10

Countdown: 158 Days Remaining.

“I still can’t find him,” Rui said, hopping down from the last rung of the ladder. He pulled his respirator down with an exasperated huff. Exhaustion shone in the sweat coating his face, making his red hair cling to his forehead. “I didn’t think he’d wander off so far.”

“Wander off?” Makoto said, looking up with a slightly amused smile. “Shu’s not a dog, you know. He can take care of himself for at least a few days.”

“You know what I mean.” Rui plopped down beside him, unlatching his backpack and letting it flop over on his other side. “Are you almost done?”

“Asking every time you see me does not make me go any faster,” Makoto replied without taking his eyes off the little metal sphere in his hands. Each time he ran a scan, his monocle lit up with a new problem -- a misconnected wire, a small gap in the plates where there shouldn’t be any, a connection that just wasn’t working.

“Yes well, it gives the illusion that I’m helping,” Rui said with a nod.

Makoto couldn’t help looking up. “How are you so spectacularly delusional?”

“Okay, hear me out.” Rui straightened like he was going to explain something of actual importance. “If I sit here in silence, I’m doing nothing, but if I’m asking you things, then at least I’m a part of it. It’s not like I’m doing anything to get in your way, therefore, I must be helping. Simple.” He gave Makoto a genuinely satisfied smile, which Makoto rolled his eyes at.

“You know, you’re worse than a dog,” Makoto said, welding another line into the sphere. “At least a dog could fetch me useful things.” He peeked into his own backpack to check how much acid-resistant coating he still had and grimaced at the dwindling amount. He’d done too many repairs recently.

“Yes, but a dog can’t talk back.”

“Bonus points to the dog.”

Rui playfully punched Makoto’s arm when he was just examining the sphere. “You know what I mean.”

Makoto stopped for a moment and put down his multi-tool long enough to reach over and pat Rui’s head. “Good boy.”

Rui glared at him. “Bark.”

“You should wear a hood or something,” Makoto said, running another scan on the sphere. “You’re losing a lot of heat through your head.” Satisfied, he began the coating process, squeezing a few drops out of the tube and letting them roam freely over the surface.

“Are you trying to call me hot?” Rui said with a sideways smile.

“Hot-headed, sure.”

“I walked right into that one, but it was still worth it.” Rui pulled his backpack over and lay down with it as his pillow. He sighed deeply and relaxed, looking ready to fall asleep.

Makoto examined the sphere one more time, running another scan to check for anomalies. When nothing appeared on his screen, he smiled. “I think I’m finally done, actually, in spite of your constant pestering.”

Rui sat up immediately, curiosity twinkling in his bright blue eyes. “So what is that anyways?”

“A prototype device meant to generate extra heat with little energy. I’m hoping it’ll help Sumire.” Makoto looked over at the bundle of blankets sleeping soundly near Granny.

Sumire had recovered since the multiple-organ failure, but she was still weak, and the necrosis threatened to return should she lack too much energy. If the prototype worked as he hoped, it would synthesize new energy while needing very little of her own reserves.

“That sounds amazing,” Rui said, eyes wide.

Makoto smiled. “It’s just a tester, but let’s hope it works.” He moved over to rouse Sumire, then he set to work on implanting the prototype where one of her mechanical kidneys currently sat. He removed the organ, which had begun to oxidize and the connections had frayed, and noted that it hadn’t been performing well anyways, so he would likely have needed to fix it within a few days.

Once the prototype had been placed and the old kidney deposited into the sanitizing pocket of his backpack so he could later take it apart and salvage as many parts as possible, he closed the port and helped Sumire back into her layers of covers.

“How does that feel?” he asked. “Any pain? Discomfort?”

Sumire thought for a moment, shifting around beneath the covers, then shook her head. “I don’t feel anything,” she said. “Will this help me recover?” Exhaustion permeated every feature on her face, coupled with a lack of belief.

“If it works as well as I hope it will, it might make you strong enough to be able to go outside in a few days.” He smiled at her, injecting as much hope into his words as he could. If he could just rekindle her will for freedom, he knew that would be enough to cheer her up.

“Really?” she asked, and a twinkle of excitement ignited in her eyes. A smile danced at the corners of her lips, and her entire face lit up. When Makoto confirmed, she seemed to liven just a little more, before sleep made her eyelids droop.

He let her sleep, and asked Granny to keep an eye on her.

“She’ll need an extra injection for the prototype, which I have to go gather, but once I do, would you be willing to help her with that?”

“Of course,” Granny said. She took Makoto’s hand and gave it a warm squeeze. “Thanks for giving her hope again; she needs that. It’s been hard seeing her lose faith since the necrosis incident, but she seems a lot happier again.”

