James Axler – Keepers of the Sun

Lord Mashashige, for the first time, was caught off balance. “We have nothing to do with such people. But I think a man might hope to live to thirty. A woman, with all the children she must bear, a few years less.”

Mildred put down her glass, making a disgusted sound. “How can? You seem intelligent and you can sit there calmly and talk about such a dreadful situation.”

“We have lost the skills. Once the day of the dark sky came to Japan, it was the beginning of the end.”

“No excuse for poisoning everyone.”

“There were stories from sailors that much of the land was totally destroyed and sank beneath the sea,” Doc said. “Is that true?”

“Sadly, alas, yes. We had become deeply dependent on the silent power of the nukes. In the last years before the cruel winters began, we had become closer to the United States. That is why we speak your tongue. It had become a second tongue. A first tongue for business and men of power.”

“California turned into the Western Islands when there was a chain reaction among reactors that triggered off the big quake fault lines,” Krysty said.

Mashashige turned to face her, showing a keen interest. “It was the same with us. A ‘chain reaction.’ I did not know the saying, but I understand it. Like knocking over a series of mah-jongg tiles. The reactors at Mihama and Takahama triggered the chain reaction. There were eruptions and quakes and all Hokkaido vanished, followed by the smaller islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. A day later, so that story goes, there was a gigantic explosion from honored Mount Fuji. The whole of northern Honshu, which was much the biggest part of Japan, vanished in an instant.”

“And tidal waves?” Jak asked.

“Oh, yes. Tsunamis, legend tells us, were a thousand feet high and swept across the steaming ruins of our land. It was narrow by the cities of Osaka and Kyoto, by the lake called Biwa ko. There it split and sank. Much of the coast of what remained was washed away, including the last big city, Hiroshima.”

“You would know that name, gaijin ,” Yashimoto barked, “too well.”

Mashashige ignored his interruption. “All that remains of Japan now is an island, very mountainous and steep, less than one hundred and fifty miles long. And no more than seventy miles from north to south. I have the very great honor to be the chief shogun in this island.”

Doc whistled. “That is astounding. Of course, Deathlands is a great deal smaller than the old United States was, but to nothing like that extent.”

Mashashige gestured, and a girl slid forward on her knees to replenish his glass of whiskey and water. “The tragedy for us is that our population is still increasing.”

“With such a low life expectancy!” J.B. exclaimed. “How come?”

“I would not speak of this before women,” the lord said. “But nothing is done to stop more babies. Many die, but there are still more and more. We outgrow our space.”

Hideyoshi suddenly said something in Japanese, as though he were warning Mashashige, who nodded.

“How did you find the gateway?” Ryan asked. “Been hearing stories of gangs of your people being seen in Deathlands for some months now.”

Mashashige looked away for a moment, and Ryan had the sudden impression that the leader of the samurai was about to lie to him, though he couldn’t have said precisely what it was that made him feel that.

“We rarely use it now. It was found by accident in the house that had once belonged to the Americans before the day of the dark sky. There was no code on how to use it, except for the number code that would bring a jumper back here.”

“Did you send out raiding parties into Deathlands?” J.B. asked.

Once again there was a momentary hesitation from the warlord. “Not raiding, Mr. Dix. To explore. To see if we could learn anything from you people. Discover some way of solving our own problems.”

“No success?” Ryan asked.

Hideyoshi replied, “We have a saying, ‘ kiken, kitsui and kitanai.”‘

“Which means what?”

“Which means that the missions were dangerous, difficult and dirty.”