by Kei Urahama
Yet, as the sphere left the ground, there was a perfect semi-circular hole left behind. In the edge of the crater, the remaining vertically cut piece of zombie corpse slipped from the surface of the sphere and dropped inside.
When is the angel coming for this lost piece, Yuji wondered.
Chapter 19
Finally reaching the ground floor, passing through the hallway leading to the front desk, Yuji’s father and Ishida saw the policeman. Nagoaka wore his shabby police uniform calling to mind a Japanese soldier during WWII who had long before strayed from his fellows deep into the jungle.
“What…?” Ohizumi swallowed the rest of what he was about to say as he noticed the policeman’s bloodshot eyes and his white-knuckled hand grasping his gun held at his side. For a moment Ohizumi thought the man before them was a zombie too. The expression on his face was so vacant. Then Nagoaka spoke.
“It wasn’t my fault…”
Saying just this, he passed by Ohizumi and Ishida, arms clasped around each other like close friends, and entered the stairwell. The door swung shut behind him.
“What happened to him? He looked pretty out of it.” Ishida said, still looking at the closed door.
“I don’t know. Let’s get going.” As he spoke, Ohizumi was secretly relieved.
In fact, Ohizumi had been beaten by Nagaoka once. Earlier in the month, when he’d failed to examine the body of the zombie, Nagaoka had not only shot the zombie but had become even more violent and thrown if from the sixth-floor balcony and killed it again. Nagaoka had silently returned from the balcony, punched Ohizumi in the face then left the room. Now was the first time he’d seen him since that incident. What a changed man he was. He’s coming unhinged, Ohizumi thought. Already since the day he’d punched Ohizumi something looked off about him. That dangerous man was now holding the only remaining gun in the Dome and wandering freely about.
And then Ohizumi remembered that he’d heard three gunshots echoing up the stairwell. Immediately following that had been a sound like something had exploded. First was a popping sound then a larger noise like thunder. What had happened in the square where Yuji was? Ohizumi pushed his body forward. The employee entrance door was only a few meters away. Quickly! Have to get to the square.
“Hey, are you okay?” Against his shoulder, Ishida spoke. “You’d better stay inside, right? I’ll go have a look.”
“Don’t be stupid. My son is out there.”
Ishida was about to say something more but instead shook his head and let Ohizumi lean on him.
The door leading outside was unlocked. They exited and then passed through the passage between the management office and bicycle storage and finally out of the apartment building. No one was inside the barricade’s inner area. Usually someone was there on look-out duty. Now the van that formed the barrier’s door was shifted slightly to the side, leaving a space large enough for a single person to pass through. Completely un-secured. If people can pass through, so can zombies.
“Nagaoka was supposed to be the head of security. What’s happened to him?” Ishida asked.
“We have him to thank for leaving the door open anyway. Now we can get through.” Ohizumi gestured ahead.
Ishida let go of Ohizumi and went to the barricade. Ohizumi remained standing by leaning a hand against the van and moved along its surface by hopping and skipping. The black 4WD car that Yuji had been in was parked under the porte-cochere at the apartment’s front. The presence of the car became immediately irrelevant to as they became captivated by something else.
“What… what is it? Ishida gawked up at the sky, his mouth agape.
A luminous white sphere floated over Orion Square Garden. It was too large to be an angel, and the color was different as well. The sphere rose rapidly as they watched, up to the ceiling of the Dome leaving a thin trail of smoke behind.
And then the sky opened.
It was a momentary event. A round hole appeared in the top of the Dome and the black smoke trapped near the ceiling was immediately aspirated through it with a short whistling noise. At the same moment, the white sphere started to pass into the dark hole, easily slipping upward through it. It shone for the briefest moment like a large bare light bulb attached to the ceiling of the Dome, but the shape grew gradually smaller and smaller to a tiny point then disappeared. The Dome’s ceiling was restored to its original texture, a membrane of opaque flesh with fine, raised veins.
It was, however, in that split second that Ohizumi clearly saw them. In a small dark hole at the zenith, much smaller points of light sparkled.
There was no doubt. It was unquestionably a starry sky.
Chapter 20
It’s a divine confirmation, Mazaki thought. That’s what a prophet would say of a Sign of God.
Shuddering with intense emotion, a skeptic part of Mazaki’s inner self melted away. It was an intense pleasure such as Mazaki had never experienced before. Everything inverted within him. He’d never thought of himself as a believer at all. But now he was confident that he was the only one in the entire world who could be called a true believer.
He realized he’d deceived himself until that very moment. Despite playing at being a cynical businessman, he’d always been unconsciously seeking this moment of epiphany. A moment of pure faithful belief. Mazaki’s eyes filled with tears for the first time in decades.
