The Castle
Matsumoto Imperial Guards, or MIGs for short, survey the heavily fortified mountains with digital scopes perched atop The Castle, overlooking a former national treasure bursting at its seams.
Thin windmills equipped with radar dot the perimeter. Laser canons augment the sophisticated arrays positioned on buildings throughout the city. No concrete, steel, or plastic structure dares poke its flat, domed, or tipped head above the surrounding ridge line for fear of exposure.
Smoke from a distant volcano offers a brief distraction for a populace trying to ignore (or forget) the horrors beyond and above. Camouflaged, dormant rocket silos strategically positioned throughout the city-state remain vigilant. The hazy sky provides limited cover from the Lorian vessels flying miles overhead every few days. How long that lasts is anyone’s guess.
As thousands arrive daily, thousands more flee for greener pastures. Yet, the city remains bloated. Those who remain make a pact with Matsumoto:
‘Til we die!
Who says patriotism’s dead?
Although The Castle’s exterior remains a familiar sight to those with a legacy here, its days as a tourist destination are long gone. Once filled with water, its dry moat now accommodates laser battery cannons and other creative artillery made from re-purposed Lorian tech acquired before the global conflict.
Carrying a bag of stale senbei, a young Blasian named Genjiro “Genji” Zineda weaves his way through the thick crowds clogging the Nawate Dori, a street once famous for its food and porcelain frogs.
Before it all went to hell, one would be hard pressed to find non-natives living here. Now? It’s a cybernetic melting pot, with nearly two-thirds of the population sporting some sort of body enhancement or modification. Good thing translator implants were all the rage before the Lorians arrived. They definitely come in handy these days.
Genji walks past a knife-wielding American woman selling rat kabobs. Then, the twenty-nine-year-old passes by a North Korean man boiling cockroach stew in a black tar-like substance. Genji waves at a Malaysian brother and sister grilling Xeno (i.e. Lorian) shitburgers while their parents tend to hungry customers.
Yes, patties made from E.T.’s excrement. Who would’ve thought?
Genji walks alongside the lone river cutting right through the city. Along the riverbank, fishermen help each other catch whatever they can find, including the occasional corpse, while MIGs observe. One of the officers on duty whistles, prompting his armed subordinates to pack up the strange-looking fish and head straight to base.
And kill anything that gets in your way.
Moments later, a medivan arrives with four medics and a driver. The medics retrieve the corpse and sanitize the immediate area before vacating the premises. Cybernetic citizens work with their robotic counterparts to renovate buildings in disrepair.
Genji passes by a man walking in the opposite direction, oblivious to the bruise-colored implant in the stranger’s neck. Instead, Genji fixates on two cadets sparring outside a MIG training school. The action entertains some of the young orphans roaming the streets.
A column of armed robotic MIGs march down the street in unison, with drones scanning everything from above. Lightning exposes the dark clouds above. Thunder follows. The rumbles turn bystanders into frightened statues staring upward. After the longest thirty seconds of stressful silence, rain trickles from the sky. Below, a collective sigh of relief.
Passing signs that direct citizens to one of the city’s underground sub-districts, Genji walks down a side street between two low-rise buildings not far from the river. He hurries by patrolling MIGs as well as people sleeping on the sidewalks. He then stops at a building to his right. A slim, Vietnamese building guard in his twenties, carrying a rapid-fire laser rifle on his back, holsters his sidearm.
“Vin,” Genji greets with a smile.
“Busy day, Mr. Genji?” the building guard asks with a salute and a smile.
“Not as busy as yours,” Genji answers as he walks up to the main door.
“Another twelve hundred gone south,” the building guard says while shaking his head.
“That makes what now?” Genji asks.
“More food for us,” the building guard replies with a half-hearted smile.
Genji points up at the sky and responds, “Or, less for them.”
“Cup’s always half full with you,” the building guard jokes.
“Yes, sir,” Genji says. “’Night.”
Two security drones glide down the street past them.
“’Night,” the building guard replies.
Genji inches closer to the retinal scan and microphone beside the door. A beam of light targets his right pupil.
“Genjiro Zineda,” he says into the mic.
“Welcome home, Mr. Zineda,” the building AI responds, unlocking the door.
Genji enters the building and walks down the dimly lit hallway. Every few feet, he passes a digital propaganda poster showing various people defending the city against a rampaging Lorian as it snacks on a female Terran. Genji stops at the second-to-last door on the left, then knocks.
