Pizza, theft and ancient artifacts – Part 1

Chapter 1 – Pizza

The train thundered along the tracks. The two hour journey through the devastated countryside would soon come to an end. A sleepy village slowly moved along the horizon as the train passed it by, the streetlights being the only thing to break up the darkness.
“Tickets please,” a slightly annoyed voice sounded next to her. Akane hadn’t noticed the conductor walk up to her as she was lost in her own thoughts.
“There you go,” Akane said, after rummaging through her bag for a few moments. She smiled politely as she waited for the gaunt looking man to check her ticket. He handed it back to her and with nothing more than a polite nod he moved on to the next person a few rows down. “Tickets please,” he said to the next person, but Akane had already stopped paying attention to him. She let out a deep sigh and put away the book that she was clearly failing to read. She was too tired to absorb any of the information in it anyway. She continued to start out of the window, wondering how a world so broken could look so peaceful at times. You would almost think that the recent string of disasters were just a drawn out series of bad dreams. But a large asteroid did crash into the American continent, destroying a large part of it and making other parts immediately uninhabitable. Sea levels then continued to be a total mess, destroying the ocean ecosystem and hindering logistics all over the world. Of course, once the dust settled and the extent of the disaster was properly measured, the first wars for resources started breaking out. Problematic as the balance of power had been before the disaster, at least a balance was there. With that gone, everyone with a shred of ambition came out of the woodworks and things went from bad to worse. It was only recently that things were getting a little bit more stable, although there was certainly no going back. Most importantly for Akane, she had found herself tangled up in all sorts of strange business ever since. Only a few weeks before the asteroid hit, a strange object was delivered to the University of Tokyo, where Akane was an intern at the time. This strange artifact was a necklace that allowed the wearer to pass through glass. The researchers at the university were baffled by the discovery and although they tried to keep it under wraps, news obviously got out and spread like wildfire. Akane saw one of the senior staff use it in a demonstration once and she was completely awestruck. Sure, the knowledge that strange things existed in the world was relatively common, but most people would go their entire lives without even being within a few miles of something strange happening. To see someone use such an artifact right in front of her was an awakening for her. Ten years had passed since that moment and Akane was now in her late twenties. As she reminisced on the past she moved her hand up to the train window before slowly pushing it through, feeling the high speed winds push her hand back. She quickly retracted her hand again. It was quiet in the train carriage but it was best not to stand out.
After leaving Tokyo, Akane spent the seven years between then and now trying to find more of these artifacts, as her unit leader at Tokyo University had called them. Supposedly they could be traced back to ancient civilizations, but no one really knew the specifics. That’s what made the research so interesting to Akane. Not only did she want to find more of these special artifacts, she also really wanted to know who made them and more importantly, why they were made. This also put several pieces of folklore into a whole new light. She wasn’t the only one searching for these artifacts and Akane had brushed with dangerous people more than a few times in the past few years. Over time, she developed the skills to survive in this increasingly dangerous world. She’d also learned that these artifacts were often found in the strangest of places. One of those strange places – if Akane’s research was right – was an abandoned research facility in the Northern England countryside. The train shuddered as it switched tracks, veering off in a northern direction after having gone quite a bit west. She would soon be at her destination. It was nice and warm in the train, but it was still winter and she put her warm jacket on in preparation for the cold night air she would soon be stepping into.
Moments later she found herself standing alone on a deserted train station out in the countryside. Although the city she stopped in was far from small, it had been mostly deserted as of late and the flickering neon signs and poorly backlit advertisements were just a remnant of what once was. A backlit clock that was permanently stuck on 4:15 stood ominously at the far end of the station. As Akane made her way towards the stairs that led away from the station a voice suddenly asked. “Scuse me miss, any coin for a poor soul.” The man almost made her jump. She hadn’t seen him laying down on the bench. This kind of sight was far from uncommon these days. People who were down on their luck weren’t great off before the disasters but nowadays the government has more important things to deal with than the homeless crisis. Although what is and isn’t important is pretty subjective and taking care of the people you govern should probably be a little bit of a higher priority than it seemed to be.
“I don’t suppose you know of any place that’s still serving food at this time of day, I’m starving,” Akane said to the man, who she now could see was probably in his late 50s. Despite sleeping on a train station bench he looked relatively well kept. His beard was long, but seemed clean. His clothes looked fairly new, perhaps the man was new to his current predicament. But Akane knew she shouldn’t judge. She fished a couple of coins out of her pocket and handed them to the man who smiled brightly as he took them into his palm and then quickly put them away. “Thank you so much.” He pondered for a moment, scratching his aforementioned beard. “If you’re lucky, Max should still be open.” He stood up and turned around, staring at the city lights. “See that big sign over there, the one for prosthetic limbs?”
