36.

Last Alarm

Chapter 36

"Hunted"

"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."

Ernest Hemingway

Location: Tokonosu International Airport, "The Floating Airport"

Five miles off the Coast of Japan

Air Duct #1382

Main Terminal – Airport Security Area - Sublevel Three

Date: Spring 2013

Time: Late Afternoon

Z-Day Plus Three

The faint sound of something moving from somewhere in the air shaft behind me caused every single muscle in my body to instinctively freeze as I looked back over my shoulder and peered into the darkness.

And once again like so many times before I saw absolutely nothing behind me as I strained my ears to listen for any more sounds coming from the unseen enemy that had been pursuing me ever since I had made my break for freedom earlier from the small "detention room" that I had been imprisoned in, making my escape through the cramped ventilation ducts snaking their way everywhere inside the Main Terminal like the inside of a giant maze.

Quite some time earlier, I had believed that I had finally had the last laugh over my Japanese captors after I managed to slip away from the Japanese SAT who had tried to interrogate me, all of them trying desperately to sift through the cobwebs in my skull and unravel the hidden memories lying dormant within my mind.

And in their desperate efforts to unlock the long forgotten memories in my brain, they had indeed succeeded in restoring my lost memories by initiating a rather unorthodox means of piercing through the blocked recesses of my mind.

But in doing so, their little "shock therapy" treatment had ended up resulting in some very nasty results afterwards as well, as the adrenaline rush that occurred to me from the "shock therapy" caused me to inadvertently snap the links of my handcuffs and also tear up the inside of the "holding room" as well when I started tossing furniture around.

And now upon realizing the unexpected danger that they had just inadvertently unleashed upon themselves, the two SAT officers in charge of my "treatment" thought it best to abandon their efforts to continue their "questioning" of me any further as they beat a hasty retreat out of the room until a more convenient time.

But in the process of trying to clear the cobwebs in my brain, they had also unleashed something else within me as well.

A deep desire to kill every single one of them.

Now with nothing keeping me restrained any longer, I had successfully out-witted my captors by smashing the surveillance cameras in the room, and then broke out of the small "detention room" through the large air ducts in the ceiling and had been wellon my way to freedom through the network of large air shafts that ran all along the complex.

Or so I had thought.

But not long after escaping into the labyrinth of large steel ventilation shafts providing ventilation into the lower levels, I had then realized something rather unnerving in the middle of my "John McLane" act.

I realized to my horror, that I wasn't alone in the air shafts.

When I had first crawled into the square ventilation shaft that was only one meter wide and one meter tall, I had begun to feel very much like that American actor Bruce Willis, in the film "Die Hard" who had been evading terrorists led by actor Alan Rickman as he crawled around in the ventilation shafts of the fictional Nakatomi building in California.

Although to be honest, I doubt that old "Bruce" ever had to crawl further than a few feet in that fake vent shaft for that particular movie, unlike myself who was forced to crawl along through a shaft that seemed to go on for miles.

Fortunately for me however, the shaft that I was in was slightly larger all around than the one the fictional character "John McLane" had been forced to crawl around in.

And thank goodness, this shaft did not suddenly drop off dozens of stories at the very end of it as I reached the end of the shaft at a junction of several other shafts and was forced to lower myself about two meters down into the only air shaft that seemed to be moving upwards.

However, it was still very dark inside the ventilation shaft in most spots and extremely cramped and bloody cold too, with the chilled air coursing through it.

Moving through that small space was also extremely slow going as well as I made a conscientious effort to make as little noise as possible as I crawled along so as not to give my position away to anyone who might have realized that I had "flown the coop".

But mind you, moving silently along that air shaft was no easy feat at all with the thin sheet metal that the air shaft was constructed of constantly bending and creaking under my weight as loudly as it did, as well as the occasional noise coming from the broken handcuffs still fastened on my wrists that scraped the metal surface of the shaft as I crawled through.

But it was because of my efforts to move silently, that after crawling perhaps 90 meters through the steel ventilation shaft from the small "holding room" that I first heard the sound of something moving in the air shaft behind me.

It was only a slight whisper of a noise that I had almost missed, and at first, I thought the sound might just be a rat skittering about in the ventilation shaft looking for food.

But then as I stopped to listen, I suddenly heard the sound of something heavy dropping down onto the same shaft at the junction that I had come across earlier.

And from the loud sound of the thing falling onto the floor of the ventilation shaft behind me I realized then that whatever it was that had dropped down, was no rat.

At first I had a passing thought that perhaps the SAT had finally realized I had made a break for freedom and were in hot pursuit, crawling around in the shafts looking for me.

But then I shrugged that thought off after remembering what had happened before I had crawled into the air shafts in the first place as I quickly stopped moving for a moment and listened intently.

But as I listened, I heard nothing at all that indicated that it was a pursuit team that was following me.

There were no sounds at all like the grunts of effort of someone crawling around in the cramped shafts looking for me, nor were there any beams of light coming from hand-held * torches scanning the darkness for me either.

(* Torches - British for "flashlight")

But what I heard instead coming from somewhere in the distance was the sound of an angry hiss, almost like that of a thoroughly pissed-off cobra.

And it was then that I realized that whatever it was that was following me was something else entirely.

And now I realized that instead of being in a situation similar to the character of "John McLane", who was trying to evade "terrorists" in the ventilation system of a multi-story office building so he could "save the day and get the girl".

I now realized to my horror that I was in a situation much closer to that of American actor Tom Skerrit's character of "Captain Dallas" in "ALIEN" and was being hunted by some….. "thing".

And quite frankly, I really didn't want to stick around long enough to find out what that "thing" was, as I turned my head around and hauled ass as fast as I could crawl away from whatever "It" was that was now stalking me in the darkness.

And as I continued to crawl away from the sound as fast as my knees and elbows could take me, the horrible thought that an Infected person had also somehow accidentally gotten into the air shaft with me, sent a ripple of fear running through me at the thought of my being all alone and unarmed down here while being pursued by one or perhaps even more of the Infected that was hot on my trail in the darkness, as I pushed myself harder to get some distance between myself and my pursuer.

And after a few more minutes of crawling along, I decided to take a small break and catch my breath as well as try to assess my situation and try to find a way out of the even bigger mess I had managed to get myself into.

And after waiting for a few moments and hearing no more sounds of pursuit, I then quietly crawled forward a few more feet and was shocked to hear the almost immediate sounds of something moving behind me again as I stopped moving once more and then strained my ears to listen for any more sounds of movement behind me.

And then after waiting a few tense moments and hearing nothing , I repeated my forward motion for a few feet more and then stopped again to listen, as I once again heard the faintest sounds of movement from somewhere behind me.

And as I heard those same sounds of movement behind me suddenly cease, I was horrified to realize that whenever I paused to see if my pursuer was nearby, the sounds coming from behind me also stopped as if my pursuer were trying to conceal the fact that I was being hunted.

And then whenever I did start moving forward, I would then hear the sound of my pursuer once again moving behind me, using the noise I made to conceal his movements.

"Holy shit." I swore to myself as I then started hauling ass as fast as I could crawl once again, the only thought in my head now was for me to get as far away from this bastard as I could.

An Infected person chasing me in such a confined space was bad enough in any situation, but this guy was not acting like any of the Infected that I had ever encountered before.

This guy wasn't just following the sound of noise.

This bastard was actually hunting me.

There was very little light in the air shafts to begin with as I pushed along, with the only light in the ventilation shaft peeking in from the small louvers in the vent covers installed on the sides of the air shaft at intervals allowing the temperature-controlled to blow into each room that I passed by, which only added to my anxiety not being able to see in front of me very well.

And because of that, I was also unable to visually see what it was that was chasing me every time I looked back hoping that the dim light would reveal at least some sort of shape or shadow of whatever it was hunting me or at the very least, tell me how far or how close my pursuer was to my location.

To be honest though, at this point a big part of me really didn't want to see what unspeakable horror was doing it's very best to catch up to me as visions of some sort of "new creature" that I hadn't seen before, like the ones you see in all those "Resident Evil" games popped up in my head.

And as much as I wanted to kick out one of those small vent covers on the sides of the air shaft and crawl out through one of the openings and make a run for it, I didn't dare even attempt to do so as each room that I passed by was filled wall-to-wall with the Infected, who had somehow managed to breach the secure areas below ground and infest the entire lower level.

"Now I know why those SAT bastards aren't after me." I grumbled, cursing my luck. "Looks like Waterloo Station at 5 O'clock down there."

With Infected shuffling around all over the place, and some sort of hissing monster that I still hadn't seen yet chasing after me backside, I had little choice but to continue crawling forward, praying that I'd be able to find my way to freedom before whatever it was that was hunting me could catch up.

And then after traveling quite some distance more, I then stopped for a moment to listen for the sound of my pursuer for perhaps the hundredth time.

And then finally to my relief, I heard nothing moving at all in the darkness.

Relieved that perhaps I had finally out-paced my pursuer, I breathed a sigh of relief, believing that I'd finally managed to lose him, or at least get some serious headway on him.

However, my hopes were dashed by the sound of that "thing" moving around in the dark behind me again, as my heart nearly came to a stop when I also realized something else.

The bastard was getting closer.

I immediately wasted no time in crawling down the air shaft as fast as I could again, cursing as I did so.

Stealth was once again no longer a priority, speed now being the only thing on my mind as I tried to widen the distance between my pursuer and I.

The only choice I had now was to either outrun my pursuer which hadn't proven successful so far, or try to find a bigger area to defend myself if I was forced to face him.

Which as much as I hated the thought, it was beginning to look more like the latter as I gritted my teeth in frustration knowing that the bastard knew exactly where I was, and also more than likely knew that he was getting closer.

And if this bloke was half as smart as he appeared to be, then he probably also knew something else about his prey…...

I was getting tired.

As I pushed myself to crawl even faster through the air vent, my mind drifted back to earlier that morning when I had been kneeling in front of the steel door to the "holding room" panting heavily after I had just been pounding away on the door for the past ten minutes, all thanks to the two SAT officers whose names had just now come back to me via their horrific "shock therapy".

Well, what I guess could be considered to be "shock therapy" anyway, as Rika Minami gave me a shit-eating grin as that asshole Tajima dropped a small, covered box right in front of me and then pulled off the cover so that I could see what was inside as I nearly came out of the chair at what I saw.

A f_cking spider.

No, scratch that, not just any spider.

It was the biggest f_cking tarantula I'd ever seen.

Bastard must have had eleven inch legs, and those fangs…f_ck me.

Seeing what was inside the cage was bad enough believe me, but what had really made me flip me lid, was when the f_cking thing inside the cage took one look at me with all those eyes of his and then sat back on its hind legs and jumped at me, smashing himself against the inside of the cage.

And as the tarantula lunged at me, it hit the cage with such force that the whole thing practically fell in my lap as the bars of the cage bent from the blow as the little bastard then tried to push its way out of the cage through the small opening it had made.

I honestly don't know how I did it, but as I jumped up at the sight of that thing trying to tear its way out of the cage as it tried to get at me, I somehow managed to also snap the chains to my handcuffs at the same time, as I instinctively grabbed the chair I was sitting on and threw it at the cage.

I guess the sight of me breaking free of my handcuffs and tossing furniture around scared the shit out of the two SAT officers because suddenly both of them started screaming at me to calm down as I kicked the table over just as that stupid spider started to wriggle out of its cage.

Completely ignoring them, I then flipped the table completely over on top of the spider and grabbed the chair from off the floor and started swinging the chair at the overturned table trying to crush that stupid spider who was still moving around underneath it.