There was a time when it didn’t matter what floor you took. But now? Getting the first floor’s like hitting the lottery. And the jackpot’s your life.
The second-to-last door on the left turns transparent, revealing Genji’s Japanese wife Yumi on the other side. Yumi frowns as they stare at each other.
“A little chilly out here,” Genji deadpans.
“A little chilly in here, too,’ Yumi responds.
Unable to maintain her chilly reception, she lets him in. Genji and Yumi kiss as the door re-darkens and secures itself.
Inside the apartment, Genji pulls out a stale senbei.
“Look what I found?” he asks.
Yumi grins and replies, “You shouldn’t have.”
Taking the stale senbei, she bites into it, closes her eyes, and smiles as if transported to heaven.
“Jino?” Genji asks.
“Out like a light. I don’t know how he does it.”
“Wish I could take credit.”
“I imagine you heard the new numbers?” Yumi asks.
“Twelve hundred.”
“Daniel and Kaziko were among them.”
Genji pauses, then replies, “So much for ‘til we die!’.”
“Genji, maybe we should reconsider.”
“Reconsider what we went through just to get here?”
“It might not be far enough.”
MIG sirens wail in the distance.
“Where should we go?” Genji sarcastically inquires. “Korea? Russia? China? Oh, that’s right. They’re all gone.”
“And if we stay, we’ll be gone, too.”
Genji sighs
“Can we please talk about this in the morning?” he pleads.
Yumi grabs his shoulders and stares into his eyes.
“Just remember our promise,” she says.
“I won’t let them harm you. Or Jino.”
“You know what I mean, Genji. You know what they do to-”
“Okay, Yumi. I’ll do what needs to be done.”
“Can you?” she asks.
“Can you?” he asks.
“Better our hands than theirs.”
Genji kisses Yumi.
“I should wash up,” he says with a grin.
“You should,” Yumi half-jokes, pushing him toward the bathroom.
Genji enters the bathroom, strips off his clothes, and tosses them in the microhamper filled with soiled clothes. He closes the lid and presses a button, causing it to gyrate in place as it sanitizes its contents. Genji activates the shower and quickly bathes himself as a timer counts down from two minutes. With clean water at a premium, showers have to be fast and efficient. Same goes for everything else once taken for granted. Genji grabs the lone, partially-wet towel hanging on the shower rod and dries himself off as best he can. Yumi enters and hands Genji a clean tee shirt and shorts to put on. Genji heads for the bedroom while Yumi tends to noodles boiling on the stove.
Genji quietly enters the bedroom to see twelve-year-old Jino sleeping on a small cot next to the queen-sized bed Genji shares with his wife. He sits on the edge of the cot while his sleeping son cradles a digital tablet. Genji grabs the digital tablet and reads the display. It’s an electronic book translated from English to Japanese:
リトルマルコの 宇宙の冒険
[E.D. SHERMAN]
Smiling, Genji puts the digital tablet to sleep. He kisses his son on the forehead, rises and places the digital tablet on the windowsill. Genji surveys the dirty walls of his claustrophobic bedroom, then the closet packed with clothes and other stuff they’ve accumulated during their tenure in the city. He quietly exits he bedroom and shuts the door.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Moments later, Genji slurps on boiled noodles while he and Yumi watch a muted news report on their wall display. The captions are in Japanese, though the graphics make clear that the Lorians have total control of Tokyo and everything north of it. Although there have been some random Lorian sightings, the broadcaster does her best to reassure the citizens of Matsumoto they have nothing to fear.
“Even she doesn’t believe what she’s saying,” Yumi says.
“I’ll drink to that,” Genji responds.
Genji gets up and heads for the counter. He opens up a cupboard and pulls out a can with his name written on it. He then grabs two shot cups.
“What are you doing?” Yumi asks.
“Gotta travel light, don’t we?” Genji asks.
“I’ll drink to that,” Yumi responds with a smile.
Genji carries the can and two shot cups to the table. He fills the shot cups with a dark liquid and hands one to Yumi.
“Better days,” Genji offers.
“Better lives,” Yumi counters.
They touch cups, sniff their shots, and wince.
“Best worst sake I’ve ever had,” Yumi says.
They giggle and down their shots.
“Agreed,” Genji responds. “Thanks for dinner.”
