The next morning Akira was woken up by sun rays, he licked Shane over the snout. "Hey Shane, get up. We have to go."
However, Shane continued to sleep.
"Hey, get up," Akira said, shaking Shane.
"Well, I slept well, I haven't slept that well since months," Shane yawned.
While Shane lazily and slowly moved out of bed, Akira grabbed everything together.
"Here, take" he said and gave Shane an apple.
"I grab us something to eat, to drink, weapons and ammunition."
"Where are you going exactly?"
"Where did you find me. I have to see if I can find the driver and if I can find back to the military base."
"Yes, let's go."
Akira grabbed Shane and put a loaded pistol in his pocket. "For emergencies," he said.
After the two walked out of the house, Shane looked back, he stared at the door.
"When will we be back?"
"I don't know, is it hard for you to go?"
"Yes, I lived here for so long, I can't imagine being anywhere else."
"Don't be afraid, I am with you and protect you."
Both ran along the market, many shop windows were smashed.
The stench of burned flesh filled the air and burned out cars were everywhere.
Graffiti were everywhere to be seen on the walls around the market.
"Where is the food? Who destroyed the transporter? We are lost. Who killed the gang?" stood on the walls around the market.
"Here I found you, there are even a few drops of blood," Shane said.
"From here on I walk in front," Akira said, holding his gun in front of him.
After a while Akira paused.
"Was it here Akira? Was here the transporter?"
Akira froze. "Where's the transporter? Here are no tracks," he thought to himself.
He walked at gunpoint and looked at the street.
"Here it was, there are still cracks in the road," thought Akira.
"Shane, here was the transporter, there are cracks in the road," Akira said.
"Where did they take it?"
"To the military base of course, but it is relatively far away. They must have hidden it from the Lupains."
"Do you know where?"
"No, but I still smell a car. It must be an older car, I can smell gasoline. The military vehicles have diesel engines."
"Couldn't that just be any vehicle?" Shane asked.
"Perhaps, but this route was used by the Lupains and there is a good chance that someone helped the military to tow the van."
"Do you think you can follow the smell of gasoline?"
"I don't know, this street is secluded."
Akira looked at the asphalt precisely, he knelt down and swept with his fingers across the floor and discovered something.
On his fingers were tiny traces of a liquid. This seemed to be in a color not different from the ground.
"Look, do you know that Shane?"
"No, no idea, what's that?" Asked Shane and smelled it.
"I've never smelled something like that" Shane said.
"I've, I've noticed it after I attacked the transporter. Some sort coolant I think."
"Do you think you can trace it?" Asked Shane.
"Yes, I think so. The smell is very weak, almost imperceptible. A human will not be able to smell it," replied Akira.
"What about the other Lupains, they surely smelled it too?"
"Here was nobody but us, I can smell no other Lupain. Do you? We are probably the first. The delivery route will probably be several kilometers long."
"Ah, okay. Shall we go now or wait for the other Lupains? Maybe they can help us?" Asked Shane.
"The other Lupains are looking for me, I killed hundreds of them."
"Yeah, that wouldn't be so good. Can we go now?" Asked Shane.
"Wait, I still look for something," Akira said.
"What are you looking for?"
"The man who would have almost killed me, he fell to the ground over there. I doubt that he could have survived this crash."
"Do you think he is still there?"
"Very unlikely, I look nevertheless," Akira said.
Akira took a deep breath, before him were the bushes Sargent Major Pohl had fallen into.
He aimed his gun at the bushes and approached cautiously.
Akira lowered his ears and focused on the encounter and to a perhaps still living Pohl.
"Be careful Akira" cried Shane, but Akira didn't answer.
"If he's there and still alive, should I shoot him? It is, after all, already a week ago," thought Akira.
The closer he came to the bushes, the faster his heart beat. He lowered his gun and pressed the brush abruptly aside.
"And is there something?" Asked Shane.
"No, there's just a lot of congealed blood. We have to continue now," Akira said.
"They must have taken Pohl and the transporter away," thought Akira.
Both were approaching a main road.
The entire area around the street seemed clean and full of life.
Everywhere were shops and hundreds of people were running around.
"Mmm Akira, you smell that? That smells delicious."
"We have food here and no time left. We have no idea whether the driver is still alive. We should hurry," said Akira.
