by Chris Ward
‘What?’
‘We stand this bitch up in the snow like a giant diet pancake on a plate, and then we run like we have firecrackers up our butts.’
Mishima didn’t laugh. ‘Do you think they’re watching us now?’
‘Be quiet or I’ll whip your ass.’
‘There could be one nearby. Remember what Matsumoto said about how that one just came out of the ground and ripped that guy’s face off?’
‘Matsumoto’s a clown.’
‘Well, you saw that woman. Or the bits of her, at any rate.’
‘But I didn’t see the bear, douchebag. Being a pussy can do funny things to your mind. Probably Matsumoto and those other dickheads were scared and exaggerated. Look, I’m not saying that there’s not something buttcrack dangerous out there, but it’s probably just a regular bear. Like, one with mange or something. All the ticks are sending it out of its mind.’
Mishima gave a nervous laugh. ‘Yeah, probably.’
‘Come on, let’s hurry up and get this injured prick to that fort place. Then we can relax. Perhaps we can think up a plan to get that porn star chick to let us spit roast her or something.’ He scowled. ‘We’ll probably have to give you plastic surgery first. I wonder where I’ll find a knife?’
‘Can we rest a minute? This thing’s heavy.’
‘Don’t be such a pussy. I told you at club you were slacking off with the press-ups. Believe me now, don’t you?’
‘I’m sorry…’
It had stopped snowing, but in places some of the drifts came up to their thighs. As they trudged through the snow, the Fort came up on their left. Two storeys high, it looked like a giant honeycomb crossed with a British castle. It was about a hundred metres long, and built in a curve that followed the angle of the road. There was a large central entrance built into the wall with a ten-foot high fortified door and a mock portcullis attached to the wall above it. On either side of the entrance, five hexagonal buttresses arced away to form a gentle semi-circle. Each had two windows, a small one on the ground floor and a larger one above. The entire building was a slate grey colour. Battlements like a robot’s teeth were a finishing touch.
Bored of following the road, Ogiwara started to cut across a wide open area dotted with trees, angling directly towards the door. About halfway across what he supposed was a lawn, he stopped near a lump in the snow and set the tabletop down.
‘Please almighty God tell me that’s not one of those things,’ Mishima spluttered, pointing at the shape under the snow.
‘It’s not one of those things,’ Ogiwara said. ‘I can see a circle of metal poking out.’
He went over and wiped the snow off the top surface to reveal an antique cannon, its barrel pointing straight at Mishima.
‘Wow, that’s awesome. I wonder where it came from?’
‘Same place as the rest of this junk,’ Ogiwara said. ‘Some secondhand shop in the UK.’ He tapped the barrel, but it was fixed hard, concreted into the fittings. ‘A shame it doesn’t work, or we could line it up with Matsumoto’s head and blow it into space with the rest of the junk humanity has no use for.’
‘Are you still going to get him?’ Mishima asked.
‘Of course I am. Just biding my … what’s that?’
They both looked up at the sound of a dull duk-duk-duk coming from just out of sight beyond the Fort. Ogiwara cupped a hand over his brow and peered up at the murky sky just as a helicopter appeared from the south, arced to the right and then headed straight for the Grand Mansion back down the road.
‘Did you see that?’ Mishima shouted. ‘We’re saved!’
‘Of course I saw it! Come on! This is our chance to get out of this forsaken hellhole!’
Ogiwara began running as quickly as he could back through the snow towards the Grand Mansion.
‘What about this guy?’ Mishima called from behind him.
‘Leave him! The guy’s as good as dead anyway.’
Ogiwara didn’t wait to see if Mishima obeyed him or not. Mishima was a dumb clown, and he could stay with the dying guy if he wanted. All Ogiwara wanted to do was get on that helicopter and out of this frozen shithole, back to the warmth and comfort of Saitama. Mountains and English study camps, he had discovered, really weren’t his thing.
‘My God, what a mess.’
Karin stared at the wreckage of the Queen’s Bedroom with her eyes wide. Beside her, Akane just shook her head.
