“Should we go back down and try the office,” Darren said.
“That’s a good idea.” Yuki said, “It may have a fridge with some food and a first aid kit.”
“Lead the way,” Darren said.
“There are signs,” Yuki said.
“Reading Japanese isn’t my strong suit,” Darren said.
Yuki pointed to a large sign that had some Japanese characters on it. Underneath it was the sign in English. It said ‘Office.’
“You didn’t even look at the sign.” Yuki said, “And you’ve been here a year.”
“Sorry,” Darren said.
“How did you get accepted into Japanese Highschool?”
“By the skin of my teeth,” Darren said.
“Skin of teeth?” Yuki said.
“I studied hard and just barely made it in,” Darren said.
They walked down the hall and down the stairs to a door set with a heavy steel frame.
Darren turned the handle. It was locked with both a deadbolt and the handle.
“Crap.” Darren said, “How to break in?”
Darren looked at the door for a few seconds.
“Any ideas?” Darren asked.
“Metal bar like the police do.” Yuki said, “Your shoulder perhaps.”
Darren ran his fingers over the door frame, the handle, the hinges.
“Wait.” Darren said, “These guys are idiots.”
“Oh?”
“The hinges are on this side.” Darren said, “Watch this.”
Using the crowbar, Darren popped the hinge pins out of the hinges. A few seconds later the door was off. Darren set it to the side.
“We can put this back when we leave,” Darren said.
They walked into the small office. The office had a long counter to one side with a waiting area on the other. Workstations were behind the long desk. Big windows spanned one wall. Daylight streamed in through the windows showing the area outside.
The side of the building was on the outside of the wall that surrounded the storage building. Darren could see people walking around the street outside.
“Crap.” Darren said, “Light off and get behind something.”
Darren ducked behind a chair, and Yuki hid behind him.
“Why are we hiding?” Yuki said.
“Gray man principle. Do not bring attention to your self.” Darren said.
“Right.” Yuki said, “I told you that.”
After a couple minutes the people left the view of the window. Yuki stared out the window and at the sky as if something was wrong with it.
“Look outside.” Yuki said, “Do you notice anything?”
“Maybe.” Darren said, “The streets are filled with trash and wreckage?”
“No.” Yuki said, “Look at the sky. Does that look right to you?”
Darren looked at the sky. The sun, while bright, was muted somehow. It was dim and redder than it should have been. Darren looked at a parked car. Thin grey powder coated the car.
“The sky isn’t normal.” Darren said, “And is that snow?”
“I think its ash,” Yuki said.
“We better grab what we’re looking for and get back to Sakiko,” Darren said.
Darren looked around the small office from where he hid. A couple small rooms were to one side of the office.
“Where do those doors go to, I wonder,” Darren said.
“Break-room and managers office.” Yuki said, “There are signs on the doors.”
Darren looked out the window.
“Let’s go,” Darren said.
They walked across the office to the break room. They shut the door behind them.
A thin set of windows stretched across the top of exterior walls. Off to one side was a row of three lockers with padlocks. A large table wast in the middle of the room and a sink and counter-top to the other side of the room. A small bar fridge was underneath the counter top.
Darren walked over to the sink and turned it on. Nothing came out of the tap.
“Thought so.” Darren said, “No running water. The earthquake must have broken something.”
“Try those lockers with your bar,” Yuki said.
Darren walked over to one of the lockers. The locker had a flimsy lock on it. The kind you could get at a dollar store. Using his crowbar and an ample amount of force and noise, Darren busted the locker open.
Inside the locker was a pair of steel-toed work boots and a safety vest. Darren picked up the boots. They were very tiny.
“Yuki,” Darren said, “There’s a pair of boots in here. Do you think you can fit these?”
Yuki looked at them.
“No.” She said, “They’re too small for me.”
“What about for Sakiko?”
“No,” Yuki said, “Her feet are even bigger than mine.”
Darren tossed them back in the locker, and he moved to the next locker. With the same amount of force and effort, the following locker opened up.
“What’s in this one?” Yuki asked.
Darren looked in the locker. This one was covered in pictures of a small family. On the top shelf was a box with a needle in it, hanging on the hook was a waterproof jacket and on the floor was a pair of rubber boots. The boots looked like they would fit Darren.
“I have boots for me, a jacket for Sukiko and some drugs,” Darren said.
He handed the needle to Sukiko.
“What is it?” Darren asked.
Yuki looked at the needle for a few minutes.
“Its an epipen.” Yuki said, “It’s for people that are allergic to bees or peanuts. We can trade this. This’ll save someone’s life.”
Yuki put the epipen in her backpack. She searched through the cupboards. In it were coffee and sugar. A small first aid kit also found its way into her bag.
Darren broke open the last locker. He only found rotten food and garbage.
“This guy was a slob,” Darren said.
Yuki covered her nose and prepared to open the door to the small fridge.
“What are you doing?” Darren asked.
“I’m preparing myself for the stench of a lifetime,” Yuki said.
“I’m sorry.” Darren said, “I don’t understand.”
“A couple years ago, the power went out for a week.” Yuki said, “The fridge smelled so bad that we had to throw it out and buy a new one.”
Yuki opened the door. The fridge didn’t smell at all.
“There’s your problem.” Darren said in English with a bad Australian accent, “Powers out.”
“Funny man.”
“Not my best work.” Darren said, “Anything in there?”
“Old Pizza and some half full cans of soda,” Yuki said as she closed the fridge door.
Darren opened the break room door to peek if anyone was in view from the window. Seeing that no one was in sight, Darren walked over to the office door. The door was locked.
“This is getting annoying,” Darren said.
“How are you going to get it open?” Yuki asked.
Darren lifted up a boot and kicked the door open. The door handle busted apart, and the door opened.
“Destruction of property,” Yuki said.
“Only a little,” Darren said.
The office was small in size. A simple wooden desk was in the middle of the room. A filing cabinet was off to one side of the office. A large leather chair sat behind the desk.
“We could take the chair.” Darren said, “Have some comfort.”
“Really?”
“Sarcasm.” Darren said, “We don’t need a chair.”
Chapter 15
Darren rifled through the desk. He couldn’t read some of the papers on the desk, but he could understand most of them. They looked like they were account listings. To Darren, it was uninteresting for him to look at.
“What are you looking for?” Yuki said, “You can’t read the paper.”