Chapter Nine – Hell Garden Hunt
Revy stepped off the porch. Have to get out of the light, she thought, everybody out there's watching and – wait a second! - They're all out there in the black scoping in the headshot. KERPLOOEY! And her brain would be all technicolor spray and her body would do the chicken dance.
She stumbled to the right and sat down abruptly in a dark triangle of shadow by the corner of the bungalow. Rock and the doctor, that croaker, were talking too loud inside. Why were they so loud? Oh, she'd made a spectacle of herself bellowing about the photos. How stupid was that? She cradled her head in her hands pressing the cool metal grips of the Cutlasses against her forehead.
It's just stupid that I'm in this bullshit world, the thoughts fogged together in the climate of her mind.. Hanging off the edge of nothing all the time with only Rock – what? – oh hell, she'd done it again! Admitted she needed someone, something. Going all tender and makin' like a sissy pig as Eda leaned back and bayed like a dog.
She should go back in the bungalow. Convince little Revy (who had to be so much cooler than that suckup bitch Fabiola had ever been) that big Revy was not a monster. Rock and Revy could buy her ice cream and pizza, and they could sit with their feet dangling off the edge of the pier and watch the sun set – though come to think of it, they'd be facing the wrong way. But... Dutch would shake his head and Benny would mutter something about jumping sharks or some douchebag comment. The vision faded incoherently away.
She lowered the guns, squinting at them with a too serious expression. The guns, her lovely guns. Rock was wrong, violence solved everything. The guns could solve her, she could take the terminal ticket, blow the bullet, do the dutch...
Do the dutch... she giggled wildly.
"How fuckin' wrong is that?" she chuckled. Not that doing Dutch would have been wrong. After all she had tried pulling a lolita on the man when she was younger, the new arrival in Roanapur. Hell, if he'd given her half a chance back then, she would have given Dutch a boat ride that would have sunk the Black Lagoon at it's mooring. She would have...
A car grinded to a halt outside the gated fence. Irritated, Revy looked up, her reverie on death and sex broken. A car door slammed and shadowed figures milled uncertainly about. Light glinted off the gun-barrels.
A voice spoke low, berating the gunmen. The men scrambled hastily back into the car. It moved away slowly up the road, the tires crunching on the loose cinders of the street.
Revy placed the voice with the man. Zuko, no it was Zugen. a brute of a man who spent too much time at the Yellow Flag staring at her ass. The leader of the Red Pole squad: Lee Kwan's chosen toughs, members of the Wo Triad specifically hired to "snuff out" any problems that needed to be dealt with. A pack of losers in her opinion, they lacked the class of the 14K.
A smile flickered over Revy's tired features. Well, then... what were Zugen and the Red Poles doing skulking about? She stood up and in a few quick steps vaulted over the fence. The car had come to a stop about fifty meters away, brakelights on.
Revy had an ephemeral thought of Rock speaking with that goody-two-shoes Dr. Chiet and negotiating the best way out of Roanapur for those two girls. There was no need for her to go back then. Rock didn't need her around momentarily. Besides, what was the worst that could happen while she kept an eye on the Red Pole squad?
--
Gaavrila wrote in her cribbed cyrillic in the tattered pages of her diary, frail body hunched in the wheelchair. More came throughout the day, we have close to forty now in our refuge, we're packed in so tight with all our smells and fears. I can only hope no one noticed. They tell terrible stories, the police are sweeping the streets for street kids. Niken has put us all in terrible danger. I can only hope the doctor has been...
Gaavrila looked up with a frown and squinted down the length of the building. Her spot was in the center of the warehouse, a semi-enclosure of stacked, rusted barrels. Above her was an odd arrangement of cans, hanging from strings. There was no electrical, so the children had rigged up candle lanterns in random locations from the metal beams overhead, enough to dimly illuminated some of the interior. They huddled in separate groups under the pale pools of light.
Alak came rushing up to Gaavrila. "Parang's back," he said hurriedly. He's brought a man with him, something bad's happened. He won't tell us what."
"What? Bring them to me now," Gaavrila said sharply. She tossed the diary aside into her small pile of belongings. Resting by the side of Gaavrila's wheelchair, the mute girl Rohingya stirred and sat up rubbing her eyes. Throughout the warehouse, children were scrambling to their feet, voices raised in curiosity, with an undercurrent of fear.
As the man approached with Parang, Gaavrila's sized him up. He was a medium sized Japanese man with a shock of black hair on the right side of his forehead. He was limping slightly, one of his pant legs was torn and the fabric bloodstained. Gaavrila's eyes narrowed. I know this man, she thought.
She kept her face composed as Rohingya draped a blanket around her shoulders like a robe, pulled it down to cover the stumps of her legs. Both Alak and Chaiyo drifted into place flanking her like a military guard. Mikey came up and joined the group, standing slightly behind. They all stared with wary, hard expressions at their unexpected guest.
"Dr. Chiet made a deal with the Black Lagoon Couriers," said Parang without preamble. He sat down crosslegged in front of the group with his machete in his lap. He gestured to the Japanese man to do likewise. "For half of the money, they can take us out of the city in a way no one expects. While the triad goons and the police watch the roads, we'll sail right out of the port and no one the wiser."
Gaavrila nodded. Parang was not telling the whole truth. The words were for the gathered crowd around them who were listening intently. Parang had dried blood crusted on his lip and he was speaking too rapidly. Similarly, the Japanese man looked pale, a disturbed expression on his face.
"When can this be done?" she asked in her raspy voice, shifting in the wheelchair.