She looked where he pointed and saw a sign that proudly proclaimed George’s Prosthetics is here to give you a hand. It was so on the nose it almost hurt. “That’s the main street. If you follow that for bout a minute and pay attention to the left side you’ll eventually see a shady looking pharmacy. Right next to the pharmacy is an alleyway that’ll lead you straight to Papa Dave’s pizza. Dave died quite a few years back but the place is still open and honestly it improved in quality when Max took over from him.
Akane nodded. “Main street, pharmacy, alleyway, Papa Dave.”
“You got it.”
“I’ll go have a look then, much obliged.”
“No problem, thanks for the coin.” The man smiled once more before sitting back down on the bench, tightly wrapping a blanket around himself.
The stairs led off the platform and past a bike stall. There were a few abandoned bikes left although most seemed to be either missing a wheel or had a flat tire. The few that were still looking usable were properly locked and chained to a pole or something.  After crossing the deserted street that separated the station from the rest of town, Akane quickly found herself in the hollow shell of a main street. Stores still had lit windows and signs but none of them looked like they were still being operated. At least in the capacity they once were. There were fallen mannequins, eerily staring at Akane from the ground with their heads twisted. There was a children’s toy store that would make a great horror set with how dilapidated it looked. Several restaurants had cobwebs growing and Akane was fairly confident she saw rats more than a few times when peering into the windows. Despite all of this, some of the stores she walked past looked like they might still be in business. There was a tattoo shop where a man with long black hair was still cleaning up, giving Akane a polite wave as he spotted her walking past. She nodded back at him and continued walking. Eventually she spotted the pharmacy that the man must have been talking about. “I understand why you called it shady,” Akane said to herself. She saw a couple walking in the distance, clearly quite drunk by the look of their gait. She took a moment to look at the pharmacy, which looked like it came straight out of a zombie game. Front and center were advertisements for all sorts of hormone treatments, steroids and painkillers. Not exactly the kind of stuff you’d call for when you got the flu. Maybe the painkillers. She dipped into the alleyway before she had to deal with the slowly approaching drunken couple. Wouldn’t want to talk to too many strangers in one day, after all. Quickly after dipping into the alleyway she spotted what must be the place she was looking for. A sign with a pizza cut in slices was lit up above the door, although three of the eight slices seemed to no longer work. The window was fogged up due to the difference in temperature, but Akane could still see some movement inside. After taking a deep breath she opened the door.

The sound of a little bell went off as she opened the door and a voice from the back went, “I’ll be right there.” Akane looked around the restaurant. It was a small space, a little bit of walking room separated the bar and barstools from a row of tables that would at most fit three people if you got creative. Leather benches that looked like they were older than Akane herself stood next to tables on metal legs. Several retro signs and posters were hanging on the walls and in the very back was a photo of a man that looked aggressively Italian wearing a chef’s outfit and twirling a fancy mustache while smiling brightly. That must be Dave. The floor was covered in more grease than was probably safe but Akane wasn’t about to complain about something like that. She carefully made her way to the bar and sat on one of the barstools, the leather on those being so far gone that the stuffing had more surface area than the leather itself. The bar curved around slightly and at the far end of the restaurant was one of those planks you could flip open so someone could walk in and out of the space. Behind the bar was a shelf with many bottles of alcohol ranging from unopened to practically emptied out. Not the most common sight in a pizza place, but everyone needed a niche to stand out. The heat from the kitchen made Akane slightly dizzy after just coming from the cold winter air. After sitting on the wobbly stool at the counter for about a minute, Akane finally saw movement. A young woman, looking to be in her mid to late twenties with dark skin walked out of the kitchen swinging a towel over her shoulder. Her dark black hair was in a tight braid that was painted a cyan blue towards the bottom half. It was currently tied up under a hairnet. She was wearing an apron stained with sauce and dough and wore a bright smile on her face, her green eyes almost shining. “Good evening, what can I get you?” She asked, leaning on the counter almost intimately.
“I would like a pepperoni pizza please, and something to drink with it.”
“The classic choice, any preference for what sort of drink?”
“Surprise me,” Akane said. Looking at the shelves behind the bar she assumed this woman knew what would go well with a pizza at this time of night. And Akane wasn’t particularly picky either way.
