"No, it is not Rangers," Madison replied. "Looks like the Skel have rounded up a great many slaves and brought them together."
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" I mumbled as I leaped to my feet and followed Madison to the smaller bedroom that gave a commanding view of Police Road. This was the very thing I'd been afraid of – that the Skel would blame the slaves for what we did last night. This could be bad, really, really bad.
From the bedroom window, we could see straight up Police Road at the throng of Skel and slaves gathered before the community center. The Skel were shouting and screaming obscenities and threats at the slaves, many of whom were cringing or crying.
"What’s going on?" Nanako asked as she sidled alongside me. David, Shorty and Leigh were already in the room, and all were fidgeting nervously.
"We gotta get closer." I jumped up and ran down the rickety stairs to get my bow and arrows.
"You can’t go out there!" Nanako declared as she and the others rushed down too.
I placed the quiver over my shoulder, grabbed the bow, and darted for the door. "I have to know what’s happening."
"I will come too." Madison hurried to my side.
"I’ll only go close enough to find out what’s going down," I assured Nanako, who was watching me in alarm.
"Do you have any idea of how many Skel are out there, Jones?" David asked as he followed me to the door.
I grabbed David’s shoulder. "I’m going, okay?"
Nanako suddenly grabbed her bow and arrows and hurried over to join me. "We’ll all go, then."
Leigh stepped back towards the staircase, shaking his head. "No way, I ain’t doing no more stupid forays out there. And especially not during daylight!"
"Fine, you stay, then," I spat, and then ran out of the house, with Nanako, Madison, and David on my heels. Seemed Shorty was in Leigh’s camp, the wuss.
Chapter Twenty
Keeping low to reduce my profile, I led us through the backyard, over the fence, through the neighbouring house, and then quickly across Withers Avenue, which ran perpendicular to Police Road. This we could do without fear of discovery as there were no slaves or Skel overseers in the market gardens.
Once across the road we climbed over the side fence of the first house and made our way through the backyards of the next two. Thinking we were close enough now, we crept into the front yard of the fourth house and hunkered down behind a collapsed brick fence that was half concealed by waist-high grass mixed with a prickly blackberry bush.
From here I could see that a couple of hundred slaves – who were all down on their knees – had been gathered together in front of the community centre, a ramshackle brick building with a Jimmy-rigged roof made of wooden planks. Several dozen Skel, all wearing their suits of bone armour, stood haphazardly around the slaves, shouting and yelling. And not just at the slaves, but at each other too. It became immediately apparent that while some Skel thought the slaves did it, others were adamant that they couldn't possibly have.
A gunshot suddenly split the air, causing everyone to fall silent, and I watched as Ram-Horns strode to the fore, holding an old bolt-action rifle.
"That’s more like it," he bellowed. "A man can’t hear himself think with all this racket! Now, which of you slaves can tell me who blew up my still?"
No one moved, so Ram-Horns aimed the gun randomly at a slave and fired. Blood splattered and the slave slumped to the ground, causing a fresh outburst of wailing and crying.
A gurgled cry escaped from my lips. It was then that I spotted Jack and Beth, and many others from the resin-factory, mixed in with the slaves. They seemed especially nervous since they must have worked out who blew up the still, yet they must also have been aware that if they were to reveal that information, they would only bring their overlords' wrath upon their own heads for not reporting us earlier.
"Silence!" Ram-Horns bellowed at the wailing slaves. "I will ask you one last time, who blew up the still?"
There was still no movement from amongst the slaves, but Skel suddenly strode into their midst and pulled several them to their feet. They dragged them out to the front, to stand quivering before Ram-Horns.
"This is the lot who operated the still," declared a Skel.
"Start talking." Ram-Horns ordered.
The slaves either glanced unsurely at each other or just stared at the ground in resignation.
"I said talk!" the Skel leader shrieked.
"We don’t know, Master," a man finally replied. "We was all locked up for the night."