"Now," said the Japanese man in English, speaking directly to her. "There's no time. But, we didn't have time to speak about the particulars with your friend the doctor." He hesitated, looking around at the silent crowd. "I had no idea so many children were here. I had expected maybe ten at most."
Gaavrila ignored him. She looked at Parang and indicated he should translate for the gathered children. "We're all leaving. We'll leave tomorrow on a boat. But we wait till dawn. Now, I need to speak to this man alone."
"You can't wait," said Rock his voice rising. "You don't understand..."
"What I do understand," snapped Gaavrila switching to her native tongue as the gathered children milled about. "Is that most everyone here knows English. And I know you speak Russian, . I can tell something is wrong. They're all on edge, they're scared, we don't want a panic."
--
"What happened and when?" asked Gaavrila. The twins and Mikey had gone back on guard duty, only Rohingya stayed by her side.
"It was the Ghost Woman. We were attacked at the doctor's a half hour ago" Both girls gasped. Parang bowed his head. "She's on the hunt, and there's someone... something... else with her. I was totally useless – I couldn't stop them. I lost Niken... again. I'm sorry. I think she got out."
"Do you understand now why you can't wait?" Rock said urgently. "They had no trouble finding Dr. Chiet. It's only a matter of time before those two hunters find you here. The best thing to do is to get out now – we can hide you all in our building while I get my crewmates assembled."
"No!" said Gaavrila. "I won't allow anyone to go out tonight. There's too many of us now. The police are looking everywhere, and if what you say is true then we'll be spotted by either the Ghost Woman and her companion or the police as we move to the docks. Dr. Chiet would never talk! He's been roughed up by the triads before. We'll wait for morning."
"Dr. Chiet is probably dead," said Rock coldly. "Sawyer the Cleaner's idea of an interrogation - if she's ever bothered with one, involves cutting and sawing. You don't survive whether you tell the truth or not. And that man with her, I've never seen him before – but he looks even worse. You go now or don't see the dawn."
Gaavrila looked away. Rohingya started to cry, she put her head in Gaavrila's lap.
"I won't risk anyone," decided Gaavrila. "These children are my responsibility. Look around Mr. Okajima, we're the garbage of Roanapur. Most of us aren't even Thai. Abandoned and cast aside in a foreign land. We have only ourselves."
Rock shuddered. The crippled girl's voice was like a rough saw. Her blue eyes had a fixed intensity he found disconcerting. But all he had to do was slide his hand down to the still bleeding cut on his thigh to keep his focus. He made one more attempt.
"If you send them down the street in small groups, staying in the shadows, it will be easier..."
"Nyet!" Gaavrila slapped the palm of her hand against the plastic arm-rail of her makeshift wheelchair for emphasis, her voice breaking. "Nyet! Nyet! We're paying you! We'll tell you how it's done! So, No! We wait till dawn and you'll stay here with us."
Rock slumped, shoulders sagging. He watched as the groups of children began to settle down for the night. With a sardonic twitch of his lip he wondered if this qualified as another kidnapping. Parang and those vicious looking twins would be all over him in a moment if he attempted to leave. He really needed to find the missing Revy. His thoughts had been on her during the entire discussion.
As if reading his mind the Russian girl spoke.
"I don't understand why you're helping us? Just yesterday, your "friend" Two-hands threw me to the ground and put a gun to my head. Is it only for the money?"
"This whole affair was Revy's idea," the girl gave him a confused look. "But there's no point asking, let's say it's for the money."
Gaavrila smiled. She brushed back her hair and and started to laugh. But the laughter died stillborn as the cans hanging above suddenly swung wildly against each other with a clang. The girl's face went pale in sudden understanding. The sharp crack of gunfire echoed outside in the night.
Rock nodded. He stood up. "I told you they were coming. The Cleaner is here."
--
"Hey, Fred-Fred, how do ya think I should start choppin' up those kids?"
The question was met with no response. Sawyer stared intently ahead, hands gripping the steering wheel of the U.G. Pork van tightly.
"Should I skin 'em all first, or just dismember?" Gunny Tom eyed his bowie knife with a lazy smile as he casually sat in the passenger's seat. When he saw his cousin's shoulders tighten in reaction, he laughed boisterously. Thoroughly agitated and repulsed at what she was hearing, Sawyer's eyes narrowed and she lowered her head.
A whimper came from beside her. A trembling Niken was sitting in between Gunny Tom and Sawyer. Sawyer didn't care. That sniveling girl had betrayed her own. She earned no sympathy.
The Cleaner sighed and tightened her grip on the steering wheel, her eyes transfixed on the street, now entering the warehouse complex. She still hadn't thought of a way out of this wretched hunt. Sawyer was horribly stressed, racked with anxiety, and she could find no source of relief. She was quickly approaching her breaking point.
Something caught Sawyer's attention. In the corner of the wing mirror, she spotted a vehicle that was a considerable distance away from the U.G. Pork van, appearing to be the size of a fly in the mirror. The lights were off, but the vehicle was still moving, following them. She vaguely recognized the vehicle from the usual rounds she made in the city, a car that was used by Lee Kwan's Red Poles.
The Cleaner cocked her lips to the side, annoyed. Sawyer was not at all fond when she had cleaned up some bodies they left in an alleyway several weeks ago. The so-called "professional" Red Poles were sloppy executioners. Morons, the whole lot of them.
Gunny Tom was hired by Lee Kwan, wasn't he? Why hadn't the Red Poles been mentioned previously, and why were they being followed? Sawyer cocked her eyebrow with a questioning glance, but said nothing, making sure to keep the Red Poles in mind. They raised too much suspicion.
