Forager (Forager - A Dystopian Trilogy)

by Peter R Stone

  “Father, the poor girl must have been scared out of her wits - she was only sixteen! You didn’t even have the common sense or courtesy to bring her home to meet my mother and sisters, did you? And you can’t use what I said when I was in that condition to justify what you did to her, and to me.”

  “What did he do to her?” asked my mother, breaking all convention by actually entering Father’s room. She was shocked and enraged that Father had hidden all of this from her.

  Father wouldn’t answer; he just stared at his hands.

  “He got the Custodians to throw her out of the town,” I said, staring daggers at him.

  “You did what?” my mother demanded, her face stricken with anguish.

  Father’s head shot up. “I didn’t get the Custodians to throw her out of town - I got them to take her back to Hamamachi.”

  “What’s the difference? You had her forcibly removed from me, her husband! And she’s had to wait until now for an opportunity to come back. And Father, you tried to marry me off to Sienna King when you knew I was already married to Nanako. What were you thinking?”

  “It was for your own good.”

  “You keep saying that. But you know what, from now on, stay out of my life, you hear me?”

  “That poor, poor girl,” Mother said as she turned to me. “Where is she now, Son?”

  With a dizzying sense of dread, I suddenly recalled all the horrid things I had just said to her, blaming her for abandoning me when she had actually been thrown out of town by my father.

  Ignoring the utter exhaustion that permeated my entire being, I somehow managed to run from the room and my family’s apartment, but all the same, I couldn't get to my flat fast enough. I had to see Nanako and apologise for my insensitive and barbaric behaviour. But would she find it in her heart to forgive me, or had I gone and blown it for good?

  As I slogged back through the rain, taking care to avoid a Custodian patrol, it occurred to me that she had been trying all along to tell me that we knew each other, by trying her hardest to trigger my memories of her.

  She told us that the clothes she wore on Monday and again when she crashed my parents’ house on Friday, were in fashion three years ago. In fact, they were the same clothes she was wearing when I first met her. On Tuesday she made me lunch and delivered it in her lacquered lunchbox. This lacquered lunchbox was the same one she had been using three years ago when we first met and she shared her lunch with me. No doubt the oden and udon dinners were further attempts to trigger my memories, as was the request to massage her legs.

  And her attempts to trigger my buried memories were successful. Starting on the day we had rescued her and Councillor Okada from the Skel, I began having partial seizures, each one accompanied by a memory from my time in Hamamachi. And now tonight when I fell asleep, in my dreams I had recalled when I first met her.

  So was her strategy to try to help me remember her rather than force the truth upon me? It made sense if that was the case, considering how badly I had reacted when I had amnesia and she had forced the truth on me.

  I continued to stagger towards my flat. I was so exhausted now that all I could do was put one foot in front of the other. My wound was also aching intolerably, which wasn't helping at all.

  When I got to my flat, I reached out to twist open the door handle, but the door swung open as soon as my fingers brushed it. Alarmed, I entered the flat and called out to Nanako, but was met with silence. I hurried past the kitchen and bathroom and into the lounge room come bedroom, desperately hoping to see her waiting on the sofa for me, but she wasn't there. With my heart thumping furiously I checked the bathroom, but she wasn't there either.

  She was gone.

  I sank onto the bathroom's cold floor tiles, fearing the worst. Had my callous accusations pushed her away for good? Had she gone back to North End to share her heartbreak with Councillor Okada, ready now to return to Hamamachi? A black despair took a hold of me and I collapsed against the bathroom wall beside the shower. If I could only turn back time and think things through instead of losing my temper and saying those truly terrible things to her. She was truly the most wonderful person I had met, and I had gone and shoved her away - twice.

  I sat there, cold and despondent, lost in thoughts of self recrimination, when I suddenly remembered what she did the first night she came to Newhome. After waiting two years for an opportunity to see me again, her hopes had been crushed when I didn't even recognise her. Downhearted and disappointed, she had retired to her apartment's roof to be alone.

  I sat up, a glimmer of hope piercing the gloom that overshadowed my heart. What if she had reacted in the same way to the heartless way I had just treated her? If so, she could be on the roof of my apartment block right now.

  I scrapped myself off the floor and stumbled out of my flat for the third time tonight, heading for the elevator. I decided I could break my vow to never use the elevator, considering how weak I was from the wound, and because of the urgency.

  The short walk to the elevator felt like an hour, the elevator ride to the tenth floor an eternity. But the elevator reached its destination at long last and the doors pinged open. Having regained a modicum of energy, I darted out of the elevator and into the stairwell, which was the only way to the roof. Stumbling up the stairs I soon reached the door to the roof.

  I was beset with apprehension as I reached out to open the door - what if she wasn't here either? What if she had given up on me and gone back to North End or somewhere else in the dark? What if she didn't want to see me again?

  I shook my head to clear it and gently opened the door, and a massive wave of relief swept through me when I heard Nanako's gentle sobs close by. I exited the stairwell housing and stepped around the corner to my left, and there she was, sitting on the roof with her back to the stairwell housing and hugging her knees to her chest, and soaked through and through by the rain.