"Wrong answer!" Ram-Horns shouted, and promptly shot him in the head. He reloaded the rifle and then pointed it at another man. "Your turn, maggot. Who destroyed the still?"
To say that I was horrified by the events unfolding before my eyes was an understatement. I couldn't just stand here and watch while Ram-Horns shot them all, and so with my face on fire and my heart thumping furiously, I drew my pistol from its holster. With just four bullets left, I had to make them count. Ram-Horns would go down first, and after that, the three closest Skel.
"What are you doing, Jones?" David demanded in a fierce whisper when he noticed the pistol in my hand.
"We gotta do something," I said as I rose up and prepared to charge Ram-Horns before he shot the next slave.
"No, Ethan – stop!" Nanako said as she reached out and grabbed me.
"This mess is all our fault! These slaves are getting murdered because of what we did. We can't just sit here and watch!" I protested vehemently.
"That may be true." She stood and pushed her face into mine. "But you rush out there now and the only thing you're gonna do is get yourself and the rest of us killed."
I pulled back from her and at the sound of another gunshot, turned my attention back to the community centre in time to see another slave – a middle-aged woman this time – slump to the ground. Ram-Horns aimed his gun at sickly teenage boy, who fell to his knees and begged for mercy. "Please, Master, you gotta believe us! We didn't do it!"
Ram-Horns fired and the boy joined his fellows on the blood soaked, dusty road.
I clenched the pistol until my knuckles went white. "We have to do something – we have to." I tried to shake Nanako's hands off my arm so I could climb over the brick fence.
"How many do you think you'll take down before they shoot you?" Madison asked.
"I only need to take out Ram-Horns and they'll realise we're not slaves," I stressed with urgency. "Now please, let me go!"
"You can't, Jones!" David declared. "That whole mob'll come charging over here if you do that, and it's not just us they'll kill, but they'll find Leigh and Shorty too. You want that?"
Another gunshot shattered the morning air, sending me into a panic. I had to act, and I had to act now!
"Ethan – enough!" Nanako snapped, but with a tone that stopped me in my tracks. I'd never heard her talk to me like that before, and it cut right through my swirling emotions, dragging me back to my senses.
I sank back down behind the fence and met her eyes, which were ablaze with anger.
"Ethan, we're going back to our hideout. And we're going back now," she declared in the same tone.
I nodded in agreement, but it still took Nanako and David to pull me back from the dreadful scene playing out across the road.
We made our way back to our hideout without talking. My emotions were a train wreck jumble of guilt and regret. We heard two more gunshots on the way, and although the Skel kept shouting, there were no more after that.
We stumbled into our house, where Leigh and Shorty waited in a lounge room half-lost in shadow now that it was daylight.
"What’s happening out there?" Leigh asked.
"Just what we feared," David replied when it was obvious I wasn’t going to. "The Skel are blaming the slaves for the still’s destruction and are shooting ‘em in an attempt to make ‘em cough up who did it."
"Oh man – Jones – you idiot!" Leigh groaned. "We told you not to do it. Why didn’t you listen?"
&n
bsp; "Oh, stop making such a monumental fuss over a few slaves getting shot," Madison snapped when she stepped into the lounge room through the window. "They're just casualties of war."
Hearing Madison dismiss the situation so casually sent me spiralling into a rage. I grabbed her and slammed her back against the wall beside the door with such force that it smashed the plaster behind her. "They're not casualties of war! They're people – and they're dead because we destroyed the still!"
"Ethan!" Nanako said, fuming with anger.
"What?" I demanded.
"Calm down."
"Those people are dead, Nanako, and it’s our fault."
"We warned you not to go on that fool's mission," Leigh piped up from the background.
"Not helping, Leigh!" David tried to shush him.
Nanako grabbed me and pulled me away from Madison, who continued to infuriate me by calmly wiping the plaster dust from the broken wall off her clothes as though nothing had happened.
"I know they are, Ethan," Nanako said. "And yes, it’s partially our fault, but you're gonna have to deal with it, 'cause we can’t undo it."
