Forager - the Complete Trilogy (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Trilogy)

by Peter R Stone

  "Because it's our home, sir."

  A glance from the colonel at Consultant Singhe confirmed I was telling the truth, so he nodded and began making more notes in his book.

  "Tell me why the Custodians will kill you if you tell the whole truth, Ethan," Singhe demanded.

  "King tried to change the detonator's timer so the nuke would go off right there and then."

  "You already said that."

  "What I didn't mention was that my foragers and I didn't just stand there and watch him try to kill us all."

  "I see."

  "Now you tell me something. Why did you tell him I was lying earlier?" I asked.

  "Because I saw what he wrote," she whispered, "And he wasn't buying what you were saying. They would have tortured you to get the truth out of you if I didn't stop you."

  "Does he believe me now?"

  "Yes."

  "How come you sided with me anyway?" I asked.

  "They tried to brain wash us," she replied. "From the day they captured us, they used sleep deprivation techniques to brainwash us in their customs and traditions, to serve the chancellor and councillors unquestioningly until the day we die."

  "So why didn’t it work on you?" I asked.

  "After they caught me, even at five years old, I used to skulk around the facility in the air conditioning ducts, and I accidentally witnessed the geneticists dissecting a young boy echolocater – he was alive during the process. Hate doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel about them, Ethan." Her eyes caught mine for just an instant. "You have to get out of Newhome. I think you might be the only male echolocater left."

  "I can’t," I whispered. "I have to find a way to stop Newhome and Hamamachi from destroying each other."

  The colonel looked up from his notebook, interrupting us. "Mr. Jones, tell me about this girl from Hamamachi. She says her name is Nanako Jones and claims to be your wife. Yet isn't she the girl who came here two weeks ago as the Japanese emissary’s translator?"

  I nodded, and then carefully explained how I came to meet and marry Nanako two years ago, how she brought me back to Newhome after I’d been shot in Hamamachi, and how my father had arranged for her to be deported back to Hamamachi. I told the colonel of the hospital records that proved that what I said was true.

  The colonel filled another two pages of his notebook and then snapped it closed with an ominous bang that echoed around the room. He stood, knocked on the door, and an armed Custodian stepped inside.

  "Escort Mr. Jones back to his cell, Private," he ordered.

  I rose hesitantly to my feet. "What is to become of me – of us – sir?"

  "That remains to be seen," he said as the private bustled me from the room.

  * * *

  They left me stewing in my own juices for another two hours, worrying about what would happen to Nanako if all this went pear shaped. If they ended up separating us and imprisoning her after I insisted we come back here, I'd be devastated.

  Finally, they brought me back to the same interrogation room. Consultant Singhe was sitting at the table, but Colonel Kim stood at the window, staring through the partially opened venetian blinds.

  "Sit, Mr. Jones," he ordered.

  I sat.

  "When they were interviewed earlier today, your wife and two companions all spun the same fictitious story you tried to sell me. It seems the four of you spent some time making sure you got your stories straight."

  I gulped but didn't answer. This wasn't going well.

  The colonel continued impassively. "All the same, I believe you care for this town and have its best interests at heart. Based on this belief, I am willing to release you, your wife, and your friends, on the condition that you do not breathe a word of what happened in Hamamachi to a soul. Rather, should anyone ask what happened, your concocted story will be your response. Is that understood?" He turned to stare at me expectantly.

  "I accept your condition, sir. You have my word." I couldn't believe it – he was going to let us go?

  Colonel Kim smiled coldly. "Should even one of you tell anyone what actually happened in Hamamachi, I will put all four of you in solitary confinement and leave you there for a minimum of ten years. Is that understood?"

  "Yes sir."

  The colonel sent a fleeting look at Consultant Singhe, and she nodded, confirming I spoke the truth.

  "Let this be the last I hear of you, Mr. Jones," the colonel said and then swept from the room.