‘Ogiwara. I guess it had to have been.’
‘That guy’s a real idiot,’ Karin said. ‘Jun seems nice.’ She sighed. ‘He reminds me of my first boyfriend, back before everything went so wrong.’
Akane smiled. ‘The funny thing is that until we got here, Ogiwara was technically my boyfriend. Jun was … an acquaintance.’
‘Well, it seems like you made a good decision in switching them over.’
‘Maybe. Jun and me … we have history. Not all of it good, unfortunately.’
Karin smiled. ‘I’m the absolute last person who could ever give relationship advice, I’m afraid. Look at me. I’m a professional gold-digger. I have no soul, if you believe what the newspapers say.’
Akane cocked her head. ‘Do you regret it?’
‘What? Anything in particular?’
‘Any of it.’
Karin looked thoughtful for a moment. She rubbed her chin and frowned, and Akane could only marvel at how pretty she looked.
‘I guess … there are things I would take back if could. I would have treated my first boyfriend better. I wouldn’t have let O-Remo down. I wouldn’t have let my manager … exploit me. But every decision I made, I made it because it was the one I thought was best at the time. Whether it was or not, that’s not for me to decide. I thought it was the right one, so I made it. Does that make sense?’
Akane nodded. ‘A little.’
‘People think I’m a money-grabbing whore, and they might be right. But when you’ve stood up on those stages in front of twenty thousand people and every single one of them has adored you … it’s hard to turn your back on that. Fame is as addictive as any drug. I guess that’s why I ended up with O-Remo.’
‘Yet you jilted him.’
‘I didn’t want to, believe me. I loved him, for what it’s worth. He was the only person I’d ever met who truly understood me. The only thing was that our drugs didn’t mix. His drug was detrimental to me, and mine to him. For both of us—for our careers—I let him go. In retrospect I wish I hadn’t, but I did what I had to do at the time because I was thinking about myself. I was selfish.’
‘There’s not a person alive who isn’t,’ Akane said. ‘I love Jun with all my heart, but until I came here I couldn’t look at him without thinking about something bad from my past. When we came here I realised that I’d stopped seeing Jun. Whenever I looked at him, I’d been seeing something else. Coming up here was like a cloud lifting off of me.’ She sniffed. ‘Part of me never wants to leave. I’m terrified that if we go down off this mountain—despite everything that’s happened—that cloud will descend on me again. Only it’ll be twice as bad the next time because I’ll be able to remember how wonderful stuff was when it wasn’t there.’
Karin pulled Akane forward into a hug. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘We can talk more about this later if you like. We’d better try to find Rutherford.’
Ever watchful for the bear, they had searched Forbes’s private apartment and the bottom floor of the Grand Mansion, but there had been no sign of him or anyone else. They had gone upstairs to check the museum rooms just on the off chance, but all they had found were the signs of Ogiwara’s passing.
‘This complex is huge,’ Karin said. Forbes rarely goes anywhere other than his apartment or the reception office that I ever see. There are other rooms that are his and his alone. This is only one of his investments. I think he runs the others from here, but if I’m truthful about it, I never really cared. I tried to avoid him as much as possible, spending my time relaxing in the pool or up in the teahous
e near the Fort.’
‘I bet this place is so peaceful,’ Akane said.
Karin laughed. ‘Yeah, you picked the wrong time to come. Usually it’s lovely. A little too quiet, perhaps, but you certainly get some thinking space.’
Akane frowned. A funny sound she hadn’t noticed before seemed to be coming from outside the window.
They rushed over and peered out.
‘What the hell…?’
A small helicopter was hovering over the courtyard, a rope ladder dangling from its underside. It looked straight out of an American TV police drama, small and bug-shaped, not obviously a mountain rescue team or a military helicopter. In fact, besides the pilot and co-pilot, there was only room for one or two other people.
Forbes had promised that a helicopter would come for them as soon as it could brave the weather conditions, yet this helicopter was far too small for everyone who was stranded here.
