What Remains (Book 1): The Outbreak

by Barrett, Tyler

  Kenji walked up to the man on the floor; the man was just barely alive, Kiyomi was already there trying to help him. He yelled at the shopkeeper to call the police and an ambulance. The shopkeeper snapped out of his daze and picked up the phone dialing the number for the authorities. Turning his attention back to the man, he knew it wasn’t good; there was an ever-growing puddle of blood around the man. His artery was severed, and they didn’t have the tools here to stop it.

  The man died about a minute later, in a store where no one knew his name, no one who loved him had come to his rescue. Only a couple of strangers had tried to help, but they were powerless and had to watch the man die. He died in a shop trying to prevent the very thing that happened to him. No cops ever came; the shopkeeper could never get ahold of anyone.

  Later that night the military started to set up checkpoints every ten blocks. It only then did the shopkeeper get any help. He flagged down a passing convoy of military trucks, unknown to him they were part of a body disposal unit. Ironically, this wasn’t one of their ‘scheduled’ stops, but it didn’t matter to them a dead body was a dead body. The shopkeeper asked what they were going to do with the body. They ignored him and hauled the body into a secondary flatbed truck and drove off.

  The military was in full motion now, setting up camps and checkpoints all over the city. It was a massive undertaking, but one that the government felt they had to do. These were some of the last stand efforts, and the soldiers knew it. They wanted to protect their nation at all costs and saw the capital, Tokyo, as the beacon on which to rally behind.

  Martial law was now in effect for Tokyo.

  Chapter 15

  Uncertainty

  The next couple of days were very chaotic. They both holed up in his apartment watching the news and talking about what everything meant for the country. Things weren’t too bad from what they could tell, at least not yet. There was some looting, and a few fights here and there but not much else. Military patrols did constant loops through neighborhoods trying to keep the order.

  They saw a few people being dragged off by the military, assumedly for participating in crimes. Whether they had committed any crimes was to be seen, but they didn’t have time to check. They heard gunfire almost every night when the military doubled its patrols through neighborhoods. Everyone knew not to go out at night for risk of being shot, yet every night the gunfire could still be heard.

  Neither one of them had gone to their jobs in the few days since martial law was declared. It was probably for the best. Several times they had seen news reports of the chaos that was unfolding right outside the safety of their building. The police and military still had most of it under control, but people were panicking. The more desperate people were the ones who went straight to crime, much like the gunman in the store.

  By the third day it seemed to calm down once people realized that the police and military still had control, but they still occasionally heard gunshots and sirens. Most people only left to get food and other important supplies. They decided to go and get a few more things while it had quieted down some. They left his apartment again and only saw seven people during their entire trip. This time, they got some more food and water, along with some medical supplies. A military patrol stopped them, asking odd questions, before letting them go.

  “Have you seen anyone acting erratically, or unusual? Have you seen anyone with wounds that are different looking? Do you know anyone that is sick?” Quickly followed by, “Do not approach anyone who is sick, just call the authorities.”

  They answered no to all the questions and were sent on their way. The patrol watched them until they left the block. The questions and stares troubled them both, but they hurried on their way back. Not too fast though, as to avoid drawing attention to them. They felt something else that was bigger than the riots was happening, and they didn’t want to be included.

  They made it back to his apartment without any more stops, and dead bolted the door. They put up the food and left all the medical supplies on his table. Kenji decided that he wanted to walk out onto the balcony and look out at the city below. He opened the door, and a rush of cool air assaulted him.

  Kenji looked out over the city once more, the sun shining brightly this time, and took in a deep breath. He caught a hint of something he hadn’t smelled before. It was almost like someone was cooking an animal, yet it was different. He saw small billows of smoke rising from several parts of the city. Kenji heard gunfire in the distance, along with some sirens. His earlier assumptions about it being quieter seemed to be inaccurate, and more so made it seem like he had been lucky so far.

  The sounds and the smells overwhelmed him, and he did not feel well after smelling the sickening smell that seemed to hang about the city. Kenji left the balcony and enjoyed the fresh climate-controlled air that filled his apartment. He saw that Kiyomi had turned on the TV and was watching the news yet again. It was not surprising that something else had made its way into the headline news.

  The newscaster sat at a desk and reported small pockets of civil unrest making their way in the city. He looked slightly disheveled, his tie was askew, and some hair was sticking out from his normally well-groomed hair. The police and military had authorized to use lethal force on some of the more violent cases. They estimated that the deaths were high into the thousands at this point. The warned that everyone should stay indoors at their homes only to leave when necessary.

  They had other reports of people openly attacking one another in extreme cases. Everyone was urged to report anything unusual to the closest authority. Again, they were warned to not go near anyone who was sick or acting aggressively. Stay indoors, avoid other people, and listen to the military. Simple enough, but there wasn’t a reason given why these rules were so important.

