Miki woke up so slowly that she wasn't even sure whether she was awake or not. Apparently, she had been too tired to dream. She appreciated that. There were many things on her mind that she could've dreamed up, and very few of them were things she wanted to dream about.
The inside of the tent was warm. With the way the weather had been sliding more and more towards chilly, she had thought it would've been cold. Mornings usually were. And this one probably would be, once she was out from under her blanket. She tried to sit up. She couldn't. Something was holding her down.
"Huh?"
She craned her head forward and squinted, trying to use the dim light to see what was on top of her and found Kurumi's arm thrown across her chest. Kurumi's hand brushed her arm. That wasn't where the warmth was coming from. Kurumi's skin was cool, as if she had just come inside on a cold day. Miki chewed on her lip. She wasn't the only one with things to worry about. Who knew what Kurumi was dreaming about?
Kurumi shivered and curled up closer, as if she were desperate to warm herself up. Miki sighed, took the corner of the blanket, and gently spread it over both of them. There was no need to get up yet.
"Don't we have any sugar to put in there?" Yuki wrinkled her nose as she watched Yuuri stir. "You can't have oatmeal without putting something in it!"
"Do you have any sugar?" Yuuri asked, without looking up.
"Well, no."
"Then unfortunately, you'll have to eat the oatmeal plain," Yuuri answered with a sigh. "I know, I'm not exactly a fan of it, but it's what we have at the moment."
"Actually, we won't have to do that." Miki pushed the door open and walked in with a small pile of bags in her hands. She dumped them on the table. "This store sells trail mix, and some of them have dried fruit. It's not really sugar, but it's better than nothing."
"Thank goodness," Kurumi said. "Oatmeal is so boring on its own."
"Hmmm," Yuuri examined the pile of bags. "Miki, what kind of food does this store stock?"
"Mostly stuff like this." She sat at the table and began to sort through them. "Dried fruit, granola, beef jerky. Snacks for hiking, mostly. There are some freeze dried meals, too, but most people think they're pretty disgusting. They last practically forever, though."
Kurumi tore one of the fruit bags open and sniffed it. "We should probably grab some anyway. I mean, who knows when we'll be able to get more food?"
Miki nodded. "There's all types of survival gear that we might need. Once we're done with breakfast, we should go through the store and see what we can find."
"Sounds good," Kurumi said. She sniffed at her bowl of oatmeal and added another handful of fruit. "We could probably use some new sleeping bags. Maybe ones without legs."
"I don't think we have any legged sleeping bags," Miki said. She glanced curiously at the tent, where one of said sleeping bags hung halfway out of the door. "Where did you guys get those anyway?"
"I found them at school," Yuki said, her mouth full of oatmeal. "I'm not sure why they had them though."
Yuuri nodded thoughtfully as she scribbled something else onto her list of things that needed to be done. The list never seemed to get shorter. "Is there anything else that we need to take care of while we're here?"
"Well…" Miki's lowered her voice. "After we go shopping, I was going to look around to see if I can find anything out anything about my parents."
"Okay," Kurumi said. "Whenever you're ready to start looking, just let us know, and we'll be right there with you.
"More oatmeal please!" Yuki held out an empty bowl. The other three girls stared at her in disbelief. "What? I was hungry."
"Mii-kun! You've got to see this!" Yuki's voice squeaked with excitement.
"What is it?" Miki didn't have to try to conceal her enthusiasm, because she didn't have much. Under different circumstances it would've been fun to have the run of the whole store, but at the moment all it did for her was dredge up memories of better times. She turned the corner into the aisle to see Yuki gesturing excitedly at a wall of shovels.
"Look at how many different kinds there are! This one folds up!" She pointed. "And this one has a jagged edge for cutting stuff. And there's a compass in the handle. Isn't that cool?"
"I suppose so," Miki answered. Then she mumbled to herself. "We should probably take a compass along. Several, actually."
"This one extends!" Yuki said, holding it out. "I bet Kurumi could use one like this. It would give her a longer reach."
"That's a good idea," Miki said. "Why don't you go show her and see what she thinks? I think she probably prefers her usual shovel, but I think it would be good for her to have a backup."
"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Yuki scrambled off, carrying three or four shovels in her arms.
Miki turned her attention back to the shelves. She had always known that there were shovels, but she had never really paid much attention to them. Wait a second. A longer reach? Why would she mention that…?
"Hmmmm. Barbequed beef or cheesy chicken?" Yuuri held up two vacuum-packed bags. The labels indicated that they would remain edible for at least a year. Probably more. Neither one looked particularly appetizing, but at least it would last.
The break room door creaked as Miki walked through, holding a shopping basket piled with stuff.
"Which of these flavors do you think is better?" Yuuri asked.
