EL HEAD, THE BUGLE MAN, THE LITTLE BOY & THE BIG LIZARD PART TWO

 EL HEAD, THE BUGLE MAN, THE LITTLE BOY & THE BIG LIZARD :
The Final Destruction of El Head

Section Two

As the members of Company X went to their respective stations I sat and reviewed the memories I had received from Mr. Morgue, from an engineer's point of view. This submarine we had stumbled upon was one of the latest from Japan. It was a Sen-Taka Class I 209 released from the Kure Dock yards in February of 1945. There had only been eight others built in this class but it was one of the fastest and modern of the submarines. The problem was that it had been hastily built.

 

Divine providence, combined with faulty engineering had lead to the submarine surfacing near us.
 
This sub was equipped with a schnorkel, a device attached to the periscope which re-circulated air, making surfacing almost unnecessary. According to the memories of the men I reviewed the schnorkel had not operated consistently from day one.
 
I examined and took the schnorkel apart. While my borrowed hands were still pliable and coordinated I used the machine shop on board to re-configure several defective parts of the schnorkel.
 
Once fixed the schnorkel allowed us to stay submerged at a maximum depth of 360 feet. We sped on our way to Japan. I had surmised that this was our destination long before I had shared blood with Brann and the others. I had also deduced what their main mission was all about.
 
Neither the US or Japanese Navies crossed our paths, the latter was scarce and impotent and the US was preparing for a full scale invasion of Japan.
 
However on July 28, a small Japanese submarine off the coast of Taiwan spotted us. When we refused to answer its radio hailing, it threatened to fire upon us. Our torpedoes were already on their way. The Japanese sub sank with all hands on board.
 
Brann had Mr. Morgue monitor the radio frequencies for news of the gadget, it or Little Boy. Yet we were ordered to maintain a strict radio silence.
 
Brann would get, if not necessarily news then a few fleeting sensations of thought from a tenuous bloodlink with General MacArthur, the secret Commander of Company X. As of July 30 1945, MacArthur had not heard when Operation Centerboard would go into effect. It was his impression that the Executive Branch was going soft.
 
Brann angrily refused my offer to boost his link with MacArthur.
 
On August 1, we were startled into wakefulness by a klaxon horn. Ray Fuerte and Choctaw Williams were on monitor duty. They had spotted an American destroyer. We had wandered into the naval blockade of Japan. Brann called for evasive maneuvers but the destroyer tracked us with sonar and dropped depth charges. Although we were well rocked we escaped without damage or injury, or so we thought.
 
We stopped all movement and lay still in the depths. Brann jettisoned a can of oil and some trash to look like flotsam. We took the time to search for damage to the submarine but found nothing.
 
At approximately 2:00 a.m. on August 2 three hull seams split open and water poured into the submarine. We surfaced as fast as the sub would rise but the strain tore the submarine in half. We were still fifty feet down when a wall of water poured over us. Somehow we made it to the surface.
 
Brann had had the foresight to grab an self-inflating raft, I had grabbed some rations, the men of Company X had wrapped their weapons in rubber cloths.
As we were waiting for it to inflate, a slight ghost pain crept up my leg. Looking down I saw a gray flash and the tip of my foot break the water like a boat's prow.
 
Ray Fuerte screamed as a hole opened up in his side. His innards flooded the waters like so much chum. I found it odd that these sharks were attacking people, they usually would not. However with all the dead sailors in the Pacific in the last four years, some sharks must have gained a healthy taste for human flesh.
 
We climbed up in the life raft. Our last sighting had been Amami island, we were some 300 miles from Japan. Our radio had sunk with the submarine as had most of our weapons. I had the sword I had taken from the Japanese Captain. Brann and Williams retained their sidearms and Four Eyes had brought up his M-16 with a few rounds of ammo.
 
The life raft came equipped with rubber sails and aluminum masts. Brann hauled the sail up and lashed it. He went over to the farthest part of the raft and sat facing towards the sail. He reached inside his soaked shirt and pulled out a small waterproof bag and pulled the contents out. Inside were four waterproof maps and two Philippine cigars each about a foot long. One was wet down half its length.
 
