Beyond the 26th (Part 1)

Two months later— Himeji.

After almost half a year of journeying, we’ve more or less gotten used to the general flow that we would get ourselves into to keep moving. We would start our journey as early in the morning as possible so we can have enough daylight to see, then sleep in an enclosed area, the moment we can barely see anything.

Unfortunately, we’re heading towards the winter season. Despite the layers we put on ourselves, the wind is still incredibly cold, as if we’ve moved to the northern region of Japan.

“W-When can we leave this forest…?” I ask, my throat becoming dry with each gasp of breath.

While there are still road pavements on the path we’re on, most of the trees and roots have been growing like crazy to the point that it’s hard to tell where everything is due to the large foliage surrounding us.

“I think we’re about to reach a city soon…” Alice says as she looks up and down at her map.

“…I know it’s late to ask this now, but are you sure that we’re heading towards Tokyo?” I take another step, my feet sting a bit upon making contact with the concrete road.

“Yeah…” Alice cuts through a large bush with her knife. “As long as we keep heading towards the Eastern end, we’re going to get to Tokyo eventually…”

“A-And when is eventually?” I gasp, pushing through the remaining bush that didn’t get cut.

“…I don’t know…” Nozomi stops in her tracks, where a large sign above our head has Okayama written on it with an arrow pointing upwards. “Seems like we’re almost there…”

“…”

“…Do you not trust me?” Alice looks back towards me, her face frowning.

“That’s not it, Alice…” I raised my hands, waving them around. “I’m just curious how you’re this confident that we’re heading the right way…” I replied.

“Because I can read maps?” She tilts her head.

“I see that…” I replied, letting some blood flow into my head. “Most of the geography has drastically changed, so it’s not like that map is that useful, is it?”

“Well…” Alice awkwardly smiled, looking away from me as she scratched her cheek. “I’ve planned on visiting Tokyo for a year or so, so I may or may not have gotten obsessed with looking for the optimal routes…”

“…”

“So… Even if it’s not entirely accurate, I have a rough idea on which areas we should visit to stay on track, hahaha…” Alice said, chuckling to herself.

“…Well, it’s not like I can make fun of you considering what I did over the past year…” I let out a self-deprecating laugh, avoiding Alice’s gaze.

“…?”

…

….

…..

---

One hour later…

After some walking, we eventually arrived at a clearing, where we’re greeted with a relatively large city that’s been completely abandoned. Like usual, we would walk through every convenience store and scout out every supply that we could use to keep ourselves going.

We head into a nearby Quan Mart that has most of its shelves in stock, especially the refrigerator, storing almost all liquids that still have around a year left until their expiration.

“…”

But… how come there are this many items in one convenience store?

Now that I think about it, most convenience stores we’ve visited for some reason still have a lot of stock within them, as if no one is nearby to rummage through their supplies. Not to mention that throughout our journey, the only people we made contact with were those people from that small city…

“…Hey, Alice…” I call out as I look through the water’s expiration date. “Have you wondered why we barely met anyone throughout our journey?”

“Yeah…” Alice replied as she looked through the food stock from behind me, “I get that the meteorite killed most of us, but it’s eerie how quiet things have been, especially at major cities…”

“Do you think it’s possible that they died due to something else?” I ask as I transfer the water into our bottles.

“Guess you could say that the meteor’s blast radius played a part in influencing the air quality, but… it doesn’t explain how much humanity went extinct because of it, considering how much the air became breathable a few minutes after the initial impact…” Alice replied.

“Yeah…” I muttered, pouring the last batch of water into Alice’s bottle.

I stood up and looked around the shop for a bit, and that’s when I noticed a radio sitting on top of a table behind the cash register. There’s a small spark of noise coming out of the speaker, which most likely means that it’s still active.

“…”

“Yuiko?” Alice stands up, tilting her head.

I look through the store to grab a pack of AA batteries and walk towards the radio.

I flipped the radio on its back, took off the battery compartment area, and replaced the two batteries with the fresh ones I just procured. The noises eventually amplify in volume, prompting me to press the right arrow button, switching that noise into proper audio.

“It works!” I exclaimed.

“Nice one!” Alice comes up from behind me, patting my head.

“Hehehe!” I puff my chest out with a grin.

Coming out of the radio, there’s a female voice that sounds to be in her mid-twenties, excitedly interviewing someone.

“Mr. Kirkman, how are the evacuation plans going?” She enthusiastically asks.

Things have been going extremely well, and judging by the rocket capacity that Japan currently has, we’ll be able to extend the final evacuation plan until the end of this week. For every citizen who has been sent to Mars, our scientists have also reported that things have gone incredibly well regarding the living conditions.

“Such incredible news! Regarding the evacuation area, can you tell us where we could gather?”

“We have a pick-up center that will arrive at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Saitama, and Hiroshima. This will be the last rocket to evacuate the remaining citizens, therefore we strongly encourage you to visit these prefectures, and for every citizen that are living in the far ends of Japan, we are currently figuring out a way to conduct a rescue team to help them evacuate—”

*Click*

“…Alice?” I look at Alice’s finger that is located above the off button.

“…Despite everything, these clowns still dare to lie, huh…” Alice scoffs.

“…”

“Well, I guess that explains our question…” Alice folds her arms, looking at the radio. “Kind of weird how convenient the timing was…”

“…I guess…” I look towards the ground.

“…Now that I think about it, maybe this radio is an all-encompassing answering machine!” Alice exclaims, looking back at the machine with a smirk.

“Huh?” I tilt my head.

“Think about it! We were wondering about something, and the radio magically gave us the exact answer we needed! Maybe if we ask something interesting, it’ll give us a cool answer!” Alice smirks as she looks at the radio.

“What are you talking abou—”

“Oh, radio, please tell me Yuiko’s three sizes, hobbies, and sexual preference!”

“Haah?!”

Alice slams her finger on the next button, then presses the on button.

“It’s roughly estimated that the meteorite would make an impact on 2415/05/26, roughly six months from now! The US military and China are trying their best to develop the newest weapon to counteract this meteorite, but no matter how massive the explosion is, it’s simply impossible to penetrate the meteor’s outer shell due to its thickness and the heat it radiates—”

“Close enough!” Alice slams the radio’s off button.

“Pfft… hahahaaha!” I burst until my eyes start stinging, my stomach churning with every gasp of breath. “What the heck are you saying?! Hahaahaha!”

“I don’t know! Hahaahahaa!” Alice grabbed the radio next to her, raising it high. “Take this!”

And threw it towards the ground, smashing it until parts of it broke off.

“Alice?!”

“Take that, you stupid idiots!” Alice points towards the radio.

“Hehe… hahahaha!” I grabbed the radio on the floor and threw it across the store, making more parts of it break off. “That’s what you get for leaving us!”

“Oryaaaaaa!” Alice runs out of the register to grab the radio again, smashing it onto a nearby shelf and using its edge to continue smashing into it until it is completely destroyed.

“Hahahaahhaahahha!” I eventually lost my balance, letting myself fall on top of the cold floor.

“Hahahahahahahha!” Alice throws the radio away, eventually losing her strength that she falls onto the ground, lying on the floor next to me.

“…”

“…”

We silently gaze towards the dim light of the convenience store, lying right below it, illuminating both of our figure, as if heaven has called out to us.

…

…..

…….