Forager (Forager - A Dystopian Trilogy)

by Peter R Stone

  King Senior was frowning, as was Liam - still the wrong answer. Whatever did they want me to say?

  “Come on, Son, don't be modest. Foraging is obviously a stepping-stone you are using towards your future career. Tell us what it is," he pressed.

  I could shoot my father for not letting me prepare for this, for how could I possibly answer that question without lying? I decided to veer the conversation off on a tangent. "Well Sir, as you probably guessed, foragers have a whole host of job opportunities available to them, especially in the manufacturing industry, but before I go into all that, may I ask Sienna some questions?”

  “Very well,” King Senior said, although he was clearly annoyed by my blatant attempt to dodge his question.

  “Thank you, Sir,” I said, and turned to Sienna. “What do you expect from a husband, Sienna?” I asked, lost to think of anything else to say, for the truth was that Sienna was not the kind of girl to cause interesting questions to spring effortlessly to my mind. On the other hand, I couldn't help but think of all the questions I could ask Nanako; how long would she stay in Newhome, how old was she, where had she learned to cook and where did she pick up her broad Aussie accent? More, I wanted to know why she was interested in me and why she was crying on the roof that night.

  "Sienna is looking for a reliable, dependable husband with a…” her father began.

  I held up my hand, rudely cutting him off. “If you don’t mind, Sir, can Sienna answer the question please?”

  King Senior glared but nodded his consent all the same. And this time I ignored the painful kick I received from my father. I wondered how many bruises my leg would sport by the evening’s end.

  Sienna spoke haltingly at first and then with more confidence as she went on. “My goal, my dream, is to live in North End. What I want in a husband – in you – is for you to work your way to the top of your profession as quickly as you can, change to a more challenging vocation, work your way to the top as before, and keep doing this until a door opens for you to get a job in North End.”

  Was this to be my future? To marry into the King family to a beautiful yet manipulative and controlling wife, whose only purpose in marriage was to use it – to use me - as her ticket into North End? North End, the very place I had been avoiding my whole life.

  I could already tell I would never be good enough for Sienna, and for the first time I resented Newhome’s custom of father's choosing their son's wives. I didn't want this.

  I wondered how things were done in Hamamachi - would Nanako’s father choose her husband? I wished my father had arranged for Nanako to be my wife instead of Sienna. Unfortunately, such thoughts were vain imaginings, and I knew it.

  "Is everything alright, Ethan?"

  I realised I had zoned out while Sienna was speaking to me, staring blankly into space as she droned on. Great, our first conversation and I had already zoned out – what did this reveal of our marriage to come? "My apologies, I've had a pretty stressful day." Thoughts of Leigh, shocked and terrified, filled my mind, along with the image of Nanako's despondent face when I drove away without receiving her hand-made obento lunch.

  Sienna nodded in understanding, and then glanced at my father and her brother before continuing. “When your father contacted us with this marriage proposal, he said you have great intelligence and potential and that there is nothing you could not do if you set your mind to it. And my brother, having met you, is of the same opinion.”

  I didn’t see that compliment coming - had I done the impossible and impressed Lieutenant King on the day we rescued the Japanese? I sent a fleeting look in his direction, which he returned with an unfathomable expression. I found it hard to believe that after his put downs and derisive looks, he was willing for me to become a member of his family.

  At this point my mother and older sister brought in the main course – roast chicken with oven baked turnips, potato and carrots, and garnished with a side salad. She had spared no expense to impress the King family.

  After the meal, my father and Mr. King Senior conversed at length, with some input from Liam. I found it too hard to focus on what they were saying and did not get involved unless spoken to directly.

  When the King family bade their farewell, my father and I accompanied them to the door, where it was decided our families would dine together again tomorrow night, to finalise the wedding plans. Now that Sienna was sixteen, Mr. King Senior wanted her to marry within two months.

