Nathan Pedde - Tokyo Tempest

“Why are we hiding?” Yuki said.

“Gray man principle. Do not bring attention to your self.” Darren said.

“Right.” Yuki said, “I told you that.”

After a couple minutes the people left the view of the window. Yuki stared out the window and at the sky as if something was wrong with it.

“Look outside.” Yuki said, “Do you notice anything?”

“Maybe.” Darren said, “The streets are filled with trash and wreckage?”

“No.” Yuki said, “Look at the sky. Does that look right to you?”

Darren looked at the sky. The sun, while bright, was muted somehow. It was dim and redder than it should have been. Darren looked at a parked car. Thin grey powder coated the car.

“The sky isn’t normal.” Darren said, “And is that snow?”

“I think its ash,” Yuki said.

“We better grab what we’re looking for and get back to Sakiko,” Darren said.

Darren looked around the small office from where he hid. A couple small rooms were to one side of the office.

“Where do those doors go to, I wonder,” Darren said.

“Break-room and managers office.” Yuki said, “There are signs on the doors.”

Darren looked out the window.

“Let’s go,” Darren said.

They walked across the office to the break room. They shut the door behind them.

A thin set of windows stretched across the top of exterior walls. Off to one side was a row of three lockers with padlocks. A large table wast in the middle of the room and a sink and counter-top to the other side of the room. A small bar fridge was underneath the counter top.

Darren walked over to the sink and turned it on. Nothing came out of the tap.

“Thought so.” Darren said, “No running water. The earthquake must have broken something.”

“Try those lockers with your bar,” Yuki said.

Darren walked over to one of the lockers. The locker had a flimsy lock on it. The kind you could get at a dollar store. Using his crowbar and an ample amount of force and noise, Darren busted the locker open.

Inside the locker was a pair of steel-toed work boots and a safety vest. Darren picked up the boots. They were very tiny.

“Yuki,” Darren said, “There’s a pair of boots in here. Do you think you can fit these?”

Yuki looked at them.

“No.” She said, “They’re too small for me.”

“What about for Sakiko?”

“No,” Yuki said, “Her feet are even bigger than mine.”

Darren tossed them back in the locker, and he moved to the next locker. With the same amount of force and effort, the following locker opened up.

“What’s in this one?” Yuki asked.

Darren looked in the locker. This one was covered in pictures of a small family. On the top shelf was a box with a needle in it, hanging on the hook was a waterproof jacket and on the floor was a pair of rubber boots. The boots looked like they would fit Darren.

“I have boots for me, a jacket for Sukiko and some drugs,” Darren said.

He handed the needle to Sukiko.

“What is it?” Darren asked.

Yuki looked at the needle for a few minutes.

“Its an epipen.” Yuki said, “It’s for people that are allergic to bees or peanuts. We can trade this. This’ll save someone’s life.”

Yuki put the epipen in her backpack. She searched through the cupboards. In it were coffee and sugar. A small first aid kit also found its way into her bag.

Darren broke open the last locker. He only found rotten food and garbage.

“This guy was a slob,” Darren said.

Yuki covered her nose and prepared to open the door to the small fridge.

“What are you doing?” Darren asked.

“I’m preparing myself for the stench of a lifetime,” Yuki said.

“I’m sorry.” Darren said, “I don’t understand.”

“A couple years ago, the power went out for a week.” Yuki said, “The fridge smelled so bad that we had to throw it out and buy a new one.”

Yuki opened the door. The fridge didn’t smell at all.

“There’s your problem.” Darren said in English with a bad Australian accent, “Powers out.”

“Funny man.”

“Not my best work.” Darren said, “Anything in there?”

“Old Pizza and some half full cans of soda,” Yuki said as she closed the fridge door.

Darren opened the break room door to peek if anyone was in view from the window. Seeing that no one was in sight, Darren walked over to the office door. The door was locked.

“This is getting annoying,” Darren said.

“How are you going to get it open?” Yuki asked.

Darren lifted up a boot and kicked the door open. The door handle busted apart, and the door opened.

“Destruction of property,” Yuki said.

“Only a little,” Darren said.

The office was small in size. A simple wooden desk was in the middle of the room. A filing cabinet was off to one side of the office. A large leather chair sat behind the desk.

“We could take the chair.” Darren said, “Have some comfort.”

“Really?”

“Sarcasm.” Darren said, “We don’t need a chair.”

Darren rifled through the desk. He couldn’t read some of the papers on the desk, but he could understand most of them. They looked like they were account listings. To Darren, it was uninteresting for him to look at.

“What are you looking for?” Yuki said, “You can’t read the paper.”

Darren picked up a piece of paper.

“This says, ‘account’ right?” Darren asked, “I can read some. I’m just very slow at it.”

“I’m joking,” Yuki said.

“I know.”

Darren pulled the desk drawer. It was locked. Darren put the crowbar up to the desk drawer and heaved at it. The front of the desk drawer pulled open.

“Success.” Darren said, “Are those filing cabinets unlocked?”

“Not sure,” Yuki said.

She pulled the door handle.

“They’re locked,” Yuki said.

“One moment,” Darren said.

Darren used the crowbar to break open the other side of the desk drawers.

“Can you look at the desk and see if there’s anything you think we might need?” Darren said.

Yuki nodded.

Darren used the crowbar to pry open the metal filing cabinet. It took more effort than the desk did.

“There’s nothing important in here.” Yuki said, then after a pause, “Oh, there’s a chocolate bar in here.” Yuki dug around in the desk drawer, “There are a bunch of chocolate bars in here.”

“Grab them,” Darren said.

With a thunderous bang, the filing cabinet flew open.

“Success,” Darren said.

Darren searched through the metal drawers. There was nothing significant in them. When he was exploring the bottom cabinet, Darren noticed that the bottom cabinet was different.

“That’s funny.” Darren said, “The bottom cabinet drawer is different than the other two.”

Darren lifted and slid the drawer out of the filing cabinet. In the cabinet was a large metal spacer that hid the back six inches of the drawer from view. In the space, was a handgun, some magazines and some boxes of bullets.

“That’s a 9mm,” Darren said as he picked it up.

“Is that real?” Yuki said.

“Yes. Its unloaded , but its real.” Darren said, “Its heavier than I thought it was going to be.”

“Are we going to keep it?” Yuki asked, “We could have trouble if we run into cops.”

“We’ll have trouble if we run into thugs without it.”

“Let’s keep it them,” Yuki said.

“Stand behind me.” Darren said, “I’m going to load this thing.”

Darren loaded the magazines and then loaded the handgun. He followed the motions that he remembered seeing in movies and video games.