CHAPTER 14

  Is there no copyright law during the apocalypse?

  I wanted to get a good idea of what was going on, so I started by doing an inventory of the delivered products.

  The first thing I noticed about the shipment was that everything, every single item, was now a branded One Mart product. That included things that I had never seen before. The branding might be slightly changed, like chocolate Snackers bars and W&W chocolate coated peanuts. Everything from the bottles of soda to the foot blister bandages now bore the One Mart name, and included our happy Wanma mascot.

  It didn’t take long to realize that the products that were delivered were not enough to refill the store. That would fill the new additional room several times over. Instead, the delivery was more of an emergency shipment of the most desired products.

  On top of ten crates of fresh food, there were boxes of water and other canned and bottled drinks, a full resupply of first aid products, some household products including a larger than usual amount of toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, and disinfectants. There was even a cooler full of ice and frozen ice cream. Snacks and dried foods made up nearly a third of the resupply.

  “Wanma? Who sent all this?”

  [This is the scheduled shipment from the central warehouse. Please stock the products as soon as possible.]

  “Where is the central warehouse?”

  [The central warehouse for this region is located XXXXXXXXXXXX]

  “When is the next delivery scheduled?”

  [Next delivery is scheduled for 13:00–13:15 today.]

  That’s in just half an hour.

  “Wanma? What happens if I do not stock the products?”

  [Failure to stock the products in a timely manner will result in a productivity penalty for employee Huang, Ming. Additionally, if the products are not removed from the receiving dock, the next product delivery will be delayed.]

  So that’s how it works?

  I scrolled through the menus on the tablet and pulled up the delivery schedule. The first page was full of red errors from previous failed deliveries, but there was one green entry at the bottom. Selecting it brought up a full invoice of every product that had arrived. That delivery was marked as delivered at 12:08. I was pretty sure that was approximately when the store had been upgraded.

  I considered the new information. I wasn’t ready to put the new products outside yet. Who knows what would happen when word spread that I was getting replacement products?

  Someone will absolutely try to take this away.

  Still, I couldn’t keep hoarding it. I was willing to take a few penalties, but it was hardly a sustainable situation in the long term, nor was it ethical.

  For the time being, I moved all the dry products and boxes of drinks from the refrigerated delivery room, into the back room. There was plenty of space for it now. The chilled and frozen food, I left in the new mysterious room, then I closed it and went back to the front, bringing just a few items with me. One box of large water bottles, some bandages and antiseptic, and a few bags of potato chips.

  It won’t be too strange if anyone sees this much.

  I scanned the products in, then placed them on the shelves. It felt strangely good to finally put some new products out, after doing nothing but deplete the inventory.

  It wasn’t long before I saw a familiar face at the entrance.

  BING BONG

  “Hey, Ming! How ya doing?”

  For the past week, I had become used to seeing the friendly woman. She usually stopped by in the morning to fill up her water bottles and swap out the rental batteries.

  I gave her a slight bow, along with the required greeting.

  “Welcome to One Mart.”

  “Always so stiff! I heard you summoned this auntie. Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for me. Sorry, but I only have eyes for my darling!”

  “Wha—“

  “Haha! I’m just kidding ya, Ming! You really need to lighten up. Always so uptight and proper.”

  I had previously explained to her that I needed to keep up my grooming and follow store behavior or else I might be kicked out of the store, but she kept making fun. At first, I found it a bit grating, but now I could see it was her way of trying to put me at ease.

  I didn’t think any of the others who had visited the store understood what it had been like. They looked at me with jealousy, even as they acted politely. They saw that I was clean, even though no one had the water for proper hygiene anymore. They saw that I was fed, even though many were scavenging for scraps. They heard stories about how the store was a protected space, even though they spent their nights in fear of man-eating monsters.

  I didn’t blame them, but it created another wall between us. I had always been a foreigner, an outsider, and now I alone was the lucky person who got to stay in this place with safety and supplies. It wasn’t like I couldn’t understand the coldness in their eyes.

  PTA Mom, however, seemed to have some sympathy. She asked what I did at night, and when I told her I had to stay up and clean the already clean store, and stand behind the counter with no chair, despite there being no customers at all after dark, she even got angry on my behalf.

  “That’s inhuman! They can’t do that. It’s got to be against the law!”

  We shared a smile when she realized that employment law, or even fair employment treatment, were not things that anyone was concerned about anymore. There wasn’t anything I could do about it. I was a temporary worker surviving at the whims of a half-baked store management AI.

