Matthew Moses
Chapter 4
In the still dark beneath the condemning gaze of the venerated, Akkad scowled at the blip orbiting the Earth, scorning the Therian disc that kept vigil over his prize. A laelap hovered toward him, halting to assume its green silhouetted avatar. “Status report, daimōn.” Akkad failed to hear the laelap. “Sir?”
“What?” Akkad shouted, jerking violently forward and baring his fangs at the mech.
The laelap did not flinch, its flickering façade blankly confronting Akkad. “Status report, daimōn,” it repeated.
Akkad flared his nostrils, snapping at the air. “Report.”
“Communications have been achieved with Topheth.”
“Has our situation been relayed to them?”
“No daimōn. We have only informed them of our arrival in system and current operational status.”
The disc shone in Akkad’s oily eye, a contemplative hiss in his throat. “We will begin a communications black out.” He turned to the laelap, extending his hand to expose his claws in a threatening gesture. “Until I order, no one is to send a communiqué across the link.”
“As you command, daimōn.”
“Status of the fleet?”
“Minimal damage was taken in transit. The majority was structural received from entering in system. Repairs are nearing completion now. All systems are running at satisfactory levels. We will be able to initiate invasion at your discretion.”
A hacking cough, a sign of pleasure among the Cthon, barked harshly from Akkad’s throat. “Excellent.”
“Daimōn, a query.”
“Regarding?”
“Your choice of champion. What you have ordered-”
“If I must choose one of these mortals,” Akkad stated, gesturing weakly toward the Earth, “I will make him worthy of our mantle.”
“But do you not worry that you are violating the terms?”
“I violate nothing! The rite does not preclude the use of genetic modification. He need only be human...in part.”
“But what you ask is problematic.”
Akkad bristled. “Explain.”
“As requested, a probe was sent to the planet’s surface to gather data on the natives. We have finished analyzing the samples collected. The data has not been wholly positive.”
Akkad advanced toward the laelap, his monstrous form towering over the emerald shade. “How so?” he snarled menacingly.
“Simulations have been run regarding the feasibility of genetic alteration of this planet’s natives via nanocytes. Physical trials of limited scope have already been carried out at the cellular level. Complications have arisen.”
“Such as?”
The laelap circled around the shaft of light to stand opposite Akkad. The Earth dissolved to be replaced by a blue hologram of human physiology. The digital skin was stripped away revealing indigo musculature while the veins and arteries were highlighted bright crimson to enhance one’s view of the circulatory system. “At the biological level, numerous differences have been discovered. Their blood is iron based in contrast to a Cthon’s copper creating issues in genetic compatibility. This includes metabolic rate, cellular respiration, and other functions. This has forced us to reformulate original organic designs of alteration slowing progress.” The highlighted circulatory system darkened as the contents of the thoracic and abdominal cavities flared a bright orange to reveal the individual organs located within. “The problem of alteration is further compounded by their organs. First, there is an issue concerning their hearts. A native’s heart is four chambered versus three and is smaller and more fragile in comparison to a Cthon’s possibly due to their thinner blood composition.” The heart withdrew from the holographic figure, beating as it came forward while expanding to allow for better examination. “Experiments have proven their heart to be vulnerable to cardiac arrest following nanocyte manipulation. We are unsure at this point if it is due to increased steroid and hormonal content brought on by the alteration process, possible tissue rejection, anemia, increased blood viscosity, hemolysis, or if the combined physical and mental toll placed on the specimen as a whole is to blame.” The heart beat faster and faster taking on a manic speed until the beat became irregular, struggling to continue until it stopped altogether and dissolved from view.
“Second,” the laelap continued, “they lack a hasha or an organic equivalent thus negating necessary regenerative capabilities compounding difficulties and lowering survival rates for the process to roughly 25%.”
“How do these creatures survive?” Akkad asked himself disgustedly. “Hatchlings are more durable than these frail beasts.” He flicked his claws in frustration. “Damnable creatures, I should never have agreed to use them. That Therian goaded me and I took the bait like an addled hatchling.”
“Also,” the laelap droned on, “due to such accelerated growth, the need to feed will grow exponentially in the subject to acquire the raw materials necessary to fuel their increasing metabolism. Simulations advise that the subject come from a region rich in either vegetation or prey to meet this demand. Otherwise the subject will quickly perish, its body consuming itself.”
