Nen (23 page)

Mr. Park hurried down the stairs and he paused for a moment to look at John who was lying on the ground and bleeding from his head.

“I…I am sorry. One of us must…sacrifice.” Mr. Park stammered with an impassive expression on his face. A loud snarl echoed down the stairwell and without second thoughts, he dashed out of the door and disappeared into the dark hallway.

“You…son of a bitch! Help me!” John screamed as the savage creature arrived at the staircase landing.

Mr. Park raced down the long and dark hallway and at one point he paused and turned around. Watching from a distance, he could see the hideous beast moving slowly towards John. He pondered for a second or two before picking up his pace again and leaving John Chan behind for good. John wielded his arms about and struggled with the menacing beast. While pushing its fanged mouth away from his face, he managed to grab a sharp object from the ground. Knowing that this would be his last burst of retaliation, he punched the sharp object into the creature’s right eye. The monster backed away and roared in pain. John tried to get on his feet but a swirling tentacle emerged, gripped his ankle and dragged him down again.

CHAPTER 37

After snaking through the man-made tunnel, Howard and Sarah managed to find a way past the peculiar crystal cave in a fairly short time. They then cut through the underground chamber hall where the statues of Chinese mythical creatures were erected. Sarah took a glance at those towering statues and a cold chill ran down her back. Holding her cross bow tightly in her hands, she followed Howard into the passageway that would lead them to the elevator landing. The toppled rocks and mangled pipes made maneuvering in the dark passageway difficult. It took them a while but finally, they got to the spot where Wong’s mauled body parts were ditched.

“Damn it!” Howard cried, his eyes surveying the grisly scene from one heap of human remains to another. All the body parts were confined in a small area on the floor and all of them belonged to the unlicensed tour guide - Wong. There was a bloody trail circling the body parts, a trail of claw prints. And it was obvious that the creature had taken some time to circle around its victim before tearing him apart.

“Huh, Wong must have been dead for at least three hours!” Sarah said, squatting and leaning forward to take a closer look at what appeared to be Wong’s upper torso. She picked up the bulky walkie talkie beside Wong’s torso and waved the equipment at Howard.

“Sarah, Wong died a horrific death helping us. And looking at this, he might have suffered for a while before dying. I should have suspected something when we couldn’t get him on the walkie. God Damn it!” Howard yelled again, balling his fists until his knuckles turned white.

“Be careful where you step.” Sarah said, getting on her feet and pointing at a heap of slimy skins on a spot behind Howard.

Howard turned around and looked down. “Is that the skin from the creature?”

Sarah nodded and said, “This creature shed its skin not too long ago. Means it is not an ancient animal but quite the opposite. I think it is a new born, which is why it is growing at such a rapid rate.”

“Hmmm, the creature killed Wong hours ago. And when it saw you in the command room, it backed away and came to this place to mess around with the walkie talkie so that all of us were fooled into thinking it was here.” Howard verbalized his thoughts, “Then it sneaked back to the barracks to hunt down the rest of us.”

Howard paused for a second and then he asked, “Do you think we are dealing with an intelligent animal here?”

“Really beats me, Howard. I don’t know why it had brought us here but I think we have to hurry back. The others are not aware and they are in danger.” Sarah replied.

“You’re right, gimme a second,” Howard brought his walkie talkie close to his mouth and thumbed the call button, “Paul, its Howard. Can you hear me?”

“Yes, sir. How’s Wong?” Paul’s voice came through.

“Wong is dead and the creature is nowhere near the elevator landing. It fooled us into thinking that it was preying on Wong. Dr. Sarah can confirm that Wong died hours ago, way before it attacked us in the office.”

“What? Good lord.” Paul’s voice was interrupted by a short buzz of static before coming clear again. “Howard, Johnny is with us now in the Command Office. We heard some noises from the living quarters. Do you think the Chan family is in trouble?”

“That’s what we are worried about. We are heading back to the living quarters now.” Howard said, watching Sarah’s face screwed into a grimace.

