Chapter 4, Part 4 of 4
Liu Minamoto Kang
Cambodia, January 1968.
The Vietnam War.
Liu slowly creeped out of the room, and immediately started scouring the
area for points of interest. It was nightfall, that much was apparent; and
there were a squad of ten or so VC soldiers in different areas of the camp.
Liu opened up the pistol and was horrified to find there was only one bullet
the chamber on the gun. "Well," he whispered quietly to himself, "If I get
captured again, I at least have one last way out of this hell hole." He sighed
and tucked the pistol into the front of his pants, and slowly moved to
behind the shack. Recalling the conversation moments prior in the
interrigation room with the imposter of Lt. Richmond, Liu was in search of
the body pile where his real lieutenant laid. Kang was taught early on in his
service to always go back to double check if given the opportunity, and at
the very least, recover the dog tags. As Liu crept closer in the pitch black
area of the camp, he was met with the most god awful smell in his life.
Hundreds of slaughtered men lay in a mountain of gore, decomposed flesh
spoiled the land around these unfortunate soldiers, and the flies and
maggots were pulsating around them. Liu tried with every fiber of his being
to hold back, but the smell was too piercing and he let forth an explosion of
vomit. Liu knew he was in for it, as he heard footsteps swiftly approaching
his direction. A patrolling VC trooper had heard the sound of Liu vomiting,
and was eager to find out who was sniffing around the camp so he could
unload a fresh clip of lead into them. Liu picked himself up off the ground
and looked to his left, and then to his right. There was nowhere to run or
hide, he was met with an impossible end. As he heard the swift pace turn
into a run around the corner of the shack, Liu suddenly knew what he must
do. He shuddered and slapped his own face to prepare for the absolute
worse, and dove into the pile of bodies.
It was a thousand times worse than Liu had prepared for, the twisted
mounds of rotten muscle and snapped bones engulfed him like a blanket.
Hand over his mouth and one eye shut, he held back a scream of disgust as
he peered out of a slight hole in the pile, made possible by a man's elbow
and another man's torso. He saw the Veit Cong trooper survey the area,
never once looking towards the pile, only at the ground where had vomited.
The VC shrugged and had just turned away to leave when he heard Liu's
sigh of relief. Liu looked through the pile again and noticed the trooper had
stopped dead in his tracks, and had tightened the grip around his rifle. "Oh,
f*ck!" Liu desperately cried in his head as he turned over in the pile and
punched what he thought was a severed head in anger. "Ugh!" the head let
forth a groan of dull pain as the eyes opened up. "AHHH!!!!!" Liu screamed
as loud as he could, clawing his way out of the pile. "Ghuuuaaa!!!" the VC
soldier was also taken by full shock at the Liu's scream of agony and started
randomly firing shots from his gun into the sky and surrounding area. Liu
made his way out of the pile, and didn't care if he was about to be shot as
long as he was away from that talking dead guy. Just then, Liu noticed a
faint glowing light inside of the pile, it was bright blue and it was growing
bigger by the second. The VC guard had turned to Liu after he had calmed
down, and pointed his rifle into Liu's face. The Viet Cong was barking some
orders at Liu that he obviously didn't understand.. Liu's eyes were fixated on
the light inside the body pile. "Hey, look!" Liu cried as the VC was getting
ready to aim down the iron sights of his gun. Liu pointed at the light and the
trooper sneered and gave the pile a quick glance. Just as Liu broke his
glance of the pile, he noticed the trooper's head was no longer on his
shoulders; and it was laying on the ground and enveloped in electricty.
"What in God's name..." Liu muttered in exasperation as he looked up and
was met with a man in tattered US army camo, long grey hair, and the dog
tags that read "Lt. R. Richmond." "Holy shit!" Liu said in pure confusion,
"YOU'RE RICHMOND?!"
