"Oh, what is it now?" Asuka groaned. "The idea isn't that bad, not that I haven't thought of it myself."
"Toji's sister had been there, before she was transferred..." He didn't look up.
"You're still not over that, huh?"
"It's not that, I..." He sighed. "Do you think they'll come back?"
That question didn't really surprise her, but she hadn't actually thought about it before. Was there even a possibility that they weren't or wouldn't be alone?
"I don't know" she muttered. "Maybe. But we can't rely on that. I think they would be back by now, if they wan..." She shook her head, slightly angry, as she realized where this conversation was heading. "How often do I have to tell you: we'll talk about that later!"
"I'm sorry..."
Her head bolted up, glaring at him. But then her face softened slowly and instead of the expected verbal assault, Shinji heard a light chuckling from his companion. Even though, he didn't really understand at first, he soon got affected by her mood and joined in.
That moment, despite or maybe just because of the most darkest of situations, the sound of laughing filled those rooms for the first time since weeks...
****************
They decided to go to the nearest shelter first, but when they got there, they found the entrance buried with debris. So instead, they went on to check the hospital. It was mid-afternoon by now and sun burned as always, as if nothing had happened at all. The hospital seemed to be in perfect shape, most likely since it was build far away from the city, to be out of range of an Angel attack.
As they entered they were greeted by a cool breeze inside.
"The air-condition is running..." Asuka noticed.
"Huh? The lights are on as well...?"
"They most likely have an emergency power-generator for black outs." She suddenly grabbed his shirt. "COME ON!" She dragged him to the staircase and went down as deep as possible.
'At least, she seems to be okay again,' Shinji thought, as he and Asuka hurried through the basement's floor, looking at the labels of every door.
"Where is it?" she muttered.
"Where's what?"
"A-HAA!" She finally stopped at a steel door, labeled 'HIGH VOLTAGE! KEEP OUT!'. "Open it!" she commanded, shoving him towards it to emphasize her order.
Shinji just gave her a perplexed look. "How?"
"Just kick it in! Jump against it! Geez, do I have to think of everything?"
He wanted to protest again, but stopped himself. She would win an argument anyway. And with her injuries, she actually had a good point that she couldn't get through the massive door.
Not that he had any idea, how he should be able to do such a seemingly impossible task. So he settled for the simplest thing first: he pulled the handle... and was surprised when the door actually opened.
"Well, so much for security..."
They were greeted by the humming sound of the generator. Asuka rushed in and surveyed the machine a few moments, then pulled some levers on the control panel at it's side. The humming trailed off; the lights flickered a bit, before they went out. In other words: It was dark.
"Eh, AsukAAAAHHH!" Shinji shrieked in shock, when she suddenly switched on a flashlight just below her face. "That wasn't very funny..." he panted, clutching his chest, while she just chuckled at his reaction.
"I think, it was," she said innocently.
"Whatever you say," he muttered, before he returned his view to the machine in the dark. "Too bad it's so big."
"Huh? Oh, the generator. Yeah, but I expected something like this. We couldn't use it anyway, as I said; it's for emergencies, not to run 24/7."
"Then why did you turn it off?"
"Who knows if we'll need the instruments here someday? We shouldn't waste the fuel. I don't think there's much left in it anyway."
"So, that's why you made such a rush?"
"Yeah, sorry about that..."
Silence.
"Shinji?"
"Did... did I just hear the great Asuka Langley Soryu apologizing for something?"
She grimaced. "And if you don't hurry up, you may never hear it again!" she warned and left... with the flashlight... leaving him in the dark...
"H-hey, wait!"
****************
The upper floors were fairly lighted from the daylight outside, so they could get a good look around, even without power. The long corridors partly even lay outside the building, so the patients were able to get some fresh air, without going too far from their rooms. Each room was labeled, so it wasn't much of a problem to find the one, where the medicine and other pharmacy were stored. However, unlike the generator room, this one was locked.
Shinji threw himself against the door for what must have been the sixth or seventh time.
"Ah, just leave it and let's go," Asuka groaned, as she got bored at his futile attempts. "We don't need any medicine now. It's good enough to know that we can get it here, when we need it."
