Another bang echoed through the building.
Darren put on a pair of pants, a shirt, and a pair of boots. Darren pulled the handgun from its hiding place. He handed his flashlight to Yuki.
“Keep silent and turn the light off once you’re dressed.” Darren said, “I’ll be right back.”
Darren left the storage locker and went down the hall towards the sound. His eyes quickly adapted to the lack of light. Darren got to the front of the storage area.
Large piles of people’s stuff were stacked in front of the bay doors and in front of the door to the office.
Another loud bang echoed through the office door.
Darren crouched down next to the pile of books.
“Its bloody blocked with stuff.” A voice said from the other side in Japanese.
“That means people are living in this.” A second voice said in Japanese, “You probably woke them up, and now they know we’re here.”
“So.” The first voice said, “They’re probably pissing in their shoes.”
“If they have food and are living in here, we should take it. If they know that we’re coming, then we’ve lost the element of surprise.” The second voice said, “Check the other doors. See if they’ve blocked them all.”
Darren heard footsteps echo from around the building. They exited the office and walked into the loading bay.
“There’s a loading bay door and a man door.”
A bang echoed through the man door.
“Its blocked too.” The first voice said.
Darren heard the second set of footsteps echo from the office to the loading bay.
“I doubt this place is full of supplies.” The second voice said.
“Remember what that kid and his girlfriend said yesterday.” The first voice said, “That he knows of at least one prepper that uses it for storage.”
“Who knows how much supplies are actually here.” The second voice said, “That kid could have been lying.”
“But any amount of supplies is good, right?” The first voice said, “That’s what the boss said.”
“So how do we break in?” The second voice said.
“We bring in the truck and use it to pull down the bay doors.” The first voice said, “Boom. We’re in.”
“How many people do you think are in here?” The second voice said.
“Not a lot or else they would have ventured out to gather supplies.” The first voice said, “And then we would have seen them.”
“When do we do it?” The second voice said.
“Tomorrow night.”
Gravel crunched as the two people walked away from the loading bay. Darren heard them enter the office and then the crunch of broken glass announced that they had left.
Darren walked back to the storage unit.
Yuki and Sakiko sat in the darkness waiting for Darren to return.
“Its me.” Darren said, “I’m back.”
Yuki turned on a flashlight.
“What’s going on?” Yuki said, “False alarm?”
“No.” Darren said, “People are getting desperate. A couple thugs were sizing up the building. They’re gonna hit us tomorrow night.”
Darren told them about their conversation.
“So they’re coming in tomorrow through the bay doors?” Sakiko said.
Darren nodded.
“Do we defend or do we flee?” Sakiko said.
“If we flee, we have to face the crowds of hungry, desperate people.”
“If we stay and defend we will have to defend the place from constant attack.” Darren said, “They intend on pulling down the bay doors.”
“I vote that we leave.” Sakiko said, “Better to leave and take everything of value with us. Leave them with nothing.”
“I vote that we leave, take it all with us, and then burn the building down as we leave,” Darren said.
Sakiko smiled.
“I like that idea,” Sakiko said.
“How do we get a building built out of bricks to burn?” Yuki asked.
“We pile all that crap in front of the door and set it on fire.” Darren said, “We have enough kerosene.”
“So we burn the door down for them?” Yuki asked.
“I was thinking of lighting it when they attack and use the fire as a distraction for us to get out,” Darren said.
“How do we get out?” Yuki asked, “We blocked all the doors?”
“We go out a back fire escape,” Darren said.
“Okay.” Yuki said, “Let’s do this. What’s the plan?”
“Are we starting now?” Darren asked.
“Yes. We’re up, we can nap once we’re ready for them.” Yuki said.
“Good idea,” Sakiko said, “That way if they attack earlier than we thought, we’re still ready.”
“Yuki and Sakiko,” Darren said, “Between the two of you, can you pack the bags up? Grab those child carriers and load them up with stuff.”
“We can do that.” Yuki said, “What are you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna start leaving some surprises for them.” Darren said, “I’ll have to clear out our escape route.”
Yuki lit the kerosene lamp, and the two girls got to work.
Darren grabbed a cart and started loading it full of random bits and pieces that he could find. Trip after trip he made. He would fill the cart full of items, then rush them to the big bay doors and piled them on. He grabbed the boxes of books from in front of the fire escape door. They were piled onto the heap of abandoned belongings.
After hours of work, Yuki approached him with a chunk of an MRI.
“Here.” Yuki said, “Eat.”
Darren stuffed his face with the food.
“Darren,” Yuki said, “I have a question for you.”
“What is it?” Darren asked.
“Do you think I’m being paranoid?” Yuki asked.
“No.” Darren said, “I think you’re scared and that you lost someone important to you. Now you don’t want that to happen again.”
“Where do we go?” Yuki asked.
“I thought we were headed to your bug out location,” Darren said.
“We should have left days ago.” Yuki said, “Our food situation is pretty low.”
“I know.” Darren said, “Maybe we can scavenge on the way.”
“Okay.” Yuki said, “Thanks for understanding.”
Yuki walked down the hallway, Darren knew she was lost in thought. She stopped a moment later.
“What type of relationship do we have?” Yuki asked.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re living in close quarters together, and Sakiko is with us. We’re all sleeping together. What does that make us?”
Darren thought about it for a minute.
“We’re family.” Darren said, “Our own original family is missing and probably dead, and that means that you two are my family. I’m not sure what our roles are, but I don’t think it matters. We’re family.”
“Family.” Yuki said, “So if I had slept with Sakiko, you wouldn’t be angry at me?”
“Only disappointed that you didn’t invite me to join.”
Yuki hugged and kissed him on the lips.
“Maybe once we get to where we’re going, we can have some fun times too,” Yuki said.
Yuki walked down the hallway and disappeared.
“When would they have time to do that?” Darren asked himself.
Chapter 20
After ten minutes, Darren had finished eating his snack and was back to working on the pile of stuff. The pile completely blocked the entranceway to the front area from the bay doors. Darren thought he could climb over all the things, but there was no secure footing, and he was sure that they would break something climbing through.
Darren returned to the storage unit. The three bikes were lined up in the hall in front of it. Two of the bikes had child carriers bolted to the back. Small piles of supplies were next to each bike.
“We’re almost done.” Sakiko said, “Those child carriers are pretty empty. Are you sure you didn’t want to take the tent?”