  She looked up at me, eyes red from crying, black eyeliner streaked down her cheeks, and her hair plastered all over her face.

  I dropped to my knees, wrapped my arms around her, and rested my forehead gently against hers.

  "Nanako, I'm so sorry for all those horrid things I said to you, accusing you of abandoning me. I'm sorry I wouldn't listen to you - I should have known you wouldn't have left me by choice. I should have realised my father had the Custodians throw you out of the city. And most of all, I'm so sorry for telling you two years ago that I never wanted to see you again."

  Nanako wiped her tear streaked cheeks with the back of her hand and turned her body around to face me, hope shining in her eyes. "Do you remember saying that?"

  Ignoring the pain in my chest, I cupped her beautiful round face in my hands. "No, but I have remembered when we first met, over in that warehouse car park where you and your three friends were racing lizards. You were wearing these very clothes, shared your lunch with me, and asked me to come to Hamamachi with you."

  Nanako was shivering from the cold, but she threw her arms around me and hugged me so tight that I thought I'd pass out from the pain. "Oh Ethan, this is the best news ever! But how did you find out what your father did, and that you were the one who said that?"

  "After I ran away from you I started thinking, and began to put all the pieces of the puzzle together - all the things you have said and done, and then I knew what had happened. So I went to my parents' house just now, woke my father and confronted him. And he told me everything, even what he did to you. Nanako, I cannot even begin to imagine what you went through back then."

  "Before you got hurt, we had everything, Ethan," she replied. "After we met in January, we were inseparable. You lived at my next door neighbours' house but spent virtually every minute at mine with my family and I. You were able to join my foraging team too. We got married on the 7th of March '20 and moved into our own little flat. We were so happy, but then you got injured in September and lost several months of memories, including all your memories of me and the times we spent together.
The seizures you started having were so bad I was terrified I was going to lose you, so I spent all of our money to pay someone to drive you and me to Newhome, hoping its doctors could help you. They said they could, and your father promised to pay for the operation. I was so desperate for the operation to be successful, even hoping it would bring back your memories. But then those horrible Custodians turned up the day before the operation, dragged me from your hospital room, and drove me all the way back to Hamamachi.

  "This trading venture with Councillor Okada was the first opportunity in two years to return here, as no one was willing to make the journey before then due to increased Skel attacks - the guy who took us to Newhome the first time never made it back. I wanted to come back by myself before then but my family wouldn’t let me.

  "And do you have any idea how hard these last few days have been? To finally be with you again after all this time, with my head full of memories of all the wonderful things we did together, but you didn't even recognise me. And then to hear that your father was trying to marry you off, taking advantage of your amnesia."

  "I'll never understand what you've been through with all of this," I replied sadly. "There is one thing I would like to ask you, though, and I think I know the answer. When you saw me on Monday, why didn't you tell me who you were, that you were my wife?"

  She took my face in her hands and squeezed gently, as though trying to convince herself this conversation was actually happening. "Before I came here," she began, "I suspected you hadn't recovered from amnesia, for if you had, you would have come straight to Hamamachi to find me. So when I got here and saw you didn't remember me, I wanted to see if you could fall in love with me again. I wanted to know if you could want to be with me again, not because you had to, but because you wanted to. And I also tried to trigger your memories of me by doing the same things I did when we met three years ago."

  I grinned from ear to ear - I loved this girl. "So you made lunches and cooked dinners for me back then too?"

  She returned the smile. "Yes, and anything else I could think of to make you mine." She paused, and added softly, "I want you back, Ethan, that's all I care about."

  I took Nanako's small, bronzed hands in mine. My heart, my all, belonged totally to her. "Dear wife, if you want me, you've got me. I am yours, now and forever."

  "I do, husband, I do," she said, rapture glowing through her tear and makeup stained face. She lifted her chin, removed the dog collar from her neck, and slipped off the two gold rings that had been hanging from it. I noticed for the first time that they were different sizes.

  Crying again, but this time with unbridled joy, she slipped the larger ring onto the third finger of my left hand.

  I took the other ring and slipped it onto her corresponding finger.

  "Finally," she expired, a peaceful, contented expression framing her face.

  And as the rain sleeted down, we continued to kneel on the wet concrete with our foreheads pressed together and our arms wrapped around one another, savouring this moment, this reunion.

  When her teeth started clattering uncontrollably I took her hands and helped her to her feet, "We'd better get you inside and into a warm shower before you catch pneumonia."

  So hand in hand we re-entered the stairwell and made our way to the elevator. I figured I had a good enough reason to break my vow about not using it on this occasion too.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Completely worn out by the night’s emotional roller-coaster ride and constant running about while already weak from the wound, I staggered through the door of my flat with an arm draped around Nanako’s shoulders. She was so cold that her teeth clattered nonstop, so we went straight to the bathroom. She started undoing the buttons on my shirt with fingers she couldn’t even hold still.

  "Come on, we've got to get you out of those wet bandages," she said, putting my welfare above her own.

  I caught her hands and held them still. "A few minutes won’t make a difference to me - our first priority is to get you warm. I'll get the shower going, as it's a temperamental little beast."