  Things didn’t add up as they should, and that worried him even more. Kenji understood that the video he had seen several days before showed something that the government didn’t want public. But, why? What was so damning in that video? Sure, military personnel was seen attacking unarmed civilians, and an officer had executed a soldier in cold blood. What did that have to do with avoiding people as if they were sick, not to mention reporting the sicken person to the authorities?

  Kenji saw the pieces of the puzzle laid out before him, but he had no idea how they fit together. The riots had caused the military to declare martial law, but he didn’t understand how any of that could cause the sickness that everyone was vaguely hinting. There had to be more to the sickness than what he knew, and he wanted to find out. His humanistic curiosity drove him to try to make the pieces fit, to make sense of this situation that didn’t.

  Kenji vowed that by the end of this he would make sense of all of it. The two of them wouldn’t end up like some other random person dead and alone on the floor of a grocery store. They wouldn’t be taken away in the middle of the night by the military like, so many had been. He didn’t want to be one of the people that the news reporter listed off as one of the thousands killed.

  Later that night Kenji locked the door and shoved a small, but heavy, dresser in front of the door, as he had the past two nights. He walked over to his balcony and secured the sliding glass door with a pipe in the frame so that it wouldn’t budge either. After that he checked all the windows as well, making sure they were locked. He walked back to the bedroom where Kiyomi had already curled herself under the blankets.

  Kenji closed the bedroom door and shoved his dresser in front of the door, giving it that one over check with a gentle shake. He took off his jeans and donned a lighter pair of pajamas and joined her in the bed. Lying down next to Kiyomi, he slid his arm under her neck and pulled her closer towards him with the other. Kenji held her, and she stirred slightly, adjusting herself into his embrace.

  As they lay there in the bed sounds of gunfire and sirens were still abundant in the city, the noises muffled on his nineteenth-floor apartment. Sometimes the gunfire was far away, and others it was close. It was when the
sirens and gunfire approached near his sanctuary Kenji called his apartment, did he tense up. It was something he felt and had felt for the past three nights, fear.

  Fear welled up in him every night, unsure of if he should close his eyes. Unsure if it would be the last time he was awake. Kenji lay awake staring out the window in his bedroom, wondering if the light coming through his window were actual lights, but fires that the riots had caused. He cringed hearing a gunshot echo several floors down, within his apartment building.

  Kenji wondered how long his fortress of solitude could withstand the evils that lurked outside his door. He wondered how long he was going to have to get used to the gunfire at night so that he could fall asleep. He lay awake for another hour before drifting off to sleep yet again. Tonight, wouldn’t be his last night in his apartment, but it would be the last that he got a decent amount of sleep.

  Chapter 16

  Sitting out the storm

  Knight and the rest of his team stood in the dark hallway of some building. There was hardly any way to tell what lay beyond the doors that lined the hallway. They didn’t move to check, though, preferring the silence. Whether it was the uncertainty of what lay behind them or the fact that they didn’t think they would spend long here, they didn’t make a move to check them.

  They had two facing the front door, which was partly cracked open to attempt to get a view of street beyond. The others were sitting around behind them talking in hushed whispers. The co-pilot, Cooper, was watching the hallway, glancing over every so often making sure the doors hadn’t opened on their own. The sound of the rain hitting the buildings and streets outside was almost deafening.

  It was dark, it was raining, and they couldn’t hear anything beyond the door. It was the situation the group had feared would happen but hoped it didn’t. The group couldn’t leave the safety of the building, just in case, anything lurked just outside the door. The roaring sound of the rain would most certainly allow anyone to get the jump on them. The lightning had ruined their option of using their night vision goggles, making it hard to see beyond about ten feet.

  Their chances of running the rescue mission with all these bad factors lessened their chance of success, and they all knew it. Their drive to save a fellow soldier was the only thing that kept them wanting. They felt they were abandoning a man to die, or, at least, to fend for himself. In the military, you learned never to leave a man behind and not a fellow brother in arms. Being helpless didn’t sit well with them; they all felt a little stir crazy.

  The storm had caused them to be stuck here in some unknown building, and unable to help rescue the other pilots. They talked through several options they had.

  “We could wait for the rain to lessen, but at the chance of getting caught in a downpour again. Another option is maybe to try to stick to the buildings in a line formation. The only downside to that is if something jumps out at us from an alleyway or a building it could break the line and draw attention. The last option is we wait for the storm to pass and then move on to the objective.” said Knight.

  “Whatever you guys think is best,” said Cooper.

  Carter nodded his head in agreement as well but didn’t say anything. Smith seemed to be still running the scenarios through his mind to decide which was best. Smith was calculative like that; he always wanted to outweigh the risk and the reward. He spoke up, “What if we try the back alleyways, there is less area to cover, and it will be smaller, so we won’t have to worry about distance?”

  Knight played that scenario in his head this time. He quickly decided that it wouldn’t work out as Smith had hoped. “The downside of that is what if we come to a dead end, which means we would have to backtrack and try and find another way around. Not only that but what if none of the alleys run along the way we need to go, we could easily get lost.”