Brann shook his head glumly and split the wet cigar in half and threw it in my general direction. He bit the off of the shortest one and spit the cigar end at me. Sticking the six inch cigar in his mouth Brann said, "Did you know I was a masked vigilante for a while, a so called superhero? When the General figured out what I was doing he ordered me to stop. The papers called me The Bugler. Here's why."
 
Brann stuck his hands in front of his mouth, one after the other around the unlit cigar. He curled them about the cigar pursed his lips and began blowing, his fingers moving like they were pumping valves. To my amazement a clear, loud bugling sounded, reverberating across the ocean waves. Along with the bugle sound came a blast of a strong wind which filled the sail and pushed us forward a few feet.
 
Brann spoke around his cigar and through his curled hands. "I can play several songs, "the Charge", makes this wind pushing on anything in front of where I blow. "Taps' will knock out a person standing in front of me when I blow it. "Reveille" levitates objects or people about two feet off the air but that one really takes a lot of my energy. I can also blow "A Mighty Fortress is My God" this makes this invisible barrier around me, making me bullet proof. I’m gonna try and blow us to Japan but I can't do it all in one sitting. So I need you to make us invisible again."
 
Brann began blowing the "Charge". He played for two hours with three two minute rests between each set. In little spurts we sailed to Japan. I concentrated on keeping us invisible. Williams and Four Eyes had to keep tacking the sail and keeping the lifeboat's rudder on a steady course. Willie the Snake kept guard. Without the lively Ray Fuerte to spark things up the crew was a pretty solemn bunch. Four Eyes and Willie the Snake played poker with invisible cards. They both won and lost millions of dollars from each other.
By mid-afternoon their rations were gone, so I dangled my arm outside the raft when Four Eyes spotted a shark. As the shark took my arm, Williams summoned the Bear and killed it with ursine punch to the head. They dined on raw shark meat, I was glad I no longer needed to eat.
 
We traveled some hundred miles that day, making it to the southernmost tip of Tanega island. We hid in a secluded cove. The island literally crawled with Japanese military, this island being fortified for the forthcoming invasion of the Japanese home islands.
 
By nightfall I suffered from the effort of maintaining an continuous invisible shield about us but I persisted despite the returning agony of a brain strain I had not felt for years.
 
Although quite reluctant to do so I disengaged myself from the body of the Japanese sailor and had Four Eyes shove it into the drink.
Brann ate huge portions of the shark and fell into an exhausted sleep becoming comatose for nearly nine hours.
 
Next morning was August 3 and we awoke shortly after sunlight. I should say they awoke because having disposed of a body, I no longer needed to sleep.
After a breakfast of fruit and ripe shark Captain Brann sounded the "Charge" and we began sailing for Japan.
 
A Japanese patrol boat heard the bugle and raced after us. Although I could shield our sight from the minds of the pursuing Japanese, the sounds of the bugle were something I could not disguise, not to so many at once. The Japanese laid down a barrage at the sound of the bugle, several hit near the life boat forcing me to drop our aura of invisibility and erect a mental barrier which kept us from harm. Each shell impact weakened the barrier so I could not withstand the shooting for long and told Brann.
 
Blowing taps, Brann swept his invisible bugle across the Japanese patrol boat three times in quick succession before all the Japanese had slumped over unconscious. We had neither the time nor the temperament to rescue two of the Japanese sailors who fell overboard.
 
When we reached the Japanese island of Honshu we would have to sail silently, supplemented by rowing. Brann bugle would have every patrol boat in the area chasing us. By mid-morning we reached the coast of Honshu, Brann collapsed into a deep and restless sleep. Mr. Morgue, Willie the Snake, Corporal Williams and Four Eyes rowed upstream on a rotating schedule.
 
By noon we were just outside of the mouth of the Bungo Channel.
 
No one but Brann knew which way to go. He was so deep in an exhausted sleep that it took the best part of fifteen minutes to wake him.
 
Brann stared at us with half lucid eyes.
 
"We need to know where to go, Captain." Williams said softly. He knew how sound carried on the water and did not want to alert anyone.
 