“Be careful guys.” Paul said.

“You folks take care too.” Howard replied, and then he clipped the walkie talkie back onto his belt and headed back. Sarah followed.

Just before he and Sarah stepped out of the cluttered passageway, he banged his leg against a hard object on the ground and almost tripped over.

“What the…” Howard exclaimed as he tried to retain his balance.

It was a portable flame thrower, the same one that Wong was fiddling with before he died.

“What’s that?” Sarah asked. She had never seen such a thing in her life.

“Well, it’s something useful.” Howard gave a weak smile and picked up the flame thrower.

CHAPTER 38

Mr. Park scooted into his living-quarter room and almost fell into the heaps of fruits standing between him and the end of his bed. His wispy grey hair was soaked in sweat and was awfully plastered across his shiny scalp. With a trembling voice, he woke his sister up and spoke nervously to her in Korean. Then he turned around and slammed the door shut.

Mrs. Chan heard the slam and she came out of her room.

“Hey, where’s my husband?” She yelled, banging her fist repeatedly on Mr. Park’s door, “Open the door!”

Mr. Park shouted something in Korean from within. Of course, Mrs. Chan could not understand what he was saying and she continued to drum the door hard.

After almost two minutes of non-stop pounding, the door finally opened. Mr. Park spoke in an uneasy tone behind the door, his darting eyes did not looked at Mrs. Chan but were aiming at the floor. “Your husband is speaking to Howard now,” he lied, “he is coming…coming back later and he wants you all to turn in but do leave your door unlocked.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Mrs. Chan asked, noticing the paleness in his face and the subtle shuddering of his lips.

“Nothing. Please go back.” Mr. Park muttered as he took a step back into his room and closed the door, bolting from inside.

“Hey? Open up! You can’t just do this! What else did John said? When is he coming back?” Mrs. Chan asked anxiously, to which there were no further replies from the Korean. She gave up and walked back to her room. Then she closed the door behind her but did not lock it as per her husband’s message. Pete was sitting up on the bunk bed. “Mum, where’s daddy?” he asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes with his forearm.

“He’ll be back soon, son. Now go back to sleep.” Mrs. Chan said.

Pete nodded obediently and slumped back to sleep. Mrs. Chan walked to the edge of the second bed where her daughter was resting. Pauline had been asleep for many hours after her traumatic experience in that ghastly classroom.
Dr. Sarah had mentioned that she would be fine but look at her, why is she in this state? She had been lying on this bed for many hours. Her eyes were closed most of the time. And when they opened, they just stared right through me. What’s wrong with her? Oh dear, her eyes were closed now. Has she fallen into a coma?
Mrs. Chan froze when those grim thoughts crept into her mind.

She touched Pauline’s forehead with the back of her hand to feel her temperature. No, she had no fever. Like what her own mother used to do when she was a child and had been taken ill, Mrs. Chan started humming a Chinese lullaby as she gently stroked her daughter’s hair for a while, then she went on her knees, put her palms together and started praying with her eyes at half-mast.
Oh My Lord, my beloved Goddess of Mercy, please save us all from this evil, I pray for the safety and good health of my family. I pray for my daughter Pauline. Please punish me for my sins and not my family. Please help us…
She chanted her prayers over and over again. And she intended to keep praying until her husband was back.

“Mum…I am thirsty.” Pauline’s soft but clear voice jerked a halt to her mum’s prayers. Her eyes were wide opened and she was staring at her mother with a puzzling look on her face. “What are you doing, mum?” Pauline asked.

“Oh God, Oh my god, sweetie…” Mrs. Chan stammered as she struggled to get up. She couldn’t believe her eyes but she knew that her prayers had been answered. She hugged Pauline in her arms and cried.

Gupta woke up after five hours to music that seemed dreamily familiar. He lay in his bunk for a minute trying to place it, then slipped one of his feet, the unharmed one into his shoe and hobbled towards a side table right next to the glass window that overlooked the gloomy hallway outside.

