To the girls, they never imagined that their first time traveling as a group would be to visit their fifth member, Anais, in Tokyo, Japan. How Anais and her family ended up in the city would be perhaps one of the many mysteries that would be solved during their adventure in the new city. The flight was long, Tammy had long since passed out in a seat next to Alexis who was on her second book. Lisa and Kodie were both absently watching the end of the in-flight movie, mainly discussing the choices of actors when the pilot announced that they would soon be landing. Roused with newfound energy the group anxiously waited the few agonizing minutes it took the plane to land and hurried through the gate to find their bags. Wading through the crowd, a familiar face gleamed with a sign with their initials. As if Anais were the quarterback of the opposing team about to throw, the travelers tackled her with bear hugs and affection. She led them out of the airport to an awaiting taxi van. Loaded in, they rode ridiculously fast through the traffic and joked about old times, spewing memories and stories as if they were afraid time would run out, yet oppositely making plans as if they had all the time in the world. Anais quizzed their Japanese and found herself impressed by the fact that all her friends had sufficient knowledge, more than enough to get around. As they got closer to her home, the ride had taken on a comfortable silence, she watched her friends try to take pictures from the windows for a while before decided to speak.
“So, yeah, a thing before we get to the house. My parents have been acting strangely for the past few days. And today they’ve been resting. They haven’t bothered leaving the room at all, I guess they don’t want to risk spreading whatever they have. We’ll just have to be quiet once we get there. And I’m pretty sure you wanna look around for a while to see all the shops and such.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, the concern for her parents only a slight hum in their buzzing thoughts. After arriving at her place, the girls agreed to nap for an hour before going out. While her friends all found places on the floor, or the couch and spare bedroom, Anais decided to check in with her parents. With a tray decked with tea and flu medicine, she knocked gingerly on the door before quietly walking in. She called to them, but neither stirred. She placed the tray on the nightstand and took note that they hadn’t moved from the positions they were in only their backs eerily still when she checked on them before leaving for the airport. She checked their pulses and gently shook them, they only responded by turning to lay on their left side. She checked the drawer of the nightstand and noticed that her parents recently had a prescription filled, and the warning stated severe drowsiness. She forced her worry down and tried to rearrange everything to the way they were before, kissing them on the cheek and leaving. She resolved herself to not worry about her parents, she had guests to entertain, guests she also had to wake up in the most obnoxious way possible.
For four hours the group of girls strolled around downtown Tokyo taking in the multitude of shops and markets before deciding to see what the club scene was about. After getting past a large bouncer, they took a seat at one of the tables near the stage where two Japanese girls were rapping to techno music, the deejay barely noticeable near the back. The music was inviting and the girls were chatting in Japanese, laughing loudly at their pronunciation mistakes. An hour in, a waitress brought a tray of drinks, telling them they were from the guys who were sitting at a booth near the corner. Anais turned to look, and the three guys all dressed in nice suits gave a wave and she waved back meekly.
“Friends of yours,” Lisa asked before tasting her drink.
“I hope they are,” Tammy said as she took her eyes from their booth and to examine the liquid.
“They look like interns” Anais guessed taking a sip before deciding it was good enough.
“If interns can treat us like this, I wonder what their bosses can do,” Alexis quipped before downing the rest of her drink. The girls laughed, a buzz quickly fell on them, faster than any of them were used to. Before they knew it, they were dancing in the little excuse for a dancefloor, huddled together, moving with the quick beat that thumped in the heads and felt throughout their bodies. They were joined by the guys from the group who insisted they have more drinks. By 3 a.m. they were being ushered out by them into an awaiting taxi. Loud and boisterous, they tried to give the driver directions but were silenced by gloved hands over their mouths, slightly sobering the lot. They fought lazily but with the weight of drinks that were apparently drugged and the chloroform, one by one they passed out. Alexis was the last one awake and watched as her friends lost consciousness. Tammy and Lisa slumped forward in the seat in front of her. Anais clawed until she succumbed and Kodie’s head fell backward, her last slight being a dark haze filling her vision that quickly closed into nothingness.
Alexis heard them at first. Voices of men, two or more, loudly arguing in Japanese. Every five minutes, a new sensation awoke a part of her, a constant beep-beep-beep and a coldness along her back. She wished they would shut up, her head pounded and felt heavier than a bowling ball. Her eyelids refused to move. As she tried to shut the noise out, the memories of the night flooded back. She remembered the drinks, the dancing, and the taxi. Her heart rate began to rise, alerting the men. They forced an eyelid open shining a bright light, she screamed at the sudden invasion. She tried to raise an arm to force his hand away and noticed that she was bound to the table. After her eyes adjusted she took in her surroundings. She was in a white medical room, no windows and one door. There was an I.V. in her hand, a tawny liquid making its way into her body. One guy, she presumed was some kind of doctor was checking the flow of said I.V. and looked at her vitals before documenting them on a chart. The other guy, one of the guys from the club, was staring at her, his eyes looked worried, maybe remorseful. She tried to speak even though her throat felt like sandpaper, where are my friends, what are you doing to us, are they ok, just tell me, are they okay. The doctor started looking through a drawer and found a syringe and a vial. The guy from the club rushed to him and told him something in Japanese, she couldn’t understand it, they were speaking too fast and whatever concoction was flowing through her bloodstream made her head feel like the embodiment of a New England fog. The doctor looked exasperated but put the now full needle away, rushing what sounded like instructions at the club guy before leaving the room. The club guy picked up a pitcher with a straw and told her to drink. When she got her fill, she tried to speak again but he shushed her and pointed at the i.v. bag.
