FOUR
Hiroko hustled the children along the fragile thread of light. The gunfire still sounded close behind her, so she hoped Kiku was keeping up, but didn't pause to make sure. One had to get the children out first; once she escaped with them, if she escaped with them, she could, if necessary, seek help and go back for the adults. Both children were crying. Things flopped and swooped and danced around them, things she saw only out of the corner of her eye, and that was good. Instinct kept her from looking directly at those misshapen, obscene things. Her pains, that had begun a few hours ago, were growing stronger.

A rock wall loomed up ahead of her. She noticed that the path seemed to run into the conjunction of wall and floor. She headed straight for the wall...

...and passed through.

"We're out!" Kiku said behind her.

Hiroko let Kozuke down, and caught her daughter to her. They were in a barren valley, surrounded by sheer cliffs. Hiroko had grown up in the shadow of Fujisan; she understood mountains and normally loved them. These mountains, though, seemed to be frowning down on her, hovering with hostile intent.

The hills weren't the only things that had hostile intent. Scrambling over the broken ground were impossibly pale people, most of whom seemed to be deformed in one way or the other, and those horrible moving masses of mold. They were chanting the name of Zankoku, and waving sticks and scythes. The women hurried the children behind a large rock.

"O-samurai!" Kiku tossed her the phone. "Open it up; push the red button; speak into it. If you see a person's picture in the little window, that means he can hear you. As long as he can hear you--that is called being connected--he can tell where we are. If you don't see anybody, keep pushing the button. Speak, wait a moment, then push the button again."

Hiroko followed instructions. Tetsuko was crying for her father; Hiroko had to hush her firmly, for fear that the person who might appear in the magic phone wouldn't be able to hear.

Kiku peeked out cautiously. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"We are the servants of Zankoku!" a man with three eyes called back. "You trespass on his land!"

"I assure you we didn't come here deliberately," Kiku replied, "and we will leave as soon as we can."

"No, he doesn't mind if we kill trespassers," the man said. "And we are hungry."

The little window in the magic phone flickered. "This is Minamoto Hiroko speaking; I am the wife of--" She recalled the name her husband had used in this horrible land. "--Samurai Jack. There are four of us here, we need help urgently." The window went dark. She pushed the red button again.

**********************************

The surviving Hounds had run off, somewhat to Mad Jack's regret; despite the seriousness of the situation, he had been enjoying the fight. He wiped his sword and turned to speak to Samurai Jack. Samurai Jack was swaying on his feet. His left hand was swelling rapidly.

"The Hound's tooth scratched me when I threw up my hand," he said.

"Did you suck it?"

"I did, but I don't feel very well."

Mad Jack turned to Alric.

"There's no treatment I know of," Alric said. "You live or you die. Although it may not matter now. Zankoku comes."

Mad Jack had been so busy he hadn't paid much attention to the slopping sound as it grew louder. He paid attention now, as Zankoku hove into view. Zankoku was the ugliest beast Mad Jack had ever seen in his life. He stood about twenty feet high, and was egg-shaped, made of some gray-green gelatinous substance that jiggled in a disgusting fashion and gave off an astounding stench. He was covered with concentric circles of tentacles, each ending in a fringed, sucking mouth. Most of the tentacles bore red eyes, that blinked in some random order. Up near the top of the egg was a beak. The beak moved, and a thick suety voice spoke. "I am the lord of these mountains."

"I'm very impressed," Mad Jack said. Behind him Samurai Jack sat down suddenly. Mad Jack scooped up his dropped sword.

The tentacles were moving about, cautiously trying to reach past the glowing blades. "I want Samurai Jack."

Mad Jack grinned. "Come and get him."

*************************

"I think I have five rounds left," Kiku said.

There were at least twenty of Zankoku's servants still standing. The women glanced at each other. Hiroko continued to try the magic phone as the servants of Zankoku edged closer. Kiku fired a round. Hiroko heard a yell but didn't look up. "This is Minamoto Hiroko speaking. I am the wife of Samurai Jack. There are four of us. We need help urgently--"

The little window flickered to life, showing a perfect tiny picture of a man's face. "Minamoto-san! We have your position! We should be there in twelve minutes."

Hiroko relayed the message, looking up as she did so. The servants of Zankoku were perhaps two hundred yards away. She feared the twelve minutes the man had promised would be about ten minutes too late. "We are under attack," she said, struggling to control her voice as labor pains racked her. "Can you reach us more quickly?"