"And what in case of an emergency?" He collided with the door again, which slightly gave in. "When we need to hurry and can't get in then?" After taking some steps backwards, he bolted forward and crashed through the door, finally. Panting, he caught himself from tumbling against the racks. "And since we're already here, we should check your wounds."
She frowned at her bandages. "I don't know... It barely hurts, but..." she trailed off, as she remembered just too well, how she got them. The impact of each lance; the grip of each claw; the bite of each jaw...
"Asuka, please... It could get worse, if we don't treat them properly," Shinji insisted concerned.
After some seconds of silence, she nodded hesitantly. Shinji grabbed some new bandages and followed his companion to the next room, where she sat down on one of the beds.
"Should... I...?" he asked uneasily.
"No!" Asuka declared. "I... I need to do this myself..."
Taking a deep breath, she began to undo the bonds, beginning at the hand. She needed to force her eyes open to take a look at the expected injuries.
But there weren't any.
Quickly, she unwrapped the rest of her arm. Nothing.
"Not even a scar..." she whispered unbelieving.
"Huh?"
"My arm! It-it was sliced... I mean... how...?" She didn't finish the sentence; instead she grasped at the patch on her eye, eagerly ripping it off. The vision was blurred at first, but soon she could see as clearly as before. "How is it?"
"It looks..." he trailed off as he looked in her eyes. "...fine..."
Suddenly realizing what they were doing, they broke their gaze quickly.
"We better get going now," both stammered simultaneously.
****************
They still had some daylight left, but the next shelter was too far away to make it there and back again.
"We might check the shops on the way and see what we could use," Asuka suggested, when they went through the ruined streets towards their home.
"Huh? But I don't have any money."
Asuka halted and turned to face him. "Baka! Who do you want to pay?" She sighed. "This is anarchy, Shinji. There's nothing we can do about it."
"I still don't think that it's right," he muttered.
"Better get used to it. This will most definitely not be the last time, we need to 'borrow' something."
They entered the next grocery store they encountered. Shelves had been overthrown; their contents combined on the floor in an icky mass of broken eggs, spilled juices, instant noodles and other indefinable things.
"Uhargh! Gross!" the redhead complained as she took big steps through it to reach the other end of the hall.
"It was your idea... So, what should we get?"
"I don't know. Not much left in here..."
"We'll better get some instant meals and cans, since they won't go bad that soon."
"Great, take some beers as well and we would be living Misato's dream..." As soon as she said it, she bit her tongue. Turning around, she saw Shinji, his head cast down; lost in his thoughts. "Hey, I... I..."
"I know, you didn't mean it." He looked up, giving her a weak smile. "She really wouldn't mind this kind of 'diet' at all, huh?"
She returned the weak smile, but neither said much afterwards. They grabbed as much as they could carry and headed home.
****************
"Still have to clean this mess..." Shinji mumbled as he entered the living room. When they had reached the apartment, the sun had already begun setting, casting shadows in the everywhere.
"You think that's worth it?" Asuka questioned, sipping on a still warm soda can that they've brought from the grocery store.
He turned around at her voice. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"We will have to grow our own food, remember? I doubt we can live by what we could raise on the balcony."
"So... you want to move out?"
"We'll have to, I guess..." she shrugged. "Unless, you want to travel around all day."
"But where to go? Even the nearest farms are several miles away," he complained. He didn't like the thought of leaving the first place where he really felt at home. "And I don't suggest moving too far away from a city; we'll never know if we'll need new supplies."
"Hmmm... What about a market-garden?"
"Huh? You think, you can live there?"
"Why not? It's not that unusual that, at least if it's a family business, the owners lives there. Another plus would be that they usually have a greenhouse, so we would be independent of the climate."
"A greenhouse? Have you seen any unbroken glass, today?"
"Geez, don't be so pessimistic!" she scolded.
"Okay, okay! I'll search the phone book and a map..."
"That's the spirit! Go get it!"
"You could help, you know?"
"Phht, is it my fault, you haven't cleaned this mess yet?"
****************
"Finally!" Asuka declared exhausted. "And it just took us half of the day to get here!"