"They're both pretty awful," Miki said with a shrug. "The beef one is probably a little less terrible. I don't think cheese freeze dries very well."
"I see," Yuuri wrinkled her nose at the package. "In that case I'll pack more of the beef ones. I'll have a few of the other ones in here for variety though. Hopefully we'll never get to the point that we need to actually eat them. If we figure three bags a day for the four of us, I'd say one box of them would last us for about a month."
Miki stuck out her tongue. "I wouldn't want to have to eat those for a month."
"Neither would I, but we might have to." Yuuri glanced at Miki's basket. "What's all that?"
"Just a few things I thought we might need." She began to unload the basket onto the table. "Here's a water pump with a few filters. There are a few germicidal tablets. If we can't find running water, between those it should purify it enough to be drinkable. There's a funnel for catching rainwater too."
"I see." Yuuri nodded. "I guess it's important that we have water too. What else do you have in there?"
"Some vitamin supplements. You know, in case those nasty meal packets aren't nutritious enough. There's a first aid kit, for obvious reasons. A compass, just in case. Firestarter kit, for if we need to cook stuff. There's even a sunshower."
"A sunshower?"
"It's sort of like a water bag that you can fill and leave out in the sun to warm up. It's used for showering in places without running water. It's a bit of a luxury, but I think it's worth it. Besides, it's good for storing water."
Yuuri examined the pile of resources that Miki had presented. She hoped that she would've come up with similar preparations if Miki hadn't beaten her to it.
"You really have everything figured out, don't you?" she said.
"I wouldn't say everything…" Miki mumbled. "I just thought it might be helpful."
"Well, it is," Yuuri said. "And I'm grateful for it. I don't what I'd do if I didn't have the rest of you." She stared silently the supplies for a moment. "Could I ask you a question?"
"I… of course."
"When we found you in the mall… how did you keep yourself going?"
"I'm not sure, really," Miki said softly. "I'm not even sure that I did. I just tried not to think about it, tried to keep myself occupied. I wasn't really living so much as just… I don't know… just existing, I guess." She sighed. "I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to get out of that mindset when you brought me back to the school. At first, it just felt like a change of scenery. I can't believe it took me so long to want to actually start living again."
"It's a good thing we found you," Yuuri said. "Not just for your sake, but for ours."
"What? What did I do? You saved me! And when I first met Yuki, I… well, you know."
"You reminded us that the world was bigger than just the school. That there might be something more for us than just staying there forever. You're even more helpful now, of course."
Miki grinned. "Thanks. I guess this just means we have to stick together, right?"
"Right."
"Kurumi, I really don't think we need one of these." Miki folded her arms.
"Oh, come on. It's not like it would take up that much space!"
"I'm afraid Miki is right," Yuuri said. "We have very limited space for packing, and we ought to save it for necessities."
Kurumi thought for a moment. "We could… tie it to the top of the car!"
"That would be a good way of bringing additional supplies," Miki admitted. "But it really is a bit too big to bring along, especially since it wouldn't really be very helpful."
"Not helpful!" Kurumi said indignantly. "We could use it to get more food! Or send messages out!"
Yuuri scratched her head. "I don't think it would be quite that useful. I doubt any food we got from it would be safe to eat. And as far as messages go, I think it would be extremely unlikely that anyone would get them if we send them out using that… particular method."
Kurumi sighed. "Fine. But once we've packed all of the important stuff I'm going to double check to see if there's any space left." She turned back to the row of boxes that lined the shelf. Each one read Humane Capture Bird Trap. "I'll be back for you."
"So there isn't any manga here?"
"No. It's a camping store." Miki stared at Yuki, unsure whether she was being serious or simply trying to make some sort of incomprehensible joke. "Why would it sell manga?"
Yuki shrugged. "I dunno. Like maybe if some family was going to go camping and they wanted to buy something to read."
"We're in the middle of the city. People come here to buy equipment here ahead of time. They probably wouldn't be dropping by on their way to the campsite." Miki shook her head. "If they wanted manga, they'd go to a bookstore."
Yuki scowled. "So there isn't anything? Not even like a camping manual or something that they wrote as a comic?"
"I don't think so."
"Fine." Yuki sighed with a sound like a deflating balloon. "I guess I'll just have to draw my own, then! Does this place sell any drawing stuff? I didn't think to bring any from school."
Miki just shook her head.
Yuuri perused the shelves, a shopping basket dangling from her arm. If not for the decay visible through the window behind her, the scene would've been almost normal. She looked almost as if she were about to pull a coupon out of her pocket. She plucked a box off of a shelf and examined it for a moment before putting it in the basket.
"So is this going to be a thing with you?"
"Huh?" Yuuri glanced back over her shoulder. "What do you mean?"
