Ishmael slept for three solid hours. As she started to move again she felt something gush. She hopped up, quickly becoming aware of her surroundings and rushed downstairs to the toilet. Seo had fallen asleep next to her while sitting with her and bolted awake when he heard footsteps running down the stairs.

She prayed that they still had running water and they did as she reached the toilet just in time. Seo was knocking on the door

"Ishmael!?"

"I'm fine, hold on!" There were no pads in the smaller bathroom as she hadn't gotten around to unpacking them. She opened the bathroom door just a little.

"Mel?"

"I'm fine, will you go to the garage and look in the red storage tote? I need a pack of the purple pads."

"Okay." Seo rushed to the garage, passing Sean who was in the kitchen getting some water.

"Seo?"

"Need pads!" He didn't stop as he made it to the garage and searched the red tote. 'How fitting', he thought as he quickly found what he was looking for and hurried back to her. Knocking on the bathroom door, it swung open and the package in his hands disappeared in seconds. Soon Ishmael asked him to get her a pair of undies. He returned with a knock to the door again. 5 minutes later she came out of the bathroom with a spare towel. She walked passed him in a slight daze, saying nothing as she started to walk up the steps but was swept off her feet.

"Joonie! I'm fine to walk, I'm not dying."

"I don't care, deal with it."

Ishmael didn't protest and just wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her up the stairs and to their room. Seo went to lay her down on the bed when she stopped him. She needed the towel under her incase she bled through the overnight pad she was wearing.

"Thank you Joonie."

"No problem babe, how are you feeling?"

"Like shit. Will you put the strawberries in large bowls and set them in the fridge."

"Yeah, what do you want me to do with yuzu?"

"Just set them in the garage but leave the lids open."

"Okay, do you need anything?"

"Just sleep, I'll be fine in the morning."

"All right, you need something, yell. I'm going to help the guys."

"Thank you hon, sorry for freaking you out earlier."

"I'm just glad you're okay. Sleep." A tender kiss to her head and she was asleep before he reached the door.

Seo made it down stairs to find the guys sitting outside at the deck. They all gave him their attention once he got outside.

"How's she doing Seo?" Seong spoke as the other guys enjoyed the last of the lemonade.

"Sleeping again."

"She'll probably sleep all day." Sean gave him another reassuring smile.

"Good, you guys get everything unloaded?"

"Yeah, we got a lot of stuff!" Kim was looking over at the piles of materials that dotted the backyard.

The guys went out to survey their bounty. There was enough to make another bike cart; those materials went on the deck. Metal trash bin to the potting shed where the chicken feed was kept and Haru quickly emptied two bags of feed into the bin filling it up. To secure the lid, he took a bungee cord from his bike and lashed the lid down, placing the hooked ends under the hands.

"What are we going to do with all of this?" Sean was at a loss but knew the materials were valuable and would eventually serve a purpose.

"The tubing and piping can be used for water catchment and irrigating the garden. Now that there are more of us, we'll have to increase the size of the garden if this lasts long term." Seong had a good point that none of the other men had thought about.

"With the building materials I can make a larger coop and maybe a greenhouse." The group was thankful for Haru's carpentry skills. Seo looked again at the metal piping and tubing.

"The piping and stuff can be used for possible solar panel stands. We still need to head over to the Kitaro's and get that solar system, if it's still there."

"Seeing how we only have 2 large carts, maybe 3 of us can head over there now? No one else is around." Sean saw no point in them waiting.

It was decided that Seo, Seong and Haru would go and Sean and Kim would stay behind and start building another cart. Sean reassured Seo that they would check in on Ishmael while he was gone.

Pulling the cart bikes out of the gate, the guys headed towards the Kitaro house. Not too long after the group had left, Ishmael was coming down the stairs. Kim saw movement in the kitchen from the back deck.

"Sis is awake."

"What?" Sean looked inside and sure enough she was up. He went inside to see what was wrong. "Sis? You okay?"

"I need to eat something to take those iron pills. I'm fine ge, just bleeding like a stuck pig, and I'm hungry. It's almost 5."

"You need help?"

"No....yeah, will- hey where is everybody?"

"They went over to the Kitaro house to see what they could bring back."

"Oh, will you guys start a small fire?"

"Sure."

"Start it on the right side!"

"K" Sean went outside to get the fire going for her.

"How's she doing Sean?"

"She's fine, I think she's getting ready to fix dinner."

Ishmael decided on yakisoba with tonkatsu. Before heading outside to get some fresh veggies, she filled up the berkey so they could have safe drinking and cooking water. Haru's bargaining skills were top notch to get the water filter and other supplies that were saving their hides. Turning on the water, it still had a nice flow until the metal canister was half full. The flow of water lessened to barely a trickle; what Ishmael feared would happen, did. Walking over to the patio doors, Sean and Kim were almost done with the cart. The guys had found some kids bikes and had scavenged the wheels off of them. The glass door was opened but the screen door was closed.

"Guys?"

"Yeah?

"I think we lost water."

"Shit." Sean and Kim came inside to check the bathrooms. Sure enough the water was out. Coming from the back of the house, the guys had a sense of how bad things were starting to get. "You're right sis, water is no more."

"Crap...glad we at least have the buckets and what's in the tub."

"How many are filled with water Melmel?" Kim was headed to the garage.