"Y-you stop very soon, here," said Niken meekly, gesturing to an empty lot, "Can't get to warehouse with car. Only way to get there is on foot."
Sawyer followed the girl's directions and made a sharp turn into the lot, the loud rumbling of the van dying as she came to a stop and took the key out of the ignition.
Gunny Tom grabbed the protesting Niken by the hair and quickly exited the van while Sawyer took her time to grab her chainsaw that she had placed in the small area behind the driver's seat.
"Get the fuck out here, Fred-Fred," barked Gunny Tom. His impatience was evident. Sawyer lingered in the van for a couple of more seconds before she stepped out with the chainsaw in hand.
Niken shivered as she began to lead them towards the dark shadow of the warehouse, the crumbling sidewalk lit by an occasional overhead lamp. The tip of the sawed-off shotgun barrel dug into the small of her back. Her fear increased as she felt the demon man stop in his tracks.
"The hell is this?" Gunny Tom's foot was resting right on top of a thin string. Niken turned around and gasped. She had forgotten about the tripwires that set off the primitive alarms in the warehouse. Sawyer's face contorted in irritation. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had just happened.
It took Gunny Tom a good second or so to comprehend what he had done.
"You little shit!" he cursed, "You knew that wire was there!" Niken began to cry again.
"No! I didn't! I–!"
"Like hell you didn't! You stupid little fucker, I oughta–!!"
"Quiet," Sawyer said suddenly as she looked over her shoulder.
"What?" said Gunny Tom. The word was not meant as a genuine question. His tone seemed to implicate that he was more surprised that Sawyer had summoned the guts to give him a command.
"We're being followed... or did you know about this, Gunnar?" With a wary, inquiring expression, Sawyer gestured at the four shadowed figures back in the parking lot. Dumbfounded, Gunny Tom gawked.
"Who the hell are they?"
"I see... So you didn't know..." Sawyer had wondered what use Lee Kwan truly had for her idiotic cousin, but now it was quite clear that the Triad boss just wanted to have someone... expendable who would be stupid enough to do his dirty work. The Cleaner curled her lip expectantly. Of course Gunny Tom hadn't known, the jackass.
"Who the hell are they, Fred-Fred?" Gunny Tom asked more urgently, his eye twitching.
"Red Poles... Members of the Wo Triad... Lee Kwan's men... They remove anything that... is seen as a problem... you're the fall guy..." Just like the trip wire, it took Gunny Tom several seconds to understand what his cousin was talking about.
"Shit! Shit! SHIT!!" He shot blindly once at the distant figures before floundering out of the lights,
Sawyer and Niken followed. Sounds of returning gunfire from the Red Poles filled the air as the three of them ducked to avoid the bullets snapping overhead.
Niken quivered at the sudden actions while Gunny Tom uttered a long and vulgar string of profanities under his breath. Sawyer stood between the two of them, looking down at Niken's shaking form. The Cleaner was growing more and more anxious by the second, a painful tenseness in her muscles as she glared. She was tired and, more importantly, very, very angry.
She had been dragged into this accursed hunt against her will, forced to endure all this bullshit, and now she was hiding with her idiotic cousin and a treacherous child from a group of incompetent gangsters? What had Roanapur's most notorious cleaner become? It was all a cruel joke. She could no longer stand in the dark like this, she had reached her breaking point. In one quick movement, Sawyer grabbed Niken by the back of the shirt and propelled the startled girl into the view of the Red Pole Squad. The girl could serve as a decoy.
Niken shrieked as they opened fire. Luckily for her, the men were terrible shots and she managed to scramble towards the warehouse, her shadow dancing across it's side as she sped to safety. The gunfire died down. Gunny Tom was outraged. Not only had Sawyer given away their guide, but she also gave away where they were.
"Fred-Fred, YOU STUPID CUNT!!" He gripped the front of the collar of Sawyer's shirt and spun her around so that she was facing him. It was dark, but he could still make out a faint outline of Sawyer's face and... her eyes. They were different somehow. A twang of fear was still present, but its overall presence had faded immensely. Sawyer's eyes had turned feral, chilling.
Gunny Tom growled. Fuck family and the job, he thought. Hell, he was supposed to kill her in the first place. These street kids had stolen a 100K? Well, that was a hell of a lot more money than he had been offered by Lee Kwan. Sawyer had served her purpose in this hunt. As Gunny Tom remembered the Red Poles, he smiled. He had a final use for his little cousin.
With a harsh shove, Gunny Tom forced Sawyer into the light into the Red Pole Squad's view.
"Have fun with yer new playmates, Fred-Fred!" he shouted. He could go off and find the children on his own while Sawyer kept these Red Poles distracted. She'd run around in the lights like a confused bug 'til they pinned her down and squashed her good. Gunny Tom cackled as he faded back into the shadows. What a quaint idea!
Gunfire cracked as Sawyer recovered her balance. The Cleaner instinctively lifted up the chainsaw to defend herself from any oncoming bullets. As a couple of bullets were deflected by the guide bar and many more whizzed past her, Sawyer sprinted across the lot and into a shaded area where she found herself blocked by a chain link fence. On the other side were parked rows of heavy industrial equipment.
The Cleaner noticed that there was a weak section that was badly rusted. Quickly, Sawyer yanked the ripcord and used the chainsaw to slash through the thin, rusted metal, creating a shower of sparks in the process. Before the Red Poles could aim and fire, Sawyer had already slipped through the opening in the fence.