“Have you found such a site?”
“We have several in mind which I am prepared to show you.”
“I have a choice? How rare,” Akkad darkly mused.
“There is more daimōn.”
“What do you mean there is more? Have you not cursed me enough with your predictions?”
“Daimōn, there are fears that the minds of these creatures may not handle genetic alteration even if it proves successful. Possible problems such as mental instability, stroke, or full shutdown have emerged.”
“Why?”
“In order to spur growth, we will have to increase the hormonal output of their interstitial cells as well as artificially stimulate stressor glands. This will lead to increased aggression on the part of the subject chosen. It will also entail an increase in stress. Therein lays the problem. Their minds have been shown to possess a weakness to prolonged stress and rage unlike your species. Too much stimuli and their brains begin to atrophy. Insanity could follow. Psychosis. Mindless rage.”
“Mindless rage is to be desired. I do not want this creature calculating. I want it annihilating.”
“But it will be unstable, daimōn, even self-destructive.”
“We can always put it down after. It is a blasphemy regardless.” Akkad stole a breath, thinking over the data while his tongue flicked in and out of his mouth. “Is there any way to lessen the threats of alteration?”
“The subject will have to be young. The closer to pubescence preferred. Their body will be most likely to survive the stress and be most vulnerable to alteration by nanocyte intervention as the adolescent is still developing naturally.”
“Ah, so we will make a stripling a warrior.”
“Have you any prerequisites for the site, daimōn?”
“Just one. Warriors may only be forged on battlefields. Of the sites that fit your demands for sustenance, are there conflicts occurring in or near them?”
“Yes, daimōn.” The human physiology faded out to once more be replaced by the Earth. “Magnify point 39-116.” The Earth revolved until Asia came into view and then enlarged to focus on China’s eastern shore, Japan floating off to the right. “Investigations have shown an ongoing conflict in this region.”
Akkad cackled deep in his throat. “Surely we will find a warrior there.”
“Yes, daimōn.”
“That site will do. Do what you must. I do not care if you must kill a thousand of these natives. We must have a champion.”
***
“Fèirén! Stupid boy!” Li Hsu shouted at his son in the cramped confines of their shack. “What will it take to get reason into that thick skull of yours? You know to be home before dusk. Now look what you’ve done.”
“But father-” Li Chen began, a bloody rag tied around his head.
Li Hsu cut him off with an angry wave of his hand. “I don’t want to hear your excuses. That is all I ever hear from you is excuses. It is never your fault. Is that what you are going to tell Jee Hae’s parents?”
Li Chen despondently cast his eyes down at the dirt floor.
“Look at me boy. Li Chen!” Li Chen grudgingly met his father’s wild stare. “Did the soldiers ask your name?”
“No, father.”
“So they don’t know who you are?”
Li Chen hesitated. “I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean you don’t think so? Either you gave them your name or you didn’t.”
“Why is that important?” Li Chen asked, exasperated.
“Because they may believe you to be a partisan. You were out after curfew along those damn tracks. I told you to stay away from them,” Li Hsu chastised with an accusing finger. “They might think you were planning sabotage.”
Li Chen squinted in puzzlement. “If they thought I was a partisan, why would they let me go?”
“For you to lead them to your partners.” Li Hsu flinched. “Did anyone follow you back here?”
Li Chen instinctively looked over his shoulder. “Not that I saw.”
Li Hsu shoved the boy regaining his attention. “You had better hope no one did dāiguā. You could have drawn suspicion on this entire village. Do you know what the Japanese do to villages that they suspect support partisans? They slaughter them.” Li Hsu pretended to slit his throat with his index finger. “Every man, woman, and child. Then they burn it to the ground. You could have killed us all.”
“I’m sorry.” Li Hsu waived Li Chen off even as his son pleaded with him. “But father you have to help me get her back.”
“I am not risking my life over your foolishness. And you’d best get such thoughts out of your own head.” Li Hsu’s face was grim as he continued, “If you’re lucky, they killed her. There are worse fates.”
“No, father. You are wrong. She is alive.”
“She is dead and you are responsible for killing her.”