It was his wrist watch that he had placed on the table top and the alarm on it was playing the Angry Birds jingle.
It’s a new day. My wake up alarm was configured for 8.00am every day. But this terrible place is always dark and creepy. It feels nothing like morning at all. Where are the rescue teams? Why are they not here? Don’t they realize that we are missing for days and we are all trapped in this awful place?
He stood still for a moment as he peered out of the window. The dim hallway was dead quiet.
Darn! Let’s go back to bed. I am injured. What can I do?
He thought.

As he turned around and shifted his posture, he felt a sharp pain radiating from his leg. That was when he realized that more blood had oozed from the bandages around his leg wound. Shaking his head, Gupta bent down slowly to open one of the drawers underneath the table. Just as he rummaged the drawer for some gauze and cotton buds that Mami-san had gingerly kept earlier on, a dark shape moved quietly past the window above him, a dark shape with green eyes and he didn’t even notice it.

CHAPTER 39

At 8.05a.m. Sunday morning, the destructive snow storm that lasted for three days had started to clear up above the South-Western part of Mainland China. Snow had turned into sleet and the overwhelming grey clouds that hung low across the sky began to thin out. Deep inside the subterranean military facility, no signs of day break could be felt at all. The labyrinths of hallways were still dark and frigid. The scanty rays of daylight that filtered down from miles above were barely enough to light up the cavernous underground facility. Cold wind sliced through the never ending hallways in a hustle, producing a frightening shriek that made Mr. Park and his sister jumped. They were in their room and they were nervously packing their belongings into two large duffel bags.

Mr. Park’s fingers were shaking when he tried to squeeze as many fruits into his bag as he could. Some of the fruits dropped out of his bag and rolled towards the door. Madam Kim was annoyed and she blared something in Korean but there was no reaction from Mr. Park. His face was dazed and paper-pale. With no intention to ever stop nagging at her brother, she stood up nonchalantly and went to the area near the door to pick up the fallen fruits. The door burst opened and a dark shape fell onto Madam Kim with a muffled crunching sound. Madam Kim’s blood splattered onto the four walls. Her body snapped into half as the creature sank its powerful fangs into her pudgy waist.

Mr. Park fled to the far corner of the room and curled himself up on the floor like a fetus, his head between his knees and his arms wrapping around them. His whole body was shuddering violently.

The creature roared and raised its horn head for a moment, as if it was staring at the sky aboveground. After a few jerking moves, it spat a lump of coalesced body parts on the floor. Then it moved slowly towards Mr. Park. The Korean man pushed his back against the wall, probably wishing that the wall behind him would collapse and he could run away from the hideous monster. But that was wishful thinking. The last sound he heard in his life was the creature’s rising snarl of triumph.

Mrs. Chan and her children sat bolt upright in their bunk beds. Pete panicked and he scurried onto Pauline’s bed where his mother and sister were. The loud crashing sounds and the terrifying shrieks of a man were too real to be part of a dream. Mrs. Chan’s first thought was that Mr. Park was quarrelling with his sister. Then she listened carefully and realized something awful must be happening in Mr. Park’s room directly across the hallway. Electrifying pulses of chills blasted down her back as she hugged her two children tightly in her arms. They remained motionless for about one minute, then the terrifying screams ceased suddenly and the crashing stopped.

“What…was…that?” Pauline’s teeth chattered as she asked. “Shh…” Mrs. Chan put a finger on her own lips and covered Pauline’s mouth with her other hand. The Chan family held their breaths as approaching footfalls could be heard. In the wink of an eye, the nerve shattering footsteps were just outside their door. They froze.

Mrs. Chan wished that it was her husband John returning from his late night chat with Howard. But deep inside her heart, she knew that it couldn’t be her husband because her husband does not walk with such heavy footfalls that resembled that of a gigantic dog. Yes, there are four thuds when the thing moved! Four thuds instead of two!