And I guess when I was swinging that chair around I must have accidentally clobbered those two SAT assholes in the process, because out of the corner of my eye, I saw that fellow Tajima fall to the floor and that smug bitch Rika Minami who was holding a bloody nose, reached down and grabbed him as they both then ran for the door.

But just as they reached the door I saw that the tarantula had finally broken free from its cage and had gotten out from underneath the table as it looked up and then angrily reared up on its hind legs again as I threw the chair at it but missed and accidentally sent the chair flying through the open door that the two SAT officers had just ducked through.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU BASTARDS!" I roared as I ran to the door trying to get away from that creeping monster that I could hear still scampering about somewhere, as the door slammed shut and I slammed my body against it.

"YOU F_CKING COWARDS! I roared as I realized with horror that those stupid bastards were actually pushing themselves against the door, trying to prevent me from getting out as I heard the lock on the door go "click".

"YOU BASTARDS!" I roared, absolutely shocked at what they had just done. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Andy! Calm down!" I heard Rika Minami yell behind the closed door after a few moments of my violently cursing at them and pounding heavily on the door, royally pissed-off that they had intentionally locked me in the room with that little monster. "Just calm down and we'll talk!"

"F_CK YOU!" I roared as I heard a scampering sound behind me as I whirled around looking for that damned spider and saw nothing.

"Where did that bastard go?!" I said my body involuntarily shaking with anger and fear as I kept slamming the door with my elbow.

"How could he have just disappeared? There's no place to hide in here." I muttered as I scanned every inch of the room.

"YOU F_CKING WANKERS! WHY THE HELL DID YOU LOCK ME IN HERE WITH THAT THING?! GET ME OUT!" I roared as my eyes scanned the room all around as the lights suddenly went out, plunging the room into darkness.

"F_CK!" I roared as the room suddenly went dark and then something big brushed my leg as I kicked at it and connected with something that tried to clutch my trouser leg.

"YOUMOTHERF_CKINGSUNSUVBITCHINGCOCKSUCKERS, GET ME OUT OF HEREEEEEEEEEEE!" I roared as I kicked at whatever had brushed my leg and then pounded furiously on the door and then tried kicking it down, but to no avail.

"Andy, unless you calm down, that door is going to stay locked!" Rika Minami said to me in the same scolding tone my own mum would talk to me when she would tell me to eat my peas or there would be no dessert.

"ARE YOU F_CKING KIDDING ME LADY?!" I screamed. "WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I'M GONNA KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU S.A.T. ASSHOLES!"

"Suit yourself, Andy." Rika "Mom" Minami said through the door as I started pounding on the door again as I realized to my horror, that they were actually going to leave me in here with that thing until they either felt it was safe to enter because I was thoroughly chastened or I had suddenly died from a stroke.

"AT LEAST TURN THE BLOODY LIGHTS BACK ON, YOU SICK BASTARDS!" I yelled as I turned around and flattened myself against the wall breathing heavily as I listened for any sound indicating that the spider was nearby.

For many years I've dealt with all sorts of things that would have turned any other man into a whimpering pile of flesh and so you would think that being locked in a room with a spider, even as one as gargantuan as this one would be child's play, for someone like me.

And under most circumstances, you would be quite correct.

However, my fear of spiders has been a childhood phobia that even a man like me who has seen what I have seen and done what I have done, still often times has trouble dealing with.

Years ago when I was still a lad, my heavy breathing would have slowly turn into strangled sobs while I sank down to the floor with my back to the wall, as I would then huddle my legs to my chest, frightened out of my mind.

Years of therapy had helped me to deal with that phobia, and a lifetime of service in The Regiment seeing things far worse and scarier than spiders had done a lot as well, to aid in my recuperation.

But even though I'm a big boy now, having that monstrosity coming at me like that, still left me quite shaken from the encounter.

Being that Rika and Tajima obviously knew from our last little encounter at Hereford that my fear of spiders was an actual phobia and not just a serious dislike of the little "creepie-crawlies", I figured that those SAT wankers had believed that I'd shriek like a little girl, nearly piss my pants and shout and beg for someone to come take the damned thing away.

And years ago, they had nearly been right, after pulling the same stunt when the Japanese SAT came to train with us.

Damn them, I still owe them for that too.

Back then, my fear of spiders had always overwhelmed me ever since that day when I was about five or six years old when I got locked in my dad's garden shed after the wind had blown the door to the shed closed and the latch then fell back into place, effectively locking me in.

I remember shouting and pounding the walls of that shed in the darkness for what seemed like hours for someone to help me, but no one inside the house heard my cries for help.

But instead, all the commotion that I had stirred up had made several spiders come out of hiding and scurry all around me as I howled in the darkness and tried to brush off the "creepy-crawlies" crawling all over me.

To this day, I still fidget, shake, and rub my hands all over my exposed forearms sometimes whenever I remember that day.

Took my dad a whole f_cking hour to realize that I was missing, and even then he only came looking for me when tea was ready.

And then when I told him what had happened he just laughed at me and brushed it off like it was nothing, which was one of the many reasons I lost respect for that old wanker even when I was still very young.

But even if I had been that unnerved by the sight of that tarantula now, I was still not about to give those smug SAT bastards the satisfaction of seeing me freaking out while I'm locked up in the dark with that thing creeping around.

And I also took great satisfaction in reaching up and ripping out the camera mounted on the wall over my head, effectively leaving them blind.

"Kiss my arse, you wankers." I swore under my breath as I held the ruined camera over my head, ready to chunk it at the spider if that bastard brushed up against me again as I tried to calm myself down by slowing down my breathing and counting down from one hundred until I felt calm again, the same age-old technique I've always used to steady myself.

But just when I reached fifty-seven in my countdown something unexpected happened when I suddenly heard the loud blaring of alarms sounding off through the supposedly "sound-proofed" walls just outside the room coming from somewhere down the corridor.

My fear over the spider now taking a backseat in lieu of this latest development, I quickly moved over towards the door and placed my ear on it, and as I listened, I could distinctly hear the sounds of people running in the corridor just past my door outside.

And then after a few moments had passed, I then heard the sounds of men screaming in the distance.

"Oh, this can't be good." I thought to myself, my phobia over the tarantula now forgotten.

"What the fuck is going on out there?" I muttered to myself as the screams then seemed to be getting closer, as I then heard the sound of automatic weapons fire from somewhere nearby.

"Oh, this definitely isn't f_cking good." I said out loud, grateful for the fact that while all sorts of holy hell was apparently going on outside, I on the other hand, was safely sealed up inside this room with the only route of entry heavily dead-bolted and locked up tight.

Before long though, I noticed that while the alarm was still blaring, the weapons fire and the screaming had ceased which would ordinarily be a good thing, but in this case only gave me further cause for concern.

Because with me being locked up in this room I had no clue what was going on outside, and right now I was left with more questions than answers.

Was it all over?

Had the authorities actually cleared out all the Infected intruders?

Or am I actually more f_cked than I originally thought?

As if to answer each of my questions, after a few minutes had passed the alarm finally ceased its incessant blaring as an all new sound suddenly became audible to my ears just outside my door.

An unnervingly familiar sound of someone dragging their feet.

"Oh shit." I swore under my breath. "It's an f_cking infected."

"Oh f_ck, now I'm f_cked." I thought to myself, my mind whirling with this latest disaster.

Mind you, I wasn't just regularly f_cked.

No folks, right now I was one-hundred percent f_ck, f_cked, f_ckety-f_ck, f_ck, f_cked.

I'm guessing that the Infected must have somehow realized that there was something rather tasty on the other side of my door and started heading towards me judging from the sound of the footsteps right outside my door.

And I wasn't sure either if the creature outside the door had somehow sensed my movements, or maybe even f_cking smelled me, but all I do know is that it went straight for my door and then started slamming its hands against it with a force even more powerful than my own.

"Oh hells bells, I've gotta get the hell outta here or I'm toast." I muttered as I started feeling around in the darkness for the chair and table and then after finding them, quickly turned them both upright as the room echoed with the sounds of the door being pummeled from the outside by what sounded like a whole hell of a lot more of the Infected right now.

I had to leave right now before the door finally caved in and quickly, because even as thick as that door was, it wouldn't be long before the untold numbers of Infected banging on the door finally broke through and swarmed in.

And obviously going out that door was a definite no-go, and since there were no other exits, I took the only option left for me.

Any room, no matter what its purpose whether it's for storage or for living space, has to have some form of ventilation in it, whether to provide comfort for anyone inside the room or for climate control so that anything being stored within doesn't degrade from extreme temperatures.

And even though this room was supposed to be a "holding room" for the Airport Police on the island to temporarily detain their prisoners with, they still had to have fresh air circulating inside, otherwise the poor slobs being held in this room would suffocate.

Especially the poor slob that was currently stuck in here at this particular moment in time.

And even though my room was originally designed to be a "holding room", and was not designed with the same features you would expect to find in a maximum security prison cell like concrete walls, stone ceilings, iron bars and escape-proof air-ducts, it was still secure enough to keep a person detained for a little while.

But it did have one major design flaw that I had noticed earlier before the lights had gone out.

Luckily for me, the room was kept ventilated by a rather large air duct in my room that after a few feet, connected to a much larger vent shaft which would be easier to crawl through, which was exactly how I was going to make my escape as I moved the table over to the wall where I could feel the air rushing through the vents even in the darkness.

Ignoring the continuous pounding at the door and the throbbing ache of my wrists that were still handcuffed, I carefully climbed up onto the table and tried to pull the vent cover off but couldn't due to the metal vent cover being tightly screwed in.

Not to be deterred, (not that I had much choice anyway) I reached down and groped around in the darkness for the chair and managed to grab hold of it, as I then swung it as hard as I could where I judged the vent cover would be in the dark, making a large ringing noise as the chair impacted the metal cover which only served to make the pounding on the door to my room even more violent.

Getting desperate, I reached up and felt around the spot I had hit, trying to feel whether I had actually knocked off the cover or not, but was dismayed when I realized that I had just merely dented it.

As I prepared to raise the chair and take another swing at the vent, I felt one of the chair legs swinging around in the air and realized that one of the legs of the chair had been partially knocked off by the impact of the chair against the vent.

Rather than continue my "Hulk Smash" method of trying to escape, I grabbed the broken leg of the chair and after much huffing, grunting, and a whole lot of cursing I finally broke the chair leg free from the rest of the chair and smiled, feeling quite proud of myself for vandalizing yet another piece of police property.

Hey, I was always a rebel when I was at school and later on at college, so give a guy a break, …sheesh.

Taking the leg of the chair and using it as a makeshift pry bar, I managed to wedge the thing into one of the dented louvers and finally forced the metal vent cover off, sending it falling to the floor with a crash.

And from the sound of things just in the nick of time too, as the banging on the door was getting much louder from the unrelenting pounding on it, which meant that I had better get a move on most "rikki-tik".

With some effort I managed to reach up into the vent, and grasping the sides of the opening where the vent cover had been slowly pulled myself up and wriggled my way in.

Pausing a moment to get my bearings, I then began my crawl to freedom where I figured the way out would be, by heading towards the direction where the air was blowing from.

I wasn't one hundred percent sure exactly where the shaft would take me, but at the time, my main priority was just the overwhelming desire to get the hell away from that room.

And if I had known then what I knew now, I would have figured out a way to have blocked that opening after I crawled through so that I wouldn't be in the mess I am now as the sounds of my pursuer echoed behind me as I pushed on despite the fact I was running out of strength, and time.

I had barely traveled twenty meters from the last spot where I had stopped when I suddenly heard five rapid gunshots followed by another five shots shortly afterwards.

I stopped moving when I heard the first volley of shots and then waited for more shots to follow after hearing the second volley, wondering what the hell I had blundered in now.

