It has been 5 weeks since 'Them' had attacked. The world as we know it is no more and has been thrown into darkness. I had to learn that the hard way. We all had to learn it the hard way, because we all fought so hard to believe, that it could be stopped. We have been clinging to our very lives, but we are to find even more hard times ahead of us. As the world as we know it, has come to an end.
"Takashi? What will we do?" Rei said concerned.
"Hmm…" I actually had to think about it. We have had to move around quite a bit, just trying to find a secure source of food, water and shelter. It has also been more and more difficult to secure a good location due to 'Them'. As I gaze out in front of me, to behold a huge shopping mall. It could easily have up to 50 stores inside it. It was quite marvellous to I might add. How, it was constructed, the huge doors that open into the mall itself, also showing the second floor from the entrance. The gardens were beautiful showing the most spectacular of flora, traditionally the red roses and the eccentric vines that would grow up the side of the concrete wall of the mall. There was on the Western side from the front entrance a car park. I had its own checkout points; I think for staff members and shop owners/workers. Also it would have 3 floors going up, just meeting the second floor of the mall. On the Eastern side of the mall from the mall entrance would be a public car park that would be situated underneath and amidst the mall support beams. It was quite an impressive design. As I stopped pondering at the design of the building I thought of the possibility of 'them' being there. Could they be here?
"Ta…Takashi?" Rei repeated.
I snapped back to reality and I look towards Rei. She was wearing her clothing in the most prestigious way, although it had blood from 'them' on it. After a moment, I came to realize that night fall is coming. We need to act fast. We're already at a disadvantage from our low supplies, especially food.
"We sneak around the back of the mall, up the staff car parking lot." I said confidently.
"We better move fast. Night is approaching, if we are at a loss now, we'll be at a bigger loss at night." Saeko stated.
"Alright, let's go!" I said.
We move back into the Hummer H3, we jump in to find Miss Shizuka in the driver's seat, ready for anything. Beside her was Takagi, studying the local map of northern tip of Japan. Standing up in the middle of the gun turret, searching most enthusiastically for 'them' is Hirano. Whilst sitting in the backseat in the middle, with her pet dog 'Zero' is Alice, worried about everything happening.
"Okay, what are we doing?" Asked Takagi most concerned out of everyone.
I moved forward to the driver's seats, looking back making certain that everyone is in the vehicle. The vehicle really is out of supplies; we are almost out of fuel, as well. Looking around I noticed everyone was dirtied. Alice however was an exception; she never got dirtied, due to Hirano. I think those to have a special bond, which is kind of cute especially seeing how Hirano is probably the craziest out of all of us.
"Takashi! What are we doing?!" Takagi shouted impatiently.
"Calm down, Genius. Night fall is approaching and we need to get moving. Miss Shizuka, Can you drive up in this shopping malls car park?" I asked.
"Yes!" She said most confidently.
"Okay, well can you do it, please?" I asked.
She reached for the ignition starter, pushed in the button. The car roared to life.
It was kind of cute. About 2 months ago, we all lived our standard lives being the typical everyday citizens, really taking every day for granted. Then 'them' attacked. To think even the smallest of things such as Miss Shizuka in her ladybug vehicle to now driving a Hummer H3 that is the size of a tank was kind of impressive and cute at the same time. I thought.
She floored the clutch, reached the gear stick to put it in gear then released the clutch and floored the accelerator. As soon as she released the clutch, I had fallen over backwards, and then whilst falling backwards she floors the accelerator. The start of movement was so suddenly fell backwards landing beside Alice. It took me a minute to see I was between the breasts of Saeko. As I look up to see Saeko, all I could see was her face to turn a cherry red as did mine. I got myself upright as soon as I could. I looked at Saeko with extreme embarrassment; she just gives a nod while looking downwards. I swing myself around, to face the driver's seat. On my way Rei, gives me look that shoots a shiver down my spine, so I just keep going. It was already quite hard to see.
"I can't see!" Miss Shizuka shrieked.
"Damn it woman! Dear God! Turn on the headlights!" Takagi retaliated.
