Nen (17 page)

“We don’t know John. Somehow we missed that room totally when we were scouting around that area.” Howard said.

“I need to take a look at those heads, Howard.” Sarah said.

“Sure, but I don’t think that is a priority now.” Howard said flatly.

“Why not?” Sarah asked.

“The priority is to stay alive and find our way out.” Howard said in a stern voice.

“But...” Sarah was cut off by John. “I agree with you on that, Howard, the priority now is to leave this terrible place, and we should not be playing detectives, digging up ancient mysteries.”

Sarah looked at the two men and sighed, “Well, what should we do then?”

“First of all, make sure we keep our people from roaming about this place. It’s like a maze here. God knows what kinds of trouble they can get themselves into.” Howard said, his eyes looking at John.

“That was an accident. I’ll be keeping my kids within my sight.” John said.

Howard nodded and said “I think if we can find the TNT explosives, we can try our luck blasting a way out. That rock boring machine works but it will take a while.” Howard said. He paused for a moment and continued, “The other priority is our food. Very soon, there will be not much left at the garden outside. We need someone to search this place for food.”

“But didn’t you just said you do not want people walking around?” John asked.

“That’s the problem, John. Maybe Johnny and I should do it, but we will have to stop drilling for a while.” Howard said, raising his eyebrows theatrically.

“Let me and Kevin do this, Howard. And I’ll ask if Kenso-san is okay with that. He was with Paul when they search the place so he may be a good help.” Sarah suggested.

“I can come too if you guys need my help?” John asked eagerly.

Howard and Sarah both shook their heads as if they were in cahoots.

“I would prefer you stay here and looked after Pauline and your family, John.” Sarah said, “They need you here and Pauline will need you when she wakes up.”

John shifted his eyes from Sarah to Howard. On one note, he disliked the feeling of offering help and then being rejected but on the other note-he was much relieved that he could remain in the living quarter with his family.

Howard pursed his lips, clapped John on his shoulder and gave him an assuring nod. “It’s better this way, John.”

The elevator landing was filled with the pungent stench of decomposing human flesh that was unlike any other odor on earth. Wong was squatting on his heels and opening some wrecked tool boxes among a heap of broken crates. He was right beside the elevator cage, his hands deftly shuffling through scores of work men tools in the boxes. From one of the boxes, he withdrew a voltage tester- a type of screwdriver whereby the small neon lamp inside the insulated handle would glow in red if the tip of the screwdriver was in contact with high voltage electricity.

Wong stood up and moved to the front of the elevator landing where the charred and contorted body of Mr. Lang was diffusing the unbelievable stench at full intensity. He covered his nose with one hand as the smell of decomposed flesh was so strong it stung his nostrils. Slowly, he stretched out his other hand that was holding the voltage tester so that the tip of the tester could touch the gun metal elevator door. The small neon lamp in the voltage tester glowed blood red.

“Damn it.” He cursed in mandarin and tilted his head slightly, staring blankly at the malfunctioned elevator door.

He then strode over to the elevator controls and reached out to touch the buttons. His skeletal fingers stopped about two inches from the red ‘going up’ button. Better be safe than sorry, he thought. Instead of touching the button with his bare hands, Wong used the voltage tester. He poked the elevator control panel and the buttons on it a couple of times with the voltage tester and there was no red glow. Feeling assured, he started to press the buttons with his fingers. Nothing happened.

Wiping the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand, Wong felt exhausted after spending the last few hours in this stinky enclosure populated by mounds of fallen rocks, heaps of mangled iron structures and a dead body. He decided to go back to the crates and tool boxes to see if he could find something useful. Just when he was about to squat down before a wooden crate, he thought he heard something; a sound that scraped his nerves. That sound was indistinct but it reminded him of the faint growl of a tiger!

