Nathan Pedde - Tokyo Tempest

“Yes, why?” Darren said.

“Cause I couldn’t wake you.” Yuki said, “Your sleep was so deep.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. You can sleep if you want.”

Yuki curled up and fell asleep.

Darren got up and walked around the apartment. Night had fallen while he slept. He looked out at what was left of the city. Darkness hid most of the city from him, but he could see a few pinpoints of light in the far distance.

He searched the apartment. He pulled out anything that he thought was going to be useful. His dad’s samurai sword. All the food he could find. It wasn’t a lot, but he had discovered a case of beer in the fridge. He took it.

Darren didn’t like the stuff, but he knew he could use it as trade with someone else. Or as a bribe.

After a few hours, Yuki woke up. She was drenched in sweat and was scared.

Darren held her tight as she cried.

“Sakiko,” Yuki said over and over before falling back asleep.

Darren laid her back down on the blankets on the floor and went back to searching the apartment.

Darren watched the sun rise above the horizon and light up the sky. The sky was clear of smoke and ash, but not clear of clouds and rain. Water fell from the sky as it poured onto the volcanic ash. Darren watched as the water washed some of the ash away from parts of the city. The ash compacted together and formed a solid layer on top of whatever it had landed on.

“Bucket,” Darren said.

Darren grabbed a small bucket and a broom handle. He taped the bucket to the broom and stuck it out of the window. The end was trapped underneath the couch to keep it from falling down to the ground below.

He saw the bucket slowly start to fill with water.

It would be slow, but he had some rags his luggage from his trip across the Pacific. He was hoping that he could get clean. Grey ash and other debris still clung to his face and skin.

The rain poured down in a torrent. It looked like a wall of water outside.

After a few minutes, Darren looked at the bucket. It was nearly full of water.

Darren pulled it inside the apartment.

“Is it raining?” Yuki asked.

“Yes.” Darren said, “It is. I managed to gather a bucket of rainwater to clean ourselves.”

Darren poured the water into a pot and started to heat it up on the stove. He stuck the broom-bucket back out the window.

A few minutes later, the water was lukewarm, and he turned off the stove. He stuck a rag in the pot.

“Yuki.” Darren said, “Come here.”

Darren slowly undressed Yuki and cleaned her the best he could using the tools he had.

“My dad has shampoo.” Darren said, “Did you want me to wash your hair?”

“Wash my hair?” Yuki said, “No. You don’t have to do that for me? Why would you want you to do that for me?”

“Cause.” Darren said, “I love you. I want you to feel better.”

“Oh.” Yuki said, “We shouldn’t use shampoo. We’ll smell like roses, or whatever, and others will smell it. They’ll think we’re rich or something.”

Darren nodded.

Yuki took a clean rag from the pile and then undressed Darren. It took two cloths for Yuki to clean Darren. After they had gotten clean, they dressed in new clothes. They threw the dirty clothes into a plastic bag and stuffed them in the child carrier.

“How are you doing?” Yuki asked as she sat next to him.

“What do you mean?” Darren said.

“You killed a man.” Yuki said, “I watched blood pour out of his mouth…”

“I’m trying not to think about it.” Darren said, “I’m worried that if I do that, I’ll become paralyzed by the horror of what I’ve done.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re in a scary situation.” Darren said, “We haven’t gone through anything like this before. We’re scavenging ruins for food. We’re running from bloodthirsty soldiers and hungry gangs. We’re watching friends die horrible, horrible deaths. This isn’t time for me to dwell on what I’ve done. That will come later. Now, its best to keep going and not think about that stuff.”

“Tell me about where you lived? Tell me about Canada?” Yuki asked.

“Why do you want to know?” Darren asked.

“I’m curious.” Yuki said, “I’ve never been out of Tokyo before.”

“I’m from a small city called Vancouver.” Darren said, “Its a quaint little town of three million.”

“So small that everyone knows each other?”

“Pretty much.” Darren said, “But not really.”

Yuki snuggled into him.

“I need a weapon.” Yuki said, “I need to be able to defend myself.”

“I agree.” Darren said, “But isn’t it illegal to carry weapons?”

“Yes.” Yuki said, “But you do.”

“I have a small handgun that I can hide,” Darren said.

“And?”

“If we find another handgun, then you get it.” Darren said, “Deal?”

“Deal,” Yuki said, “What do we do now?”

Darren looked out. The sun was high in the sky. The dim, reddish glow still glowed eerily in the sky.

“The sun is out.” Darren said, “And I have the master key to this building. I say we should explore it. See what else we can find.”

Darren and Yuki spent the next few days exploring the building. They would use the master key ring to open up the apartments and see what else they could find. Most apartments were in a state of disarray. Most of it was from the earthquakes and the sudden departure of the panicked occupant.

Darren discovered that there had been lots of things left behind. They refused to search through fridges, instead concentrated on cupboards and pantries. They found cans of fish, curry, and others. To Darren it was great. But the amount of food they were pulling from each apartment was a can or two each.

Darren knew they would be able to fill one carrier, but not two. If they were lucky. There wasn’t enough food in the apartment building. They would have to leave to find more.

Darren didn’t want to leave. He knew that he had to, it wasn’t sustainable to live there. There had to be someplace better.

“Did anyone in this building buy groceries?” Darren asked.

“Doesn’t look like they did.” Yuki said, “Its a company building. Most people ate out because they worked too much.”

“Well.” Darren said, “At least we found some stuff.”

Days rolled by. Darren and Yuki hid in the apartment building. Darren watched groups of people wander by the building. He knew that they were getting desperate and had spread out their search for more food. Darren knew that the apartment building was a treasure trove.

The problem they had was water. Their water supply was down to about half of what they had left the storage building with. Darren knew that they had to get some more clean water.

The problem was that the rainwater they were able to collect always had bits of ash in it. And it was hard to filter out. Darren managed to clean the water by filtering the water through a rag, then boiling it, then filtering it again. Or he had to filter it a couple times before he used a clean water tablet.

The first solution used a lot of fuel. The second used precious water purifier tablets. Darren wasn’t happy with either solution.

“We should plan to leave,” Yuki said.

It was day fourteen of the disaster. So much had changed since his brother had stepped off that plane. It seemed like it was a lifetime ago, but Darren knew that it was only two weeks.

“I know.” Darren said, “This is a nice stopover, and we could scavenge our way through the tower, but how much more are we going to find?”

“And eventually someone else will get into the tower.” Yuki said, “Then we’ll have to fight them.”