  While others did show their gratitude, she was the only one who asked me how I was doing. That was why she was the one I trusted to help me with the path forward.

  “Ming!” She rushed forward and grasped my hands.

  “Thank ya so much. I can’t thank ya enough. All that food. How did ya do it? Is that yours? Do ya have enough for yourself?”

  She stared at me with a concerned look. I pulled back, and she let go of my hands. Taking a step back from the counter.

  “No, It’s fine. You paid for the food. It’s all yours.”

  She frowned slightly, then looked around the store.

  “Where have ya been hiding all that then? And that bread? It’s freshly made. That hasn’t been sitting out anywhere.”

  I gave her a serious look. She realized I was about to say something important and gave me her attention.

  “About that. I should tell you something. Something has changed. It’s kind of a big deal, and I was hoping you could help me. Maybe you can give me some guidance.”

  “Me? I’m just the local gossip.”

  “You’re the only one I know. The only one I think I can trust. I mean, I have to trust someone. It’s not something I can handle by myself.”

  The woman stood there for a moment, letting what I said sink in. Then she smiled. Sure enough, she was pretty quick at figuring out the situation.

  “Sure thing, Ming. Anything ya need. Like I promised ya, this PTA mom is going to take care of ya. After all, ya fed my babies. That makes ya family.”

  I did charge your husband for everything though.

  I roughly explained the situation as I understood it, and even showed her the invoice of the products that had been delivered. Her eyes went wide when she saw the items that had been restocked.

  “And ya think there is more?”

  “I can’t say for certain. But I think so. Only, I think I have to put everything out before I can get more delivered. I’m not in charge of the orders. That’s Wanma. That’s actually its main job. Ordering supplies based on some computer algorithm.”

  “Well, I don’t know anything about that. If ya can get more supplies, though, you’d be a real hero. Most of what we have found so far, other stores and shops, most of it went bad. Even the canned food was rotten. People have been sharing what they can, but there’s not much left.”

  I was surprised when she grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into another one of her hugs.

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  “Ming, ya don’t know how many lives ya already saved. The food and supplies ya had here, the water alone has saved so many people.”

  I could feel her tremble as I endured her embrace.

  “My babies. I couldn’t help it. I shoulda shared some of that food, but they have been so hungry. Ya even gave us a fruit sandwich! It’s little Satchi’s favorite. Oh, my heart…”

  She stayed like that for a few more seconds. I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t do anything. I just stood there until she let go. As she pulled back, I could see her face was a little wet, but I pretended not to notice.

  “Uh, If you want some more—“

  “Oi!”

  She punched me in my arm. Not a friendly punch either, It actually hurt.

  Ouch! Hey!

  “Don’t be such a soft touch. I’m not so greedy. Look, I think I get the gist of it. Ya need someone to trust, right? Someone outside, ’cause ya are stuck in here, right?”

  I nodded while rubbing my injured arm.

  “Yeah. And information. I want to know what happened. What is happening… Out there.”

  She nodded thoughtfully.

  “Ya got family too. Right?”

  The question took me off guard. Certainly, I had thought about them often over the last week, but I wasn’t even able to see beyond the block, home felt like a million miles away.

  “Yeah, back in China. I don’t know if they are okay, or anything.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be honest, we haven’t even heard from Tokyo. Nothing South of the Arakawa River, nothing East of the Shiba River. I’ve been as far as Omiya to the North, and it’s all the same. The water is dangerous though. Can’t even get close to the rivers…”

  It was upsetting to see the dark look on her face as she spoke about the area situation. I knew that she must have seen some disturbing things. Likely things that I couldn’t even imagine.

  The only reason that the supplies had lasted as long as they had is that so many people had not even survived the first twenty-four hours after the earthquake. Between the damage and the monsters, the surrounding area must have been horrifying, yet a few people, like PTA Mom, had been outside every day, helping the survivors knit some sense of safety together from the scraps that remained.

  “I’m fine, really. I am sure they are doing okay, and it’s not like I have any way to contact them right now. I just need to focus on surviving until rescue comes.”

  I didn’t like how her expression got even darker. I’d heard the stories about the clouds over Tokyo.

  “Anyway, what do you suggest?”

  She quickly brightened up again.

  “Yeah, It’s a good idea to be careful. Especially with guys like that little bastard on Babasaki Street. He’s got spies all over now.”

  She must be talking about President Jerk. Luckily he hadn’t come back since that day, but this was the first time I heard about him having spies.

