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

by Peter R Stone

  We jumped out of the G-Wagons and heard the sounds of a major gun battle in progress, coming from around the corner in the direction of the automotive factory. The Custodians readied their assault-rifles and prepared to move out, though a glance at their faces revealed their lack of confidence.

  Sergeant Xiao grabbed my arm with a crushing grip. "Captain Smithson wants a word with you. Follow me."

  I went along with Xiao and the two squads of Custodians to the end of the street, and then we slipped as unobtrusively as possible around the corner, giving us a good view of the primary automotive factory and the battle taking place over it.

  Several squads of Custodians had taken up positions in the street in front of the factory, taking cover behind lampposts, fences, and even the G-Wagons. They were trading bursts of gunfire with whoever was holed up inside – the Rangers, no doubt.

  A solitary Bushmaster had responded to the crisis but had been hit by a rocket and was burning furiously. Several Custodians had been hit and were lying on the road in the open. Another squad that had attempted to enter the factory via its front entrance had been blown apart by some sort of bomb.

  The factory's roller door was raised and a truck had backed up to it as though it was about to make a pickup. But it wouldn't be picking up anything now, as it was riddled with bullet holes now.

  Crouching low so as to present as small a target to the Rangers as possible, Sergeant Xiao grabbed my sleeve and tugged me after him. We darted from cover to cover until we reached the G-Wagon that Captain Smithson was using as cover.

  I wasn't expecting a particularly good reception from him, and I didn't get one. He grabbed me by my hoddie and pulled me close.

  "I've lost eight, maybe nine men to these blasted Rangers, Jones, so right now I'm about ready to strangle you. Start talking. What exactly is in that warehouse and what are the Rangers planning on doing with it?"

  "There's a nuclear warhead getting fitted into a cruise missile – a missile that's gonna be fired at Hamamachi when it's ready. The Rangers are here to prevent that. How, I don't know."

  "Forgive me if I find that hard to swallow. If Newhome does have a nuclear warhead, why would we use it against Hamamachi? Surely not because of the sniper?"

  "No, not because of the sniper, but because Custodian Command believes Hamamachi is behind the Skel attacks on Newhome. They believe it's either them or us," I explained as I ducked my head instinctively when a burst of bullets peppered the other side of the G-Wagon we were using as cover.

  "Where are you getting all this information?" the captain demanded angrily.

  Not knowing which way to turn, I met his fierce gaze apprehensively. "Sir, I'm under direct orders from Colonel Kim not to reveal what happened when our trade delegation went to Hamamachi."

  Captain Smithson stuck his face in mine. "Tell me anyway!"

  "King tried to destroy Hamamachi with a nuke concealed amongst the trade samples we took with us. It was detected, and the plan failed with the loss of King and his Custodians, and one of my foragers. Even though my foragers and I were innocent, we were still arrested. We only got away because Councillor Okada helped us escape in the middle of the night."

  The captain let go of my hoodie and rocked back, his eyes wide with shock. "Custodian Command tried to nuke Hamamachi? Those fools! If they'd succeeded, every other town in Victoria would have ganged up against us and would not have rested until Newhome was nothing but a memory! And now they're trying to do it again? Didn't they learn anything from World War Three?" The captain suddenly went very pale. "Those Rangers over there, could they be attempting to detonate the nuke in revenge for what we tried to do to them?"

  "It's possible," I said.

  "Then we've got to stop them right now," he said frantically.

  "Let me sneak into the warehouse through the back door and I'll take them out," I said, though I didn't add what I was really planning, which was to take out the Rangers and then destroy the cruise missiles myself.

  "Sir," interrupted a private, "Just got word from the general. He's on the way with three more Bushmasters and Echo Company. E.T.A. ten minutes."

  "We may not have ten minutes," the captain mused aloud. He turned back to me and handed me his gun belt with pistol and ammo. "Go!"

