{{friday...}}

The house was awakened by the smell of coffee. It was only 6:30 in the morning. Why Ishmael was up so early no one knew but she was. They all trudged downstairs. Not only was coffee going but the table was full of food.

"Food!" Sean perked up and quickly took his seat followed by Haru. Seo went over to her as she was turning off the cook top.

"Morning babe."

"Morning." The two shared a brief kiss, with his back to the other guys, they had a full view of his tattoo.

"That's some impressive ink you got there Seo."

"Yeah, I know."

Now that they were all at the table Ishmael seemed worried about something. They figured it had to do with the outage and let it go.

"Hey guys?"

"Yeah sis?"

"I was thinking this morning. What if things get crazy here in the city, like looting and no food crazy?"

"I was thinking about that last night." Haru sat his chopsticks down.

[Ish] "I mean, I know we're blocking the front of the drive but that wont stop people. We're in a major city! If this outage goes on much longer, people will get desperate." Ishmael had a point that none of them really thought about as they had been so focused on just getting supplies for an impending emergency. Now that it had actually happened, long term plans needed to be talked about.

[Seo] "Me and my dad talked last night. He mentioned that the house in Chiba would be better than being in the city.  But that needed to be a last resort as all of our supplies and stuff are here. There's nothing at the house."

[Haru] "Yeah, but that house has a huge yard and garden. Plus the front is gated and the entire property is surrounded by a 7 foot cement wall."

[Sean] "Not to mention it's away from the over crowded city and there's mostly older people there. You know, let's talk to Pops about this. He knows more about prepping and all that."

Sean dialed hoping they were still up and could use their phones.  The phone was ringing.  Cell towers were still working.  Big unexpected win.

"Sean? Everything okay?"

"Yeah, pops, hey we're sitting around talking. If this outage continues, people in the city are going to start getting desperate. It might not be safe."

"True, me and your mom talked about that earlier. How far is that retreat house from you guys?"

"It took me and Ishmael about 6 hours to bike here, we stopped to take breaks and were going at a steady speed."

"And you only ran into two people?"

"Just a guy and his dog."

"Hmmm...You know guys, that might not be such a bad idea. What all do you have at the house?"

"There's an outdoor bbq so we could cook, there's a garden already there. 7 foot cement walls, the front is gated plus there are storm shutters on the bottom windows.  There's a wood burner in the caretakers quarters." Seo had forgotten about that.

"Is there firewood there?"

"Yes sir, there's a ton of firewood along the back of the property. Already cut and stacked."

"Guys, you might have to really consider that as an option."

"What would you do pops?"

"Wow...While things are still somewhat under control, two of you may want to load up some food on the bikes that you have and take it out there. If things get out of hand, you may have to bug out to that house. That way you already know that there's supplies there."

"I think Poppo's right guys. Two of us could load up with emergency food and the small generator and go to the house. You would have to spend the night then head back in the morning."

"Yeah, I agree. If we could just find a cart or something to pull behind one of the bikes it would make things easier." Seo was seeing the validity of the plan more and more.

[Haru] "Wait! There are two donation drop offs in the area. Maybe we can get lucky and find something that will work?  People are always dropping stuff off that they don't want to throw in the trash.  It's all free for the taking."

"You guys better go there now since it's still early before others go looking for stuff! I'll stay behind." Ishmael already knew it would be best for her to stay home. She could get stuff together for them to take while they searched for things.

"Okay Pops, I think we're going to do that. We'll message you later."

"Okay, you guys be careful. It might be a good thing to head out at night when you go back to the other house.  Make sure the satellite phones are charged.  I heard on the hamm radio that some of cell towers are starting to go dead."

"All right, we'll let you know. Talk to you soon dad."

They now had a new plan. Ishmael and Sean would stay at the house while Seo and Haru biked to Chiba. For now, Ishmael and Seo would go to one donation site and Sean and Haru would go to the other. The guys decided she should go anyway to help carry stuff back. They needed all the hands they could get. Afterwards, they would meet up at the house, drop off what they found then head back out to see if any of the stores were open. Each group was to take a go bag and not separate. Moving the car would have to wait.

Haru gave Seo directions to the closet drop off site, it was about 20 minutes away. Making sure each group had plenty of water just in case, they headed out.

Ishmael and Seo got to their site in about 15 minutes. There was a lot of stuff to go through. Seo found a portable shopping basket that he dug out. Ishmael a large suitcase. The only thing wrong with it was that the handle wouldn't go down which was fine. Continuing to dig through the pile, Ishmael spied something shiny.

"Joon look!" Ishmael scurried over the pile to pull out two bike wheels on brackets. One of the wheels had a baggie with extra hardware; they looked like they came off of a kids bike. "Maybe we can use the suitcase and connect the wheels to it!"

"Or we can just use this!" Seo was holding a small camping table.

"Perfect! Look, curtains still in the bag and a sewing machine!!" Ishmael jumped around happy at the treasures they had found. Looking one more time, Seo found some medium totes and she found some pvc pipes along with a box of pvc fittings.  The sections of piping were only about 4 feet long but she got them anyway. They both looked one more time and found more discarded camping tables that had dried paint spilled on them.

"We should take the totes instead of the suitcase." Seo didn't think the suitcase was needed any more.

"But I can haul the other stuff in the suitcase since it has wheels."

"Ah! Good point. Let's get back to the house and see what the guys found. We'll take the smaller tabletops since they're lighter. Me and the guys can come back for the larger ones."

"Okay."

Seo had brought some cordage and was able to strap the table tops and piping to the suitcase, he carried the suitcase while Ishmael carried the totes. The few people that were outside gave them weird looks. One older lady even called Ishmael foreign trash but she just ignored her. Seo glared at the woman who quickly walked away. Walking back to the house, they found more bike tires sitting out by a trash bin. They took them just in case, strapping them to the outside of the suitcase.

"Okay babe, no more stuff!"

"Yeah, this is getting heavy!"

Seo and Ishmael were the first ones home. They took their finds to the kitchen patio and washed their hands. There was a 10 minute wait for Sean and Haru to return.

"You guys won't believe this!! Come look what we got!" Sean was broadcasting to the entire street as the others rushed to the front door.

Sean and Haru managed to find two bike frames, each one was missing a wheel. Ishmael and Seo could only laugh at the coincidence of it all.

"You guys know what?! I think we have enough for all of us to have a bike!" Ishmael's eyes were huge as the gears started turning.

"Well what did you guys get?" Haru was pouting as his finds were not about to be outdone.

They brought in the extra bike wheels, table tops, totes and the other things that they found.

"Dude! You think the wheels will fit?"

"Let's head back to the site we went to. There are two more bigger folding camp tables. We can work on fixing up the two bikes you guys found first." Seo went to get the bike kit and air pump he had brought with them. After an hour of banged up knuckles, pulled hair and a few curse words, the group had two extra bikes.

"You know what this means don't you?"

"Sure in the hell do little sis! We might be able to haul all the food and emergency gear to the house!"

"I think we just might be able to do this guys!" Even Seo was optimistic now. Haru rushed outside and came back with some hand tools, a drill and a handsaw. Ishmael jumped around and cheered! Everyone got busy, MacGyvering carts to haul stuff.