CHAPTER FOUR
This lifestyle, even at the end of the world, seemed bizarre in its own right. How long, Tomoko wondered, could she keep it up? She had raided through most of the nearby convenience stores for food and drink. Plenty of non-perishable goods were still yielded by the larger grocery stores and supermarkets in the area, despite them reeking like abominable compost piles due to the once-fresh produce sections and meat departments rotting. Tomoko still held her nose and ran in there to get the things which she needed to sustain herself. Occasionally she nabbed some new clothes or armfuls of manga if she felt like it.
It was so surreal, yet entertaining, this concept of practically looting a store and being able to get away with it scot free.
She did, however, sometimes leave some money on the conveyor-belt next to the cash-register.
Tomoko was not without some morality.
While the still steady supply of food was only a minor concern for Tomoko, what really worried her was her crushing loneliness, which seemed to worsen with each passing day.
She missed so many people: her mother, her little brother, (even though they never got along back then she would be overjoyed to see him now) her little cousin Ki, and long-lost friends from worlds gone by.
Sometimes, she even wished her obnoxious class-mates were still around. That way, she would at least have "something" to listen to, even if it was their arrogant, pompous babbling on about going to karaoke after school, how someone looked like ass in that picture, or how they still hadn't studied for tomorrow's exams.
At least then, there would be more to listen to than the sound of her own breathing, her own internal thoughts, or her talking to herself, which was pretty much the only way she could have a "normal" human conversation with someone, even if that someone was herself.
Counting the days.
For what?
What was going to happen in however many days?
Would these days ever end?
Was Tomoko condemned to live as long as space and time itself, as limited by human science these things might be?
Such deep, existential thoughts for a young girl to have.
Tomoko wondered if she was going insane.
