Nen (7 page)

In a flash, one of the fluorescent fishes sank its tiny fangs into the silk smooth skin of Henry’s finger. The bite was not painful but it happened so quickly and was so startling that Henry’s reflexes involuntarily thrust his body backwards.

“Damn it!” Henry cursed, shaking the fish off his finger just before his buttocks touched the ground. The little glowing fish about three inches in body length spun off Henry’s hand in a projectile and fell back into the pond.

“Are you alright?” Gupta asked. Although he was supported by Paul and Johnny at his sides, Gupta could see very clearly the whole incident that had happened as he was merely three feet away from Henry.

Henry did not respond to Gupta. He was in rage and he threw a senseless punch into the pond, splashing water all over his own body. “Bloody fish, I will eat you if I can!” He yelled.

After venting his anger at the fishes, Henry stood up to examine the bite wound on his left forefinger. A curvy row of tiny red spots had just appeared and there was a tint of redness around the bite wound.

“Here, put on this plaster. Let’s get going.” Johnny said to Henry. With one hand supporting Gupta and another hand holding an adhesive bandage, Johnny’s facial expression was a clear indication to Henry and Gupta that it was time for them to move.

Henry’s cheeks were pinkish when he took the adhesive bandage from Johnny. “Thanks, let’s get the hell out of this place.” Henry said grimly as he wrapped the sticking Band-Aid around his wounded finger.

CHAPTER 14

The subterranean crystal cave was much bigger than anyone could have imagined. The tourists trekked at a fairly slow pace along the meandering subterranean stream that sliced through bushes of weird foliage that had somehow blossomed in an environment without sunlight. With Howard leading the way, the tourists made sure that they took every step with caution as they walked slowly but warily on the wet and slippery ground, passing by several potholes and underground gours which were small basins hollowed out by water from the stream.

It took the group of tourists more than ten minutes to reach the far end of the cave where the subterranean stream diverged from a sparkling plunge pool at the base of a mini water fall.

The height of the mini water fall was merely fifteen feet and from that height, running water was spurting out from a score of minute fissures and crannies sparingly scattered on a vertical cave wall that resembled an oversized coral reef formed by the juxtaposition of blue, orange, yellow and green rocks. The water seemed to be gushing out rhythmically from the crannies and falling helplessly to the plunge pool below.

The wide and tall cave wall loomed over the tourists, like a never-ending section of a seaside cliff, bordering a crescent-shaped coast line and stretching all the way to the sky so high up that nobody at the base could see where it ended. Chunks of protruding rocks and boulders stacked over each other randomly where the base of the rock wall intersected with the cave floor. Strangely, there was not a single shrub or plant growing at that very spot where the disappointed tourists were standing. Just rocks and the pulsating water fall. No undergrowth or any kind of vegetation at all.

“Seems like a dead end to me.” Nelson looked up at the rock wall before them and remarked sarcastically, his eyes trying to meet with Howard’s which were rolling from left to right, up and down, scanning the whole place repeatedly with the intention not to miss out any spots.

“Well,” Howard turned to Nelson and said, “have some faith. I think I saw something.”

“What did you see? Where is it?” Nelson asked impatiently.

“There,” Howard paused for a moment before answering. His eyes turned to the direction toward the right side of the plunge pool about twenty feet away where a big chunk of reddish rock firmly stood. The rock was as big as the size of a typical soft drink vending machine and under normal circumstances; it would be special as it emitted a reddish phosphorescence. But in this extraordinary cavern where all the rocks, stones, plants and even fishes in the ponds giving out illumination of eye-dazzling colors, that piece of red color rock was not supposed to catch the attention of anyone, except Howard Smith, who had the eyes of an eagle.

“Come, let me show it to you.” Howard said wearily and started walking hastily towards that huge stud of rock twenty feet away. Nelson shrugged his shoulders and followed closely behind him with the rest of the group trying to catch up with both men.

