Nathan Pedde - Tokyo Tempest

Another loud bang echoed through the door.

“I don’t think anyone is too stupid to hide in that building, specialist.” A female JDT soldier said from beyond the door.

“Why not sarg?” The male JDP soldier said.

“Cause there’s no food in there.” The female JDF Soldier said, “It’s not like a bakery. Come. We need to keep moving.”

Darren didn’t know what to make of the exchange. For the most part, he though they were safe in the building, but he knew deep down that they were going to be forced to leave at some point.

“What’s going on?” Darren asked.

“The Japanese Defense Force is out,” Yuki said.

“Martial Law.” Darren said, “This isn’t good.”

“I’m nervous about leaving this building,” Yuki said.

“I am too, but we have to leave at some point,” Sakiko said.

“We haven’t found any new food or water in any of the lockers,” Darren said.

“In a week, we run out of water,” Sakiko said.

“How much food do we have?” Darren asked.

“Two days. We do have enough kerosene to last us a few months. We have lots of batteries too.” Yuki said.

“So we need to leave here in the next day or so.” Sakiko said, “Or we risk running out of food.”

“Or we go out and try to scavenge things close to here,” Darren said.

“Going out is bad.” Yuki said, “Those JDF soldiers sound like they’re pulling people to the shelters.”

“How much control do they have?” Darren asked, “It sounds like they’re trying during the daylight, but its a drop in the bucket.”

“So what do we do?” Sakiko asked, “Where do we go?”

“I don’t know.” Yuki said, “My dad was supposed to be here. He promised.”

“We need a plan,” Darren said.

“I know that,” Yuki said.

“I understand you’re scared.” Darren said, “I understand that you don’t want to get stuck in a shelter. And I don’t either. But we can’t stay here forever, and if we stay too long, then we’ll be leaving with no food and water.”

Yuki frowned and sat down on the ground.

“We need to stay hidden until after the die off,” Yuki said.

“The what?” Sakiko said.

“Remember that Captain?” Yuki said.

“Yes,” Sakiko said, “What about him?”

“He told us to get out of Tokyo.”

“And?”

“There’s no more food coming in.” Yuki said, “There’s no food on grocery shelves. There’s no new food being shipped to where its needed. People are going to starve.”

“Won’t everyone else want to head out of Tokyo too?” Sakiko asked.

“This is just a theory that’s been discussed in secret.” Yuki said, “But, the theory is that if something bad were to happen and help from the outside world was an impossibility, then the Japanese Government would have to close down Japan’s largest city centers and let the people fend for themselves.”

“Why?” Darren asked.

“Cause Japan can only grow fifty percent of its food needs. If it were to let the major cities starve, like all of Tokyo, or Nagoya. Then the rest of the nation will have enough food to live.” Yuki said.

“Its a theory,” Sakiko said.

“You’re skeptical,” Yuki said.

“So am I.” Darren said, “I would have to test your theory by questioning people or trying to get out of the city.”

“Not you too Darren,” Yuki said, “You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t believe that the government has a secret plan to starve half the population.” Darren said, “A secret like that wouldn’t stay secret.”

“Its true though,” Yuki said.

“How do you know?” Darren asked.

“Cause my dad had a politician over for dinner a couple weeks ago.” Yuki said, “The topic of prepping came up. They talked about that.”

“Okay.” Darren said, “How long do we have until this mass die off?”

“In about four, maybe five weeks, all of the weak and desperate people will be dead,” Yuki said.

“Then what?” Darren asked.

“After that, it’ll be safer to leave at that point. We could ride our bikes to the bug out location.”

“I still don’t understand why we’re entertaining such a topic.” Sakiko said, “Die off? Desperate people?”

“I’ve done a lot of thinking about this scenario.” Yuki said, “Power grids are down. Probably for good. No cargo ships filled with goods are moving. People will run out of food, and fuel in no time.”

“I understand that, but can you be correct?”

“I think this event is global.” Yuki said, “I think its going to get worse before it gets better.”

“But…”

“Look at how many people already died.” Yuki said, “How many people were trapped in the earthquake then got washed away by the Tsunami?”

“That earthquake lasted twenty minutes,” Darren said.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sakiko said.

“Everything.” Yuki said, “Earthquakes don’t usually last that long. Then the tsunami. It’s like something from a bad Hollywood movie, but its real life.”

“But.” Sakiko said, “What about the government? Shouldn’t they be bringing in emergency supplies to people?”

“Yes.” Yuki said, “But with that long of an earthquake, they’re going to be scrambling to help a lot of people. People will get forgotten about. It did last time. Remember?”

“Okay.” Darren said, “Let’s say that Sakiko and I both believe you. What happens in two days once we run out of food?”

“I don’t know,” Yuki said.

Darren thought for a couple seconds.

“How far away is the bug out location?” Darren asked.

“Its three hundred kilometers away.” Yuki said, “Its a four-hour trip to drive there.”

“What is it?” Darren asked.

“My dad bought a piece of land deep in the mountains. There aren’t very many people for kilometers and kilometers. We have it set up. Food, water, a small cabin built out of the way. No one knows its there and no one will be able to find us. Except those that know where to look.” Yuki said.

“How long if we walk it?” Darren asked.

“If there were no one stopping us, or no roadblocks,” Yuki said, “Eight days.”

“A vehicle would be better,” Sakiko said.

“Yeh.” Darren said, “But a vehicle makes noise and people will notice us passing.”

“What are you thinking?” Yuki asked.

“In that locker on the second level, there’s a couple child carriers that we can strap to the back of a bike.” Darren said, “We ride at night, and we ride fast.”

“If we ride,” Yuki said, “that’ll cut our time down to at least half. We’ll have to stop to rest four times. How do we find safe locations to stop for the night?”

“What about motorbikes?” Sakiko asked.

“What do you mean?”

“The advantage of a motorbike is that it can go places that a car can’t. Its very fast. We can make the trip in a few hours one night. The night will defuse the noise from our engine and people won’t know where it is coming from.” Sakiko said.

“That sounds good,” Darren said, “But where do we get a motorbike?”

“I don’t know.” Sakiko said, “We would have to venture outside to try and find a running one.”

“Fat chance of that happening.” Darren said, “Running motorbikes are going to be hard to find.”

Darren, Yuki, and Sakiko all sat down together to eat some food, rice ,re-hydrated meat, and vegetable pieces that they had no idea what it was because the label was too faded to read. All they learned from the label was that it was good for thirty years.

“Its getting late.” Darren said, “We should go to sleep.”

Darren, Yuki, and Sakiko moved to their respected sleeping areas.