Lying on the stairs up to the eighth floor was another body. This body was Caucasian. Or at least it looked that way. It was hard to tell as it didn’t have a head.
Darren looked around, and like Goru’s arm, he couldn’t see the head anywhere.
What was different to this body was his uniform. The body was wearing a United States Air Force uniform. Lying in a pool of blood near the body was a bent and busted trombone.
Darren pulled the body over onto its back.
He froze. The airman, a man with the last name of Handley, had his pants down exposing his expanded and throbbing member. On it was Goru’s keyring.
The keychain looked like it was a set of master keys for the building.
“Really.” Darren muttered, “Stupid Americans.”
He took a deep breath and lifted the keyring off and held it with two fingers.
“This is really gross,” Darren said to the dead man.
Darren used the key to the seventh floor. The floor was abandoned, like the floors below it, but apartment suites were still intact. Darren saw the door to his dad’s apartment. Is was closed and locked. He pulled the key from his pocket and opened the door.
He aimed his light at the ground. The large windows were spread across one wall. Anyone looking this way would see the light. No one was here. Beside things being moved and tossed around by the earthquake, there were no signs that anyone was here either.
Chapter 25
The painful process of carrying the bikes up six flights of stairs began. It took them too long to get the bikes up. Darren’s legs and body hurt by the time they had gotten the bikes into the suite and the door locked.
Yuki stared at Goru’s corpse as they walked by it. Her eyes looked at where the arm should have been.
“Is that what I think it is?” Yuki said, referring to the Airman Handley’s hard on.
“That’s where I found the keys,” Darren said.
“Better you grabbing it than me.”
“Thanks.”
Once they were in the apartment, Darren unpacked the camp stove and heated up a can of food. He wasn’t sure what it was, he was too tired to try and decipher the faded Japanese characters. But they ate it anyway.
“You need to eat,” Darren said to Yuki.
“I’m not that hungry,” Yuki said.
“Bullshit.” Darren said, “I know you’re hurting. I am too. But you need to eat. We need to keep going.”
Yuki looked up at Darren. Tears welled up in her eyes. Yuki wrapped her arms around Darren as she cried. Darren let her cry and cry hard. He knew that she needed it. After ten minutes, she stopped.
“I’m sorry for being such a mess,” Yuki said.
“That’s okay.” Darren said, “She was your best friend.” Darren handed her the can of food, the chopsticks still in the can, “you need to eat.”
Yuki ate the canned food in a half daze.
“What now?” Yuki asked.
“Now.” Darren said, “We rest. One person should be awake at all times.”
“Sleeping in shifts?”
“Yes.” Darren said, “It was a pain to get up here, but who knows who’s in the building.”
“Then you sleep first.” Yuki said, “I’ll take the first watch. How long should I let you sleep?”
“A few hours.”
Darren fell asleep quickly. He didn’t want to go to sleep. He wished that he didn’t need to. But he had to. He didn’t want to as his dreams had been filled with nightmares and he usually slept fitfully.
Darren woke up with a start. Yuki sat next to him.
“You okay?” Yuki asked.
“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.