Makoto sighed softly. “She’s had a really rough time lately. I hope this’ll work.”

“I believe you can make anything work,” Granny said. “I think Rui’s been waiting for you to be done so you can help him look for Shu.” She glanced over at the red-haired boy, amusement smiling on her face.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll go walk the dog,” he said with a laugh and stood up.

“I heard that!” Rui scowled but grabbed his backpack anyways.

Leading the way to the ladder, Makoto patted his leg and said, “Come on, boy.”

“Bark,” Rui grumbled behind him. But Makoto heard him chuckle.

Once outside in the cold summer evening, Rui pulled ahead of Makoto, heading towards the old fairgrounds.

“I don’t know where else to check,” he said, slowing to make it easier for Makoto to keep pace with him. “I’ve checked all the nearby schools and the old storefronts, the playgrounds and the large apartment buildings that were still standing. I have no other ideas as to where he might’ve gone, but it had to be somewhere warm, right? To survive outside overnight?” The urgency in his voice betrayed his anxiety over having fought with Shu the day before.

Makoto gently squeezed Rui’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. “You know, you really don’t have to worry about him so much. He’s not quite like us -- the cold won’t kill him. He only has that arm to worry about, so he’d be fine outside overnight. Not comfortable, but perfectly safe.”

Rui searched Makoto’s face for any signs of deception, then, seeing none, he relaxed. “You’re right, of course you’re right. I just feel bad about chasing him out like that.”

Makoto waved the comment away. “He storms out every other day. We’ve all made him run off; don’t worry about it.”

He stepped over the rubble at the outer edge of the transporter station. The town square outside was deserted and dim, thick with the smell of ashes. In the Before, the area used to be a hub of activity and life, with nature thriving around the outskirts. It was never calm, never dull. People used to come and go, heading to and from work, school, and endless social events. When the fairgrounds opened, not far from the station, the area became even more popular, rivaling Shibuya and Ikebukuro.

The fairgrounds were only about a half kilometer away from the station. It had once been a cheerful venue with bright attractions and shows to entertain all ages. Now it was a pile of scraps and tattered memories. Anything burnable had been stripped away to leave only the metal legs of tables and the wiring of awnings. The attractions themselves had been taken apart and used for parts until their skeletons were all that remained.

The Ferris wheel stood as the lone guardian of the ruins, a hollow shell. The metal piping had proved too large and cumbersome to take apart, so just the cabins closest to the ground had been stripped of their fabric and insulation.

The only movement in the area came from the constant breeze sweeping layers of ashes from one side to the other, only to later push it back in a never ending routine.

“Do you really think he’d be here?” Makoto asked, looking between the crumbling stands and empty spaces where the rides used to be. “He never once said anything about coming to the fairgrounds.”

Rui raised his arms in exasperation. “It’s not like I would know that! Besides, I’ve checked all the other places I could think of. If he’s not here, then I don’t know.” He calmed himself down quickly, losing that agitated edge and the tension in his shoulders.

“I think I still remember where I’d found him, shortly after the revolt, so we can check there, too,” Makoto said, racking his memory for the exact neighborhood. “He never said, but I assumed that’s where he used to live.”

Rui grimaced. “He doesn’t quite strike me as the sentimental type, but it’s worth a shot.”

As the pair made their way through the fairgrounds, heading towards the ferris wheel that marked the other end of the property, it became clear to Makoto that nobody had visited in a long time. There were no footsteps in the ashes, no disturbances in the dust on the metal surfaces, and his repeated heat scans failed to detect any presence nearby. From the way Rui’s shoulders dropped further every few steps, Makoto guessed he had noticed the same thing.

Rui stopped at the base of the ferris wheel to look up at the behemoth, shielding his eyes against the thin trickle of sunlight peeking through the perpetual blanket of clouds. “Those cabins up there don’t look like they’ve been tampered with,” he said. “I can’t scan that far though.”

“It’s too high for anyone to get up without proper equipment, so most people stay away, as far as I’ve heard,” Makoto replied. Where is he going with that train of thought?

“So you don’t think Shu could’ve crawled into one of them, made himself at home?”

Makoto chuckled, “What is he, a spider? There’s no way he could get up there on his own.”

Rui shrugged and kept examining the ground beneath the attraction. When neither of them found anything of interest, he leaned against one of the safety rails around the operating mechanism and sighed. “I shouldn’t have said all that to him.” He hesitated before adding, “You don’t think he really went to try and join the Pure, do you?”

