{{thursday...}}

Seo opened his eyes. He had slept like a rock, as did the warm body that was curled up to him. In a way he knew that everything would be alright as long as she was next to him. Reaching for his phone, it was a little after 5 in the morning. He thought it best that they get going as soon as possible. He rubbed his nose on her forehead which caused her to move.

"..mmm...what time is it?"

"A little after 5, we should get up so we can head out before other people start to wake up."

"Okay..." After a huge yawn, she was up. They had slept in the clothes they had planned on wearing. "Will your parents house be okay?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine. There's nothing valuable here but the tv."

"Your mom's guqin is valuable."

Seo smiled at her. She was right, that was the only thing of value. Before his parents had left they had taken everything of real value with them except for that. Even the contents of the safe had been emptied out.

"Can we take it with us? I'll carry it."

"Ishmael....are you sure? We're going to be riding for like 6 hours!"

"Yeah, I can strap my bag onto the bike since it has the shelf thing and carry the guqin on my back."

Seo couldn't say no, not with her big brown, pleading eyes. Why she was so obsessed with it, he didn't know. "Fine... go get it."

Ishmael hurried to the back room and carefully wrapped it in it's carry case to sling it across her back. Thankfully it wasn't heavy. With everything secured to the bikes, Seo with his rucksack on, he put on the headlamp. Ishmael had given it to him as he would be leading the way. He had strapped the flashlight to the bike she would be riding. Walking the bikes out the side gate, it was eerily quiet and pitch black out. Seo pad locked the gate then looked for the start of the bike trail on foot.

Ishmael looked up at the night sky as she held onto the bike for him. The stars were beautiful. Finding the trailhead, he made it back to her.

"What are you doing?"

"Look!" She pointed up to the sky. He walked over to her and kissed her on the nose.

"Let's go babe. Let me know when you want to stop."

"Okay."

Getting on the bikes, they headed out. The headlamp Ishmael had given him was super bright, too bright in fact. He stopped to adjust it, the last thing he wanted was to attract attention. While he did that, she messaged the guys, Mr. T and Mr. Seo on the garmin and clipped it to her shoulder strap. The route was mapped out so that they could keep track of her. Sean and Haru should have made it home last night. It was a little after 5:30 in the morning as they started their journey.

They stayed quiet while on the bike path. Since they were the only ones out and the path was wide enough, Seo had her ride next to him instead of behind him. The only things out besides them were a few bunnies.

"How are you doing babe?"

"I'm good."

They continued at a nice and steady pace. Two hours into the ride, they decided to stop when they came upon a small covered rest area. There were only benches but it was the perfect spot. The area even had a map. Since Ishmael had the camp stove and noodles with her, she brought her pack over to the shaded side. It was a good time to eat something. 

She set up the small camp stove and filled the pot with water. Heating up water is all she wanted to do on the trail, she covered the pot so it would boil quicker and took out the two instant cups that she had and a package of preserved fish for Seo. She would eat the noodle cup and would give Seo the rice one to have with the fish.

"Glad I kept that stove!"

"Me too, eating will help us on the trail." While Ishmael prepared them some food, Seo went to check out the map. Taking out his phone he saw a message from his dad. He texted back that they were on the trail and that Ishmael had her garmin on. As Mr. Seo pinged Ishmael's garmin, it went off.

"That's just dad. He asked where we were."

"Mn!"

Looking at her garmin, Sean had sent her a message.

Sean: Home @ 8p.

Ishmael: k

"Sean and Haru made it home at 8 last night."

"Wow, Tokyo must be a mess. We may need to go along the back roads. Hold on let me get a hold of my dad, he may know a better way to go. This map only shows the main trail that goes straight through the city."

"Good idea."

Since they were alone, he decided to call him while they ate.

"Joon? You guys doing okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine dad. We stopped at the first rest area to eat. Hey Sean said they didn't get home till like 8pm. I think Tokyo might be a mess when we get there. Is there a back way we can go?"

