Nathan Pedde - Tokyo Tempest

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.”

“She had spread the supplies out between the two carriers.” Yuki said, “The one that you grabbed is heavy.”

“Yes.” Darren said, “I felt like I only had time to get one, so I grabbed the heavy one.”

“That one is full of water.” Yuki said, “Only water.”

“And the other one?”

“The food.” Yuki said, “Sakiko saved our lives for a few days.”

Darren held Yuki for a few minutes as Yuki wept. Her sobbing slowed down as her breathing calmed down.

“We should get moving,” Yuki said.

“Yes,” Darren said. “Should I go back into the boat for another load of food?”

“No.” Yuki said, “We’re being watched.”

Darren looked out and saw that in the distance, in the middle of the Tsunami zone was a half dozen people. They were all dressed in different types of protective clothing. Some had sports gear on, while others carried large blunt weapons. They all had their faces covered by bandanas and rode motorbikes.

Yuki and Darren rode along the ash fallen, debris-filled streets. In the distance, but closing fast, were six thugs. Or as Darren thought of them, road warriors.

The road warriors look to be kids, at Darren’s age. It was hard to tell by the gear that they all carried.

“Color gang,” Yuki yelled.

Darren looked at the kids closer. Red sashes were wrapped around their waists.

The road warriors closed in, their motorbikes roared loudly in the silence of the day.

“Stop you two.” A road warrior yelled.

“We only want to talk.” The other yelled.

The six laughed. The roar warriors herded Darren and Yuki away from the hill towards the openness of the ruined city.

A road warrior, a kid that wore the over sized hockey gear, raced towards Darren. In his hands was a baseball bat.

“What.” Darren yelled, “Is your name Casey Jones?”

“Excuse me?” The hockey-gear wearing road warrior yelled, “Pull over.”

Darren pulled out his handgun and aimed it at the kid.

“Shit.” The kid yelled.

Darren pulled the trigger, and the gun bucked in his hand. Darren squeezed the trigger three times in quick succession. He aimed each shot as best he could at the kid.

The road warrior fell to the ground in a heap of blood, dirt, and ash.

“He’s got a gun.” Another road warrior yelled.

The other road warriors stopped and rode away.

Darren and Yuki kept riding towards the hill. Darren put his handgun back in the holster.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the look of shock on the kid’s face as he aimed the gun at him. Darren shook his head as he cleared the thought.

As they neared the hill, Darren looked at the buildings. Standing in amongst them were people. They all looked like the road warriors from before. They had different colored sashes on their waists.

“Not the hill.” Darren said to Yuki, “Look.”

Yuki nodded as they rode away from the hill.

In the distance was a single road warrior on his motorbike. The single warrior kept his distance.

“That one is going to follow us and report back to the others,” Darren said to Yuki.

“They’ll attack us in our sleep,” Yuki said.

“Most likely,” Darren said.

Up ahead was a line of two-story buildings. The buildings looked more like ruins than actual structures. Darren could see that water had poured over the entire structure and washed anything of value away. They were empty shells of buildings.

“That way.” Darren said, “Let’s see if we can ambush him.”