Chapter Seven:
Something Wicked This Way Comes
I was staring out the window, behind Koizumi. No storms, but it was pitch black, without a trace of civilization anywhere. I couldn't help but shake a little when realization dawned on me. There was no escape. Even if there was a reason to run away, I wouldn't get very far in the sub zero temperatures outside, I'd freeze to death before I even got a mile away.
"Something on you're mind Kyon? You've been staring out there for quite a while"
Maybe I was just reading too far into the situation. Sure, things seemed more than a bit suspicious, but there hadn't been any sign of danger yet.
"What's the ante up to?" I asked, taking my mind off the situation.
"One hundred fifty, are you still in?"
I looked over to my tray, I still had over five hundred points worth of chips.
"You bet" I said, tossing three fifty pieces into the pot.
"I will raise three hundred" Nagato said, studying her cards carefully.
She wasn't playing as well as I thought, it seemed pretty obvious she had a winning hand.
"Well, I'm not going to risk it! I'm out" Asakura said. If she didn't think she could win, then I probably wouldn't fare much better.
"Me too" I said, putting my cards into the discard pile.
"Well, I don't have much faith in this hand, looks like you win this one, Miss Nagato."
Nagato pulled her winnings in with a faint trace of a smile.
"So what did you have?" I asked, smiling a bit myself.
She shown us her hand: a king, a three, a two, an eight and a five. There's no way she could win with that!
"I was bluffing"
"What? that's not fair!" Asakura cried in frustration.
"Good show, Miss Nagato! You had me fooled" Koizumi added, smiling as ever.
I was about to congratulate her too until I heard the door open, letting in a nasty gust of freezing air.
Could it be the research team finally coming back?
There was the sound of little feet walking down the hall as the door slammed closed, followed by heavier footsteps.
The pitter patter of little feet came closer, making me nervous.
It stopped right beside me, so I looked down and nearly fell off my chair when I found a pair of brown eyes looking back at me.
Where did that dog come from!
Kunikida walked into the room, shivering.
"Hey guys, look what I found wandering around outside!"
When did he even go outside?
"Ah, Kunikida, I didn't know you left! I imagine it wasn't pleasant out?"
"You aren't kidding! If I stayed out any longer, I'd probably be a human Popsicle! Luckily I found this guy when I did. I heard him pawing at my window earlier, so I went outside to investigate. I think he's a Siberian Husky, by the way."
The Husky walked away and laid by the pool table, he didn't look like he was feeling too well.
"How did you get out without us noticing?" I asked.
Kunikida looked at me strangely.
"There's an exit in the kitchen, didn't you notice that earlier?"
I hadn't. I guess I was too busy wondering where the scientists were to notice.
"Well, I'm going to head to bed, you might try feeding him later though. I tried giving him some beef jerky but he didn't want any. I think he's sick"
Kunikida said his good nights and left.
I'd probably be sick too if I was outside for nearly as long as that dog must have been.
Wait? How could he have been outside? We were here all day and didn't notice him when we came in. he must have been out there for hours, maybe even days! But if that were true, he'd be frozen solid! That's another piece to this puzzle that doesn't seem to go anywhere...
I turned back to our poker game and noticed Asakura was missing.
Where did she go?
I looked over and saw Asakura squatting down in front of the mysterious dog.
"This is that thing I saw earlier when we were in the helicopter..."
It couldn't have been that dog!
"I've never seen anything like this before, what is it?"
Koizumi smiled and answered Asakura,
"You've never seen a dog before?"
"Nope! He's cute though!"
My stomach began to growl.
"Oh! Kyon you must be hungry! How about I make us some breakfast?"
Some food would be good right now, and from my experience, Asakura is a damn good cook. At least in that world Nagato created.
"I will help" Nagato stated, leaving the poker table for the kitchen.
"Are 'dogs' aloud in the kitchen?" Asakura asked, holding the large Husky in her arms as if it weighed nothing
"Asakura, put him down! He might be sick!"
"Oh you don't have to worry about that! I have programs that protect me from all forms of biological contamination!"
Well that's convenient.
"Even so, I wouldn't want you to get bitten!"
she dropped dog and blushed.
The husky didn't show any sign of discomfort and landed on it's feet evenly before laying back down.
"I...see"
Koizumi joined back in the conversation,
"Just out of curiosity, why would you want to bring him in the kitchen anyway?"
Asakura didn't take her eyes off the dog.
"I thought maybe he could help us cook"
Koizumi chuckled,
"I don't think dogs have that kind of intelligence, but if he could, maybe that would be the amazing find!"
If someone could teach a dog to cook, they'd certainly be accomplishing something.
"Aww, that's too bad! Well I'm off, you can join me if you like!"
and with that, Asakura left to make breakfast.
I was alone with Koizumi and the strange dog.