"Hold on, let me check the route Ishmael has set."

Mr. Seo zoomed in to check the current route. It went along the normal trail and right to the city center. Seeing their end point, Mr. Seo suggested they divert and go along the back of the city. There was a smaller, less popular trail. It would bring them right to her house and avoid downtown Tokyo. That way also added a few hours to their time but being dad, he felt it would be safer for them. Ishmael tried to adjust the route on the device and Seo made a note of where they needed to turn off of the main trail. She thought it best that he carry the garmin since he was leading . Meal done, they disposed of the trash in the receptacle. They drank more water and continued.

It was going on 9am and the sun was fully out. By now, Ishmael and Seo both put on their hats and Seo stopped to put on sunscreen. Ishmael put on a long sleeve shirt from the pile of seo's clothes that was made for being out in the sun. The material was thin and breathable. Since it was button up, she kept the front opened.

Two more hours into the bike ride, and they stopped at another rest point to snack and drink more water. Ishmael carefully took the guqin off while they rested. Now, they had to refill the smaller bottles they were carrying. It took all of the water from one of the bigger bottles that Seo had purchased. This rest point had a pit toilet so bathroom break was taken. They were almost to the Akihabara junction. Both were relieved that they hadn't come across anyone else but knew the closer they got to the city, the more chances of coming across others. Sure enough, a little bit past the junction, someone was coming into view.

It was an older man, around the age of their dads, and his dog. The man had a large pack on. They were both panting and hurting for water. The dog had been trotting alongside the bike the man was riding. Ishmael, having the heart that she did, stopped and gave him one of their big things of water, one of the smaller unopened bottles and the gatorade that she didn't drink. He was grateful and thanked them profusely.

The man, who's name was Mr. Kenji Tomo, stopped to talk to them and take a break. Tokyo was a mess. Cars were blocking all the roads and people were sleeping on the sidewalks as they had no way to keep cool. A lot of people were starting to panic, after not even one day, they had run out of food. Some were stranded as the rental bikes had locked up and the streets were so congested that it was nearly impossible to ride them. The police were there, but there were not enough of them and there was nothing they could really do. Most, if not all communication was down. There had also been an influx of people from the countryside and smaller cities. Why, he didn't know as they would be better off there with less people. Him and his dog had packed up early that morning and were heading to the town that they had just left as his brother owned a grocery store. He urged them to leave Tokyo as the situation was only going to get worse.

They both wished each other well on their journeys. Mr. Tomo continued to rest and gave his dog and himself a much needed drink of the water Ishmael had given him. He would need it more than them since he was just starting his journey.

Reaching the last junction, they steadied themselves and reviewed the new path they had to take. Taking in more water, Seo told her they were not stopping until they reached her house and that they needed to pick up the pace. This time Ishmael followed behind Seo as they rode faster. With the faster pace, they should reach the house in another two hours. Adjusting the gears on the bikes, they had established a fast but steady pedal rhythm. The last thing either of them wanted to do was wipe out on the trail.

Soon they reached populated areas. People were indeed sleeping on their balconies and sidewalks, some had tents set up in open areas. The one thing that was certain was that everyone noticed them. Some of the little kids even tried to run after them, giggling along the way. Seo was glad his dad suggested the back way as it did in fact take them away from the city center and along the outskirts of it. Most of the structures they passed by were homes. There were a couple of people out on bikes, riding around just for something to do.

Around 11:30, they had to get off of the bikes. For some reason the route started to take them back into the city and the amount of stalled cars made it impossible to ride their bikes. Not to mention all the people on the sidewalks, out to get some fresh air. Seo quickly reviewed their maps and found another way to go.

Soon things started to look familiar to Ishmael and she knew they were getting close. Thirty minutes later, they had arrived, exhausted, hot and hungry. Hearing noise outside, Haru swung the front door open. He was standing there with a bat.

"Uhhh...can we come in?"

"Little sis!! Sean they made it!"

Haru practically pulled her into the door. Guqin strapped to her back and all.