  Chapter Ten

  I got to work early again the next morning after spending a restless night worrying that Nanako wouldn’t bring me lunch today. I stood next to our truck with Michal, Shorty and David as we waited for King and his Custodian squad to arrive.

  A horrible feeling of unease worked its way through me, beginning in my mind and spreading into my stomach, where it remained. It would evaporate instantly if I could but hear Nanako’s footsteps in the street outside, but regardless of how attentively I listened, she did not come.

  The Recycling-Works glass doors swung open and a barrel-chested man with a shaved head and wearing a forager's get-up strode purposely towards us.

  “Who's he when he's at home?” Shorty asked suspiciously.

  The man, who topped me by at least ten years, stopped when he reached us. “Okay guys, gather around.”

  “Who are you?” I demanded. With the Custodians joining our foraging trips, Leigh’s arrest, and the shock announcement that I was about to get married, I wasn’t in the mood for any more surprises.

  “I'm you're new team leader. The name’s Cooper, but you can call me boss,” he announced in a no-nonsense voice.

  So much for no more surprises.

  “Excuse me?” Shorty demanded angrily.

  Cooper stared down at Shorty and answered him curtly. “Concern has been raised over the reckless behaviour of your previous team leader, and so due to my extensive experience in said role, I have been assigned to replace him.”

  “I'm standing right here,” I shot at him, wondering who on earth had decided to lumber us with him, when I recalled Sergeant King accusing me of those very same words. So, this was his doing. Perhaps he was afraid he was about to lose his future brother-in-law and his sister’s ticket into North End.

  “Good for you,” he snapped.

  “Forget it, Cooper,” Shorty said, deliberately drawing out his name. “We’ve got a team leader and he’s done alright by us. You can go back to whoever gave you your marching orders, and tell ‘em to stick ‘em up…”

  Michal might have been tall, but he was fast too. His hand clamped over Shorty’s mouth before he could finish. “Shorty’s got a point, Cooper,” he said in a more polite tone, “what we need is another worker to replace Leigh, not a new leader. Who gave you your orders?”

  “Sergeant King,” he replied.

  My suspicions had been correct. I felt like the proverbial camel whose back was broken by too many straws, and this insult felt like the last straw. All of our freedoms while foraging were gone now. Not only were Custodians following us everywhere we went, ensuring we no longer got up to extracurricular activities, now this stooge was going to be with us every moment of every work day too.

  The thought also occurred to me that as King had appointed him, Cooper might be a Custodian informant.

  “So, we’re all good now?” Cooper asked condescendingly.

  “Super,” David replied while glancing at me, hoping I could do something to get rid of this clown.

  “Right then, here’s the way I do things,” he began. “Rule number one, and this is hard and fast - we are a foraging team, not a Custodian squad - we do not engage Skel in combat for any reason. If you see a Skel, sound the alarm and retreat to the Custodians. Rule number two, my word is law. If I say something, you do it – straight away, and without fussing. Rule number three, we are out there to collect metals, and nothing else. If I so much as catch one of you guys even peeking at anything else, I’ll bust your chops.”

  The Custo
dian Bushmaster chose that moment to arrive, backing carefully into the yard until it was next to our truck. As Cooper rushed off to speak to King, I motioned for the guys to come closer. “As long as this Cooper guy is with us, don’t ask me to do tongue-clicks to find things, okay?”

  “Why?” David asked.

  “If the Custodians hear about it, they may suspect Ethan is something other than what he is,” Michal explained.

  “But blind people can do it,” David pointed out.

  “I know,” I replied, “but I ain’t blind, so just don’t mention it, okay?”

  “So what the blazes are we going to do to spot Skel booby traps?” Shorty demanded.

  “We’ll just have to be careful, like usual.” I didn’t tell him that before the Custodians joined us, I had been bouncing ultrasonic shouts off our surroundings to check for traps. Now we were really going to be in the dark.

  King approached us with Cooper in tow. "I hear you boys have met your new team leader."

