Volume 4 – Chapter 13: Cracks in the Armor

Date: September 19

Last 12 Days.

The road south was wrecked and untended, eaten up in years of neglect and new scars from chaos. But every tear in the convoy surviving on weary trucks and improvised motorcycles to heavy foot traffic for supply hugging their way like some desperate vein through wrecked lands.

Kaito drove the rusty jeep at the head of the convoy. Rika sat with him, the map neatly folded across her lap. Occasionally, she would glance from the road signs to their crumpled version of a map.

“The next split, left,” she said.

Nod. His knuckles turned white against the steering wheel.

Behind him, Renji followed with the kiddies packed in a larger truck. Kanna was biking very close, her face tense and alert against any attacks.

Tension had been thickening by the hour. Supplies were low. Nerves were lower.

They set up camp that night in a barren field, with the shadowy remains of a billboard selling vacations looming over them.

Dinner was on the thin side, containing canned beans and stale bread. They ate in silence-a silence that comes when speaking would only prolong the gnawing of hunger.

Afterwards, Kanna dragged her boots through the dirt to get to Kaito and Rika.

"I need to talk to you two."

Kaito raised an eyebrow but nodded.

She hesitated and edged forward: “You’re not telling them the whole truth.”

Rika stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"You keep saying there's hope. The shelters will save them. But... What if it's a lie? What if we're just leading them to another grave?" Kanna's voice was breaking.

The wind lifted, tossing dead leaves to smear over their feet.

Kaito stared right back. "We don’t know what’s waiting for us. But we can’t just stay and die."

Kanna shook her head; tears burned her eyes.

“I just—I’m scared,” she said in a whisper.

"So are we," Rika said softly. "But if we stop moving… we lose everything."

Kanna turned her head to wipe her face quickly.

"Sorry,"the girl whispered. I just wanted not to have the burden of this awfule call to carry.”

It was not she who said that. “We're all thinking it. Every day.”

But still, they moved forward.

Even with the cracked roads and the uncertain future that looked so dark pitched against the sky.

Especially then.