"But..."
"And don't get me started on you almost rushing in there to take on the Skel single handedly. What would I have done if you'd gone and got yourself killed? Did you think of that?"
"I wasn't thinking clearly..."
"No. You weren't thinking clearly – you weren't thinking at all. Look, I know we stuffed up, but we're not the ones who killed those slaves, the Skel are. Yeah, we did something dumb, and if you'd listened to us this wouldn't have happened in the first place, but you gotta stop reacting like this. Turn your anger away from yourself, away from us, and aim it at the Skel. They're the ones who shot the slaves."
Feeling shamed by Nanako's public dressing down, I nevertheless took a deep breath and tried to process what she said. But the images of those unfortunates getting shot by the Skel continued to dominate my thoughts.
"You know we cannot stop with just the still, right?" Madison asked suddenly.
"What?" the rest of us asked in unison.
"We have to keep destroying the Skel's infrastructure."
"You're kidding me, right?" I asked in sheer disbelief.
"No, I am not."
"Didn’t you see what happened out there? Haven’t you been listening to a word we've said?"
"I see a bunch of children overreacting to something that is not their fault."
I wanted to slam her against the wall again, but a glance at Nanako put that idea to rest. "You’d better listen up, Madison, and listen up good," I said heatedly. "We're not taking any more action against the Skel. We're gonna sit here, day in and day out, doing nothing but watching and waiting for the Rangers to show up. You got me?"
"If you cannot make the tough decisions, Jones, it is time for you to step aside and let someone who can make them take command of this group," she replied.
"Madison, just...get back in your hole, okay?" I asked, scarcely believing my ears. She was challenging my leadership?
Seeing that she wasn’t gonna get anywhere with us, Madison threw her hands in the air and went upstairs, muttering to herself about how infantile and immature we all were.
A sharp metallic sensation shot through my tongue, followed by another, and then came a seizure. I ran my hands through my hair and sighed as I waited for it to run its course, and then went and sat in the darkest corner of the lounge room – the spot between the wall and the threadbare two-seater sofa. I just wanted to be alone and work through this mess in my mind. This was one of the worst days of my life. Those poor slaves. They had a terrible life to begin with, but to be executed in cold blood in retaliation for something they didn’t do? What a nightmare. I wished we’d never come here.
"What’s with him?" Shorty whispered.
David grabbed Shorty by the arm and dragged him upstairs after him, whispering, "Just shut it, okay?"
Leigh followed them, leaving only Nanako over near the front door and me in my corner. I was hoping for some time to myself, but it seemed that wasn’t to be. Nanako came over and stood before me, and I could tell from her expression that I was still in her bad books. At any other time, I would have reflected on how gorgeous she looked when she frowned, but I was too beat up inside to focus on that now.
"What?" I snapped rather unkindly.
"You can't afford to lose your rag like that," she said softly, but with that disapproving tone still prevalent.
Chapter Twenty-One
"But..."
"No buts, Ethan. You gotta pull yourself together." She glared down at me. "Look, I hesitate to say this, but let me ask you a question. Would you rather be dead or be a Skel slave with no avenue of ever escaping?"
"Dead," I replied without even the slightest hesitation.
"Me too."
"Oh," I said softly when I saw where she was going with this. Still...
"What happened was bad, and yes, it happened because of us, but we can't have you going ape like this when bad things happen."
I tried to get my head around the point she was trying to make.
"Remember what Leigh told us before we set off?" she asked.
"Yeah, nothing ever goes the way we plan or want it to."
"Well, he was right, wasn’t he?"
"Yeah, but..."
"No buts! I want you to sit here, work through this, and pull yourself together. And reflect on the fact that more things like this may happen, and how you should react when they do. Okay?"
Man, this was like getting a lecture from my father, or Michal... That brought me up short. Everything she’d just said was exactly the sort of thing Michal would be telling me right now if he was here.