Sawyer passed by the bulldozers, loaders and backhoes in the equipment lot, and headed straight for the Hell Garden beyond. Sawyer knew there was a high chance that the Red Poles were going to follow her, and she needed a suitable environment for defense and combat.
She knew what the statuary held, aware of the morbid figures that inhabited it. It was the perfect setting. She would blend right in.
Sawyer entered the Hell Garden and weaved into the lurid display. Once deep into the statuary, the tension slowly began to flow out of her body. Confident that she was well enough ahead of the Red Poles, Sawyer stopped by the most gruesome figures in the Hell Garden. In the center was an intimidating and towering spirit by the name of Phya Yom, the death king, holding what looked like a chipped offering plate low to the ground, large enough to hold half of a grown man's body. Sawyer silently read the sign beside the figure.
"If you meet the Devil in this life, don't postpone merit-making which will help you to defeat him in the next life."
Sawyer's eyes lit up in amusement. What a lovely concept. As she leisurely strode by the garish statue, the ghost woman smiled wickedly.
"Be patient, death king... I shall deliver my offering... in due time."
--
Revy squatted down and poked at the eyeball with a gun barrel.
Revy crinkled her nose a little at the stink of urine and feces and raw meat. She had seen the aftermath of gang tortures and executions before, but this was on a different level. Dr. Chiet, or the remains thereof, had been torn apart with obscene purpose.
"Heh," she spun on her heel and dashed up the basement stairs. A haze of smoke lingered in the bungalow and she drew in a breath, nostrils flared. The distinctive smell of exhaust belonged to Sawyer's chainsaw. She knew it well after working with the woman against the FARC.
Revy tried to picture what had happened and failed. Sawyer's very purpose in Roanapur was to clean up after such events. Sawyer wasn't known to get personal with a knife. A string of curses flowed through Revy's head.
She had to move fast. Rock's time was running out. What a screwup. She'd totally fucked up.
--
The four Red Poles decided to go back to the car and give themselves a combative upgrade and advantage. Their chosen prey had proven to be more difficult to kill than expected. Their technology was impressive; night vision goggles, headsets, newly equipped targeting lasers on the guns to avoid any sloppy long-distance shooting like the previous encounter, almost everything they would need to pursue the Ghost Woman. Almost.
Advanced technology did them no good if there was nobody to hunt it with. The Red Poles Squad's enthusiasm was dashed as they scoured every inch of the equipment lot, only to find that there was no trace of the Cleaner among the heavy machinery. It soon became evident that she had given them the slip or was hiding in the Hell Garden.
"You're joking, right?" one of the Poles asked in Cantonese, lifting his night vision goggles up onto his forehead nervously. There was no way their superior was being serious. It had to be a joke, a cruel, twisted joke.
"Do I look like I'm joking?" The brute leader added emphasis to his words by pointing to his agitated snarl. The other Red Poles slumped with uneasy expressions as they looked at the entrance of the Hell Garden. They were greeted by threatening figures, hellish guardians posed in a manner that seemed to challenge any passersby to venture into their domain, the moonlight seeming to make their faded smiles and cold eyes come to life. It was unsettling.
"It will be easier for us to find the Cleaner and kill her if we split up. We'll keep in contact with the headsets," the brute stated. "Don't fuck this up. Boss Lee Kwan has wanted that Cleaner dead for a long time, and that one-eyed idiot couldn't even do the job right. We need to finish this." The men under his command looked uneasy. Split up? So all of them were going into that weird place separately?
"Yat-zeu, stop being a bunch of pussies!" their leader barked, "Look at it! It's just a dump full of oversized trinkets. There are no spirits in that place, only statues and the Cleaner. We have guns and goggles, all she has is her own eyes and a chainsaw. There's nothing to be afraid of in there. Now move!"
The three underlings followed their superior into the Hell Garden, placing their night vision goggles back over their eyes. He was right. It was just an abandoned lot with statues, and the Cleaner was only armed with a chainsaw. There was nothing to be scared of.
But as they passed the entrance and split up, the eyes of the snarling demons and malevolent spirits almost seemed to follow them, as though watching their every move. A chill went up their spines.
--
The Hell Garden was composed of different sections dedicated to specific methods of torture and punishment. The vile displays were not pleasant by any means. The setting was not only filled with life-sized figures of vengeful and sadistic spirits, but also presented models of sinful mortals suffering at their hands.
One Red Pole cautiously tread in the west wing of the Hell Garden, a collection of devious entities gleefully gouging the eyes out of screaming mortals, gathering around a cast iron pot as their victims boiled alive, watching wailing sinners being devoured by maggots and having their entrails ripped out by birds. The feeble gangster resisted the urge to regurgitate.
He made quick jerking movements with his head, growing paranoid as his time in the Hell Garden grew. The night vision goggles with their green tint only made the details of the horrid statues more profound. He had yet to spot the Cleaner, the pale ghost woman.
Unbeknownst to the Red Pole, a pair of dark blue eyes were laid upon him, hiding alongside the mischievous spirits. The sapphire eyes narrowed before their owner slipped away.
The gangster jumped slightly, thinking he saw something move out of the corner of the night vision goggles. He slowly, cautiously stepped over to where he thought the movement had come from. Sweat broke out on his forehead, his heart beating at a faster rate and breathing becoming jagged and coarse, nerves on edge and eyes wide as he clutched his gun tightly, the laser pointed straight ahead. He took several shaking steps and warily approached a corner. Summoning all of his strength, he quickly turned the corner and found himself staring into a pale white face and dark, insidious eyes.
He released an emasculated scream and aimed the laser at the forehead, a second away from pulling the trigger, but he stopped as he got a closer look at what was staring at him.
