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

by Peter R Stone

  "We know Councillor Okada's not involved with the Rangers 'cause they tried to get the Skel to bump him off the day he came to Newhome," I said.

  "Not to mention he's been like a father to Ethan and me." Nanako bristled at Madison's mocking tone.

  "Well, that proves it, then," Madison snarled back.

  "Why do you wanna ring him, anyway?" Leigh asked.

  "I wanna tell him what Ethan's remembered about the Rangers, and that he's remembered the person who shot him is the one who asked him to infiltrate the Rangers. Maybe then the councillor can work out who it is," Nanako explained.

  "May I ask a question?" David piped up from where he was leaning against the staircase.

  "Of course," Nanako replied.

  "If the Rangers tried to have the councillor assassinated, don't you think there's a good chance they're bugging his phone?"

  "Oh, I hadn't thought of that." Nanako looked crestfallen.

  "And if they are bugging his phone, won't they get our phone number, and then be able to track down our location through this phone," David continued.

  "Blast! Yeah, you're right," Nanako agreed. She thumbed the phone off and reluctantly put it back in her pocket.

  "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be able to speak with him soon enough," I said in an attempt to reassure her.

  "You ever used a Smartphone, David?" Madison asked abruptly.

  "Nah."

  "Then how do you know so much about them?" she demanded.

  "I've read a lot of books."

  "Oh come on," Madison scoffed. "We do not have books like that in Newhome."

  "No, we don't," he replied as he defiantly met her glare.

  "Then where..."

  "Oh, come on, Madison," I interrupted, "What do you think my lads and I were doing when we were out foraging?"

  "You were supposed to be foraging for non-corrosive metals."

  "Indeed. Which, for the other foraging teams, meant hours and hours if not days and days, of trying to find non-corrosive metals to scavenge."

  "But not your team?" she asked gruffly.

  "Think about it, Madison. Thanks to my ability, I located metals with a minimum of searching. And after we'd filled up the truck, we spent the rest of the day reading or engaging in other recreational activities."

  "You were supposed to be working, not reading literature not been approved by the council!" Madison protested.

  "We always exceeded our quota and brought back more metals than the other teams, so who cares what else we got up to?"

  "It is all beginning to make sense, now." Madison nodded to herself.

  "What is?"

  "Where your subversive ideas came from. These prohibited books that you read, they corrupted you."

  "They didn't corrupt us, they opened our eyes to what life was like before the Apocalypse," I snapped.

  "Bah!" Madison exclaimed.

  We went back to concentrating on eating after that.

  "Man, beef beats chicken any day," Shorty declared, as the juice ran down his chin.

  "And fish," Leigh added.

  "Have I eaten beef before, Nana-chan?" I asked.

  "Many times," she said.

  "You Japanese are spoilt." Shorty pouted.

  "I think it's more a matter of Newhome’s isolation," she replied.

  "The town's isolationist policy is for the good of the people," Madison said testily.

  "Good of the people?" Leigh asked, eyes wide with disbelief. "It's a flippin' prison, is what it is."

  "For a hundred years the Councillors and Custodians have provided peace and security for the people. If not for their efforts, the town would have perished long ago. Your lack of gratitude and appreciation for their foresight and hard work is indicative of your self-centred, narrow minded attitude, Leigh," Madison replied angrily.

  "Narrow minded? I'll tell you what narrow minded is. It's executing a teenage girl for a minor misdemeanour," Leigh shot back.

  "Your neighbour's daughter was convicted of serious sexual misconduct and sentenced according to the law," Madison declared without a shred of compassion.

  "You know about that?" Leigh asked, dumbfounded.

  "Of course," Madison replied smugly. "I know all about the five of you. For example, I know that it was your friend David here who reported your sexual misconduct to the Custodians."

  David jerked back as though he'd been struck, and with his face bright red, upped and stalked from the room.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Leigh scooted a little closer to Madison. "Amelia was eighteen, Madison! Can you hear me? Eighteen!"

  "And having reached the age of adulthood, she was sentenced accordingly."

