“Why do you want to know?” Darren asked.
“I’m curious.” Yuki said, “I’ve never been out of Tokyo before.”
“I’m from a small city called Vancouver.” Darren said, “Its a quaint little town of three million.”
“So small that everyone knows each other?”
“Pretty much.” Darren said, “But not really.”
Yuki snuggled into him.
“I need a weapon.” Yuki said, “I need to be able to defend myself.”
“I agree.” Darren said, “But isn’t it illegal to carry weapons?”
“Yes.” Yuki said, “But you do.”
“I have a small handgun that I can hide,” Darren said.
“And?”
“If we find another handgun, then you get it.” Darren said, “Deal?”
“Deal,” Yuki said, “What do we do now?”
Darren looked out. The sun was high in the sky. The dim, reddish glow still glowed eerily in the sky.
“The sun is out.” Darren said, “And I have the master key to this building. I say we should explore it. See what else we can find.”
Darren and Yuki spent the next few days exploring the building. They would use the master key ring to open up the apartments and see what else they could find. Most apartments were in a state of disarray. Most of it was from the earthquakes and the sudden departure of the panicked occupant.
Darren discovered that there had been lots of things left behind. They refused to search through fridges, instead concentrated on cupboards and pantries. They found cans of fish, curry, and others. To Darren it was great. But the amount of food they were pulling from each apartment was a can or two each.
Darren knew they would be able to fill one carrier, but not two. If they were lucky. There wasn’t enough food in the apartment building. They would have to leave to find more.
Darren didn’t want to leave. He knew that he had to, it wasn’t sustainable to live there. There had to be someplace better.
“Did anyone in this building buy groceries?” Darren asked.
“Doesn’t look like they did.” Yuki said, “Its a company building. Most people ate out because they worked too much.”
“Well.” Darren said, “At least we found some stuff.”
Chapter 26
Days rolled by. Darren and Yuki hid in the apartment building. Darren watched groups of people wander by the building. He knew that they were getting desperate and had spread out their search for more food. Darren knew that the apartment building was a treasure trove.
The problem they had was water. Their water supply was down to about half of what they had left the storage building with. Darren knew that they had to get some more clean water.
The problem was that the rainwater they were able to collect always had bits of ash in it. And it was hard to filter out. Darren managed to clean the water by filtering the water through a rag, then boiling it, then filtering it again. Or he had to filter it a couple times before he used a clean water tablet.
The first solution used a lot of fuel. The second used precious water purifier tablets. Darren wasn’t happy with either solution.
“We should plan to leave,” Yuki said.
It was day fourteen of the disaster. So much had changed since his brother had stepped off that plane. It seemed like it was a lifetime ago, but Darren knew that it was only two weeks.
“I know.” Darren said, “This is a nice stopover, and we could scavenge our way through the tower, but how much more are we going to find?”
“And eventually someone else will get into the tower.” Yuki said, “Then we’ll have to fight them.”
“Yeh. Best to leave here.” Darren said, “Get past the roadblocks and then into the countryside.”
Darren looked outside. Rain poured down from the sky as torrents of rain drenched everything outside.
“We’ll leave tomorrow.” Darren said, “I have no intention of leaving in that.”
Darren and Yuki lounged on the couch. They ate the last MRI they had. He knew that he was too used to this.
As the day turned to night, they fell asleep on the couch in each other’s arms. In the middle of the night, something woke Darren up with a start.
A stink filled the apartment. A foul odor that smelled of sewer.
Darren grabbed the flashlight and shined it at the apartment. Pouring out of the bathroom was a layer of brown water on the floor.
“Gross,” Darren said.
“What is that?” Yuki asked.
“I’m not sure what’s going on, but water is coming out of the bathroom,” Darren said.
“It’s still raining out.” Yuki said, “But I guess its a good time as any to leave.”
Darren and Yuki gathered the last of their supplies and packed the child carriers. With brown sewer water lapping at their feet and running down the stairs, the process of packing the carriers down the stairs was more laborious. The carriers were now heavier than they were before.
But the process was uneventful. With the carriers and the bikes at the bottom of the stairs, Darren pulled the master key ring. He put the key to the stairs in the door handle of the stairwell. He let the keyring hang from that one key.
“What are you doing?” Yuki asked.
“I don’t want to carry that heavy thing around anymore,” Darren said.
“And?”
“If someone else wants to venture into that sewer smelling building to find what we didn’t get, then that’s fine.” Darren said, “They can have it.”
“I guess that’s true.” Yuki said, “I don’t plan on coming back here anytime soon.”
Darren pulled his jacket tighter, as well as his fedora. His scarf hung loosely on his jacket, waiting to go if the ash started to fall again.
“What time is it?” Yuki asked.
Darren looked at his watch.
“Its four in the morning,” Darren said.
“The time to leave is now though,” Yuki said.
With rain still pouring down from the sky, Darren left the apartment building. The land was as dark as it could be, but near the horizon, the moon shined brightly in the night sky. Using that little light, they rode through the streets away from the apartment.
They kept away from the Color Gang Hill. Darren had no intention of running into them again. If he was lucky, he could get into the standing part of the city without too much trouble.
The rain stopped after an hour of riding, but his feet were already soaked. Darren knew that it was going to be a miserable day.
He had searched his dad’s apartment for better shoes that fit him, but his dad had small feet.
The reddish sun rose into the sky as it became easier to see. The terrain stayed the same, though. The caked muck mixed with ash was everywhere. Wrecked cars, trucks, and boats were scattered along in almost random places. Darren followed Yuki as they navigated their way around the wrecks and into the city.
The city was the remains of Tokyo. The city had been wrecked by near-constant earthquakes and aftershocks. Parts of houses and buildings had been damaged, and Darren began to see more bodies lying in the streets. He didn’t look too closely at them to see how they died. He didn’t care too much to find out.
Stepping from behind a couple wrecked cars were a half-dozen teenagers. The teens looked dirty, with their clothes covered in ash. Wrapped around their waists were a strips of colored fabric. Darren and Yuki were ambushed by a color gang. They all held weapons, like pipes and chains.
Darren saw that in amongst the colors was Michio Asahara and his little sister Emiko Asahara. They both looked similar to when Darren had seen him last. Their clothes were dirtier, and their faces were a little thinner. Strapped to Michio’s waist was a samurai sword.
“I see that we meet again.” Darren said, “Long time.”