They had found only two market gardens in the area of Tokyo-3 and one of it was too close to the Geofront to be alright. The other one was about 10 miles from their home at the other side of the city, and combined with the hot weather, it was quite a trip.
"Well, it looks okay..." Shinji surveyed the surroundings.
"Oh, don't try to sound too enthusiastic!" his companion said sarcastically. "Come on, lets check the garden!"
Said garden was, as far as they could tell, in a good condition and fairly big, regarding that it lay in a capitol like Neo Tokyo-3, even if just in the suburbs. The former owners had grown several kinds of vegetables, from tomatoes to cucumbers; from lettuce to onions; so they wouldn't have to worry about chances of success or failure in cultivation because of the mold. Actually, it seemed enough, that they would have supplies for quite a while. Either the business didn't go well lately or it was that good, that they needed to have so much resources. However, it would mean, that there were good chances that seeds were to be found, as well. And indeed, one of the two sheds on the area stored all kinds of them, luckily labeled, as neither of the two would have been able to tell what would come out of what. The other, smaller shed was empty; the reason might have been that a window seemed to have been broken even before the Impact. Either someone had broken in and stolen what was in there for whatever reason, or the gardeners had emptied it to prevent just that.
In the greenhouse, they found mostly sprouts of vegetables that would be planted outside, once they would get big enough. Shinji even noticed a few rice-seedlings, though it was doubtful, that they could have been grown here economically enough to make profit.
The greenhouse itself had been shielded by the main building, and thus only one pane was broken and three had scratches.
"Nothing that can't be repaired..." the redhead grinned, "...by you."
Shinji ignored the last part. "Asuka, can we go now?"
"GO? We just came here! After such a walk, I may add!" she fumed. "And we haven't checked the house yet."
"But we still haven't been at the shelters. And I still think we should get that food. Better safe than sorry."
"I won't argue with that. But I think they left us something to get there more faster," she grinned again and pointed to the garage.
He paled. "You... you don't mean... I mean, we don't even know how to drive, and what's with all the debris on the street and all?!"
"You think it's harder to drive a car than to pilot an EVA?"
All he could do was to sigh. She had a point there, but he still felt uneasy about the thought.
"Shinji!"
"What now?" he jerked.
"Looks like we don't have to worry about electricity," she said confidently, while she looked at something at the roof and he followed her gaze. On the tiles were large, gray squares mounted; divided into dozens of smaller ones. Long cracks split the glass on top of some them.
"Solar panels? But they seem to be broken..."
"Nah, not all of them. The rest should give us enough energy."
"You think? What about nights and rainy days? We won't have power then."
"Baka, the energy will be saved until it's used. But you have a point, though. Solar panels are commonly used as addition to the regular power supply. We won't be able to waste it like before, I guess."
"Well, okay, that's one less problem..."
As it was shown later, this wasn't the only device the previous owners had installed to use natural recourses. A large tank to fetch and filter rainwater was embedded in the ground. Though it shouldn't be used as drinking water, if not necessary; it would definitely help them to safe a lot of their water stocks, in case the public supply would stop eventually.
****************
Since Asuka insisted on inspecting the house, there was no way to fight it. They had to break in, or better said: Shinji had to break in. Luckily for him, there was a window on the ground floor that was just leaned on. With a bit of scrambling, he managed to enter the kitchen and open the front door from inside, to let Asuka in.
The house wasn't that big, so they could get a rather quick overview. A small hall led to the living room; obviously the biggest room of the house and from where everything led to the rest of it. To the right was the kitchen, to the left was a corridor, leading towards a bathroom, a storeroom and two sleeping rooms, of which one seemed to be rather unused and was most likely for guests. Wooden stairs led up to the first floor, but the three rooms here were mostly empty and didn't seem to be used lately.
The sight of destruction was better than in their own residence, but that wasn't what gave Shinji an uneasy feeling. He still didn't like the idea of taking over the home of someone else. Not long ago, people had lived here, that he didn't even know; going after their daily chores; never expecting anything to change. Who knows, if they would have allowed them even to set a foot in their home, not to mention to live in there? He was relived that none of the rooms seemed to be that of a child. He really didn't know if he could have handled that sight, without breaking down.