“It’s impossible, I must have heard wrongly.” he said to himself. And he immediately brushed that thought away, got down on his knees and began to rummage in the wooden crate. There were some rubber hoses and scores of iron brackets cushioned by packing fibers in the crate. Wong rummaged in the crate for a while before he felt something big and heavy at the bottom. He hauled that object out of the crate. It was a mechanical device consisting of two fuel canisters attached to a backpack and a steel barrel with a muzzle at one end and a gun butt with a firing trigger at the other. The metallic barrel was connected to the fuel canisters by a long hose. It’s a portable flame thrower! Why would there be such a thing here? Night Guard Lang must have illegally procured the flame throwing weapon and probably had the intention to sell it to the black market at an exorbitant price. But too bad, he was too dead to carry on with this business now, Wong thought for a moment as he examined the device.

There was a thud. It came from the far end of the pitch dark passageway that leads to the underground chamber. Wong stood up gingerly, his eyes squinting at the far side where the thud was from. He tried to beam his flashlight but he could barely make out the rocks and fallen pipes that almost clogged up the narrow passageway. “Who’s that? Howard, is that you?” Wong yelled and the only reply that echoed back was his own voice.

The thud came again. Thud! Wong picked up a shovel and strode towards the sound.

Thud! He approached a stack of fallen copper pipes and shone his flashlight into the gaps among the wrecked piping. Three rats were blinded by the unexpected light and they scampered out of the mangled heap in shock, startling Wong.

“Damn you, rats!” Wong cried out loud and then laughed at himself for being such a lunatic. Everything had happened so quickly and he couldn’t really tell which directions the rats had gone. Shaking his head, he threw the shovel on the ground and began to walk back to the elevator landing.

A deep growl erupted in the dark and was shockingly crystal in Wong’s ears. It was definitely not a hallucination that someone or something was right behind him, hiding in the dark, watching him! Wong’s heart thumped violently against his chest. He stood still for a moment and listened. There was another growl followed by a rustling sound at his heels! In a panic, Wong picked up his pace and dashed towards the elevator. And whatever that was growling in the dark was pursuing him! He ran with all his might. Several feet away from the elevator landing, Wong tripped over chunks of tumbled rocks on the ground and fell face flat. He tried to push himself up when he sensed a hiss of warm breath touching the nape of his neck. Pain exploded in his shoulders and a stab like lightning tore through the small of his back. Before Wong could open his mouth to scream, he was torn apart by a terrific force.

CHAPTER 28

Kenso-san was walking down the hallway between the living quarters when he saw Mr. Park hustling towards him from the opposite end. He paused for a moment, wondering why Mr. Park was in such a hurry. When Mr. Park came nearer, he noticed that Mr. Park was carrying two large sacks of fruits under his arms, his face was full of sweat and his facial expression was nothing but dubious.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” Kenso asked, thinking that Mr. Park might be stealing food from the vegetable garden outside the barracks.

“None of your business.” Mr. Park growled as he went past Kenso.

Kenso stared blankly at Mr. Park who scurried like a rat toward the doorway of his living quarter. He shouted something in Korean and his elder sister Madam Kim opened the door. Kenso pretended that he was not looking at them but from the corner of his eyes, he could see Mr. Park pointing a finger at him and mumbling something to Madam Kim before they disappeared from the hallway.

Kenso shrugged his lean shoulders and continued his stroll down the hallway. He eventually stopped outside one of the living quarter doors on his right. Kenso rapped the slight gaping door with his knuckles and then pushed it opened gently.

It was Sanjay Gupta’s room that he had stepped into. Under the pale glare of the overhead fluorescents, Mami-san was busily dressing Gupta’s wounded leg when her boyfriend came in.

“Here’s the water, dear.” Kenso said, waving a plastic bottle at Mami.

“Thanks, honey.” Mami smiled and took the bottle from her boyfriend. She placed the bottle of water into Gupta’s hand and said, “Gupta, this is for you. Dr. Sarah said you must drink more water.”

Gupta nodded and he uncapped the plastic bottle, took a few sips before he placed the bottle on a nightstand beside his bed.

“Thanks a lot, guys.” Gupta said, “I really appreciate all your help and care.”

