Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Fan Fiction ❯ Alpha's Travels ❯ Atsugi Airport ( Chapter 4 )

Route 16 that was Alpha's destination. She had left the shore and the eel restaurant and inn several days before. Traveling on foot was a different experience for the female robot than she had thought it would be. The roads were cracked and rocky with stones and pipes sticking up through the cracked concrete and asphalt. The landscape was dotted with crumbling concrete walls and foundations nestled amongst the tall grasses while the occasional cinder block sat along the side of the road. All around her Alpha saw the signs of what once was a civilization. Now all that remained were the broken down reminders of homes, businesses, and factories.

 

As Alpha made her way along the road, she stopped and looked around for a sign of something familiar in the distance. Scratching her head Alpha looked to the right and then to the left. She looked straight ahead and then back to the right and then to the left once more. Alpha then placed a hand on her chin and tapped her finger against it for a moment before returning it to her head to give it another scratch. Alpha was perplexed she could not find anything familiar in the distance. She could not see any mountains and the ocean was quite a ways off for the naked eye to see it easily. With a small smile on her face, a tiny giggle, and slight blush to her cheeks Alpha resigned herself to the fact that she was lost.

 

“Now I've done it I've gone and gotten myself lost.” Alpha thought aloud with a bit of a chuckle.

 

Alpha could easily laugh at the situation because she knew she really did not have to be at Route 16 at any specific time. The entire purpose of Alpha's journey away from home was to discover new places and new people while at the same time earning whatever money she could. Route 16 held towns that offered places to stay and places to work. Alpha wasn't too worried about being lost because she knew she would eventually find her way to Route 16. All she needed to do was make her way through the woods and she would be back on track.

 

With a bit of a sigh Alpha continued to walk down the road once more. Entering into the woods Alpha walked down a winding twisting path. High above her crisscrossing the road were old telephone and electrical wires that once brought phone service to the area. As Alpha walked down the road, she came to a turn off on the road. In front of her were several different paths she could take and three old billboards that once pointed travelers in the direction of food and lodging. Alpha stopped for a moment to look around at her choice in paths before picking a direction in which to go. Turning right Alpha believed she had chosen the road that would get her to Route 16.

 

Alpha walked down the new path until she came to another turn off in the road and decided to take it instead of traveling straight. Unaware that her decision had sent her back in the direction she had come from Alpha walked along the road with a tiny bit of a confused look on her face. When she saw the billboards, again Alpha shrugged it off and kept heading straight walking past the lone streetlamp in the area. Continuing straight Alpha noticed yet another turn off the road and thought she had to go right. At that point, all the trees and bushes looked the same to Alpha. She was having a hard time telling the new ones from the old ones and left from right. Alpha came to a small footbridge over a grass infested drainage ditch and stopped dead in her tracks.

 

“Huh? What the…?” Alpha wondered as she crossed the bridge.

 

Alpha suddenly realized what had happened. She had been taking so many turns off the road that she ended up back where she stopped the first time to try to figure out which way to go. Once she crossed the bridge Alpha realized just what happened to her. She finally saw that she had led herself in circles trying to find the road to Route 16.

 

“I think I already came this way.” Alpha said as she recognized the landscape.

 

With a sigh, Alpha took a direction she had yet to travel in along the road and hoped she did not get herself lost in circles for a second time.

 

“I should have stuck to the road that went along the water. I probably would be better off if I did.” Alpha commented with a slight moan.

 

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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Alpha's Travels

Chapter Four: Atsugi Airport

 

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Trudging on along the road Alpha came to an important observation. An entire day of walking down the winding country roads would only take her an hour by scooter. It was at times like that when Alpha wished she had her scooter with her. Then there were times when she saw that she did the right thing by leaving it with Takahiro. Wanting to take a break and still not fully certain of where she was Alpha sat down upon a small section of what used to be a highway divider. Looking up Alpha saw that she was underneath a utility pole with a built in climbing ladder.

