— possibly the blackness — seemed to unsettle her and she
quickly took her hands off him as if she’d been stung.
“What are you?”
“Someone like yourself,” he replied. “Lost and alone.”
Madness seemed to reassert itself suddenly. “Have you seen them?” she asked again.
He shook his head sadly. “No. Sorry, ma’am.”
“They were right here with me,” she sobbed. “My little boy was in my arms but I couldn’t stop him. He just went and there was nothing I could do. Please tell me how to get them back.”
“I’m sorry,” said Sam. “I don’t know how.”
She screamed and suddenly launched herself at him. He grabbed her arms as she flailed about helplessly. Eventually, she became exhausted and stopped struggling, and Sam released her hands. She looked at him strangely for a moment and then wandered off down the street. Sam saw her approach one of the other few people on the street and begin questioning them.
Saddened beyond measure, he turned away.
In the afternoon, he began investigating the shops along Main Street. He’d never been into many of them before despite the fact that they were not far from his own house. Under different circumstances, he would have looked forward to it.
The camping and outdoor supply stores that catered to the needs of tourists were his obvious targets. One had already burnt down. Another one nearby had been severely damaged by the earthquake, making it a highly risky proposition. It looked like it was about to fall down any second. The third one he checked out was reasonably intact. Inside was a different story. Much of the equipment had fallen off the shelves, creating a jumbled pile of assorted goods on the floor.
He tensed when he heard the tell-tale scrape of a boot against the floor. Two men emerged from behind a shelf. One carried a baseball bat, the other a high-calibre hunting rifle.
“What do you want here?” asked the larger of the two.
“I just need some supplies,” said Sam.
“Well, you can’t have them,” said the bigger man. “They’re ours.”
Sam nodded. “You own the store then?”
The men turned and grinned at each other. The big man looked back at Sam, still grinning. “Nope, but with the recent developments around here, I’d say that whoever had the biggest gun got the biggest share of everything.” He tapped his rifle meaningfully.
“I don’t need much,” said Sam reasonably. “Just a few tins of food. Maybe a gas cooker and a pack.”
“You don’t listen very well, do you, young fella?” growled the big man. “I said all this stuff belongs to us. Go and find your own store.”
Trying desperately to control his temper, Sam said in a low voice, “This is the last camping store standing.”
“Well, that’s just bad luck for you. Get,” he said, lowering his rifle and pointing it in Sam’s direction.
“Look,” he said, “I can see a cooker right here.”
He bent down, reaching for the portable gas device. There was a great roar in his ears and then it felt like a giant had punched him. Suddenly he was sprawled on his back, lying amongst the jumble of camping supplies. His chest hurt.
“Now, why did you have to go and do that for, Jed,” Sam heard the other man say through the ringing in his ears. “You didn’t have to kill him.”
“Yes, I did,” Jed replied vehemently. “He was trying to take our stuff.”
Sam touched the point on his chest where it hurt, feeling the hole in his hoodie where the bullet had passed through. He lifted his fingers up to his eyes, expecting blood, but his fingers were clean. There was no wound, just a dull ache where the bullet had bounced off.
Though he was surprised, Sam realized he should have expected this. Hikari and he had conducted various experiments using non-iron weapons. Sure, he could be hit by them and even bruised, but he couldn’t be cut or pierced. Knives, axes and other blades simply bounced off him. If it wasn’t iron, it couldn’t kill him. They’d never tried it with a high-powered rifle though, Hikari being too nervous to risk the chance that he might be wrong. Sam hadn’t been that keen to test the theory either. He was glad he hadn’t; that rifle had the kick of a mule. It wasn’t something that he was keen to experience again in a hurry. Lately, everyone seemed to be having a turn at kicking him around.
For the second time in a few hours, he groaned and sat up.
The expressions on the faces of the two men were comical. Sam had never seen two men more surprised in his entire life. Sam could understand their confusion. By rights, a rifle of the calibre held in the hands of the bigger man should’ve punched a hole clean through him and probably through the wall of the shop as well. Especially at close range. Any other man — even one wearing a bullet proof vest — would be dead.
“But … but,” stammered Jed, “You were dead.”
Both men could clearly see that all Sam was wearing was a light hooded sweatshirt. Pale skin gleamed through the large bullet hole in the front, easily visible.
“And now I’m not,” said Sam, getting to his feet slowly. His chest still hurt but it was nothing like the pain the demon had inflicted on him hours earlier. Oddly, he didn’t feel angry; just slightly disappointed somehow.
“But that’s impossible,” exclaimed the smaller of the two.
He walked up to the two men and took their weapons from their uncomplaining grasps.
“Let this be a lesson to you,” said Sam. “Some people coming in here might not be what they seem. From now on, I want you to give anyone who walks in that door exactly what they want. If I hear that you’ve given them trouble — any trouble at all — I’ll come right back.”
The two men nodded dumbly.
“Now, if you’d excuse me, I have some supplies to pick out.”
Out on the street, he found the woman who had confronted him earlier slumped on the sidewalk. She didn’t respond to anything he said or did. Wordlessly, he took a few tins of food out of his new backpack and left them at her feet, trying to tell her that there was more available inside the camping store. She ignored him, or perhaps didn’t see him at all, lost inside her own private nightmare. At one point, he tried to lift her to her feet but she screamed at him and scratched him with her nails. He had no choice but to leave her where she was.
Walking home, he saw a few others in the same state, utterly confused and traumatized by what had happened. He tried to help them, offering directions to the camping store but, by and large, he got the same response as he had earlier with the woman. There was nothing else he could do for them. He would have to be leaving on his journey shortly and he couldn’t possibly take them with him. They would have to pull themselves together and get on with their lives despite their obvious suffering. It hurt him to leave them to their fate but he really did have no other choice.
At home, he tried to cook himself a meal only to find that the power had gone out. He used his portable gas cooker instead, boiling up some noodles that he ate absentmindedly from the same pot he cooked them in. He wasn’t really hungry — it just gave him something to do. It was odd to sit at the table in the darkness without Aimi’s happy banter and Hikari’s amused tolerance to fill the silence. He tried not to think about it.
He lit some candles and inventoried the food supplies he had in the house. There was quite a lot; enough for a week or two which meant he didn’t have to touch the food reserves he had for the trip to Los Angeles. The house next door was empty. He ransacked their food supplies too.
Water could be a problem. Grey, ash stained water trickled out of the tap, obviously unfit for drinking. The rain water barrel out the back was a better option. He disconnected the rain gutter leading from the roof to the barrel to avoid further contamination and made sure that it was securely covered. There was enough in the barrel for several days.
He tried the TV. Nothing but grey static. The emergency broadcast warning was looping on the radio. There was absolutely no internet connection. He was effectively cut off from the rest of the world.