Mad Dog - VIII

The door to the hallway opens. Stillwater dashes after Zhang, and he drops me on the floor. The two trade blows. Mostly Zhang being on the defensive while Stillwater tries to hit him.

Seeing the pale man ignore me, I wonder why he doesn't just finish me off. Is it because he thinks I'm already defeated?

I grit my teeth. I realise I'm back and breathing. At the same time, Stillwater turns on his heel, and runs towards me.

Did he sense my alertness? My return to form?

I take out two pairs of scissors and throw it at his eyes. He sidesteps out of the way. I look around, and see a red container affixed to the wall.

My hands tear the fire extinguisher from it. I rise and charge with the great metal weapon. It goes in an upward arc and hits him straight in a man’s sack-region.

“Hmph.”

The pale man stops. A grumble comes from his throat. Enough time for Zhang to step in and swing a cleaver at his neck.

The weapon cuts a nail-length into his meat. The sound is like hacking wood. Wet, fleshy wood.

He turns to face Zhang. A palm fights out. My comrade tries to dodge, but the hit grazes his right shoulder, and his body freezes in place. The expression of a prey in contemplation on his face.

Zhang’s body falls backwards. His muscles and joints still locked in place. Stillwater tries to attack him, but by then Zhang’s already on the ground. What a stroke of fortune! This so-called Taoist master cannot hit a frozen target!

In fact. He didn’t manage to hit me either. Nor the time before that.

Am I realising something? Am I? I don’t know. Genius brain on. Energy to meat in head. Is it because of the talisman on his face? Is it that the man can’t see? But no. He can see! He attacked us with it on. But he can’t see us… when he hit us? Why? Why?!

What’s stopping him? I think about his power. I think about the talisman. The fulu are summoning the powers of spirits, gods, and monsters. But I haven’t seen anything coming from his talisman. So where is it going? Inside? If that is the true-true. Then what power is stopping him from finding us the moment he hits us?!

I think back to before. I think back to the house. How he stood before a ray of light, and kept to the darkness. And… I can’t find the answer.

“ZHANG! HE CAN’T SEE US WHEN HE HITS US! FIGURE OUT WHY!”

I rush. I swing the fire-extinguisher at his face. A big red metal going to his big pale face. He swats it out of my hand. I step back. He follows. A blur of impressive height and speed. I fall to all fours and dodge an incoming blow. But he’s even faster, and crouches down with an open palm. And I know I can’t avoid it. I know I can’t scurry like ratata and be gone.

But I know Zhang found the answer. Because he’s right behind Stillwater, and the man can’t see that idiot.

The cleaver hits the same point. This time it digs a bit deeper. This time a trail of blood follows, and as the man stops it with his open palm, he leaves himself open and I lean forward with my key and with everything--EVERYTHING I have, like a gorilla with all the bananas in the world to protect, I stab at his throat, and pull.

“ERAGHHHHHHHHHHH!”

I rip his throat open. The outer bit at least. Drawing a line of blood. He grabs his throat to stop the bleeding. Zhang rips the talisman off his forehead, and his body begins to gain life, becoming warmer, like a shade above paleness.

He falls to one knee. He stops moving. His eyes blink slowly and shut on the second time.

“He was a jiangshi,” says Zhang. “I was stupid for not realising. These zombies can't see, so they snuff out people by their life force. In other words, when we're breathing.”

That does make sense. “His power seems a bit counter-y.”

“Counterintuitive, yeah. He freezes someone, and then can't see them anymore. Idiot.”

Zhang takes a deep breath and falls to the ground. I do the same, and realise just how tired I am. How much energy I put in that few teeny minute we were fighting.

“Alive?” I ask after a few minutes. “Is the man alive?”

Zhang bends down to check. He puts his fingers on the man's neck.

“There's a pulse. Tough bastard. Surviving a cut like that. I've seen better men die from far less.”

“Do we wait for him to wake up?”

“We could. Though who knows how long that'll take.”

He searches through the man's fur-lined coat. Digging through. There's a phone inside. A grey flip-thing which Zhang takes out and tries to open.

“No password,” he says with half a grin.

Zhang comes to me and opens the phone. He clicks on the most recent message sent. It's to the ‘Daoshi’.

I start from the top of the screen.

‘daoshi. I have been informed that ‘fit studio’, has rather poor internet connection and have arranged for a change in avenue. Rest assured, our newfound location will better display the splendor of your motivations.’

There are a few more messages that follow. Importantly showing what the ‘change in avenue’ is. Strange. The address Stillwater gave is different from the one we're at. And also…

“‘I have the young man with me. See you there.’ That's Nobu, right?” Zhang asks. “Why would he want Nobu to be there?”

He seems to care about him a bit. Interesting.

I meet Zhang’s eyes. “Hm? You don't know?”

“Know what?”

“The reason Nobu found the Tearer and met me was because he sent our Japanese pretty boy messages about his location.”

“This bastard…” Zhang grunts. His nostrils flare like a monkey in heat. “He…”

He looks around. Eyes on the countless standing cameras in the room.

“Yes?” I wait for him to answer.

His tone softens. “He wants us to fight in front of a camera. He wanted to stream it or something, I'm sure of it.”

I look at the cameras nearby. I check them and press the on-switch, and see a light appear. I do it for a few others.

“These cameras are all off. Maybe he didn't have time to set it up.”

“That's stupid, even for Mr Punch and can't see them.”

“He did go for the kill,” I say. “He did also try to do that in the house. Maybe he doesn't care about streaming the fight. And sent the wrong address because of it.”

“But the daoshi does want to fight.” Zhang walks about. Chin on hand. Head down. “He also warned you in the apartment didn't he?”

“Yep.”

“So the daoshi wants us alive, presumably for the stream. And his man-servant doesn't…”

I nod happily. “He could be protecting his daoshi. With our combined power, there's a good chance that we'd defeat him.”

“But in that case, wouldn't they just come at us together? Two bastards are a lot harder to deal with than one.”

“Unless the second bastard is dead weight, and needs to be carried to safety, yes yes.”

Zhang doesn't seem convinced. He doesn't trust my brain-power. Very sad, but what can you do? A sound comes from the phone. Zhang checks it.

‘I'm nearly there!’ it reads.

“The daoshi is gonna be there,” Zhang says, walking to the door. “Let's go!”

I follow him. And we walk out of the building into the cold night, hunting for our coming prey.