"Koizumi?"
"Hmm?"
"Is it just me, or is there something off about that dog?"
He turned back in his seat to observe the Siberian Husky.
"Strange, I have that exact same intuition. Perhaps we should put him in the kennel for the night?"
That would make me feel a lot better.
At the word kennel, the dogs ears perked. It's obviously a trained dog.
As I got up, the dog did as well, walking towards the kennel.
He seems fairly smart for a dog too.
Koizumi joined me as I walked out of the room.
"I figured you wouldn't want to be alone with him" Koizumi said.
Koizumi can definitely weird me out, but I find it's best to stick with the devil you know than the devil you don't.
After we locked the dog in the kennel, we joined with our resident aliens to cook breakfast.
But by the time we got there, they were already done.
The smell of bacon and eggs wafted throughout the room.
"You guys are done already?" I asked, raising a brow.
"Yep!" Asakura cheerfully cried from behind the stove.
"It was already stale, but Miss Nagato altered the data to everything and I cooked it!"
"You cooked it awful fast, though, are you sure it's done?"
"Yep! Miss Nagato changed it's data around so it could be cooked in under a minute too!"
Nagato never ceases to amaze me.
"Oh, guys, there's a weird thing in here! What is it?"
Asakura pointed to the corner of the room, by the door I hadn't noticed before.
Looking past the pots and pans, I saw something large and bulky looking, hanging by a strap on the wall.
Why the hell would there be a-
"Flame thrower" Nagato said.
Koizumi must have noticed the 'WTF?' look on my face and decided to give an explanation.
"That actually makes a lot of sense, as you know it gets terribly cold, and outposts like these are likely prone to getting snowed in during blizzards. I would imagine that a flamethrower would be an invaluable tool to simply open a door and melt your way outside"
I take back what I said about Koizumi's one redeeming quality, it's two now, he has an ability to make sense of things when he doesn't feel the urge to make lengthy conversation.
Koizumi and I sat at the long table in the large office as Nagato and Asakura set the table. They had made enough for everyone here, it was a lot of food!
"The others should be up soon, so dig in!"
I began eating immediately... and it was amazing! A bit greasy, but still delicious.
"So what did you do with charnauk?"Asakura asked.
Who?
"The dog, it was on his collar so I assumed that was his name"
"Oh! I hadn't even noticed that! Good eye, Miss Asakura!" Koizumi congratulated.
"Arigatou Koizumi-kun!"
I hadn't noticed any dog collar either.
The lovely Miss Asahina popped into the room.
"Um... when did we get that dog? I don't remember him at all!"
"Kunikida found him last night! Isn't he cute?" Asakura gushed.
"He looks sick... -oh! That smells wonderful! Did you just make all this?"
Asakura invited miss Asahina to eat with us and eventually everyone else woke up to the scent of bacon and eggs and joined us, I even had seconds! It was by far the most enjoyable part of this trip. But I noticed Haruhi and Tsuruya exchanging dirty looks from across the table when they thought the other wasn't looking. I guess they still hadn't made up after that incident on the plane.
After breakfast, everyone went to the rec room to pass the time. I played another game of poker with Koizumi and Asakura while Kunikida and Taniguchi played pool. Nagato was tinkering with the chess machine and everyone else was watching some ancient tape on the TV.
'Edith yous dingbat! I'm your husband and you'll do what I says!'
'I'm sorry Archie, I'm not supposed to talk about the trial!'
Americans have an odd sense of humor.
"It's unfortunate that Miss Nagato didn't want to play with us, we have plenty of chips"
There was something off...
"Well that's fine with me! She cheats anyway!"
But what?
"Now, I hardly think that having certain abilities would count as cheating, Miss Asakura"
That's it! Haruhi is missing! And so is Miss Asahina...
"Well I have most of the same abilities..."
"I've noticed"
Maybe they went to use the bathroom or something? Girls do that together right? I mean not in the same bowl or anything... you know what, never mind, this train of thought has gone far of the rails.
"Are you flirting with me, Koizumi-kun?"
"Oh... n-no! Nothing like that, Miss Asakura!"
I interrupted the conversation, they're starting to get along so well, it makes me sick.
"Have you seen Haruhi and Miss Asahina?"
Koizumi furrowed his brow in thought,
"Maybe they went to the bathroom together? Girls do that, right?" he asked, looking to Asakura.
I face palmed.
"I wouldn't know, I'm just an interface, but that's a good question! I should gather data on that!"
I double face palmed.
Taniguchi put his stick on the pool table and stretched.
"Hey man, I gotta take a leak, I'll be back"
Just as he was leaving, Kunikida called out,
"Hey, while you're out could you try to feed the dog?"