While Asuka was still busy searching through the rooms, he waited for her on the sofa in the living room. As his eyes wandered around, from the table in front of him, that was empty besides a vase with a single flower in it; over the two paintings and the clock, that decorated the walls; to the picture, that stood on the TV. The later caught his interest. It seemed to be quite old; at least 20 years, he guessed. It was a family picture, obviously taken on a picnic on a sunny day in autumn. But what was strange about it, the man and his wife seemed somehow.. similar...
'Now, if her hair was more purple and he had a ponytail... Nah...' He sighed. 'I guess, I'm just seeing things. Just because they're not longer...'
"Do you need some more time to stare at other people's pictures or can we go now?" muttered a voice behind him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"No," he mumbled and placed the picture back, "we can leave now..."
****************
Now, that the redhead was finally pleased with the sight-seeing they moved on to the garage. As they opened the gate, they were greeted by a green pick-up labeled with the logo of the family-company.
"You're sure you want to drive that?" he asked.
"Listen, if you want to move with all your stuff here by feet, feel free to do so. I will take this baby here."
"But we don't even have..." She held a bunch of keys in front of his nose. "...the keys... Where did you get those?"
She shrugged. "Ive found them on a desk. Come on, get in or do I have to drag you?"
Sighing, he entered and placed himself on the passengersEseat. Meanwhile, Asuka started the engine and hit the gear.
"Ha, and you said that would be hard!" she mocked. As she stepped on accelerator however, the car only jerked forward a bit, the engine obviously stalled. "Not a word," she warned, glaring at him.
She started again, this time handling the clutch and accelerator more carefully. Slowly, they began their drive towards the closest shelter, before they would drive home. They didn't get much faster, though. More than one time, Asuka forgot to change the gears or stepped to hard on one of the pedals.
"Verfluchter Mist!" she cursed. "Couldn't this have been an automatic?"
"I guess there is something else we need to survive," Shinji said, after being silent the whole trip until now.
"And what would that be?" Asuka asked annoyed.
"Knowledge."
"Yeah, just rub it in!"
"I'm serious. We'll need to know how to keep machines in shape, how to grow properly or how to treat major injuries and diseases. We'll need books or something to learn things like that..."
She looked at him, curiously. "Hm, you could be ri..."
"ASUKA, LOOK OUT!"
She barley evaded a broken down car...
****************
Since they had to move sooner or later, they decided for sooner, or in particular: the next day. It didn't take long for Shinji to pack his things. First of all he hadn't much stuff to begin with and some of it, like his cello, was destroyed during Third Impact. So all he took were some clothes and the sign that had fallen from his door. 'Shinji's lovely Suite'.
His eyes wandered to the one's room, who had hung it there; a welcome sign, that was supposed to always remember him that he had found a home here. Misato had been the first one, who made him feel welcome, to feel at home; what it would be like to live in a family. Of all the people he had known, she was maybe the one he would miss most.
He moved on packing all food and drinks that were left in the apartment. As he anticipated, Asuka needed some more time to pack her stuff, but at last she came out of her room carrying four cardboard boxes. It was nothing compared to the amount of boxes, when she moved in, but still much compared to his single carton.
"Hey, Shinji, could you get the rest?"
'I should have known...' he thought, seeing five more in her room.
Once they loaded everything in the pick-up, they've headed for their new home. It was strange, even though they could come back here whenever they wanted, it felt like they would leave forever; the only place he had ever liked to call his home.
He didn't look back when they left.
****************
Another day lay behind them. They hadn't done much more than to move their things to the new place, where they wanted to live and work from now on.
Shinji lay in his new bed. He still wasn't able to sleep very well, so he found himself staring at the ceiling.
Another unfamiliar ceiling.
Hopefully the last.
As to be expected, Asuka had chosen the larger bedroom, leaving him with the smaller one that had most likely been reserved for guests. Not that it really mattered to him, it was still big enough and also had a window. Unlike the small room, he had to move into, when Asuka had joined him and Misato in the apartment and taken his old one.