  "And you think that was fair?"

  "Yes, I do."

  "What? You’re nuts! How about this then? While Amelia was executed, my sentence was transmuted to six-years hard labour."

  "What is your point?"

  "You think that's fair? One rule for the women and another for the men?"

  "That was the magistrate's decision, Leigh. A decision for which you should be appreciative, not angry!"

  "Oh come on, Madison," I said. "Surely you can see that Newhome's laws and sentencing discriminate against women? They're not allowed to go to school, not allowed to work. They're not even allowed to speak at the dinner table without a male's permission!"

  "Newhome's laws were meticulously laid out by the chancellor for the good of the people. Men and women have different roles to play in society, and our laws recognise that."

  "And enforce them a little too harshly, don't you think?"

  "Absolutely not. All the chancellor's ways are fair and just. That you guys cannot see this is indicative of how narrow minded you all are."

  I blustered at that comment, but before I could speak, Nanako reached out a hand to stay me. "This conversation's going nowhere."

  I wanted to keep going, but I recalled the tongue-lashing Nanako gave me after I'd attempted in vain to show my father that Newhome's culture and traditions were absurd. I bit my tongue.

  "Bah!" Madison said.

  "Humph!" Leigh expired. But they let the matter drop, all the same.

  I stuffed my last piece of baked pumpkin in my mouth and hurried outside to look for David.

  I found him in the weed-overgrown backyard, kicking a lump of concrete around while muttering away under his breath.

  "You okay, mate?" I asked as I sat on top of a rickety wooden crate.

  "I make one mistake and it follows me for the rest of my life," he grumbled.

  "Considering the nature of the mistake, I think you’re just gonna have to accept that," I said.

  "You’re a great help."

  "No, I mean it. You can’t get away from what you did, and you can’t go rushing off in a huff or getting upset every time someone mentions it. You apologised to Leigh…"

  "Fat lot of good that did! He still hates my guts."

  "He’s coming around."

  "Yeah, right."

  "You just gonna have to give it more time."

  "What if he never forgives me?"

  I sighed. "Then you’re just gonna have to deal with that, too."

  David kicked the chunk of concrete off into the blackberry bushes on the other side of the yard. "Yeah, I guess so."

  "Now come on, get back inside and finish your food."

  "And face that smug cow again?"

  "Don’t let her win," I said firmly.

  "I really, really wish you hadn’t brought her."

  "She’s a right pain in the behind, I know, but she’s an asset to our group." I stood and headed back inside.

  "That remains to be seen," David replied. But then, to his credit, he swallowed his wounded pride and followed me.

  After ‘dinner,’ I grabbed Nanako’s hand and led her upstairs so we could try to catch some sleep. It was in the early-morning hours, and I wanted to get some shuteye before the sun came up. Nanako lay half on top of me as usual, so I set to kneading
the tension from the muscles in her back and right leg, which she’d dropped on my torso. She sighed deeply, and moments later, her arms and legs began twitching. Considering how tired I was and that I had a full stomach for a change, I figured I'd fall asleep soon too, but thoughts of the atrocities and deprivations we’d witnessed tonight kept swirling around my mind. I hoped the Rangers would turn up soon, since I couldn’t wait to get out of this horrific nightmare of a place...

  ...I was up on the ceramic tile roof at the back of the two-storey townhouse, lying down with my hands behind my head. It wasn't the most comfortable of places to be, but as I’d sometimes slept on the roof of our ten-storey apartment block back in Newhome, I was used to it.

  From here, I had a commanding view of the open sea that stretched out from Hamamachi. The house belonged to an elderly couple who lived next door to Nanako's family. After I'd come to Hamamachi, they kindly agreed to rent me a room, asking for only a pittance in return.

  And although I'd been to Nanako's place for dinner (and breakfast!) every day since I came to Hamamachi five weeks ago, she'd asked me not to come over tonight. There was some kind of official social gathering going down between another family and hers. She hadn’t come forth with any more information than that, and to be honest, had seemed rather embarrassed by it all. So tonight I'd dined with my host family – what was with all that sweet potato anyway? And then retired to the roof.