After Mazaki watched the events unfurl before him to their conclusion, confirming that nothing more would occur, he returned to the room and immediately read the Bible, which was to him now a literal scripture. Opening to a random spot and flipping several pages led him to a desirable quote.
Act of the Apostles, Chapter Two, Verse Nineteen…
‘I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. It will be, that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
But in this part is written ‘just as prophet Joel had prophesied’. Mazaki flipped through the Bible in a rush, looking for the first part of the Old Testament in Joel. There it was… The last few sections of Joel Chapter Two.
‘And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke’
Just as I witnessed!
‘The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.’
“…in the remnant whom the Lord shall call…” lifting his eyes from the amazingly accurate predictions, Mazaki spoke these final words aloud. In other words it means that salvation is not for everyone who has escaped. Come to think of it, from the first moment those accursed corpses appeared it was so obvious. So who will be saved out of those who remain? Instead of the ‘Day of the Apocalypse’ who would experience ‘the Great Day of Glory’?
Mazaki had to read further. But what followed were only prophesies of divine justice and retribution for some pages.
‘Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD [is] near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD [will be] the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I [am] the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall be no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, [that]
the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence [against] the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood [that] I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.’
Joel’s prophecy ends here.
This section was too clearly supportive of Jewish nationalists so the American far-right fundamentalists had no choice but to ignore it.
Many of them never admit the fact that even Jesus and the Apostle Paul, a substantial founder of Christianity, were Jews. They say that the white Aryan tribe was the leader of the tribes of Israel and that saying Jesus was a Jew is a conspiracy of Jews who are the devil’s race.
For many years, Mazaki who had been involved in a variety of cults, knew that there was an old idea such as this in Japan as well. It related that the Japanese were the ‘true’ Jews–the theory was called the Japanese-Jewish Common Ancestor Theory.
However, he felt there must have been some hidden truth in this hypothesis. It was impossible to be just a coincidence any more. Mazaki Kosuke asked God for assistance and immediately a miracle was given. Just looking at this section in the Bible, it was impossible to be mere coincidence.
For quite some time someone had been knocking on the door. It was the old Onuki of course. Had he been at the door the entire time? The man must have foolishly missed the miracle of God. At first Mazaki thought to ignore him and return to his Bible study but then decided to let him inside. It’s impossible to be a coincidence! Mazaki headed to the door still clutching the Bible.
“What’s happening?”
Opening the door revealed Onuki’s face looking back at him like a frightened dog.
“Oh, what a relief! You’re safe. Hurry… smoke…”
Mazaki lowered a finger to Onuki’s lips and pressed them to silence.
“Please calm yourself. The smoke is gone.”
Saying this, he closed his eyes and after inhaling a deep breath, and randomly opened the Bible in his hands.
Exhaling slowly, he opened his eyes again and ignored the dumbfounded expression on the old man’s face, looking down at the open page. He read the part that his eyes first came to.
“Psalm 91, Verse 9. If you say, ‘The LORD is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
Do not worry. The disasters have departed. The Lord has sent us down a sign about what is happening outside this sacred haven. Here, go and see with your own eyes.”
Mazaki stepped aside and let the old man pass. Looking at his frail back as he gingerly made his way to the window on the west side of the drawing room, Mazaki felt the old man had shrunk one size smaller than before.
Before the Rapture had occurred, Goro Onuki was petite but had a wiry, athletic build. He’d been an energetic man who’d felt nothing like the seventy-year-old he was. He’d still worked actively in the well-known electronics firm as the chairman and had become become the chief representative of the officers of the apartment management union. He’d also been an active leader in the eviction movement against Mazaki. Yet now he was converted as Paul had been and served as a coordinator for Mazaki in attending his group of believers.
To call him Paul was going too far though, as the true Paul was Mazaki. He smiled wryly as he thought this. Still, if this influential man hadn’t been there, his group would never have grown so quickly in just one short month.
Mazaki imagined the rest of the group as his Apostle Johns now numbering thirty-two strong if he included himself. The total number of survivors living in the apartment building was fewer than ninety, so more than a third had joined his group already. In all the cults where he’d served as a consultant, none had grown so steadily so quickly. Converting this frail, old man had been the coup that had brought the numbers in so swiftly.
By the bestowal of holy sacraments…
“Oh my! I can’t believe it.” Looking over the plaza of Sirius Garden from the balcony, Onuki spoke in a voice charged with emotion. Mazaki couldn’t see him well from his angle but it appeared that the old man was crossing himself.
The moment he saw this, Mazaki mentally bestowed a dispensation.
Holy sacraments. That is the key.
The ritual of the Eucharist separates the elect from the non-elect, those who receive eternal life and those who receive endless disgrace, the sheep from the goats.
