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

by Peter R Stone

  "No," I said. "They don't work. They're museum pieces."

  "Correct," Jack added. "They're over a hundred years old, all of 'em. The bikie gangs who founded the Skel chapters used to ride 'em. The Skel would give anything to ride 'em too, but they ain’t got no spare parts."

  "The Skel's ancestors were bikies? That explains a lot," David mused as he ran his eyes over the beautiful bikes arrayed in neat rows.

  "Excuse my ignorance, but what is a bikie?" Madison asked.

  "A bikie was a member of a motorcycle gang," I replied.

  "Illegal motorcycle gangs on the most part, in the case of the Skel's ancestors," Jack added.

  It was hard getting my head around this startling revelation, but it set my imagination adrift. I could visualise the members of the outlaw motorcycle gangs getting together after the nukes came down and the petrol ran out, and over the decades, evolving into a new, depraved society through which to express their crooked individuality.

  The last warehouse that Jack took us to was packed with wooden crates crammed full of ripening vegetables – the market gardens' produce.

  I walked over to one of the closest crates, picked up a handful of carrots, and showed them to Nanako.

  "You thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

  "Sure am," I replied, and then turned to our guide. "Hey Jack, if we remove just a few handfuls of vegies, will anyone notice?"

  "Nah, wouldn't think so."

  "So let's load up and take 'em back to the resin-factory. Give your people something to eat," I suggested.

  Jack was so overcome with emotion that it took him a moment to speak. "You'd do that? I mean, it's something we've always wished we could do, but they guard the warehouse during the day and lock us up at night. And if we try to smuggle even the slightest morsel of food back from the gardens, they give us a savage beating."

  "We can’t give you much, though," Nanako said sadly, "or you’ll be sick."

  "Look, anything would be appreciated," Jack said.

  We loaded up a couple of wooden crates with vegies – including potatoes checked thoroughly to make sure they weren't green – and then carted them back to the resin-factory.

  "Tell me, Jack," I said as he shuffled along beside us in the cold night air, "why have they stuffed you lot in the resin-factory? Surely those fumes aren't doing your health any favours?"

  "It’s one of the only warehouses that’s still intact, you know, with no holes in the walls or roof. They’re afraid we’ll try to escape if they billet us in anything less secure."

  "Should make them sleep in there with you, see what they think then," Nanako said angrily.

  "Our longevity ain’t exactly one of their priorities," Jack explained. "The sooner we die, the more bones they get for their suits of armour."

  "That’s an awfully inefficient, barbaric system," I said as we reached the resin-factory and carted our two crates of vegies inside.

  "They don’t care. Thanks to those accursed Rangers, we slaves are a readily renewable resource."

  "Do they bring new batches of slaves here often?" I asked.

  "The Rangers?"

  "Yeah."

  "It’s sporadic. Might bring three truckloads in one week, and then nothing for a month."

  We stepped out of the office and into the warehouse and bumped into a small crowd of slaves who were waiting for Jack to return.

  "You brought us food?" the redheaded girl asked, though none too kindly. "What if it’s missed? There’ll be all hell to pay."

  "Don’t worry, we just skimmed a few from each crate," Jack said, trying to placate her. "Please hand ‘em out, but make sure no one gorges themselves. I don’t want no one getting sick. And we gotta finish it all too, can’t leave any evidence of this laying about afterwards."

  The girl nodded, and helped Nanako, David, Shorty and Leigh to hand out the food. The slaves who were still asleep didn’t take to kindly when they were woken in the middle of the night. They quit fussing once they saw the reason, though.

  "That’s my sister, Beth, by the way," Jack said after they’d gone off to hand out the food.

  "How’d you two get caught?" I asked.

  "Rangers," he spat. "We lived in a small community – there were thirty-five of us – but raiders hit us. They took what they could carry and burned the rest. We couldn’t stay there anymore, and we’d heard about Hamamachi’s prosperity, so we made our way there, hoping they’d grant us refugee status."