  I'd been up here on the roof staring at the sea and daydreaming (about Nanako mostly) for some time, when I heard her front door open and followed by several voices talking politely. Unable to resist the temptation to see who'd been to her place this evening, I inched over to the side of the roof and sneaked a peek down into the street.

  A family dressed in formal attire had come out of Nanako's house – an older man in a gray suit, a similarly aged woman in a colourful kimono, and a young man not much older than me. I did a double take when I realised the young man was actually Ken Abe, Councillor Okada's nephew. I was immediately struck by an avalanche of thoughts and strong emotions. What was he doing there, and with his family? Was there some kind of relationship between Ken and Nanako that I wasn’t aware of? I mean, I knew he was always staring at her, but I thought she didn’t give a hoot about him.

  I watched as Nanako and her mother saw their guests to their car, bowing and apologising profusely, until Ken's parents got in the car and drove off.

  Ken and Nanako remained outside, looking uncomfortable, if not downright embarrassed. I knew I should have backed off and given them some privacy, but my curiosity was piqued, and besides, I could hear every word they were saying.

  "Why on earth did you ask me to marry you, Ken? Please don’t tell me you’re in love with me," Nanako said bluntly.

  Ken asked her to marry him? My heart skipped a beat upon the realisation that if Nanako had answered yes, my growing friendship with her, which had come to mean everything to me, was over. But how could Nanako care about Ken, when she and I had been inseparable since I came here five weeks ago?

  "Well, you know how it is," Ken replied somewhat awkwardly.

  "No, I don't," she snapped.

  "It seemed like the right thing to do."

  "Stop dancing around the question and just come out and answer it – do you love me?" Nanako pressed, clearly irritated.

  I held my breath while waiting for Ken’s answer. The suspense was killing me. Had she accepted his proposal or not? I couldn’t bear the thought of her marrying Ken – or anyone else for that matter.

  "No, no I don't," he replied reluctantly.

  "I didn’t think so," she said.

  "Is that why you turned me down?" he asked, an edge to his tone.

  A massive sense of relief flooded my being – she’d turned him down!

  "I'll marry for love and love alone, and besides, I wouldn't marry you if you were the last person on earth."

  "Is that right? Well, I'll have you know that by rejecting my marriage proposal you've passed up your only chance to get married," he snapped angrily.

  "And how do you figure that?"

  "No one else'll ever want you, not with your mental problems and all."

  Now Nanako sounded hurt – deeply so. "If you think I've got so many mental problems, why'd you ask me to marry you then?"

  "You know I like you and will do right by you, yeah? Besides, I feel sorry for you, and I know that if I don't marry you, no one else will," he said, trying to act all gallant and noble.

  "So you wanna marry me 'cause you pity me?"

  "What’s wrong with that? Besides," and I could see the slimy smile on his face as he said this, "you're a fabulous cook, and you've got a great body. So come on, why don't you just say yes? We'll have a good enough life together."

  "Wow, Ken, if you think you can convince me to marry you with a speech like that, you're even dumber than you look."

  "Oh, come off your high horse, Nanako, you'll never get a chance like this. Just say yes, will you? Life's not some stupid fairytale where you get to marry a prince and ride off into the sunset. I'm your one and only chance for marriage, and if you can't see that, you're as blind as a bat."

  "I said no, Ken, and I meant it," Nanako said, and turned to go back inside.

  But Ken reached out and grabbed her arm. "You're making a big mistake, Nanako."

  "Let go of me!"

  "No, I won't, not until you come to your senses."

  Without making a sound, I climbed down the back of the house and darted around to the front yard. I hopped over the fence, and crept up on Ken and stopped a couple of feet behind him. He’d let go of Nanako now, but was still trying to convince her that he was her only chance at marriage.

  Nanako noticed my approach and fell instantly silent. Ken hesitated, and then, noticing she was looking at something behind him, whirled around and just about jumped out of his skin when he saw me standing so close.

