With the supplies packed up, Darren, and Yuki left the garage.
Outside, the sun was above the horizon. It’s reddish glow started to take the chill away from the night. In the distance, clouds were rolling towards them. They were dark, gray and ugly looking.
“If you’re from around here. How long do we have until we get rained on?” Darren asked.
“Not sure.” Yuki said, “Maybe we won’t get rained on at all.
Yuki sported a dark black eye, and her nose was broken. They both were tender. Luckily Mrs. Sugihara had managed to straighten it. Yuki was still dressed in the blood-stained pants.
From seeing her without any clothes on, Darren knew that Yuki had a shoulder that had turned black and blue, as well as the upper part of one leg.
They found themselves in a set of townhouses. It was still very early in the morning, and there were only a couple people outside. A couple townhouses looked damaged by the earthquakes. Windows were broken, and a few had shingles missing from the roof. They rode around a corner, and three townhouses had collapsed. Rubble was heaped in a giant pile where the townhouses once stood.
Two army vehicles were parked next to the road. A dozen army soldiers stood around the trucks lazily.
They rode towards the groups of soldiers.
One man, held up a hand to them signaling them to stop.
“Let me do the talking,” Yuki said.
They slowed down to a stop in front of the soldier.
Now that they were close, Darren could see that the soldier had officer bars on his uniform.
“You two look beat up.” The officer said, “What happened to you?”
“Looters attacked us in the night,” Yuki said.
“Where are you taking those heavy looking little wagons there?” The officer said.
“We’re just trying to get home.” Yuki said, “I’m hoping that my dad is there waiting for me.”
“Where is home?”
“Sano,” Yuki said.
“You have a long way to go.” The officer said, “What’s in the carriers?”
“Supplies to last us until we get there.”
“That’s a lot of supplies.”
“No, it isn’t.” Yuki said, “It’s no more than what we’re supposed to stock up for the event of an emergency.”
“Is that so?”
“We just packed all the stuff from our house to take with us,” Yuki said.
“You must have a hard time keeping that stuff safe.” The officer said.
“Yes.” Yuki said, “The going is slow as lots of people think that I should pay exorbitant tolls and taxes. We keep having to avoid gangs of thugs and thieves.”
“Yes.” The officer said, “Why go home? You could stay with us. Ditch your friend there, and we’ll keep you safe.”
“I’m truly sorry, but I can’t.” Yuki said, “If my dad is alive, he’ll be there waiting for me.”
“Waiting for you? Why not come looking?”
“And start where? No communication and it’s hazardous out. Better to shelter in place.” Yuki said.
“All right.” The officer said, “Get going. I’m not supposed to let people wonder, but I like you.”
Darren followed Yuki out from the cluster of townhouses. They turned a corner and disappeared away from the Army officer.
They reached the top of a small hill, and sports fields appeared in front of them. A single burnt out vehicle sat where they left it. Darren couldn’t see the bodies of the three soldiers that were killed.
“They must have moved the bodies,” Darren said.
“Yes.” Yuki said, “Let’s get as far away from this place as we can.”
Darren and Yuki rode up the side of the embankment from the dike to the river. The embankment followed along the bank of the river. The other side of the barrier had clusters of houses and buildings of a city that Darren wasn’t familiar with.
The sun showed dimly through what looked like a red haze. Like there was something in the air changing the color of the light and dimming it somehow. Darren wished that he had studied more or that his phone had power and wifi so he could figure out what was going on. Darren wouldn’t admit it, but he missed the Internet.
As they rode, darker and darker clouds rolled in. Lightning flashed in the sky in the distance.
“Nine… Ten… Eleven… Twelve…” Darren said to himself.
Thunder rolled across the sky.
“Storm is at least ten kilometers away,” Darren said.
Yuki nodded.
They rode along the side of the hill keeping away from the top. They didn’t want to be silhouettes riding at the top.
Weariness crept into Darren’s bones as they rode forward at a slower pace.
“You mentioned that you knew where we can stop next?” Darren asked.
“I do.” Yuki said, “It’s not far.”
“Is it better than the last one.”
“I didn’t choose the Sugihara’s.”
“I meant the Katana Club,” Darren said.
“Oh.”
“I hope it isn’t infested with cannibals,” Darren said.
“It’s a used bookstore.”
“Might have been looted for its books,” Darren said.
“People loot books?” Yuki said.
“Books burn,” Darren said.
“I doubt it.”
“Where is this bookstore?”
“We follow this dike to the next town. The dike disappears by some school. The bookstore is near there.” Yuki said.
Chapter 34
Darren and Yuki rode across the school field. The school was empty of kids. No one was on the field to play sports. The school itself was a burnt husk of ruin. Fires had burnt through what the earthquakes hadn’t knocked down.
They stopped in front of the bookstore that Yuki had mentioned. The building was only half standing. The front parts of the building had toppled over. The back half, looked like it was built differently and it was still standing.
“So where do we go now?” Darren asked Yuki.
“I have no idea.” Yuki said, “As we rode into the place, I got a good look at the surrounding areas, it looks like fires burned up the entire neighborhood. There isn’t much standing left.”
“Probably where those refugees in that camp came from,” Darren said.
“Possibly.”
“Do we keep going?” Darren asked.
“We’re tired.” Yuki said, “We need to stop. Eat something and sleep for a few hours.”
“The question is where?” Darren asked.
“We’ll have to backtrack a bit and go around some of this destruction. Maybe find someplace over there.” Yuki said.
“Let’s rest here,” Darren said.
“Where?” Yuki asked.
“In the back half of the building.” Darren said, “It’s still standing. We sleep in shifts and rest until dark.”
“We can’t go on much farther,” Yuki said.
Darren and Yuki slowly crept into the broken building. Near the back door looked to be the rear storage room. Unopened boxes of books sat untouched from where they were delivered. Broken glass was scattered around the building from the windows being busted during one of the many earthquakes. The entire room was only thirty feet long. It looked to Darren that there was a significant steel beam that kept the back section of the building from falling over while the front collapsed.
There was a small broom off to one side. Darren grabbed it and cleared out a section of the hard concrete floor.
“We block the back door with books, and we make a small camp here,” Darren said.
“Let’s not unpack anything.” Yuki said, “I don’t want to be too comfy and not want to leave once it gets dark out.”
Darren and Yuki moved the pile of boxes to block the door. They also blocked the few broken windows with debris so that no one could look in.