  "But the Rangers intercepted you on the way and brought you here," I growled. I so wanted to pop every Ranger in the head for these crimes.

  "You got it."

  "Were all the slaves here brought by the Rangers?"

  "’Bout half, perhaps? The rest of us were nabbed by the Skel on one of their raids. They’re sneaky little blighters, conducting raids all over Vic, and grabbing people when they least expect it." Jack looked at me meaningfully. "Something’s got to be done about ‘em, Ethan, the Skel and Rangers both."

  "We’re working on it," I assured him sincerely. Unfortunately, the solution wasn’t gonna help them at all, and for that I felt terrible.

  Nanako and the others returned after handing out all the food.

  "We need to move on," Madison said. "If we stay in one spot too long we risk being discovered."

  I looked at Jack and his sister Beth, and at the older woman we’d spoken to earlier. "Look, we gotta go. I’m sorry we couldn’t do more."

  "We gonna see you again?" Beth asked, "Or you just gonna walk off and forget all about us."

  I glanced at Nanako, and saw the pain in her eyes. She wanted to help them too. "I dunno, we’ll have to see. We’re not planning on staying here long, though."

  "Nice for you," Beth spat and hobbled off.

  We turned to go, but Jack grabbed my arm. I couldn’t believe how weak his grip was. "Don’t forget us, Jones. Tell people about us, make them aware of our plight, and send someone to rescue us."

  I gave his hand a squeeze in a vain attempt to reassure him. Tell who, exactly?

  And then we were back out in the car park with the wooden crates we’d used to deliver the vegies. With hands shaking from guilt, I put the padlock back on the resin-factory’s door, locking the poor unfortunates back into their prison. After that we put the crates back in the food supplies warehouse and made sure we left everything exactly as we’d found it.

  Then we left the factory complex and headed back towards the market gardens and our temporary accommodation. I glanced at Nanako, and saw her studying my face in the moonlight.

  "We did good, right?" I asked, totally unconvinced.

  Chapter Sixteen

  "Wasn’t enough," she said.

  "What more can we do, then?"

  "We cannot do anything for them, and you know it, so stop beating yourselves up for nothing," Madison piped up from the back of our group. "We came here to do a job, remember? Not to give temporary aid to a bunch of slaves on death’s door."

  "Someone burn your conscience with a hot iron or something?" David asked her.

  "Don’t think she’s got one," Leigh quipped.

  "We cannot let them distract us from the bigger picture," Madison continued. "We came here to expose the Rangers, so let us stay focused."

  Madison was right, but it didn’t make me feel any better. Nor did it stop me feeling like whacking her on the head too.

  "Isn't there some way we can get them out of here?" Nanako ignored Madison completely.

  "If there is, I can't think of it," I replied, frustration colouring my words. "Firstly, we don't have any way of getting their chains off. Secondly, even if we did, how far do you think they'd get on foot? They're too malnourished and ill to take anywhere. They'd collapse on the way."

  "Those slaves we just met – they're not the only ones," David said, joining the conversation. "That's just the market gardeners. What about the rest of them?"

  "So we just sweep the problem under the rug and forget about it?" Nanako
demanded quietly.

  "No!" I replied.

  "Yes!" Madison answered.

  "I dunno what else you think we can do," David said.

  Nanako dropped the topic, then, but I could tell by her vibe she wasn't happy. And nor was I, for that matter – but surely she could see that our hands were tied.

  "Where to now?" Leigh asked as we moved quietly down the street like dark shadows slipping through the night. "We gonna call it quits for tonight?"

  "The night is still young," Madison replied curtly. "I say we investigate the source of the light we saw earlier."

  My head was crammed full of thoughts of Jack, Beth and the other slaves' plight, as well as the fearful sights I'd seen in the charnel house. And simmering away beneath all that were the worries generated by Madison saying Nanako and I couldn't have kids, and what I had to do if she was right.

  "Jones?" Madison prompted.

  "Oh, sorry. Yeah, let's check out the lights we saw further down Police Road. I heard a lot of Skel voices, so I'm curious to find out what they're up to."