Makoto shook his head. “He wouldn’t get very far, even if he tried. I doubt they’d accept anyone with a missing limb, even if it’s non-essential.”

Rui’s eyes widened in panic, and what was visible of his skin paled beneath his red hair. “He would get killed at the border!”

“Not if he doesn’t appear to be a threat -- they wouldn’t waste resources on a single Defective,” Makoto said, but he wasn’t completely convinced. The scar on his chest throbbed as a reminder of the resources they’d wasted on him months ago.

Rui peeled himself away from the fence. “Stop being ignorant -- they’ll kill anything that moves near their precious border. They assume anything on the outside is the enemy.” He paced back and forth, clearing the ashes and dust away from his path.

Makoto stopped him, putting both hands on Rui’s shoulders to force him still. “Look at me,” he said, and waited until the boy complied to continue with, “Shu’s not stupid, okay? He’s not going to get himself killed. He’s probably just sulking somewhere. This isn’t the first time he’s stormed off, and it won’t be the last. If we can’t find him, it just means he doesn’t want to be found, and he’ll come back when he’s ready, okay?”

Nervous energy continued to buzz around Rui for a moment longer, then he nodded, and forced himself to relax. “You’re right, you’re right.”

“Of course I am. A mother knows her children, right?” Makoto said, trying to lighten the mood.

Although the lower half of his face was covered by his respirator, Makoto could see from the creasing near Rui’s eyes that he was attempting a smile, though worry still clung to every inch of his skin. “Right,” he said softly.

“Then let’s head out. He’s definitely not here, and I still need to be finding things for Sumire.”

Rui followed close behind as Makoto led the way out of the fairgrounds.

The residential neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds had been heavily picked through after the revolt, and a path had been cleared through most of the rubble.

Makoto looked at the crumbling walls of houses he’d once walked past, and he felt a pang of sadness cross through him. He’d taken for granted that these places, these familiar sights, would always be there, and now the most he recognized were the ceramic nameplates belonging to families long since gone. Where each home once had unique features and distinguishing marks, now they were all piled together as concrete and metal, nothing special about any of them.

“Are we almost there? I’m not seeing any signs of life yet,” Rui said, looking back and forth over everything. His mechanical eye glowed as it ran heat scans to check for any living beings amid the wreckage. He’d been uncharacteristically silent since leaving the fairgrounds.

“Assuming where I found him was indeed his old neighborhood, we should be only a few blocks away.” Makoto didn’t find it necessary to run any scans of his own -- Rui’s eye was far more powerful than anything he could do with his monocle.

“What should we do if we can’t find him?” Rui asked. Makoto had never heard such uncertainty in his voice. Usually he was confident and easygoing -- now he was anxious and insecure.

He’s looking to me to lead now, huh. “We go about our lives as usual, I guess,” Makoto said. He wanted to sound more sure of his decision than he felt, but his voice wavered. “He might have found another group, for all we know. If he doesn’t come back, it’s because he doesn’t want to. People leave all the time, you know. There’s nothing keeping anyone from coming and going as they please.” As much as Makoto tried to make it sound trivial, he hated when others left. Not knowing where they were, how they were doing -- it kept him up more nights than he would admit. That won’t matter for long though -- we’ll all be dead by winter anyways, he thought, if only to keep his emotions in check.

Rui bit his lip, still looking uncertain, but he didn’t say anything more.

Together the pair combed one street after another, scanning the rubble for any signs of the thirteen-year-old. From the stale smell to the air and the lack of disturbance anywhere, it was clear nobody had walked their path in months.

When they had searched the entire district to no avail, and the faint haze of sunlight had all but disappeared, Makoto put a hand on Rui’s shoulder and gently said, “We should start heading back now. We won't find him tonight.”

Rui scanned their surroundings again before nodding, solemnly hanging his head between his shoulders. Makoto put an arm around him and said, “It’s not your fault, you know. He’s always had a mind of his own, and he ran off a dozen times before you even joined our camp.”

“I know,” Rui said softly, leaning into Makoto’s warmth. “I just feel guilty for not chasing after him, if that was what he wanted. Like you kept saying, he’s just a kid…”

“A kid who can take care of himself just fine. He’s one of the few out here who could actually survive the winter. I’m really not worried about him, and you know how I worry about everyone who needs it.”

Rui straightened a little, and Makoto pulled away. “I guess you’re right,” Rui said. “He’s really not like the rest of us.”

“Exactly. Besides,” Makoto started, throwing one last look over his shoulder towards where his old neighborhood used to be, “I get the feeling we’ll be seeing Shu again real soon, just you wait.”

And with that, the pair returned to camp once more.