“Don’t forget dessert,” Yumi responds with a wink and devilish grin.
“Kampai,” Genji says.
Rude Awakening
At dawn, Gunta wakes in a brief panic. He looks around his messy room to see everything in order. Thinking of the rectangular device in his sister’s possession, he stands, yawns, and stretches. Exiting his room, Gunta tiptoes past his parents’ room while they sleep. He slowly peeks into Kanzu’s room to see a blanket mound beside the now-disturbed pile of trinkets. Gunta tiptoes over to the pile of trinkets and visually inspects it. Unable to locate the rectangular treasure, he turns to exits. As he approaches the hall, Gunta stops, looks down at his bare feet, and turns back toward the room.
“Kanzu?” he whispers.
No response. He walks over to the blanket mound and touches it. Gunta’s ears perk as he sniffs around. Squinting, he removes the blanket to find only a pillow underneath. He slowly pulls the mattress from the wall, revealing a larger hole that exposes the underbelly of their virtual cage. He turns toward his parents’ room but doesn’t call out. Instead, he pokes his head through the hold, marveling at the quietly humming plumbing and electronics around him.
“Kanzu,” he forcefully whispers with wide eyes.
Gunta carefully slides through the hole, quietly pulling the mattress back over it. Surrounded by pipes, wires, and twinkling lights, he looks around and sniffs, locating the trail of his sister’s scent.
“Sister?” Gunta whispers again. “Why do you attract misfortune?”
A gentle breeze keeps Gunta cool as he jogs through a path between the wires and piping. He essentially follows the main pipe toward the wall connector when he stops. Gunta’s eyes widen as the once gentle breeze blows harder.
“Kanzu?”
Gunta walks over to another hole in the basement wall beside the main pipe. His eyes focus on a silhouette running towards the hypershuttle outside. The young hominoid looks back toward his parents and hesitates. Nonetheless, Gunta squeezes through the hole in the wall and lands on the dirt outside of his masters’ domicile. He spots Kanzu running with her backpack up the loading ramp and into the hypershuttle. Gunta sprints after her. As he approaches the hypershuttle, Gunta turns his head right and spots his two masters in the distance interacting with another Lorian outside of a neighboring domicile. He returns his focus straight ahead and runs up the loading ramp and into the hypershuttle.
Inside, Gunta looks around the massive cabin.
“Kan-zoo!” he cries out.
Standing on the large console while pressing buttons, Kanzu turns to see Gunta near the ramp several yards away.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she hisses.
Gunta sprints toward his sister atop the console. He looks up.
“We shouldn’t be here!” he snaps back.
“Please return, brother,” Kanzu replies.
“Not without you!”
Kanzu presses a combination of buttons, activating the hypershuttle engines.
“I no longer desire this life.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving. Goodbye, brother. Go back before it’s too late.”
A loud roar sends chills down their spines. Gunta peeks outside a hypershuttle window to see their two Lorian masters charging toward them.
“They’re coming!” he says.
“Goon-tah!” Vinzi shouts from a distance.
“Kaan-zoo!” Mabel shouts.
Gunta turns to see his parents exiting the hole in the domicile wall.
“Return!” Mabel shouts. “Now!”
“Mabel, the masters!” Vinzi cries out.
Gunta turns to Kanzu and screams, “Kanzu, please!”
The ship rumbles then levitates. Simultaneously, the landing pad retracts as the bay door slowly closes. Mabel and Vinzi sprint toward the hypershuttle but they clearly won’t make it.
“Go!” Kanzu shouts.
“No!” Gunta shouts as he steps inside. “Moth-”
The bay door closes and the hypershuttle takes off. Gunta looks down on Mabel and Vinzi as they hug in despair. Waving their multiple arms, the Lorian masters look up and roar. Kanzu tears up while looking at her crying parents on the display.
“Apologies,” she whimpers.
Gunta tackles her on the console. They roll around on the buttons, causing the hypershuttle to fly uncontrollably.
“Why?” a teary Gunta yells.
Tears swell in Kanzu’s eyes as she tries to fight him off.
“Let me go!” Kanzu cries.
Alarms blare on the hypershuttle as it reaches the lower atmosphere. They roll off the console. The hypershuttle nearly hits another vessel zooming across the display.
“We’re going to expire!” Gunta screams. “Are you content now?”
