Zero Sum Game, page 18
"How…how did you get us out?" He paused and caught his breath. "I thought we were dead."
The nearby wail of a siren saved Hina from answering. Voice spoke up. "Hina, we need to go, now."
She had never been more relieved for a command from Voice. Before she left, she said to the young man, "You're welcome." Then she ran down the train tracks, out of sight in seconds.
— — —
She wasn't sure what saved her life. Perhaps it had been the almost subtle tingling in her body, Voice trying to warn her, coupled with adrenaline. Maybe she had caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and it had been the battle suit's military software reacting and taking over. Whatever it was, she saw the deadly disc flying towards her, as well as the arm swinging it, and was grateful she had missed both.
Time seemed to slow around her. Her assailant struck when she arrived at the tunnel's exit. She bent herself backwards and fell to her knees; her momentum carried her forward, her invulnerable skin unaffected by the rough rocks sliding underneath her, as her ponytail trailed across the ground. A blue-clad arm and a circular shape passed overhead and out of sight.
She scrambled to her feet and backed away, her hands clasped in front of her chest.
Fujiya stood at the tunnel exit. He held a disc that was embedded in the rock wall. The weapon was about seventy-five centimeters in diameter. It had four holes in the middle for gripping, and the middle bulged then tapered to an edge finer than a razor's. The effect was that of an overfilled matte gray pancake. He pulled it free from the stone wall.
She eyed the device. "What does he have, Voice?"
"A self-micro-propelled hand disc. Very short range, but able to cut through almost any substance known. The Noigel prefer metal to energy-based weapons."
Hina eyed the deep cut marring the wall of the tunnel. "Great. He'd rather chop me up than disintegrate me."
"In essence."
Hina resisted the urge to flee, but continued to back away. The large alien smiled at her. He stepped forward, and Hina took a corresponding step back. He twirled the disc on one finger, like a child playing with his favorite toy. He stopped, reinserted all four fingers, pointed the disc at her edge first, and pressed a button. The device issued a tiny electronic click. He smiled wider.
"The onboard computer has locked onto you. Micro thrusters will control it for a short distance, allowing it to track your movements," Voice said. "I recommend you run."
"No argument," she said. She sprinted to the edge of the tracks and jumped. She sailed for fifty meters; for a brief moment she could see for kilometers around her. The rural community below her had old-style houses, many with small fields for growing crops. Straight roads created a grid pattern in the landscape, and farm equipment dotted the scenery.
Hina plummeted into a rice field. The crop had already been harvested, but the ground was muddy and thick. She made her way to the narrow one-lane road that separated this farm from its neighbor. Clumps of mud fell off her and streaks of water puddled onto the road as she stepped onto the hard surface. Voice was already pushing the dirt off her; by the time she turned around to search for Fujiya, she was dry and clean.
He leapt from the train tracks; unlike her, he would avoid landing in the field. She broke into a run. Behind her a heavy thud hit the pavement.
She ran down the straight road and managed to stay ahead of Fujiya. At an intersection she didn't slow down; with a mighty leap she sailed twenty meters over another field. Her legs and arms didn't flail like when she had jumped off the balcony, Voice superbly directed her movements. She landed, stumbled a little bit but remained on her feet, and continued running.
"Turn and duck," Voice instructed.
She didn't question him. Battle tactics were his forte, not hers, and she would need to trust him to get out of this fight alive. Last time, she had been lucky. Today, Fujiya was prepared. She slid into the driveway of a farmhouse, like a baseball player coming into home base, and went underneath a tractor.
Fujiya's disc rocketed towards her location. It altered its trajectory, ricocheted off a telephone pole, carving out a chunk of wood, and raced back to Fujiya. He held his right hand out, fingers spread, and the disc flipped itself into a vertical position and landed in his grip, the force pushing his arm back. She must have been out of the disc's range. Fujiya ran towards her.