"Wan jun," he chuckled nervously, placing his hand on his head. It was just a statue, a faded feminine spirit covered with flaking paint. He closed his eyes, his adrenaline rush ebbing away as he smiled wearily. He had almost wasted a bullet on a statue. How stupid... Suddenly, he heard a mechanical cough and roar directly behind him. The man turned his head.
He didn't even have time to scream when the ghost woman sunk the spinning carbide teeth into his throat.
--
"Did you hear that?" asked one of the Red Poles, using his headset to communicate with his superior.
"What?"
"I thought I heard something... buzzing. I'm not sure where it's coming from..."
"I didn't hear anything. Where are you?"
"I think I'm..." the underling looked around, trying to identify a general location, "The north wing...? Perhaps, this place is bigger than I thought. I'm not really sure."
"That's your problem," came the brute's voice on the other end, "If you're so damned concerned about the buzzing, just go in the direction you think it came from. If you're lucky, you'll run into the Cleaner." The underling released the button and cut off contact.
He saw no need to respond. He did his best to observe his surroundings without paying too much attention or mind to the horrific details of the statues around him. The section he was currently walking through seemed to favor scenes of demons ripping the tongues out of their victims' throats and roasting their prisoners over a blazing fire.
He shook his head and continued forward. He was used to hunting in slums and alleyways, streets and shady buildings. But this was a confusing labyrinth of painted devils and faded icons. It was a setting completely foreign to him. The cynical part of his mind continued to reason and remind him that they were only statues, but the images of torture seemed to almost come to life in the moonlight. It was a difficult feeling to shake.
He walked haphazardly in the Hell Garden, continuously searching every possible angle and direction in hopes that he would find the Cleaner's hiding place, but the myriad of grotesque models made it a daunting task to focus. He snapped his head when he heard a shuffle to the right. The man walked over and peered around one of the statues, but there was no one there. Disappointed, he took a step back, only the bump into someone... or something.
Upon contact, the Red Pole jumped back and whirled around, cocking his gun. He would have pulled the trigger if he hadn't realized that the person right across from him was a second Red Pole underling.
"Shit, Di! Don't fucking scare me like that! For a moment there, I thought you were the chainsaw girl. And stop aiming your gun at me," said the second Red Pole. Di did as requested, but not without his own retort.
"Don't give me a dirty look, Yu. You should have announced yourself before you bumped into me. I could have killed you."
"I bumped into you? More like the other way around." There was a pause between the two of them as they composed themselves.
"So, I guess you still haven't found her either," said Yu. Di shook his head.
"This is bullshit," rambled Yu, "All because that one-eyed ma-lut lo couldn't kill her himself. Lazy bastard. I didn't join the Wo Triad so I could play hide-and-go-seek with a ghost woman."
"Don't use that term," said Di. Yu cocked his head to the side.
"What term?"
"'Ghost woman,' don't use those words. They're not appropriate." Yu wondered what his co-worker meant by that before a light bulb went off in his head.
"Oh, chiu, you've got to be kidding," Yu mocked, "You're one of those superstitious types? You believe in those stories about the ghost woman? That she'll rip out your soul?"
"No, that is not my concern," answered Di honestly, "Ghosts and demons, things like that are not our priority. Terms like 'ghost woman' are distracting. We don't need such things on our minds. We are here specifically to hunt the Cleaner, a woman with a chainsaw, nothing more. I hate dwelling for too long on jobs. I just want to kill her and get out of here." The way the man rushed the final words earned a wide grin from Yu.
"You're scared shitless of this place, aren't you?!" he shouted. Di cringed, more at Yu's tone of voice rather than an implication of superstitious fear.
"Be quiet. You're going to give away our position!"
"To who, the ghost woman? We've been searching this hell hole high and low and she still hasn't turned up. She's long gone, probably ran away down the docks and left us scrambling here. Or maybe... she crossed over to the other realm." The second Red Pole waved his arms around in a grand gesture. "Being around all these statues made her homesick."
"You fool, be quiet! She's going to hear you!"
"What do we care? She's just a woman with a chainsaw, remember? What chance does she stand against a gun?" Yu lifted up his firearm and leaned against an image of a man having his torso severed. "Unless she really is a ghost! What if she were to cross the threshold of the underworld and appear out of thin air to kill us! Oh, what trouble we would be in then!"
As Di continued to chastise his obnoxious co-worker and make him aware of the severe, and quite honestly stupid, lack of tact and discipline he was displaying, they failed to realize a petite figure stalking around them, hiding in plain view behind the statues throughout. Even the night vision goggles didn't help them realize her unorthodox mode of camouflage.
"You fool! Chainsaw or not, it is not in our best interest to make her aware of our presence. She is known as Roanapur's best cleaner for a reason. We should not take her lightly."
"Nice cover," Yu scoffed, not convinced at the other Red Pole's attempt to show him that he wasn't concerned about paranormal topics. Yu threw his hands up in the air. "O, great ghost woman! Grace us with your presence so that we may witness the awesome power of your mighty chainsaw!"
"That's enough, Yu! Stop it!" Refusing to listen to the sound advice, Yu hopped away from Di to move in between a scene depicting sinners being impaled on spears and tridents.
"Come to us, ghost woman!" Yu announced, never once dropping character, certain that the Cleaner was no where within the vicinity, "Cross the veil that separates our worlds and appear from the shado –!!"
Yu never completed his performance. The chainsaw howled.