  “I don’t even want to think about what he and others like him would do if they found out ya had even more supplies.”

  “I don’t think it’s something I can keep secret though. I didn’t mention this, but the AI won’t let me just hoard everything. It’s programmed to sell the products. I think if I don’t sell, it will just kick me out, so hiding it isn’t an option.”

  After a moment, she nodded.

  “Ming, ya trust me right? I want ya to meet someone. Someone who should be able to help. Help keep ya safe, and also help this place… I’m not smart enough to take care of everyone. I just focus on the people in front of me, but I know who might.”

  She paused, as if she wasn’t sure about what she was about to say next.

  “The guy I want you to meet. He’s the only real government person I have found so far. I don’t know him well, but he seems alright. He is helping people, I know that. Not just taking stuff for himself like those other ones.”

  Before she left, she promised to come back the next morning, before the store opened, to give is time and privacy. The people in the area had been warned not to come before my daytime shift started at 11.

  She also said she would arrange for someone to come by later to buy up all the fresh food and first aid supplies I had. She promised that these would be distributed to people who needed them by a third party. The source shouldn’t come back to this store.

  “Especially the lady’s products. Ya don’t know how bad it is not having those things. You’re a hero just for getting those out to the girls who needed em.”

  I offered to sell her some more of the food, but she waved me off. I think she was feeling guilty about taking what I had sent back with her husband already.

  To be honest, I hadn’t realized that things outside were that bad. I had assumed that there was at least a decent amount of supplies that could be scavenged from stores, or even buildings that had been damaged or abandoned.

  What happened? What caused all of this?

  After PTA Mom had left, I went through my regular motions in a daze. I still had to clean the store, a task that was even easier once all the products had been removed. I still needed to spend a frustratingly large amount of time standing at the counter, staring into space.

  I took a lunch break, and splurged on a salad, a large portion of Napolitan pasta, and a carton of coffee milk. I ate while sitting on the sofa. Sitting on a soft comfortable chair was like paradise. I dreaded working the night shift, knowing that this soft, comfortable place to sleep was just sitting here.

  It was the first decent meal that I had eaten in days, and afterward, I wanted nothing more than to sleep. I considered not signing up for the extra day shift the following day, but considering the impact of new supplies in the store, I wasn’t sure yet what the best plan would be. For now, I had to stick it out for the next two shifts at least.

  I wasn’t surprised to see the big high schooler show up a couple of hours later. Luckily I saw him first, as I would have been more worried if I had seen his companions instead of the familiar relative of my friend.

  The whole trio of delinquents had returned together this time. They had also brought two more people, for a total party of five. I wasn’t sure if the other two were new. Both were average-looking guys, around college age I supposed. PTA Mom’s nephew was certainly not the oldest, but he was the largest.

  The other two high school kids entered the store with a lot less swagger than the last time I saw them. It was clear that they had been through a lot recently. The middle kid, the leader of the group had his right hand tied up in bandages, while the little, annoying one was noticeably subdued, and looked even smaller than before. He looked as though he hadn’t eaten in days.

  All five carried large bags on their shoulders as they entered the store, and Wataru, the big one, came over and spoke first.

  “Sir, my aunt sent me. I’m supposed to pick up some… stuff.”

  He turned his head side to side when he mentioned his mission, as though he was some cartoon character thief. I struggled to keep from laughing at his performance.

  “I brought this. She said to get as much as possible with this.”

  He continued his act by slowly pulling out an envelope from inside his jacket and handing it to me as though it was an illegal transaction of some kind.

  As I suspected, the envelope was full of cash and several Wanma digital wallet cards. I shoved the envelope back into his hand, then for fun, I scanned my head back and forth, and in a whisper, I told him what to do.

  “Hold onto that for now. Let me get the goods. Keep an eye out, right?”

  Does he really think this is some kind of TV show or something?

  I went into the back room, placed a stack of the fresh food crates on a dolly, and wheeled it into the store, unloading them by the register.

  It took three more trips to bring out all the fresh food, medical supplies, and the box of hygiene products that PTA Mom had pointed out to me. After the second trip, I had to scold the little delinquent, telling him that I needed to scan everything in before I could sell anything. He grumbled, but I could see he didn’t have the fire once had.

  Giving my arm a serious workout, I scanned in all the products, registering them as ready to sell into the system. Then I had to repeat the process to add them to a sale.