At that moment, Miss Shizuka had turned on the speeding vehicles headlights as she was speeding towards the staff car park. Nightfall has already happened at this point. Shit! The car park gates were wide open, which really put us on edge, especially Hirano. My blood was pumping furiously at the moment. As we went through the car park inspection points I peered into the officer gates to find something very unmoving. It was blood, lots of it. Could this place be a hot spot for 'them'? Could I be leading us to our death? It is moments like these that are really hard to deal with. I looked away towards out the front of where we're going.
"Miss Shizuka! Drop back to 5 km/ph! Try to make as little noise as possible!" I yelled.
Without any hesitation she does what I asked.
"Okay, go up to the next car park level." I demanded.
She drove as quietly as possible although the rev from the massive V8 Turbo engine was a disadvantage for these conditions. As we took, the round incline turn to the next car park level, I said "Kill the lights." She did that as well, however because I said that too early, we could not see, as we exited the turn. So as we exited on the second floor of the car park, the Hummer H3 was too large and scraped the side of the edge of a concrete pillar, making a great sounding scraping screech, which echoed through the entire area.
"Park it now! Hirano, get inside now!" I demanded.
I had made a fatal mistake. This could have potentially killed everyone. Miss Shizuka pulled into the right hand side parking at an angle alongside the edge of the lookout point of the car park. Hirano was already getting into a seat by this point, right beside Alice. The car turned off with the exception of the heated pistons still sizzling from the motion of driving. There was a silent sound. I was too busy focusing on any sound of 'them'. I wasn't the only one at the ready. Saeko was at the ready with her double edged Kissaki Moroha, given by Mr Takagi. On the other side of the backseat was Rei at the ready with her Springfield M1A1 Super Match, at the ready.
"Dear Go…" said Takagi.
I covered her mouth as soon as I heard her speak, my left hand firmly covering her mouth. I was sweating. I was listening for anything. The slightest sound, anything to say that there was any of 'them'. In between my ears was my heart racing. The longest silence… I felt a hand on my back. I look to see who it was, it was Rei. I looked back at Takagi to see her panicked stricken face. I slowly remove my hand from her mouth and put one finger in front of mine signalling silence. I look back to see everyone. Alice was scared, I could tell. I signalled Hirano, to do a silent scan from the gun turret. We all watched as he climbs into the turret and carefully scans. In 10 seconds time he comes down, with a hand signal of his thumb and index touching to say "All Clear". We all breathe out heavily.
"Okay, we're alright. I'm going to take first watch, then you Hirano. Okay?" I said.
"Gotcha." Hirano responded.
I then watched them as they fall asleep, one by one. Smiling as I see, little Alice pass out first, with Zero in her lap. Then soon I was the only one up. Unable to tell the time, due to the EMP (electronics magnetic pulse) which had disabled my phone, I had relied on my own senses. Thinking in the meantime of how we are supposed to continue to live the way we are. With the height in sense of things, I blacked out.
I slowly opened my eyes with a blink. Then I yawn. It's sunrise.
"Fuck!" I yelled.
I spin around as fast as I could and look about. No one's here? Thank god. I hop down from the gun turret into the Hummer H3, they were all still asleep. I counted to make sure. Rei, Takagi, Saeko, Miss Shizuka, Hirano. 5? WHERES ALICE!
*Bang Bang*
It was the door behind me in the Hummer H3. I got into the gun turret to look over and it was Alice and Zero! Within a second I climbed down and opened the door. I grabbed Alice and whistled at Zero. I got them inside the Hummer H3.
"What were you doing out there?!" I shouted waking up everyone else, also intimidating poor little Alice. With that Zero, had bite my left hand.
"Aww…hmm… What's going on?" Miss Shizuka asked rolling over.
"I…I umm… Nothing… It's okay…" I was really surprised. Not because Zero had bitten me, but because I had hurt Alice's feelings.
I decided that we all had to get up, and we eventually did, and everyone was pretty hungry. I had to admit I couldn't blame them. I was starving myself. I gathered my thoughts together and made action.
"Alright, it's morning! Let's get some breakfast." I suggested.
I opened the door of the Hummer H3, and popped my head out of it a little just to check for them 'Them'. It was clear.
Then with that, everyone wanted to get out. After everyone was out of the vehicle we closed the door. We continued to move up to the third floor of the car park. We found some cars up on the third floor of the car park. However there was no point in taking any due to the EMP that has happened. We ended up at the top side of the mall. We peered in the windows from the third floor of the car park. It was clear.