"Picking up something that makes noise." Kurumi picked up the box. It contained an electric rescue siren. "Last time it was that keychain thing."
"Well, it worked last time, didn't it?" Yuuri asked. "If we're even in another situation like that, it would be good to have something to distract them with. Miki might not be here if we hadn't had those keychains."
"Yeah." Kurumi shivered at the thought. "Although that gets me thinking…"
"About what?"
"Do you think we'll find any other survivors? I mean, we sure weren't expecting to find anybody else at the mall."
"It's always possible, I guess," Yuuri said. "Just think about it. What are the chances that out of everyone in Japan, we're the only ones who managed to survive. There must be someone else out there."
"Yeah, but what are the chances of us finding any of them?"
"I have no idea. It was almost pure luck that we found Miki. Who knows? Maybe we'll find someone else. It might be sooner than we think."
"I guess," Kurumi said dejectedly. "Or maybe someone will find us. Get us out of all this."
"I… I don't think that's…"
"I know, it's a long shot. But as long as it's at least a little bit possible, I'm going to hold onto that hope." She turned away. "Let's get back to packing. Is there anything else we need?"
"Hmmm." Yuuri smiled. "How about a megaphone?"
Kurumi couldn't help but chuckle. "I don't think we'll need one of those."
"Nothing upstairs, then?" Yuuri asked as Kurumi and Miki entered the breakroom.
"Well, nothing particularly interesting," Kurumi said. "Mostly clothes."
"So no sign of anyone else?"
Miki shook her head. "No. I didn't really think that their would be. If the people who worked here would try to barricade the shop, they'd do it on the ground level so they'd have access to everything." She sighed. "I'm not sure whether to be upset or relieved."
"I know that feeling," Kurumi said as she patted Miki on the back. "It's rough. For now let's just try to keep ourselves occupied, okay?"
Miki nodded. "Yes. I'm sure there are plenty of things upstairs that we could use. I am starting to get a bit tired of wearing my school uniform all the time."
"Not to mention that Winter is coming up," Yuuri added. "We could definitely use some heavier clothes."
"Why don't you and Yuki go up there and start picking some stuff out?" Kurumi suggested. "We'll go check out the basement."
"I suppose that would work." Yuuri stood and knocked on the bathroom door. "Yuki, when you come out do you want to go upstairs and help me pick out some winter clothes?"
"Are there hats?" said Yuki's voice.
"I'm sure there are."
The door swung open. "Sure! Let's go! I could use a new hat."
"Alright then. Just wash your hands first."
The basement door creaked as Kurumi opened it. The air was musty and thick, much like one would expect from any basement. It was darker than either of their previous explorations; there were no windows, and the only light came from a single emergency bulb hanging from the wall. It was cramped, too. Most of the space was lined with metal shelves filled with boxes. The only bit of wall that wasn't was filled by an old metal desk, piled high with paperwork.
The two girls moved forward cautiously, hanging the lights on the edges of the shelves as they went. The shadows on the wall ended up making the place look even more ominous than it had to begin with. Kurumi tightened her grip on her shovel.
"Have you been down here before?" she asked.
"A few times," Miki answered, her voice low. "Not very often. There wasn't much reason to come down here."
"You think there's anything in the boxes we could use?"
"Probably not. It's mostly just extra stock of what's already in the store. There might be a few new things, but I don't think there would be anything-"
Both girls froze. The basement had been silent aside from their voices and footsteps. But there had been a sound that was neither of those. And it can come from the other end of the room.
Kurumi swallowed. "Did you hear that?"
There was another sound; a dull thumping.
Miki nodded wordlessly.
"I'll go first," Kurumi whispered. The shovel was already in her hands. She slowly approached the noise, hoping that it wouldn't be what she thought it was. She turned a corner around one of the shelves and sighed in relief.
"What is it?" Miki asked cautiously. "Is it…"
"It probably is, but it's stuck in here." Kurumi rapped her knuckles on a door labelled "Supply closet". The door was metal. From behind it, slow thumps and a groan could be heard. "It's not going to be able to get out on its own."
"That's good," Miki said quietly, not sure how to feel about the news. Sure, it was good that they were still safe, but the sheer fact that one of those things had made its way inside a place that she remembered so fondly… "Hey, what's that?"
"What's what?"
"That." Miki pointed to the door. A folded-over piece of paper was taped to it.
"I'm not sure." Kurumi peeled it from the door, unfolded it, and began to read. Her eyes widened. "Let's go back upstairs," she said quickly.
"What does it say?" Miki asked.
"I'll tell you in a minute," Kurumi folded the note up and stuffed it in her pocket. "But first we should go get the others."
"Why?"
Kurumi fumbled for words for a moment. "It's about your family."