“Ni bú shì rén!” Li Chen threw a punch at his father. Li Hsu dodged the blow and threw his son back against the wall. Li Chen slumped to the floor weeping.
“Wōnang fèi. Be happy the Japanese took no interest in you. You could have suffered worse.” He bent over and slapped Li Chen’s wounded forehead making the boy cringe. “They make a game of chopping off heads. Maybe they saw how little yours was worth.”
“You have to help me save her, father,” Li Chen whispered plaintively. “She’s alive.”
“You’d best stop thinking that, Li Chen. Hope is one thing you can never afford.”
A rapping at the door drew their attention. Li Hsu gave Li Chen an accusatory frown before he went to see who waited. Li Hsu tensed up as he gripped the latch, sucking in and holding a tremulous breath in his lungs. He put his ear to the split wood straining to discern who waited on the other side. “Who is it?” He was answered with more rapping, his head jerking back at the sound. Biting his lip, Li Hsu pulled the latch. When he opened the door he saw Hong Jin Bao, Li Chen’s fat friend waiting outside. The boy nervously wrung his hands while staring wide-eyed at Li Hsu. Li Hsu noticeably relaxed at the sight of the pudgy boy. “What do you want?”
“I’ve come to see Li Chen,” Hong Jin Bao mumbled, trying to look past Li Hsu into the shack. “Is he alright?”
Li Hsu moved to block Hong Jin Bao’s view. “Shouldn’t you be in the fields with your father?” Hong Jin Bao pursed his thick lips as he bowed his head and kicked at the dirt. “What are you now? A mule?” The boy remained quiet. Li Hsu gripped the boy’s arm and shook him violently. “I asked you a question.”
“I must speak with Li Chen,” Hong Jin Bao stuttered. His bladder loosened and he wet himself in fear.
Li Hsu let the boy go in disgust. “What is this about?” he demanded. Hong Jin Bao did not answer prompting a derogatory sneer from Li Hsu. “The only way you are speaking to Li Chen is through me. So speak up. Speak!” Hong Jin Bao cringed at Li Hsu’s shriek.
Li Chen jumped to his feet and darted past his father knocking the man aside as he lunged out the door grabbing Hong Jin Bao by the sleeve dragging him along behind him.
“Damnit, Li Chen! Get back here!” Li Hsu hurried out the door yelling after his son. “Li Chen!”
Li Chen and Hong Jin Bao ran through the village streets until they no longer heard Li Hsu’s screaming, kicking up clouds of dust as they went. They frightened a horse at an intersection with their passing, the creature rearing up into the air with forelegs kicking upsetting the load it had been carrying causing its owner to curse loudly at the two boys. The pair rushed on dodging and maneuvering through the many villagers littering the road, the ramshackle buildings of the village blurring by. Hong Jin Bao would stumble over the town drunk in their mad dash, only Li Chen’s grip keeping the boy upright while the snoring inebriant remained oblivious to being trampled.
“Can we stop?” Hong Jin Bao huffed, his face mottled and his feet starting to drag. The two slowed to a trot and soon stopped. They found themselves on the outskirts of the village, the rolling plains unfolding in front of them. Hong Jin Bao bent over, sucking wind thirstily making his belly ripple like jelly. “Your father…didn’t take the news well?”
Li Chen shook his head. “No, he didn’t.”
“I told you…to wait a few days…before going home.” Hong Jin Bao straightened up after a deep breath. “He’d start to worry and then be so happy to see you he wouldn’t ask questions.”
“I don’t think my father would miss me,” Li Chen cynically countered.
Hong Jin Bao nodded. “So he’s not going to help?”
“He thinks Jee Hae’s already dead.”
“Maybe you could speak to Jee Hae’s parents-”
“No,” Li Chen solemnly replied. “I can’t face them.”
Hong Jin Bao shrugged. “I guess that’s that then.”
Li Chen’s head snapped up at that. “No, it’s not.”
“What do you mean?” Li Chen gave Hong Jin Bao a sidelong look. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get Jee Hae back with or without my father.”
“That’s crazy, Li Chen! Do you know what the Japanese will do to us? We’re just kids.”
Li Chen turned away. “Now you’re beginning to sound like my father.”