  "Be careful, Ethan," Consultant Singhe whispered as she stood, "I overheard the colonel talking with the councillors. They suspect Nanako is a spy and have their doubts about you too. They've let you go so they can watch you and see what you get up to. They will bug your phone too, so be careful what you say." With that she stood and left the room.

  * * *

  The others were already outside waiting for me when the Custodians escorted me out of the headquarters.

  I rushed straight to Nanako but she met me halfway.

  "Are you okay – did they hurt you?" I asked as I took her hands in my mine, well aware of the Custodians reputation of brutality.

  "No, no, I'm fine, but what about you?" she asked as she gave me a visual going over.

  "I'm good," I assured her.

  "We're fine too – you know, just in case you were worried," piped up Shorty.

  "Come on, let's go home," I said as I rustled Shorty's blond hair.

  "For a moment there I thought home was a place we wouldn't be seeing for a few years," David said as we walked briskly from the foreboding grey brick walls of Custodian Headquarters and into an adjoining street.

  "I know, right?" Nanako agreed. "I lost track of how long they kept me in my cell after I gave my statement. I thought we were done for."

  "Nah, I had them Custodians hanging off my every word. The doofuses bought our story lock, stock, and barrel," Shorty laughed.

  "Actually, I cracked," I admitted sheepishly.

  Chapter Eight

  "You what?" Nanako demanded in shock, pulling me around to face her.

  "After all you put us through to stick to our stories no matter what?" Shorty protested.

  "There’s no way they would have let us go if you blabbed, Jones, so you're having us on, right?" David asked.

  "They used a lie-detector on me," I replied, which was true enough. I would tell Nanako about Consultant Singhe when we were alone. Shorty didn't know about my bio-engineered abnormalities, and David only suspected it. For my sake and theirs, I was gonna keep it that way.

  "They didn't use one on me." Nanako frowned.

  "Me either. What makes you so special, Jones? Why do you get all the fun?" Shorty said.

  "So you just told them everything? You stupid idiot, Jones," David growled.

  "Excuse me?" I snapped back. He’d never used that tone on me before.

  "Well, did you really tell them everything?" he demanded.

  "No, not exactly. I found that if I told mostly the truth, the lie detector let it pass. So I told them generally what happened, but left out the specifics of what we did."

  "So why’d they let us go, if they knew we three were lying?" David demanded.

  "It's ‘cause I won them over with my alluring personality," Shorty said.

  "Shorty!" David complained.

  "They let us go on the condition that if anyone asks what happened, we tell them the fake story we worked out."

  "And if we don’t?" Nanako asked. She was well on the way to understanding the way Custodians thought.

  "If even one of us tells anyone what really happened, they'll lock all four of us away."

  "Well, I’m sure glad we came back, how ‘bout you guys?" Shorty asked, grinning broadly.

  "Don’t you ever take anything seriously?" David said, his nose still out of joint about something.

  "Look, one last thing guys," I said, "From here on, let's assume our phones have been bugged, so we have to be careful what we say. Remember why we came back and keep your eyes
and ears open. If you see or hear anything suspicious, report it to me immediately. If the Custodians make another move against Hamamachi, we have to find out what it is in time to stop it if need be. And if Hamamachi makes a move against us, ditto."

  "You really think the four of us can make that much of a difference?" David asked doubtfully.

  "Hamamachi's still standing today because of us, so yes, I do," I assured him. "Now then, we’ve been through the mill and back in the past few days, so let’s go home and get some rest."

  "I’m all for that," said Nanako as she grabbed my hand and pulled me after her. "But first on the menu is a shower – we reek."

  After we had gone our separate ways, Nanako said, "You’re hiding something."

  "Am I that transparent?" I laughed.

  "To me you are. Now come on, out with it."

  "I lied about the lie detector."

  "Ha-ha. Come on, Ethan, this is serious."

  "The ‘lie detector’ they used on me was a young woman with the ability to spot lies with 100% accuracy, according to the Custodian colonel who questioned me," I said.

