7 Chapter 6

'A twisted new world beyond explanation'. That's how I would describe the world we were in right about now. All the four of us could do was just stay in the room. We elected a leader and decided that Mr. Williams was best for the job. Mr. Williams was a military veteran that took part of Desert Storm in the Marines. His main role was a medic but he made it to sniper sergeant until the end of his service out in the field. Because of his experience, we managed to take control of the building again. We even ended up throwing a grand piano and a few beds behind the front door from the second floor to make sure nothing goes in the building. Tyrell was an engineer so he was given the role of quartermaster. Around the lines Tyrell told me that his first job was a convenience store clerk so it paired up for him. he helped with the design of barricading and nailing all the entrances to the apartment building. Then there was Rebecca. Her job was somewhat special along the lines. She was our very own researcher. Rebecca was part of a gaming company and did a lot of post-apocalyptic type of games. Her research for these games pretty much lead her to being the prepper she was till this day. She's researching on how to survive.

As for me I had a job that was meant for me alone. Since mentioning about my past lives, Mr. Williams instructed me to meditate at least three hours a day before sunrise. Once that was done I was told to train on whatever skill I knew and hopefully it would be useful later on. He would lock me outside once I needed to meditate and train. But after that I was left to patrol the building. Every once in awhile I would have a run in with some goblins but there wasn't any trouble there since they accidentally wander inside the building. However a week later we were left with giant rats. They looked like any normal rat whether black or brown but they were as big as a full grown adult cat. One accidentally crept into our room and started running around. I had to throw a knife just to immobilize it. It ruptured the tail and it became paralyzed. None of us were thinking of eating it at all so we threw it off the window and something eventually just picks it up.

It's now our third week here in Laputa since the two years the continent had appeared. I've haven't heard from Tsukuyomi since then. According to the radio we were hovering across the shores of Germany. It was cold and fall was about to start. I was at the roof checking on last week's project. Around that time Rebecca thought of collecting rainwater from the roof. Because of the humidity, Mr. Williams thought it would have been a good idea to put a couple of buckets and containers then put them on the roof. We got lucky a few times with rain and had enough to put it on a few empty water dispenser tanks. We even had to put the water in storage containers just to keep them. However today we weren't so lucky this time. I checked the containers and got only got enough to fill half a gallon. We even tried condensation but it was just enough to fill a glass of water. Yet what I couldn't get was that there was some rain last night and we had a little to collect. However then again it could have been just me dreaming.

I went downstairs with what water I had and went to the apartment room. I knocked at the door with Mr. Williams at the other side with a rifle on hand. He tells me to go inside and locked the door behind me. The man then puts a metal bar to block the door and slides a couch to barricade it. I then put whatever I got at the living room and showed him what I got. "Is that it?" Mr. Williams asked. "Yeah...only a day's worth." I told him. He then takes the water and gives it to Tyrell. "At least it's cold out, no need for baths." He said, trying to cheer us up. "Speak for yourself, I'm on my period and I only got a few tampons left enough for a few days." Rebecca put out.

"Told you shouldn't use them as fire starters." Mr. Williams told her.

I then noticed my katana needed a bit of maintenance as the blade was getting a bit dull. "Tyrell can you get me my maintenance kit for my katana? It's in the black gym bag." I asked Tyrell. "Sure thing." He agreed. My friend then goes into a walk in pantry. It was a place where we kept our supplies. Tyrell then calls us three for some reason. To our surprise, we were had two boxes of canned goods and a box and a half of rations. The rest were random supplies and a few gallons of water. "How long will that last us?"  Mr. Williams asked. Tyrell then takes out a calculator and pushes the numbers. "Probably two weeks if we ration it properly." Tyrell told him.

This kinda left us wondering what was next on the table. But the was open to any kind of suggestion on the table. "Should we bugout after a week?" Rebecca asked. "Maybe but we might need to save some of the rations if we get out." Mr. Williams said.

"But what about the monsters, how are we going to get out without getting ourselves killed?" Tyrell asked in discretion.

"We'll think of something." Mr. Williams insisted.