Hong Jin Bao sidled up to Li Chen and wrapped a flabby arm around his companion. “We aren’t warriors, Li Chen. We can’t just rush in and save her. They have guns, guns with more bullets than stars in the sky and I make an easy target.” Hong Jin Bao slapped his ample gut.
Li Chen shrugged him off. “I’ll find a way.”
“They really must have cracked your skull if you believe that.”
Li Chen put his hands on his hips and looked out across the countryside. “Do you know where they took her?”
Hong Jin Bao’s eyes wandered while he fiddled with the sleeve of his tunic. “Maybe.”
Li Chen turned and punched Hong Jin Bao in the arm when the boy didn’t prove forthcoming. “Well?”
“Ok, Ok.” Hong Jin Bao rubbed his sore shoulder. “There is this facility the Japanese take prisoners to near Beiyinhe. They call it Zhongma.”
“A prison?”
“I don’t think so. The Japanese claim it’s a lumberyard, but no one believes them. My uncle helped construct it. The Japanese made him wear a basket on his head so he couldn’t see much of what he was building.” Hong Jin Bao mimed blindness, stumbling about.
“Why?”
“My uncle thinks the Japanese are hiding something. He’s been back there once since they finished the construction. He said a foul smoke comes from the place and he heard screams. He talks about it as if there were Oni inside.”
“Why do you think this is the place?”
“You said you heard the soldiers talking about General Ishii. My uncle remembered hearing that name while he was helping with the construction.”
Li Chen nodded. “Do you know where this facility is?”
“I don’t think I want any part of this.” Hong Jin Bao started to walk away only for Li Chen to seize his tunic. “Let go.”
“You have to show me where it is.”
“I have to eat. I have to sleep. I don’t have to die, at least not yet.”
“You’ll die one day.”
“Ok, I don’t want to die,” Hong Jin Bao clarified sarcastically.
“You will take me.”
“It’s just one girl, Li Chen. There are many more. You can have my sister. She has nice breasts. I’ve seen them.”
“Sāohuò, I don’t want your sister. I want Jee Hae.”
“Good luck with that.” Hong Jin Bao managed to pull free only for Li Chen to push him to the ground.
“You will take me,” Li Chen stated darkly, looming over Hong Jin Bao.
“I will not.” Li Chen kicked Hong Jin Bao in the stomach surprising his friend. “What is wrong with you?”
“You have to help me.”
“Hit me all you want. I’ve got enough fat to protect me.”
Li Chen proceeded to beat on Hong Jin Bao forcing the fat boy to curl up into a ball. Li Chen continued to pummel him until his fists hurt. Sweating and exhausted, Li Chen cursed his friend. “My father is right. You are a mule.” He sunk down next to Hong Jin Bao and was silent for a time. “Don’t you care about Jee Hae?” he finally asked glancing over at his pal. “She is your friend, too.”
“I care.” Hong Jin Bao sat up. “But what if we get caught?”
“We won’t get caught.”
“Jee Hae did.”
“Well…”
Hong Jin Bao glanced over at Li Chen. “Yeah?”
“Well I have a plan this time,” Li Chen answered impetuously.
“Which is?”
“If the Japanese discover us-”
“Yeah?”
“We run.”
Hong Jin Bao scrunched his nose. “That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have a better plan?” Hong Jin Bao needled.
“Do you?”
Hong Jin Bao sighed, brushing the grass off his tunic. “Not really.”
Li Chen motioned to the east. “Can we go now?”
Hong Jin Bao sighed realizing there was no way of dissuading his friend from his foolish quest. All Hong Jin Bao could do was tag along and hope to keep Li Chen out of trouble. “Ok,” he relented. “But first I have to do something.”
“What’s that?”
“Pray to the Cheng Huang.” Hong Jin Bao looked skyward. “We’re going need all the help we can get.”
