"Hey pops."

"Hey kiddo! How are you guys?"

"Uhh...Hold on dad." Sean switched over to speaker phone.

"How do you have a working phone!!" Seiji was surprised as he thought everything was down.

"Satellite phones." Seo was wanting to tell Mr. T what was going on but Sean said he would handle it.

"Okay...somethings wrong. Out with it." Mr. Thompson's 'dad' instinct had kicked in.

"Dad, you remember the Tomo's that helped Ishmael when she passed out the other day?"

"Yes, did she pass out again?! Hold on. Margret! Okay we're both here."

"The Tomo's son made it out of Tokyo but he's partner was badly injured. This house is the first one you come to from the bike path we took to get here so he had no choice but to stop here. His partner needed a transfusion and Ishmael was the only one that could do it."

"I see..."

[Mrs T] "How is she? Did it go okay? The young man is okay isn't he?"

"Ah, here my boy, let me talk to your parents." Mr. Tomo motioned for the phone which he was given. "Hello, I am Dr. Tomo Abe. Your daughter is doing fine."

[Mrs T] Oh thank you so much! John, they have a real doctor there and he speaks english!!

[Mr T] Thank you so much Dr. Tomo and how is the other person?

[Abe] He is resting. Unfortunately, they were both type O so she is the only one that could give him blood. I took about 175ml from her as that is all I felt comfortable taking given her anemia.

[Mr T] How much is that Martha?

[Mrs T] Less than half a full unit. I used to be a nurse Dr. Tomo, what happened to the young man?

[Abe] He was shot in the side and was slowly bleeding out. How he managed to survive to make it to town is beyond me but we are grateful that he did.

[Mr T] Sean, did his son give you any news on the situation there? How are the two of them holding up and who is he?

Seiji took the phone without hesitation

[Seiji] Hello sir, my name is Tomo Seiji. The man injured is my..." Seiji was hesitant to state his relationship with Tsukasa but Sean let him know it was okay. "The man injured is my husband."

[Mrs T] Oh dear! You should be with him, not talking on the phone!

[Seiji] He's sleeping ma'am. He was in the military. We tried to leave during the night. There was a break in the barrier that was unmanned.

We took only what we could carry, but we were discovered by someone as it was after curfew. That was the only time we could attempt to leave. We ran and shots were fired. One of them hit Tsukasa but we managed to get far enough ahead and hide until the patrol passed.  We played dead and I think they figured we had been killed and just left. It took us all night to walk here, but he managed. Luckily, we came to this house and Ishmael was here to help us and didn't turn us away since...since we are together.

[Mrs T] Oh my dear! We didn't raise them to be like that. None of them are! They will welcome you like you are family.

[Sean] Well, you are now cause your husband has my sister's blood in him!

They all laughed to lighten the situation.

[Seiji] Sir, the situation in Tokyo is horrid. The camps they set up are in no way prepared to deal with the number of people that are there. It's all to keep the populace contained and under control. All of th-

[Seo] Wait! I need to get a hold of my parents so they can know what is going on.

[Seong] Good idea Joon.

The group waited until the Seo's were on the phone.

[Mr. Seo] Joon what is going on?

[Seo] Dad we are here with the Tomo's, we have word on the situation in Tokyo.

[Mr. Seo] I see, Hello Tomo-san!

[Abe] Which one? Both me, Hinata and Kenji are here!

[Mr. Seo] Ha ha ha, hello to all of you then.

[Seiji] Grocery stores have been looted either by residents or the military. Warehouses and all the local costcos have been stripped of supplies for the camps but it's nowhere near what's needed. Some of the soldiers are taking advantage of the situation and treating it as a free for all. Curfews went into effect a couple days after the black out.

Anything that was working has been confiscated by the military. The medical staff at the hospitals have been commandeered for the camps. If patients were too critical to move or needed mechanical assistance, they have all died. The hospital generators didn't last very long after the resources were cut. Suicides happen every day. The lack of sanitation facilities have turned things into one big sewer. The smell in some areas is unbearable. Bodies that weren't and aren't being burned are being left in empty cargo containers. Disease is starting to spread among everyone. We decided it was best to make a run for it. I have a small home here in town and hoped that it had gone untouched.

[Mrs. Tomo] No one has bothered the house dear, most of the young families and people left the day of the outage to get back to the city.