  "Lots of Skel?" Leigh asked fearfully.

  "Don't worry, we'll be careful." I turned north-west and led us through a maze of backstreets rather than using the larger roads. I figured there'd be less chance of running into Skel that way. All the same, I kept my wits about me, echolocating constantly. The others followed me in single file, and Madison brought up the rear, singing ultrasonically, as was her way. I found her method of echolocating strangely soothing, and somewhat cultured compared to my system of crude pulse-like shouting.

  We soon emerged from the rabbit warren of suburban houses onto the Princes Highway – a multi-lane thoroughfare boasting an overgrown median strip down the middle. We followed it north-west towards a massive intersection where three different roads converged, creating a large, open triangular area. After we'd passed a furniture store on our right with the entire front wall collapsed, we realised we were close enough to see what was ahead.

  The open area was teeming with Skel. They’d built a massive bonfire in the middle of the intersection, as well as several smaller campfires with spits on which they were roasting lamb or beef.

  "What is it, some kind of Skel get-together?" David asked as he strained his eyes to see what was going on.

  We reached the gutted ruins of a fast-food restaurant on the intersection’s southeast corner, and I indicated for everyone to follow me into the dense shrubs in front of it. We crawled to the edge of the shrubs and carefully peeked out, and found we had a commanding view of the Skel gathering.

  "Wow!" Shorty whispered a tad too loudly, as we took in the riotous view. "Now this is what I call a party."

  "Oh!" Nanako gasped in shock as she took in the sight.

  "Oh my goodness," David practically stammered.

  "They are animals!" Madison exclaimed, truly shocked.

  As for me, I was at a complete loss for words. Never before had I seen a display of such depravity.

  There had to be at least a couple of hundred Skel in the intersection, of whom only a handful were wearing their suits of bone armour. The rest wore black leather trousers and jackets adorned with shiny metal studs. They were also covered with tattoos, both males and females. Many males also sported bushy beards and moustaches, though they'd shaved their heads for the most part. Many women had shaved their heads too, though some had small braids.

  Many Skel were gorging themselves on roast meat and vegies while simultaneously consuming vast quantities of home-brewed liquor. This caused my blood to boil. While all the slaves were suffering from near starvation, here were their Skel overlords engaging in wanton gluttony, gorging themselves on far more food than they needed. The sight of all that delicious roasted beef and vegies got me salivating too. We hadn’t eaten anything that wholesome since we’d left Newhome.

  And it didn’t stop there. Along with getting blind drunk on liquor, others were smoking what had to be some form of drug, going by the vacant expressions on their faces. Several drunken brawls had broken out too, involving members of both sexes, though none of the others seemed to care as they paid the brawlers no attention. I saw one Skel break a wooden crate over the head of another, kick him several times, and then go back to gorge himself on a slab of beef.

  "Hey," Shorty suddenly exclaimed, his eyes wider than I'd ever seen them before. "Some of ‘em are…" His voice trailed off.

  I looked where he pointed, and was utterly disgusted. Several Skel couples were copulating, right out in the open, in view of everyone. Had these people no sense of propriety? No shame?

  "I’ve seen enough," Nanako said, averting her eyes and turning her back on the scene.

  "Me too," David added as he too turned away, his face red.

  "Not me," Shorty said, refusing to turn away.

  "Absolutely disgusting animals," Madison snorted, her face screwed up into a fierce frown.

  I noticed one massive Skel wearing a suit of bone armour with ram's horns on his skull helmet, making his way slowly through the throng of revellers, speaking to a Skel here, another there. Those he spoke to paid him deference, so he was obviously a leader.

  "Hey!" I exclaimed, when I realised I’d seen the Skel before. "It’s Ram-Horns!"

  "What?" Nanako asked, turning back around.

  "Who?" Leigh queried.

  "That massive brute over beside the bonfire with ram's horns on his helmet. That’s the leader of the Skel who caught us in Lilydale."

  "Hey, you’re right," David agreed.