"There are four target sites. I don't know which one they have decided upon."
Not knowing of any other way, Brann reached out and contacted General MacArthur through their blood link. I used a good portion of my mental powers to supplement Brann's telepathic link, the rest was spent making certain we remained invisible.
 
MacArthur was surprised at the clarity Brann could mindspeak with him. Recognizing my mind pattern, MacArthur unconsciously revealed a deep and abiding contempt and hatred for me. He told Brann that the target city was Hiroshima and broke contact, eager to get my presence out of his mind
Brann frowned at hearing this name.
 
"Hiroshima is the most difficult of the projected targets, so far as we are concerned. Our mission in the other cities, Kobe, Tokyo or Kyoto would have been to locate and free the prisoners of war before Operation Centerboard took place.
 
"Hiroshima does not have a prisoner of war camp but since it is a major manufacturing city and a major communications hub it is heavily manned by military personnel and is heavily fortified. Our mission is to disable the anti-aircraft capabilities and the communications network."
 
Staring at Brann I asked, "When are they going to drop the bomb?"
 
"Goddamn you, stay out of my mind.'" screamed Brann. His voice echoed across the sun bright waters.
 
"I did not read your mind. I had deduced the nature of your mission from the first day. Despite having been on a tropical island, I have kept abreast of modern science and knew it was only a matter of time before a fission bomb was built. I had heard that Germany and the US were in a race to make one and so with Germany out of the picture, the US won the race. Being a rather parsimonious nation, I know the US would not spend so much time and finance on a weapon they did not intend on using.
 
"As for my involvement, since nothing else has seemed to destroy me, why not try what had created me, atomic radiation. MacArthur believes that this will be a good way to dispose of me and to his surprise I concur. So when is the due date for the birth of the new age?"
 
"Two days, provided the weather cooperates." Brann remarked, I could feel his distrust of me singing through the air like a high tension wire. He motioned for Williams to begin rowing. He sat back and lit his cigar with two matches and lay back puffing. His clouds of cigar smoke drifted out of our invisibility shield and hung over the ocean like a mist before slowly dissipating.
 
Having little time to waste, we set off immediately, sailing up the narrow, Bungo Channel. The Channel was very crowded with marine vessels and we had to sail and row without conversing. The trip was mainly a blank for me because almost all of my concentration was used in maintaining an invisible shield. If we were detected, the results could be fatal not only for the mission but for the US war effort. The nuclear strike was needed to end the war and save a million or so American lives.
 
After being inside the Bungo Channel for a few hours I began experiencing some very strange sensations. My powers faded steadily, then suddenly blossomed forth stronger than ever and slowly faded again. My companions noticed this waxing and waning because we fluxed in and out of visibility.
 
At first, I had trouble concentrating because there was a constant itching, buzzing crawling through my brain and a thousand of scrambled, jumbled discordant voices filled my ears with a distant static.
 
As we moved further into the Channel the buzzing became a hissing, growing steadily into a shrill, piercing whistle which filled my ears and mind with solid, white noise babble. The sound became solid spikes driven into my eardrums. My eyes watered leaching out the remnants of moisture in my head, specifically from my still vital eyes and brain. I realized that if I could not stop this process I would dry out, yet I would still live in some paralyzed, half life existence even worse than the one I already had.
 
Dropping the invisibility shield, I concentrated on the sound, investigating it telepathically. The sound became visible to my eyes, it was a flowing ocean surrounding us, an ocean of multicolored waves, particles, beams, webs and flickers of light.
 
"Four Eyes switch to infra red or ultraviolet eyes and tell me what you see."
Four Eyes did so and shrugged. "I just see a lot of radio transmissions and the radar net.
 
Having never been so close to such a massive outpouring of electro-magnetic energy I never thought that it would affect me so. This vast field of electro-magnetic energy shorted out my powers. I had unconsciously attempted to override it but without the proper energy signatures, it was like shoving to magnets with the same polarity together, all you get is repulsed.
 
Instead of going against the current, I had to find my way into the current and flow along with it.
 
We sat exposed along the side of Eta Jima island, in the Hiroshima bay for about a half an hour before I found the proper way of entering the energy field.
 