Taniguchi stopped and blinked a few times,
"...What dog?" he asked, then shrugging his shoulders,
"Eh, sure whatever"
A few hands later, Asakura had just raked in a huge pile of winnings, and nearly cleaned Koizumi and myself out.
Damn she's good at this!
I was about to draw another card when something happened that I don't think I'll ever forget for the rest of my days.
It started with a rumble, that almost shook the whole complex, it kind of sounded like a roar, was it an earthquake?
Miss Asahina then came running in and tripped, crying hysterically and screaming at the top of her lungs.
She grabbed me by the collar with a look of sheer terror I had never seen on her before, certainly not like that!
K-k-kyon! M-miss Suzumiya w-w-w-want's the flamethrower!"
Koizumi dropped his cards and and got up quickly, trying calm her down
"Miss Asahina, please calm down, what's going on?"
"I DON"T KNOW! JUST GET THE FLAMETHROWER! GET IT! GET IT! GET IT!"
She screamed so loud I thought she'd go hoarse, and she shook Koizumi so hard he nearly fell over.
I decided to take action,
"Alright I'm going, Koizumi, you watch her! Miss Asahina, where am I supposed to go?"
"T-the k-k-kennel!"
I grabbed the flamethrower in the kitchen, strapped it on, and dashed to the kennel as fast as I could.
On the way there, I heard a series of loud bangs, it almost sounded like a gun.
"It's about time you showed up you idiot! It's got Taniguchi! KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!"
She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and firing a shotgun into the kennel.
Kill what? What has Taniguchi? And where the hell did you get a shotgun!
I looked inside and nearly lost my lunch.
What I saw will forever be burned into my retinas.
It was the dog, or rather, what used to be the dog. It looked like some sick fusion of plant and flesh, arms and tentacles were twisting about and what might have been the dog's head, was looking right at me with it's horrible beady eyes, it's neck stretched out like a rokurokubi from some old folk tale.
Half inside the twisted mass was Taniguchi's slimy, pulsating body...
DID I JUST WALK INTO SOME KIND OF FUCKED UP HENTAI?
He was definitely dead, at least I hoped so, I didn't want this on my conscience.
"What are you waiting for? kill it you idiot!"
I had never seen Haruhi so scared, I don't think I've ever seen her scared at all! Then suddenly and with no regard for my safety, Haruhi opened the door and shoved me in!
HAVE YOU LOST YOU'RE DAMN MIND, WOMAN?
"Just kill it, Kyon!"
How would you like it if I threw you in here? what the hell is wrong with that girl?
Shakily I tried to get the flamethrower started, but it wouldn't work, I tried again and again but it would only give a weak little cough and sputter, obviously it hadn't been used in a long time. Terror's icy hold clutched my veins and everything seemed to slow down, I was shaking and my fingers were clumsily squeezing the trigger while my other hand numbly struck the side of the pipe in desperation. It's tentacles were slowly lurching for me, but they were blasted away by Haruhi's exceptional aim, and I thought I might have heard Nagato quietly talking like she does when she manipulates data, but I couldn't judge over the deafening sounds of shotgun blasts and roars.
Haruhi stopped firing to reload, and the grotesque thing regarded me for a moment, probably debating it's chances of getting to me.
Everything felt slow, my heart thumped a mile a minute as I felt the walls closing in.
without warning, that monster let loose an earsplitting roar and lunged at me, just as I managed to release a steady stream of fire.
It screamed and retreated, thrashing wildly in the air as I slowly advanced and roasted it. By the time I backed it all the way into the corner, it was toasted.
Haruhi and Koizumi put it out with fire extinguishers. With my ears ringing, I dizzily stumbled out of the cage, almost tripping as I lurched down the hallway, gagging on the smell of burnt flesh.
I hurled my breakfast in a random barrel full of assorted clothes, but I didn't care.
Someone's not wearing those long-johns again.
Miss Asahina was crying into Tsuruya's chest, and Haruhi was shaking slightly when I got back.
It was quiet, Kunikida could only stare at the roasted carcass that used to be part of his friend. Even Asakura looked frightened. Nagato was expressionless and the espers shared a deadly serious face.
I just didn't know what to feel, it's not every day you kill some horrible caricature of flesh out of Lovecraft's reject pile.
Nagato was the first to speak, she was staring straight at that thing,
"It was absorbing him, we should find out why"
find out why! Maybe because it was hungry?
"And h-how do you propose we do that?" Haruhi asked, stuttering a bit.
"Dissect it"
Just looking at that thing makes me sick, and you want to open it up and pull it's guts out?
"Like hell we're going to do that! I say we drag it outside, pour gasoline on it and torch it until there's nothing left!"
For the first time in my life I found myself agreeing with her completely.
"For once I don't agree with you, Miss Suzumiya! we need to know what we're dealing with in case there's more of those things"
...You know what? fuck you Koizumi.