“The remaining serum will make its way into you within the next 5 minutes. Do not pull it out until then. “ he said, tugging at her restraints. He got her right hand and instead of pulling it taut, he loosened it, only slightly, but enough. He slid his hand into hers leaving a cylindrical object before pulling away and pulling the covers over her. “Follow those instructions, but not until that bag is empty.” And with that he left the room with one last word, “You can walk right out the front door, but not without facing your fears.” With that, he was gone. She turned her attention to the bag, watching whatever it was drip into her body. All she knew was that as the last drop slid into her body, she had to escape and find her friends. She had no choice but to trust him, it was her only way to find them.
27 years of life full of walks to the coffee shop and morning runs, she felt as wobbly as a newborn deer as she walked down the hallway using the wall as support. That last 5 minutes were the longest five minutes of her life. She didn’t know what was going on, but all she could do was follow the instructions on the note that was hidden the metal cylindrical tube. As she regained her legs she found the elevator the note had mentioned and pressed for what she presumed was the top floor. Was she on the lowest level? What is going on? The elevator rose several levels passing the 1st floor and going up to the 20th. The opposite wall opened. The note didn’t say anything about this. She stepped cautiously off the elevator. It looked almost like a penthouse but it was clearly an office. There were three rooms separated with glass walls and two plain doors, probably bathrooms. There were computers and monitors everywhere. A large desk was near the window. While searching the desk, the elevator closed and lowered. Some strange block box in every corner made a buzzing noise. In Japanese, it said that a heat signature had been noticed and security was being notified. She began to panic. Why didn’t she just stay in the elevator? Her heart raced. In a panic, she ran for the bathroom. She looked for somewhere, anywhere to hide. The stalls were too obvious, there was no way she can reach the vents and risk it. More alarms were in the bathroom and in a last-ditch effort she tried to throw them off by turning on all the hand dryers. An idea she will later consider not one of her greatest moments of ingenuity. She heard the elevator ding and open and pressed herself against the wall as guards burst through the door. Her eyes were clenched shut, she stopped breathing. If she could she would’ve stopped her cacophonous, pounding heartbeat as she anticipated being slammed into the floor and taken back with no hope of escaping and finding her friends. Time passed, and no one grabbed her, why haven’t they, she was in plain sight, wedged between the wall and sink in an act of mindless self-preservation. She risked opening one eye and watched three guards look in the stalls and try the vent. One was checking the hand dryers, which were right next to her safety sink. They look at each of them. She couldn’t believe it. They couldn’t see her. A shuddering breath left her and they guy checking the vents paused and turned towards her. She was staring him in the eyes but he was looking right through her but stared as if he knew something was there. After agonizing moments, he turned away and convened with the others in the middle. She slowly slid from her hiding spot and making another “what the hell” decision, chose to follow them.
Holy hell, they couldn’t see her. They walked out of the bathroom and she followed closely, not risking them thinking a ghost was opening doors and watched them meet up with the others near the elevator. She was scared shitless. Even though they couldn’t see they could hear her and she knew that her only way to make it downstairs without risking the alarms was to walk out with them. She waited for all of them to get in before quickly making her way in and pressing herself against the doors and closing her eyes, wishing all of her body quiet. She listened to them talk, and the whirring of the elevator as it made its way down to the floor, she didn’t even breathe. When it stopped she dared a look at the floor number: 1. Finally. As the door opened, she dashed out not risking the guys tripping over her and garnering attention. She was in the lobby of a company, by the looks of it a pharmaceutical company. In the middle was a circle desk, a secretary adamantly taking calls and tapping away. A group of businesspeople were making their way out and with more wishing and hoping she followed quickly behind and as soon as she was out of the door, she basked in the sunlight for just a moment before making a run down the sidewalk. When she hit the corner, she slowed down and looked at the crumpled note. “Stay at the end of the block.” Okay? Then what? But no sooner than she began to ponder, a black van pulled up and two arms pulled her in. She fought and clawed and tried to bite the hand covering her mouth but stopped as she saw her friends also in the van. He let her go and she grabbed for them, hugging them with all the strength she could muster. She took in everything, the two other guys from the club were in the front seat, and the guy who gave her the note, and whose was currently nursing an injured eye was in the back with them. She looked at her friends and they all looked okay, no worse than her, except for Amber. She looked feverish and tired, and her forced smile was taking a lot out of her. There were so many questions and no answers. She checked Anais’s temperature as the van made its way to whatever destination. Kodie was the first to break the silence.
“What hell is going on?” she seethed.
“Yeah,” Lisa joined, “what did you assholes pump us up with? What’s going on with Amber?”
The one who gave Alexis the note finally spoke, he took a deep breath before he began. “It’s a war. At first, you were only in the crossfire, but now you all are soldiers.”
They stared at the cryptic man before looking at each other, for answers, for assurance, something. All except Anais. Her eyes drifted from person to person, just trying to focus, as if she was trying to see something that wasn’t there.
Leave a Reply