"Can you still smell the coolant despite all the other smells?"
"I'll try it."
Akira sniffed around the area until he could smell the coolant again.
"Do you have it?"
"Yes."
Both walked along the main street.
"Look Akira," Shane said, standing in front of a business.
"Come now," Akira said, pulling aside Shane.
"If we have the driver and the others, we can look into these shops," promised Akira.
"Okay I see."
It was already dark when they stood in front of a large metallic door. It was the front door of a giant junkyard.
"Here ends the track. The transporter must be behind that door," Akira said and rattled the door.
But the door was locked.
"What do we do now?" Asked Shane.
"We climb over the fence, and I will answers. But first let's look if it is safe," said Akira.
"And how do we do that?"
"Hold your hands together, I climb up first."
Shane then held his hands together so that Akira could climb up.
Akira pressed Shane almost to the ground.
"Hurry up, you're pretty hard," bleated Shane.
"I'm up."
"Do you see anything?" Asked Shane.
"Yes, lots of scrap, but the transporter," Akira said.
"Akira, you help me up?"
"Yes wait."
As both Lupains stood on the wall, Shane astonished, he had never seen so many cars.
After both had carefully and quietly climbed down, they noticed a sort of house, which was well hidden behind a mountain of scrap.
"Wait here, I look at that" Akira said.
He crept cautiously with a crouched posture to the next window, strange lights seemed to come out of it. Akira looked carefully through the window.
In a cluttered room a fat man was lying on a couch, he seemed to watch a football game.
In his hands was a bag of chips and a beer.
"What do you see?" Whispered Shane.
"A man," Akira said.
"And these lights?"
"That's the television."
"What are we going to now?" Asked Shane.
"We talk to him, maybe he knows where the transporter or the military base is."
"Will you get him out?"
"Yes, hide yourself back there, I'll do it."
Akira knocked on the door and hid himself near the door.
"What the hell is going on? Are kids on my court again? Oh God, I hate kids. Can't I have my peace for one night?", The human bawled.
He stomped to the front door and opened it.
"Who's there? Hello? Is anyone there?" Asked the man.
With a flashlight he light in front of him. A few rays of light met and reflected Shane's eyes.
"What the hell is this? A dog?"
Akira sneaked behind the man, holding his gun at the man's back.
"No, a Lupain" Akira said.
"Please do not hurt me, take what you want but leave me alone," the man begged.
"We are looking for a Lupain Transporter."
"I know of no transporter," the man stammered.
"I followed its trail until here and I bet I find even more if I search long enough. So where is it?" Akira asked.
"Well, I tell you. They gave a bunch of money to me for bringing the transporter here, they said if I refused they would kill me. It was a question of national security," the man replied.
"Is it still on your junkyard?"
"No, they picked it up."
"When did they pick it up, and where did they take it?" Akira asked.
"Why do you care?" The man asked.
"Shane, show him your face," ordered Akira.
Shane untied the scarf and pulled the hood backwards.
"You ... you ... you are Lupains?" The man asked in surprise.
"Yes, that's what I said."
"I'm sorry, I thought it was a joke. Since when do you speak our language?"
"That does not matter, you know where the transporter is?" Akira asked.
"I can't tell you that here. I guess, that they took the transporter to an old military bunker from the Cold War. I have in there a map that, come in. Are you hungry?"
"Yeah, I'm so hungry," called Shane and ran to the front door.
The man grabbed Shane whilst Shane was going past him and pulled a knife from his pocket, he held it to Shane's throat.
"Give me your weapon immediately or your friend is going to be dead!" Ordered the man.
"Lousy Pig, immediately let go of him!" Shouted Akira.
"Give me your Lupain machine gun, you don't even know how much money I could get for it!"
"No Akira, don't do it," pleaded Shane.
But Akira went growling towards to the man.
"Give me the gun, so that it is directed at you," said the man.
Akira put it into the man's hands, then the man pushed Shane forward.
Shane fell in Akira's arms.
"What did you do Akira?" Asked Shane.
"Trust me, give me your gun unobtrusively" whispered Akira.
"I always wanted to have such a thing, and now I can test it directly to two damn aliens. A Lupain rug, sounds good," the man said.
Akira began to grin.
