Chapter 15: Tehari Panthers (2)

It had not been difficult to obtain a security pass with the red security classification code. Ming's nimble fingers deftly picked it off the lanyard of a guard sleeping right along the corridor on the third basement floor. What the police escort had failed to mention, however, was the additional passcode that was required to enter the grey metal door. After trying a bunch of random combinations, including everyone's birthdays, which frustrated them to no end, Ming guessed the passcode. It turned out to be the same code as the unit number: #03-055. Not quite rocket science.

The door swung open with a hiss and the trio stepped in.

It was freezing! The mortuary was kept chilly to preserve bodies.

'The only question was, how many bodies were here?' Krystal's heart rate quickened. In the dim light of the room, she could see a full wall of drawers. To one side, there was an embalming table with some abandoned surgery gloves. There was a strong scent of chloroform throughout the room. She walked to the wall, and began running her hands over the smooth metal. She opened two of them, only to find that they were empty. The next one she tried wouldn't budge when she pulled.

It was locked.

"Why would anyone put locks on dead people?" Dart mused. 'It's not like they were going to crawl right out of the drawer,' he thought to himself, lightly chuckling.

Gilgamesh sniggered back, "It's to protect them from sick people like you."

Ming was rapidly losing his patience with the senseless drivel. "Why are both of you here anyway?" he snarled. 'If they weren't helping, this childish drivel would surely drive me nuts,' he thought.

It was a rhetorical question, but Gilgamesh took his chance to impress Krystal. Running over to help her out by opening and checking all the drawers, he eagerly said, "I really like to help people, you know." He gazed tenderly into Krystal's eyes, trying to establish a moment of connection. "That's just how I think people should be." Krystal ignored him.

Dart flicked another booger from his nose. "I had nothing else to do."

Exasperated, Ming tried to steer the gang towards a productive line of thought. "We should find the keys."

"Maybe the security guard outside has the keys. I'll go back out and negotiate with him to get the keys," suggested Gilgamesh.

Dart had wandered off again in the middle of Gilgamesh verbalising his thought process. From the embalming table, he picked up a keyring with a couple of keys dangling from a label that clearly read "Drawers".

'Not again…' Gilgamesh was crestfallen. His ego bruised, he tried to play it down. "Look I don't think they'll just leave the keys lying around like that."

Krystal snatched the keys and tried them on the locked drawer she had focused on. Gilgamesh looked on in envy as the key turned in the lock and snapped open with a click. With a satisfying whoosh, the drawer slid open.

It was a girl. Or at least that was the assumption, since the body had long hair. There were almost no identifying features left recognisable to the human eye. It had been sliced up and disfigured to such an extent that few body organs remained. Part of her skull was even exposed.

Krystal reached out and touched a fragment of the corpse's skin on her forehead. She drew her hand back immediately, as if she had touched fire. "It's cold." Krystal exclaimed.

"These are freezer drawers. To keep the bodies fresh before cooking," Dart grinned.

Krystal cracked a smile for the first time. Gilgamesh face-palmed, shaking his head. "That's not why they're kept cold!"

Ming was mesmerised, staring into the face of death and destruction in such a peaceful setting.

"She suffered a lot. Look at these slices... It must have taken the entire night to put her back together." Ming whispered under his breath solemnly.

Gilgamesh noticed that the exposed ribs had been hollowed out. "Someone took her heart! What kind of sick person would do this?" his eyes widened in shock. His stomach churned at the gruesome sight of pointless torment.

Focused on her mission, Krystal grabbed the woman's jaw, yanking it open with both hands. Then, she proceeded to extract a canine. She held the tooth in her hand, feeling its weight.

Dart's mouth fell open. "You're kind of twisted, aren't you?" he commented, smiling.

"Don't talk to her like that, pervert," Ming snarled back.

***

Lost in their petty arguments, the four fighters failed to notice that they were no longer alone.

"All right, I'm done," Krystal said, turning away from the drawers.