Two figures appeared in the alleyway between the pub and the dining hall. The young man from the pub led the way through the snow, with Rutherford Forbes behind him, carrying a small suitcase in one hand.
‘That bastard, he’s abandoning us,’ Karin spat, slamming a hand against the window pane. ‘Of all the things to do.’
The young man reached the helicopter and took hold of the rope ladder, keeping it steady as Forbes started up. One of the pilots leaned out of the cab and reached down for the suitcase.
Karin screamed. Akane took a moment to understand why, then something huge and brown and terrifying was bounding out of the alleyway, reaching the helicopter in two massive strides. Massive claws closed over the ladder halfway up, the creature’s weight and forward momentum pulling the helicopter sideways. One blade hit the ground and shattered; another cut the young man in half. Forbes had fallen into the snow and was cowering with his hands over his head as the bear jerked down on the rope ladder and the helicopter bounced off the ground. It spun away, its tail snapping off, its engine exploding out of the undercarriage to send a bloom of fire spreading out across the snow.
Ken was just ahead of Jun as they turned out on to the covered walkway, their arms laden with bags of food. Immediately Jun heard the sound of a helicopter and looked up to see a small private one hovering over the courtyard, a rope ladder dangling beneath it. The young man from the pub ran out across the snow and took hold of it, holding it steady for Rutherford Forbes, following behind. Forbes, struggling with a suitcase, began to climb up.
A roar from the alley beside the pub seemed to mute the sound of the beating wings. Jun gasped as a bear bigger than anything he could have imagined leapt out of the alley and reached the helicopter in two massive bounds. Its front paws caught the rope ladder and its weight pulled the helicopter down on its side. Jun winced as he saw the young man cut up in its blades, then fire was spreading out across the snow as its engine exploded.
One of the pilots fell out of the cockpit and began to crawl away, his face covered with blood. The massive, shaggy creature walked calmly after him, then made a strangely human reverse ripping motion across the man’s back. Jun turned away as the man’s body split apart—
—and saw Ken running across the snow towards Forbes, who was crawling in the direction of the bus.
‘Ken! What are you doing?’
Ken didn’t answer. He grabbed Forbes by the shoulders and hauled him towards the bus. The bear, finished with the pilot, swung its huge head back towards them. Its eyes seemed to glow red like hot coals. Its chest-sized mouth fell open and a growl as loud as a car engine escaped its throat.
What was Ken doing? It was suicide going out there. He was trying to rescue Forbes, but he had no chance. Then, as Ken dropped out of sight, Jun understood.
He’d dragged Forbes under the school bus, hoping the bear wouldn’t be able to get at them.
The massive beast roared and slammed its paws against the side of the bus, denting the metal and smashing one of the windows. A plume of snow showered it. The bus shook, its wheels bouncing in the snow. The bear slammed against it again, this time using its shoulder, and the bus bucked.
The beast was almost as tall as the bus at its shoulder, and about half as long. A couple more shoves and the bus would topple over, and then Ken and Forbes would be at the creature’s mercy.
Jun looked down, surprised to find he had taken several steps along the east wing’s covered walkway. Halfway along, an arch opened on to a snow-covered set of steps that led down to the courtyard. Jun, feeling numb all over, his heart thumping, turned down them, reaching into his pocket.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see the pieces of the young man and the two dead pilots—one ripped apart by the bear and the other killed in the crash.
The bear loomed tall in front of him, standing on its powerful hind legs, swinging its arms in tandem towards the side of the bus, which rocked again under the force of the blow. Jun tried to stop his hands from shaking as he lifted the flare and pointed it upwards, aware that he would get one shot only, that if he missed the creature would rip him apart.
‘Hey!’ he screamed. ‘Hey, you!’
The bear’s enormous head swung towards him. It was the size of a coffee table, its mouth filled with row upon row of thick, curved teeth. Small crimson eyes watched him from behind a shag of fur as its lips drew back in a snarl, making him gag beneath its putrid breath.