But instead of shots, all I heard afterwards was a blood-curdling scream.

"Ohhh-kay, this just keeps getting better and better." I grumbled as I pushed on realizing that things were worse outside than I thought.

I continued crawling onwards for at least another half hour or so longer continuing my cat-and-mouse game as I began to grow really exhausted from the exertion, the orange jumpsuit that I was given to wear now almost completely covered in dust and grime and starting to stink something fierce.

Soon however, much to my surprise, I started to smell something else and not just my own funk.

Something good, ….mouth-watering even.

"Okay, now I know I'm losing it." I thought to myself believing that the fatigue and the anxiety of being pursued was getting to me. "The whole place is infested with Infected and there's some sort of kaiju on my ass, and now I'm smelling bacon?"

Figuring that I was only starting to hallucinate now from overexertion, I shook it off and kept moving forward, puzzled as to why the smell seemed to be growing stronger until I reached the next vent and looked down through the louvers to discover that I was directly over the kitchen of one of the many restaurants that had been established in the Main Terminal of the airport.

And even better, there were no Infected in sight.

Grateful at finally catching a lucky break, I quickly kicked out the vent cover and then peered out into the kitchen to make sure it was still clear and that the noise from the falling vent cover hadn't attracted any unwanted company.

After waiting a few moments with nothing happening, I quickly lowered myself down and landed feet first on top of a large stainless-steel countertop where the remains of half-prepared food still lay.

My bare feet slipped a little on the cold metal as I tried to keep my footing on the slick surface that was completely covered in cooking oil and flour as I accidentally planted my left foot in someone's sticky-bean salad.

"Man this sucks." I growled as I tried to shake the nasty stuff off of my foot in disgust and then suddenly remembered that while there were no Infected anywhere around that I could see inside the kitchen, there sure as hell was still something in the air shaft behind me as I heard another angry hiss echoing out of the air shaft.

My heart racing a thousand beats a minute, I immediately jumped off the countertop and grabbed the vent cover once my feet hit the floor, as I then jumped back up on the countertop and slapped the vent cover back in place, hoping that whatever was still in the air shaft would not notice that I was no longer there and would keep searching for me in the ventilation system.

Not really putting any faith on that however, I took a quick look around the kitchen searching for anything I could use in order to defend myself.

The kitchen itself was not very big, and from the looks of things it had been abandoned extremely quickly as I glanced over towards the burners of the commercial stove where two pots were still bubbling away with the overly cooked remains of…..

Actually, I had no clue what that was in the two pots that I was looking at as I shut off the burners and then continued my search for a weapon to defend myself with.

As I searched around the kitchen looking for something that I could use as a weapon, I also started to look for something to help me remove my handcuffs which had really been digging into my wrists badly from all my crawling around.

The bandages placed around my wrists that Rika Minami had put on earlier had lessened the pain and tissue damage to my wrists as I was crawling around in the air shaft, but by now my wrists had been rubbed raw enough to the point that they had started bleeding again, not to mention getting filthy from all the dust in the air shaft.

As I rooted around through most of the drawers and shelves of the kitchen I found several items that I knew would be useful as weapons amongst the many assorted cutting tools, but rejected most of them as too small or too delicate to be of any use until I finally picked out an extremely large and heavy meat cleaver.

And as I pulled out the meat cleaver, I then found something really handy.

Amongst all the assorted kitchen knives and butcher tools, I had found…..

A paper clip.

"Just might be my lucky day after all." I absent-mindedly muttered to myself out loud before I caught myself.

I hadn't hesitated because I was worried about anyone overhearing me, not even that "thing" still crawling around in the air shaft.

But the truth was when I had spoken, for a moment it almost felt like I was just hearing my voice for the first time in ages as I suddenly noticed the "twang" in my voice that all the boys back at Nevada had kept yammering on about that I myself, had never noticed before.

I had to admit, my voice sounded so different to me now, almost as if it were someone else that had spoken.

Hell, I almost sounded Canadian.

I guess that's what you get when you hang around "Yanks" for the better part of six years after running guns in and out of East Asia with someone you considered your best friend until that same friend decided to pull a gun on you.

And then after that incident you finally decided to make that one decision to get your life back in order afterwards.

Realizing that I was just wasting time as I strolled down memory lane, I took the paper clip and straightened it out and went to work on the cuffs, and also listened intently for any sound indicating that my "friend" was getting closer as I tried to get myself free.

Getting out of handcuffs is child's play for anyone in covert ops, although as raw as my wrists were and the fact that my hands were shaking slightly from muscle fatigue made it a little rough going until the cuffs finally snapped open and I ditched both of them on the countertop.

"About f_cking time," I muttered as I looked up at the sealed air shaft and grabbed the cleaver as I made ready to leave.

That is until my stomach growled like an angry lion from the smell of the food still lying around the kitchen.

And now that I thought about it, it had been a while since I'd eaten anything, and I was seriously hungry.

Staying alert, I walked over and took a quick look in the "*reefer" while still keeping an eye open for any unwanted company, and as I peeked in I was happy to find amongst all the raw stuff, some cold roast beef and some bread rolls that looked as though they'd been cooked very recently.

Even though I can only guess that chaos is erupting all around me, my old soldier training kicked in, reminding me that one should never waste an opportunity to eat or drink as I grabbed a handful of meat and a couple of the bread rolls.

(*Reefer- Cooler)

Racing against time now, I stuffed a hastily-made sandwich into my mouth and then stuck some more of the meat into the other bread rolls and quickly stuffed them into my pockets for later.

I then took another quick look around the kitchen and then cautiously walked out into the once extravagant dining area which was now a complete mess with every piece of furniture fallen over or smashed, along with the remains of shattered dinnerware that covered the entire floor.

And as I looked around the dining area, I noticed four sets of doors leading in and out of the restaurant.

One door was clearly marked "EMERGENCY EXIT" in Japanese and English while two of the smaller doors were obviously leading off to the *"loo", with the other large door left in the room obviously being the Main Entrance.

(*Loo – British slang for Toilet)

The sound of whatever was in the ventilation shaft echoed loudly in my ears again, telling me that I had wasted more than enough time as it was and that it was about high time I push on.

So with the meat cleaver in hand, I quickly made my way to the Main door leading out and carefully opened it as I cautiously peeked outside praying that the outside area was empty.

Well, not quite.

"What the hell happened out here?" I thought to myself as I stared at the carnage on the other side of the door.

There were several dead Infected lying on the floor, some with their heads completely caved in, and a few others lying on the blood-splattered floor with small bullet holes in the heads and upper torsos.

Upon seeing the bodies I breathed a small sigh of relief, hoping that perhaps this area had actually been cleared of all Infected after all.

That is until I opened the door even more and noticed that at the end of the hallway there was a pair of Infected feasting on the remains of a couple of Airport policemen.

"Dammit." I swore under my breath as the sound of a "thump" coming from the "thing" in the ventilation shaft echoed in the kitchen behind me.

"Well, guess I don't have much choice now, do I?"I thought as I moved through the door and closed it quietly behind me as I moving silently towards the pair of Infected, hefting the heavy butcher's cleaver in my right hand.

And as I came up upon them I grabbed one of the Infected by the collar of its shirt and yanked it off the body of the dead victim it was feasting on as the Infected bit a large chunk of human flesh off as I pulled him off the body.

Filled with disgust, I brought the heavy blade down on the neck of the second Infected who was still busy consuming its victim, almost severing its head completely from the rest of its body with a sickening crunch, as I then quickly turned to the other Infected that I had pulled off the half-eaten policeman.

The other Infected that was still moving had by this time already risen to its feet and was walking towards me continuing to feast on the chunk of flesh still in its hands as it came at me.

"You sick pricks." I growled angrily as I switched the cleaver to my left hand and stepped forward, bringing my hand up and slamming the palm of my hand into its nose as hard as I could, sending broken cartilage and bone fragments up into its brain.

As the Infected fell to its knees, my disgust at the creature overwhelmed me as I then angrily grabbed it by the hair and hacked at its neck until its head had been cut free from the rest of the body.

"Oh man, I need a shower." I said trying to catch my breath as I looked down and noticed my blood-splattered hands and bloody clothes as I then tossed the head away while the body continued to quiver involuntarily as the muscles began to relax.

"And a bloody drink too." I thought to myself as I tried to slow down my breathing and control my anger.

And as I stood there panting steadily, I somehow failed to hear the sounds of someone moving up behind me until I felt the cold steel of the barrel of a gun pressed into the back of my head.

"Dr…drop your weapon." I heard a rather nervous voice say behind me in heavily-accented English as I sighed in frustration and allowed the meat cleaver to fall from my hand and clang on the floor.

"Bloody hell, now what?" I swore to myself as I felt the barrel of the pistol shaking slightly which told me the fellow behind me was extremely nervous and unless I wanted him to blow my head off by accident, I had better play this very cool.

"Alright, mate." I said calmly after I had dropped the cleaver onto the floor with a clatter and raised both of my hands in the air. "You got the drop on me and I'm unarmed."

"You wouldn't happen to be a policeman by chance, would you?" I said in a real friendly voice trying to calm the nervous cop.

"Y-yes I am, now don't move!" The Airport cop replied loudly.

"You don't have to yell mate, I figured as much." I said with a smirk waiting for the opening that I knew was sure to come.

"Well Officer, it seems like you understand English pretty well, so do you mind if I give you some friendly advice?" I continued as the fellow pushed the muzzle of the pistol even harder into my skull.

"Shut up!" The scared voice said behind me. "Don't move or I will shoot!"

I almost laughed out loud at that.

The whole bloody airport was overrun with bloodthirsty monsters and there's "something" hunting me in the air shafts and here I am being arrested by some scared Airport cop …again.

"Alright Officer, you got me dead to rights.…" I began as I prepared to make my move.

"But before you take me in, I want you to know that I killed these two…" I said pointing to the two dead Infected.

"In self-defense." I said knowing that it was obvious that I had killed the Infected in self-defense which was not the real reason that I had pointed that out.

The real reason I was stating the obvious was because from hard-earned experience I knew that the tendency for any person is too instinctively look at the spot where someone else is pointing, regardless of the situation at hand.

It's the "oldest trick in the book" as they say, but it still works as I could feel the officer turning to look where I was pointing as I felt the pressure of the pistol on my head suddenly lessen.

"And secondly….." I said as ducked down slightly on my right knee and pivoted to my right and in one quick motion spun around and grabbed his wrist, kicking his feet out from under him at the same time as I yanked the small revolver from his grasp and then aimed the pistol in his face and cocked the hammer of the pistol.

"And secondly, you should never press the barrel of your firearm into the back of your suspect, mate. It just tells them exactly where you are and how to react." I said in a scolding tone as the police officer raised his hands up in the air and begged me in panicked Japanese not to shoot him.

And as the cop yammered on excitedly for me not to kill him, I took a quick look at the gun I had just "appropriated" from him and noticed that it was a regular Police-Issue Smith & Wesson Model 37 "Airweight" revolver, which in my opinion is pretty much next to worthless especially in my current situation.

While the gun had been popular with Law Enforcement in many countries for years, as criminal activity continued to rise and better firearms found their way into the armories of the criminal underground, policeman patrolling the streets soon found themselves clearly outgunned when the bad guys started packing heavier caliber weapons with higher capacity magazines than the smaller caliber five-shot "pea-shooters" the Police were assigned to carry while on patrol.

And while most of the world's Police Departments had finally begin to equip their officers with better arms and body armor, some countries were still way behind the times as I grimaced at the little pistol in my hand that held only five rounds and was chambered in thirty-eight special ammunition.

