Seeing the two children, a young girl and a slightly older boy, dozing peacefully in the vehicle brings a smile to Toshiro's face. While the party recoups from their recent battle, Toshiro takes a moment to replay some old recording from his childhood. His family had traveled far and wide in the early years of Toshiro's father's caravan, back when his father, and therefore the entire family, accompanied every expedition. Toshiro peruses through video, everything from frolicking through the flower meadows of Colorado and splashing in the crystal clear lakes of Michigan.
His father didn't appear in many of the video-memories. He had always been busy with the details of business, but Toshiro smiles sadly when the loving countenance of his mother appears on the screen inside his eye. The image of her smiling face brings up another memory, one not recorded, but all too easy to relive...
Toshiro was 14, just old enough for his father to assigning meaningful responsibilities to. He had been underneath one of the large trucks, working to replace the exhaust system when the alarm from the sentry suddenly sounded, and then just as suddenly stopped.
"What the..." Toshiro heard from a nearby mechanic, who happened to be working on a vehicle close to the edge of the clearing in which they had camped. The man's horrified screams drowned out he rapid clicking sound Toshiro had faintly heard. With all haste, and without second thought for the poor mechanic, Toshiro started running for the center of camp, where his family usually stayed.
Gunshots and shotgun blasts echoed throughout the camp as Toshiro sprinted toward his families RV. He swerved to the east to stop by and grab his terrified sister from the RV of a family with a girl about Kaiko's age. As he approached the RV, he saw one of the monsters that was attacking the camp.
A giant spider, about the size of a greyhound perched on the hood of the car, thrashing at the windshield, the only thing between it and the two huddled forms in the front seats of the car. With each strike Toshiro could hear the faint sound of splintering glass, and he could see the cracks spreading across the windshield. Without hesitation Toshiro reached down and grabbed the largest stone he thought he could throw.
"Leave my sister alone!" he shouted, and hurled the rock at the beast. Miraculously, the stone connected, sending the spider tumbling over the side of the vehicle.
It wasn't a second before the creature had recovered and hopped back on the hood of the RV. This time though, it's attention wasn't on the windshield, but on the scrawny teenage boy who had assaulted it. Fangs bared, it raised it's fore legs and made an odd hissing sound. Then, with agility unbecoming something so large, it leapt off the hood directly at Toshiro. Frozen in terror, all Toshiro was able to do was gets his arms up between his body and the massive arachnid, preventing the creature from sinking it's fangs into Toshiro's flesh when it landed. Both fell to the ground, Toshiro under the hulking spider as it thrashed with its four front most legs at Toshrio, all while trying to sink its venomous fangs into the boy's side. Toshiro resisted for what felt like eternity, but was really only a few seconds. Then, just as Toshiro's strength was slackening, a honed blade sliced through the air, and the spiders abdomen, spraying gooey green ichor across Toshiro's face.
Before he could even recover from the assault, Toshiro's father had him by the shoulders and was shaking him lightly.
"Where is she?" he said, a desperate gleam in his eye. Confusion must have crossed Toshiro's face as he looked toward the RV that hid Kaiko and her friend. Toshiro's father grabbed his face and turned it so he was looking the older man directly in they eye.
"Your Mother. Where is she? She was going to check on you.."
It was a day and a half later that they found Toshiro's mother, wrapped up in a webbed cocoon, face pale and gaunt, and two small holes poking through the cocoon into her chest.