 

Alpha thought for a moment and looked around at the tress compared to the utility pole. She saw the pole was taller than most of the trees and would give her a good viewing point to see where the proper road was. If I'm going to do this then I better get it over with, Alpha thought with a curt nod of her head. Standing up Alpha grabbed on to the first rung at eye level and placed her foot upon the bottom rung. Pushing up with her foot and pulling with hands Alpha began the climb to the top of the utility pole.

 

“This must be how the humans take care of the utility lines.” Alpha mused aloud as she reached the halfway mark.

 

Continuing her climb Alpha began to see above the trees. The higher she went on the utility pole the more the landscape became visible. Reaching the top of the pole Alpha let out a gasping breath. There before her reaching out as far as the eye could see were the remains of broken down foundations and walls. Off in the distance Alpha could see factories and other buildings indicating some sort of town or at the very least the remains of a town. Drawing her eyes slowly back from the open space and the factory buildings Alpha found a road that made its way into the woods. Alpha followed the road until it ended where she had stopped to rest and get back on track. The trek out of the woods appeared to be a long one but she wouldn't loose any time over trying to figure out which road was the right one to take.

 

“Right, now that I know where to go I can get down from here.” Alpha thought aloud.

 

Slowly and carefully, Alpha descended from the top of the utility pole making her way back to the ground. Once there Alpha picked up her pack and put it on her back once again. With the destination firmly planted in her mind Alpha began to walk down the road once more. As she headed down the long winding wooded road, Alpha began to realize why it was a good idea to leave her scooter with Takahiro. The road went from cracked and overrun with grasses and weeds to down right impassible by anything other than one's own two feet.

 

It was clear upon first sight of the new stretch of road what had happened to it in the past. The devastation that caused the floods and the eruption of Mount Fuji had also caused massive earthquakes, which changed the landscape. The roads became cracked in some places and totally destroyed and impassible by anything with wheels in other places. It was hard to navigate through the large chunks of earth, concrete, and rock but Alpha knew she had to travel on that stretch of the North road if she were to make it out of the woods. Carefully Alpha climbed over one obstruction only to find another one waiting for her. When she had made it past the final rock in the road Alpha let out a huge sigh of relief and looked behind herself briefly.

 

“Whew, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that bit of road again.” Alpha commented quite relieved she had made it past in one piece.

 

Alpha continued down the road a bit further coming upon a section that not only curved to the left but also ran along the side of a small river. Walking down the road, she came upon a posting board that had a few papers still pasted upon it. Stopping for a brief moment Alpha looked at the papers to see what they said but could not read them as time and the sun had faded them to a near white condition. Walking on a bit further Alpha decided to stop for a moment to catch her breath and have something to drink.

 

Twisting the top off her bottle of water Alpha placed it to her lips and took a drink while she leaned against yet another utility pole. After a moment to rest and catch her breath Alpha placed the top back on her bottle of water and placed the bottle back into a pocket on the side of her pack. Grabbing onto the shoulder straps of her pack Alpha began to walk up a small incline in the road through one final overhang of trees in the woods. Once she had passed through the arch-like overhang, Alpha stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what was before her. Her eyes popped wide open as she caught sight of the large grassy area before her. Alpha then brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun that suddenly appeared in the sky. The road through the woods was dark and her eyes needed time to adjust to the light.

 

Alpha stood for a moment getting used to seeing the sunlight once more. After letting her eyes get used to the light, Alpha stepped forward into the open grassy area. The moment she made her first step Alpha promptly lost her footing and began to stumble forward. Turning to the left, then to the right Alpha landed upon her posterior, and lost the hat from atop her head. Sitting up Alpha's eyes popped wide open once again when she caught sight of something in the distance. Getting to her hands and knees Alpha looked long and hard at what she thought was a pair of buildings off in the distance. One of the buildings was larger and easy to spot from the distance. The other building was tiny and hard to make out from where she was.

 

Alpha got up and began to follow the road once more noticing that it began to take her closer and closer to the two buildings. The closer she got to the buildings the more she could see what the second building was. Alpha also noticed a rather large well kept stretch of concrete that led to the larger of the two buildings and veered off to the left. She began to wonder what the strip of concrete was for and just where she had ended up. Walking over to the smaller building Alpha saw a sign hanging from the side of it that read “Reception.” She knew chances were good that someone would be inside the building that would be able to tell her where she was and what the buildings' purpose was.