  Nanako nodded and stripped out of her clinging wet clothes while I fiddled around to get the shower to the right temperature, a difficult task at the best of times.

  "Right to go," I informed her, holding back the plastic floral-pattern shower curtain.

  She slipped under the steaming hot water and sighed deeply with blissful relief as the water cascaded down her beautiful, lithe body. I stood there drinking in the sight of her, not quite comprehending that she was my wife.

  "Don't just stand there," she said as she held out a hand, "get undressed and hop in."

  I didn't need to be asked twice.

  * * *

  I was rudely awakened by the sound of the front door being kicked in. That I wasn't woken by the sound of boots outside my flat indicated how soundly I'd been asleep. Lifting my head from the pillow to see the bedside clock, I saw that it was 4:30am and still dark outside. Nanako was lying half on top of me, soundly asleep, with her head on my shoulder, right arm across my chest, and her legs entwined with mine.

  I struggled to sit up, waking my wife in the process, as the front door slammed shut. Four men with guns and torches rushed through the kitchen and into the lounge-bedroom, shining their torches in our eyes, blinding us.

  “Got ‘em!” Lieutenant King declared triumphantly from behind one of the torches. “Ethan Jones and Nanako, you are under arrest for sexual misconduct.”

  “No, you’ve got this all wro…” I protested but got no further for one of the intruders smashed the stock of his assault-rifle into the side of my head.

  * * *

  I came to with a thumping headache that felt like being stabbing repeatedly with a red-hot poker. It took a moment to realise I was gagged and on my knees on the floor beside the bed, with my hands cuffed behind my back. One intruder stood behind me, holding me upright by my hair and right shoulder.

  The lights had been turned on, and by twisting my head a little to the right I saw Nanako kneeling beside me, similarly restrained. She was watching me with her eyes wide with terror. We were both shivering, for she wore only a t-shirt over her underwear, and me only my boxer shorts.

  The intruders were all Custodians, but King was the only one in front of us. He stepped closer and leered down at me with undisguised loathing. “You stupid fool, Jones. Did you seriously think you could cavort and sleep with this girl without us noticing? You’re dumber than I thought. Now the normal procedure after arresting you two is to take you to the magistrate in the morning, but we have a bit of a problem with that. You see, the sentence for sexual misconduct is death by lethal injection, but in your case, Jones, the magistrate will transmute your sentence to several years hard labour; and because Nanako is from Hamamachi, he will probably just expel her from the town.” He knelt down and stuck his ugly face in front of mine. “And as I’m not happy with either of those cop-out transmuted sentences, my friends and I are going to administer the sentences you deserve right here and now. A bullet to the back of the head.”

  I tried desperately to tell him that we were married, but the gag had been shoved so far into my mouth that I could make nothing other than muffled noises.

  King stood, drew his pistol, grabbed my pillow, and folded it double. “I’m going to do her first so you can have the pleasure of watching her die, Jones. That’s only fitting, isn’t it? Payback for what the little cow did to my family’s honour.”

  I flung myself backwards towards my captor, but he jabbed me in the ribs with his right fist and drove the air out of my lungs.

  King approached Nanako, but she struggled against her captor with all her might and tried to tell him something, but the gag made her words intelligible as well.

  Not caring about our incoherent protestations, King walked behind Nanako, placed the pillow against the back of her head, and pressed the gun into the pillow. Although still winded, I fought desperately against my Custodian captor as well, tr
ying to tear my head from his grip and kick behind me at the same time.

  “Hold fire for a moment, Lieutenant,” the fourth Custodian in the room said suddenly. Until now he had been standing quietly behind us, content to watch the proceedings, but now he reached out a hand to stay King. He was Anglo-Australian, as tall as King, with a square jaw, and a very powerful build.

  “What is it, Captain? You said I had your full support in this,” King complained.

  “They’re wearing wedding bands,” the captain pointed out.

  I stopped struggling and watched from the corner of my eye as King stepped back to look at our hands, clearly confused. “It’s a trick, Sir, it has to be. They weren’t wearing them on Friday.”

  Nanako nodded furiously and kept trying to get words past the gag.

  “The girl’s trying to tell us something,” the captain pointed out.

  “Yeah, ’don’t kill us,’” King snarled angrily.

  “Doesn’t sound like that at all. Remove her gag.”

  “But Sir,” King protested strongly.

  “I know you have issues with her but it isn’t going to hurt to hear what she’s trying to say. Now take off the gag, and that’s an order.”

  King untied Nanako’s gag and ungraciously yanked it out of her mouth. As soon as it was out, Nanako twisted around to address the captain, her words pouring out like a waterfall. “Sir, you can't execute us for sleeping together because Ethan is my husband. We got married in Hamamachi in March '20, but Ethan got a bad injury later that year which caused very bad seizures and amnesia. I brought him to Newhome to be treated, but Ethan’s father hated me and got two Custodians to arrest me and take me back to Hamamachi. I’ve had to wait two years for someone from Hamamachi to come here so I could get back with Ethan. And that’s the real reason I came here, not to translate for Councillor Okada. And because of Ethan’s amnesia, it was only yesterday that he found out we're married, so that's when we put our rings back on.”