"We'll try," he said.

Hiroko looked around. Besides Alric's nearly empty pistol, the only things available to them that could be used as weapons were her dirk and a few rocks lying around. She couldn't throw very well, she doubted she could bring down an enemy with one of the rocks. The servants of Zankoku must have deduced that Kiku was low on ammunition, for they had quickened their approach.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" Kozuke said in a small voice. His chin quivered. "I want to die like Father would. I want to die like a samurai."

"If it comes to that, you will, I have a dagger and we can die fighting," Hiroko said reassuringly, "but we're not going to give up yet. When your mother has used her last bullet, I will give her my knife and you three will run, and I will try to keep the enemy occupied."

Chilly wind blew hard. They waited.

*******************************

It seemed to Mad Jack that he had been hacking at Zankoku for hours. His back and his arms ached fiercely. Since it was impossible to see around Zankoku's bulk, he had no idea if Alric were helping or even what might have happened to him. Some time ago he had tripped over Samurai Jack, who had, at the time, been lying helpless on the shining path, shivering and vomiting; there would be no aid from that quarter.

The puslike ichor that flowed from Zankoku's wounds stank terribly and seemed to give off some sort of irritating fumes. Mad Jack's eyes burned and watered, his throat felt raw, he was tormented with thirst, and whenever he got a particularly strong whiff of Zankoku's blood he would have to fight the urge to retch. He didn't think he could keep this up much longer, and he didn't seem to be doing all that much damage anyway. As far as he could tell, all he had done with however many hundred cuts he'd made was inflict the equivalent of minor bleeding scrapes.

If you can't accomplish anything from the outside in, go from the inside out.

Mad Jack blinked. The thought had come to him completely formed, almost like a sentence that someone else had spoken inside his head. He had never had such an experience before, and even as he cut and slashed and dodged, he couldn't help wondering.

"Why not? I don't have a better idea," he said, and stepped into the nearest tentacle, into slime and darkness and air so thick with that obscene stench that he could barely draw it into his lungs. He held one of the magic swords out, and it began tugging him forward. He followed its lead, into dripping slimy darkness. When the sword stopped tugging, Mad Jack started slashing.

Zankoku howled in pain. Encouraged, Mad Jack thrust one of the swords through his belt, and, firmly wrapping both hands around the hilt of the other, he put his remaining strength into one good hard pear-splitter, raising the shining sword over his head and bringing it down hard into the stinking gelatinous goo wrapped around him.

Zankoku blew apart. Mad Jack slammed down hard on his back, cracking his right elbow painfully on the cave floor. Covered with gobbets of slimy flesh, he sat up, wiping the stinking gunk out of his eyes. The first thing he saw was Alric crawling to his feet.

"Nobody ever tried that before," Alric said. "Good idea you had."

"It wasn't my idea," Mad Jack said irrelevantly, hoisting himself up with difficulty. Pain was shooting down to his fingertips, but the elbow didn't seem to be broken. His slime-covered hair fell in his eyes and he shoved it back, the slime plastering it down. He could see now. Late afternoon overcast daylight was flooding in from where the cave wall had blown out. He looked around. "Where's he at?"

Alric looked around too. Nothing and no one could be seen. They waded through the knee-deep sludge, searching. They never found the water bottle, but they finally found Samurai Jack, or rather found his foot sticking out from a mound of goo. They scraped and shoved it off of him. Mad Jack felt under the hinge of his jaw. "He's got a pulse, but it's too fast."

Alric chafed Samurai Jack's wrists. Presently he stirred. "What happened?"

"We got rid of Zankoku," Mad Jack said.

"This could become a normal cave now," Alric said. "Kuro-Jack-san, you'd better get him out of here and try to get him to a doctor. I'd help, but..." He smiled sadly. "I'm bound to this place."

"Oh. Hell. I'd nearly forgotten." Ignoring the painful protest of his elbow, Mad Jack stood up and prepared to swing that sword one last time. "It was an honor to fight beside you, sir. Hold still."

The moment he struck off Alric's head, both head and body turned to dust that glowed briefly, and then settled, the glow extinguishing as it sank into the goo. Mad Jack wiped the sword, put it up, and crouched beside Samurai Jack, pulling him up to a sitting position. "Can you stand up?"

