Nathan Pedde - Tokyo Tempest

Yuki nodded.

They pulled into the building, and when the single warrior dipped out of sight, they hid in the rubble.

Darren watched the single warrior ride his motorbike around the buildings. The warrior stopped at the other side, not seeing Darren or Yuki on the other side.

The single warrior rode his bike towards the building. Darren ducked down as he saw the road warrior stop and pull out a pair of binoculars.

“Do you think I could hit him from here?” Darren asked Yuki.

“That’s very far away,” Yuki said.

The road warrior stood at least two hundred meters away.

“Waste of shots,” Darren said.

“Do we stop here for a bit?” Yuki asked, “We haven’t slept in a while.”

“Rest for a few.” Darren said, “I’ll watch this guy and see what he does.”

Yuki looked at Darren.

“You’ve gotten less sleep than I have,” Yuki said.

“I know.” Darren said, “But you need it more. So rest.”

Yuki kissed Darren on the lips and curled up, using a piece of plywood as back support.

Darren looked at the road warrior. He sat on his bike, not moving, his binoculars on his lap. Then the wind picked up. Ash blew into the building and through the landscape.

After ten minutes, the road warrior roared his engine and sped away from the building. Darren watched the kid leave the area and disappear from sight.

“He’s gone,” Darren said to Yuki. “We need to move.”

Yuki woke up.

“What’s the point,” Yuki said.

“We need to survive this,” Darren said.

“Of course. But look at the ash.” Yuki said, “You can see our tracks.”

“The wind is masking that.” Darren said, “He gave up.”

Darren and Yuki sluggishly got on their bikes, and they rode away from the ruined buildings. The weaved their way through piles of debris, wrecked cars, and abandoned homes. Most buildings had been washed away by the cascade of water, but the few that remained were destroyed. In the distance were a handful of taller buildings. The apartment complexes. Most of them had survived. The concrete had withstood the waves.

In the distance was a familiar looking building. One that looked like stacked blocks.

“Isn’t that my dad’s building?” Darren asked.

“It is.” Yuki said, “This land is unrecognizable. Its hard to remember exactly where we are.”

Darren and Yuki rode towards the building. The bottom four floors had been washed clean, but the levels higher were untouched.

Darren entered the building on his bike.

The once great looking marble tiles were broken and covered in muck and ash.

The door to the stairway was closed, but it was clear of debris.

“There might be people living here,” Darren said.

“Should we go elsewhere?” Yuki asked.

“No.” Darren said, “Not yet. I don’t see very many tracks around here. The doorway might have been pushed clear when the people left to go to the shelters.”

Yuki pulled out a crowbar. She used it on the door, and it slid open. The latch had been broken at some point.

“I really don’t want to have to bring these bikes up the stairs if there are people there,” Darren said.

Yuki nodded. They dragged the bikes into the stairwell and closed the doors. It was a tight fit, but both bikes fit into the stairs.

“I’ll go up the stairs and scout,” Darren said.

Yuki nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” Darren said.

Darren pulled out his handgun and a flashlight. He walked up the stairs. The doors to the first four floors had been ripped from their hinges by the water. Debris and dust covered the story and the walls of those levels.

The fifth floor’s door was still attached. The door was also locked.

Darren kept walking up the stairs. He stopped on the seventh floor. Sitting on the seventh-floor landing was the security guard, Goro. Goro had been murdered and left for dead. Or at least Darren assumed as much. Goro’s right arm had been forcefully removed and was nowhere to be seen. Darren carefully searched the body. He found a wallet and not much else. The wallet had money still in it. Darren pocketed the money and put the wallet back where he found it.

Lying on the stairs up to the eighth floor was another body. This body was Caucasian. Or at least it looked that way. It was hard to tell as it didn’t have a head.

Darren looked around, and like Goru’s arm, he couldn’t see the head anywhere.

What was different to this body was his uniform. The body was wearing a United States Air Force uniform. Lying in a pool of blood near the body was a bent and busted trombone.

Darren pulled the body over onto its back.

He froze. The airman, a man with the last name of Handley, had his pants down exposing his expanded and throbbing member. On it was Goru’s keyring.

The keychain looked like it was a set of master keys for the building.

“Really.” Darren muttered, “Stupid Americans.”

He took a deep breath and lifted the keyring off and held it with two fingers.

“This is really gross,” Darren said to the dead man.

Darren used the key to the seventh floor. The floor was abandoned, like the floors below it, but apartment suites were still intact. Darren saw the door to his dad’s apartment. Is was closed and locked. He pulled the key from his pocket and opened the door.

He aimed his light at the ground. The large windows were spread across one wall. Anyone looking this way would see the light. No one was here. Beside things being moved and tossed around by the earthquake, there were no signs that anyone was here either.

The painful process of carrying the bikes up six flights of stairs began. It took them too long to get the bikes up. Darren’s legs and body hurt by the time they had gotten the bikes into the suite and the door locked.

Yuki stared at Goru’s corpse as they walked by it. Her eyes looked at where the arm should have been.

“Is that what I think it is?” Yuki said, referring to the Airman Handley’s hard on.

“That’s where I found the keys,” Darren said.

“Better you grabbing it than me.”

“Thanks.”

Once they were in the apartment, Darren unpacked the camp stove and heated up a can of food. He wasn’t sure what it was, he was too tired to try and decipher the faded Japanese characters. But they ate it anyway.

“You need to eat,” Darren said to Yuki.

“I’m not that hungry,” Yuki said.

“Bullshit.” Darren said, “I know you’re hurting. I am too. But you need to eat. We need to keep going.”

Yuki looked up at Darren. Tears welled up in her eyes. Yuki wrapped her arms around Darren as she cried. Darren let her cry and cry hard. He knew that she needed it. After ten minutes, she stopped.

“I’m sorry for being such a mess,” Yuki said.

“That’s okay.” Darren said, “She was your best friend.” Darren handed her the can of food, the chopsticks still in the can, “you need to eat.”

Yuki ate the canned food in a half daze.

“What now?” Yuki asked.

“Now.” Darren said, “We rest. One person should be awake at all times.”

“Sleeping in shifts?”

“Yes.” Darren said, “It was a pain to get up here, but who knows who’s in the building.”

“Then you sleep first.” Yuki said, “I’ll take the first watch. How long should I let you sleep?”

“A few hours.”

Darren fell asleep quickly. He didn’t want to go to sleep. He wished that he didn’t need to. But he had to. He didn’t want to as his dreams had been filled with nightmares and he usually slept fitfully.

Darren woke up with a start. Yuki sat next to him.

“You okay?” Yuki asked.