"Yeah, I mean, I guess you can call me that." Richmond said with a laugh as
he shook off the pieces of body parts he was still covered in. "And who
might you be, Mr. Punch-happy? I was having a nice little nap before you
came along and socked me in the nose. No, but seriously, thanks for that. I
didn't know a punch could bring someone back to 'Life' haha." "Uhh.. yeah,
I'm Liu Kang of 4th company, Bravo camp. I was assigned to your station
before you were.. struck by lightn---How the HELL did you do that to that
guard, anyways, Richmond??!!" Liu said in utter confusion, holding his head
just to try to make sense of it all. Richmond laughed softly and opened his
mouth to answer when Liu saw his jaw drop and eyes grow huge. "What? Is
there a VC behing me?" Liu laughed as he turned around and was met with
"The Beast."
An 9 foot tall, 500 lb ogre of a man, the beast loomed over the two humans
with his eyes fixed hungrily on the pile. Liu stared with his mouth agape, eyes transfixed on the four arms this creature possesed, and how hulking they were compared to his realtively slim frame. The monster belched out a human's skull and crouched down to meet Liu at eye level. This beast took Liu by shock as he opened his mouth and spoke the words, "I am Goro. Shokan Prince and Champion of Mortal Kombat for 500 years, human. Now, I must ask you.. why are you MEDDELING IN MY FOOD?!!" Goro slammed a pair of his fists into Liu's sternum, breaking every single rib in his body. Goro jumped up and down in anger, and Liu looked around him in hopes of Richmond, and was met with nothing. Goro grabbed Liu's broken body up from the ground and screamed into his face, "Do you know how long it takes for me to gather up that many humans to satisfy my hunger?! And you go around and stick your hands where they don't belong." Goro was seething with anger as he lifted his first set of arms high in the air, while the other set still grabbed Liu tightly. "I am the Champion of Mortal Kombat, fool!" Goro yelled proudly, head held high. "There is no man who can oppose me, I can not be broken!" Goro laughed and heard a small voice from the body he was about to consume. "What was that, human?!" Goro screamed as Liu held his head down, the blood now flowing freely from Liu's mouth as Goro's grip began to make his internal organs explode. Liu let forth a little laugh, broke an arm free from Goro's grasp, grabbed the pistol from the front of his pants, and fired the one round directly into Goro's mouth.
The monster known as Goro fell to his knees, instantly dead from the one shot in Liu's gun. With the grip finally broken, Liu laid on his back and watched the sun rise over the war torn Cambodia. He reached under his hat, and grabbed the cigar the imposter had given him a few days prior. Searching in his pocket for his zippo lighter he kept for special occasions, Liu broke the tip free of the cigar and propped himself up against a rock, all the time suffering from excruciating pain. Liu lit the cigar, and took a deep inhale as the pain began to numb, death approaching him fast. Liu closed his eyes and the next thing he knew he was in a very wide, bright room.
Richmond was there, but he wasn't in uniform.. instead, he was wearing white and blue robes and a rice hat. "Ah, I see we are met with the new champion of Mortal Kombat!" was the greeting from Richmond. "Richmond.. what are you talking about.. where am I?" "We are far away from earthrealm, I teleported you here before you suffered death from your battle wounds, and please, refer to me now as Lord Raiden." Liu's eyes began wider and he realized he was standing in a circle, surrounded by a group of men and women that were larger than life. "Outstanding work on defeating Goro, Liu Kang," they all spoke in unison "As the new champion of Mortal Kombat, you are hereby granted immortality for your actions." Raiden gave the shaken Liu a wink and spoke to these enormous men and women, "Elder Gods, I ask you if it were to be suitable if we let the new champion learn a more suitable way to combat enemies next time... perhaps study under the Master Bo Rai Cho?" Liu's head was spinning at all of this as he faintly heard the "Elder Gods" accept "Raiden's" training offer. "Hey Rich--I mean, Lord Raiden." Raiden smiled as he crossed his arms and replied, "Yeah, kid?" "How long is this training going to take?" Liu asked. "Don't worry about it, Liu. You got the rest of you life to learn Bo Rai Cho's teachings. And besides, your immortal now! So that's forever to learn. And I have a feeling your going to be a little bit more prepared when someone challenges you to Mortal Kombat."
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