But that positiveness drained as the sound of gunshots were heard from outside. The four of us crouched down at the floor. Me and Mr. Williams were ready with guns on hand. We then heard a lady scream. Mr. Williams signaled me to get up and check it out with me. But as Tyrell and Rebecca got up, Mr. Williams gave the two the signal for them to remain sitting. Both me and Mr. Williams crept to the boarded up window only for a woman to be dragged by her hair as she cried for her husband, shot dead at the street. She kept on screaming for help at the street. But nobody came. The men come with an iron collar and put it around her neck.

At that screaming...something took over. Again another memory from Hijikata. I drew out my katana and ran to the door. Mr. Williams grabbed me by the legs and slammed me at the floor. My memory kept on overlapping with the present. Words of the memories then spoke out out loud in my head, "I rather protect the person that I see rather than the shogunate that I do not!" I knew those were said by me before but they aren't mine now. Mr. Williams then slaps me at the face and somehow the memory stopped syncing in my body. I then sat up already calm despite the screams. One of the raiders then started to talk. "What was that hard thump a while ago?" One of the raiders asked. "Forget about it. It must have been a dire rat or something." One of the colleagues replied. They then finished chaining the woman with handcuffs and dragged her away. I watched as they dragged the woman's body away to a dark alley. The two men were gone and vanished out of site.

Everybody can breathe property now without any worry. But the Mr. Williams sat curiously at me. "What was that just now? Rin?" He asked. "A memory of Hijikata synchronized. Sorry about that." I answered, running out of air. "Hijikata was a hero after all. Maybe that part of you reacted out of response." Rebecca responded. We then got up and checked out the view from the boarded up window. All that remained was the man's corpse. The giant rats known as dire rats came out and dragged the corpse into a sewer vein. "Who were those guys?" Tyrell asked. "Raiders... they were bound to appear one way or another." Rebecca implied.

"Guessing that means bugging out is out of the question, huh?"

"Probably…"

Again another threat aside from the giant T-Rex thing. As predictable as it was...there was nothing to go around it. But as Mr. Williams was walking around in search of ideas, I wandered into the supply closet to find anything of use. Surprisingly we had more survival gear compared to supplies. Rebecca had been collecting a lot of stuff long before our arrival to Laputa. There I accidentally kick something. It a worn-out, blue shoebox labeled: 'backup bug out kit'. I took it outside looked around it. As I thought they were part of Rebecca's first kit.

Around my first year in grad school I was around the neighborhood and Rebecca invited me to go shopping with her. She was doing her first RPG game and was looking around for things that she might include her game. Rebecca was part of the development of the thief class and wanted somebody to join her. She thought it would have been a good idea for me to join since nerds kept on walking to her to get her number. I kinda acted like a deterrent. Yet to be honest Rebecca was kinda attractive from time to time. As it turns out, the project was a lie and she wanted to get into prepping after seeing the mass shooting near her hometown. I didn't judge at all. I was the guy collecting random stuff that reminded me of my past lives...that made me weirder than her. And what made me know about this being her first kit? It was the Rambo knife that I first saw when opening the box. Rebecca then notices the box and takes it from me. She looks inside it and finds a black pouch. "I think I have an idea." she told me.

That's where things got interesting. A few moments later the four of us found each other at the hall. Turns out that pouch was full of lockpicks and Rebecca is picking a door right now. But it didn't look as if she didn't have such luck now. "This is starting to look like this isn't a good idea." Tyrell said as he was twitching with a mace. "You're not helping." Rebecca talked back. But as Rebecca tried to pick the lock another memory kicked in...one that looked useful. "Can I see those?" I asked. "I don't know...this is kinda hard." She told me.

"Just trust me on this."

"Alright, just don't break them. Even if we have a spare."

She hands me the lock picks and in a few seconds I was able to unlock the door. The three of them were surprised on what just happened. "How did you…?" Rebecca asked confused. "I think three of my past lives used this skill around the lines." I told her.

"I guess that means you're keeping those."

"Really?"

"Like I said, I got a spare."