  "Thank you, sir," I said, and then using the cover of night, worked my way back down the street, crossed over the road, and then hurried along the side of the adjacent factory. From there I hopped over the intervening fence and made my way towards the automotive factory's rear door, wondering if I'd be able to pick its lock, or if I'd have to find another way in.

  Turned out I could simply walk into the factory, since the rear door had been blown open. However, I gasped in dismay when I saw the bodies of four Custodians sprawled on the ground nearby. They were the security detail that had been guarding the factory's rear entrance, but they must have been ambushed and taken out by the Rangers.

  I stepped past their bodies and slipped into the factory's darkened interior. The Rangers had not turned on any lights, and I could not see any sign of them from back here, due to all the machines and vehicles crowding the floor.

  I know I was in Newhome, and that there could be ultrasonic detectors in here, but there was no way I was gonna take on Hamamachi Rangers in the dark without the edge I got from flash sonar. I began echolocating immediately and the surrounds lit up as bright as day.

  I could hear three Rangers at the front of the building, one near the entrance and the other two near the loading bay, firing sporadically at the Custodians outside. I could also hear a doozy of an argument between three people over near the middle of the factory. I crept silently in that direction, passing workbenches, stamp presses, injection moulding machines, car hoists, and trucks and cars in various states of construction or repair.

  I hadn't gone very far when I noticed the cruise missile near the middle of the factory. It was fitted to a rail launching system, which itself was mounted on the back of a flatbed truck. I shuddered involuntarily when I realised that the nuclear warhead – the hydrogen bomb – was in that missile. Those blasted things destroyed the world a hundred years ago, and here they were, trying to do it again!

  I drew close enough to see the people who were locked in argument, and recognised David and Corporal Reina. The third person I'd never seen before. He was a grizzled Ranger lieutenant in his mid thirties, and he towered over David by at least six inches. Both Reina and the lieutenant wore light amplification/thermal imaging goggles – and that spelt bad news for me. It negated my advantage in one fell swoop.

  "You sold us out, David!" the lieutenant shouted with a gruff voice.

  "I did not!" David practically whimpered.

  The Ranger lieutenant reached down behind a workbench, grabbed someone by the collar and hoisted him to his feet. To my utter astonishment, it was Leigh Williams, the fifth member of our foraging team, who was supposed to be in a Hamamachi hospital recovering from his wounds. The Rangers must have pulled him out of hospital and brought him here in order to blackmail David into letting them into the town. Leigh was very pale and had lost considerable weight.

  The lieutenant placed his pistol against the side of Leigh's head. "Tell me who you told about us or I'll pop your friend right now!" he said to David.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  "I didn't tell anyone," David replied, terrified.

  "You said we would be able to sneak in, grab the nuke, load it on a truck, and get it to a gate before the Custodians were any the wiser. So how come they got here just minutes after we did?" the lieutenant asked.

  "We must have missed an alarm," David suggested.

  "Rubbish, we bypassed it good and proper."

  "Lieutenant," Corporal Reina interrupted, "We don't have time for this. Whether we like it or not, the Custodians are here, so what are we going to do?"

  "Thanks to this lying fool we've got no chance of getting away with the nuke now," the lieutenant raged, glaring at David.

&
nbsp; "Then let's blow the cruise missiles and get out of this town in the ensuing chaos," Reina said.

  "Not until I put a bullet in Leigh's head to show David what happens when you cross the Rangers." His finger tightening on the trigger.

  I know I vowed I'd never attempt to take a Ranger prisoner again but would simply shoot them on sight. However, to shoot them here and now, without giving them a chance to surrender, went against everything I believed in.

  So I sprang to my feet, jumped around the corner of the workbench I'd been hiding behind and aimed my pistol at the two Rangers. "Drop your weapons and put your hands on your heads or I'll shoot!" I shouted.

  Two heads adorned with thermal imaging goggles turned in my direction. And neither of them made any attempt to comply with my instructions.

  "Jones?" Reina asked, her mouth hanging open in surprise.