Howard was three steps away from the slab of red glowing rock when he suddenly stopped and turned around. “Halt! Don’t come any closer!” he shouted but he was too late; some lady in the group of tourists had seen what Howard saw and was screaming at the top of her voice.

The reddish boulder that was standing like a gatekeeper in front of the vexed tourists was half blocking a small tunnel about four feet wide and eight feet tall. A human skeleton was lying at the entrance of the tunnel with its lower torso and lower limbs missing. It wore a tattered cap hat with neck flaps and what was left of a soldier’s uniform. Its nude jawbone grinned and the eye sockets seemed to stare at the tourists jocularly.

“What happened to him or her?” Mr. Chan asked frantically, trying his best to body shield the grotesque scene from his children who were peeping from behind him, “Where is the...the rest of his...her lower parts?”

“His pelvic cavity, sir, it’s a he not a she,” Dr. Sarah Tan answered him as she stoop to examine the corpse, “everything below his pelvic cavity was gone and there are some indications on his lumbar vertebrae telling me that his entire pelvis and lower limbs were severed from him by an enormous force. Perhaps it was a clean bite from a great white shark?” Sarah Tan pulled a weird grin as she realized what she had just said was extremely ludicrous.

“Howard, does he look kind of familiar?” Paul asked.

“Huh, judging from the uniform he is wearing and the pistol in his hand, he could be a high ranking officer from the Japanese Imperial Army, World War Two.” Howard said.

“Yes, I recognized the hat. He’s a bloody Japanese soldier from World War Two!” Wong exclaimed.

Kenso Odaka frowned and threw a disgusted look at Wong before he said to the group, “Look, there are some ammunition cartridges over here and bullet holes on the rocks. I think he had been trying to defend himself before he died.”

“Hardly successful I guess.” Paul remarked.

“Something terrible must have happened to him. Please stay within sight of each other and don’t wander off.” Howard said to all before he stepped over the remains of the Japanese soldier and peered into the dark tunnel. He shone his flashlight into the tunnel and scrutinized it for a few minutes before returning back to the tourists.

“Guys, there are some rocks blocking part of the tunnel. Shall we remove those rocks?” Howard said, pointing to the tunnel entrance where the human skeleton was. Nobody said anything as the presence of the skeleton simply implied that some kind of danger could still be lurking in the tunnel. Howard cleared his throat and continued, “I know it is perilous but I can see a deep tunnel right behind those rocks. That might be our only way out of here.”

CHAPTER 15

The guys shoveled, dug and burrowed tirelessly at the pile of rocks that concealed part of the tunnel, using the spades, hatchets and crow bars that they had brought with them from the underground chamber. Dr. Sarah Tan and her fiancé were at the tunnel entrance, inspecting the human skeleton. The rest of the group was hanging around a stack of protruding rocks at the foot of the cave wall adjacent to the water fall. Of all the men in the group, Henry was the only one who did not help with the shoveling and he seemed to be restless, pacing the edge of the plunge pool up and down. Gupta, Mrs. Chan and the children sat on the cold hard ground with their backs leaning against the smooth cave wall.

An hour passed in a wink of an eye. At last, the men finally cleared the blockage at the tunnel entrance and created an opening large enough for a full-grown adult to walk through without difficulty.

Howard dusted off the soil and dirt from his hands and took out the flashlight that he had kept in the duffel bag. He had not used it at all since they arrived in the crystal cave as the entire place was more than well illuminated. Walking around in that weird subterranean cavern was no different from strolling under a cloudless sky during a sunny day when the sun was directly above our heads. The brightness that was caused by the colorful lights bouncing all over the cave made one craves for a pair of sun glasses.

Howard thumbed the switch on the flashlight to ensure that it was functioning. He then gathered the group and said, “Okay, Wong and I will go in first. All of you will stay put. I have no idea how deep this tunnel is and how much time we will be away.”