"All of those in the garage, the first 5 are for cleaning because it has bleach in them. There are 5 in the bathroom for bathing and 5 in the kitchen for drinking/food prep. Plus we have those 6 large jugs that we bought."

"Okay, let's hope the guys find something to collect rainwater in."

There was nothing they could do about it so they returned to finishing up the cart and she started on dinner. She would just have to be more mindful of her water usage and said another brief prayer to whoever was listening.

Looking in the fridge, there were still some green onions, onion, peppers and 3 carrots left. She needed some cabbage and that could be harvested from the garden. Going to what was now her bedroom, she changed into sweats and one of Seo's t shirts. Dressed, she looked around his room. There was another dry erase board but smaller which she took downstairs. It fit perfectly on the side of the fridge where she labeled it 'Pantry'. Ishmael would deal with their food stores tomorrow. Everything that was needed for dinner was set out. She found the gathering basket and went to the garden. Haru's and Sean's 'ladies' were out and about in the garden. One hen even had a juicy caterpillar in its beak; the feathery ladies were definitely earning their keep. Ishmael went to pet the bird but stopped herself as she was reminded not to get attached to them because they would eventually end up as dinner.

Cabbage needed to be picked along with 2 long rows of tomatoes, beans, carrots and cucumbers. For now she just harvested a cabbage and a hand full of green beans. She filled the dishpan with just enough water to clean the veggies, instead of pouring it into the sink, she used it to water the houseplants. Ishmael decided to have a talk with Haru about keeping the original chickens out of the cook's pot and just using the younger birds as meat birds.

Still fresh on her mind, she went to the dry erase board and wrote herself a note.

'-harvest/can tomatoes, beans, carrots, cukes. Ferment cabbage/make slaw'
'-can strawberry jam, yuzu marm'
'-inventory food'
'-dry herbs'

She prepped all the veggies and pork chops for the tonkatsu. Ishmael wanted to plan this carefully so not to waste water. The only thing that required water were the yakisoba noodles. Before taking the food out to the cook area, she took one of the low profile side tables out to the bbq area to use as a prep area for cooking. The pot for the noodles was the first thing on the grill and covering the pot with a lid, the water would boil quicker. Water coming up to temp she was using the large cast iron skillet Sean had found for her. With a light layer of oil, she fried up the tonkatsu first and would use the same skillet for the yakisoba later.  Ishmael chopped up the veggie scraps into small pieces and fed them to the chickens.

The guys entered the Kitaro property through the double side gates.  After unlocking the large padlock, Seo set it in one of the front litter buckets on his bike. Looking out into the large backyard, the men had struck scavenger gold with that house. There was an abundance of lumber, hand saws, and small windows not to mention a stack of the poly carbonate roofing stored under the large covered back deck.

Seo saw the shed that was supposed to contain the solar array and batteries. Looking towards the house, the men saw the pièce de résistance. Rain barrels. The Kitaro's had left so much behind that it was unreal. There was no way they could get everything back to the house in one trip.

"Holy shit guys...this is literally everything we need right here!" Seong couldn't believe how lucky they had gotten.

"I know! Okay...focus, let's do the empty rain barrels and as much wood as we can carry."

"With these clear panels, we can grow all winter, I can build a really nice greenhouse with these and a chicken coop for at least twenty chickens!" Haru was in handyman heaven.

"Let's check the shed, it's supposed to have the solar stuff." Seo was the first to open the door. "Oh my god! It's still here!" For once Seo displayed an overabundance of excitement. There were 6 large panels with 6 batteries, still on the delivery pallet. Situated on top of the batteries were boxes which contained the charge controller, inverter, connectors and plenty of wire. There was also a stack of buckets, still wrapped in plastic.

"Jesus, I don't even know where to start." None of them did. Seong went to check the rain barrels that were near the house.

"These things are empty! They're not even hooked up to the house!"

"Alright, we're going to need Sean and Kim for this, hopefully they're able to get the other cart built. For now let's take four of the rain barrels. We'll come back for the other four tomorrow. This stack of buckets..."

"We can probably get the barrels and buckets on one cart. The barrels won't weigh that much."

"Three barrels can go on one cart if we strap it down good."

"Good idea Seong. Haru how much of the building stuff do you want to take back?"

"Well let's take some of the lumber. I think I saw more of that gutter tubing in the shed, and those garden hoses for sure. Let me check this other shed." Opening the door was like opening another treasure chest. Fittings, hardware, couplings, screws, hand tools, nails and garden tools. "You guys are not going to believe this..." Haru stood back so they could all look.

They filled up the litter buckets with fittings, and hand tools. A small portion of the lumber went onto Haru's cart along with the electronics for the solar array. They would have to beef up at least one of the carts to handle the batteries and panels. "I'm thinking guys, there's enough wood here to build two really good bike carts. What do you think?"

"Eh! I don't know Seo, I'd rather use the wood for a greenhouse, once we get stuff moved over, I don't really see us needing to haul anything super heavy after this."

"Ah...I guess you're right Haru. Well let's get what we can and head over here tomorrow morning with the other guys."

"Sounds good Seo." It took them about an hour to load everything onto the carts and secure the loads. Haru also grabbed a roll of the mesh screening.

The carts were heavy as they creaked along. Thankfully they didn't have far to go and Seo locked their treasure trove back up before they slowly, but steadily, made it back home.