A flash of red and white appeared behind Dart.

"Get down!"

Krystal didn't pause for a second. She reached for her katana hanging by her side and slashed right above Dart's head.

Dart crouched reflexively.

Krystal's blade clashed with the sharp, arrow-tipped tail of a foreign creature.

"Whaaa…?"

Upon seeing the creature's snout and sharp canines, Dart snapped to his senses. He drew his knife for protection.

"What the hell are those?" Gilgamesh bellowed.

"Tehari panthers," Krystal replied. "This is my first encounter too."

"They're just hanging out on this ship?!" Gilgamesh yelped.

Three red panthers with yellow eyes confronted the four fighters, growling menacingly.

The Tehari panther species had bones that protruded out of their skin and flesh at each significant joint, forming an armour. Their fur was maroon and showed through the skeletal armour on their belly and the back of their neck. In addition to this skeletal armour protecting them from external attacks, they also had all the trappings of excellent hunters: an acute sense of smell allowed them to track their prey, they worked well in teams communicating silently to one another, and their jaws were able to snap a powerful crunch. Without doubt, their sharp claws and teeth could shred any human to pieces.

The four of them backed up against the wall of drawers as the panthers advanced. With four fighters to three panthers, it would have been an unevenly matched fight… except Gilgamesh had no weapon.

Gilgamesh was panicking. "Hey… good kitty… Let's talk about this…." he tried to soothe the panther closest to him.

Without warning, the panthers began their assault. One leapt towards Dart, snapping its jaws noisily. They exchanged blows: Dart stabbing and the panther scratching.

"My knife isn't working!" Dart screeched in surprise. His knife was barely making a scratch on the panther's armour.

Ming and Krystal teamed up against the third panther. Ming made the first move, charging at the panther.

"Ming, stop!" Krystal shouted. But it was too late.

The panther's powerful tail smacked the wind out of Ming's ribs. His entire body was thrown with such force that he flew against the wall of freezer drawers with great impact, and fell down—right into the open drawer with the dead girl's corpse.

'You will pay.' Her eyes flashing with revenge for her brother, Krystal went straight in for the kill. The blade of her katana traced around the exposed skull of the panther, but managed to draw blood from the panther's eye.

The panther withdrew, stumbling wildly from being blinded. It crashed into the embalming table, whimpering.

Krystal rushed over to the open drawer to check on her brother.

Ming, collapsed on top of the dead girl's remains, was unconscious but still breathing. With each exhalation, Ming's breath vaporised in the cold temperature.

Krystal whipped around quickly since danger was still afoot with all three panthers still actively engaged in battle. She used her foot to push the drawer until it was almost closed. A small gap was left open for ventilation, in case Ming froze to death.

Gilgamesh was still trying to negotiate with the panther to buy time. He moved closer to the embalming table and flipped it over to use as a shield.

"I don't want to fight you, I'm not even that tasty…" Gilgamesh warned fearfully. "Well, maybe a little. But I don't think you would like me." He managed some nervous laughter at his own joke and crouched down behind the table.

Krystal and the panther engaged in battle, her katana clashing against the panthers' armour unsuccessfully. She was getting worn out and could not move from her guard spot in front of her brother's body. One panther seemed like it had the upper hand but at the last moment, the panther flinched in pain and withdrew.

Dart had tossed his knife at the panther from a side angle. Because it was directed in the gap between the head and shoulder armour, the knife had scratched skin and caused a wound.

'Aha! Huh, a cut?' Dart thought to himself. But there was little chance for him to react. He was now defenseless without his knife which had spun off into the corner. He kicked off another panther's attacks, and sprinted to join Gilgamesh behind the overturned table.

"Get your own hiding spot!" Gilgamesh hissed as Dart scooched over. "This table isn't big enough for the two of us!"

Krystal was the only one left holding the fort with her katana.

All of a sudden, a crackling voice came over the intercom.

A whistle stopped the panthers in their tracks.

"Well well well… what do we have here?"