There was silence for a while. Howard could sense the uneasiness of the tourists. Perhaps some of them had caught the wrong impression that if he had the chance, he might just run away with Wong and abandoned them. Howard walked over to Pauline and Pete and lowered himself to their eye level. He noticed that the children could not take their eyes off the remains of the Japanese soldier for a second.

With the tone of a police officer or some authoritative figure, he clapped Pete’s shoulder and said calmly, “Pete, we do not know why this man died and there may be danger on the other side. That’s why I have to go in first without risking the lives of everyone here”

“Yes sir. I am sure you can help us find the way out.” Pete said respectfully.

Howard smiled and turned his attention to Pauline who was shuddering, noticeably shaken by the sight of the corpse. “I promised that I will be back, Pauline, how about a pinky swear?” Howard stuck out his little finger and Pauline responded by curling her little finger onto Howard’s.

Howard got up and spoke softly to Pauline’s parents. “Let them have some rest and if possible, draw their attention away from the skeleton. I will be back in a jiffy. You have my word.” Mr. and Mrs. Chan nodded their heads in appreciation.

Howard took a last look around the circle of tourists, then walked to the entrance of the tunnel with Wong.

“You sure you’re up for this?” Howard asked.

“Yeah.” Wong answered.

“Okay then, let’s go.” Howard muttered.

Armed with only hatchets in their hands, Howard and Wong skirted past the mangled skeleton of the dead Japanese soldier and crept slowly into the dark tunnel. Their flashlight beams played over the floor, which was twisted and heaved into scores of crazy hills and valleys.

Howard and Wong emerged from the other end of the tunneling cave in less than three minutes as the ‘deep tunnel’ that was perceived by Howard was apparently a fairly shallow one, only about fifty feet end to end. However, it was not a straight through channel but one that twist and bend like a slithering python on a desert ground. There was nothing peculiar about the tunnel except for the sharp bends at some points. No foreseeable dangers at all for everyone, including the children and Gupta to pass through it safely. In fact, after merely six to seven steps, both Howard and Wong were able to tell that they were actually inside a man-made tunnel, not one that was formed by nature.

As Howard and Wong stepped out of the darkness that engulfed the curvy tunnel, they were immediately overwhelmed by a familiar scene before them, a scene that was familiar because it had appeared in many Hollywood movies. But seeing the real thing here with their own eyes was definitely something unimaginable.

A few feet away on Howard’s right lay a pile of sandbags that was stacked and arranged in a U-shaped pattern and a submachine gun was planted on it. The gun was pointing directly at the opening of the tunnel where both of them were standing. However, there was nobody behind the machine gun. In fact, the entire place seemed to be deserted.

Directly across the fortress of sandbags was a small weedy parking lot of bitumen flooring. Right in the middle of the overgrown parking lot, there were about eight to nine greyish green jeeps and trucks positioned side by side in an orderly fashion. Vines and crawler plants climbed the military vehicles to their hoods, giving them the perfect camouflage that only nature could adorned. Judging by the makes and shapes of the vehicles, the four wheelers were probably mass-manufactured in Japan in the 1940s before World War Two. There was something that looked like a power generator at the far end of the overgrown parking space, beyond that were rows of dome-shaped bunkers and an open area that resembled a mini army parade ground.

They were inside an abandoned World War Two era military facility!

And a pretty massive one that was strategically constructed atop the uneven terrains of an enormous underground cave, deep below the surface of the earth!!

Howard and Wong felt like two microscopic specks of overworked air traffic controllers standing alone in a gargantuan hangar that could easily shelter five jumbo jets. But there were no air planes before them and from the look of it, the place was never meant to be a hangar at all.

Howard had visited numerous military establishments around the world during his tour in the marines but he had never heard of a Japanese underground military facility of this magnitude hidden in rural China. He turned and looked at Wong who was staring straight at the military base, the hatchet slipped from his left hand and dropped to the ground.