Darren held his hands out.
“It looks like I got you.” Toroto said.
“Do you now.” A familiar voice said from behind Toroto.
Toroto collapsed to his knees and fell to the ground. Standing behind him was Yuki. She had a baseball bat in her hands. She raised it up once more.
“Wait.” Darren said, “Do you want to kill him?”
Yuki pointed at the many dead bodies in the shed.
“You have a point.” Darren said.
Yuki brought the bat down. The force of the blow cracked on the man’s head. Darren saw the cranial cavity cave in and squish flat. Yuki raised the bat once more and the bat sunk deeper into Toroto’s head.
“I thought I was about to die.” Darren said.
Yuki wrapped her arms around Darren.
“I thought I was going to lose you too and be left alone in this world.” Yuki said.
Darren grabbed the rifle. It was a bolt action rifle.
“That bastard was bluffing.” Darren said.
“What?”
Darren aimed the rifle at the wall and pulled the trigger. The rifle went click. He operated the action of the rifle, and a spent brass casing flew out.
He loaded up a fresh one from the chamber. Yuki quickly checked Hana to see if she was alive, and seeing that she wasn’t, Yuki said a small prayer over her.
Darren grabbed a small box of shells from a bench as well as a few that were in Toroto’s pockets. Darren wondered if the old man was crazy or if he had snapped due to being quarantined in the city.
“Let’s get out of here,” Yuki said.
Darren nodded.
They walked back across the road and into the apartment. The home was quiet now that Hana wasn’t there. Darren had no intention of staying in the apartment for too long.
“Grab what you can,” Darren said.
Yuki nodded.
“Sounds good.”
Hana’s cupboards were surprisingly empty of food. In a cabinet was a machete tapped to a broom handle. Darren took the machete off the broom handle and took it.
“What?” Darren said, “We need weapons.”
Yuki picked up the hunting rifle. Darren couldn’t see what the caliber of the rifle was. He would check that later, when he had time.
After an hour, a loud horn sounded.
“Time to go.” Darren said.
Yuki nodded.
They carried the bikes back down the stairs and out into the city once more. The ash still fell in thick globs from the sky.
Chapter 23
Darren and Yuki rode slowly down the street. The city seemed to come to life. Darren held his fedora down over his eyes and his scarf over his face. The ash-fall fell steadily from the sky. As they rode their bikes, he saw many people huddled by small burn barrels. People looked at them nervously as they rode past, but no one thought to try and stop them.
The people all looked tired. Like there was a party they had gone to that they were recovering from. But Darren knew that there was no party. It was too many days huddled scared in the dark, while they watched their food supply dwindle by the day. A couple stores had their doors open. Hand painted signs adorned the building. “No Food.” “No Water.” “Cash Only.”
It looked like merchants were still trying to stay open, but with no trucks coming in with new merchandise to sell, Darren wondered how long they were going to be open.
They rode their bikes past an alley, and a foul stench reached out from the lane. It smelled like it was a bathroom in there.
Darren looked over at Yuki. He could tell that new tears had poured down her face. But Yuki was doing everything that she could do to be strong.
Debris stretched out before them, and the buildings disappeared. They reached the end of the town. The other area in front of them was the Tsunami zone.
Darren and Yuki stopped at the edge of the Tsunami zone. There were some buildings still standing in the area. But there were no people.
“What are you thinking?” Yuki asked.
“The pickings are thin out there.” Darren said, “But the place looks deserted.”
“Remember the hill where we got the bikes?” Yuki said, “Maybe there?”
“Let’s go look,” Darren said.
Darren and Yuki rode down the deserted street. Piles of drying mush and debris were piled along the sides of the road. Darren saw piles of broken cars, and in the distance, he saw a fishing boat.
“Fishing boat.” Darren said, “Maybe there’s some food in that.”
“Won’t that be picked through already?” Yuki said.
“Only one way to find out.”
Darren rode along the debris to the boat. The ash fall made a covered the dried muck that covered the road in a thin veil. Darren looked behind himself, his tracks were visible in the ash.
He approached the boat and rode up to the low side. Due to how the hull of it was built, the boat sat on the ground in a lopsided way. It leaned to one side.
Darren looked at the boat. It looked like it was unoccupied, but he knew that could be deceiving.
“Are you going in?” Yuki asked.
“Yes.” Darren said, “We need supplies. As it looks like we are stuck in Tokyo for the time being and no one is selling stuff that we need.”
“And if someone comes?” Yuki asked.
“Got a whistle?” Darren asked.
“Yes.”
“If you see someone, blow it,” Darren said.
Darren pulled an empty backpack from the child carrier and slipped it on his back. He climbed up the side of the boat. Getting onto the side was hard. He had to use the seat of his bike to get onto it. Darren walked on the deck of the boat. His footsteps echoed as he walked towards the single hatch. Darren looked at the deck. No signs of human footsteps were on the deck. Or at least not in the layers of ash.
Darren approached the door to the cabin. The hatch was slightly ajar. He pushed it open and took a quick look. Light poured into the cabin from the many windows. Shadows danced across the walls of the two-story structure. Darren knew that the bridge would be on the second level. The lower level was the living quarters.
Darren entered the cabin. A foul stench filled his nostrils. It was so bad that he tasted it. The smell was one of rotting fish.
Darren gagged and spat into the ash on the deck.
The ship looked like it had been abandoned. Clothing and tools lay on the ground where they had fallen. No sane person would live somewhere with that stench in the air.
A can of food sat on the ground. Darren put it into the bag as he searched the cabin. He found more cans of food, as well as a can opener, and a hatchet.
Darren walked out of the cabin with his backpack full of stuff. Darren walked to the edge of the deck and looked down at Yuki. She sat in the dust with her knees to her chest. Tears poured down her face.
“Yuki,” Darren said.
Yuki jerked up.
“Are you okay?” Darren said.
“No.” Yuki said, “I can’t stop crying.”
“It’s okay.” Darren said, “One moment.”
Darren walked along the deck and searched the area. No one was around. Like before, there was no sign of life in the area around the ship. In the distance, Darren saw the hill. The one where they had taken refuge from the tsunami.
He walked to the deck and jumped from the deck to the ground. He knees protested from the sudden jolt, but he was unhurt.
“I found lots of stuff.” Darren said, “The hold is full of rotting fish. No one has gone into it.”
“That’s good,” Yuki said.
Darren put the bag into the child carrier. He sat behind Yuki and wrapped his arms around Yuki.
“Do you know why Sakiko went back?” Yuki asked.
“No. I hadn’t the time to really look.”