He tried to free his mind of those memories of the past. Otherwise, he might wouldn't get any sleep at all that night again.
After they had unpacked their belongings, they had taken a closer look at the house; or better yet: at the furniture and junk, and what might be of use for them. Which was easier said than done; who could predict if they would need exactly that brush to save their lives one day?
For the next day, they had planned trying to get to Kofu, the nearest city that still had an University. There, they hoped to find a library that would fill all their academic needs to gain the knowledge to survive on their own. It would be a long, but necessary trip and the sooner it lay behind them, the sooner he might be able to get some rest...
****************
They left in the next morning (more late than early). It was a 3-hour-ride, as the direct roads were blocked by abandoned and wrecked cars, vans and trucks. Due to this, and that it was Shinji's first time to drive, they slowly crept either in slalom around those obstacles, on the sideway of the road or hobbled on paths through seemingly even land (not to the delight of a certain redhead).
It was almost noon, when they arrived at a lookout point over Kofu.
"It's kinda strange," Shinji muttered, gazing over the high buildings, shining in the sun, "seeing this city so intact and unaffected, as if nothing ever happened..."
"Yeah," Asuka agreed, though she couldn't shake the feeling of emptiness, that she had before, when they had watched Neo Tokyo-3 during the black out. "You know, there might even still be working electricity and running water. Maybe we should scratch Tokyo-3 and move here directly. We could save ourselves a lot of wor..."
"No..." he cut her surprisingly firmly off. "I... I don't want to leave... home anymore..."
Though she gave him a questioning glare, she didn't ask further. She knew too well, what he meant...
****************
Since it was about lunchtime, their first stop was a department store, where they grabbed some foods, that didn't need heating, before they made their way to the Yamanashi University. To get there resulted to be a bigger problem, than they've expected. Not only, that one could easily get lost if he didn't know his way through the city's streets, but Kofu was also much more populated than Tokyo-3 was near its end, when most civilians had been evacuated. Thus, there were so many car-wrecks that it was even harder to navigate through, than on their way there (the more it angered them, when they learned later that they could have avoided all this, by driving around the city, as the University lay more outside of it).
Once they finally reached their destination, it was thankfully not very hard to find the library on the large campus-area by using the installed maps. Luckily for them, the University's Faculty of Medicine and it's library, which had been in the city of Tamaho before the Second Impact, had been transferred to the Kofu campus.
They went through the several floors of the building, grabbing every book of that they thought it might be of use eventually: medical, engineering, architecture... by the end, they had over a dozen baskets full of books, folders and similar material; enough to study for years. But sadly, they noticed, that the library was too specialized for books about gardening- or 'do it yourself'-tips, which meant, they had to go back to the city again and find a public one or a bookstore.
The good thing about this was, that it gave them the opportunity to fetch some supplies, they wouldn't (or at least only hardly) be able to get in the remains of Tokyo-3 anymore; not only food, but also tools and utensils, that could be needed; Asuka even insisted to get some more clothes. The bad thing was, that they lost a lot of time thanks to this additional trip.
It was already in the late afternoon, that they finally left Kofu.
****************
They had barely left the town, as Shinji suddenly hit the breaks so hard that they were thrown forward into the belts.
"Great, now I'm even going to loose that bit of food I had, thanks to you!"
"Sorry," he excused slyly. "I guess I still have to learn how to accelerate and break more smoothly..."
"Why are we stopping here, anyway?"
"There's a wheat-field," he stated, pointing to the left window.
"So...?"
"Well, I will need flour to bake and for noodles and such. And since I haven't noticed any seeds for crops at..."
"Yeah, yeah, I got you," she groaned. "So what are you waiting for? Hurry up and get some grains, so we can go home finally."
"Uhm, you mean, you're not going to help me?"
She didn't respond to this. Not that she needed to. Her glare was answer enough.
Sighing, he opened the door and got out of the car.
****************
It took at least 15 minutes until Shinji returned with an armload of wheat. He seemed to be quite rushed, as he dumped it on the back of the pick-up and jumped back in. At the latest when he hit the gas and turned with screeching tires, Asuka got a bit anxious.
