The Spring Girl
Chapter 3: Escape route
We both stared at the eruption in confused fear. The mountain was spewing out hot lava at quite a frequent rate. The lava rapidly oozed down the sides of it. Thick, black smoke was starting to form out of it, and it invaded the night sky, blocking out the moon and the stars. We did not seem to be the only ones who noticed. The nearby town of Gotemba was full of screams and the sound of running. Miere quickly ran into her clinic, grabbed some supplies that I could not make out, snatched my arm and then booked it. We were running through Gotemba now, the lava starting to roll down the nearby hill. It was burning up the trees with a fierce crackling sound as it gurgled it's way towards us.
"Where are we going!?" I panted, not being used to this.
"Ask questions later!" Miere seemed to be in a hurry. She let go of my hand now that I was manually following.
We nearly tripped over a nearby lamp that was knocked over as the lava edged closer. Some people were still rushing, a lot getting past us to the point where I almost lost track of Miere. I could barely keep up with her as her purple outfit flapped around. She didn't bother to keep it from doing so.
Before I knew it, I was right beside her, grasping my backpack straps with both hands. We soon left Gotemba after 10 minutes of constant running.
Miere started to climb a hill that seemed to about 20 feet tall.
Reluctantly, I followed her. My panting was extremely loud by this point.
"I had to slow down so you can keep up." She was teasing me, even in dangerous times.
"...You weren't going at full speed?"
"As a nurse, I must keep my own body healthy. If it wasn't, then that would be ironic."
We reached the top, and she helped me on the last step. I turned around and saw Gotemba being burnt to the ground by hot lava. I looked overhead, and saw Mt. Fuji finally starting to calm down. It spurted out one last stream of lava, and then it returned to it's normal shape, standing proud and tall. The smoke didn't seem to quit, though.
Looking back at Gotemba, my eyes saw no sign of death or corpses. Fortunately.
Miere sighed, pulling out a map of some sort.
On closer inspection, I just now noticed that she was carrying a medical bag, and her violet attire seemed to have more pockets than usual.
Standing up on my toes, I inspected the map that she was holding.
It seemed to have been a map of Japan, and it even included Mt. Fuji.
I held my chest, my heart beating from the traumatic event that has just occurred.
Miere seemed perfectly fine.
"Please explain how you are not traumatized right now?"
"Oh please. I've experienced much worse."
"Like what?"
"I will save that for another time."
She smiled weakly, and then went back to the map.
I eyed her oddly, but she didn't seem to notice.
"Let's see... the next town that's the closest here would be... Kawaguchiko."
At that, she rolled up the map, stuffed it back into one of her many pockets, and began to walk down the hill.
Staying beside her, I followed.
"I've never been to any town besides Kyoto and Gotemba..." I said.
"I am unfamiliar of this location as well."
Judging by the tone of her voice, her confidence didn't seem to be damaged in the slightest.
"What will we do when we get there?" I asked curiously.
Miere looked at me. "Hmm... most likely just buy any needed supplies and then find a hotel."
"...Oh."
Miere continued to walk down the hill.
Before following her, I looked down at Gotemba. The lava seemed to have burnt most of the homes, but the rate was slowly stopping.
At that, I started to walk down on my own. We walked in silence, running out of things to talk about.
After a solid 10 minutes, I broke the silence.
"...Soooo, what do you think Gotemba will do now?"
"It'll most likely take them a while to rebuild the homes. Besides, even i—"
She stopped in her tracks.
"...Oh. It looks like we're here already."
I looked ahead of us and almost immediately saw many bright lights as it illuminated the dread of the night.
Kawaguchiko seemed to be lively, despite the time of the day. We could see people walking the streets and many vehicles on the roads.
"...Um, Miere? How will we find a hotel in this big city?"
Miere looked at me as she started to realize it herself.
"...Honestly, um... no idea."
We stared at each other with dumbfounded faces.
"Maybe there's a big bright sign for a hotel nearby." She said as she tried to regain her confidence.
"Probably."
I saw her look to the right, so I looked to the left.
Seeing no hotel signs, I looked to her side to see if any was there.
There was.
She started towards it, and I followed behind her.
We reached the sidewalk and ended up having to cross the street, my anxiety kicking in, causing me to double check for any cars.
Once we got there, I looked up at the hotel and stared in awe.
Kawaguchiko Hotel; Please enjoy your stay
Miere opened the door and took the first step inside.
I followed.
Inside was an average looking hotel that had all of the basic materials that you would expect from one.
Assuming it was a three-star, I followed Miere up to the reception desk.
Once she started to book our room with the desk lady, my eyes peered to the people in the lobby.
All of them seemed to be calm, but from different cultures. This made me guess that there was an airport nearby.
One man was playing his flute quietly in a corner to entertain some children.
I listened as hard as I could, and the song sounded somewhat familiar.
After a minute of thinking, I determined that the song was "Kagome, Kagome".
I kept listening, the nursery song feeling quite nostalgic.
As I was listening, a voice interrupted me.
"Come on."
"Huh? O-oh, sorry."
I followed Miere to the room, the key dangling from her hand.
She unlocked it and then opened it, revealing a rather large bedroom that contained 2 beds, a bathroom, a desk, a TV, and a window with a view.
Almost immediately, Miere slumped into one of the beds and yawned loudly.
"I just now realized how tired... I... ...a ...am... zzzz..."
She fell asleep without even covering herself.
With nothing else to do, I took the other bed and covered myself up, trying to get comfortable.
After 10 minutes of staring out the window, I yawned and ended up drifting into a deep sleep.