Bloody thing felt almost like a toy, and compared to my Sig and all the HK and Glock pistols I've shot over the years, it was a serious disappointment as far as using it as a weapon to defend myself with.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the sound of a loud "thump" at the far end of the corridor caused me to instinctively duck as I realized that my "friend" in the ventilation shaft had apparently figured out that I was no longer crawling around in the ventilation system and had turned into another air duct still trying to track me down.

The cop still lying on the floor had also heard the noise and was looking wide-eyed in the same direction I was as I put my finger to my lips and signaled him to be silent, as I pointed the pistol towards the ceiling.

"If you understand English then believe me when I tell you that I'm not gonna kill you, bub." I whispered quietly as I held my hand out to him. "Because in case you haven't realized it yet, we've got much bigger problems."

Realizing that I was not going to kill him after all and that there was apparently something even bigger and scarier than me in the air ducts above us, the frightened cop took my hand and got to his feet with my help as he raised his hands in the air once again, since I was still the one holding the gun.

Normally, it would have been a smart move on his part, but there really was no time for that crap as I heard the "beastie" in the air shaft getting closer as I motioned for the cop to follow me as I brushed past him and headed towards a long glass-covered corridor in the opposite direction.

As I walked quietly towards the corridor, I saw a sign written in Japanese and English with an arrow pointing down it indicating that we were headed towards a VIP lounge area that was located near the Main Terminal Building as I turned around and motioned for the cop to stay close.

The cop was warily following me, being careful by keeping his distance from me but still not wanting to be eaten by whatever was following us as he avoided lagging too far behind, either.

Which I quickly realized was a moot point anyway when I turned a corner and nearly blundered into another long glass-enclosed corridor with wide open doors opening at the end that led out into a large lounge area that was completely filled with people.

Quickly moving back out of sight I noticed that unlike the area where we had just come from, the lounge area ahead of us that was crawling with civilians showed no signs that any of the Infected had ever been there, which was a welcome sight for me at first.

"Well, that's lucky then." I thought to myself. "This area must have been secured before things went to shit."

"But they are sure doing a shit job about keeping it secure." I said with obvious disapproval in my voice as the cop looked at me with a puzzled look.

"What do you mean?" The cop said as he looked into my face, obvious a little upset at my comment.

"You and your comrades were sent up here to check and see if this section was clear, am I right?" I said as the cop nodded his head.

"Well then there should have been an entire team sent up here to check on you and your mates after those shots were fired, don't you think?" I said to the cop as his head dropped, as he was probably now thinking about his dead comrades that he had lost and the lack of a response from the other Police to their plight.

"At the very least, they should have secured this corridor." I said as I spat on the plush carpet. "What the hell are they doing down there? Having a party?"

"Like I said, security here is shit." I repeated with a disgusted shake of my head as I saw a couple dozen or more heavily armed police officers and several SAT personnel in the lounge area walking aimlessly around amongst the "civies".

And then as if to enforce the fact that I was between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" there was another loud "thump" coming from the ceiling down one of the hallways we had just passed.

"F_ck me." I swore as I realized it was the end of the line at last with no other way of escape left for me as I leaned back against the wall and breathed a long sigh of resignation as I then turned to the officer standing next to me who was staring at the ceiling in the direction the sound had come from.

"Look mate, I don't want to cause you or your friends any trouble." I began now realizing that my goose was cooked no matter what I did next. "All I want is to get off of this friggin' island okay?"

"Okay." The cop said as he looked at me, realizing from the look on my face that I knew the situation was hopeless.

"I didn't want to come here and cause any trouble for anyone, but that "thing" up in the air shaft there chased me all the way over here, and when you pulled your weapon on me, I was only trying to defend myself, understand?" I said as both of us quickly looked up at the ceiling as we heard another "thump", this time closer.

"What are you proposing?" The cop said, apparently as eager to get out of the corridor as much as I was.

"Look mate, you seem like a decent man,….." I added as the sound drew closer. "All I want is for you to take me to my gear that I had with me when I was brought in, and then I'll leave."

"Scout's honor, mate." I said as I looked into his frightened face.

I watched the young officer as he quickly pondered my proposal, and as he was thinking, I offered an extended sign of trust by turning the revolver around in my hand and offering it to him.

"We don't have much time, friend." I said as another loud "thump" echoed down the hallway.

"Alright." The young cop said as he held out his hand about to accept the pistol.

But just as I was about to hand him his weapon back, all hell suddenly broke lose in the lounge area behind us as a set of swinging doors on the opposite side of the waiting area down there suddenly burst open as at least two dozen of the Infected barged in and the civilians casually gathered around in the lounge area suddenly went into a panic as men, women, and children begin screaming in fear and trampling over one another in an effort to get away.

Caught by surprise, and trying desperately to engage the Infected and not accidentally fire upon the panic-stricken mob of civilians running around in all directions, the police officers standing guard inside the lounge opened fire with their Service revolvers and Police-Issue pump-action shotguns as the SAT people also opened fire with their submachine guns and assault rifles as more of the Infected began pouring into the lounge in greater numbers through the now open doors.

Normally this would have been the perfect opportunity for me to escape in all the confusion going on and I have to admit, my first instinct had been to do exactly that.

But it was that one moment when one of the SAT officers was in the middle of reloading his weapon and was about to get munched on that I felt my old self remerge its ugly head for the first time in years.

And there was no way in hell I was going to turn my head and run away from what was happening down there.

"Come on, we've gotta get down there!" I roared taking the officer by complete surprise as I ran down the corridor headed straight for the disaster unfolding in front of us.

As we ran down the corridor as fast as we could we could clearly see through the wide-open doors, dozens of people screaming and running helter-skelter everywhere as the muzzle flashes and the roar of weapons fire blasted our ears on top of it all.

And as I finally reached the open doorway leading into the lounge I stopped just outside of the doorway and peered inside, as the officer standing behind me leaned over to look inside the room himself as several people ran past us.

"Holy shit." I said out loud as I caught sight of a great big pile of weapons sitting off in one corner of the lounge area.

I was pretty impressed to say the least having never seen this much firepower in the hands of a Police Unit before, even one as elite as the Japanese SAT.

There were literally dozens of type 89 rifles, M4 Carbines, and MP5's of all shapes, and sizes, and calibers lying there, and even a few KRISS Vector submachine guns, along with several shotguns and maybe a dozen handguns as well, and cases upon cases of ammo.

But unfortunately, there was no sign of any of my confiscated weapons or any signs of my "kit" anywhere.

"Where the hell did they put my "kit"?!" I shouted angrily to myself startling the cop behind me as screams of pain and not just fear, could be heard in the lounge area as people started to fall victim to the Infected.

"AHHHH, SCREW IT!" I yelled in frustration as I jumped to my feet and then quickly ran over to the table where all the weapons lay as I tossed the revolver back to the cop and grabbed one of the Vector submachine guns and slid a long stick magazine into the magazine well, enjoying the feel of a real weapon in my hands once again as I charged the weapon.

And as I looked over at the commotion behind me I was surprised to see the cop suddenly appear right next to me as he tossed his revolver away and then picked up a Type 89-F rifle and expertly locked a loaded magazine into the weapon and then started cramming more loaded magazines into his pockets.

"I hated that piece of shit gun, anyway." The cop said with a wide grin on his face as I laughed out loud despite myself as he walked around me and began firing away at the Infected.

Still busily arming myself, I grabbed some loaded magazines for the KRISS as I then tried to figure out a way to carry them as the sounds of battle intensified in the lounge.

The jumpsuit I was wearing had some pockets stitched into it of course, but they were not really designed for prisoners to carry things in, especially loaded gun magazines.

Luckily for me however, I spotted an unused combat vest on the table big enough for me to carry my spare munitions in as I hastily began stuffing the pouches of the vest full of magazines and then tucked a loaded Glock Model 17 into the empty cross-draw holster attached to the vest as I then tapped the Police Officer on the shoulder and yelled for him to follow me.

As we headed towards the heaviest area of fighting and tried to dodge the civilians who were still running amok, I glanced over at the young officer who capping rounds right next to me.

"Hey man, what's your name?" I asked him as I pushed a screaming man out of my way.

"Motobuchi. Officer Keiichi Motobuchi." He replied holding his hand out as I quickly shook his hand.

"Andrew Poynton, formerly of Her Majesty's Armed Forces." I replied as I flipped the safety off on the KRISS, and we both joined in the fighting.

The fight in the VIP lounge was still pretty messy, although none of the officers had been taken down from what I could see and it seemed that they were actually making some headway in gradually thinning out the Infected.

But even though they had managed to even the odds somewhat, there was still a lot more of the bastards than I figured the cops could handle all by themselves.

And besides, I hate being left out of the fun.

There were plenty of targets everywhere to shoot at and by now most of the "civies" had either buggered off or been attacked, so there was no longer any danger of "collateral damage" as I began picking off the Infected still pouring into the lounge area as Officer Motobuchi did the same.

And then after I had just capped a round off in an Infected baggage handlers skull, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that an infected flight attendant had had somehow managed to sneak up behind that female SAT officer Rika Minami, who was now about to be attacked as the Infected woman slowly moved in without anyone apparently noticing.

And as I watched the little drama unfold, I had to admit, I was a little shocked that such a tightly run unit as the Japanese SAT would ever leave themselves open to attack like that.

Of course, all things considered, they did have their hands full at the time.

Still, it pissed me off something fierce to see such sloppiness in a unit that I had personally trained years ago.

Yeah, I remembered them now.

And I also remember what I'd promised I'd do if I ever saw Sgt. Rika Minami and Sgt. Tajima again.

"YOU'RE ALL REALLY F_CKING USELESS, YOU KNOW THAT?!" I shouted at the cops as I fired a single round from my weapon through the Infected woman's head as the .45 caliber round shattered the skull and splattered a small amount of blood and brain matter all over Sgt. Minami's coveralls, scaring the shit out of her as she realized then just how badly she had almost screwed up by leaving her back exposed.

"HEY, RIKA! I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" I called out with a laugh as I watched her grimacing at the gore dripping off of her, just as the last of the Infected was shot.

But as the body of the last Infected fell to the floor, I was then shocked to see all of the weapons in the room suddenly become instantly trained on me.

Well, I wasn't really all that shocked. But you would think by now someone would have figured out I was one of the "good guys."

"OH, YOU PEOPLE HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!" I yelled in frustration as I looked into the dozens of angry eyes of the Japanese Police who seemed more than a little eager to blow my arse away.

"Seriously people, what the hell?!" I said in disgust having just saved their lives by joining in on the fight and even saving Rika Minami as she was just about to be bitten even after all she had put me through.

And this is the thanks I get?

"OH SCREW ALL YOU WANKERS TO HELL THEN!" I shouted as I dropped the KRISS letting it hang by its sling, as I flipped them all off with both hands, and then turned my attention back to another group of Infected that were trying to make their way inside the lounge area from the same door the last bunch had come through.

Without missing a beat, Officer Motobuchi opened fire with the rifle that he had snatched from the small arsenal and began dropping the Infected as I then turned and glared at the rest of the cops who still had their weapons trained on me as it appeared as if they were trying to decide whether to shoot me or open fire on the Infected as they all looked like a bunch of deer caught in the glare of the headlights of an approaching car.

"Loading!" Officer Motobuchi suddenly shouted as his weapon ran dry as I ignored the muzzles of all the weapons pointed at me and immediately picked up my weapon and opened fire while Officer Motobuchi changed magazines.

"ARE YOU GOING TO FUCKING HELP OR NOT, YOU USELESS F_CKS!?" I roared at the cops making several of them jump as my weapon ran dry again as Officer Motobuchi fired his rifle so I could reload.