  We shifted about in agitation, but none of us said anything. I made eye contact with my future brother-in-law and wanted to protest, to scream blue murder, but I knew it wouldn’t achieve anything so I kept my mouth shut.

  "Right then, let's get this show on the road," King said once it was clear that we were going to take the leadership change lying down.

  "I'll drive. Who's got the keys?" Cooper asked smugly. Michal handed them over.

  I could have said something, but was too focused on what I was hoping to hear - Nanako's footsteps. What if she came while we were driving off, resulting in me snubbing her efforts for a second day in a row?

  "Jones, get your butt in gear!" Cooper bellowed.

  I glanced at my watch and my hopes floundered on the rocks of despair when I saw it was five past nine – she wasn't coming. So I had hurt her feelings yesterday and extinguished her interest in me. I know nothing could have come of it, but I wanted to talk to her, even if only briefly. Deflated, I walked to the truck and sat beside Cooper. Thanks so much, Michal for sitting in the back and forcing me to sit next to the doofus. I stared daggers at Michal in the rear vision mirror, and he rewarded me with the barest hint of a smile.

  Cooper drove to a street in Carlton with a crumbling, weed-overgrown footpath and an asphalt road that was cracked and pitted. The houses in this street were over two hundred years old, and being made of brick were still structurally intact, although much of the woodwork was rotting away, and most windows were smashed or blown in.

  "Right boys," Cooper said after we climbed out of the truck. "The Recycling-Works says we're running low on lead, so kit up and we'll strip these houses bare."

  I glanced at King, who was standing outside the Bushmaster, which was parked beside the truck. He was watching me keenly, wondering how I would react to having lost my position as team leader. "We've already done this street, Cooper." I said.

  "Is that right, Jones? In that case, follow me and I'll show you all the spots you missed," he said patronisingly.

  "We didn't miss anything," I assured him flatly.

  He patted me on the shoulder. "Ah, the arrogance of youth. Now follow me. After I've shown you the places to find lead, we'll split up and tackle the houses in two teams."

  Cooper unhooked a ladder from the side of the truck, placed it against the nearest house, and addressed us as though we were fresh out of school. "You'll find lead sheet used as flashing around the sides of the chimneys and electrical wire connections to the houses." He clambered to the top of the ladder, and then stopped, surprised. "Oh, those spots have been stripped."

  After that, he led us throughout the house, looking for lead sheeting in the cornices, around the bases of down pipes, in the conductor heads and window frames, and so on, until he had exhausted every possible source of lead – of which he didn’t find a single scrap.

  "Told you we didn't miss anything," I said.

  Cooper glared at me. "You know Jones; foraging teams have been working these suburbs for a hundred years, so how do I know that you're the ones who stripped this house?"

  My teammates, who had been gloating at our victory, glanced unsurely at one another - how were we going to prove we'd done it?

  I so wanted to smash my fist into Cooper’s cocky, know-it-all expression, but I somehow - only just - managed to resist the urge. "Take a look inside the roof above the laundry manhole," I replied. "You'll find some things we found but left behind, you know, since Newhome citizens aren’t allowed to touch them."

  Cooper grabbed the stepladder and stomped back into the house. He returned a moment later with three rifles wrapped in plastic. "You're supposed to return all firearms to the Recycling-Works so they can be given to the Custodians, something I’m sure you are aware of."

  "Proves we're the ones who stripped the house, doesn't it?" I answered, ignoring his comment completely.

  Cooper stuck his face an inch from mine. "I don't like you, Jones." With that, he stomped off to present the rifles to the Custodians.

  My teammates and I gave each other inconspicuous high-fives.

  "Score one for our team, Jones," laughed Shorty.

  After that, we drove around our assigned sector of Melbourne’s ruins, striking out time and again. After eating our lunches in the truck - apparently, you don’t need an actual lunch break if you don’t do any physical work - Cooper found an old restaurant with thin lead sheets used to waterproof the floor.

