WEB EXCLUSIVE

“Japan is at war? With whom? Why?” Liam asked frantically, stumbling over the words. James was ready with the translation and recited it to Akane. The short female shook her head, worry having infected each syllable, saying too many sentences in Japanese for James to keep up with.

“I got that the war was sudden and no one was really prepared for it except the Japanese, who started it. Something about new things and things that Japan hasn’t used before, but specifically emphasized that they were separate. She was purposely redundant, but I’m not understanding the rest.” James struggled to put the words together.

“But who are they against?” Liam asked again, frustrated and stressed.

“She said… everyone,” James whispered.

“What? How? How can they be at war with everyone? What did they do?”

“New things… she keeps repeating the word ‘new’.”

“What are we missing then?” Liam stood up and stared out the window, rifling through the things he knew about war and Japan. New… new, new. New government? New weapon? New discovery?

“Is it possible that we’re missing part of the translation?” James blinked at the question, processing.

“It could be-” James began, but suddenly was cut by Akane’s screech. Liam turned his head to notice the puffs of smoke drifting lazily up from the horizon.

“A smoke signal?” Liam mumbled. Akane grabbed his arm and started to violently shake it, pointing in the opposite direction.

“It’s obviously not something we need to go towards, according the Akane. What now?” James had sunk down into the captain’s chair comfortably.

“It may be fire, rather than a signal, but that doesn’t explain how it looks like separated pieces. It could be from some kind of engine, like exhaust or something.”

“It could be. I say we look. If it’s any of those, it can only be good. Smoke signal means people to put out the signal, fire means something burning, most likely from a human, and exhaust means a machine, likely operated by people on-site.” James was examining Akane and her responses to it all.

“I suppose so. Go ahead and turn us towards it.”

The bow slowly awoke from its steadfast bearing and groaned to the left, pointing to the source of mystery under the clouds of smoke. The oblong masses of grey were highlighted by the brilliant sun gingerly passing the stunning white glow over the ship. The sea was turning, angry shoves from below rocking the large cruise ship as it moved the best its engines permitted. It struggled and struggled, even as the sun blinked out and hummed away, chopping air and water on its leave, though none of the trio of survivors still sat awake of the world around them. No, that was lost long before their head hit the pillow.