  "Hang on – a woman? But you said women aren’t allowed to work in Newhome."

  "They’re not," I answered, reflecting on how irresistibly cute Nanako was when she frowned. "But she was no ordinary woman. She was an echolocater like me and she used it to determine if I was lying or not."

  Nanako drew up short and turned me to face her. "You told me they executed echolocaters when they found them."

  "That’s what I was told. According to her, though, they only execute the males because they can’t control them. The females, on the other hand, they indoctrinate and use as spies and living lie detectors." I didn’t tell her about the boys who had been dissected or Singhe’s warning to flee Newhome. I didn’t want to worry her more than she already was.

  "And how exactly did she tell you this?"

  I told her how the consultant and I had been able to communicate by whispering beneath the colonel’s hearing range, and told her everything else that was said during my interrogation. I concluded saying, "Isn't this great news? They didn't kill all the echolocaters they caught – the girls are still alive – I'm not the only one left."

  "Ethan, you can't trust her."

  "But she helped me," I protested. I considered telling her the Custodians suspected she was a Hamamachi spy and were watching us, but I decided against it. I'd keep a look out for anyone spying on us and would play it by ear.

  "Didn’t she tell you they've been indoctrinated by the Custodians ever since they were caught? Ethan, those girls are dangerous – even more than the Custodians are. You have to see that."

  "But…"

  "You’re too trusting, Ethan, and the proof of that is right here." She tapped the scars on the left side of my head where I was shot at point blank rank two years ago.

  "Okay, I get the point, I’ll be careful. Though to be honest, I doubt I’ll see her again."

  "Good, I'm gonna hold you to that," she said.

  We reached our apartment block, took the stairs to the second floor, and made our way to my – to our – small flat. It was hard to get used to the fact I was married now.

  "So, you gonna carry me over the threshold?" she grinned. "We kinda didn’t get the chance the other night."

  "Surely that’s not a Japanese custom?" I laughed.

  "No, but it’s yours, right? You being an Anglo-Saxon Aussie and all." Her grin changed into a mischievous smirk.

  I glanced at my left arm. It still hurt to lift it, so there was no way I could pick her up. "You know I’ve only got one functioning arm, right?"

  "So improvise." She watched me intently.

  "All right. Hop on my back."

  "You’re gonna piggy-back me over the threshold?" she asked, her dark brown eyes wide open.

  "Would you prefer the fireman’s lift?"

  "I’ll take option one," she laughed as she climbed onto my back. I could only hold her right leg with my right arm, so she curled her left leg around my waist. I couldn't believe how light she was. If she was even forty-five kilos I’d be surprised.

  "We have a small problem," I admitted.

  "Which is?"

  "The Hamamachi Militia took my key."

  "Couldn’t you have told me that before you made me climb a flight of stairs and get on your back?" she teased.

  "Don’t worry, there’s a spare key wedged in the wood above the doorframe. Here, let me grab it." But that, of course, proved to be a pointless exercise as I couldn’t lift my hands above waist while I was carrying her on my back. All I managed to do was bump her knee and shoulder against the door.

  "Doofus! Here, let me get it," she giggled as she reached up and plucked down the key. We proceeded to bump my head and her knees against the door while she fitted the key into the lock, and then we were through.

  Home sweet home.

  "I'm famished, how about you?" I headed for the fridge.

  "Yeah, we haven't eaten since early this morning. What's with those Custodians anyway?" she asked.

  I pulled out the udon leftovers and a couple of over-ripe bananas. "This is about it."

  "It'll do."

  After we’d scoffed down the food, Nanako sat on my lap and wrapped her arms around me.

  “Just us,” she said.

  “Finally,” I said. I drank in her gorgeous face and put my hands around her narrow waist. She was so beautiful.

  She snuggled in closer and rocked me slightly from side to side. “Mine, all mine.”

  “Yep, always and forever.” I kissed her on the neck, and she exhaled sensually.

  She climbed off my lap, held out a slim, bronzed hand, and looked at me meaningfully. “Shower.”