“Coming right up.” The woman turned around and disappeared back into the kitchen for a while. Akane noticed that one of her footsteps sounded a fair bit heavier than the other. She wondered what that could be. She heard the sounds of someone preparing a pizza, or at least that’s what she assumed the sounds were and after a while the woman came back with a freshly baked pizza. She put it in front of Akane and looked around. Her fingers gently passed over several bottles of alcohol while she seemed lost in thought before she pulled her hand back. Without a word she retreated back into the kitchen before soon after returning with two tall glasses and a bottle of cider. “I assume this will do?” She asked, as she poured both of them a glass.
Akane nodded in agreement while quickly digging into the pizza in front of her. She knew she was hungry but now that there was food she realized just how hungry she was. She skipped lunch this morning due to her flight and train poorly connecting. She really should have scheduled things more efficiently, but she didn’t want to linger in London for too long. Not after what happened last time, at least.
“So, what brings a gem like you to a dump like this?” The woman running the place leaned in her direction, her left hand holding up her smiling face.
“I’m here for work,” Akane replied as she quickly wolfed down a piece of pizza that she’d just bitten off as the question got asked.
The woman nodded. “Wouldn’t come to this part of the country for leisure, would you?” She adjusted her posture and took a big gulp from her drink. “Then again, I can’t imagine there’s much work to do here. Well, obviously there’s a lot of work that should be done in this part of the country but nobody’s paying for our shit to get fixed. So I doubt you’re a contractor here to fix the infrastructure. So maybe you are here for leisure.” She winked at Akane. “I’m Maxime by the way, this is my place.”
“Akane,” Akane replied. “Why is this place called Papa Dave’s pizza?”
“This place used to belong to a buddy of my uncle.”
“Dave, I’m presuming?”
“His name was Jonathan, actually.”
“Really?” Akane replied.
Maxime just laughed. She drank some more of her cider as she watched Akane eat. Although she seemed to be a pretty intense woman, Akane didn’t mind her company. The intimidating aura was a little bit exciting after all. Shaking away these thoughts she took a big drink as well, the cold cider complementing the hot pizza perfectly. “So, how long have you been working here?” She asked Maxime.
“Oh, it’s been a while now, the better part of a decade. I started working here part-time when I was still a teenager. I knew Dave quite well and I used to drop by after school just to hang out with friends. If I made a pizza myself it was free, and from there it kind of continued. When Dave died a few years ago I took over. Before I knew it, I was one of the few eateries left in one of the most miserable towns in the English countryside.”
“Things could be worse, at least you have access to unlimited pizza,” Akane remarked in between bites.
Maxime chuckled. “Very fair.” She let out a long sigh before her bubbly demeanor returned. “So, what brings you to this town then, if you say work.” She put her hand to her chin. “Wait, no, let me guess what it is that you do.” She looked Akane up and down. “Well dressed, young, very attractive but with a serious aura. Your make-up is immaculate and you’re dressed to kill. You’re either a reporter for a big news organization or the representative of a large corporation.”
Akane shook her head.
“Loan shark?” Maxime took an almost comical defensive position as if she were a cartoon character. “You’ll never take my money without first defeating me.”
Akane shook her head and let out a chuckle.
“Undercover police? Do you have those fluffy pink handcuffs?”
Akane laughed. “I suppose you could say I’m a librarian.”
“No shit?”
“It’s true. Although I do mostly field research as well, which is why I’m here.”
Maxime smiled. “You didn’t look like someone who just sits around reading books all day. So to go back to my earlier question, what brings you to this dump?”
Akane hesitated. Part of her wanted someone to connect with, but she also knew she was dealing with dangerous people and artifacts right now. Sharing what she was doing here with the wrong person could go wrong very quickly. After a moment of hesitation, she decided to share with Maxime. “There’s an abandoned shopping mall a little ways out of town. It was destroyed and partially buried in a landslide several years ago. Something I’ve been looking for might have been there when it got buried. I’m going there to look for it.”
“I see, so you’re more of an explorer than a librarian.”
“You got me, call me Dora,” Akane responded jokingly.
“Where are you staying while you’re in town?”
“That is something I haven’t quite figured out yet. I might just pull an all-nighter and sleep on the train home.”
“You know, I may not have a big apartment, but I have a couch that’s free.”
Akane eyed Maxime suspiciously. “We just met, why are you offering me to stay in your house?” Akane was confident that she could defend herself if things went south, but she was still curious about why a stranger would invite her over so easily. Was there more to it? Was she after the artifact that Akane was looking for? Was she simply bored and friendly?
“Well, I’m really bored and you seem like fun.”
Oh, so the third option. Akane thought to herself. Still a bit on the fence she accepted the offer. “I’m not going to say no to sleeping on a nice couch instead of a cold park bench. I’ll take you up on that offer.”
