Beyond the Horizon

59. Ashes to Ashes

Horizon Laboratories was situated quite a ways away from the metropolis of Tokyo. Terrible deeds required privacy and distance from civilized society, and the faraway location must have made it easier for the Lab goons and PR to clean up any messes before anyone was the wiser. It explained why no one investigated Horizon Labs when Nezumi's parents and the others escaped over a decade ago.

          However, the Lab's secrecy had done them no favors on their final day. Perhaps one of the VCs had cloaked the building's destruction or sent out frequencies to confuse or mislead the emergency services racing to the Lab's rescue, but regardless, Nezumi felt sure that Horizon Laboratories lay too far from the city for police and firefighters to arrive in time to save it or anyone inside.

          Shion and Aki had tried to find an undamaged car to commandeer in the employee parking lot, but the rubble from the building's collapse had flattened all of the closest vehicles and the revenge-bent VCs had done a thorough job of crushing, smashing, and slashing the tires of any cars that remained.

          "Does this mean we have to walk back to Tokyo?" Rin asked. Their voice wobbled with a combination of fatigue and frustration. "That's gotta be, like, a million miles away. It'll take hours. Nothing's gonna be open by the time we get there, and we'll probably be dead of exhaustion by then anyway."

          Nezumi wasn't going to disagree. It would be a long walk, and his bruised body had already decided to throb in protest now that he no longer had imminent danger to distract him. But some part of him was also relieved that they hadn't found a car; the remaining VCs milling about seemed to realize that they would need to move on soon, and a few looked like they'd be willing to pick a fight over transportation.

          "Maybe there's something around back we could use?" Aki suggested. He didn't look the least bit hopeful.

          Nezumi's stomach sank at the same moment he saw Shion's face fall. Aki was spry, but he was still an elderly man, no doubt with all the aches and pains accompanying age. Walking the dark endless miles to the Tokyo border would be terrible on all of them, but it would be punishing for Aki.

          "We can check," Shion said, mouth tilting in a half-hearted smile.

          With the building reduced to a pile of smoking debris, there wasn't really a "back" to check anymore, but the group cut into the trees and circled around to where the rear of the Lab would have been. The view wasn't much better: charred concrete, twisted metal, and melted plastics, but no cars.

          Rin rolled around a piece of what looked like white marble under their foot and shrugged a shoulder. "It was a good idea, Aki. We've just got shit luck."

          "Maybe we can pair up with some of the other VCs and figure out a better way to travel the distance." Shion crossed his arms and sighed. "Or we can stay out of sight and rest in the woods for a day, and make the journey in the morning. If we stay huddled together, we should be warm enough."

          Shion, Aki, and Rin continued throwing ideas back and forth, but faint indentations in the snow had caught Nezumi's attention. He wandered away from the group and inspected the marks. The layer of snow had almost completely obscured the traces, but upon a closer inspection, Nezumi was certain that the indents were tire tracks, and though one end of them disappeared beneath the ruined building, the other end led down a narrow clearing in the trees.

          It's a longshot, but...

          Nezumi followed the tracks toward the tree line. The bits of building were smaller and fewer closer to the woods, with only a few of the trunks pockmarked with Lab shrapnel. When Nezumi reached the edge of the trees, he spotted something dark and slick. His heart rate picked up.