The sign was apparent. ‘Its appearance will shine like lightning, that robe is white as snow,’ the only messenger of the Lord descended from heaven. That was the proof that it has happened, the second coming of the Savior and he is with us. Mazaki realized it like a mote had been removed from his eye. Christ is with us here now. He’s been right in front of me the entire time. Again, this is not the realm where justice is dispensed. Justice has been served outside the Dome. Here is the place where the chosen are cleansed and sanctified rather than punished.
‘Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.’
Chapter 21
After everything, Ohizumi was unable to meet his son.
Chikama and Mikami, who had returned to the front of the apartment, had gone to the porte-cochere first and spoken to the youth in the driver’s seat. After arguing with Chikama for several moments, the driver of the car abruptly accelerated back toward the garden again. Chikama shook his head with resignation as the car sped away. Finally he noticed Ohizumi and Ishida standing impatiently in front of the barricades and jogged toward them.
“Yuji…” Ohizumi asked. “What about my son? Is he okay?”
“He’s safe.” Chikama answered briefly, looking back at Mikami behind him. “Please take care of the parking lot exit. There might be some following us. We should increase the number of look-outs for a while.” Mikami nodded and went to the barricades.
“Where’s Yuji?!” shouted Ohizumi, so upset he would have hurled himself at Chikama if he didn’t need Ishida’s shoulder to lean on.
Chikama looked back at them, clearly in a dazed state, beyond feeling much of anything. His face looked as if it had aged. Must have seen some horrible things in that square, Ishida thought.
“Your son is safe. He entered the Park Building along with the wounded American. The only one who died was a girl called Yuki. We tried to save her… but we were too late.” Ishida saw movement beyond Chikama’s shoulder as he spoke. It was an angel drifting back down near the entrance to the garden. Had it come back to return the girl? Chikama immediately noticed Ishida’s look. “Let’s get back inside. It’s dangerous out here.” He guided the two of them back toward the barricade.
After Ishida assisted in closing the barricade off with the van, Chikama asked, “Where is Nagoaka?” Ishida related what they had seen. Chikama replied, “Is that so,” then glanced toward the garden with a disturbed look in his eyes.
“It’s not his fault though.”
Ishida had heard those kind of empty words before.
“What happened in the square then?” Ishida and Ohizumi asked almost simultaneously.
Chikama recounted the events in the square as they stood by the barricade.
Ohizumi sat on a television set and listened to the story with a wrinkled brow. Occasionally he demanded more detail on specific points, his manner seeming to Ishida like a detective interrogating a criminal. Apparently, he’d already forgotten about his son and the pain of his injury. He’d be better to get nurse Mimura to look after his ankle sooner rather than later.
“But in addition to that girl there were three other victims, right?” Ohizumi said as he checked his watch then pulled a stopwatch from his coat pocket. “Ishida, excuse me but would you
keep a look-out on the garden just in case? I’d like you to see if an angel comes down.”
“Why?” Ishida asked giving no indication that he would move from the spot to comply. He had lent his shoulder reluctantly before but that didn’t make him Ohizumi’s slave.
“Okay then.” Ohizumi returned the stopwatch to his pocket. “Perhaps they won’t come back again.” He scanned the ceiling of the Dome.
“Who are ‘they’?” asked Chikama.
“The three in the truck of course. They probably won’t come back as undead, not likely. Fire and smoke necessitated emergency measures. The truck was discharged outside the Dome. Into the vacuum of space of course.”
“Space?” Chikama who hadn’t heard Ohizumi’s hypothesis, looked perplexed.
“How would you know that?” Ishida asked and was given an openly scornful smile by Ohizumi.
“You saw that sphere. It was different from what all of you call ‘angels’. But it isn’t unfamiliar to us. As Chikama said, it didn’t emerge from the walls of the Dome. It just suddenly appeared in the place where the truck was, as if by magic. Right before our eyes…”
As he spoke, Ohizumi glanced overhead. Above was the wall of the Dome, the color of flesh, that Ishida had become almost comfortable seeing on a daily basis. It had suddenly appeared, the bright white spherical object… Ishida recalled the earlier experience he’d been trying to forget. Among those memories, that of the little boy’s innocent, wondering eyes looking up at him.
“We finally saw it. Although it was a miniature. It was what people outside the Dome had seen. This shows that my hypothesis is basically correct.
We are now inside a sphere approximately four hundred meters across. It took off from the earth and passed into space with us trapped inside. You see? Now, even at this moment, we are in the process of traveling through space.”
Ohizumi looked clearly pleased as he spoke. Ishida thought that the madness of the dreamer was reflected in his gleaming eyes.