"LOADING!" I shouted as I changed mags again as Officer Motobuchi managed to finish off the remaining Infected all by his lonesome by the time I slap the bolt on my weapon.

"Great job, Officer." I said clapping the smaller man on his back as I glared at the other Airport Police who still seemed as if they're thunderstruck by what they've just seen.

"Too bad I can't say the same for your colleagues." I said sarcastically as I let my weapon hang on its sling again and threw up my hands after motioning for Motobuchi to join his buddies as Rika and Tajima ordered everyone to lower their weapons and check all of the Infected to make sure they were all really dead.

"You did good Andrew, Jim would be proud of you." The "little voice" in my head said, only now emerging from its two-day slumber as I lowered my weapon and took a breather as the sound of pistol shots echoed all around.

"Took you're time coming back to me, where have you been?" I thought to myself as I stood there looking down at the dead Infected littering the floor around me.

"Well you did get tasered, dickhead." The voice in my head snapped back at me.

"By the way asshole, they're watching you." "The voice in my head said as I looked up and noticed nearly everyone in the room is watching me with an odd look on their faces.

"The hell you all looking at?!" I growled out loud as I felt myself blushing after being caught talking to myself again.

"Blush? Since when do I friggin' blush?" I thought to myself as the eyes of everyone around me stared as if I was some sort of psycho as I then noticed that Rika and Tajima were walking over towards me.

And as I braced myself for whatever action they're about to take against me I was caught completely off guard when Rika suddenly launched herself at me and hugged me tightly.

Unlike Jim who always seemed ready to offer a friendly pat on the shoulder to us guys or offer a great big bear hug to women and kids, I myself could never handle this amount of so-called "intimacy".

I'm really just not used to it, and so for a moment I was frozen in place with no idea of what I should do next as Rika embraced me in a bear hug.

Feeling a little awkward, I returned the hug and patted her several times on the back whilst grimacing, which for me is the equivalent of someone meeting a long lost friend after many years of separation.

What can I say? I'm about as socially awkward as they come.

"Glad to have the "old you" back, Andrew-san." Rika said as I glanced over at Tajima who just shrugged whilst smiling.

"Good to see you too Rika, and you too Taj." I growled at them both as Tajima reacted in surprise to what I had just said.

"Taj", the nickname I had given Tajima when we first met nearly ten years ago, a name I'd forgotten for so many years and only just now remembered.

So many lost memories, returning to me all at once.

Some memories I'd rather have stayed forgotten.

Others, I have to admit, I'm glad to have back as I hugged my former student, and cherished friend.

Guess I can forgive them about the tarantula thing,….just a little bit.

Yeah right.

Payback's still a bitch, even amongst cherished friends.

Distracted from my thoughts after hearing some happy shouts coming from across the room, I glanced over at Officer Motobuchi as his colleagues were happily clapping him on the back for his role in helping them out.

And as he was receiving his praises from his colleagues, I noticed him glance over at me as he then smiled and gave me a friendly nod of his head as I nodded back at him and then turned my attention back to Rika as she finally let go of me.

"Now then." I began as Rika stepped away from me and stood next to Tajima.

"Now that we're all friends again, is there any chance I can have my own clothes and weapons back, please?" I asked as sweetly as possible as Rika smirked at my pitiful attempt to be civil as I unslung the Vector hanging over my shoulder and handed it to her as she took it from me and admired the weapon.

"Why do you want your old weapons back, Andrew-san, don't you like the KRISS?" Rika asked as she unloaded the weapon.

"Well I don't hate it, but it's not exactly the most useful weapon for a combat situation." I replied with a shrug as a sudden familiar noise caught everyone's attention….again.

I looked over towards the source of the sound and I was frustrated to notice that despite everything that had happened, the doors had not been secured yet as a single Infected pushes through the door and made its way inside the lounge area.

Every weapon instantly trained on the Infected in response, but I quickly threw my hands up to stop them.

"Sometimes if you want things done right, ya gotta do it yourself." I thought to myself sourly.

"Don't shoot boys, that's what's been drawing them in here in the first place." I said with disgust as I slowly made my way over towards the Infected.

Sensing that it was suppertime, the Infected continued to stumble towards me as bloody drool ran down its chin. I know it couldn't see me, but as I watched, it suddenly acted as if it was sniffing the air and then it suddenly looked directly at me.

"Hmm, that's interesting." I thought to myself as I realized that this type of behavior is definitely not something I've noticed before with any of the Infected I've encountered so far.

Any and all type of useful combat intel on these things was essential if I was going to be fighting against them with the help of the police and that of the SAT, and so I watched it closely for a moment more trying to see what else it would do.

However, now was not the time for any half-ass science research as I gave up trying to learn any more behavioral changes of the Infected as I then punched the Infected man square in the jaw and watched it fall to the ground as I then quicly walked over him and closed the two sets of double doors behind him and bolted them shut.

And as I walked back toward where the Infected was still lying on the floor, I placed my foot down on the back of the thing's neck and shoved my boot down, fracturing its spine as the body finally stopped moving.

"Now then Rika, where's your boss?" I asked with a big grin on my face as I walked over towards her and Tajima, all of the other cops looking at me with jaws dropped in surprise.

"Because I believe he stated that he had a job opportunity for me." I said as Rika and Taj' looked at me stunned.

"Ummmm, he's over there." Rika said hesitantly as she pointed over to my old friend Commander Nanahara, who was walking up towards us with a severe scowl on his face.

"Lance Corporal Poynton." Nanahara said with a slight edge to his voice. "I take it your memory has improved?"

"Yes, Commander it has." I said just as coolly as I offered my hand and Nanahara shook it after a moment's hesitation.

"No hard feelings I presume?" Nanahara stated, more so than asked. "In the condition you were in earlier, we could not help but take extra "precautions" around you, I'm sure you understand?"

"Quite." I replied. "Under the circumstances I wouldn't have done anything any different."

"Good." Nanahara said as he glanced over at Rika and Tajima.

"By the way Andrew-san….." Nanahara continued. "I do sincerely apologize for earlier. Not just for our having to "question" you, but also for the fact that we were unable to get to you before the lower levels of the Terminal were breached by the Infected."

"I had wondered what had happened when I heard the alarms going off and all the weapons fire too." I replied, my anger at having been left behind not forgotten, but kept under control for now.

"I take it things went very badly?" I asked looking at Rika and Tajima who suddenly seemed very downcast.

"That would be an understatement, actually." Nanahara replied flatly. "It seems that despite our best attempts to keep the Infected from coming through the Main Access Tunnel from the Mainland, enough of them are still left roaming around in the tunnels underneath the tarmac to overwhelm any attempts we make to try keep them under control."

"And the situation is only getting worse." Nanahara continued. "It seems that all of the Infected still roaming around on this island are now trying to make every attempt possible to breach our walls and access the Main Terminal no matter what security measures we make."

"When you were being "questioned"….' Nanahara went on. "We were attempting to shut off any access to the lower levels of the Main Terminal, but somehow the Infected managed to push their way in before anyone even noticed and by the time someone did, it was already too late."

"We lost several officers while trying to contain the breach, including our Police Chief as well as our Captain." Nanahara added.

"And Sergeant Minami and Sergeant Tajima almost lost their lives as well when they defied my orders and attempted to go back inside and retrieve you, Andrew-san." Nanahara said as he glared at Rika and Tajima who immediately looked away, embarrassed.

"By the way, I heard about their "impromptu shock therapy" treatment." Nanahara added as I stiffened at the memory of what happened and then glared evilly at them.

"But I want you to know they were under orders by our Captain to do whatever they had to in order for you to regain your memories, Andrew-san." Nanahara said as I looked back at him. "And regardless of how they went about it, they only did it because they had no other choice."

"And for the record Andrew-san, if they hadn't succeeded..…" Nanahara added speaking in a very serious tone. "You would still be considered a threat to us and we wouldn't be having this pleasant little conversation right now."

"Understood, sir." I said dryly, still glaring at Rika and Taj'.

"And remember Andrew-san, they did try to go back for you, even though they knew it was suicide to try." Nanahara said with a smirk. "So I would deeply appreciate any plans you have for revenge to be put on hold until we can get ourselves out of this mess. Agreed?"

Just as I was about to reply, a sudden loud thump sounded overhead, startling everyone as I instinctively ducked and then held a finger to my lips for everyone to keep quiet as we all moved away from the large air duct hanging over our heads.

"What the hell was that?!" Nanahara hissed as everyone immediately trained their weapons on the large air duct overhead as the sound of something moving inside echoed in the now silent room.

"I haven't the foggiest, but he's a persistent little bastard." I whispered in reply as I looked up at the air duct checking to see if any part of it moved or sagged under the weight of whatever was crawling around in there that might give away its actual position in the air shaft.

"Persistent? What do you mean?" Rika whispered as she swept the muzzle of the KRISS back and forth along the air duct, ready to open fire at the slightest movement.

"Whatever that friggin' thing is, he's been following me ever since I got out of that "holding room" of yours that you kept me in….." I muttered as everyone sucked in their breath at a very loud hiss that echoed from out of the air duct. "And for some reason the bastard seems quite intent on finding me."

"Sure as hell doesn't sound like any Infected I've ever heard." Tajima said under his breath as everyone waited for the "thing" to show itself. "I can't say I've ever heard one hiss before, either."

"Is there a possibility that perhaps a snake got into the ventilation system?" I asked as Tajima shook his head as another loud thump sounded nearby.

"No snakes on the island that we've ever seen." Tajima replied as Rika bit her lip. "Sure as hell doesn't move around like a snake either."

"Leave it to Andy to find something we've never seen before and piss it off to the point that it'll follow him to the ends of the earth." Rika said dryly.

"F_ck you." I snapped as the sound of another loud "thump' and another angry hiss from almost directly overhead startled everyone. "I may not kill the both of you like I had planned, but I'm still pissed off at the two of you, don't forget that."

"Knock it off." Nanahara growled. "The last thing we need is to attract "it" and any more friends he may have brought with him as well."

"Commander, what do you propose we do then?" Rika asked. "We can't just sit here quietly and hope that whatever it is will get bored and go away."

"No, we can't." Nanahara said with a frown as he paused, carefully considering his next move.

And then after a few tense moments Nanahara then gestured towards one of the other SAT officers and using hand signals, asked that a ladder be brought to him.

"Sir, you can't be serious?" Rika said upon seeing the hand signal Nanahara had given requesting a ladder. "You're not suggesting someone go inside the air shaft after that thing?"

"Don't be stupid, Sergeant." Nanahara growled as he frowned and shook his head. "I'm not about to send anyone in there looking for the unknown."

"But if it's possible, I do want to get a look at what we're dealing with." Nanahara added. "And since our fiber-optic cameras are not available to us since they're still locked up downstairs, the only option left is for me to peek into the vent louvers."

"But sir….." Rika said beginning to protest.

"Stand fast, Sergeant Minami." Nanahara growled. "I'm not putting anyone at any unnecessary risk if I don't have to, and I'm not about to do anything stupid either, so pipe down and cover me while I go take a look."

"Sir, I'm with Rika on this one, I strongly protest against what you're planning to do." I piped up afraid that the Commander was making a serious error in judgment.

"Noted." Nanahara replied as two SAT officers arrived carrying an aluminum step ladder. "Now all of you stand by and get ready to move in, if I get into trouble."

"Roger that." Rika and Tajima acknowledged warily as they and everyone else in the room aimed their weapons at the air duct as Commander Nanahara silently moved over to where two of his men were erecting a step ladder under one of the large vent covers of the air duct that has suspended about twelve feet above the floor while two other SAT officers covered them with their weapons.