Hina pushed herself up and hit her head on the bottom of the tractor, denting the axle. With a bit of maneuvering and leverage, she stood up and held the multi-ton tractor over her head. She tossed it at him, her throw awkward and clumsy. The tractor flipped and spun like an out of control javelin. Fujiya twisted at the waist, bearing the brunt of the impact against his side. He dropped the disc, picked up the tractor, and threw it back at her. Hina yelled and ducked as it passed overhead.
The tractor smashed through the house behind her and landed with an almost comical plop in the field beyond. Within the destroyed interior, an old couple sitting on the floor watching TV gripped each other in fear.
Hina heard a loud crack: a support beam for the ceiling was breaking apart.
"Hina, you must face Fujiya. Leave them," Voice said.
She ran inside. "Get down!"
The two adults threw themselves at the floor, and she covered them with her body. The beam came apart and landed on her broad back. The impact didn't affect her at all. She heard the people underneath her panting in fear. They were scared but safe.
She shrugged off the beam. It smashed an end table to bits, pinning it to the floor. "Run away," she told the couple. They got to their feet, unsteady and holding onto one another. They stepped towards the front hole, then stopped. Fujiya strode down their driveway, the disc in his hand. They turned their frightened faces to Hina, and she gestured for them to take the back way out of the house.
As soon as he was in reach, Fujiya swung at her. Hina stepped backwards and stumbled over the broken TV. She fell to her back as his swing went by overhead. He yelled in frustration; before she could scramble away, he grabbed her right ankle and spun around. He tossed her like a pillow, and she went through the screen door of the living room and impacted against the refrigerator. She left several deep imprints of herself on its metallic surface.
Disc in hand, Fujiya swung downwards. She grabbed his arm, stopping him from cleaving her in half. He grabbed her by the front of her blouse and head butt her; for a moment she lost all focus and thought. He tossed her through the air; her body acted as a wrecking ball as it crashed through walls and snapped support beams. She landed in a heap against a bed. The loudest roar of thunder she had ever heard in her life filled her ears as the house, unable to support its weight, crashed on top of her.
She never lost consciousness, but she stayed buried to give herself a few moments to recuperate. She knew she had to run, she couldn't keep fighting like this. Fujiya was a soldier and she was a junior high school girl. How was she supposed to save humanity from two aliens if she couldn't even beat one? She coughed out dust from her lungs, and pushed herself up. Tons of wood and stone fell off her.
Once clear of the debris, Hina ran, leaping over open fields, clearing half a kilometer at a time until she reached the forest. Thick branches snapped and splintered against her as she descended and landed in a crouch. She took off as fast as she could.
"You must stay and face him," Voice said. "We need to know the details of their plans."
She ignored him. Fear pushed her forward, its solid hand between her shoulder blades. It told her to never turn back. Forward, it said, only forward. She saw the hollowed out trunk of a burned and scarred tree. She crawled through an opening at its base. Inside was dim, but the sun poured through the hole above her. She ignored the smell of mildew and rotted wood. She closed her mouth and tried to breathe through her nose. The sound echoed in her small hideaway, she was sure Fujiya would hear her.
The forest seemed to be holding its breath. She couldn't see outside, so she looked at her feet. The small hole let in some light, and she hoped she would never see a shadow pass in front of it. She was afraid to move, lest the smallest sound alert the alien hunting her.
The command in Voice's tone brokered no argument. "Jump."
She leapt straight up out of the trunk half a second before Fujiya's disc cleaved through it. She wrapped her arms around her head for protection against the trees, forgetting she was invincible. Her head buried and eyes shut, she didn't see Fujiya leap through the air.
They collided in midair; with his greater bulk and mass he drove her to the ground. They slammed into a fallen log, their invulnerable bodies splintering it into pieces. Hina struggled and screamed as Fujiya maneuvered himself on top of her. A quick punch to the left side of her jaw quieted her down and ceased her struggles. The staggering blow was unlike anything she had ever felt before. It was more powerful than the train from earlier. He grabbed a handful of hair and slammed her head into the ground. He did it three more times, each blow driving her deeper into the earth. She couldn't get up; her head ached like never before and her mind was foggy. She wanted to lay there and let it end. She hoped Fujiya would strip the suit off her and let her end her mission. They had won; there was no way she could defeat them.