“Great, give me a few moments to close up shop here. Feel free to refill your glass if you’d like.”
Akane smiled. “Don’t mind if I do.” As Maxime closed up shop, she finished the remainder of her pizza and took another glass of the cold cider. Not a bad way to end a long day, she thought to herself.

After Maxime finished cleaning up the store and turning off all the equipment, Akane followed her out the back of the building where a small blue car was waiting for them. Maxime opened the doors for her and Akane got in the passenger’s seat. A few moments later they were driving out of the shopping district and towards the looming stack of apartment buildings in the distance. Many of the older buildings were torn down over the years and replaced by large living blocks focused on cramming as many people into as little space as possible. Akane doubted that any of these buildings were up to code, but it’s not like anyone checked those things anymore. Parking the car in the underground parking lot, the duo took the elevator up to the fifth floor. As they got off, two teenagers quickly stepped past them and into the elevator. The younger of the two boys quickly clicked the button to close the door, but Maxime put her foot in the opening and stopped the door from closing. “What’s that you got behind your back Frank?” She looked at the older of the two boys, who seemed to be hiding something. He couldn’t be much older than fifteen.
“None of your damn business what I have on me.” The boy said angrily.
“None of my business my ass. I’ll tell your mom if you don’t show it to me right now.”
The boy looked at his younger brother who shrugged. “Just something we took from dad’s liquor cabinet,” he admitted, showing the bottle of heavy liquor to them. Maxime took it from his hands and sloshed it around. “Not that much left in here, did you already drink the rest?”
The boy named Frank shook his head. “We only took one of the bottles that was almost empty already, so that dad wouldn’t notice.”
Maxime sighed. “You know this stuff is bad for you right? Don’t make a habit out of it.” She tossed the bottle back at the teenagers who scrambled to catch it without letting it fall.
“Thanks Max, you’re the best.”
“Don’t I know it.” The elevator door closed behind Maxime as she led Akane to her front door. Akane could hear the sounds of a heated argument coming from the apartment next to Maxime’s. From what she could hear, someone cheated on someone else, it sounded messy.
“Frank and Jason’s parents,” Maxime commented. “They haven’t been getting along for a couple years now.”
Akane nodded, understanding now why the kids were fleeing the apartment complex with a bottle of booze. The heavy door unlocked with a loud click and with a twirl and a flourish Maxime spun around. “Welcome to my humble abode.”
Akane followed her into the small hallway. The apartment looked quite small from outside and it seemed like it didn’t just look the part. The hallway was narrow and only fit one person at a time. At the end of the hallway was a tiny kitchen with a washing machine pushed into the far corner. A door on the opposite end led to a small balcony that seemed to be filled with all sorts of stuff. Off to the right was a door with a bathroom sign on it and below it a framed picture of what looked to be a young Maxime holding a large dog in her arms. There were two doors on the left. They walked past the first door, which seemed to lead to a bedroom that Akane only glanced at for a second before walking past it. The second door led to a small but surprisingly cozy living room. “Welcome to casa Maxime,” Maxime proclaimed, sinking into the couch. “Make yourself at home.”
Akane sat down on a leather lounge chair that looked like its best days were behind it. There was a driftwood table with a small television standing on it. The bottom of the screen was slightly obscured by a row of books that were just a few centimeters too tall to fit under the television. Behind the couch that Maxime sat down on was a small window sill below a window that looked out over the balcony, mostly blocked by boxes and folded chairs on the outside. On the wall off to the side was a large framed photo of a half naked woman posing with a large broadsword. On the window sill stood several small potted plants as well as a handful of empty cups and glasses. “What do you think?” Maxime asked.
“Not bad, it’s quite cozy. Considering the state of this part of the country you’ve made a nice home out here.”
Maxime smiled. “It’s important to make a comfortable place for yourself. “She stood up.”Do you mind if I go take a quick shower? I smell of pizza and still feel oily from work.”
“It’s your house, who am I to say no.”
“I’ll be right back. If you want anything to drink, there’s a kitchen at the end of the hall. Treat this place like you would your own house.” Akane nodded and Maxime left the room. Initially hesitant, Akane decided to make use of the offer and made her way to the kitchen. Although messy, everything here looked well cleaned. In the corner of the small counter was a coffee machine, the thing Akane was looking for. After grinding some beans and heating up some milk she made herself a nice cup of coffee with a healthy dose of milk. Retreating back into the chair in the living room she stared at the spines of the books under the television for a while. There were some romance novels, a couple of very questionable romance manga as well as a few books about running a business and some other fiction books that Akane didn’t recognize. Nothing stood out to her and after a few moments her attention was instead grabbed by the voice on the news that was on in the background. She searched the room for a remote and upped the volume to listen to what was being said.