Mr. Williams then forms a surprised smirk at his face. "Dead men may tell no tale...but bring him back from the dead and he brings a few tricks on the table." He joked. People then started patted me at the back as they got in. But I got into the room with a chilling site. There was a black man dangling on a noose with a foamed mouth from the ceiling. Rebecca and Tyrell were petrified of the site. But soon Tyrell goes to the nearest trash can and started puking out his breakfast. Mr. Williams just took off his sunglasses and wiped his face as he started looking at the corpse. There was then a piece of paper found at the table next to it. "It looks like he died last night." He says as he gets it, "He left a suicide note." He reads the note but puts an indifferent face on after reading it. "What a waste of time. Come on, let's come what we came here to do." Mr. Williams told us. I was surprising on how he managed to brush it off. But then again war does change people. I read the note and it was rather distasteful. 'Too much...I just wanna go home. This is hell.'. Mr. Williams searches the dead man's pockets. Inside was his wallet and a ring of keys. He tosses the key ring at me. "Find what this unlocks." He told me. I look at the body and saw a stab entry wound but no knife. According to whatever contents there was in the wallet, the man was at his late twenties named Chris Proud. What hell happened here?

We start to look around the apartment. Mr. Williams and Tyrell took one of the rooms and I took the other room with Rebecca. The both of us started to look around and found a security box. We unlocked it to find a few stacks of cash. These were pretty useless now since society fell. All they are now is over glorified pieces of paper. "Looks like we don't have anything useful in here." Rebecca said. "Maybe we can use it once we get off of Laputa." I implied. As optimistic as it sounds, it doesn't look like we won't be getting back to the surface any time soon. But I did give a stack to Rebecca for the heck of it. We tried the safe next to it and again it was just a few more stacks of cash. Yet then again there was a Rolex in there. Rebecca then noticed a disappointed look at my face. "What were you expecting?" She asked. "I wouldn't mind for a revolver or something… it might make me synchronize with more of my memories." I replied in disappointment.

"This place was part of California… mention guns here and people freak the fuck out."

"Oh… right…"

"Anyhow we might as well use some of these bills for tinder. You can keep the Rolex."

"..."

As unsatisfied as I was we stashed up our loot. At least the Rolex was still working. We looked under the bed to see if we can find anything. But to our surprise it was full of BDSM paraphernalia. The weirdest part was the spiked collar and chain that was attached to the wall. "Kinky." Rebecca blurted out. "At least we can use it for rope or something." I implied. Rebecca then laughed. "If you don't mind the smell of excrement… why not?" She joked. I then reached for some hand sanitizer and noticed some blood at the corner of the room. I didn't point it out because it wasn't something that look important at the time.

We then go to the other room to see how Tyrell and Mr. Sander's were doing. As the same result, it was barely anything. Tyrell managed to find a few batteries and some power banks in a suitcase. I helped the guys look around a bit more. The room was full of camera equipment and microphones with the computer desktop as the centerpiece. "Who's the person that lived here?" I asked. "Must be some narc. Just look at this swimsuit." Rebecca said as she lifted out some skimpy bikini. Mr. Williams looked at the bikini with eyes wide open. "You call that a swimsuit?! I thought that was just random ball of string!" Mr. Williams exaggerated. Rebecca started to laugh at Mr. Williams innocence and it started to cheer up Tyrell a little. I then find at the corner a cork board full of photos made by an instant camera. The photos were mostly selfies of some blonde girl. "She looks cute. Who is that girl?" There was a wallet under an instant camera. There I opened the wallet and found a California ID our resident. "Some girl named Sunny Brooke." I read from the ID.

Rebecca couldn't believe her ears. She then comes close to me and takes the wallet...couldn't believe her eyes. "You gotta be shitting me." Rebecca cursed. I then got the wallet and see what I can find. All I can see in there were a few credit cards, IDs, and stamp cards from some coffee shops. The only thing that Sunny had of value was ten bucks. "Who was this girl anyway?" I asked. "One of the mean girls in my old high school. Part female version of Narcissus, part drama queen, with a wee hint of sociopath." She told me.

"Do you still know each other till now?"

"Not so much. Yet my sister is a fan of her stupid makeup and travel vlogs."