  "Where the blazes did you come from?" he practically shouted.

  "I heard every word you said," I replied in my ever-improving Japanese. I’d only been learning it for five weeks, but I was like a sponge, absorbing and remembering everything I heard. Nanako said it was spooky how quickly I was picking it up.

  Ken was not impressed. "Just nick off, stupid gaijin. And stop spying on people."

  "I think you’ll find that you’re the one who’s gonna leave." I refused to budge an inch.

  Ken blustered and took a step forward. "I’m warning you, I’ve got a black belt in karate."

  "This is where I get scared, right?" I asked simply, keeping my hands at my sides. Regardless of what Ken did, I would not fight him. He wasn’t my enemy – the Skel were.

  "Ken, just…just go, okay?" Nanako said wearily.

  "Fine, whatever!" Ken snarled, and then stalked off to his car. Well, the car he chauffeured around for Councillor Okada – that big black 4WD.

  After he’d gone, Nanako looked up at me from beneath her long black fringe. "You heard every word?"

  "I did, yeah. Look, I’m sorry, but I just happened to be nearby. I wasn’t spying or anything, honest," I said, worried she’d think I was spying on her when she’d told me to stay away tonight.

  Her shoulders slumped and she reached out and touched my wrist. "That's okay, you’ve got nothing to apologise for. Honestly, I’m glad you came along when you did."

  I sighed in relief. I did not want to get in Nanako’s bad books. Getting to know her over the past five weeks had been like a dream. "He was trying pretty hard to get you to marry him, eh?"

  Nanako ran her hands down her face. "I’ve so been dreading today, I really have. Ken’s parents approached my mother last week and arranged this meeting towards the possibility of us getting married. It was all very formal, but oh, I wish he’d spoken to me first, since we both looked like absolute idiots when he popped the question after dinner and I turned him down. I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life. It’s bad enough that he stares at me all the time, but this was j
ust the pits."

  "When was he hoping you’d marry him?"

  "He wanted to draw up a marriage contract stating we'd get married when I turned twenty."

  "In two years, huh?" I asked, as a host of thoughts thrust themselves into my mind and I considered the ramifications of what she said. Marriage contracts could be drawn up for a couple to get married two years in the future? That was similar to Newhome, except it was never more than two months there.

  "Yeah," Nanako replied as she turned and headed back to her place. She paused when she realised I hadn’t moved and turned back to face me. "Well, are you coming in for a cuppa or you just gonna stand there? I could use some cheering up after that disaster."

  I didn’t need to be asked twice...

  ...I jerked awake, initially disorientated by the after-effects of the vivid dream, and then breathed a massive sign of relief when I felt Nanako lying on top of me. I stroked her beautiful hair – okay, it was seriously in need of a wash – but I reflected on this new piece of the jigsaw puzzle of my missing memories.

  I wondered why Nanako had never told me Ken had asked her to marry him? That was a pretty significant life event, surely. Then again, she’d been so embarrassed by the whole thing, so I guess that’s not the sort of thing she’d want to share. If it’d been me, I wouldn’t have brought it up again either. Some dogs are best left asleep.

  The event in the dream had taken place five weeks after I’d gone to Hamamachi, so it must have been around mid-February. Nanako and I were obviously very close by that point, but what had happened between then and when we got married in late Feb? Nanako said I was the one who’d popped the question, so I must have moved pretty quickly.

  Man, but I wish I could retrieve all my memories rather than have to wait for them to return piece by annoying piece at random intervals like this.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Late the next morning, we gathered in the lounge room to scoff a cold breakfast of last night’s leftovers and what little stores we had left of the bush tucker we’d brought from St. Kilda. Nanako and I lounged on a decrepit old two-seater sofa. Shorty sat cross-legged on a TV cabinet – there was no sign of the TV – and David was leaning back against the wall beside Shorty. Leigh sat on a large chunk of plaster that had fallen from the ceiling, and Madison was sitting on the stairs.