[Seiji] None of the big cities were prepared for anything of this magnitude. Usually the military can move in and help but with no power and very limited communication; things have turned bad very quickly. As far as the military is concerned, there is nothing of value in the smaller villages and they are on their own. That's another reason we wanted to leave. It would be much safer out of the city. Chiba is far enough away that most don't want to even try to make it on foot now. But...But I need to get back to where we hid from the soldiers. Tsukasa managed to take some firearms and ammo from one of the small armories. We may need that bag just in case things escalate into the countryside. Plus it has his medicine in it. He managed to get into a pharmacy and took all they had.

[Sean] Can he manage without the medicine?

[Seiji] With how stressful things are right now, I'm afraid not. It's a specialized med for his blood pressure and stomach.

[Mr. T] I still can't believe how things have fallen apart so quickly. Not only here but everywhere. I managed to contact another person on the hamm radio. The situation is the same in Canada. Cities are a mess. People are trying to flee to the backcountry but most are not prepared for that and those that are, are being met by either First Nation or townsfolk and driven back. The smaller towns are also turning people away due to limited resources and the potential for crime. They want to protect what they have also.

[Seiji] Tsukasa told me that the military doesn't want to use the resources it has to venture out into the countryside. Livestock is too much to deal with and with limited resources, the military doesn't want to allocate the manpower required to get, process and cook it. Most of their resources are being kept for the cities and trying to get basic needs back online.

Sorry mom and dad; me and Tsukasa have been making trips back to Chiba to stock up the house for the winter. We were going to surprise you by moving back here. Plus Tsukasa was privy to an experiment going on in Brazil that dealt with alternative energy or something of that nature. That experiment is the cause of all of this. Some scientists pushed things too far and caused a type of massive, low atmospheric EMP pulse. He had a friend there that was working on the project that stressed his concerns and told us how to prepare for it if it did in fact happen. Tsukasa convinced me to try and stock up the house as something like this happening was a possible effect of the experiment.

Even though the military knew of this, they didn't take it seriously.

[Mr. T] Well son, you are in a good and safe place with these guys and the town. As far as I'm concerned, you're all part of our family now!"

[Abe] I agree, all of us are linked now, thanks to Ishmael.

[Mrs. T] That little brat is always bringing people together! Well Seiji hon, we'll be praying that your hubby makes a speedy recovery. Joon hon, you and the boys keep an eye on Ishmael until she recovers.

[Seo] Yes ma'am

[Mrs. T] Ohhh! You might as well call me mom. You two are so getting married when this is over!

Seo couldn't say anything out of embarrassment.

[Mrs. Seo] Margret, I totally agree with you on that point!

[Seo] Mom!

[Mrs. Seo/Mrs. T] What?!

[Sean] You're screwed dude!

[Mr. Seo] Welcome to the family Seiji! I will have to agree with John. You guys should make an attempt to retrieve the bags they have hidden. The chances of others leaving are still very high and you will need to protect yourselves. Also, Tsukasa will need those meds.

[Abe] I agree, there's no certainty that the pharmacy here in town will have the meds that Tsukasa require since the meds are so specialized.

Everyone bid good night and the guys helped clean up the kitchen and open windows to get some of the cool night air. Kenji had returned to stay with the dogs with Seong and Haru escorting him home.

Seiji's parents had the large room upstairs. The rest of the guys already had sleeping futons downstairs by the patio door. Seo made sure Seiji had what he needed for the night and everyone turned in. It was agreed that they would try to retrieve the bags that were left behind in a couple of days. Seo made it upstairs to find Ishmael and Ryu still fast asleep.

As usual, Ishmael was the first one up. This time it was 5:30 am and she needed to go to the bathroom. All of that IV fluid was now making its way through. She knew if she went by herself, Seo would have a fit so she woke him up to go with her. Plus, she still didn't want to go alone.

Even though she was fine with Seiji and Tsukasa, the fact that Ito and now the two of them had made it from Tokyo on foot, meant other people could as well. Ryu slowly got up also, letting out a huge yawn for such a little pup.

"Joon..."

"Joonie!"

"..."

"I need to go to the bathroom."

Seo rolled over as his eyes tried to open. "What time is it?"

"I don't know! I gotta pee. Oh nevermind I can take Ryu!" Ishmael popped up to stand and wobbled a little.

"Oh hell no! I'm going with you. You can hardly stand ya brat."

"Meeeeh! Come on!" Ishmael was walking towards the door with Ryu right behind her.

They were careful to be quiet walking down the stairs. Seo had his headlamp already on after having grabbed it from the table by the patio door. The house was still asleep as they made it outside. "How's Tsukasa?"

"I don't know, he never woke up yesterday."

"...oh."

"Don't worry babe, he'll be okay. Dr. Tomo said he'd probably sleep all day just like you did."

"I guess I did sleep all day, huh?"