A timer appeared on the control panel. Two hours, more than plenty of time to cross the gap. Assuming that was what the timer was for, anyway.
“Are we going to see what happens when the timer runs out, or what?” Yuko asked.
“It would not be a bad idea to rest and wait. It has been a long day,” Shizumi offered.
She was right. The sun had started sinking, and they had spent nearly 10 hours walking since they'd awoken in tunnels that morning.
Making camp right by the waterside also allowed them to see what would happen when the timer ran out. The panels that made up the crossing collapsed back into the water, and soon it looked like there hadn't been anything there at all.
Tents were set, meals were attempted to be had, and the heavy protective clothes were dropped by those not keeping watch. Yuko was also pretty happy to let her guard down for the first time since their departure, even if she lacked the heavy duty clothing the others had.
Yuko couldn't help but notice the way Fukui fidgeted with his hands. He seemed like he needed to keep himself busy with something, but even for that he still scratched his hands a lot. One of them looked swollen. Maybe the medicine needed more time to work. To compare, Yuko looked at her own hands, they weren't in great shape either. They were extremely calloused, with lots of scratches and scars.
As the time went by, the sun disappeared behind the horizon. It set? Yuko guessed that's what Yoshinaga meant, at least. But if that happened every day, then there had to be a new one coming back, right? Yuko couldn't help but be a little nervous, and she kept her flashlight close by. At least they'd managed to get a fire started to replace the sun in its light and warmth for now.
No one ended up getting much sleep that night. They'd never been in a place like this before. They had no idea what to expect. It was noisy, too. Wind rustled the trees and the sounds of creatures could be heard in the distance. The water also moved constantly, like someone was splashing around in a bathtub but on a much, much bigger scale. Yuko liked that one, though. When she focused on that one, she always managed to drift off for a little while.
Soon enough a sun emerged from the east. Yuko was happy that they wouldn't be walking in the dark. Camp was packed, and pills were swallowed. The sickness from the kegare never fully went away yet, but it was forced to the background enough to allow Yuko to focus on the world around her.
Fukui nodded and took the lead as he pressed the button and the bridge reappeared. The first step on the next platform was careful, but went well enough. The platform sank just a little, but was stable.
Yuko was fascinated the entire walk. She wasn't alone. When the group decided on a small break, she could see the way her teacher was attempting to examine the material, while Shizumi struggled to keep her gaze on the horizon like before. It looked like even Satoru had no clue what this thing was made of or how it was powered.
“We should refill the water,” Yuko offered.
“If we can…” Satoru murmured, retrieving a small vessel. It took a few minutes before it was boiled, put through the filter they'd packed and tested for toxins.
Fukui sighed as he shook his head. “It's not gonna make us sick, but it's filled with salt, it's useless to us.
Satoru put the lid on his bottle anyway. “That can still be of use to us in small amounts. Just not for quenching our thirst.”
“What are you gonna do,” Yuko asked with a chuckle, “pickle one of those monsters in it?”
“Maybe!” Satoru answered shamelessly, causing Shizumi to crack a smile as well, “We don't know what their nutritional values are, so maybe I will try that.”
“It wouldn't hurt to try with a small one. I've seen ones that kind of look like kyusu. Small, with big front teeth, small round ears and long stringy tails. Still has the weird green eyes though, but I think I can catch one. Shouldn’t be much harder than doing it at home.”
They'd reached the other side well on time.
As the party traveled, they clung to the coast, keeping it on their left side for the time being. Having the water close by felt like a more valuable metric for tracking their position than just wildly walking straight north. The landscape changed from bushey fields to a small forest. The trees were tall, too. They were taller than her! They didn't have that kind of space in Shini. Yuko had only heard of them thanks to school, the orchards where the fruit grew being a place she could only imagine through pictures. Actually being in one was a wondrous experience that only made Yuko's day better and better. Still, she knew it was a prime spot for finding other beings. Where there's food and all that.
Yuko wondered if thirioids were edible. She'd hate to live on just nutrient bars, but it was all they had available thanks to their efficiency. It wasn't like she was terribly hungry anyways. At least she seemed to have an easier time keeping down her food compared to the others. They often couldn't finish the food, despite clearly trying.
Yuko also wondered if maybe they needed something more, even if the thirioids weren't an option. If they couldn't keep their food down, they were going to be running on fumes soon and that would only make things worse for them.
Admittedly, Yuko had never hunted vermin in a forest, but it couldn't be that different from the streets of Shini when you boil it down to the basics. Find a place where there could be food, block off its escape route, and then trap it in a container of choice.
It took a few tries, but eventually she captured one of the monsters successfully. She had almost saved them all a half hour, but Shizumi had stopped her during a hunt because she almost got bit.
Killing it proved difficult. She'd trapped it in a pouch and then slammed the pouch against the floor a few times in the hopes of breaking its bones, but just like how the monster in the tunnel resisted the lead bullets, so did this one resist being beaten into the ground- literally.
A few moments after it stopped moving, Yuko carefully took it out of the bag. Retrieving her utility knife, she worked the tip into the skin and dragged.
Thirioids were machines. Despite their skin looking somewhat convincingly like that of a living being, cutting it open revealed machinery. It definitely showed that Yoshinaga saying he made them was probably quite literal.
Yuko couldn't help but be a little disappointed. They'd still yet have to run into an actual living being then, other than maybe Yoshinaga.
Instead of lingering on the disappointment, she moved her gaze to the world around her, which quickly revitalized her positive attitude.
She noticed Shizumi’s gaze was focused on the water. It appeared like there was still more land on the other side, even if it didn't look that way before. Then Yuko saw it. Smoke. There was smoke coming from the land on the other side. That was straight west of where they were.
Yuko couldn't help but be excited. Maybe there were still more people here!
“How long has it been there?” Yuko decided to ask.
“Ever since it appeared from the horizon this morning. I've been observing it for change, it hasn't yet.”
At this point, the others also noticed it.
Satoru chimed in. “So it's been constant? It does look different to the smoke from our fire.”
“And at this distance it'd need to be a lot bigger to be visible,” Fukui added.
“Are we going to go check it out? We're not actually going to go follow that Yoshinaga guy, right?” Yuko then asked.
“That depends…” Fukui started as the group paused.
“We don't know if that place will be any better,” Satoru said.
“And if we have enough time, considering we're tied to the pills he provided,” Shizumi added.
Yuko sighed. She understood they had to be cautious, but sometimes risks were necessary, right? “Can we try, if we can afford to?”
“Let's keep an open mind,” her ex teacher conceded, “and revisit our options when we have more information. Crossing isn't an option right now anyway.”
As the day progressed, more and more fog started to gather in the sky, blocking out the blue ceiling. Even the sun wasn't visible anymore, but it was still light out this time.
The surface world continued to prompt more questions than it answered.