"Hey! Take it easy dork!"

Sean was there too.

"You made it!!"

"You guys wanna help me?!" Seo was standing there holding both bikes.

Ishmael moved to take the instrument off her back as the guys went to help Seo. Haru still had the bat in his hand.

"Bring the bikes in the house." Ishmael was back to directing things again. Seo and Sean brought his bike into the genkan and Haru and her the other bike and unloaded them. With everyone reunited and together. Ishmael collapsed on the living room floor. She was tired, Seo came to join her. Both were sweaty and hot.

"Is the water still running?"

"For now, we went out earlier and heard that parts of the city are starting to lose water pressure." Sean was drinking an iced tea.

Ishmael popped up. "Shit the freezer!"

"Relax little sis. Luckily we have that DC cooler, we put all the meat in there, we haven't opened the fridge part. First thing Sean did when we got back was check the solar equipment. It all works." 

"Oh thank god. We'll since we still have running water, we need to shower." Ishmael was looking over at Seo, he simply shook his head in agreement.

He let Ishmael shower first. She took less than 5 minutes, then he went in to shower. Ishmael was going through seeing what they had.

"We got the panels out on the small patio. This is keeping the big one charged. The small one is upstairs for the smaller things. We figure we can charge it up during the day and plug things in at night." Haru showed Ishmael their current set up.

"Nice, I need to let Poppo know we made it to the house."

"I found the satellite phones, they are charging on the goal zero generator."

Seo came out wrapped in a towel only. "Babe, where's my clothes?" Sean and Haru were staring. Not because he was practically naked, but at the large tattoo that snaked around his torso. Even though they had seen it before it was still impressive

"By the door. Hey don't forget to let your dad know we made it."

Ishmael was acting like it was no big deal. She cleared her throat getting the guys attention as they looked at her, she winked and giggled. Ishmael whispered to Sean.

"Now who has the sexy boyfriend?"

The three of them headed into the kitchen.

"Babe where's our room?"

"Oh I'm sorry. Come on I'll show you." Ishmael led him upstairs as he flexed his arm to tossle his wet hair.

Ishmael showed him to her room. Now more than ever she was glad she had a full size futon mattress. "You can put your things in here." She opened the closet for him. Before she could leave, he pulled her in for a hug and a kiss.

"We'll be in the kitchen." She gave him another peck to the lips and left the room so he could get dressed.

Back down stairs the guys were playing cards. Ishmael went to the supply closet to get the butane stove. She set it on the stove top. The guys already had the patio door opened and the doors upstairs along with the windows. That was enough to pull air through the house.

"Thank you guys for putting the meat in the cooler AND for getting that huge GoalZero generator. This is going to save our asses!"

"Tell me about it. Nothing like nice cold beer!"

Seo came down stairs, dressed and joined the guys at the table.

"So where's the food you guys picked up on the way home?"

Haru pointed to the bags in the corner behind him. Ishmael began to set all the food on the counter to see what they had. Between the four of them they had enough for an extra two months.

"You need help with anything babe?"

"No. Sean have you heard from mom or dad?"

"No, I figure they're still sleeping. I texted him that you guys made it home."

"Okay. You guys hungry?"

"Yes! People have been grilling food all day!" Sean was prompting her to hurry up but she wasn't about to move any faster.

Going to the fridge, her tiredness was hitting her. Sandwiches and chips were all the guys were getting for now. She fixed them all turkey sandwiches. What was left in the fridge would be fine.

"Here you go, I'm going to lay down for a bit."

Seo figured her carrying the guqin had worn her out even more. She laid down in the living room as it was cooler than upstairs. She would have to do something about that later. The sheer curtains would not cut it, not with the sun coming in. Before she relaxed into sleep, Seo was there checking on her.

"Hey babe, how you feeling?"

"Tired, that was a lot of bike riding today."

"I know. Rest, I'll come check on you later."

"K." 

Seo gave her a quick kiss then went back to the card game.