  Knight made up his mind. The options were to wait or possibly find themselves in a bad spot. He didn’t like the idea of either, but at least, the waiting option had less risk involved. “Alright, we are going to have to wait out the worst of the storm. That is the safest option. Let’s start to set up a perimeter here, starting by clearing these rooms. Let’s take them one at a time. Smith, you got the front here, Cooper you have the back hallway here.”

  Smith stayed at the door keeping a watchful eye on the small portion of the street that he could see. Knight, Ramirez, and Carter all crowded up on the first door. They waited till Cooper was kneeling watching the rest of the hall. Knight signaled a door breach on the count of three. They all donned their night vision goggles again and waited three seconds.

  It was times like this where Ramirez had flashbacks to his time in the army. Doing building sweeps, kicking down doors. He always hated doing it, mainly because there was no way of knowing what lay on the other side of the door. He remembered a time that he kicked down a door, his friend entered before him and was shot before making it inside. Memories like these made his stomach tighten, the nerves reacting to the stress. He snapped back to reality, as Knight signaled the breach.

  Ramirez kicked the door open with a loud crash, Knight rushed in and to the right, while Carter went to the left. Ramirez followed closely behind them and when directly forward through the door. The room had a few windows that leaked in tiny amounts of light from the flashes of lightning outside, but not enough to ruin their night vision goggles again. The room was eerily quiet.

  There was nothing but some desks in the room, placed for workers to come in and sit. They cleared under all the desks and found nothing. Signaling all clear to each other, they backed out into the hallway and readied at the next door. They repeated the three-second countdown and kicked the door. Again, they cleared the room which was empty, except for a showroom for a travel agency.

  They went back into the hallway and moved down towards the remaining doors. The third door was a restroom, which looked like had been used until the plumbing stopped working. The fourth door turned out to just be a cleaning supply closet. That left them with one door left, which was the door at the end of the hall.

  They noticed a disconcerting smell as they approached the door, it was slightly musky and rank. Knight got to the door and noticed that it was a heavy-duty door, but found it was unlocked. Pushing it open they all gagged on the smell that came from within. Knight and the rest, each backed away from the door, trying to get fresh air into their lungs.

  The room at one point had been the building's break room, complete with a half kitchen. In the opposite corner of the room were two tables, which were pushed up against the back-exit door. They stepped into the room covering their faces. The goggles they wore made everything they saw in an eerie black and green.

  What they saw was beyond what they had seen so far. There were three bodies in the room, two of which had chunks missing from them and the third had a dent in its skull where someone or something had struck it. The smell was coming from the bodies that were starting to decompose. Knight checked the back door making sure it was secure before he waved them all out of the room.

  Smith looked back at the room, wondering how long the people had been there. They had to have been there, at least, several days for them to openly decompose. Things had certainly been bad enough; people had hidden in the back room of a travel agency. They weren’t safe here, and he had the dead bodies to prove it. Hopefully, he thought, whatever made all these people crazy enough to attack each other wasn’t openly contagious.

  They walked back down the hall and met up with the rest of the group. Cooper had seen them stop at the last door and their grimace. “Hey, what was in that back room there?”

  Knight answered solemnly, “A few dead civilians, not much else.”

  Cooper nodded his head slightly acknowledging the truth. Carter turned and looked at the rest of the group, taking his eyes off the front door. He had seen plenty of dead bodies, but not as many as he had seen today. He tried to bring some resolve to himself, understanding that this probably wouldn’t be the last time he saw
a dead body either. The others busied themselves with small work trying to find some useful items in the office.

  Smith went to the front desk area and picked up a brochure from the stand. It was a traveler’s brochure for America and highlighted Las Vegas and New York City. The images reminded Smith of home. He missed it already and wished, more than anything, that he could be back there right now. It wasn’t that he was giving up on the mission; it was more the longing to be somewhere familiar. Somewhere with normalcy.

  Knight watched Smith flip through the brochure and understood the soldier was longing for home. He, too, wanted to go back already. He also understood that a lot had happened during the brief time of their mission. They had been given no time to comprehend what was going on; they had constantly been moving from the start of their mission.

  No, there had been no time. But in everyone’s mind, everything was finally starting to process. Knight knew that if he gave them a chance to rest and dwell on it, they could fall apart. On the other hand, it could ease their minds a little if they did get a small break. He decided that he could count on his men to keep it together, they just needed a bit of time. Besides, the storm did not look like it intended to slow down anytime soon.

  They all moved into the office area of the building, moving the desks towards the front of the building to block off the front windows. Carter had volunteered for the first watch of the door to the street. None of them could rest easy. Instead, they ate from their MRE’s, swapping out the candies that came with each one. The thunder shook the building, booming like a cannon blast. Knight relaxed a little as the others chatted, talking about happier things.

  Smith still held the brochure of America, a reminder of why he was even on this mission. He had joined because he wanted to keep his country safe. It was never really a matter of why he joined, more a matter that he joined to put his talent into working communication tech for his country. He quickly decided that he would be on the frontlines, making a difference for his country.