‘You hungry?’ he shouted, pointing the flare at its neck through fear of aiming too high. As it lifted a massive paw to swat him away, he pulled the cord and the flare burst out of its casing.
He had been right. Its momentum took the flare higher than where he aimed, straight into the creature’s face. The bear roared as flames ignited its fur and it fell away into the snow, swatting at its eyes.
‘Go!’ Jun shouted at Ken, and together they pulled Forbes out from under the school bus and dragged him away towards the pub. The creature was reeling in the snow somewhere on the other side of the bus as they reached the entrance. Ken barely paused, shoving Forbes into the door even as he twisted the handle. Jun came up behind and jerked the door shut, sliding the bolt across but wondering what use it would be against an animal capable of grounding a helicopter.
‘Thank you, thank you,’ Forbes gasped as they pressed back against the inside wall of the pub. Jun didn’t dare risk a look out, although he was pretty sure the creature had been blinded. A roar rang out across the courtyard as if in confirmation.
‘You tried to run, you bastard,’ Ken said. ‘You said there would be a helicopter. You didn’t say it would be single fucking occupancy.’
Forbes just glanced back and forth from Ken to Jun, his mouth hung open in surrender as blood streamed from a cut on his head.
‘That wasn’t supposed to happen,’ he said.
33
Wires and revelations
Ogiwara stared openmouthed as the monstrous bear pulled the helicopter into the ground, throwing it over onto its side in a judo move as good as any he’d ever pulled off at club practice. The thing was as big as the band’s van, a huge, powerful ball of teeth and muscle. Whatever freak of genetics had led to the birth of this creature, it was terrifying and awe-inspiring at the same time.
The helicopter’s engine exploded. Ogiwara couldn’t see what happened to the pilots but a moment later the bear began to ram the side of his school bus, as if trying to get at something inside or underneath it.
He had seen how fast it had moved, and from the way it had dispatched the helicopter and was now rattling the bus, he could tell it was immensely strong. He was no more than fifty metres away. If it saw him, he was dead.
He turned and ran.
Mishima knew that Ogiwara was a bully who thrived on pushing other kids around. That was how he had come to captain the judo club. He considered Ogiwara a friend, but it was a tentative friendship, one that could be broken at a moment’s notice if Ogiwara so wished. Mishima just liked to have someone make decisions for him; it made life easier.
Now,
though, as Ogiwara ran off back towards the Grand Mansion, Mishima looked down at the man lying on the stretcher and wondered what he should do. They were only a stone’s throw from the entrance to the Fort, where they would be safe. Ogiwara had told him to follow when he ran off after the helicopter, but he couldn’t just leave this man out here in the snow, not when there were bears around, could he?
Mishima frowned. Then, making perhaps the first free-thinking decision of his life, he went around to the front of the tabletop and lifted it up. With a grunt of exertion he began dragging it towards the door to the Fort.
There was only so fast Ogiwara could run through the snow. After the second night’s dump the air had warmed a little despite a sun hidden by clouds, and the snow had thickened. They had been moving slowly when heading for the Fort with the sick guy, but now he was trying to run through knee-deep sludge. Within a few seconds his legs and hips were aching, and after only twenty or so steps he was forced to stop for a rest. As he leaned on his knees to get his breath back, he saw Mishima tugging at the door of the Fort.
Ogiwara took a few more slow steps. Catching on with the trail they had made while carrying the sick guy, he was able to use the old foot holes to increase his speed a bit. It was obvious that the door of the Fort was stuck, because Mishima was grunting with exertion as he tried to pull it open. Ogiwara had just reached the cannon where he had turned back before, when movement to the right caught his eye.
‘No—’
The bear came bounding across the open snow, closing on Mishima in a matter of seconds. Mishima turned and had time to raise a hand, then the creature’s massive teeth crunched down over his body. There was a faint cry, then the bear was ragging Mishima like a dog with a toy, blood and guts and gore flying in all directions.