"Geez, what's the big deal?" she cursed at him, while trying to keep the balance in her seat. He didn't seem to be frightened, so it was doubtful, that he had been running from any kind of danger.
"I saw a farm over there," he told her enthusiastically.
"And? I thought, you didn't want to move to a farm?"
"No, but there will be some animals."
"Animals?" Asuka frowned. "That's exactly why I wouldn't want to live on a farm..."
"Well, then how am I supposed to be able to get things like eggs or milk to cook with?"
"Milk? You want to move a cow?"
Shinji shrugged. "Maybe they have goats..."
"Goat-milk?" she grimaced. "Are you trying to poison me?"
Shinji just rolled his eyes and sighed. There would be no chance to argue once she set her mind on stubbornness.
"Fine, no milk then..." he mused, as he stopped the car in front of what seemed to be a barn. "But then don't complain, if I can't bake you everything, you want me to..." he added mumbling, as he went out.
"You said something?"
"No, I..." he trailed off and suggested her to be quiet with his hand. "Do you hear that?"
Curiously frowning, she followed him out of the car. Actually, it was hard not to hear it: loud squeaking, bleating and neighing came from the larger buildings on the old-fashioned farm-area.
Shinji lost no time and rushed towards the nearest one, opened the door... and froze.
These animals were starving after several days without food; some of them had wounds, either by trying to free themselves or even by a desperate seizure of cannibalism by their own kind.
Shinji only absently noticed his hand clenching and unclenching slightly, as he watched this disturbing scene in shock.
"We... we have to help them..."
It would be like this all over the world: animals, pets waiting for their owner to return, to feed and take care of them. But they would never come...
"Shinji, you can't go everywhere and take care of every living thing," Asuka spoke seriously behind him, as if she had read his mind. "You can't save everyone..."
"I know..." He tensed. "I know too well..."
Without further arguing, he went to the gates, opened them one by one and unleashed those animals that were restrained. He didn't lead them out though, and there was no need for that either. They would find their way to freedom, where they had at least a chance to survive.
***********
The chickens however were another story. One would think, they would have grown weary and were easily exhausted. However, they didn't show any signs for that, when Shinji tried his best as "Chicken Hunter". For at least half an hour, he chased them eagerly through the run, while Asuka simply watched him, partly bemused, partly annoyed; leaning on the fence that surrounded it.
Finally one wasn't fast enough to slip through his fingers in the very last moment.
"Look," he triumphed, lifting the anxious and wildly struggling bird up in the air, "I've got one!"
"Shinji?" A small, amused smile crept on her face.
"Yes?"
" That's a rooster." She shook her head; slightly chuckling at his dumbfounded face, as he lost his grip of the bird, which ran immediately to the opposite corner.
"How are you planning to transport them anyway? That is, without having them run and flap around on, or worse, in the car?"
"Uh... I... dunno...?"
Her shoulders slumped down and a sigh emitted from her. "I should have known that it'll up to me to do the thinking. Wait here, okay?"
He just nodded quietly, before she went away.
It took about ten minutes until she returned, carrying two small cage-boxes and an obviously quite heavy sack that she dragged behind.
"Uhm... You need any help with that?" he asked weakly, but couldn't quite place if the grimace, he got in response, was supposed to be a "Yes, of course I need you stupid mule to do the hard work!" or a "No, I don't ever need your help with anything, you baka!"
So, in the end, he did nothing.
"I can understand the cages, but what's in the sack for?" he continued, when she unloaded herself in front of the fence.
"There's wheat in there," she answered casually. "And, by the way, this is a much more effective way to get it, than to pick it from the fields..."
"So... what are we doing with that now?" he questioned, ignoring the offensive remark about his earlier actions.
Asuka gave him a disbelieving look. "Why do I have my doubts that males were supposed to be the great, tricky hunters, when I look at you?" She shook her head. "Were making a trap, of course!"
With that, she put a heap of corns in one cage and placed it on the other side of the fence. This procedure was repeated with the other one. Afterwards, she advised Shinji to lay trails of the crop towards the entrance of the cage.