***
Sitting on the edge of her squeaking cot, Jee Hae fidgeted while rubbing the ridges of her jade comb for solace, her leg bouncing nervously beneath her as she glanced around the small room doing her best to pass the time. The windowless cell she occupied was no larger than eight feet by twelve feet with a clean, wooden floor, a flush toilet, and a steel door with a slot cut into it. A cool breeze blew from a vent in the rear wall ruffling her silken hair and kept the cell’s temperature at a comfortable level, a luxury that had confounded her when she first encountered it believing the strange wind to be kuei haunting her room. Even now she slapped at her forehead embarrassed by her ignorance. The cell itself was illuminated from above by twin bulbs that dangled in a lantern. The buzzing lights were Jee Hae’s first brush with electricity and had held her spellbound upon first sight. Succumbing to curiosity, she had climbed atop her cot for a better look and burned her fingers by touching the light bulb within. She was later chastised by Japanese staff for her behavior and warned not to make such attempts again. When evening came, the lights were shut off to allow her to sleep though slumber proved elusive with worries of what was to come. Yet despite the horrors she had heard of Japanese captivity, the cell was far better outfitted than even the best dwelling in her village. Who would keep prisoners in such lavish surroundings?
She wasn’t sure where she was or why she had been brought here. Nothing had been asked of her nor explained. After being seized by the Japanese near the train tracks, they had put a sack over her head to prevent her from observing her surroundings while she was transported. They had only removed the sack upon arrival at the facility which consisted of hundreds of buildings as far as she could tell. Jee Hae had been forcibly escorted into one of those block houses down a corridor and into the cell she presently found herself in. A medical technician paid her a visit shortly thereafter recording her height, weight, and age as well as asking her a strange series of questions regarding her parents and relatives. Though originally scared, her fear had greatly abated after that first day. She had been terrified the soldiers had arrested her assuming she was a spy. Surely torture awaited her if the accounts of local villagers were true. But instead of punishment, she received three meals a day and had been left largely unmolested save for the medical technician who came every day asking her to extend her arm through the slot so that he could draw blood.
“To check for typhus,” he had told her to assuage her doubts.
Now reclining on her cot, she kept wondering for what purpose she had been brought here if not torture and interrogation. More importantly, when could she finally return home? Her meandering thoughts soon passed to Li Chen. Jee Hae hoped he was alright. Perhaps he was in one of the other cells.
Jee Hae was startled out of her daydreams by the clank of the slot being withdrawn in her door. A pair of almond eyes peered in, wrinkling mischievously as the voyeur smiled at the sight of her. She quickly sat up as the slot was replaced with a clack and the bolt withdrawn. Jee Hae hid the jade comb in her blouse as the steel door yawned open. Corporal Shinichiro Tanaka stood in the entrance. He was a short, squat, repugnant man with the face of a blow fish and the bowed legs of an ape. The way he looked at her made Jee Hae feel uncomfortable.
“Have you come to interrogate me?” she asked while pulling her blouse tighter around her.
Entering the cell, Tanaka slammed the door behind him making Jee Hae jump. He then turned and backhanded her across the face, the blow so hard she partially blacked out. As she blinked back into consciousness she felt Tanaka tugging at her blouse.
“No,” she pleaded feebly realizing what he intended only to receive another blow to the head. Tanaka soon overpowered her, pushing her down on the cot and ripping open her shirt before stripping off her pants and tossing them aside. His hands were all over her roughly groping her body while his swollen, purple lips suckled at her neck. The more she fought the more he slapped her until, tired of her struggling, he finally flipped her over and forced her face into the pillow so that he wouldn’t have to listen to her muffled screams as he penetrated her.
When Tanaka was through with her, he rose and buttoned up his pants while she curled up into the fetal position, weeping weakly to herself after her violation. Tanaka leered at the sight of this shattered, degraded girl. “What are you upset about? Do you know you cost me a day’s pay?” He snickered maliciously to himself. “But the price was worth it. You were as sweet as anmistu. The girls back home could learn a thing or two from you.” When she didn’t reply, Tanaka took a knee so that he could be at eye level with Jee Hae. Listening to her choking sobs he remarked, “You must think me so evil. Well let me tell you something. When Ishiguro is through with you you’ll look fondly on our time together.”
Tanaka rose to leave. Opening the door, he noticed Jee Hae reach for something out of the corner of his eye. “What is this?” he asked, whirling around and snatching at what she held. She fought to keep it from him, jumping from the cot and scratching viciously at his face only to be forcibly driven against the wall. The wind knocked out of her, she went limp and slid to the floor. Tanaka shook his head at her brash behavior and inspected what she had been concealing. “A jade comb. Now how did a peasant like you come to possess a treasure like this?”