  As many of the items were rather inexpensive, the total wasn’t the highest sale I had rung up in the last week, but it was still significant. Altogether, even after discounts, the total came to over eighty thousand yen. That was more than my monthly share of the rent of the apartment I wasn’t sure even still existed.

  I split the purchases up between the digital wallets, and charged each one up using some of the cash from the envelope. Luckily there was more than enough. As I rang up the sale, I motioned for the guys to start packing up all the items.

  I was pleased that I had managed to do the whole thing in less than fifteen minutes. The first timing warning hit the register just as I was closing out the sale.

  “Oh! Before I forget.”

  I picked up the lucky draw box and motioned for each one to take one slip of paper. Luckily I had broken down the sales between five wallets, so the math worked out.

  Three of them pulled tissue, while one of the new guys got a bottle of water, and the medium-sized high schooler Ken got the “A” prize, the energy drink.

  I saw a bit of the old attitude when he rolled his eyes, acting as though it was a silly prize, but then he saw the jealous look on his short friend’s face, he twisted off the cap and swallowed the whole bottle in a single swig.

  Kids gotta be kids, even at the end of the world.

  Then I had a thought.

  “Hey, wait here. Just a minute.”

  I went back into the back room and brought out the last thing from the refrigerated room. The Ice cooler.

  I set it down on the floor in front of them and opened it up.

  “Here, take one, take two if you want.”

  They looked into the chest, then back at me in disbelief.

  “Really? Are you sure?” The big guy asked as the others were already advancing on the items.

  “Sure. I think you guys deserve it. Just let me scan them in, okay?”

  They each grabbed two of the ice creams from the chest, and then placed them on the counter. After I had scanned everything in, I purchased them without my employee discount using my personal digital wallet. That wiped out most of this batch of ice cream, but it felt good. The little high schooler already had an ice cream cone sticking out of his mouth, and the smiles on the rest of them made me feel better than I had in days.

  After the delivery crew had left, I cleaned up the store, made sure the delivery room was empty, and closed the door. Soon I received a notification that a new delivery had been received, along with instructions to stock the shelves.

  So I don’t have to stock everything to get the next shipment, I just need to empty the delivery room. Good to know.

  I still had most of the dry goods, stacked up in the back room, though I noticed after looking at the invoice that most of those goods that I had not yet sold were not included in the latest shipment.

  “Always watching me, aren’t you?”

  I looked at the mascot dog on the register monitor, but it pointedly did not respond.

  After the longest night shift I could remember after that first one, I wanted to say that I had the best sleep ever. Sleeping on the soft sofa was a massive improvement over my makeshift cardboard bed, but the new environment, coupled with nightmares, and the stress of all the changes in the last day left me even more tired than usual the following morning.

  PTA Mom had said that she would try to arrive around nine, long before the first customers usually showed up, so I made sure to get dressed and ready before my usual time. Despite the less-than-idyllic rest, I was still eager to start the day.

  A breakfast of an egg salad and ham sandwich, coffee, and fresh fruit helped me feel even better. Not being able to go outside and get any regular sun and exercise was hard on my morale, but the diet of instant noodles I had been on for the last few days had made it much worse.

  After a truly spectacular breakfast, I waited in the store for PTA Mom, wondering how the food delivery went the night before, and what the day would bring. Soon she arrived, along with a small group of unfamiliar people.

  Half of the group waited outside, while PTA Mom and two others came into the store.

  “Good morning Ming! I brought the man I told ya about yesterday. This is Mr. Ueno. He’s the Lieutenant governor of all Saitama, can ya believe it?”

  The man was older, but not old. Maybe in his late fifties or early sixties at the latest. It was hard to tell as his appearance was not very dignified for a politician. He had a tired look on his face, and his grey hair was frazzled and in need of a trim. He was also in desperate need of a shave, and his outfit of a green and white tracksuit made him look like a retired grandpa more than a respected politician.

  “And this is Toshiro!” PTA Mom said with an excited hint of pride in her voice.

  The individual she gestured to was not at all what I was expecting. Although the governor was not very impressive, he at least looked like he might have been more put together in the past.

  The second guest, on the other hand, was as unremarkable as you could imagine. It was a young boy, wearing the black priest-like uniform of a middle school student, complete with the high collar and gold buttons.

  He had limp, thin hair that prophesied he would start balding by the time he graduated from high school, a bad case of acne, and a front tooth that was slightly askew.

  I looked at my friend with a concerned look, but she simply smiled back.

  “Toshiro here, he is a hero.”