As I watched the Commander moving towards his men as they quickly and silently set up the ladder for him, I felt a nudge on my arm as I glanced over at Tajima, who was holding a Franchi-Spas 12 shotgun that he had been using, and was now handing it to me.

"Take it …" Tajima whispered as Nanahara began his climb up the stepladder instructing his men by using hand signals to cover him as he stealthily climbed up the stepladder.

"We might need every gun available on this one." Tajima added as he drew his pistol and aimed it at the air vent as I took the shotgun from him and brought it up to my shoulder.

The thumping noise that we had all heard stopped suddenly as Nanahara began his climb, and for a brief moment everyone including Nanahara froze, believing that whoever or whatever was crawling around in the air shaft had detected his presence.

However, after waiting a few moments more with no sound coming from the air shaft, Nanahara continued his climb up the ladder until he was just three rungs short of being at eye level of the vent cover.

After quickly glancing around and nodding his head to his men below that he was about to make his final approach, Nanahara switched on the weaponlight attached to his MP5-A3 and cautiously climbed up the ladder while holding his weapon one-handed in front of him aiming it at the vent cover as he climbed up the last couple of rungs, until his face was level with the vent cover.

Nanahara breathed deeply trying to quiet his loud breathing and slow his bounding heart as he peeked through the louvers of the vent cover, using the beam from his weaponlight to illuminate the air shaft and half-expecting to see the drooling face of an Infected staring right back at him.

But as the extremely bright beam of light pierced the darkness inside the air duct behind the louvers of the vent cover, Nanahara was unable to see anything as he swept the beam left and right, the beam casting shadows from the louvers of the vent cover as the beam was moved all around.

"What the hell?" Nanahara thought to himself as he swept the muzzle of his MP5 back and forth again, making a last sweep of the air duct with his weaponlight before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Clear." Nanhara said as everyone also breathed a sigh of relief and slowly lowered their weapons.

"Well, whatever was in there has apparently moved on." Nanahara said as he reached up to switch off his weaponlight as something like a giant hand slammed into the vent cover with a loud "WHAM!" nearly knocking the steel grate free, mere inches from Nanahara's face.

"F_CK!" Nanahara roared in surprise as he immediately squeezed the trigger of his MP5 and fired full-auto at the "thing" that was banging on the vent cover trying to get at him as the SAT Commander lost his balance and fell off the ladder and into the open arms of his men below as they all collapsed to the floor.

As he quickly looked up at the vent shaft from his fallen position on the floor, Nanahara was shocked to see that whatever was in the air shaft was still desperately attempting to break out as it continued to violently slam itself against the vent cover, hissing loudly as a couple of the screws holding the metal cover popped free.

"OPEN FIRE!" Nanahara roared as he fired the last remaining rounds in his magazine as over twenty Airport Police and SAT operators then opened up with everything they had at the creature in the air shaft.

Nanahara and his men hastily rolled out from underneath the vent shaft as they were immediately showered with bits of plaster, metal shavings and flecks of paint as the air duct above their heads simply disintegrated from the hail of automatic rifle fire, pistol rounds and shotgun blasts fired at it from every armed policeman in the room.

The roar of the gunfire was deafening as the shots roared in the VIP lounge and then echoed along every corridor connecting to the Main Terminal as the reports of the guns and the dazzling muzzle flashes mixed with the intense screams of the terrified civilians as people once again began to take panicked flight in all directions, all of them completely convinced that the Airport Police were engaging a large number of Infected headed in their direction, as panicked civilians fell over furniture and each other in a panicked run for safety.

In the VIP lounge, the heavy weapons fire continued on without letup, completely demolishing the area where the SAT Commander had been attacked until every round in the magazines of everyone's weapons had been expended, and Nanahara finally managed to shout for a cease-fire.

"KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY, DAMMIT!" Nanahara roared as everyone scrambled to reload their weapons as he and his men brushed themselves off, their once black *BDU's now completely dusted white from the plaster that had rained down on them.

(* BDU'S – Battle Dress Uniform)

Coughing up dust, Nanahara glared angrily around at his men as some of the Airport officers quickly reloaded their weapons while others continued to aim the muzzles of their weapons at both ends of the demolished air duct.

"I know things are tense right now, but don't any of you people remember anything about fire discipline?!" Nanahara growled as he looked up at the demolished remains of the air duct and then at all the expended brass littering the floor.

"Ummmm, sorry sir." Someone said in an apologetic voice as a large chunk of the air duct fell with a loud "CRASH", sending up a large cloud of dust in the air as Nanahara shook his head in disgust.

"Commander, I don't mean to interrupt you while you're addressing your people…." Nanahara heard the former British commando say as he glanced over at him and saw that the man was still aiming his shotgun at the demolished remains of the air duct.

"But in case nobody's noticed…" Andrew continued as he swept the muzzle of his shotgun back and forth between both open ends of the air vent. "We still have a problem."

"What do you mean, Lance Corporal?" Nanahara said as he and his men immediately turned around and raised their weapons, aiming the muzzles of their weapons at both ends of the demolished air shaft as they slowly backed away.

"Take a look sir. There's no blood, and no bodies anywhere around where we opened up…..nothing. " Andrew replied still sweeping the muzzle of his shotgun back and forth.

"We didn't hit a f_cking thing." Andrew said grimly as Nanahara looked all around and realized to his horror that the former SAS man was right.

"SHIT!" Nanahara swore as he aimed the weaponlight of his MP5 into the torn remains of one side of the air duct and saw nothing moving within.

"Now what?" Tajima muttered as Nanahara motioned for Rika to join him.

"Yes, sir?" Rika said aiming the muzzle of the KRISS at the open end of the air duct on her left.

"Sergeant, I need you to…F_CK!" Nanahara roared again as something big and black hurtled out of one of the open ends of the air duct and flew through the air straight towards them.

As Nanahara and Rika immediately hit the floor, a sudden burst of weapons fire roared in the lounge area again as some of the Airport Police, startled at the sudden "appearance" of the "monster", instinctively opened fire with their weapons again, as the "creature" quickly disappeared behind some broken furniture.

"DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT!" Tajima suddenly shouted and waved both of his hands as Nanahara and Rika rolled onto their bellies and aimed their weapons at the area where the "thing" had disappeared into.

"WHAT THE F_CK WAS THAT?!" Nanahara roared as he was then shocked to see Tajima suddenly sprint forward to where the "thing" was hiding.

"TAJIMA! GET BACK YOU FOOL!" Nanahara shouted as everyone raised the muzzles of their weapons up into the air at the last nanosecond, barely avoiding shooting the seemingly crazed SAT sniper.

"TAJ' YOU F_CKING PSYCHO!" I swore as I took my finger off the trigger of my shotgun at the last possible second, but kept the muzzle level at the spot where I had last seen "it" disappear. "GET THE HELL BACK MAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"It's alright guys!" Tajima said as he casually pushed over a chair and picked up an up-ended coffee table as a loud hiss sounded off.

"TAJIMA!" Everyone in the room screamed as Tajima suddenly reached down with both hands to everyone's shock.

"Mr. Cuddles!" Tajima shouted with glee as if greeting an old friend after a long absence. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"Mr. Cuddles?" Andrew said as he looked over at Nanahara as Rika suddenly face-palmed herself.

"You gotta be friggin' kidding me." Rika said as she looked over at Tajima, an embarrassed look on her face.

"Just exactly WHO or WHAT the F_CK, is "Mr. Cuddles", Sergeant?!" Nanahara growled picking himself off the floor as Andrew racked the action of his shotgun, cursing under his breath as Tajima picked up whatever it was he had found and turned around as everyone's eyes grew wide upon seeing what Tajima picked up off the floor.

"HOLY SHIT!" Nanahara swore as he and all the other police in the room took a step back after seeing what was in Tajima's hands.

"I thought the grumpy old man had killed you, boy." Tajima said his voice filled with worry, as everyone in the room stared in horror at the biggest f_cking tarantula anyone had ever seen as Tajima casually draped the monster spider over his left arm.

"There, there, Mr. Cuddles, don't be scared, no one's gonna hurt you." Tajima cooed softly as he rubbed the back of the enormous tarantula with the fingers of his right hand cradling the monster spider like a newborn infant as Nanahara glared at Tajima who was completely oblivious to the SAT Commander's growing fury.

His blood boiling, Nanahara glanced again over at the tarantula draped over Tajima's arm which he had to admit, was by far the biggest spider that he had ever seen, its eleven inch legs draped over Tajima's arm reminding him very much of the "face-hugger" in that old sci-fi movie "ALIEN".

"Tajima." Nanhara began gritting his teeth. "WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT THING?!AND WHY THE HELL DO YOU EVEN HAVE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"

"Uh….."Mr. Cuddles" is a pet, sir." Tajima replied as he noticed the angry looks of his Commander as well as his fellow officers around him and then noticed Rika trying to slink away as Andrew glared at him, his finger inching toward the trigger of his shotgun.

"I found him during a routine Customs inspection for smuggled contraband…" Tajima continued. "And after doing some research, I found out that he was actually a Theraphosa blondi, and so I decided to keep him as a pet."

"A WHAT, Sergeant?" Nanahara said, barely controlling his fury.

"He's a Theraphosa blondi, sir." Tajima managed to say sensing the tension in the room. "A Goliath bird-eater tarantula from Venezuela."

As I looked over at the freakin' monster draped over Tajima's arm, I could not help but feel a cold chill run through me at the sight of the bloody thing, my old phobias returning with a vengeance.

And I knew without a doubt that the bastard still wanted a piece of me judging from the way it was still hissing, so I kept the shotgun ready, just in case the effin' thing decided to try to lunge at me again.

But as I watched the beady-eyed little bastard making weird noises as Tajima caressed its back, I could not help but feel about as embarrassed with myself as I could possibly be.

Me, an experienced SAS veteran having been involved in numerous conflicts behind enemy lines, dozens of HALO jumps, and countless operations in "Black Ops" as well as being wounded more times than I can remember.

Chased down by a friggin' tarantula.

I just wanted to shrivel up and die.

I was expecting at any minute to be laughed at and ridiculed by every single one of the Japanese Police for being afraid of an "itsy-bitsy spider" and acting like such a wuss in front of everyone.

As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about.

"SERGEANT MINAMI!" Nanahara barked as I heard an "eep" escape Rika's lips as I looked over at where she stood and noticed that she had been trying to slink away while everyone's attention had been fixed on the tarantula.

"Just exactly where do you think you are going, Sergeant?!" Nanahara said fuming as a big grin formed on my face as I stopped to watch the show.

"Uh, nowhere sir." Rika said rather meekly as she snapped to attention.

Oh yeah, this was gonna be good.

"Good, because I have an assignment for you and Sergeant Tajima." Nanahara said his voice like venom as I could see Rika and Tajima suddenly begin to sweat slightly.

"Report to me at 0800 tomorrow, SHARP!" Nanahara said as he then looked directly at Tajima.

"Tajima, get that f_cking thing out of my sight and keep it locked up or so help me I will shoot both of you the next time I even hear someone even mention the word "spider", get me?!" Nanahara said in a voice so calm but still so filled with fury, that even I was little intimidated by it.

"As for the rest of you." Nanhara said as all of the other police and SAT officers straightened at Nanhara's gaze. "What happened here, stays here. Because if I find out that any one of you leaked out what happened here you will be one sorry mother_cker, indeed."

"And I sure as hell better not hear one of you laughing either." Tajima hissed as his face began to turn purple.

"Because the first one of you "little shits" even cracks a smile in front of me, YOU'LL BE SPENDING THE REST OF THE NIGHT ON GUARD DUTY OUT THERE ON THE F_CKING TARMAC!" Nanahara roared as everyone stiffened.