Kanzu runs up toward the cockpit and climbs back up to the console. She looks out at the ocean and frantically presses the alien symbols on the console. Gunta joins her.
“Pull that lever hard and don’t let go until my word,” Kanzu orders.
“What word?” he asks.
The hypershuttle turns around and heads back north when a pipe bursts in the back of the cabin. Water sprays on the electrical wires. Sparks fly as Kanzu struggles to level the craft.
“Push forward, Gunta!”
Gunta obeys.
“How do you know all this?” he asks.
“You study old relics. I study masters.”
The hypershuttle levels out and glides across the sky as smoke fills the cabin.
“Perhaps you need more study,” Gunta says.
“No engines.”
“That does not sound good.”
“We’re going down, Gunta.”
“That sounds worse!”
The cockpit display flashes red. The hypershuttle descends. They spot the southern tip of the former Japanese mainland far in the distance. Kanzu looks around and spots the four black lifeboxes.
“We must go.” Kanzu says.
“Now you wish to leave?”
Gunta follows his sister to the black lifeboxes. Kanzu opens one.
“I’ll be right behind you!” she says.
Gunta pauses and replies, “Maybe we should-”
They turn to the cockpit and see the hypershuttle quickly descending.
“Apologies, brother. But we have no choice,” Kanzu replies. “Go!”
Gunta turns and asks, “But it’s too small-”
Kanzu cold-cocks Gunta, then catches his limp body. She gently places him into the open lifebox and affixes him to the interior restraints. Kanzu quickly opens her backpack and removes the rectangular device. She opens the lifebox’s floor panel and tosses the device inside with other items including food and water rations. She then closes the floor panel, rises, and presses her palm on the pad outside the box which closes the box door. Lights flash as a hypershuttle emergency door nearby prepares to open.
Kanzu stops at the second lifebox, presses the palm pad, and enters. She opens her floor panel and tosses in her backpack with other items and rations inside. She closes the floor panel and secures herself to the interior restraints as the lifebox door closes.
“I’ll find you brother! On my word-”
The lifebox shuts, triggering a gelatinous force bubble that cocoons her from the interior walls. It slides toward the open emergency door and spat out into the lower atmosphere as the hypershuttle careens downward.
Catch of the Night
“Mama?” Jino whispers. “Papa?”
The young boy enters the living area to find his sleeping, half-naked parents sharing a blanket on the floor.
Genji and Yumi turn toward him.
“What’s wrong, Gee-Gee?” Yumi asks.
“I heard screaming,” Jino says.
Genji and Yumi listen, but hear nothing.
“It’s okay, son,” Genji says. “Come here.”
Jino walks over to Genji who hugs him.
“Ryu’s leaving tomorrow,” Jino says.
“To Hirokuza?” Genji asks.
“Naga City,” Yumi answers. “Hirokuza’s too crowded.”
Yumi turns to Genji who nods back.
“Can you keep a secret?” Genji whispers to Jino.
“Yes.” Jino answers.
“We’ll be leaving too.” Genji says.
Jino’s eyes light up as he smiles.
“Naga City?” he asks.
“Naga City.” Genji says. “Or Kochi.”
“Kochi? Jino asks.
Genji turns his head as if he hears something in the distance.
“Naga and Hiro are too busy so we may not get in,” Yumi responds. “But, your father and I have a friend in Kochi-”
“Yumi?” Genji interjects.
“What is it?” she replies.
City sirens wail around them. The trio jumps up. Genji and Jino look outside while Yumi activates the display. An emergency news bulletin appears on the screen as artillery thunders around them. Outside, screams grow louder.
“Shit. Genji!”
“Bags!” Genji orders. “Now!”
They race to the bedroom as heavy fire and explosions rumble in the distance. Jino puts on his clothes and shoes. He then retrieves his emergency backpack under his cot. Genji and Yumi grab the nearest clothes and put them on. Genji throws on a Kochi University of Technology hoodie as a large explosion in the distance trembles the building. The stomping feet of people people evacuating their building shake the apartment.
“Gee-Gee?” Yumi asks.
“Ready, mama!”
Genji and Yumi grab their emergency backpacks as their apartment rumbles from nearby explosions. People and alarms scream outside.
“We’re ready!” Yumi yells.
“Let’s go!” Genji says.
