II: The Roadtrip or Roadkill?
After a few hours of hitting the Interstate, a small missile cut through the air heading straight for them. "Incoming!" Sachiko raised her voice slightly after noticing the thing on her mirror. Yoko was quick enough to squerved off the road that the missile missed the car and hit the rock instead, it was a moment where at least one of the passengers panicked as fear flashed through her mocha eyes. "Oh damn..." Yoko murmured under her breath as she over on the small radar screen on the dashboard. There was at least a dozen of small red dots filling up the bottom of the screen that it looked frightening for any light-hearted person, she took in a deep breath and shift the car's gear into overdrive and put the pedal to the metal zooming through the hidden road of the overgrown forest.
Explosions kept on coming as bullets clinked against the metal car, Sei hugged Yumi as they both kept their head down ducking just in case the glass decided to give out on them. "Sachiko, turn on the data scramble and mix up their signal." Yoko said calmly while driving at neckbreaking speed. "Roger," the other nodded tabbing a few keys on the dashboard and revealed a small holographic monitor and keyboard. Skillfully, Sachiko maintained her cool exterior as she worked quickly to disrupt the missiles while looking into a block of data that seemed to be in some kind of encryption that even she can't decode.
"What is it?" Yoko asked without taking her eyes off the road. "I can't decode this," Sachiko replied attempting to hack the code but only to be denied once again. "Try 'Mother of the King is Isis' then," Sei said calmly after she took a glimpse of the codes. Sachiko did so and amazingly enough, that was the answer as the car morphed from a beat up looking car into a shinning metallic car before switching to stealth mode and disappeared from the enemies' radar completely.
It was peaceful for the rest of the drive since they lost their enemies, but once they're in California or what's left of it anyway, things turned from worse to horryingly bad. There were thugs and crackhead everywhere, people with guns and people shooting one another as well as people running people over for no reason. The state itself had become lawless since 2089, right after five major quakes hit the state and seperating it by a near ten miles from mainland. Suddenly, California become a half drowned state or island that is overrun by criminals since people moved inland after those quakes. Sachiko felt uneased once they crossed the bridge, and the sight of poorly dressed men with guns turned her guts inside out.
Slowly, Yoko pulled the car to an emptied parking space, "We're here." She killed the engine and got out of the car gracefully, the others remained silent as they followed her example. The burning neon lights of Blood Bar flashed in bright red, the heavy metal doors remained close with a note on it. Cause a fight and you might lose your life, it seemed to be some kind of warning to the customers. Though Yumi was having a hard time to belief that anyone would take it seriously when everyone she'd seen looked like they're about to kill someone and this little note probably only acted as an encouragement to them.
Pushing the door open, the place was full just like Yoko had remembered it. A tall woman with short blonde hair was the first to noticed Yoko's presence and came to greet her, "Mizuno-san, it is good to see you again." Her Japanese was fluent and she looked very handsome, though her voice may be feminine and sweet. "Rei, how many times must I told you to just call me Yoko?" Yoko frowned at the young woman with a light smile on her elegant face. "My sincere apology," Hasekura Rei said giving Yoko a slight bow, she was too polite to be working at a bar and both Yumi and Sachiko mentally noted this at the same time. "Who might these beautiful people be?" Rei finally turned her attention to the others since she never seen any of them before. "Saitou Sei, Fukuzawa Yumi, and my partner: Sachiko." Yoko replied skipping Sachiko's last name on purpose.
"What the hell do you mean you ain't got no Vodka?" someone raised his voice in the back of the bar or rather at the counter. "Like I said, we don't have any." A confident reply with a hint of irritation within it, and Yoko couldn't help but raised a brow and Rei gave a nervous smile. "You lying little bitch, it's right there on the shelf!" the man was practically shouting as he pointed to a bottle just a little bit above and behind the bartender. "Look, you piece of shit..." the bartender leaned over the counter and grabbed the man by his shirt. "When I said there's no Vodka, there's no Vodka until you pay your bill. Capisce?" the bartender said dangerously as fire sparked in her brown eyes causing her to looked every inch dangerous as a man with a gun. "Y-yes ma'am..." he stuttered. "Good," she let go of him and smiled. "Now pay up!" she demanded and the man pulled out roll of a hundred dollar bills and handed it over to her. "Thank you, enjoy your vodka..." she smiled pouring him a glass of vodka.
"She's a scary girl," Sei commented and the others nodded in unison agreeing with her immediately. "That's Yoshino for you, always tough even though she looked very fragile and girly." Yoko explained and Rei nodded. "But I guess look can be decieving," Yoko laughed lightly while Sei just smirked at her comment. The fun filling moment was quickly tossed away when someone pulled Yumi away from the group, she let out a surprised yelp and Sachiko went into protective mode by drawing her guns and shot the perpetrator without blinking. Her actions caused an uproar in the bar, many guns were drawns and pointed in her direction.