As of today, the sarcophagus that was unearthed by famed explorer Balthasar Goodman has been put under the careful watch of the London museum where it will stay for the foreseeable future. In two weeks from now, the exposition with the sarcophagus will open up for the public with the man himself giving a lecture on the importance of this discovery and the difficulties he had to go through to obtain it.
Researchers aren’t in agreement over who is resting in this sarcophagus. Mister Goodman claims that it has to be the long lost queen Danahsereth but others have been quick to point out that this doesn’t add up. Danahsereth used to rule the northern African plains with an iron fist according to some. Others say her entire existence is a myth and she was actually several people inheriting a position pretending to be the same queen. Regardless, Danahsereth would have likely been buried near her home in Egypt but instead this sarcophagus was found deep in the Laotian jungles. That begs the question, what would an ancient African ruler be doing deep in the jungles of Asia? If it were truly Danahsereth, why wouldn’t she be resting in her own home? And the most important question of all, why does this sarcophagus seem to be completely unopenable? When asked about all of this, Mister Goodman laughed and claimed that every mystery has an answer and we just have to be patient. Many unresolved questions still wait for answers in this strange story and we’ll make sure to report to you whenever a new discovery is made. Now let’s go to Erika for the weather.

Akane lowered the volume after the news segment seemed to be over. She’d already learned everything that she could about this sarcophagus and the tomb it was found in. More importantly, she already had plans to go visit the museum and speak with Balthasar Goodman when she returned to London from her search here. If her hunch was right – which was that Balthasar Goodman was correct in saying this was Danahsereth’s tomb – then the researchers would still be trying to open this thing for the foreseeable future, so she wasn’t in a rush. She smiled. Things were certainly getting more and more interesting lately. First she learned of an artifact that might be here and now the sarcophagus of an ancient queen would be within a few meters of her soon. Akane almost couldn’t contain her excitement. She hoped she would find this damn artifact quickly and without issues now.
She spent a little while thinking while staring out the window, peering past the piles of chairs into the distance before she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Almost instinctively she faced the door again, but of course it was just Maxime returning from her shower. She walked into the room and grabbed a shirt that was hanging on a clothespin on the door and put it on.
“If you want to take a shower as well feel free,” she offered.
“I’m good, but thanks for the offer.”
Reaching into a small fridge that was hidden in the corner, Maxime took out two beers and tossed a can at Akane. “So what’s the deal? You say you’re a librarian, but I really get the feeling there’s more to this story.” She sat back down on the couch, leaning back against the pillows.
“Why are you so curious about me?” Akane asked, putting down the can on the table next to her.
“It’s just curiosity. Like I said before, it’s rare for anyone to come through this part of town, especially not something that seems interesting. You have no idea how incredibly boring it is here. I can’t think of much to do here at all. What can there possibly be hidden in this shopping mall that’s been long abandoned?”
The muffled sounds of arguing were still coming from the adjacent apartment. A floor below them, someone was vacuuming their house and the building was shaking ever so slightly, a side effect of the earth’s plates being much less stable than they once were. Akane thought about how much she wanted to share with Maxime. She looked over at Maxime, who had tucked her feet under herself and was sitting cross legged, almost like a child on Christmas morning. Akane let out a sigh. “It’s a tale as old as time. An old burial ground was closed off to build a shopping mall on top of it. Although it seems like no one got haunted like in a bad horror movie, it does seem that the tomb that was there is still below the now abandoned shopping mall. In this tomb is supposedly the spirit of an old English king, from back when everything was still very much fragmented into small bits of land. This king was buried with a particular treasure, which I want.”
“Can I come with?” Maxime asked.
There was the real reason she was so curious. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“No, it sounds like fun.”
“You realize that this is not only illegal, but also quite dangerous. Why would I bring someone I just met into a situation like that?”
“Morbid curiosity.”
Akane laughed. “So see how well you do under pressure?”
Maxime let out a sigh. “I’m just dying to get out of here.”
“Those boys seemed to like you.”
“Sure, I’m the one person in this damned city that isn’t completely dead inside yet.”
“Is it that bad?”
“You have no idea. The shaking has gotten worse lately and many people who survived the onslaught of disasters in the first place have long since moved to safer parts of the country, where the roads and buildings are actually somewhat up to code. If I can find any excuse to do something other than run a deserted pizza place, I’m jumping on that opportunity.”
Akane shrugged. “Fine, you can come with me. But I’m not responsible for your safety.”
“Deal.”