Takao and the others stared at each other for a few seconds. There was a dead silence. 

What if this new boy was right?

What if all the adults had just disappeared? 

"Wh.. what are we going to do then?" enquired Katsu.

"Well, if this boy is right, then we're going to have to look after ourselves. We need to get out of here; it's going to be chaos soon if we don't. There are hundreds of kids in this town, and pretty soon they're going to realise what has happened too..." replied Takao.

"My... my dad owns a cabin high in the mountains not far from here, we could go there and wait a few days until things settle down here if you want?" said Hikari.

"That's probably a good idea" replied Takao, and then, turning to the boy, who was clearly a little bit disgruntled from the experience, "Do you want to come with us? It will be safer there."

The boy nodded. 

They left the building, and out of respect, Takao shut the door to his house as he left. He knew he wouldn't be going back there for a very long time.

It had begun to snow in the mountain town. This was a recipe for disaster, hundreds of kids on the street with little to no authority, and now it was snowing? This wasn't going to end well. Snow up here in the mountains could last for weeks. People were going to die if this was one of those flurries.

Takao told himself he didn't care, that it wasn't his problem..

Deep down, he felt a surge of guilt.

"What is your name, anyway?" Takao asked the boy,

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"Eito." he said quickly, as if to avoid any further question.

"Hm" replied Takao. 

He didn't know why, but he knew that name.

They began to travel down the road. When they reached the corner, they saw another line of crashed cars. This sight had become the norm to them. It was something that could be seen down every street.

Hikari lead the way. "It's around 10 miles from here, up Ryuchu Mountain. We'll never make it in time before the snow blocks the road. The road leading to it is only a small dirt track."

"We could use one of these cars" suggested Akio, and then "look, this one still has it's keys in the ignition."

"Yeah, but does anyone even know how to drive here?" asked Takao

The others all shook their heads, all of the others except for Misaki. 

"I know how to drive briefly. My father used to take me up the mountain roads to drive in the meadows, he taught me the basic driving skills." she told the others. "He used to..." she continued, but then stopped.

"Then it's settled. Misaki can drive and Hikari can tell us where we need to go." commanded Takao.

"Ok" the others agreed, almost in unison, but not quite. Eito remained silent, but nodded his head solemnly.

They all got in the car. It was only a small car, but it fit them in, in cramped conditions. Misaki turned the key in the ignition, and they set off to what they hoped would be safety...