"Am I clear?" Nanahara said quietly as everyone snapped to attention and yelled "YOKAI!"

"Now police these bodies, and get the civilians secured." Nanahara said with an angry grunt as he then gazed out through the large windows that enclosed the lounge and watched the sun setting in the distance, the diminishing light that was still left illuminating the hundreds of Infected still shuffling around on the tarmac.

"Get moving." Nanhara snapped as everyone quickly ran off to various assignments without saying a word.

"Andrew-san." Nanhara said in a very tired voice as he turned to face me, the angry look now gone and replaced with a look of absolute fatigue. "If you're serious about helping us, I could definitely use your help."

"I'll do what I can, Commander." I replied, actually feeling sorry for the man, who was definitely overwhelmed with the huge responsibility placed on him now that his superiors were gone.

"What do you need?" I asked as I watched Rika and Tajima run off together like delinquent children to try to find a suitable cage to house "Mr. Cuddles".

"We need to stem the flow of Infected pouring into this place." Tajima replied. "And for that I need you and those two misfits to carry out a very hazardous mission in the morning."

"Rika and Taj'?'" I said with a hint of a smile. "Are you sure you want them all alone with me out there?"

"Considering the big mess that was created by what those two did, If you don't take them with you, I'm just going to be all that more tempted to kill them myself." Nanahara said with a smirk. "And that wouldn't look too good on the after-action report."

"Are you sure it can wait till morning then, Commander?" I said with a chuckle as I watched the sun disappear over the horizon.

"It's far too dangerous to risk a night-time Op out there, Andrew-san." Nanahara replied. "And after everything that all of us have been through today, I'd rather all three of you wait until tomorrow."

"I'll brief you and those two in the morning." Nanahara added. "For now, gear up, grab some chow and get some rack time, it's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"Roger that." I replied as I watched Nanahara turn and walk off to join the rest of his people as I heard him say something underneath his breath which made me realize that he was more embarrassed about the whole "Mr. Cuddles" incident than I was.

"A f_cking spider." I heard Nanahara grumble to himself as he walked down the long corridor shaking his head. "I can't believe we wasted all that ammo on an f_cking spider."

Location: Tokonosu City

Refugee Camp established on the grounds of the Estate of Soichiro and Yuriko Takagi

Time: Evening

"I can't believe that American is living it up in that nice warm house, while the rest of us have to sleep in these miserable tents!" The spiky-haired woman, Maiko Homura, muttered angrily as her husband placed a blanket over her shoulders noticing that she was shivering.

Maiko's shivering however, was not due to the evening chill as the sun was beginning to set.

The real reason for Maiko Homura's constant shaking was in fact, a result of all the anger and embarrassment she felt at having been frightened out of her wits by that teenage boy who had been a heartbeat away from shooting her, frightening her so thoroughly that she had lost control of her bladder in front of everyone.

No one among the small group of people gathered around in front of the large mess tent dared even mention anything about that however, as each of them not the least bit concerned about the loud-mouthed woman who had wet herself after having had a gun pointed in her face, anyway.

Instead, the thought on everyone's mind that had every one of them nearly paralyzed with fear was the possibility that the accusation made earlier that their hosts were actually corroborating with the Americans, was possibly true.

And from all appearances, the facts seemed to point strongly in that direction, judging by the way their hosts seemed to be taking extreme measures to care for the enemy American soldier's welfare, while everyone else had been confined to the small refugee camp by order of the Master of the Takagi Household, whose Security Chief Yoshioka, had announced to all of them earlier that no one other than those who actually worked on the sprawling estates or actually lived there were allowed entrance into the large mansion.

And even more frustrating, no one was allowed to even roam free on the grounds as before either,as anyone who even tried to leave the confines of the small refugee camp were now roughly pushed back by the heavily armed guards that now patrolled the perimeter of the refugee camp.

The curious actions of their hosts seemed only to confirm the suspicions that the Takagi's were actually American sympathizers, and the fear now coursing through the over 300 civilians inside the camp was that surely The Takagi's had more than likely made contact with the hated American's who would be sure to send more soldiers soon to retrieve their wounded man.

And when they did, there was no telling what might happen to any of the civilians or their families if any of the American soldiers that were sure to come, ever discovered how close all of the refugees had come so close to lynching their comrade.

And as rumor after rumor continued to spread in frightened whispers amongst the refugees as armed guards walked nearby, the situation was beginning to appear grimmer with each passing hour as everyone's paranoia continued to spiral out of control.

"I could care less about where that man sleeps." One man spat in disgust. "What I want to know is what do those traitors intend to do with us now that their "little secret" is out?"

"You don't think Takagi-sama will tell the Americans what we tried to do to him, do you?" One pregnant woman said in near panic as she placed her hand protectively over her belly.

"Are you serious?!" Another man said angrily. "That traitorous bastard probably blabbed everything to them as soon as he walked into his house!"

"Then the Americans will be coming for sure?!" An elderly woman said as she clutched the arm of her husband standing beside her. "We're all to be handed over to the American's as prisoners then?"

"Yeah, right…." A tall, husky teenage boy said sarcastically as he stepped up to the group with his arm wrapped around his girlfriend's waist.

"You honestly believe the Takagi's want any witnesses left behind to blab to the authorities that they're actually working for the enemy?" The boy said as his girlfriend laughed and then laid her head on his shoulder. "Are you really that stupid, or what?"

"He's right." A young teenage girl with large round-rimmed glasses said as another young girl placed her arms around her shoulders as if trying to console her. "If anyone found out that the Takagi's were helping the American's, they'd be tried as conspirators and shot."

"So that means there can't be any witnesses to what happened here." Another teenage boy said as he approached the group. "That means as soon as the American's come, we're all dead."

The response to the words that the teenager's had just spoken that seemed to completely justify everyone's fears was immediate.

And as one, the small group of refugees began to panic even worse than earlier that afternoon.

"I knew it!" One man roared. "They've betrayed all of us!"

"Those traitors! They won't get away with this!" Screamed another man shaking his fist in the direction of the mansion.

"We have to fight back! It's the only way!" Another man shouted.

"Yeah! Let's all charge in! They won't shoot us with so many witnesses around!" Roared another man as he started to break the wooden lawn chair he had been sitting on to break off a piece large enough to use as a weapon.

"Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!" One woman wailed as a calm voice suddenly grabbed everyone's attention despite the loud clamor going on all around.

"While I admit things look very bad for us right now, might I suggest that we try an alternative means of conveying our fears to the head of the Takagi House rather than resorting to mob violence?" A calm voice coming from a thin man concealed in shadow said as he quietly approached the small group of refugees standing near the large mess tent.

"After all….." The calm voice continued. "Trying to force your will on our "hosts" didn't quite work so well the last time."

"In fact, it nearly ended in disaster for some of our neighbors, if you remember." The calm voice said as Maiko Homura turned her face away, still too embarrassed to look anyone in the eye.

"What do you mean "alternative means". The man who had been the first to break his chair apart to use as a weapon said suspiciously as he and everyone else tried to gaze upon the man's face that was still concealed in shadow.

"As they say, cooler heads often prevail." The thin man said. "Perhaps instead of an armed crowd charging in and demanding answers, perhaps we should seek a diplomatic solution instead."

"Phah…..diplomacy." One man spat. "Those people are traitors to their own country, what makes you think they want to talk?"

"All of you are assuming they're traitors." The thin man said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "But what if you are wrong?"

"What if Japan is indeed, actually not at war with the Americans?" The thin man said with a dry laugh.

"Then you're assumption that the Takagi's are traitors would be groundless." The thin man added. "And all of you would have only succeeded in getting many of your comrades hurt or perhaps even killed for nothing if you insist on attempting to fight your way into Takagi-sama's home with all of those armed guards patrolling all around."

Pondering this for a moment, many of the crowd continued to grumble their discontent, many still not completely convinced that what the thin man had said was actually the correct measure to take in order to address their concerns.

But as some of the Takagi guards suddenly began to approach the crowd of people drawn to their location by the sudden loud clamor of the refugees shouting and breaking their lawn chairs apart, many in the group began to see the wisdom in the shadowy stranger's logic as they saw how heavily armed the guards were now.

"What's going on here?!" One of the guards said with authority as he and some of the other guards quickly spread out, keeping a wary eye on the crowd, their weapons ready.

"Just a minor misunderstanding." The thin man said as the guard glanced over at him.

"What about?" The guard said trying to gaze into the man's face that was still concealed in shadow.

"There is a concern amongst the others that I do believe needs to be addressed." The thin man said gesturing with his hand over towards the crowd. "And we were discussing the possibility of voicing our concerns to our host if that would be possible?"

"Takagi-dono is very busy." The guard said, an uneasy feeling coming over him.

"TOO BUSY TALKING TO HIS AMERICAN FRIENDS TO WASTE TIME WITH US?!" The teenage boy with his arm still wrapped around his girlfriend shouted hotly as many others in the crowd also shouted in frustration.

"Now, now….." The thin man said holding up both of his hands to calm the crowd. "I'm sure our host would not be so rude as to ignore the understandable concerns of his guests."

"After all, we are under his protection, are we not?" The thin man said looking over at the guard who hesitated to respond to the man at first, his unease growing as the eyes of everyone on the crowd suddenly became fixed on him.

"Of course you are." The guard said at last, his discomfort growing as he could literally feel the thin man's eyes gazing intently at him even in the darkness, sending a powerful chill running up his spine.

"Excellent." The thin man said. "Then there should be no problem with you setting up an appointment for me to speak with Takagi-sama at his earliest convenience…."

"Is there?" The thin man said in a voice that now had a hard edge to it.

"An appointment?" The guard said incredulously. "You want to make an appointment?

"Of course." The thin man said in an almost light-hearted tone. "We don't wish to appear rude to our hosts now do we? Especially considering how busy you say his schedule is."

Dumbstruck by the man's seemingly ludicrous request, the guard rolled his eyes and then sarcastically replied to the thin man's request for an appointment, believing that the man was either drunk or some rich snob who was in complete denial of how idiotic his request for an "appointment" sounded.

"Okay, I'll pass your request on to Yoshioka-san about scheduling an appointment for you to meet Takagi-dono." The guard replied the sarcasm heavy in his voice as some of the other guards laughed with scorn.

"Whom shall I say is making this request?" The guard said with a smirk as the thin man stepped forward into the light and then stopped, standing almost toe-to-toe with the guard as he seemed to tower over the man.

"Shido." The thin man said as he gazed intently into the guard's eyes, the intensity of his stare almost like that of a snake trying to hypnotize its next victim.

"Shido, Koichi des."

Location: Tokonosu City

Estate of Soichiro and Yuriko Takagi

Jim's Room

Time: Evening

Spring 2013

Z-Day Plus Three

A worried frown formed on Shizuka's face as she adjusted the drip rate on the unconscious American's I.V., the guest room that now served as a makeshift hospital completely devoid of sound as she adjusted the clamp at the prescribed drip rate and then continued the rest of her treatment of the unconscious American.

The guest room was now empty with the exception of Shizuka and her patient, after she had sent the children away after one of the maids had come in earlier and announced to everyone that dinner was ready and that clean clothes were being provided for everyone as well.

As famished as everyone was, Shizuka still had to put her foot down and shoo the teens away when they initially refused to leave, which had also been close to impossible to get Saeko to follow along with the others until Shizuka ordered everyone out so that the American could rest.

But even then it wasn't until Shizuka had physically pushed everyone out of the room, and then threatened them to leave her alone with her patient or none of them would be allowed back into the room that Shizuka was finally able to get the teens to leave.