 

Alpha stopped in front of the little reception building and looked at the sign on the front of the building. The sign had what looked like a schedule on it. Alpha looked at the sign and then down to the large concrete strip and back at the sign several times before she noticed a woman in the little reception building. The woman had eyes that appeared to be nothing more than little slits and black hair that she had styled into two pigtails. The woman barely came over the top of the counter to the reception building. Next to the reception area was a small wood burning stove that had a teakettle on top of it giving off a steady stream of steam. The woman caught sight of Alpha and tried to get her attention.

 

“Hello. Can I help you?” The little woman wanted to know.

 

Alpha turned her attention to the woman in the reception building and walked over to the small window she was looking out. With a nervous blush on her face, Alpha replied to the woman's question.

 

“Um…well…er…where am I?” Alpha asked her nervously.

 

“Huh?” the woman questioned right back not understanding that Alpha had no clue what the place was.

 

The woman propped herself up on a small stool and was now able to put her robbed arms onto the counter and look at Alpha better. She still did not understand why Alpha had no clue where she was. The woman did not know that Alpha had never been to a place like hers before.

 

“Where...come on. Don't you know that this is the Atsugi Airport?” The woman said telling Alpha where she was.

 

Alpha couldn't believe what she had heard and quickly pulled out her guidebook from her pack and flipped through the pages turning it this way and that. She could not believe that the wooded road to the north had taken her all the way to Atsugi. By her calculations, before she began the days' walking Alpha was still a long way from Atsugi. How she had gotten to Atsugi so quickly was a mystery.

 

“Atsugi? Huh? There's no way I can be in Atsugi already!” Alpha exclaimed frazzled and nervous as the flushed color on her cheeks remained.

 

The little woman replied to Alpha's exclamations with a calm manner, “Calm down. That's just the name of the place. The actual town of Atsugi is still far off to the west of here.”

 

Upon hearing she had not reached Atsugi and gone way off course for the day, Alpha let out a sigh of relief and smiled brightly. Once she thought about the way she had reacted to hearing she had come to the Atsugi Airport, Alpha let out a small laugh feeling quite silly about getting very frazzled.

 

“Oh I see.” Alpha commented with another laugh at the situation.

 

The name of the place finally clicked inside Alpha's head. At first, she was just happy she hadn't gotten lost and went too far west. When she realized there was a very good chance she would be able to see airplanes up close Alpha became very excited. Trying very hard to contain her excitement Alpha looked down at her guidebook map and found the airport on the map. Her eyes had opened as wide as they possibly could showing off her excitement. The flushed worried look to her face was beginning to lessen as excitement drove every move Alpha made.

 

“Wait a minute. An airport…you mean an actual airport with planes?” Alpha wanted to know with a very excited tone to her voice.

 

“Yes, airports usually do have planes at them.” The little woman replied calmly.

 

Alpha turned around, leaned into the window of the reception house, placed her book upon the counter, and got real close to the woman. The chance to see a real airplane up close was too much for Alpha to handle. She tried hard to keep herself from jumping up and down. Her eyes were trying to go wider and her mouth was open in a smile so wide one could almost see down her throat. The thought of airplanes landing where she was had sent Alpha's eyebrows up as high as she could make them go.

 

“Airplanes actually come here?” Alpha demanded to know loudly and excitedly.

 

“Well let's see…there should be one coming here later on today.” The woman replied still keeping her calm demeanor about her.

 

Alpha couldn't believe it. She was about to see an actual airplane up close. Letting out a small squeal of excitement Alpha clenched her hands together and got a look of longing upon her face. Alpha loved airplanes and she could not wait to see the one that was coming to the airport that day. The woman behind the counter who was used to seeing such a sight wondered why Alpha was so excited about seeing an airplane.

 

“What's with you? Haven't you ever seen an airplane before?” The woman wanted to know.

 

“Never up close before.” Alpha replied with a nervous chuckle.