  The lieutenant, meanwhile, simply spun towards me and opened fire with his pistol. I'd expected as much, so I returned fire while I flung myself back behind the workbench.

  The lieutenant grunted in pain and swore, but I didn't hear him go down, so I must have only winged him. "Jones is in here!" he bellowed. "Maeda, Miyazaki, take him out. Kimura, keep those Custodians busy. Reina, with me, let's get those bombs on the missiles."

  Two pairs of booted feet rushed towards me, coming from opposite directions. Aware they'd be able to see me as well as I could see them, I scooted backwards, trying to stop them from boxing me in.

  I ran behind a large metal press, and using it as cover, tried to get the drop on one of the Rangers. But with his thermal imaging, he spotted me before I saw him. I had to duck back as a hail of bullets ricocheted off the metal press, barely missing me.

  I continued pulling back, using any available cover in an attempt to avoid getting nailed, but when a burst of bullets hammered a workbench on my left, I realised my peril. By working in tandem, the Rangers had managed to corner me.

  I could hear them, coming closer and closer, and I began to panic. What was I thinking, coming in here and trying to stop five Ranges by myself? If I died here, what would happen to Nanako? Her fears that I'd be killed on duty would be realised, and coupled with her current fears that I did not love her as much as she thought, she would probably fall into a very severe depression.

  I could not allow that to happen! I prepared to rush one of my two stalkers when the impossible happened – all the factory lights suddenly turned on.

  All five Rangers screamed in pain as the bright light overwhelmed their visual senses, thanks to their light amplification goggles.

  I acted immediately, leaping to my feet and climbing to the top of the skeletal truck chassis beside me. I spotted both Rangers hunting me and despatched them with two shots.

  That threat gone, I jumped off the truck and sprinted towards the truck carrying the cruise missile. I fired at the Ranger lieutenant, who had removed his goggles and was blinking rapidly, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He put down the detonator he was holding and fired several shots in my general direction.

  I jumped behind a metal press, took aim, and put a bullet through his head. He collapsed back against the truck and slid to the concrete floor like a rag doll.

  That left only Reina and the other Ranger near the loading dock. I ran towards the roller door but stopped when I caught sight of the Ranger. He was sprawled on the floor in a most unnatural position. A Custodian bullet must have found its mark.

  "Tell me Ethan, has Nanako told you yet what happened to her after the Custodians dumped her back in Hamamachi two years ago?" Reina's voice rang out loud and clear. She was still over near the cruise missile, so I made my way towards her.

  "I asked her, but like I told you before, the only thing she said was that no one would give her a lift back here."

  "She didn't tell you she lost the baby, did she?"

  "Baby – what baby?" I asked, her words slamming into me like a tidal wave. What was she talking about? She was lying, she had to be!

  "She was pregnant when she brought you to Newhome. But when the Custodians dumped her back in Hamamachi, no one would give her a lift back to you. She stopped sleeping and eating, and had a miscarriage. After that, they had to stick her in the nut-house for three months."

  "The what?" I spat as I continued creeping towards her.

  "The nut-house, the loony-bin, you know, the mental hospital."

  "I don't believe you!" I shouted, refusing to let her get to me. Surely if Nanako had been pregnant and had a miscarriage she'd have told me.

  "Hamamachi's a small town so everyone knows everything that goes on there," Reina said. "Besides, you and I were friends, so I tried to look out for her."

  "Really, like the way you tried to strangle her on Sunday?"

  "Oh get real, Ethan! I was just trying to knock her out. And I'm not the one who's been hiding what I'm like from you. I bet she hid her history of mental illness from you before you married her too."

  "She didn't hide anything from me," I said, though my mind was buffeted by doubt – what if Reina was telling me the truth about the baby?

  "Then why is she keeping these things from you, hey? What is she afraid of? You need to ask yourself that."

  I froze then. Reina's questions forced me to face the truth. These things really did happen to Nanako, and the fear that I'd leave her if I found out about them was what she was afraid of.

