Sunday

5am, Ishmael heard voices outside the gate as they had kept the patio door opened to get some of the cool night air.  The screen door was securely locked and was the gate to access the back yard so it was fine.

"Joonie, Joon!"

"What..." Ishmael had been trying to wake him up by shaking him.

"Someone's out at the gate!"

"What?!" Seo was awake now and the two woke Sean and Haru. Keeping their voices low.

"Someone's outside the side gate. Come on."

The men grabbed the metal pipes they had found earlier and crept outside. The voices on the outside of the gate were getting louder as they started to bicker.

"Well you just call out for the them! They got the patio door open."

"Dammit Kim, it's 5 in the morning! I'm not standing out here yelling!"

"For christ's sake Seong!"

Ishmael recognized the voices. "Seongi??!"

"Melmel?!"

"IT'S THEM!! OPEN THE GATE JOONIE!"

"JOONIE!?"

Seo opened the gate as Ishmael charged out of it and right into Seong's arms.

"Seongi!! You guys are okay!"

"Just barely!" Kim walked past them and into the yard.

"I'm okay sissy, I'm okay." Seong let her go as she went to hug Kim.

"Kimmy!"

He initially frowned at the pet name but got over it. He was glad to see her too.

"Let's get inside." Seo wanted things locked back up, before that could happen, Seong and Kim brought the bikes they had ridden in with them. Everyone got back inside as the two newcomers dropped their backpacks off at the patio door.

"Sit, Sit!" Ishmael was happy to see them as she sat in Seo's lap at the dinning table with the others. Seong and Kim gave Seo a look.

"Oh come on guys, you already know we're together."

"Good!" Kim winked at Ishmael.

"So what the hell's going on guys! Fill us in!" Haru was desperate for any news that they had, they all were.

"Oh my God....how long have you been here?" Seong was having a moment.

"This is our second day. We left at midnight Friday, got here Saturday around 10 in the morning."

"Tokyo is locked the fuck down. Completely locked down. It's a nightmare!" Seong was looking for something to drink.

"Oh! Sorry guys, i'll put on some coffee and get you some water!" Ishmael got up and went into the kitchen and quickly brought them glasses of water. She returned to get the coffee going on the small butane cook stove. For a brief moment all she could think was that there were more mouths to feed.

"Details man! Details. Why did you leave your aunt and uncle's house?" Sean was chomping at the bit for information also.

Kim looked anxious, which was not normal. Haru, without thinking, put his arm around Sean's shoulders. Seong and Kim gave them both a look.

"Oh! Uh...surprise!"

Kim hit Seong on the arm. "I told you!! You owe me $50 bucks babe!"

"BABE!?!"

Everyone was staring at them.

"Double surprise..." Seong looked so guilty but Ishmael was the first one to laugh at them.

"Love birds!!" Ishmael wasn't shy about celebrating the handsome couple.

"Is everybody on the team dating each other?!" Seo sat there with his arms crossed trying not to burst out laughing also.

"There goes our jobs..." Kim whispered under his breath.

"Oh please Kim. I don't care! We're dating so it's no big deal!" Seo put them at ease. "Now back to Tokyo!"

"Oh! So people are panicking. There's no water, all the stores are closed, the ones that were open, people cleaned them out in less than 3 hours. It was chaos!"

"No water, no way to get food, no power, no communication. Nothing works. We managed to get to one of the last stores that had food and got what we could. My aunt kicked us out after she found out we were together. My uncle didn't care but she was being such a bitch to Seong so...we had to go." Kim smiled at Seong who returned the smile. "We remembered that Dae told us about the bike path but didn't have time to find it. We took the route that went through the city late last night. We packed up what we had and the food and stole their bikes. We rode to each other's house for clothes, personal stuff and more food then left."

[Seong] We left just in time guys. Riding through the city was scary, people tried to knock us off our bikes, what? 4...5 times?

[Kim] Passing a few food stores that didn't have shutters, people had already broken into them and looted them! I didn't think Japanese people were like that!

[Seong] The closer we got to the city center it just became a mass of stalled vehicles, motorcycles and scooters. We sneaked past some police officers. Earlier that day there was an announcement of a 5pm curfew. I heard them say that all exits to the city would be barricaded with military guards."

[Kim] It was some military guys walking around with a bull horn making the announcements.

"So some things must be working in the city for them to make an announcement?" Ishmael figured the officials would have some kind of power still.

[Haru] What? How can they mobilize the military? Nothing is working?!

[Sean] It's the military, they prep for stuff like this. Satellite communication and all that jazz!

[Haru] Then why have they not done anything sooner?!

[Seong] Probably waiting to see if things would come back online

"Sean's right." Seo was starting to worry that they would do the same for Chiba.

[Haru] Seo, can you get a hold of your dad and see if he found out anything?

[Kim] Wait how are you guys able to communicate. All the cell phones are down?!

[Seo] We found out that if you had your device off, there's still the possibility of it working. We had our phones off and in one of those static bags

"No shit!"

"No shit. We all had our stuff in one but the devices were powered off."

"So do you guys know what happened." Kim looked up as Ishmael came to the table with coffee mugs for them, moving the lanterns out of the way.