Tyrell then started to crack up. He then tries to get a grip after that. "So what made this girl so f-ed up for you to hate her? Out of jealousy?" Tyrell asked. She couldn't answer at all, making her all the more pissed. "Nothing… let's just get the fuck out of here before one of us gets herpes for staying." Rebecca insisted. Tyrell then opens a dresser near her computer. He then has a cheeky smile at his face. "Look what I found!" He said in a cheeky manner. He brings out a pink t-shirt with yellow lettering that says, 'Have a Sunny Day!!!' The gaze of that shirt made Rebecca's stomach turn. Noticing the reaction kinda gave the guy butterflies in his stomach. "Why the long face? Why not put of a bit of 'sunny' in your day?" Tyrell joked as he was waving the t-shirt. In response, Rebecca punched Tyrell through the shirt at the gut. "Don't push it." She said. Rebecca then walks out the door with a pissed look at her face. "Yeah... maybe that  was a bit too much." Tyrell mumbled. "You think?" I rhetorically replied to him. We saw Mr. Williams pass by between us. He looked in the dresser and went on to his task. But in disappointment…it was just full of Sunny's vlogger merchandise.

At the lower half of the dresser was a bunch of shoe boxes. We were going to brush it off but Tyrell had a good eye. Turns out some some of these were promo and mystery boxes. Apparently a couple of them had foreign goods and food. The rest of them were make-up boxes by some brand. I was kinda impressed by Tyrell's find. But it looked as if Mr. Williams had something else in his mind. "This doesn't fit in right." The man implied. "Something bothering you?" Tyrell asked.

"It's just that we all find this stuff and no tenant."

"Maybe she left."

"Not possible. Me and Rin barricaded all the entrances to the building at the start of the second week along with some noise traps."

"Yeah...that was hell. Yet what are you saying, old man?"

"What kind of person heads outside without anything? Her stuff are still here and it's a hellhole out there."

"Maybe she found another way out."

"All the emergency exits are sealed except the one near our room. There's no way she would leave without us noticing."

"What are you trying to say, old man?"

"Don't you find it weird that one tenant is dead and the other one is missing?"

"Now that you mention it…"

Tyrell then looked inside Sunny's luggage and there he pulled out a laptop. "I did notice this… it's weird on how she left without saying anything." Tyrell mentioned. It did raise a few eyebrows with what Mr. Williams was saying. There were lots of signs of Sunny being here but there was no sight of her at all. We didn't have anything to catch on so we decided to keep searching for things we can find. Mr. Williams then told me to join up with Rebecca and start looking for supplies at the kitchen. Again this apartment was full of surprises. There were plenty of snacks and food in the pantry to last another week. This all the more proved the point of Mr. Williams. With all this food, where could she have gone?

Rebecca then tapped me at the shoulder. "Can you help me get this out?" She asked. We managed to tug whatever was at the bottom of the sink and it turned out to be two giant bags of dog kibble. "What do you think the dog food was for?" I asked. "Beats me." She replied. Under the edge of the sofa I spot something. It looked like some remote. I the pressed it and we can hear a sudden jolt of electricity. We looked behind us and there was nothing. I then pressed the remote once more and the corpse started jitter. We thought the corpse was alive but I pressed the remote again and  there was something lighting up at the neck. I then took my sword and cut the noose. The body dropped to reveal something wrapped around the man's neck. "It looks like a shock collar." Rebecca stated. I then pulled it a little to get a look at it but I got shocked in the process. She then pointed at the remote and reminds me that there was a key on it. I unlocked the thing and found the thing quite odd. This looked like a dog collar but slightly modified. "You know anything about this?" I asked Rebecca. "Yeah…Sunny's brother made it for her at a Halloween special live stream." She says, "She had five of these and did a messed up version of snake and ladders, and some others with her friends."

"Alcohol and corporal punishment...why does that sound like a horrible combination?"

"She did beer pong when they reached fifty grand."

"..."

"That's what I thought."

I then obtained the collar and found something odd. There were three types of neck burn  marks at his neck with different sizes. I then got a knife and tore his shirt at the middle. All around the corpse's body were whip marks and scars all over his chest and some sores developing all over his malnourished body. As horrifying as the sight was there was something that stood out. Under his belt was a college notebook. The contents were something like a diary. I wonder if this could explain what actually happened here.