He kicked her foot. She opened her eyes, holding a hand to her forehead.
"You don't know what you're doing, do you? That suit," he pointed the disc at her and she pushed herself farther into the ground in fear, "is the only thing keeping you alive. You have no idea what you're up against."
He put two fingers on his watch and ran them over the top in a circular motion. Bright sparkles and glitter appeared around his body, growing in number until they obscured him from view, then disappeared in a quick flash. He had deactivated the hologram of his flash skin. He stood before her in his battle suit. It matched Ichihara's: black with horizontal raised ribbing. His head, feet, and hands were bare. After a second, the battle suit moved; shifting and sliding over his body like black mercury with a mind of its own. As it flowed and coalesced, pouring downwards and oozing upwards at the same time, it exposed Fujiya's true form underneath.
The suit formed a pair of black shorts over his hips and waist, covering him. He had plates of armor covering his major muscle groups, the texture and hardness similar to an armadillo's plating. His skin was rough and bicolored: white and dark green mottling his body. He was tall and muscular, like a pumped up basketball player.
Hina screamed, and Fujiya smiled with both of his mouths. His bare head had twin slits for a nose and a mouth with four rows of pointed crooked shark-like teeth, two rows on top and two on bottom. A split tongue pulsed and undulated behind his teeth. He had no eyes, not even eye sockets. He bared his short and pointed teeth at her; his flat nose pulsated as he smelled her. His second mouth grinned at her. Surrounded by bony plates, the thick rough lips smiled, revealing flat, square teeth and a gray tongue. He gazed at his bare feet and his hands, they had four digits. He whispered a command in Noigel, and the suit morphed back into its default mode.
"I know you're a Noigel." She tried for a strong tone but she heard only fear in her voice. "I know you want to kill everyone on my world and turn it into your own." She raised herself onto her elbows, still too dazed to get to her feet. "I won't let you." It sounded like an idle threat.
"You're a 'little fish,' as Shimizu would say. You can't stop us." The mouth in his neck spoke while his eating mouth smiled and bared its sharp teeth.
Hina willed herself not to look away in fear. "Ichihara-san tried. I'm going to do the same." She hoped the tremble in her voice wasn't as noticeable to Fujiya as it was to her.
The big alien paused when he heard the name. His face dropped its menacing expression and he lowered his head in sadness. "He was a soldier. A good one at that. And a friend."
A friend? Hina tried not to let her jaw drop in surprise. This killer and the man in the shrine had known each other? A hundred questions came into her mind.
Fujiya continued before she could speak. "He was doing what he thought was right. So am I." He ran his eyes over her short sleeve blouse with its blue ribbon, and dark blue skirt. He raised his head, and both his mouths hardened their expressions. "Without the suit, you'd be dead in a heartbeat. It's disgusting to see Noigel technology sink so low as to take on…that…form. I wish I could cut it right off your body."
He hurled the disc at her. She screamed and threw her arms up in protection. The disc bounced off her bare forearms and shot back to Fujiya's hand. She lowered her arms and looked them over. Not one centimeter of skin was broken.
"Our scientists built these battle suits too well. They're impervious to our own weapons." He moved the useless disc towards his left hip. The black suit created a pocket that he slipped the disc into. "I'll give you one chance to take off that battle suit and hand it over." He held out a four-fingered hand. "Take it off, or I'll choke you into unconsciousness and strip it off."
Hina had enough courage to stand on her feet. The image of him running his alien hands over her body almost made her vomit in disgust and embarrassment. "Wait," she said, holding up her hands like a pleading criminal in a cop drama. "I don't want to die." She stood there with tears in her eyes.
"I can't promise that," Fujiya said. His hand still stretched towards her. "Give it to me. Believe it or not, I really don't feel like stripping a fourteen-year old girl. I understand that is a very young age for a human."
For some reason, Hina believed him. He was giving her a choice. This was the second time he had shown a hint of compassion towards her. But there was another choice besides the two he offered. She kicked two large stones at him. He snatched them from the air like a frog catching flies with its tongue.
