not alive, at any rate. That much was certain.
“We’ll have to risk it,” Rachael said, taking another glance over her shoulder at the massive zombie hordes pouring out into the city streets from every available direction.
Rachael sized up the petite yet athletic Japanese girl, smiling crookedly at her classic schoolgirl’s uniform and dress-length leather jacket. Cute, she thought. Rachael nodded her head toward the plodding swarm of undead and added, “Besides, it doesn’t seem like we have much of a choice.”
“Kuso!” Saeko screamed out, frustrated that nothing was going her way today. Or any day, for that matter. But she knew that this woman was right. There were just too damn many of the walking dead to fight their way out and, to compound matters, they were completely surrounded. It was downtown Tokyo, after all.
Although she hated to admit it, they had little choice but to take their chances and go down into the infernal tunnels, deep into the black mouth of the hungry city, into the infested cavity of its disease-ridden bowels.
Making haste, they hurried down the filthy staircase and entered the subway’s dark orifice—a giant throat to swallow them whole—and continued their way along the foreboding corridors and winding tunnels of the Tokyo Metro subway, a vicious labyrinth of terrors from which none had ever returned.
31
Collateral Damage
Tokyo Skytree, Main Observation Deck, Sumida Region
“Gen, you goddamned bloody psycho! You shot one of my best officers!” Admiral Sakaguchi barked.
“I know,” Gen said with a sick and twisted grin.
Staying composed the Admiral looked at Gen and demanded, “You better have a damn good explanation for this or I will personally be taking your head back with me on a spike.”
“Calm down, calm down,” Gen said waving the gun around as if it were a toy. “You should pick your confidants more carefully. While you were in the other room getting freaky with it, I was getting busy with this little thing. Sadly, she was a little too willing to put out. Which made me suspect that she had ulterior motives. Now what do you suppose they were?”
“How would I know?” the Admiral grumbled. “You shot the only lead any of us had.”
“Of course. I see your point. But whatever she may have been up to we couldn’t risk her compromising national security, could we? Everything that transpired here tonight must remain our little secret, isn’t that so, Admiral.”
“Right,” Admiral Sakaguchi growled through his teeth. He knew that Gen was merely manipulating him. Testing him. Pushing his buttons to get a rise out of him so that he’d slip up and then the mission would be a failure. No, the Admiral sucked it up and put on his warrior face.
“Good. Now that we’re on the same page, I’ll have my assistant escort you back to your ride.”
Admiral Sakaguchi followed Maya into the lift and crossed his arms. He gazed back at the barbarian Gen sternly. Before the elevator doors shut behind h
im, he inquired, “What are you going to do with the body?”
“You let me worry about that,” Gen said as he rolled up his sleeves. He winked at the Admiral and then the doors clamped shut. In the elevator, the Admiral looked over at Maya; the notion of strangling the mutilation whore to put that little shit Gen in his place crossed his mind. Maya just stared at the numbers decreasing as the high-speed lift made its way down to the base floor of the tower.
The elevator doors swooshed opened and Maya leaned forward, held the door, and waited congenially for the Admiral to depart. “Here you are, Sir.”
Steaming with rage, Admiral Sakaguchi stormed out of the elevator. Halfway toward the chopper, Maya called out after him. “Oh, just one last thing.”
Admiral Sakaguchi turned around and waited for whatever pressing information she had for him.
“My offer still stands. If you want to get freaky with me, an itty bitty finger is all I ask for.” She smiled at him in a way which told him that the mere thought of him sawing off his finger excited her more than the actual idea of sex. She was a true sadist.
Ignoring her bizarre suggestion, the Admiral turned back around and headed for the chopper. Before he could even take two steps toward his ride there was horrendous crash just meters from where he stood. The Admiral recoiled in shock but then regained his nerves and stepped up to the small crater that pitted the fractured pavement.
Inside the impact crater were the remains of Rina’s disfigured body. The Admiral diverted his eyes and clinched his fist in anger. He had to use every last bit of restraint not to march back in there and murder Ijin Gen in cold blood.
The Admiral spun back toward the elevator to see Maya smiling at him with a sadistic kind of glee, as if she were genuinely amused by the whole ordeal. With that, she stepped back into the elevator and allowed the doors to close behind her.
As the psycho bitch rode back up to be with her devil in their tower, Admiral Sakaguchi checked his watch and felt relieved that he still had time.