Whirring mechanical teeth on a long metallic bar burst through Yu's stomach, blood spraying outwards as he cried out in agony and dropped his gun to the ground. The man's incessant rambling had made it more than simple for Sawyer to sneak up on him. She sneered. What a fool.
Di lurched back in shock as his face was adorned with speckles of Yu's blood. The small laser point moved wildly about, trying to find a valid opening where he could shoot the Cleaner, but she wasn't going to give him the chance. Sawyer shifted her weight and moved Yu forward as the teeth of the chainsaw were still spinning, threatening to cut Di while she used the man she had impaled as a shield. On reflex, Di backed away and shot wildly, sloppily, emptying the magazine into the still jerking, but quite dead Yu while Sawyer remained unharmed.
Di's gun gave several empty clicks and he tossed it aside. Seeing this from underneath Yu's limp arm, Sawyer slipped the chainsaw out of the man's gut and let the bullet-ridden corpse collapse in a heap on the ground. Di made a motion to reach for the secondary firearm he kept hidden around his waist, pulling it out, but the Cleaner was not going to allow him to fire it. In one swift movement, she sawed off his entire forearm before he could even put his finger on the trigger. Di screamed as he held the end of the bleeding stump with his other hand.
"Chiu, baht poh!" Di grit his teeth and glared at Sawyer, but his expression became void of anger and filled with dread when he gazed at her face. With a whimper, Di stumbled out of the ghost woman's range, avoiding another bite from the whirring carbide blades.
Sawyer calmly watched the man run away from her in attempt to find a suitable hiding place. She casually kicked the dismembered forearm behind her to join Yu's corpse. She had already beheaded one Red Pole and gutted another. Two down, two to go.
--
Sweating and panting heavily, sharp pains emitting from the stump of his arm and the blood loss taking its toll, Di was in shock. He stumbled and tripped, weakly dragging himself with his only hand and crawling over behind a row of demonic icons, hoping that the Cleaner had lost track of him.
He was trembling violently, the image of the ghost woman's eyes etched into his mind. The shock of witnessing the bloodstains on her clothing and face and the thick streaks of blood on her chainsaw had paled in comparison to the terror he felt when he had looked into her eyes. There was a chilling restlessness within them, a cold aura radiating from the dark orbs. There was something unearthly about that aura, something spectral. It was beyond his comprehension. He hoped he would never have to see those eyes again.
"Fengdu, are you there?" Di whispered, fumbling with the headset as he tried to contact another member. There was no response. "F-Fengdu?"
Nothing. Remembering the faint buzzing sound he had heard before he bumped into Yu, Di cursed. Fengdu had been the first to die. With that knowledge in mind, there was only one other person left to contact.
--
"Z-Zugen," came a meek voice on the Red Pole leader's headset. The brute rolled his eyes.
"What is it, Di?"
"I need help. The ghost woman... the Cleaner, she's killed Yu and Fengdu, and sh-she... cut off one my arms... I'm bleeding..."
"So you found the Cleaner. Did you manage to kill her?" Zugen asked dryly. The man could have cared less about his subordinates' deaths or Di's injury. So long as the ghost woman was dead, he would be content. The answer he received did not please him in the slightest.
"No... She's still alive..."
"You all had night vision goggles and laser sighting and you still couldn't kill her?!"
"It's not that simple!" Di wailed on the other end, "Even with the night vision, we couldn't spot her. She just appeared out of nowhere."
"People don't just 'appear out of nowhere'. You–"
"She's not human!"The quiver in Di's voice was a certain sign that the man was beginning to cry. Zugen was disgusted at his subordinate's weakness, but was genuinely curious by what Di had meant by the statement.
"Not human?"
"She's a gui, a goddamned gui!"
"... A gui?" Zugen asked, annoyed. "Damn it, Di, what the hell did you smoke before we went out on this job?"
"I'm not hallucinating! That woman, I saw her eyes. Those eyes don't belong to a human, but... they're not suited for a demon, either. She's a vengeful ghost, a wandering spirit. I never believed such things truly existed, but... She's searching the Hell Garden. She wants something, needs something. She won't stop looking for it until she sends us all to the underworld. She won't be satisfied until she's drenched in our blood." Zugen spat at the words. Di was probably delusional, but the brute could pick up on the urgency in his voice.
"Fine, I'll go along with your little ghost story," said the brute leader, "Just tell me where you are. Perhaps I can find the 'gui' you speak so much about on my way there." The final words were the only reason he wanted to bother with looking for his final subordinate.
"I'm... I'm resting by a line of statues... Demons are hanging people with hooks... Come quickly... The ghost woman... I don't think sh-aaaauuugh!!" The wailing gurgle was quickly cut off by a clamorous buzz followed by the static of Di's headset. People being pierced with hooks? Zugen vaguely remembered passing by that area a while ago. Well, at least now he knew where the chainsaw woman was.
Unfazed by the deaths of the other Red Poles, the brute leader's teeth twisted into smirk. Those three only died because of their own incompetence. This Hell Garden, all this talk about the chainsaw woman being a gui... nonsense! He wouldn't be distracted by such ridiculous things.
The dumb bastard had no idea what awaited him.
--
Standing above the mangled corpse of the Red Pole, Di, Sawyer allowed the roar of her chainsaw to settle down to a soft purr. Three down, one to go. She surveyed her surroundings. The area had served her well, a perfect environment for her method of hunting. All she would have to do now is simply stay still by a grim statue, wait for the final Red Pole to arrive and cut him the moment he came within striking distance.
... But that wouldn't be very entertaining for her. There was only one Red Pole left to deal with. Why waste the opportunity of a performance worthy of the Grand Guignol?