She raced towards him, jumped, pulling her legs underneath her in a move Voice had told her about a second ago. He couldn't react in time. Her legs shot out into his chest like twin steel pistons. He crashed through a tree, flew several meters through open space until he smashed through two more trees, snapping them like dry twigs. A third tree finally stopped him. He fell to the ground.
Before he had hit the third tree, Hina ran for her life.
CHAPTER 20
She ran and ran and did not stop. On the main highway, Hina pumped her legs as hard as she could. She swerved around cars and trucks, moving too fast to be seen as anything but a blur.
Fear fueled her now. She had been targeted and almost killed. They wanted her dead. She couldn't believe it. Fujiya's pursuit earlier had been scary, but he had been at a distance, a bad man chasing her. This had been different. He had run her down and beaten her. Had wanted to kill her. Voice wanted to keep fighting him. He had suggested that if they defeated him, they could learn specifics about the Noigel's plan. But she had panicked; as soon as she saw a clear chance, she escaped. She admitted that Voice's kick had been impressive, but when she had seen the Noigel hurled so far away, the instinct for flight had been too strong to ignore.
She ran down the expressway exit leading towards Hiroshima's city center. She went through the gate and turned onto a major thoroughfare. She slowed down, but was still fast enough to be a blur. She trusted Voice's reflexes to save her in an accident. She raced around parked cars and blazed through intersections. She slowed to a jog when she reached her apartment's street. She had never been so happy to see the worn-down building.
She launched herself up the first step. Still overexcited from her encounter, her muscles were not used to the slower pace, and they exerted too much power. Her right foot slammed down on the metal step, bending it, and she hurled upwards, stumbling at the unexpected flight. She crashed against the metal railing that surrounded the second floor landing. Her invulnerable body bent several of the metal rails that let out squeaks of protest. She collapsed on the landing. After a moment, she sat up, the abrupt stop giving her time to get clear her head. She heard a doorknob turn and shot to her feet. As the door to apartment 201 opened, Hina glanced at the rails and moved in front of the worst damage. A woman in her seventies opened the door wide enough to fit her head between it and the door frame.
"What happened?"
"I was coming up the stairs and I tripped," Hina said, pointing to the top step.
The woman stepped out of her apartment. "You should go to the hospital. Come inside, and I'll call them and check—"
Hina waved her hands at the old lady. "No, no, please. I'm fine." She smiled at the woman. "See?" She spread her arms out and the woman gave her a once over. "Nothing wrong. I was a little clumsy." She held her breath.
"Ah, the young," the woman said.
Hina bowed, and the old woman retreated into her apartment.
Hina ran her hands over her face. That had been close. She studied the damaged rails. They were bent out of shape, but she couldn't fix them now—the old lady would hear the noise and come out to investigate again. She resolved to fix them tonight.
She climbed the remaining stairs at a normal pace, willing her muscles to relax, and reached for the knob on her apartment door, then stopped. It was her dad's day off and he would be home. What would she tell him? Would he know something was wrong with her? Did she look normal enough? She twisted the knob, but it didn't turn. She let out a breath. Her dad wasn't home.
She leaned on the landing's railing. Across the street was this apartment building's parking lot: a small area with seven slots, covered by a simple glass carport. The first floor had one apartment, the rest of the floors had two each. She saw that her dad's car, an orange Toyota Aqua, was gone. She smiled to herself, unlocked the door, and went inside.
She threw herself on her bed. She wondered if Fujiya had managed to follow her here, and a portion of the fear from earlier returned.
"Do you think Fujiya could have followed me home?" she asked Voice.
"No," he said.
She curled into a ball. Wetness formed in her eyes, then spilled over. Huge sobs shook her body. She hugged her knees tighter and cried, and the tears washed away some of the day's stress. The short, staccato breaths expelled bits of the fear. When she finished, she dabbed at her eyes and dried her face. Certain no more tears were coming, that she had her emotions under control, she put on her makeup, making herself the fashion model Ami said she should be.