"What's there to smile?" The man asked.
"First, you should check if your gun is secured," Akira said.
The man looked frantically on the rifle and tried desperately to unlock the weapon.
"Where's the shit lever," he shouted.
"Secondly, you should check whether the gun is loaded," Akira held a magazine in front of him.
The man's expression changed from a cheerful only to a frightened face.
"Thirdly, you should know that only Lupains can fire these weapons," said Akira.
The man tried desperately to fire the gun, until Akira shot at him with a pistol.
"Shit, you gave me shot in the leg," the man shouted.
Akira looked grimly down.
"Show us where the bunker is, then maybe I'll let you live!", commanded Akira.
Akira grabbed his rifle and dragged the man into his apartment. The man left behind a trail of blood.
"Fetch the map!" Ordered Akira.
The man sat up in pain, he looked like he were about to cry.
"Yes, all right, don't rush, I'll get it already."
He limped into some sort of office, everywhere was rubbish around, it smelled of old paper, dust and dirty clothes.
While the man frantically rummaged through the cabinets, Akira looked closely at the large wooden table that stood in the middle of the room.
On it lay heaps of old newspapers.
"Is that the map?" Asked Akira, pointing at an old map, which he pulled out of the junk.
"Yes it is," the man replied.
"Then show us where the bunker is. If you fool us we come back. Got it?"
"Yeah, I know where the bunker is, it is not marked on any map. You have to walk north until you come to an old Diesel factory. After that go east to the main entrance," explained the man.
When Akira leaned forward to look at the map more precisely, he heard how the man pulled something out of his pocket.
As Akira turned around and wanted to raise his rifle, the man hit him with a pipe wrench.
Akira stumbled only slightly and then fell to the ground.
"Shoot me in the leg, you will die now," the man shouted and tried to hit Akira again, but Shane pushed him aside.
"Leave him alone!" Shouted Shane.
"Do not touch me you shitty dog!" Roared the man, trying to free himself.
"Akira get up and help me," cried Shane.
But Akira didn't move.
"He's probably already dead, I wanted to make sure. No one survives a hit like this," the man said energetic.
"No!" Shouted Shane and choked the man.
He got more angry and his eyes filled with tears. "No, he lives!"
The man tried to hit Shane with the pipe wrench, Shane bit him in the hand.
Shane bit him more firmly, the man dropped the pipe wrench.
He tried to scream and push away Shane's snout from his hand.
Shane threw the man to the ground and then choked him with both hands.
"Die you, die finally," Shane thought.
With his last strength the man pressed Shane's muzzle to the side.
Shane bared his teeth and pressed with full force.
As the man's hands slowly sagged down, Shane let go slowly.
Shane took a deep breath and was panting, he tasted blood in his mouth and spit it out as well as he could.
He stared again at the man's eyes, which seemed more and more to escape life.
"Oh no, what have I done, I went too far. Or did I have to do it?" Thought Shane.
Totally confused and in shock his eyes fell on Akira.
"Oh no, no," he panted.
Shane crawled slowly to Akira.
With a trembling hand he tried to feel Akira pulse, Shane's heart beat fast.
"What do I do if I feel no heartbeat, what do I do if he's dead?" Asked Shane
But he felt a heartbeat, Shane grinned and panted loudly.
"He lives, I'm so glad he's alive," Shane roof.
He rattled Akira and yelled repeatedly "Akira, wake up!" until Akira finally woke up.
"Ah shit, my head. Where is that damn man?" Asked Akira.
"He's dead," Shane replied
"Dead?"
"Yes, I was so angry when he said you were dead. I lost control."
"You killed him?"
"Yes, I killed him."
Shane dropped his ears and pressed his head against Akira's arms and began to cry.
"Was it wrong? Should I have let him alive?" Whimpered Shane.
"It's all right. He wanted to kill us, you did the right thing", confirmed Akira.
"You think so?"
"You probably saved my life again," Akira said, smiling.
"Should we leave him lying there like that?"
"I'll throw a blanket on him afterwards if you wish. We will stay here tonight."
"Okay, I'm looking for something to eat," Shane said.
Akira closed the door and looked for aspirin. He closed all the windows and blinds.
He then covered the corpse and laid down to sleep on the couch.
Shane laid to him.