It didn't take long, until the first of the hungry birds literally picked up a trail and went straight into the box; unknowing, that a second later, the door was slammed shut and the bar was locked. Despite its wild protesting of its temporary, restricted living conditions; it wasn't enough to scare a second one away from suffering the same fate.
"See?" Asuka triumphed, picking the cages up. "That's how you catch something that is too fast for you! Now, grab the sack, so we can go home!"
"Yeah," he simply muttered, opened the gate and left the chicken-run; followed by half a dozen of birds, curiously exploring their newfound freedom...
****************
The sun was already setting when they finally left the farm and it didn't took long that they were engulfed by the darkness of the night. Of course, this didn't really help to navigate; even with the lights on.
"Are you sure, this is the right way?" Shinji questioned after a few hours of 'blind'-driving. "I think, we should have gone left three turns before..."
"How should I know?" his red-haired co-driver snapped back. "You're the one who's supposed to be able to read the signs without problems!"
"Then why did you insist on driving to the right?"
"It was meant as a joke! Why is it my fault you're too stupid to get it?"
"A... a joke?? I..." He cut himself off, hit the brakes without warning and shut down the motor.
"What is it now?" Asuka groaned, but Shinji just closed his eyes and sighed.
"You know what, Asuka?" he muttered. "It was a long day and I'm... I'm way too tired for this, okay? I mean, it's late, and; let's face it, we're lost and it's doubtful that we can find the way back at night..."
"So you say, you want to sleep here? In the car? Now?" She saw him slowly nodding in response.
"No way!" she spat. "We can sleep in the next house that comes our way! I'm not gonna sleep right next you, where you can live out your perverted dreams about me!"
He seemed to be shocked, the moment she said it; instead of his usual blushing and muttered denials, his eyes gained a mournful look, which he quickly avoided.
"We... we have seen the last building more than an hour ago," he mumbled. "If you... want to, I... I can sleep outside..."
"Oh geez, stop whining already!" she growled. "Fine, we'll sleep in here! But you better stay on your side! And don't get any stupid ideas!" she warned and readjusted her seat in a horizontal position.
"Good night, Asuka..." he said, before dimming the lights and doing the same.
"Whatever..."
To sleep was easier said than done. She definitely felt uneasy, lying next to him, only a few centimeters apart. Especially regarding how much was still unsaid between them. But it was still too early for that. Maybe it would be even better, if it was left unsaid and they just lived on like now. It wasn't that bad like this, was it? And what if he would...
She stopped herself. Thoughts like that didn't really help in her attempts to sleep. Neither did the uncomfortable seat or the moonlight that came through the window.
At least it was warm.
At least, the nightmares of the nights before didn't return this time.
****************
They awoke with the dawn of the next morning, when the morning sun shone through the windows and the hens made them aware with an audible clucking.
It became obvious that they were closer to Neo Tokyo-3, than they thought; after just five minutes of driving they encountered the first sign that showed their way and barely 20 minutes later, they were back at their new home. Unnecessary to say, that Asuka wasn't very happy at this revelation.
They had quite a big breakfast that Shinji prepared (partly as excuse for the night before; partly to make up for the day before when they hadn't much besides a quick snack in between), before they unloaded the pick-up.
The books were simply dropped in the living room, for later sorting; the supplies were stored in one of the empty rooms on the first floor, minus the food, that needed to be (and fit) in the fridge or freezer. The wheat was placed to the other seeds in the shed outside; while the hens got the smaller one. It wasn't much, but eventually it would be properly furnished and they would get a small chicken run; though for now, they seemed to be happy to get out of the rather tight cages.
The rest of the day was mostly spent skimming through the books; sorting out which would be needed for what or if they were needed at all.
The last thing they did was to more or less assign the chores. Asuka agreed to work on the technical and engineering or in other words: She would take care that everything would be running and working as it should. Surprisingly, she even accepted to do the handwork that would come along with this.
It wasn't really necessary to say that Shinji was appointed as the one responsible for cleaning and cooking. The later might prove to become a greater challenge than it seemed, as this now also included providing basic goods as bread or noodles, once they've ran out of supplies. But for once he had some confidence in that. Not without reason, he had planned ahead and got some crops for flour. He just hoped it would actually grow.