 

The woman finally understanding the reason for Alpha's excitement chuckled softly and let out a soft breath in relief that Alpha was finally calming down. Placing her head on her folded arms the woman then continued the conversation she was having with Alpha. She knew Alpha would enjoy seeing the plane that was going to come in that day and hoped she would stay and wait for it. However, there was another reason she hoped Alpha would stay to see the plane. Looking at Alpha the woman could tell she was a robot and she wanted Alpha to meet the pilot of the airplane landing there at the airport.

 

“Huh. Ah…say. You're a robot aren't you?” The woman asked in order to make extra certain her hunch was correct.

 

With a large smile upon her face Alpha giggled and gave the woman her reply, “Yes, yes I am.”

 

“Today's pilot is my kid. A robot.”

 

The moment she heard the pilot of the plane landing at the airport was a robot Alpha's eyes got wide and her eyebrows shot up as far as they could go. Once again, Alpha was both surprised and excited at the same time. She had met only one robot before in her existence, the delivery girt Kokone. Alpha was excited at the chance to see not only an airplane up close for the first time but also to see another robot. Looking back at the woman Alpha questioned her to make certain she had heard things correctly again.

 

“T…today's!?” Alpha asked so excited she had a hard time speaking properly.

 

“Yes today's pilot.” The woman replied still quite calm.

 

Upon hearing, confirmation that the pilot of the airplane that was landing that very day was a robot Alpha began to jump up and down with excitement. Her face flushed once more and she could not stand still a moment longer. Alpha had to know when the airplane was going to land at the airport. Once more, she demanded information from the woman behind the counter in a very excited manner.

 

“W…w…w…when will it land?” Alpha asked continuing to wave her arms about and jump up and down.

 

The woman thought for a brief moment before responding to Alpha's inquiry in her usual calm manner, “Hmmm…it's not due to land for another hour. Are you going to wait for it?”

 

Alpha calmed down from her excitement a bit and stood still. The look of longing and excitement had once again returned to Alpha's face once she knew when the airplane was due to land that day.

 

“Why yes. I'd wait for hours for it to land if I had to.” Alpha said with a sigh of longing and a slight twinkle to her eye.

 

Alpha pulled over the small stool next to the reception house and sat down to wait for the plane to arrive. Behind her, the little woman pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a match. She took a puff from the long white stick and let a steady stream of smoke waft into the air from it as she blew out the smoke in her mouth. Next to the reception house the little tea kettle continued to let a steady stream of steam into the air. Alpha looked up into the sky trying to find any sign of the airplane above her. With a smile of anticipation upon her face Alpha sat thinking of all the wonderful things she would see and hear when the airplane arriver. Alpha wondered what kind of plane would be landing at the airport and she wondered just what the pilot of the plane would look like. Will she be a lot like Kokone or will she be a different looking robot, Alpha thought.

 

As the time passed by, Alpha wondered just when the airplane would arrive at the airport. The time was getting late and the sun was passing through the sky getting closer and closer to setting. Getting restless Alpha began to wonder if the plane would even arrive that day. The little woman poked her head out of the reception house and turned towards Alpha. Her cigarette had burned down almost to her fingers. Looking up at the sky briefly, the little woman turned back towards Alpha and addressed her.

 

“It's getting quite late. It looks like the plane night not be landing today after all.” The woman told Alpha not sounding one bit worried.

 

Alpha jumped when she heard the plane might not land at the airport that day. Once again she had the excited and startled look on her face. She had walked a long way that day and had gotten herself all mixed up with her directions. The road through the woods had gotten Alpha mixed up with her directions leading her to the airport. Alpha wasn't certain if there was an inn near the airport where she could spend the night. She had resigned herself to camping out for the night just before she stumbled upon the airport and had hoped the sight of the airplane landing would make her feel better about her decision.

 

“What!? Tell me you're not kidding!” Alpha cried out.

 

“These things happen from time to time. Would you like some tea?” The woman said as though it were no big deal to her.

 

“No thank you I think I'll go wait over there for a while. I know that plane will come today. I just know it.” Alpha replied with the sound of youthful optimism in her voice.