Once I flowed with the field, the pain and the pressure in my mind disappeared. The energy field throbbed beneath my mentality like rapids pushing a raft along towards a waterfall. The problem was keeping my mind from being swept along and over the edge. After a few moments I discovered a way of riding the currents without being sucked up by them. The energy field changed in my perception. It was not so much as a river or ocean but a vast electrical current like a light socket and I was a bulb ready to plugged in.
 
With some sense of excitement and fear, I plugged my mind into the electrical field.
 
My mind became a burning flame yet I felt no pain. A tidal wave comprising a million thoughts and sensations rode over me but like a surfer, I steered my way around them and rode the wave out.
 
The world became transparent and fluorescent at the same time, I could see the molecular, electrical, anatomical, atomic and chemical structures of everything surrounding me. Every mind near me became an open book. The power in this energy field was too much for my mind to utilize so I backed out of it, creating mental dampers letting through the amount of energy I needed.
 
Using but a small fraction of the electro-magnetic field, I created an impenetrable invisible barrier and siphoned energy into my fatigued companions. My skull, they tell me sat on the floor of the raft and glowed a brilliant pale green as my eyes burned with blinding blue lights.
 
This episode left me with a great deal of unease, if this little bit of energy could fill me with such power, then what might the power released from nuclear fission do to me? I wondered if we had all miscalculated. Being at the center of an atomic explosion might not kill me at all, it was conceivable that it might prolong my half life, driving me further into madness, filling me with unfathomable power, corrupting me even further.
 
For the sake of my soul and for the sake of the world I prayed that this would not be the case.
 
With renewed vigor, my companions rowed towards Hiroshima proper. We traveled along the west coast of Eta Jima Island and across Hiroshima bay.
Captain Brann had pulled out one of the four waterproof maps he had kept on his person.
 
One map showed Hiroshima and highlighted Company X's mission targets. Hiroshima was composed of six deltaic islands, looking much like a human hand, the fingers being the various islands. Eight rivers separated the islands from the mainland and from each other. About a hundred or so bridges connected the islands to one another. The Aioi bridge stood out because it connected the three middle islands in a T-shape, the commander of the bombing run had selected this bridge as his Aiming Point.
 
Not only was the Aioi bridge centrally located but it was quite near the Chogoku Regional Military Headquarters, the Hiroshima Communications Bureaus, the Kempe Tai (Secret Police) headquarters and Hiroshima Castle which contained ammunition and supply depots and the civil defense headquarters. Also in this general area were stationed some 40,000 soldiers.
 
Brann's mission was to cripple the communications and defense capabilities of the city prior to the attack. This was to ensure the safety of the bombers and to prevent a military evacuation of the target site, rendering the strike ineffectual.
Once their mission was complete Company X was to get as far from the city as they could and hole up until the invasion or surrender. There was a good chance they would not escape in time but they were willing to take that chance.
 
Their orders concerning me had been to capture and transport me to the target site. The lead lined box I was supposed to be imprisoned within was to be dropped into the Aioi river just under the bridge. MacArthur hoped I would be vaporized when the bomb detonated. However since I had volunteered to go along with my execution, Brann offered me to choice of being dropped off at the bridge or accompanying them on their mission.
 
I told them I would decide when we reached the Aiming Point.
 
We reached the mouth of the Motoyasu river at 10:00 p.m. on July 5, 1945. My companions rowed slowly and silently up the river. Four Eyes kept a close look out, using his night vision. I maintained the invisibility shield, a mere child's play with all the energy at my disposal. The difficult part was in not pulling into much energy or to lose my mind in the barrage of a million thoughts swirling about in the energy field.
 
"Captain, I thought Hiroshima was on the no hit list." Four Eyes asked. He referred to cities not bombed by U.S. Planes.
 
"Yeah, it and the other possible target sites. why?
 
"Looks like somebody bombed the mess out of them. They got all this rubble just piled up in big, fat rows."
 