"Don't waste time with me. Go find the others and help them."

"Do you have to be so damned noble all the time? It's irritating! Listen, fool. Do you think I can search an entire mountain range? I have no hope of finding them by myself. All I can do now is try to get us to safety. If I do, then I can lead a search. Can you stand up?"

Shivering, Samurai Jack shook his head.

Mad Jack was suddenly aware of how completely exhausted he was. He felt as if it would be an effort to lift a chopstick. He looked down at Samurai Jack. "You carried me, I ought to be able to carry you. Can you put your good arm around my neck?"

Samurai Jack tried but fell back weakly.

"Hold on as best you can, then. On three. Ichi--ni--san!"

Somehow, he stood up. The goo sucked at his feet like thick battlefield mud, and he belatedly noticed that, like his patient, he had lost his shoes. He pulled his right foot free and took a step. He pulled his left foot free and took a step. Samurai Jack vomited onto his chest. Mad Jack wished they had a phone.

He kept going. The goo thickened; trying to walk through it was like struggling through a thigh-deep pool of peanut butter. His heart pounded, sweat poured down his face. He jerked his foot loose, felt something pop in his lower back. Bright pain flared.

He kept going. Further on the goo thinned out and moving was easier, though still painfully slow. Mad Jack was very worried about Samurai Jack, who seemed to be drifting away from him, but he could not possibly go any faster.

Samurai Jack was alive when they left the broken cave. Mad Jack squished his way through a thin layer of goo and leaned against the mossy cliff. He could go no further without rest, but he knew better than to sit down. If he sat down, he'd stiffen up...

"Kuro-Jack-san?" Samurai Jack said weakly, and Mad Jack's head snapped up; he had almost fallen asleep standing there. "Kuro-Jack-san, I want some water, please."

"There isn't any." Mad Jack's mouth was so dry he could barely talk.

"Did she get the children and your wife out?"

"I hope so," Mad Jack said, looking around. Among the broken rocks was something that, at one time when these mountains were normal and populated by normal living things, might have been a pass. The way up was much clearer but steep; he knew he couldn't do it, not now.

He started down.

**********************************

Kiku had two rounds left. They were out of time. Hiroko started to hand her the sheathed dagger, then looked up as she heard a strange noise from the sky, like no thunder she'd ever heard.

"It's a chopper!" Kozuke pulled off his bright red shirt and began waving it frantically. "Mother, they found us! It's a chopper!"

An impossibly large, strangely built bird, with four paddle-like wings growing out of its head, flew over them, and the bird opened fire on the servants of Zankoku. Hiroko stared, her wonder distracting her even from her increasingly sharp pains. The bird dropped a soft bundle. Hiroko nudged it cautiously with her foot, and heard it slosh. Water! She snatched it up, unrolled the bundle to find a large bottle. She opened it and let each child drink. Now flying boxes with rounded edges were circling. "Kiku-san, will the bird look for our husbands?"

"Yes. Yes, it will," Kiku said. Tears ran silently down her face. The boxes were circling. "See those cars? They're looking for a place to land and take us out of here." She smiled through her tears and set the gun down on the ground.

Hiroko's tears started too. "Pray that they find my lord. I'm very fond of him." She drank, handed the bottle over, managed a shaky smile. "When I was first told I was to marry him, I wasn't at all happy about it; I had never met him, nor corresponded with him, but I knew he was the one who had been chosen to try to stop Aku. Not a good marital prospect, to say the least! He wrote letters, from all the places he was sent to train, and if he happened to have any money he would send little souvenirs. He seemed nice enough, but what good's a husband who's off chasing Aku? Suppose Aku won, which seemed likely, after all; he'd avenge himself on your children!" She paused, riding a wave of pain, then went on. "Toshiro came home two weeks before we were to marry. It was winter. There was much snow that year. The date was selected for convenience; there was no such thing as an auspicious date during the time of Aku." Hiroko noticed one of the boxes circling lower, it must have selected a safe landing spot. "During the two weeks, we had some time to get better acquainted, in person. He is the kindest, most unselfish person I have ever known. Despite my misgivings, by the time we married, I had come to love him."

"I think everyone who knows him loves him," Kiku said as the car settled itself on the rocky ground, "and we will do our best to find him."