Tearing a large piece off of the red stained shirt of the Red Pole, Sawyer lifted his dismembered head and allowed the blood to flow from the neck onto the makeshift rag, soaking it further. Soon, the the cloth was drenched to the point of dripping with blood, and Sawyer was satisfied. This would be enough. She wasn't going to dare to leave her fingerprints on the scenery, but she knew she would have to leave directions for her final victim if she wanted him to find the stage.
Twisting the bloodied cloth to a point and adorning the statues with letters, Sawyer's lips formed a brooding smile.
The real fun was about to begin.
--
Zugen stormed into the area confidently, not paying any mind to the hideous images he passed. He came upon a statue of a devilish figure inserting a large hook through the bottom of a man's mouth and knew he was close.
"Miss Cleaner," Zugen drawled in English, "Why do you hide? There's no use to stall. You're going to die eventually. How about you come out now? I promise that if you don't give me trouble, I'll make it quick. You won't feel a thing. It won't hur–" He stopped in his tracks as he came upon a large puddle of blood, a large streak coming from it, as if something had been dragged. Zugen followed the relatively short trail into another area of the Hell Garden and soon saw that Di had been decapitated, his head resting in the cupped hands of a smiling devil. In a nearby scene, Di's body, or what was left of it, was scattered about in a strategic fashion to accommodate the image of cruel spirits dismembering with crude saws and sharp blades. Zugen's face contorted.
There was a tiny "splish" sound as he stepped back. He looked down and saw that he was standing on top of a dark "X" with the words "START HERE" underneath. Slightly above the "X" was an arrow pointing upwards. The night vision goggles coated everything in a shade of green, but the brute Red Pole had a damn good guess that the direction was hastily painted in blood, most likely with some sort of cloth from the looks of the streaks.
Zugen smirked. Oh, the chainsaw woman wanted to lead him into a trap? He wasn't stupid. He turned to his left to pursue his own path, but stopped when he saw more words, this time painted on the chest of one of the demons.
"WRONG WAY, IMBECILE." The Red Pole grunted at the insult. He turned around to head in the opposite direction, but there was another message painted along an outstretched arm of a crying woman having her legs sawn off.
"WHAT'S WRONG? CAN'T READ?" Zugen hissed. So, that was her game. Twisted bitch.
"Alright, I'll play along," he muttered. Fine, he'll follow the directions if that's what she wants. She's setting herself up for her own demise by putting up these directions, he thought. These crude displays and messages she set up were just for show. That chainsaw wielding psycho couldn't have been as intimidating as she was in the stories he had heard amongst the citizens of this damned city. It was all just bullshit. He could defeat her...
--
Sawyer had marked a path throughout the entire statuary and was in the center ring once more, the most gruesome area of the Hell Garden, looking for a suitable spot to place her final message. The cloth was starting to get dry, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before the last Red Pole arrived. She needed to find the perfect spot for the message, the piece that would lead to the grand finale of her performance. She cocked an eyebrow in amusement at the way she was thinking. It seemed Rotton had rubbed off a little on her.
It was then that she spotted it, an arching sign overhead, the original letters faded away to nothing, only leaving a thin coat of chipping white paint. Perfect. Climbing on top of one of the statues to reach the sign, Sawyer wrote a line from The Inferno. She smiled sardonically. A quote from Dante in the center of a Buddhist statuary, how beautifully ironic.
--
"Lay gaw say gwai, baht poh!" the brute cursed. That damned woman had led him through the entire garden, a long, drawn out journey, sarcastic comments and insults accompanied with an occasional mocking smiley face whenever he had decided to stray from her original path.
"HOW TO KEEP AN IDIOT ENTERTAINED: LOOK RIGHT, LOOK LEFT."
"LOOK UP, LOOK DOWN. MORON."
"THERE IS NO PUNCHLINE. I JUST PUT THIS HERE TO ANNOY YOU."
The path he was meant to follow was no better. Already, he had come across the gutted body of Yu among a display of people being impaled while Fengdu's decapitated head was placed on a platter surrounded by starving, emaciated animals. The sweat on his forehead and the heat emitted from his face were fogging up the night vision goggles, hindering his sight more than helping it. It was blinding him, irritating his eyes, and the straps were beginning to tighten around the veins that were popping out along his head.
He scratched roughly at the sides of the goggles for relief, but it only served to agitate him further. No longer able to tolerate the pain, he ripped the goggles off of his head and angrily tossed them aside in a random direction.
There was not a star in sight and the moon was hidden behind dark clouds, the statuary draped in a dull shades of black and blue, only the outlines of the horrific statues being visible to the Red Pole, making the entire setting rather difficult to see clearly. He really shouldn't have thrown away the goggles. He took out a backup flashlight and looked around to see if he could locate them. However, Zugen's attention was directed elsewhere when he saw a crimson arrow on the ground with the words "THE END IS NEAR" written above.
He ground his teeth madly. He was close, he was close, he was going to kill the damned gui.
He shook his head. No, no, not gui. She wasn't a ghost, just a woman...
The Red Pole followed in the direction that was given and traveled deeper into the Hell Garden, coming upon an arching sign above. Unable to read the words in the dark, he directed his flashlight towards the sign.
"VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT INFERNI"
The brutish Red Pole scoffed. The latin words didn't mean anything to him.
Stepping into the area, gun cocked, the laser point joined the flashlight as he searched around. He had to resist the urge to twitch as he shed light on the lurid statues.