"According to my Pops, this was all man made by accident. Some scientists in Brazil and some European countries were doing experiments and created a huge ass EMP pulse."

"That boom noise Seong! I bet that was it."

"Yup. I had my phone on so it's toast just like you guys'."

"Wait, wouldn't an EMP knock out satellites?"

"Normally yes Kim, but this was contained to the lower atmosphere. Satellite communication is fine, it's just down here on earth that things got fried."

"Oh man...this is huge." Seong stood up to stretch out the tension and pour him some coffee that Ishmael had made on the hotplate while they talked. He poured everyone a cup.

"I'll make some more." Ishmael returned to the kitchen while the guys caught Seong and Kim up to speed on everything.

"So how did you guys get up here?" Kim moved closer to Seong now that their secret was no longer secret.

"Same way you guys did, bikes. We had spent like 3 days buying up extra food and supplies. You now all those power glitches we kept having?"

"Yeah what about them Sean? Ohhh so is this what that was leading up to?!"

"We think so. So Thursday after Seo and Ishmael managed to make it back to the city, we all decided that coming back here would be better for all of us. We scavenged a couple of the drop sites and built carts for the bikes to carry all of our supplies on." 

"We locked up the house, blocked the front of it with Sean's car and took off on the bike trail at midnight. Each of us pulled a cart loaded with supplies and gear."

"Man Haru, this is like the crazy shit you see in movies!"

"We know!"

"So you guys are okay with us crashing here right?"

"Of course Seongi! You're family dork!" Ishmael was ticked they would even think that they wouldn't be.

"She's right you two. We're all a team. The more of us the better off we'll be I think."

"Thanks guys, I'm glad we decided to come here."

"Hey have you two heard from Hideki, Josh or MinMin?" Ishmael was worried about the rest of their group.

"Hideki was near Osaka with his partner I think. I'm pretty Josh and Min are just fine. Min's sister's husband is like a nutjob American survivalist prepper or something. So I'm sure they're fine." 

"Good, I've been worried about them."

"I figured you would be sissy."

Ishmael gave Seong a smile as the second pot of coffee finished up.

"So do you guys have any kind of plan?" Kim needed to get serious as the situation was serious. The others chuckled as Seo set the white board back up with their list.

"This is what we need to acquire. First on the list is supplies to build more bike carts. We've already had to trade one of our transport bikes for stuff."

"I'm glad we did!" Sean thumbed out to the backyard.

"What did you get for it? A bike alone is now worth a lot! Especially now since most people have switched to cars and motorbikes. Only other way people get around is the metro or by using the city bikes and all of those are locked due to the outage!"

"Kim, did you see a couple with a small kid on bikes. The guy would have been on a bike with a cart and buckets on the side?" Seo was curious if they crossed paths with the couple.

"No, we didn't see anyone."

"Wait, were they the yellow kitty litter containers?" Seong had briefly seen a bike similar but didn't pay it much attention.

"Yeah! White bar trailer on the back."

"Yeah, I saw it when we were leaving my place. It was up on the balcony but you could only see a little of it. That house is like a fortress, a cop lives there."

"They made it home safely!!" Ishmael clapped, happy that her prayer had been answered and the young family was home safe.

"So we got...how much more rice and flour babe?" Seo looked over to Ishmael as she was the one handling the food.

"There's 2-50lb bags of rice, 2-15lb bags of flour, cans of meat, fish and other packaged foods. They gave us that, and 5 hens with about 12 chicks."

"Chickens? They gave you chickens?!"

"Yup!" Sean was happy as he caught most of them.

"Wow..." Seong and Kim couldn't believe it.

"How long did it take you guys to get out here?" Haru was curious as it was just them without any carts. All they had with them were two large backpacks each.

"About 4 hours, but we were pushing it, hard!"

"And we didn't stop but we went straight through the city!"

Ishmael came over to Seo and leaned down to rest her head on his shoulder. "I'm going to start on breakfast."

"Okay babe. You guys want to take a bath and freshen up?"

Seong and Kim's faces both lit up.

"Oh god yes!"

"You guys have running water?!"

"For now Kim. That's why we're wanting the stuff on this board. It's only a matter of time before all the water stops."

Sean and Haru went outside to start another fire and check on the chickens.

Seong and Kim felt like moochers now.

"Seo? What do you guys need us to do? If we're staying here we want to earn our keep."

"No Kim, you and Seong sit and take it easy for now. We'll work you later." Ishmael didn't laugh because she knew it was true. It was almost 6:30 in the morning and they needed to eat and get started with things.

"Well guys, we're just guessing at this point. Tonight we need to go to a house that is supposed to be for sale and take the solar setup that they have. We don't want to advertise that we have power but we at least want to keep the fridge going."

"How are you guys powering stuff?!"

"Sean and Haru scored that solar generator over there. We have a smaller one that keeps our gps devices and working cell phones charged. How about we talk during breakfast."

"How is Ishmael cooking everything?"

"She's using the outdoor BBQ, She also has a single burner butane camp stove, but that won't last forever as it'll run out of fuel eventually." Seo looked into the kitchen to make sure she was okay. Even though there were no bosses, it was going to take him a bit to let it go completely.