  I took her hand and followed her to the bathroom.

  Two hours later, we were dressed in clean clothes and feeling refreshed, the first time since Friday. Nanako had put a clean dressing on my head wound, which was healing nicely after all the medical attention I'd received from Corporal Reina.

  Nanako had to wash her pink-and-black wig, so I got a rare opportunity to see her naturally black hair, which she wore in a cute bob-cut. And she looked as striking as ever in her pink and black striped socks and oversized men’s flannelette shirt, which she wore as a dress.

  "You know what?" she asked as she surveyed the flat with a strange gleam in her eyes.

  "You're amazing?" I asked, trying with only some success to tear my gaze from the glimpse of her thighs exposed between the long socks and oversized shirt.

  "Apart from that."

  "Then no, you got me," I laughed.

  "This flat needs a woman's touch."

  "No argument there."

  "So, how much money have you got, then?" she asked as she padded over to the kitchen, which was beside the front door.

  "'Bout nine hundred bucks."

  She opened the cupboard under the sink and pulled out three battered and dinted saucepans and a wooden cutting board so worn that it was shaped like the letter ‘S.’ She put them on the bench. "These have gotta go."

  I grabbed the cutting board and clutched it to my chest. "This ol’ board and I have history, you can’t replace it."

  "Seriously?"

  "Can’t you see how many thousands of knife cuts have gone into remodelling the board from its original shape?"

  "And how many of those cuts did you put in it?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.

  "At least a couple," I said, frowning as though lost in thought. A couple of thousand more likely, but to be honest, the board was already in this condition when I bought it for a couple of bucks.

  She snatched the board from me and dumped it back on the bench, and then wandered into the bathroom. She pulled out my shower curtain, gave it a tentative sniff, and pulled a face. "This has gotta go."

  I darted between her and the curtain. "No way, you can’t replace my mouldy old shower curtain – it’s got a floral pattern."

  She giggle
d as she pushed me aside so she could unhook the curtain. "It goes," she said as she tossed it on the floor.

  Out into the lounge-bedroom she went – it seemed nothing was sacrosanct – and peeled back the doona and sheets. She lifted up the double-bed mattress and clucked to herself as she glanced underneath it. Dropping the mattress back down, she said, "That’s gotta go. It’s mouldy too."

  She examined the threadbare doona cover and sheets. "These too." She sniffed the doona and coughed. "And this really has to go."

  "But this mattress is special," I said as I knelt beside it. "I got it for only fifty-bucks from this second hand store I found, and the doona? Do you know long it takes to break in a doona? New ones are all starchy and uncomfortable."

  "We’ll have to make that sacrifice," she said as she pecked a kiss on my cheek, and then made her way over to the curtains.

  I moved in front of her and held out my hands. "No. At the curtains I draw the line – they've got a floral pattern too," I said as I drew a line across the floor with my sneakers.

  "What’s with you and floral patterns?" she asked with another giggle.

  "Well, they’re flowery," I explained.

  "But the colour! Bright orange over green? Ethan, what were you thinking?"

  "I was thinking they were getting jobbed out for twenty bucks?"

  "Measure 'em and then take ‘em down," she ordered me with a jab to the ribs.

  "Yes, Boss," I laughed as I went to get my tape measure.

  Chapter Nine

  We measured the length and width of the curtains and were about to pop over to the markets when I slapped a hand to my forehead. "Forgot to tell my mother we're back, hang on a mo." I grabbed the old plastic dial-up phone next to the bed and rang my parent's place.

  "Jones residence," a young woman said without emotion.

  "Elder Sister, are you well?" I asked.

  "You're back," she remarked flatly. "Mother's been worried sick. I will fetch her."

  A moment passed and my mother came to the phone. "Ethan?"

  "Just ringing to let you know we're back safe and sound."

  "Where have you been, Son? You said you'd be back on Saturday. That was two days ago! I have – we have – been worried sick!"