“Please give it back,” she begged.
“I think not,” Tanaka coldly replied. “I think I’ll keep it for my collection. Something to remember you by.” He left her there in a crumpled heap on the floor of her cell. As he strode down the corridor he admired his new treasure and the tainted memory forever attached to it.
***
Li Chen and Hong Jin Bao trekked through the dense forest, snatches of anemic moonlight streaming through the bloated boughs granting only a vague sense of the world around them. The sweet scent of larches was thick and overpowering. Hong Jin Bao repeatedly stumbled through the underbrush, breathlessly cursing every god he could conjure up. The sound of snapping branches was as loud as falling timber in Li Chen’s ears.
“Must you make so much noise, mule?” Li Chen quietly reprimanded, grabbing a switch from a nearby tree and lashing Hong Jin Bao’s backside, the boy rearing up in surprise. “We don’t want the Japanese to hear us coming.”
Hong Jin Bao rubbed his sore rump. “Do not blame me. It’s dark and I can’t see anything.”
“That’s no excuse,” Li Chen retorted with a wagging finger. “Is it much further?”
Hong Jin Bao gestured to the east. “It should be just ahead. If we’re not lost, that is.”
“Come on,” Li Chen ordered.
The two boys continued through the wood in search of the Japanese installation, Hong Jin Bao much more cautious as to where he placed his feet. In time the trees began to thin, the forest giving way to a clearing shrouded in fog. Before them were the ancestral lands of the secluded village of Beiyinhe, long since burnt down by invading Imperial forces. Zhongma Fortress sat on its ashes, a series of ghostly buildings encircled by a black moat which was surrounded by three-meter high earthen walls crowned by wire fencing with watchtowers spaced around the perimeter. Searchlights strafed the grounds looking like shining beacons in the mist.
Li Chen knelt in the tall grass just beyond the wood line. Hong Jin Bao remained standing, staring in awe at the fortress only for Li Chen to pull him down to the ground.
Hong Jin Bao turned to his friend. “I showed you where it was so now what?”
“Now we find a way inside.”
“What?” Hong Jin Bao yelped, Li Chen quickly covering the fat boy’s mouth.
“Be quiet,” Li Chen hissed. Hong Jin Bao nodded and Li Chen removed his hand.
“Are you crazy?” Hong Jin Bao rasped.
“I have to find Jee Hae.”
“How do you expect to do that?”
“I don’t know,” Li Chen admitted, shaking his head. “I guess I have to figure something out.”
Li Chen went to leave only for Hong Jin Bao to grab his arm. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Li Chen shook his arm free of Hong Jin Bao’s grasp. “Come on.”
The pair crawled through the wet grass toward the fortress. Hong Jin Bao’s eyes darted about in search of a shadowy patrol ready to pounce on them. Surely someone must have heard the rustling they made, yet no one appeared in the haze. It was slow progress through the clearing, the two boys pausing every time a search light passed by. They soon reached the earthen wall. Li Chen scooted up the embankment while Hong Jin Bao struggled, slipping repeatedly down its muddy face. Li Chen stared through the fence at the buildings beyond.
“What do you see?” Hong Jin Bao whispered from below.
“Just a lot of buildings.” Li Chen leaned forward for a better look.
“Hey.” Hong Jin Bao grabbed a clump of mud and threw it hitting Li Chen in the side of the head.
Li Chen angrily wiped the mess off his cheek. “What did you do that for?”
“Don’t touch the fence.”
A look of puzzlement twisted Li Chen’s glare. “What? Why?”
“It might be electrified.”
Li Chen’s hand jerked back from the fence. Unsure of the danger, he spit on the chain links, the saliva sizzling on the metal. “Whoa,” he breathed.
“What do we do now?”
Li Chen’s eyes followed the length of fence. “There has to be a way in there.”
“Yeah, it’s the front gate and I’m not going anywhere near there.” Suddenly a siren went off, the claxon wailing loudly in the night. “What did you do?” Hong Jin Bao screamed.
Li Chen put his hands up in innocence. “I didn’t do anything.”
The installation came to life, lights blazing on throughout the compound. The sirens shook the earth as they whined louder piercing their ears. Through the din, the shouts of Japanese soldiers reached the boys from the watchtowers above.
