Nathan Pedde - Tokyo Tempest

“Come in.” Captain Yusako said in English, “You two look well done.” The Captain turned to Darren, “And you look an absolute mess. What happened? Mud fight? Anyways, I’d offer you some tea, but I don’t have the means to heat it up this early in the morning, and we have a shelter packed with refugees to look after.”

“No issues.” Darren said in Japanese, “We only wish to give you a message.”

“The Gaijin speaks Japanese.” Captain Yusako said, “The accent is off, but it is pretty good.”

“I have a good tutor,” Darren said.

“Yes. Well.” Captain Yusako said, “What is the message?”

Darren handed the Captain the paper note.

“Lt. Harrito is on the hill in the tsunami zone. Its packed with refugees, and they need an evacuation.” Darren said.

The Captain nodded.

“So some survived over there.” Captain Yusako said, “Good, We’ll get them out. Can I pick your brain for a moment?”

“If I can answer the question, I will,” Darren said.

“How bad is it?”

“In the tsunami zone?”

“Yes.”

“Unless they were on the top of the building and it didn’t get knocked down, they’re all dead,” Darren said coldly.

“I thought so.” Captain Yusako said.

“If its not too bold for me to say so, some trucks with mud tires or helicopters might be able to find a few survivors if they got lucky.”

“That’s good advice.” The Captain said, “I remember the last tsunami and that was a big lesson that we learned.”

Darren nodded.

“Listen, if you want, you can stay here in the shelter.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I need to find my family. My dad and my younger brother are out there somewhere. Not to mention Yuki’s family. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t try to find them.”

The Captain shuffled the papers on his desk. Darren got a distinct feeling that the conversation was over.

“Can I ask you a question?” Darren asked.

“If I can answer it, I will.” The Captain said.

“How big is this disaster?” Darren asked.

The Captain’s face was a grim mask as he stared at Darren. After a few moments, he spoke up.

“The east coast of Japan has been hit.” The Captain said, “The west coast is relatively undamaged from the Tsunami, but I’m unsure how bad it is as we have no radio communication. Judging from the amount of destruction from those earthquakes, I would say that every part of Japan has taken extensive damage. Every family all over Japan is going to have lost someone today.”

“What about Canada? America?”

“You’re referencing the Yellowstone eruption.” The Captain said.

Darren nodded.

“Well,” The Captain said, “That’s not the only seismic activity that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, and I don’t think it’ll be the last. And like I said, with no communication, we have no idea what the United States is like. I would assume the worse.”

“So we aren’t getting any help from outside Japan.”

“I’m not going to sugar coat things.” The Captain said, “Things are bad, things are really bad. But if we stick together and work together, then we will get through this.”

Darren gave a bow.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Darren said.

The Captain nodded and then rang a small bell.

A young girl that looked about the age of twelve entered.

“Yes, father?” The girl said.

“Get these two some MRI’s.” He said, then turned to Darren, “There are two of you?”

“Three, sir,” Darren said, “The third is guarding our bikes.”

“Get six MRI’s for these two.” The Captain said.

The girl had their rewards for them a few seconds later. Darren and Yuki packed them away into a bag.

“Thank you,” Darren said.

“I have one more thing for you three to do for me.” The Captain said, “If you mind.”

“Not at all,” Darren said.

“I’d like you to get out of Tokyo.” The Captain said, “Things are going to get bad here. Get away from the coast. Things will be safer there.”

Darren nodded, and he turned to leave.

“How did you get covered in mud?” The Captain asked.

“I fell into a giant pile of muck in the Tsunami zone.”

“Would you like a change of clothes?”

“No thank you. I have some in my bag, plus it has already dried.”

“If you’re still here when it gets dark, I can get you a set of clothes, but it’ll be army get up.”

“I’m not sure where I’m gonna be tonight, but thanks.”

Darren and Yuki left the building.

Sakiko was standing next to the bikes.

“You’re back.” Sakiko said, “Thank god.”

“What happened?” Darren asked.

“Nothing.” Sakiko said, “But this guy is a stick in the mud and doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”

“I am working. Unlike you.” said the young guard.

“That’s nice.” Sakiko said, “Did you bring food? I’m starving.”

“Yes, we did.” Darren said, “We’ll eat it once we get to a safe place.”

Darren looked at the groups of rescuers working on a nearby building. He could feel himself being silently judged by a few of them. It felt like a set of knives running down his spine.

The three of them rode away from the shelter. Darren led them down some side streets and made some random turns to see if they were being followed and if so by whom.

After ten minutes, Darren determined that they weren’t being followed.

“We should eat over there,” Darren said pointing to a small sheltered area next to a building. The covered area was built in a way that you could hide in it and not be watched by a hundred people from every window in the area.

Darren got off his bike and crouched down on the ground. Yuki and Sakiko did the same.

“Why are we eating here?” Sakiko asked.

“Because people can’t see us.” Yuki said, “I like it.”

“What does that matter?”

“Because from now on, we’re gonna be dealing with an increasing amount of people that will have no food.” Yuki said, “They’ll have a sob story that they need food, but if we give all of our food away, then we will have nothing.”

“But they can get food from the shelter,” Sakiko said.

“For now.” Darren said, “But what happens when the shelter runs out of food?”

Sakiko was silent. Her face showed that she was lost in thought.

“I think that we need to adopt a gray man approach to things,” Yuki said.

“What is a grey man?” Darren asked.

“We need to seem uninteresting, unimportant, and in the background.” Yuki said, “We need to empty these packs at the storage unit, and if we go around then they should be mostly empty.”

“I think I get it.” Darren said, “We want to be quickly forgotten when we talk to people. Not unhelpful, but just not noteworthy. That way we can be invisible and not a target.”

“Exactly.” Yuki said, she turned to Sakiko, “What do you think?”

“I’m not sure what to think.” Sakiko said, “I’m trying to keep positive, but its hard.”

“I know,” Yuki said as she gave Sakiko a hug.

“We need to fix her hair color.” Darren said, “Pink hair stands out too much.”

“Dirt for now.” Yuki said, “Maybe dye later.”

“It’ll fade out in a week or two,” Sakiko said.

“Didn’t you bleach your hair?” Yuki asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you’d be a blond Japanese girl,” Yuki said.

“Fine, mud then,” Sakiko said.

Darren pulled out an MRI package from the backpack. The MRI was a block of hard bread substance that was vacuum sealed in a grey plastic wrapping. He quickly reopened the bag and removed the block of food.