"Ain't bombing, its a firebreak. They got three of them in the city. They know its only a matter of time before they get bombed, Hiroshima being a major port and industrial town.' Mr. Morgue informed us. He answered Williams stare. "The submarine we took over was named INSIDE SEA and that refers the area around the Hiroshima. The Captain was from Hiroshima and knew what was going on in his home town."
 
Brann told Four Eyes to give him a running commentary of what he saw and for Mr. Morgue to interpret it. Brann reasoned it would give us some current intelligence.
 
The Motoyasu river had been a densely populated area but with the devastation of homes pulled down to make fire breaks, the river banks were mighty thinned out. Four Eyes saw very little road traffic. Mr. Morgue explained that all private autos had been confiscated for metal as had all taxis. The only vehicles allowed on the streets were military vehicles, transportation and supply trucks and bicycles.
 
Mr. Morgue said that the naval blockade and the loss of the Chinese territories showed how badly the war was going for the Japanese home islands.
Very few supplies were being shipped into this major port, except for military supplies. The ordinary people were subsisting on a bowl of rice and a few vegetables a day. They had taken to eating reeds, brambles or sorrel as a rice substitute. Grubs, beetles and worms of all kinds were roasted and eaten. Coal for heating was becoming scarce and balled up and charred newspapers soaked in water were used instead. Clothing was so scarce that men and women wore the same sort of outfit, a high necked buttoned jacket and trousers. The only available soap was made of rice bran and caustic soda.
 
Kindergartens and middle schools were closed, the children drafted into volunteer brigades to pull down houses and add to the firebreaks. Children from twelve upwards and all sound and healthy adults were drafted to work at the munitions factories.
 
The peak population of Hiroshima had been 340,000 due to forced evacuations there were now only 280,000 left. 70,000 homes had been destroyed to make the firebreaks.
 
This was a nation on the verge of collapse. To Four Eyes remark on this matter, Mr. Morgue said that this was quite probably true, however the military faction in power would not surrender so easily. They were training the common people to fight a guerrilla war if necessary, children were being taught to make and throw soda bottle bombs and old folks were training with bamboo spears. An invasion would be costly in Allied lives.
 
As we neared the Aioi Bridge, I felt the energy field increase about me. More effort was required to dampen the energy flowing into me and to keep errant thoughts from creeping into my mind. Distantly a flicker of a familiar thought pattern passed by my mind. It was not someone I recognized but amongst the thousands of minds thinking in Japanese, someone was thinking in English. Extending my consciousness, I experienced the emotions of fear, anger and despair. Ghost pains shot through my mind as I established a slight mind link, he had been badly beaten and was in serious pain. Nearby I found several more similar minds.
 
"Captain Brann, there are American prisoners in Hiroshima." I whispered in my bodiless voice.
 
"What! There's not supposed to be a camp here."
 
"There isn't, they’re the remaining members of a flight crew shot down a few days ago. They are being held in the Castle."
 
"Damnation! Well we can t let them boys get blowed up if we can help it. Mr. Morgue, you and the Bear do what damage you can to the communications and defense capabilities. Four Eyes and I will try and get them boys out."
 
"Find me a body and I will go with you, Captain Brann. ' I said, feeling caught up in the patriotic moment.
 
Brann gave me a look like he swallowed something bitter. "Very well, once we are ashore, Mr. Williams procure a body for El Head. Four Eyes proceed to the radar and defense stations disable them discreetly. Mr. Morgue disable what vehicles you can and the cable car line. Snakeman eliminate the Mayor and any Commanding military officers you can find. Corporal Williams, take out what anti-aircraft positions you can locate. Since time is short, we will not make a rendezvous. As soon as you complete your missions, head for the hills as fast as you can. Godspeed to you all.
 
The members of Company X discarded their distinctive jump suits and headgear, wanting to be taken as downed servicemen rather than spies. By now they knew they had nothing to fear from me. They shook each others hands when we reached the Aioi bridge. Mr. Morgue sank the boat while Williams lumbered off. In the dark distance we heard a roar and a scream. Williams returned carrying a body under his left arm. It was a young soldier about seventeen years old.
 
Captain Brann hewed off the head and the others held up the body and placed me upon it. As I adjusted to my new body, the three noncoms of Company X hurried off to fulfill their missions.