"Okay." I hung my head in shame.
"One last thing – please don't take your frustration out on Madison – you almost pushed her through the wall. How do you think you'd be feeling right now if you injured or killed her in your anger?"
"But she's so infuriating!"
"I know, but as our leader you’re the one who made the call to go on this mission, not her. You could have rejected her suggestion, like David and Leigh asked you to, like I wanted you to."
"But you just said..."
"I know what I said!"
"I'm getting mixed signals here," I protested.
"Okay – we’re all to blame to some degree or another, but we gotta temper our reactions when things go wrong. That's all I'm saying. And yeah, we all feel like throttling Madison, but that doesn't mean we can give in to that impulse and act on it."
"So I’ve got to apologise to her too, now?" I asked as I leaned my head back against the wall.
"That’s for you to decide," she said, and then she was gone, leaving me alone in the corner with emotions and a head full of thoughts running rampant, trying to pull me under.
I stayed there a long time, working through things, telling myself off, and trying to change my attitude so I wouldn’t go flying off the handle next time something like this happened. If it happened again. After that, I went and apologised to Madison, and got a "Whatever!" response for my efforts. Then she’d asked if I’d changed my mind about not harassing the Skel anymore. When I told her I hadn’t, she’d stalked off in a huff.
I stayed away from everyone, including Nanako, for the rest of the day except when it was my turn to be on watch. I felt like I was diseased or something. I wondered what they all thought of me, thanks to my immature behaviour today.
When night fell, I plucked up the courage to mount the stairs and try my luck with Nanako, who’d gone to bed an hour earlier.
Thinking I might earn another tongue-lashing should I wake her, I tiptoed across the room and lay beside her on the makeshift bed.
To my surprise, she woke immediately and snuggled up to me, throwing her leg and arm across me. "Took your time getting up here," she said sleepily, but with a touch of amusement. "Was beginning to think you were gonna hide from me all day."
"You’re n
ot mad at me anymore?" I asked, perplexed.
"Of course, not, you big doofus. I can never stay angry with you for long, you know that. Now hold me so I can get some sleep."
I wrapped her up in my arms, and though she fell asleep instantly. Sleep was a long, long time coming for me.
* * *
The next two days crawled by at a snail’s pace. Life outside our windows seemed to return to normal. The slaves were back in the market gardens and their overlords were back to bossing them around. A couple of noisy, backfiring Skel trucks roared up to the community centre to make deliveries of a handful of people they’d caught.
We took turns watching the community centre, hoping, mentally pleading, for the Rangers to come so we could film them in the act of their evil deed and then get the blazes out of this oppressive place.
My sleep was plagued with nightmares inspired by the events I’d seen on Wednesday, and the rest of my companions seemed to be as morose as I was, except for Madison, of course. She watched us like a hawk when we ate together, biding her time, and waiting for an opportunity to try to talk us into attacking the Skel again.
And then, on Friday, when five of us were outside in the backyard exercising to keep ourselves fit – Leigh was upstairs watching the community centre – the one thing I dreaded more than anything else made its unwanted appearance. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Nanako and I’d been practicing karate when she suddenly stopped and stared at me meaningfully.
"What?" I prompted, with a twinkle in my eye.
"I’m late," she whispered.
On the other side of the yard, Madison’s head snapped up. She alone of the others heard Nanako’s comment.
"Late for what?" I asked, kinda moronically, since I was pretty sure I knew what she meant.
"I’ve been hanging off telling you this, ‘cause you can never be sure with these things, but my period’s four weeks late," she said quietly, searching out my eyes.
"You mean you’re..."
"Pregnant, yes, I think so." She smiled in such a sweet, gentle way that my heart broke in two. She was excited and full of hope because she believed she was with child again, but she didn’t know; she didn’t have even an inkling that all her pregnancies would result in miscarriages. That was if Madison was right, and she could be wrong, couldn’t she?
Forager - the Complete Trilogy (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Trilogy) Page 61