They were by far the most grotesque and unnerving than all of the other figures in the Garden. People being ground into powder, pounded and beaten with rocks until their bodies turned to a bloody jelly, sinners torn apart and skinned alive, sadistic spirits pouring melted iron down their throats, bodies covered in dotted black guidelines and dismembered by fiery saws. The centerpiece of this horrid ring was a towering death spirit holding an offering plate. Zugen read the sign beside the spirit, something about donations and merit-making...
"So you've made it... to the Ninth Circle..." came an augmented, ghastly voice. The Red Pole snapped his head and stepped back into the center of the area, looking around wildly. Where had that voice come from?
"The worst and most vile sinners... are punished in this chamber..."
"Where the hell are you?" Zugen pointed his gun to his left, beginning to shake. That voice... it wasn't natural...
"Isn't this... such a lovely place?"
"Ghost woman... N-no, Cleaner, get out here."
"Now, what fun... would that be? I'd rather... see my prey struggle... before I strike."
"Prey?" Zugen hissed, implicating that he thought of the word as the highest insult anyone could have said in his presence. He continued to look around, searching for the being who was responsible for the monotonous tone. He thought he saw a shadow move to his left and shot at it. He missed.
"That gun... won't do you any good..." An eerie chuckle filled the air.
"Siu meh ah, baht poh?!" Zugen shouted, foaming at the mouth. "Show yourself, you whore!"
"How rude..." the ghost woman commented, "That's no way... to talk to a spirit." More ghoulish laughter followed, angering Zugen further. The combination of witnessing the horrendous statues, the ghost woman's mocking laughter, and his own increasing paranoia pushed the Red Pole over the edge.
"Enough about spirits!" he shouted, "Demons, gui, ghost woman, I believe in no such thing! Now come out, so I can kill you! Say, baht poh!" In a drastic fit of rage, the Red Pole shot blindly, wildly around him, spinning in circles, bullets piercing and even shattering some of the devious icons, confident that at least one stray bullet would strike the accursed ghost woman. There was a tense silence in the Hell Garden when the Red Pole had run out of ammunition, lowering the gun to his side and heaving with a tired smile. He did it. He killed her. He finally killed the ghost woman.
Suddenly, as if by some unearthly will, a howling wind began to blow, and dark clouds in the blood red evening sky parted away from the moon, casting an eerie luminescent glow upon the Hell Garden. A mechanical purr reached his ears.
"You missed."
With a sharp intake of breath, the brutish Red Pole turned around and looked up. Zugen's jaw hung agape and he dropped his gun, his hands trembling as the rest of his body froze.
No, he had shot in every direction... It was impossible...
Perched atop the head of the death spirit with the offering plate was the ghost woman, her petite figure outlined by the transcendent glow of the moon, a low rumble coming from the engine of her chainsaw as her cruel, sordid smile pierced through the dark.
"Boo!" She gracefully leaped off of the statue with her chainsaw overhead, the carbide teeth hissing in anticipation as the engine roared, the bloodstained bar giving off a red glint as it was struck by the moonlight. The Red Pole didn't get a chance to react as the ghost woman landed and brought the spinning blades down into the crook of his neck, gradually eating it's way in a downward, slightly diagonal direction, sawing off the man's left arm. The Red Pole was not given the opportunity to complete his scream as the ghost woman repeated the act with his right arm.
The upper half of his body being nothing more than a torso and a head, Zugen released a cross between a gurgle and a cry as he stumbled about. He felt a sharp pain in his gut as the ghost woman kicked him with the thick sole of her boot, knocking him back on top of the offering plate held by the death king, Phya Yom. The brute hadn't even fully opened his eyes when hungry metallic teeth bit into the top of his scalp.
The savage bellows of the chainsaw drowned out the Red Pole's cries, the blades slowly making it's way down the man's head. Blood red lips were twisted in a cruel grin as dark sapphire eyes beamed with tainted mirth, large splatters of blood joining dried red speckles from the ghost woman's previous endeavors, staining a delicate, pale white face and soaking her dark gothic attire, the white cross on her chest turning a brilliant shade of crimson.
A gash perfectly divided the Red Pole's face, the chainsaw now cutting into the flesh of his neck and moving further down to devour the center of his torso and below the waist. By the time the grim female was done, the brute man was split into two symmetrical pieces, not counting his dismembered arms.
The ghost woman took a moment to step back and observe her work. Blood literally poured out of the offering plate and spilled onto the ground below. This entire damned night, she had been tormented by her atrocious past, feeling like a weakling under the grip of that revolting demon Gunny Tom, an unrelenting tension and agony assaulting her senses. It was something that wouldn't let her go, something that trapped her, something that she wished, desired to be released from, searching for a way out. Once she had killed all of the Red Poles, once she had cut them to pieces, once she had been drenched in the their blood, those miserable feelings had faded. She felt at ease, relieved, revived.
The transcendent glow of the moon created a strange affect; Phya Yom's normally crude, wrathful, calculating face appeared to be satisfied with the ghost woman's sanguine offering. As the ghastly female turned away to exit the Hell Garden, she did not wear a cruel grin, but a mischievous smile, a light bounce in her step as she walked away with the chainsaw in hand. The bounce quickly began to turn into a cheerful skip, and the skip soon turned into an ethereal waltz.
The lurid spirits of the Hell Garden seemed to smile as the bloody ghost woman spun about with her chainsaw held high in the moonlight. She tossed her head back and uttered a pent up soundless scream, only to stop in mid-pirouette as an unwelcome arrival suddenly detached itself from the cover of the surrounding statues.
"Boo right back at ya', dumbass!" said Revy with a demented giggle. She raised the gun.