The family exits their apartment and follows the herd of frightened tenants out of the building. Outside, they spot the Vietnamese building guard administering CPR to an injured, senior citizen lying on the sidewalk.
“Genji!” Yumi screams as she points toward The Castle.
Genji’s eyes widen. On the ridge beyond The Castle, MIGs desperately attempt to fend off a giant Lorian in its mechsuit. Without warning, laser canons positioned around The Castle and strategic areas around the city fire indiscriminately into the hazy sky as two Lorian hypershuttles lower from the hazy atmosphere and return fire. By the grace of God, the city’s hidden megarockets positioned on the interior base of the mountains hit one of the two hypershuttles which crashes, causing major damage to the opposite edge of the city. Cheers erupt as groups of human and robotic MIGs in the area rush in to protect evacuating citizens.
The young building guard halts CPR on the lifeless octogenarian, sighs, then stands as Genji approaches.
“Papa,” Jino begs.
Genji stops. Vin checks his rapid laser rifle.
“Vin!” Genji shouts.
“’Til the death, Mr. Genji,” the building guard replies with a salute before sprinting toward The Castle.
Genji nods.
“Genji!” Yumi screams.
Genji, Yumi and Jino flee in the opposite direction as another Lorian intruder singlehandedly bombards The Castle with a barrage of projectiles, laying siege to the capitol fortress.
Chaos erupts everywhere.
A panicked Genji and his family scramble with the crowd as yet another giant Lorian topples buildings in pursuit, trampling those unable to keep up. Trying to keep up, Jino looks toward the river to see fellow citizens swimming or boating away when the Lorian hypershuttle appears over them.
“Kaiju!” the crowd intermittently screams.
The Lorian hypershuttle vanishes as quickly as it appeared as an explosion of water forms a large wake, cloaking the mechsuit of a third alien poacher. The giant alien uses two of its arms to swim in pursuit while the other two aim and fire a large gun that spits out a metallic fishing net to collect fleeing Terrans in the water. The Lorian drags its catch to shore, drowning most of them in the process.
Yumi spots a MIG robot directing citizens away from the fighting.
“Genji,” she says.
They run toward the robot.
“Evacuate,” the robot repeats.
“The nearest bunker?” Genji asks.
“Nearest bunkers are full or inaccessible,” the MIG robot replies. “Evacuate.”
“How did they evade our long spotters?” Genji asks.
“Infiltration by rimokon. Evacuate.”
“Papa, let’s go,” Jino says.
They continue their escape.
“We should have left with the others,” Yumi murmurs between breaths.
Rimokons, or zeezees as they are more commonly known in the West, are captive humans, manipulated by the Lorians to do their bidding.
A large explosion forces everyone’s attention behind them toward The Castle. The heavy bombardment of the capitol building lights up the city. They stare at The Castle as it explodes.
The MIG robots transform into battle mode, exposing an array of intimidating weaponry.
“’Til the death!” the nearest MIG robots now repeat as they sprint straight toward The Castle.
Genji and his family head toward the city borders with a large group of citizens. The group turns a corner, running into another frightened herd heading their way. The combined group chaotically blends together as a large net meshed with metallic cables descends, pinning those underneath to the ground. The hypershuttle above sends and electric current through the metallic cable, incapacitating anyone it touches.
“This way!” Genji shouts.
Genji, his family, and a few others who managed to evade the net escape and turn down another street to see Matsumoto civil defenders firing, launching, and throwing anything they can in an increasingly futile effort to repel the giant aliens.
One of the wounded Lorians hitches a ride on the hypershuttle. Before the hypershuttle vanishes again, it drops two strange, white balls on opposite ends of the city. Ten feet in diameter, the strange white balls release a thick, orange gas as they land and roll, squashing anything in their path until they hit a structure sturdy enough to stop them. The thick, orange gas blankets multiple neighborhoods.
Genji leads his family through an alley that quickly fills with thick orange gas. They, and others around them, cough profusely.
“Can’t…breathe…” Jino coughs as he passes out.
“Gee-Gee,” Yumi calls out between coughs.
Unable to lift Jino, Yumi kneels beside him. Coughing, Genji tries to lift them both, to no avail. He pulls them against a wall and shields them as best he can.
“Genji…,” she whispers before passing out.
Genji’s vision blurs as he witnesses others falling unconscious around them.
“Forgive me,” he replies before blacking out on top of them.