And as the children left to eat and Shizuka now busied herself with replacing the tape on the man's I.V. that had nearly been pulled out of his arm as he was trying to shield Saeko from being shot, a troubled frown formed on the school nurse's face as she gazed upon her unconscious patient and pondered deeply upon what the American had said earlier as the Security Chief aimed his pistol at the man earlier.

"If you're going to kill me, I won't stop you." The American had said, which had shocked Shizuka at first until she realized that surely the only reason he had said that was to appeal to Yoshioka-san to not accidentally shoot Saeko.

And given how much the American cared for Saeko and the rest of the children, it was completely understandable that he'd say something like that.

But the second part of what he said afterwards is what had shocked Shizuka the most and even now, was still troubling her as she tended to the unconscious man.

"As a matter of fact, you'd be doing me a favor."

"Jimu-san, why would you say something like that?" Shizuka had thought to herself as the man was shielding Saeko, but then quickly dismissed it as the tense standoff continued to escalate.

While no one else had seemed to react with much concern over what the man had said mostly due to the fact that everyone's attention was more focused on the gun in Yoshioka-san's hands than on anything else, Shizuka however, had still been nagged by those very words that the American had uttered long after Saya's parents and the Security Chief had left.

And as she replaced the tape covering the I.V. catheter that had been torn away, Shizuka began to think back to the time when she was still a nurse's trainee and was required to spend a week in a mental health ward along with the other members of her class as part of her clinical rotation at the hospital.

It had been an exceptionally challenging time in her training, her and the rest of her class having to spend an entire week working in the mental health ward of Tokonosu General Hospital learning how to deal with people struggling with substance abuse, alcoholism, depression, physical abuse, and those being treated for suicidal ideations.

And by the end of that grueling week, Shizuka and all of the other students in her class had been brought to tears more times than they could count by the many heart-breaking stories being told to them by the patients they tended to, the stress of it all causing some of the trainees to drop out of the course entirely.

"It is very easy to mend a broken bone or bandage a bleeding wound,….." Their nursing instructor had said to them later in the classroom after the week long clinical rotation was over. "But as all of you have learned, there is no quick and easy fix for someone suffering from mental or emotional trauma."

"We can teach you how to help a person who is sick or injured.…" The veteran nurse continued. "But what we cannot teach you, is what to say to a person who has just lost their loved one, or how to deal with a person who no longer wants to live because he or she feels that life is no longer worth living."

"Only you can determine what to say or do to help your patient who is suffering from his or her inner turmoil." The instructor went on.

"And only you will know the warning signs telling you when the pain and suffering you see every day is also beginning to affect you as well." She added as she gazed upon the room full of young, frightened faces.

"These are teachings that cannot be found in any book." The instructor continued. "You must use your head in cases like that, and look for the signs that there is more going on with your patient than what you see on the surface."

"And you must also use this." The instructor said as she then placed her hand over her heart. "I implore you to always remember that a patient is not just another name on a list or another number on the wall.''

"They are a living, breathing person who is suffering and has come looking for help." The Instructor said. "And because there are more patients than doctors, people do not get as close and personal with their doctors as you see on TV."

"That is where you come in." The Instructor said with a smile. "You are the eyes, ears, and hands of the doctor, and that is what makes all of you as nurses so very valuable in the medical industry."

"But being a nurse is also one of the most difficult of professions as well." She then added with a pained look on her face. "Because you will be the one there watching as the patient's health either improves…"

"Or declines." The Instructor said as she handed a tissue to one of the students in the front row who had been crying. "And it will be especially hard for any of you who end up working in the pediatric ward and have to see children suffering from sickness or injury…or abuse."

"And while no one is asking you to completely throw everything you have into every patient you see when you come to work." The instructor said with a smile. "That doesn't mean that everyone doesn't deserve a little compassion on your part when you treat them."

"A gentle touch on the shoulder, a smile, kind words, anything that will convince the patient that you actually care about them, will sometimes do more for your patient than even the strongest medications ever will."

"And for those whose injuries are emotional or mental." The instructor said as she looked Shizuka directly in the eye. "Your ability to see the warning signs that a person is possibly in danger of hurting himself can mean the difference between that person either recovering,…"

"Or eventually succeeding in ending his life." The instructor had finished, her eyes casting downwards having obviously spoken from hard-earned experience.

And as Shizuka finished placing another piece of tape over the clear I.V. tubing securing the intravenous line to the man's arm, Shizuka began to think back to all that had happened over the past three days as she sat down in the chair next to the man's bed.

The American had nearly lost his life more than once already, although everything that he had done had been in an attempt to keep all of them safe, there had been no question of that.

But what had begun to alarm Shizuka now was a disturbing pattern that she had failed to notice before until the man had said something that had set the alarm bells going off full blast in her head, and Shizuka cursed herself for almost missing the obvious signs before.

"You'd be doing me a favor."

The first red flag that she had missed detecting earlier had been when the man had taken off all on his own to scout the bridge despite the high risk of being attacked by an unseen number of Infected, which had then actually happened from the loud report of the man's sniper rifle as the man opened fire on the street gang that had attacked them.

It was a dangerous thing to do, scouting the bridge all by himself, but the man had refused to take anyone with him.

And then after being surrounded by Infected with nowhere to run, the man had opted to drop from the bridge to his doom into the swift moving river to prevent Saeko and Takashi from getting killed by the hordes of Infected that had cornered him.

Then, after barely surviving his ordeal, he had engaged several armed men all by himself on the side of the river, killing all of them in order to prevent the teens from being ambushed.

And then after rescuing Alice, he had again chosen to jump off the Humvee by himself and single-handedly delay the approaching crowd of Infected by igniting the diesel fuel he had dumped on the road.

And then finally after every one of them had been caught by surprise by Yuriko's "rescue", the American had suddenly attacked the guards back at Rika's condo even though he was unarmed after one of the men had hit Saeko.

And despite being unarmed and outnumbered, the American had kept on fighting like a wild animal until he was nearly clubbed to death.

The American had gone above and beyond to protect all of them, and Shizuka had thought nothing of his actions being anything other than his efforts to try to protect all of them.

That is, until he had spoken.

"You'd be doing me a favor."

Shizuka, like everyone else, had believed that the man's motives for his actions were merely from his concern for all of them, after all, he had shown just how much he cared for the teens by treating them as if they were his own children, and not just some lost refugees in need of help.

And the look on the man's face each time he spoke to the teens and the look on his face when Saeko had run up to greet him after everyone had thought he had drowned, had proven how much he really did care deeply for all of them, and would doubtlessly do anything to keep them safe.

But then when Shizuka had seen the anguish in his eyes after being slapped by Saeko and then yelled at by the rest of them for being "reckless" with his life, and then again when he had looked over at Saeko just before the guard had struck him again with the rifle butt….

And then just a short while ago when Saeko had called him "Papa" in her sleep, there had been a strange look in his eyes each time which had concerned Shizuka at first, but she had then disregarded as being due to emotions running high at the time.

But now Shizuka wasn't so sure that was the case anymore.

For two days since the American had left to scout the bridge alone, Shizuka had been worried about the teens, especially Saeko who had most definitely bonded with the man.

And Shizuka's worries had been primarily focused on how the teens would be affected if the American was either killed or imprisoned, a concern that Yuriko Takagi had shared as well.

But what Shizuka had not considered was what effect the children were having on the man.

And now Shizuka realized that the situation was actually much worse than she previously thought.

"Jimu-san?" Shizuka said as she walked over and sat on the chair next to the man's bed.

"Jimu-san, I know you can't hear me….." Shizuka began as she placed her hand in the unconscious man's hand and squeezed. "But I'm very worried about you, and there's something I want to talk to you about when you wake up."

"And even though I know you probably can't hear me now.…"Shizuka continued. "There is something I wish to say to you, regardless."

"Jimu-san, you have done so much to take care of all of us, and we could not have survived without you these past three days." Shizuka began, speaking to the unconscious man as if he were listening the same way she had always done before for so many of her patients over the years at the hospital she had worked at before she left to work as a school nurse.

"And much more than that Jimu-san, you treated every one of us like family, and despite everything that happened you were always able to remain so patient and kind with the children."

"And I wish to thank you for that, as well as for being so brave when we needed your strength."

"And I am so sorry for all of the pains you've suffered getting us to safety." Shizuka added sadly.

"But I want you to know, Jimu-san,…." Shizuka continued. That we are all deeply grateful for all you've done, and I want to tell you just how much we appreciate you."

"I also want to tell you how much the children love you Jimu-san." Shizuka added as tears began to fall down her face as she gripped the man's hand even tighter. "You've been like a father to them, and none of us will ever forget you for what you've done for us."

"And I know Saeko-cha_" Shizuka said choking back a sob as she dried the tears running down her face.

"And I know Saeko-chan loves you like a father so much that all this time I had been so afraid of how her heart would be broken if you had been taken away from her."

"Jimu-san, you are surrounded by people who love you and care about you, and always will, and nothing will ever change that."

"So there's nothing to fear." Shizuka said with a slight smile. "You'll always have a special place in our hearts and I want you to know that."

"But while I was so worried about Saeko-chan and the others would feel about losing you Jimu-san…." Shizuka said as she gazed upon the man sadly.

"It didn't occur to me all this time about how deeply you would feel about losing them." Shizuka said.

"We both know the children will eventually be reunited with their families soon, and I know the thought of losing the children hurts you, Jimu-san." Shizuka continued as she placed her other hand on the American's hand and squeezed his hand in both of hers.

"I could see the pain in your eyes when everyone was mad at you back underneath the bridge yesterday, Jimu-san." Shizuka added. "And the children and I have felt so terrible about what we did to you, especially Saeko-chan."

"And even though everyone apologized to you afterwards, I could still see the sadness in your eyes that the children couldn't."

"But I also saw something else in your eyes Jimu-san, especially after Saeko-chan called you "Papa"….." Shizuka continued. "And what I saw in your eyes scares me, because I've seen it before."

"Jimu-san, I know that there is pain in your heart because I can see it now." Shizuka said as she looked into the unconscious man's face.

"But you're surrounded by friends who care about you very much and have been worried sick about you ever since you were hurt, and all of us were even willing to risk our lives so that no harm would come to you."

"And I know you realize that Jimu-san, which is why I don't understand…."Shizuka said as she wiped a tear from her eye before continuing.

"Jimu-san,….." Shizuka said as she placed her left hand on the American's shoulder.

"Why do you wish to die?"

Author's Notes:

When Poynton90 sent me this chapter, I was pretty impressed with what he wrote, but as I read it I could not help myself and decided to build up on the chapter.

So instead of just reading about Andrew escaping through the air shaft, I built up on what he had written by adding elements from a few of my absolute favorite movies of all time.

After reading this, I'm pretty sure that all of you recognize some great scenes from the movies….. "Die Hard", "ALIEN", ALIENS", and the awesome shoot-out scene from "Predator."

And of course, me being the fireman that I am who loves to throw humor in the mix, Reverend Lovejoy's wife from "The Simpsons" who always screamed "Won't someone PLEASE, think of the children?"

The character of "Mr. Cuddles" of course, belongs to the very talented couple of DeBray and Tracey Bailey who I really hope don't mind my using their character in this story.

I had never intended for "Mr. Cuddles" to die back in Chapter 33.

And so when Poynton90 sent me this portion, I knew that this way the perfect way to bring him back.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.

As you can see, things are starting to get a little more "interesting" and you will probably notice the story beginning to move at a faster pace in the next few chapters as things become too dangerous for anyone to stay at Takagi Manor.

Also, I've been busy correcting the mistakes I've made in some of my earlier chapters as well as doing some re-writing as well.

As a result, Chapter Two of "Last Alarm" has been updated and will be posted this Friday.

Until then, see ya'll next time and thank you all for your support! Jim