  If Reina was telling the truth, then Nanako had been pregnant with a precious little life that had been half from her and half from me. What a tragedy that this baby was lost. I would have given anything to have seen them, to have held him or her in my arms and shower them with love and affection. To think that Nanako and I could have been a family now and not just the two of us. Yet as painful as this realisation was to me, it must have been infinitely more painful for her. She'd lost the little life she had carried and was left with neither the child nor me afterwards.

  I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice the movement until it was too late. Reina sprang out from behind a large metal counter and smashed her rifle against my hand, sending the pistol flying from my grip. She followed this by ramming her rifle butt into my chest, right over my recent injury.

  I collapsed to my knees and fought to remain conscious as unbearable pain shot through me and black spots danced before my eyes. I don't know how I did it, but I somehow managed to ride out the wave of pain and remain conscious.

  "That's for breaking three of my ribs," she growled, and then placed her gun against my head. "And for killing Tamura..."

  I tensed, waiting for the killing shot, but she lifted her gun and fired through the open roller door at the Custodians outside instead.

  "You know," I said through teeth clenched in pain, "I heard you arguing with your lieutenant. We both want the same thing."

  "Which is?" she snapped.

  "To destroy the cruise missiles and save Hamamachi."

  She stared at me for an unnervingly long time, and then suddenly picked up a bag of explosives from the floor. "Okay then, let's rig the things and blow them sky high!"

  "Actually, there's another option," said a voice close by.

  I turned around and was surprised to see David stand up from behind the flatbed truck that mounted the cruise missile.

  "David Chen, you absolute idiot!" I yelled, rage at his senseless behaviour consuming me. "This mess, all those dead Custodians outside, this is all your fault!"

  "I didn't have a choice," he replied angrily as he turned and helped Leigh back to his feet. "The Rangers brought him with them and told me they'd kill him if I didn't let them in when I found out where the nuke was," he explained. His eyes sent daggers in Reina's direction.

  "They blackmailed you when we were back in Hamamachi?" I asked.

  He nodded. "I've been in communication with them by Morse code at night ever since we got back."

  "Sorry to interrupt your happy reunion, boys, but you said there was another option, David. We don't have much time. So
oner or later those Custodians are going to realise no-one's shooting at them and they're going to come charging in here like a pack of wounded bulls," Reina butted in.

  With his arm around Leigh's waist to help him walk, David came around to our side of the truck. He turned on a computer built into the side of the cruise missile's launch rail. "You said the guidance program is working, Jones, but not the detonator? How about I reprogram it so it comes down in the middle of the Southern Ocean?"

  "But won't the Custodians notice you've changed it?" I asked as I walked over to Leigh and gave him a welcoming embrace. He didn't bother returning the gesture, of course, nor did I expect him too. He was not a happy guy.

  "Not if we fire the missile now," David replied.

  "Um, there's a roof above our heads, in case you didn't notice," I pointed out.

  "It's only aluminium and perspex sheets. I reckon a couple of shots from Corporal Reina's grenade launcher would create a big enough hole."

  Reina pumped the grenade launcher beneath her rifle. "Tell me where to aim, David."

  He pointed to a spot in the roof above. Reina shot two grenades and suddenly there was a gaping hole in the aluminium and perspex sheeting.

  That done, David climbed into the truck cab, switched on the engine, and then returned to the guidance computer and starting typing at a furious speed.

  "I'll send a text to Colonel Yamada to tell him what we're doing – otherwise he'll freak when we launch the missile – and then I'll discourage the Custodians from coming any closer." Reina grabbed her phone and typed a quick message to the Ranger colonel, her fingers moving on the touch screen at a frenetic speed. It was a good thing she thought of that, otherwise any Rangers outside Newhome could have assumed the missile was headed for Hamamachi. After that she put the phone away, slapped another magazine into her assault-rifle and turned to go.

  I grabbed her arm. "Don't kill any more Custodians."

  "Whatever!" she snapped, and then moved carefully towards the roller doors, firing brief bursts from her gun as she went.