  My teammates would not speak to Cooper as we worked, except to answer direct questions, and they always called him ‘Cooper,’ not ‘Boss,’ which annoyed him no end. To rub salt in the wound, they called me 'boss' instead. My friends were the best. For myself, I was so deep in the doldrums because Nanako didn’t show up this morning that I barely spoke a word.

  When I got home that evening, I had a quick shower and dressed in my neatest casuals, for I had to be at my parent’s flat soon to finalise the details of my pending marriage.

  The thought of being married to Sienna King for the rest of my life gave me the shudders. To be honest, I knew that few marriages in Newhome contained loving relationships, but all the same, I had always hoped to respect and get on with my wife. I couldn't see that ever happening with her.

  A knock on my door snapped me out of my depressing reverie. Thinking the guys had dropped over for a visit, I pulled the door open and my heart stopped.

  For standing in front of me was Nanako, wearing long pink and black striped socks that reached to her thighs and an oversized men’s blue and black flannelette shirt, which she wore as a dress. And she was holding two plastic bags full of fresh food.

  Chapter Eleven

  Peering up at me from beneath her pink bangs, Nanako held up the bags and smiled warmly. "Hi Ethan, I've come over to cook dinner for you tonight."

  I don’t know how long I stood there staring at her, working my way frantically through the plethora of conflicting thoughts her words sent zooming through my mind. Foremost was of course the liberating relief that came from realising I had not hurt or snubbed her yesterday morning. Second was the sheer delight that I finally had an opportunity to spend time with her. This was followed by panic because I was due at my parents’ house shortly and there was no way I could fit dinner with Nanako and with my parents into the one evening. Then of course was the gut wrenching fear associated with the knowledge that it was not permitted for a single guy to be alone anywhere or at any time with a woman who was not a family member.

  I realised I had to turn down her offer and send her away, but as I stood there looking down into her innocent, hope filled face as she held the bags of food, I knew I couldn’t let her down again.

  “That sounds wonderful - please, come in,” I said as I stepped back to let her into the flat. As she walked past me, I noticed Councillor Okada standing a couple of doors down, either playing the part of chaperone, or watching to make sure she arrived safely at her destination, if not both. I wondered if I should ask him to come in too but he bowed politel
y and walked off before I had the chance.

  Nanako had dumped the bags of food on my miniscule kitchen bench – the kitchen was beside the front door - and was digging through the drawers and cupboards beneath the stove and bench.

  The view of her of slender thighs exposed between her over-knees striped socks and the shirt was so mesmerising that it took a great deal of effort to find my voice. “Sorry, I don’t have much stuff.”

  “Oh, that’s fine, I’ll make do,” she reassured me cheerily as she pulled out two dinted saucepans and a battered wooden chopping board that I had bought second hand at the market.

  "I have to make a phone call," I said as I reluctantly tore my gaze from her thighs to her beautiful face.

  "Oh - I haven’t interrupted your plans for this evening, have I?" she asked while chopping carrots with a speed I wouldn't have thought possible. I would have chopped my fingers off if I tried that.

  "Oh no, it’s just some minor thing I can reschedule to another night," I reassured her. Yeah, a minor thing like working out my wedding date. "I'll be right back."

  My flat was narrow but long, extending from one side of the building to the other. Opposite the kitchen was the enclosed bathroom with shower, basin and toilet. Next was the dining room with the dining table and an old tatty two-seat sofa that faced the TV. The dining room morphed into the bedroom, occupied solely by my double bed. Next to the bed was the rear window and back door that lead to the balcony.

  I grabbed the phone from the shelf next to the bed and rang my father. This was not going to go well.

  "Jones residence," my father answered.

  "Hello Father. Look, I'm sorry but something very important has come up and I can't make it tonight."

  "Do not be absurd, Ethan. The King's are already here and your mother and sister are ready to serve the meal. Get over here right now," he ordered brusquely.