  "Looks like he’s some kinda head honcho," Nanako said softly.

  "Maybe even their top boss," I mused.

  We watched Ram-Horns as he weaved his way slowly through the throng of raucous revellers before we finally tore our eyes from the scene and moved back deeper into the bushes. Okay, I had to grab Shorty and pull him back.

  "We gonna head back now?" Leigh asked, anxious to get as far away from the Skel as he could.

  "Not yet," I replied.

  "Why not?" he demanded.

  "’Cause I’ve got an inkling that at the rate those Skel are boozing and smoking drugs, they’ll all be asleep or unconscious in the not too distant future."

  "So what?"

  "So, I’m hungry, that’s what," I replied.

  "You’re gonna try to steal their food?" David asked, shocked by my audacity.

  "Why not? When’s the last time any of you ate roast beef?"

  "Never," they all replied with the exception of Nanako. They had plenty of cattle over in Hamamachi.

  "Ain’t no way I’m gonna let you risk yourself by sneaking out in the middle of that lot, not even for roast beef," Nanako declared emphatically.

  "Don’t worry, if even one of them’s awake, I won’t do it," I assured her. With that, I lay down in the waist-high grass behind the shrubs and tried to grab some much-needed rest.

  All signs of activity ceased in the intersection a couple of hours later, but we still waited another hour before we ventured cautiously out of our hiding spot and into the midst of our enemies.

  The bonfire was still roaring happily away, but most of the smaller campfires had either died down or gone out. Unconscious and sleeping Skel were sprawled all over the intersection, most snoring loudly. While Nanako and Leigh held loaded bows at the ready, we picked our way carefully past the plastered savages, holding our breath when we got too close. They stank, and I’m not talking about the reek of alcohol. These brutes never washed and gave the phrase ‘offensive body odour’ a whole new meaning.

  "Hey, what's that thing over there?" Shorty pointed to a large contraption set back from the intersection. It consisted of a copper pot, cylinder, tubes and coils, all connected together.

  "It's a still," David said.

  "A still what?" Shorty asked.

  "An apparatus used to distil – sorry – make alcohol," David explained.

  "Why's it set so far back from the road?" I asked. Surely it'd be more accessible if it was in the middle of the
intersection.

  "In case it blows up," David said with a laugh. "They can be pretty volatile."

  "Is that right?" Madison asked, her brow furrowed in thought.

  "Food, people. We're here for food," I said quietly but urgently. The Skel might all be out or asleep, but who knew when one might wake.

  We grabbed a discarded wooden crate and grabbed a large side of beef that had been roasted but otherwise untouched. We filled the crate with enough roast potatoes, pumpkins, and carrots to give us all a good night’s meal, and then made a quiet but hasty exit.

  "Can we slit a few throats before we leave?" Madison asked. She’d paused next to a couple of obese Skel asleep at the edge of the road and was looking down at them with undisguised loathing.

  "No, one of ‘em might make a noise and wake the whole lot of ‘em. Now get over here!" I whispered furiously.

  Madison frowned, but hurried over, and we made our way quietly back to our lodgings, where we gathered in the lounge room downstairs. Then at Nanako's insistence, we ate slowly. I savoured every single bite, especially the beef, since I didn’t recall having eaten it before. It was succulent and juicy, and the flavour blew me away. Going by the expression of rapture on the others' faces, they were feeling the same way. The Skel may be disgusting pigs, but they sure knew how to cook.

  Nanako suddenly pulled two objects out of her pocket and held them up, her face alight with eager anticipation. "Hey, I forgot to tell you what I found when we were pilfering food."

  "A Smartphone and solar recharger?" I asked between mouthfuls. "Where'd you..."

  "I liberated it from one of the Skel," she explained. "Do you know what that means?"

  "It means we have a camera," I said, delighted. Now we'd be able to gather the concrete proof we needed to expose those criminals.

  "That, and it means I can ring Councillor Okada," she said excitedly.

  "You still think Councillor Okada and the Hamamachi Council are not behind the Rangers actions?" Madison scoffed.