“We must run!”
Li Chen made to jump down only to stop when a series of figures came into view within the installation. “Wait. It’s not us they’re after.”
The search lights reversed and began roaming the inner courtyard. Li Chen saw forty figures sprinting away from the inner buildings straight toward him. Their gait was awkward and shambling. He soon discovered why; their legs were shackled together. Gunshots cracked behind the escapees, half a dozen dropping wounded. The rest kept going, running for all they were worth before diving into the moat and wading frantically across.
A rustling to Li Chen’s rear caused him to turn around. Hong Jin Bao was scurrying off back toward the wood line. “Hong Jin Bao!” he yelled as his friend abandoned him. “Jiànhuò!”
The clinking of chains brought Li Chen’s attention back to the escapees. Their number had dwindled to twenty-four. He spied a squad of Japanese troops rushing after them, the soldiers quickly gaining on their hobbling prey. The escapees dispersed in all directions in hopes that some might evade capture. One ran straight for Li Chen’s position, heaving through his frothy mouth. He stumbled but quickly got back up. Gun shots kicked up the dirt around his feet. When the escapee saw Li Chen, he doubled his speed.
“Wait!” Li Chen yelled as the prisoner dashed for the fence. Before he could warn the man, he had grabbed the fence. The prisoner spasmed violently before going morbidly rigid, his eyes rolling back into his head. The smell of burning meat fouled Li Chen’s nose forcing him to cover his nostrils. He coughed and gagged, turning away from the prisoner’s death throes. Once they were within range, the Japanese soldiers fired at the prisoner shooting him repeatedly until he dropped. When the escapee fell, they saw Li Chen.
“Get him!” one of the soldiers ordered.
A bullet whizzed by Li Chen’s ear. The boy instinctively jerked back and rolled down the embankment to escape further fire. The searchlights once more ventured beyond the fence, one beam finding him in its blinding sight. At the sound of dogs barking, Li Chen leapt to his feet and made for the forest.
Gunshots continued to whiz by Li Chen, some from pursuing soldiers, others from the watchtowers. Machineguns sliced through the grass, churning up the soil and terrifying the boy. He darted left and right to try to make himself a difficult target. He did not allow himself any respite, pushing his legs for every bit of speed they could give him even as they burned and trembled. Just as the safety of the wood line approached, a bullet tore into his back erupting through his chest. Li Chen tumbled to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. Despite the seriousness of his injury, the adrenaline numbed him to the pain. He picked himself back up and managed to stagger into the forest, the Japanese in hot pursuit.
***
The laelap drifted through the forest, the crimson rays of dawn warm glinting off its emerald shell. The mech paused every so often to scan its surroundings. Something in its latest scan caused it to shift course. It flew toward a set point, weaving through the trees and gliding over the foliage until it happened upon Li Chen. The boy was pale, bloody bubbles on his lips. He wheezed painfully.
The laelap floated closer to Li Chen’s unconscious form. The jade silhouette fuzzily emerged. It bent down, placing a holographic hand on the boy’s chest to perform an internal reading of Li Chen’s vital functions. When it was through, the silhouette dissolved and the laelap hovered over the boy’s chest. The mech secreted a metallic film like mercury from its shell. When it had reached a certain consistency, the fluid dripped onto Li Chen’s body. There it lay like a silver puddle until the last drop had fallen from the laelap’s alloy skin. The liquid started to ripple and slide across Li Chen’s flesh oozing across the boy’s chest toward the gunshot wound, flowing into the hole. Within minutes the wound sealed, the muscle and skin knitting itself back together with miraculous speed. The boy’s once ragged breathing deepened and Li Chen’s pale flesh soon regained color. His eyes flitted open and he saw the laelap shimmering above him.
“Xiao,” Li Chen murmured.
Li Chen’s wonder was quickly forgotten. He doubled over in pain as his body cramped up, every muscle coiled so tight they threatened to tear free from the bone. Seizures followed accompanied by a blistering fever. He gritted his teeth so hard they cracked. The increasing pressures in his skull lead to the capillaries in his eyes hemorrhaging staining the whites scarlet. The laelap watched emotionlessly as the boy writhed beneath it.