In the early morning hours of the third day, Darren was looking through a large locker on the ground floor. The locker seemed to be full of large furniture. Which was all made of solid hardwood and was coated with many layers of glossy lacquer. Darren thought that the furniture had to be expensive.
Darren was currently trying to figure out how to drag the large items out of the locker by himself. He knew that Yuki and Sakiko weren’t going to want to help him with the task. He hoped there was something useful in this locker. He had seen a sign that said, ‘Yum yum’s.’ He hoped it was a sign from a fast food restaurant and that there was some canned food in a box.
In the constant darkness of the storage unit, a series of loud bangs echoed across the building.
Darren jerked upright as he tensed. He knew that it had to be a door somewhere.
He threw a box to the floor. The fine china that filled it smashed to pieces.
Darren ran down the hallway towards their locker.
Standing in the door of it was Yuki. She wore a pair of dirty clothes.
“Was that a door?” Yuki asked.
“Yes.” Darren said, “Where’s my gun?”
Darren lifted off a box as the echoes from the door rang out once more.
Sitting underneath the box was the gun. Darren grabbed it and ran towards the door. Yuki grabbed a pry-bar and followed close behind.
Darren ran across the storage building to the back door.
The banging echoed again. To Darren, it sounded like someone was trying to break into the door.
Sakiko stood next to the door. In her hand was a giant hammer.
“Shh,” Sakiko said.
Darren crept beside her and stopped against the concrete.
“Hurry up.” A male voice said in Japanese, “The JDF will be here soon.”
“I don’t know what’s worse, going to a JDF Shelter or joining a color gang.” A female voice said, “I think we need to keep moving.”
“Shut it will you two.” A third Japanese voice said, “This door isn’t wanting to budge. I know the building. A pry-bar on the latch and a kick should open it up.”
Chapter 18
Another loud bang echoed from the door, the boxes of books moved back a hair. Darren, Yuki, and Sakiko stood behind some boxes. Panic filled Darren. Whoever was behind the door was trying to get in. They would already be in if they hadn’t blocked the door with boxes of books.
Multiple footsteps echoed from the other side of the door.
“Shit.” The female voice yelled.
“JDF! Stop right there!” A male JDF Soldier said, “ Stop!”
“Halt.” A female JDF Solider’s voice said, “A shelter is a safe place. Stop running.”
Darren, Yuki, and Sakiko huddled behind the wall. He didn’t know what was going on and that worried him.
“What was that…” Sakiko began, but Darren held his hand to her lips.
Another loud bang echoed through the door.
“I don’t think anyone is too stupid to hide in that building, specialist.” A female JDT soldier said from beyond the door.
“Why not sarg?” The male JDP soldier said.
“Cause there’s no food in there.” The female JDF Soldier said, “It’s not like a bakery. Come. We need to keep moving.”
Darren didn’t know what to make of the exchange. For the most part, he though they were safe in the building, but he knew deep down that they were going to be forced to leave at some point.
“What’s going on?” Darren asked.
“The Japanese Defense Force is out,” Yuki said.
“Martial Law.” Darren said, “This isn’t good.”
“I’m nervous about leaving this building,” Yuki said.
“I am too, but we have to leave at some point,” Sakiko said.
“We haven’t found any new food or water in any of the lockers,” Darren said.
“In a week, we run out of water,” Sakiko said.
“How much food do we have?” Darren asked.
“Two days. We do have enough kerosene to last us a few months. We have lots of batteries too.” Yuki said.
“So we need to leave here in the next day or so.” Sakiko said, “Or we risk running out of food.”
“Or we go out and try to scavenge things close to here,” Darren said.
“Going out is bad.” Yuki said, “Those JDF soldiers sound like they’re pulling people to the shelters.”
“How much control do they have?” Darren asked, “It sounds like they’re trying during the daylight, but its a drop in the bucket.”
“So what do we do?” Sakiko asked, “Where do we go?”
“I don’t know.” Yuki said, “My dad was supposed to be here. He promised.”
“We need a plan,” Darren said.
“I know that,” Yuki said.
“I understand you’re scared.” Darren said, “I understand that you don’t want to get stuck in a shelter. And I don’t either. But we can’t stay here forever, and if we stay too long, then we’ll be leaving with no food and water.”
Yuki frowned and sat down on the ground.
“We need to stay hidden until after the die off,” Yuki said.
“The what?” Sakiko said.
“Remember that Captain?” Yuki said.
“Yes,” Sakiko said, “What about him?”
“He told us to get out of Tokyo.”
“And?”
“There’s no more food coming in.” Yuki said, “There’s no food on grocery shelves. There’s no new food being shipped to where its needed. People are going to starve.”
“Won’t everyone else want to head out of Tokyo too?” Sakiko asked.
“This is just a theory that’s been discussed in secret.” Yuki said, “But, the theory is that if something bad were to happen and help from the outside world was an impossibility, then the Japanese Government would have to close down Japan’s largest city centers and let the people fend for themselves.”
“Why?” Darren asked.
“Cause Japan can only grow fifty percent of its food needs. If it were to let the major cities starve, like all of Tokyo, or Nagoya. Then the rest of the nation will have enough food to live.” Yuki said.
“Its a theory,” Sakiko said.
“You’re skeptical,” Yuki said.
“So am I.” Darren said, “I would have to test your theory by questioning people or trying to get out of the city.”
“Not you too Darren,” Yuki said, “You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t believe that the government has a secret plan to starve half the population.” Darren said, “A secret like that wouldn’t stay secret.”
“Its true though,” Yuki said.
“How do you know?” Darren asked.
“Cause my dad had a politician over for dinner a couple weeks ago.” Yuki said, “The topic of prepping came up. They talked about that.”
“Okay.” Darren said, “How long do we have until this mass die off?”
“In about four, maybe five weeks, all of the weak and desperate people will be dead,” Yuki said.
“Then what?” Darren asked.
“After that, it’ll be safer to leave at that point. We could ride our bikes to the bug out location.”
“I still don’t understand why we’re entertaining such a topic.” Sakiko said, “Die off? Desperate people?”
“I’ve done a lot of thinking about this scenario.” Yuki said, “Power grids are down. Probably for good. No cargo ships filled with goods are moving. People will run out of food, and fuel in no time.”
“I understand that, but can you be correct?”
“I think this event is global.” Yuki said, “I think its going to get worse before it gets better.”
“But…”
“Look at how many people already died.” Yuki said, “How many people were trapped in the earthquake then got washed away by the Tsunami?”
“That earthquake lasted twenty minutes,” Darren said.