“You’re most welcome, Gupta.” Kenso said, settling himself down on the edge of the bed. “In situation like this, we only have each other to depend on.” Gupta shook his head in agreement. Kenso had worked in India before so he knew that when an Indian person shook his or her head, it actually meant a ‘Yes’ rather than ‘No’.

“I think that will do.” Mami said, discarding soiled bandages into a rattan basket under the bed, “I’ll change the dressing again in a few hours’ time.”

“Thank you Ma’am.” Gupta said, shifting his back up a little.

“Are you feeling better now? I mean he is your friend, right?” Mami asked.

“You mean Henry? Yes, Henry is my colleague. We worked in the same company back in Singapore.” Gupta paused for a while, took a deep breath and said, “He might be cynical at times but he was a good colleague. We were supposed to return to Singapore next week. But now this thing happened…this terrible thing…”

“Gupta, I understand how you feel. But it’s pointless to feel bad now.” Mami looked at Kenso briefly and continued, “The fact is, we do not even know if we can get out of here alive. We need to do something now if we do not want to end up like Henry.”

“How I wish my leg was fine, I could help out in anything.” Gupta said.

“Kenso-san, what do you think of us helping out, you know, earning our keep here?” Mami asked, her lips curled slightly upwards and she got that mischievous look on her face.

“Huh?” Kenso uttered, “You mean…”

“I mean we should volunteer to help out, dear. Those guys out there are trying their best to find a way out. Shouldn’t we do something as well?” Mami asked in a serious tone.

“I know that, hon. That was why I helped Paul recce around this place. But after what I saw what’s out there. I … I just can’t leave you here and take the risk again.” Kenso said, shifting his eyes away from Mami and Gupta.

There was a knock on the door and it swung opened. Sarah and Kevin Tan stepped into the room. “Hey guys, are we interrupting you?” Sarah asked politely.

“Not at all, Dr. Sarah. Please come in and sit down.” Mami said, pointing to a chair next to her.

Sarah dropped into that chair and Kevin sat down on the edge of the bed.

“How’s your leg, Gupta?” Sarah asked.

“Fine Ma’am, Mami just helped me change the dressing.” Gupta said.

“Great, but I suggest you do not move about unnecessarily.” Sarah said with a cheeky smile, “Well, just treat this as your hotel room.”

Everyone laughed. When the laughter subsided, Kevin said, “Sarah and I just checked on Pauline but she was still sleeping. So we actually went to that classroom and chained the door up.”

“You did ? That’s great. I hope Pauline is fine, I can’t imagine how these kids are feeling right now. If I am Pauline, I would definitely freak out if I saw those human heads.” Mami said.

“She was in shock when John found her but she’s all right now. She’s not hurt at all, physically she had no injury, that’s what I mean.” Sarah said.

“Why are those heads in that classroom, what kind of crazy lectures were being delivered there? And why are the heads not decomposed after such a long time?” Gupta asked.

“All these questions bothers me as well, Gupta,” Sarah said, “I do not know all the answers to your questions but what I do know is that the severed heads in that classroom reeked of formaldehyde and they had been injected with a weird serum.” Sarah tucked into her pocket and took out a small syringe bottle that contained a viscous yellowish liquid. “Here, this is the strange serum that I was talking about. I took this from that classroom before we chained it up.” Sarah said, passing the syringe bottle around for the rest of the people to have a closer look.

“Strange, there seems to be a kind of luminous glow but now it’s gone.” Mami considered the bottle of yellowish serum carefully before giving it back to Sarah.

“You’re right, Mami.” Sarah said, “This liquid is glowing, on and off. I believe the creepy hand in that laboratory might be injected with this serum too. But I’ve not seen it so perhaps Kenso-san could bring me to that place?”

Kenso nodded but an uneasy smile appeared across his face and Sarah noticed that. She put the bottle back in her pocket and said to all with a smile. “Well, I’ve just taken up a new role as chairman of our food finding committee. We need to look for more food and water source here if we want to survive. There must be a kitchen somewhere in this army camp and I am thinking of finding it. Do you guys want to join us?”