Part 28 (1/2)

”I'll explain later. Hurry!”

But the guard was angry. He grabbed Anzai's sleeve to separate the two.

”Now hold on. What are you talking about? This is...”

Tos.h.i.+aki struck the guard with full force. The sudden blow made him stagger. In that moment of opportunity, Tos.h.i.+aki pulled Anzai by the arm.

”Where's her room?”

”Go right.”

Tos.h.i.+aki broke into a run, and Anzai ran ahead to lead the way.

”Stop, both of you!” echoed the guard's shouts from behind, but they pressed on, heedless.

”What happened? What did you do to Mariko?”

”There was a parasite in my wife's cells.”

”A parasite? Bacteria you mean? Has Mariko been infected with something?”

”Something like that. But that's not all. It's much worse. I've been keeping my wife's cells. They're extremely virulent.”

Anzai was confused, especially by the last bit, but he had no trouble believing that Mariko's kidney was abnormal. He remembered the way her abdomen had appeared to leap unnaturally the day before.

”It has special abilities. It can set things on fire. It can also change shape at will. And it's coming to this hospital.”

”Coming here?”

”Through the sewage pipes.”

”So that's what it was!” Anzai cried.

”You know about it?”

”I heard it outside near the side entrance not too long before you showed up. It sounded huge.”

”Then what? Where did it go?”

”Disappeared into this hospital.”

”What?!”

Anzai turned a corner, ram up a flight of steps and continued to Mariko's ward.

Tos.h.i.+aki didn't speak another word. The younger man's silence told of the gravity of the situation, conveying a painful tension regarding something unfathomable coming after Mariko. Anzai ran as fast as he could, badly out of breath though he was. He heard multiple footsteps behind them. Perhaps the guard had called for backup.

16.

Yos.h.i.+zumi was speechless.

It had spewed forth from the drain and stuck to the wall, then wiggled and fallen to the floor. It looked like pink sludge. What was left in the sink spilled over the edge. The two united on the tile. Then, with an unpleasant gurgle, it started to rise.

The two nurses were on their knees, crying and holding each other. Mariko didn't budge. She did not even cry out for help. Only, her body was trembling, and she was swaying slightly to and fro. The shock had completely paralyzed her.

The gelatinous thing rose up even higher. Yos.h.i.+zumi stepped back on shaking legs. He could barely stand. The thing climbed up before him like a waterfall in reverse. The foul-smelling liquid gus.h.i.+ng sporadically out of the drain bathed it so that it gleamed as it took form. Something hit Yos.h.i.+zumi's s.h.i.+n. He lost balance and fell back onto Mariko's bed. His fingers touched her leg.

The column's shape became increasingly complex as it grew. Its center narrowed and tentacle-like appendages separated from either side. Yos.h.i.+zumi stared in disbelief. A person was forming right in front of his eyes. A woman's body. The tentacles each separated into five fingers. Arms appeared behind them and shoulders above the chest. A small navel took shape in the middle of the column and nestled in a concave stomach that could have been carved with a spatula. Two hemispheres of flesh bulged out above it, while the section below gained a plumpness and hundreds of thin, compound folds worked themselves into perfection. Flesh above the shoulders narrowed into a throat. The circular blob that was its head rippled, creating a nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, jaw, forehead, and eyes. Yos.h.i.+zumi was shaking his head in denial. He recognized the figure, the face of this woman. ”Recognize”

wasn't the word. He remembered her very well. This was Mariko's donor. The woman he had cut open with his own hands, whose kidney he himself had extracted. She could not possibly be alive. He just kept shaking his head in denial.

Whatever this thing was, it had taken on her exact likeness. Her eyes popped open and looked down at Yos.h.i.+zumi and Mariko.

With a smile, she addressed Yos.h.i.+zumi.

”Move.”

He couldn't if he wanted to. He was swallowed in her gaze. Hers were the eyes of a predator, and Yos.h.i.+zumi sensed that her prey was Mariko.

”I said, Move..

Without warning, one of the nurses huddled in the corner of the room let out a bizarre whimper and stood up. Yos.h.i.+zumi was released from his paralysis. He turned towards the nurse. Tears and saliva were streaming freely down a crumpled face. Flailing her arms weirdly, she started running for the door.

The creature glared at her.

Just as Yos.h.i.+zumi called out, flames rose up from the nurse.

A moment later, she was engulfed in them, and her body was visibly getting charred.

Her tied-back hair curled and shrank. But the flames refused to recede and instead shot up to the ceiling, sending a stifling blast of hot air through the room. Even as Yos.h.i.+zumi guarded his face with both arms, he could not shut his eyes. The nurse's violent cries of agony filled his ears. Her teeth enamel were melting away in her mouth, which was twisted wide open, a sight that burned itself into his retina. She staggered, trying to pat out the flames with her arms, but the blaze was too overpowering as it roared like a rocket engine. Her white coat fell scattering in pieces onto the floor only to shrivel up and evaporate in a matter of seconds.

The strong stench of binning flesh stang Yos.h.i.+zumi's nose. The nurse no longer looked human; she was melting in the raging inferno. Her flesh had turned jelly-like and was dripping from her skeleton. Those bones, too, eventually shrank and crumpled. A thunderous ringing ripped through the air; the fire alarm had gone off. What was left of the nurse turned into muck amidst the piercing bell. Overwhelmed by the noise and heat, Yos.h.i.+zumi just sat there on the bed like a simpleton.

The flames disappeared, leaving only the skull-shaking alarm to continue in their wake.

Strangely enough, there were no scorch marks on the linoleum or walls. Nothing had been altered by the heat. Yos.h.i.+zumi stared in wonder. The only indications of the nurse's existence were a gelatinous ma.s.s and her right leg, left unharmed from the knee down. It just lay there like merchandise some store clerk had forgotten to put away. Its skin was smooth and the stocking intact and it wore a slipper. Staring at it, all Yos.h.i.+zumi could do was to keep all common sense from crumbling away.

The other nurse was trailing saliva from her mouth and tearing furiously at her face with both hands. Her eyes lacked all focus. A liquid seeping out from her inner thighs dirtied the floor. She had let loose her bladder.

The thing that looked like the donor turned slowly to her with a scornful smile.

”Stop.”

Yos.h.i.+zumi had managed only a raspy command that he himself found quite pathetic.