"This is strange. There's no sign of any of 'them'." Rei said quietly.
"I know. Where are they?" Saeko asked.
Yeah, good question. I really started to think about that. Takagi said earlier, "Let's move towards the northern tip of Japan. It has the least populated area in Japan." I was dragged back to reality when Alice tugged on the corner of my shirt. She looked really worried. She moved her hands around her mouth to go to whisper something. I knelt down to her hands to hear what she was whispering.
I stood back up, looking at the girls. I nodded to Alice.
"Let's go!" I said.
We headed through the door from the third floor car parking complex to a walk way, which was the second floor of the mall, moving towards the elevator.
"Shit!" I said.
"What?" Takagi asked.
"There's no electricity to power the elevator remember?" I replied.
"Here. Look stairs." Alice said, pointing towards the door way.
We all moved down carefully down the staircase. Each of us hoping no-one was here. The ground floor door opened very slightly, to have a peek to see if none of 'them' are around. The door opened completely to reveal Saeko standing at the ready for any of 'them' to attack, however there was none. There wasn't a thing. It still remains clean, like the end has even happened. Saeko then suddenly decides to drop her stance and walks out. We all watch in awe at Saeko, half in disbelief and amazement. Then we all move out into the open. It was then when Alice started to jump up and down.
"Saeko, can you please come with me?" Alice asked, while jumping up and down. Clearly showing she had to go to the toilet.
With that Saeko and Alice walk down a corridor and vanish to a right hand turn.
"Alright, we need to lock this place down. All the exits must be barricaded and ready for anything." I demanded. We all took off to the exits. Within half an hour later, we had all returned, with all of us there, except Saeko and Alice.
As I walked to join them I heard the most annoying thing in the world.
"I'm a genius. I know everything!" Takagi stated.
"Is that so?" I asked walking forward.
"Yes, that's so. There are a total of 58 shops here." Takagi said.
"What's so good about that? We need electricity remember." I replied.
"Good God. You are stupid. Okay, you are aware of the EMP, right?" Takagi asked.
"Yeah… What about it?" I asked.
"Well, EMP use radioactive waves that fries short circuits, however the electrical systems that are not having any electrical circuit run through them will maintain ability of use." Takagi explained.
"So in other words, any item that holds charge and was turned off during the EMP should still be active?" asked Rei.
"Basically, Yes." Takagi replied.
"Well, that still is no good because everything in this building would have to been short-circuited, isn't that right?" asked Hirano.
"Well, that's true, however it seems this Northern part of Japan has not been effected by the EMP because it was far enough away, and however the electrical grid was fried due to the fact the electrical grid is in the Southern tip of Japan which was effected by the EMP. Good news is that this mall has a backup electrical generator." Takagi said.
"Are you serious? So we might be able to electricity here!" I asked.
"Yeah, however I need to find the electrical generator." Takagi said promising.
"Alright!" responded Rei.
"Wait! There's one issue." Takagi said quickly.
"Wh… What issue?" asked Hirano.
"Follow me and find out. I'll show you." Takagi said.
So then we all followed Takagi. We ended up walking to the Northern end of the mall seeing a lot of shops. There were incense shops, bed stores, supermarkets, even a toy world. Thinking about staying here might be quite useful for now. We ended up walking up to a left hand turn saying "Management". We ended up having to go up a flight of stairs, because the elevator had no electricity still. We eventually arrived in a room with computers and printers. We all looked around for anything of use.
"Here we are." Takagi stated while pointing at the mall map.
"Wow. This store is pretty big." Said Hirano amazed.
"The issue is this mall has the side car parking which we came through yesterday, however there is one directly underneath us. The generator and all the main circuit breakers are in that car park." Takagi said.
"That would be an issue especially if we have company down there." Walking in with Alice by her side was Saeko.
"Alice. Saeko, I was wondering where were you?" I asked, while turning around.
"You know. Just taking care of Alice and searching for any of 'them'." Saeko replied.
I didn't reply for some reason. I just stood there for a minute looking at Saeko, after a few moments she started blushing. I did as well.
"Anyway..." said Takagi, destroying the moment.
I heavily breathed out. Well, I am dealing with Takagi, I thought.