As for that part; the gardening, they've decided, that both would take care of that, as they neither had ever done something like that and thus, didn't knew, who was better suited for the job.
And with that, everything, they needed seemed to be settled for now.
They had a new home; they would have food and water; they would have the necessary knowledge.
They had everything they needed to survive.
But there was something that was still unsettled...
****************
Shinji approached her in the living room, as she gazed at the sunset through the window.
"Asuka, we've done everything we can do so far, to make sure we survive. We have all time we need now." His hand twitched nervously and he lowered his gaze. "We need... we have to talk, finally."
She tensed noticeable at his words, but didn't turn around.
"I... I don't think so! We still have a lot of work to do, if we want to survive!"
"But... we will always have a lot to do, won't we? Then we'll never talk..."
"So what?" she blurted. "Would it be that bad, if we just live on and drop..."
"Asuka!" he interrupted. "Please..."
After letting out a deep sigh, she nodded.
"Okay, then..." she almost whispered as she turned around.
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A/N: Ha, I can imagine your yaws dropping in confusion. Yes, come and get Crazy Jimmy's special offer: Read one story, get a post-TI one free. I promise, it'll make more sense with every new chapter.
Well, maybe you need to wait quite a while for the next one, though. I've got to study the next few weeks (stupid exams *grumble* why did I chose to go to university anyway *mutter*...on the other hand, as I know me, I'll end up writing anyway).
However, this chapter gave me the opportunity, most likely all post-TI authors want: Write my own interpretation for the ending of EoE.
I think it's kinda funny, in almost every post-TI-fic, even the best ones, they're going to NERV HQ... Hello?! NERV HQ was inside the Geofront! You know, that black, round thing that exploded into billions of pieces in the end? It's actually possible that the 'ocean' is, where the Geofront was supposed to be. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it works out better for some stories (and I don't want to anger fellow and potential reviewers, geez, I can see now, why everyone is begging for them, they're addictive...), but it's strange that it's used so often. Whatever...
As for the hospital, I don't remember if it's name came up during the series and I suck at inventing names, so I just named it Tokyo-3-hospital.
And yes, I am a Asuka-is-not-really-injured-supporter, heck, she's using an arm, that's supposed to be sliced in half!
I know, most likely, there won't be many market-gardens (is there actually no better word for this?) in a metropolis like Tokyo-3, but I wanted something different, than the usual 'they went to a farm'-thing. Actually, I hadn't decided, if I let them move out at all, until I wrote that scene.
Well, for the rest, don't think to much of this chapter (especially the 'meat-scene', but, hey, it's better than just 'When they woke up, they've began planning'), it's more of a presetting for later ones.
So, leaving you with a nice, little cliffhanger, tune in to Chapter 4 for the WAFFy part...
P.S.: I've noticed, I suck at descriptions, but, hey, I've never said there won't be any rewrites, huh? ^^
Rewrite Notes:
Well, here it is finally, more than twice it's previous size and after "just" about eight months: the rewritten Chapter 2. Besides the lost of the horrid spelling (which hadn't even checked via Word), there were several changes that made it hopefully better.
I've darkened the mood a bit, as they seemed to take the "death" of humanity much too lighthearted. And though, it's not that much better as it should be; I hope it's at least a bit more believable.
Most obviously, I've added a few scenes that I had originally planned, but not used before, as I had wanted to release the chapter as soon as possible. But instead putting them back in immediately once I had more time, I waited to see how long Chapter 4 was going to be and in case it would have been too short, added the missing scenes there. When it became clear, that Chap4 would be going to be much longer, than "survive" could ever be, they were placed were they belong.
The new ending still seems to be rushed, though it wasn't. Oh well...
Overall, I still don't like this chapter very much, but at least it's better than before (not that that would be a big challenge...)
(On a side note: I've got rid of the "meat-scene". I still don't know why I ever put it in...)
And thanks to my pre-readers Divine Chaos and dennisud. They may take their time, but their a help I wouldnt want to miss. :P