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

by Peter R Stone

  "Lieutenant," I called out before the Ranger closed his door. "I demand you take Nanako to a hospital immediately."

  The lieutenant stuck his head in the door. "You ain't in no position to demand anything, Jones."

  "There's..." I hesitated. I didn't want to shout Nanako's condition out to the world, but I didn't have a choice. "She's pregnant, but something's wrong. Please, you gotta take her to a hospital."

  "We're taking you two to see the Colonel, end of conversation," the lieutenant snapped, and he slammed the car door shut and strode to the other 4WD with the five Rangers.

  "How are you, Nana-chan?" I asked as the drivers started up the cars and did a one-eighty before speeding down the Bass Highway, presumably heading for Hamamachi.

  "It hurts," she replied.

  "No talking," growled the Ranger driver beside me.

  I looked at him with flash sonar, wondering if I'd met him before. He was a clean-shaven, totally bald Japanese man in his early thirties. Slim, but muscular. And with an aura that radiated a callous disposition.

  "What have you got against me?" I snapped.

  "You killed Sergeant Tamura," he hissed.

  "That was in self-defence – he was trying to kill me," I replied, which was true. We'd taken Tamura and Reina prisoner and were taking them back to Newhome when he'd attacked us. If I hadn't thrown my knife at him, he would have shot me.

  "You broke the Ranger code, Jones – we never turn on our own."

  "In case you don't remember, I was discharged from the Rangers on medical grounds. You know, after I was shot in the head and suffered from amnesia as a result."

  "Bullocks, Jones. You were never discharged. Besides, everyone knows you tried to pop yourself after your team was wiped out, so your injuries are your own fault. Or have you forgotten you did that too?"

  This was a conversation I wasn't gonna have. If I admitted to the Ranger that I hadn't attempted suicide, he'd start putting together the pieces that I'd shot my own team, and that'd really land me in hot water. So I answered, "I've got no memories of the time I spent in Hamamachi."

  "Convenient."

  "You call having a hole in my head convenient?"

  "I call you a stinking traitor and a murderer; that's what I call you. Now shut up."

  "Private, can you at least get Colonel Yamada on the phone and report Nanako's condition to him? She's got nothing to do with any of this and she desperately needs medical attention," I pleaded.

  "Really? Nothing to do with all this? Then explain to me where you lot were going with three truckloads full of Skel slaves."

  "We were rescuing them."

  "And taking them where?"

  "To the hospital in Inverloch."

  "Jones – you are so full of it, you know that? Now shut up or I'll get Private Akiyama back there to shut you up. Got it?"

  I dropped all attempts at conversation then, and hoped against hope these Rangers were not animals and would get Nanako the medical assistance she needed when we got to wherever they were taking us. All the same, I was on the edge of my seat with worry for her, and every time I heard her moan, I felt a horrid sense of panic rise up within me. Was she gonna be okay? What if her leg wound got infected? What if something was seriously wrong with the miscarriage that required immediate medical attention? All throughout these tortuous 'what ifs', was the knowledge that Madison was right, that we couldn't have kids, and that I'd have to leave her soon.

  We reached Hamamachi in the small hours of the morning and were taken directly to the Rangers' headquarters, a functional looking one-storey building set back from the main road not far from the Hamamachi township. I echolocated the whole time so that I could see what was happening, which was rather tiring, but it sure beat staying in the dark because of the stupid black bag they'd stuffed over my head.

  I was taken straight to a Spartan interrogation room near the back of the primary structure and shoved unceremoniously into a wooden chair in front of a plastic table with metal legs. A one-way glass viewing-window took up much of the right wall, but as it was soundproofed, I couldn't see through it to see if anyone was in the observation room beyond.

  "What have you done with Nanako?" I demanded as soon as the private pulled off my hood.

  "Don't know, don't care," he snarled.

  The lieutenant strolled into the interrogation room, closed the door behind him, and sat in the chair opposite me. "Okay Jones, it's question and answer time. Cooperate, and this'll go smoothly. Don't cooperate, and it won't."

  "Where's my wife?"

  "Medic's digging the bullet out of her leg..."

  "What? I told you there are complications with her pregnancy – she needs a doctor, a hospital!"

  "That's none of my concern. Now, to my questions. Where's Reina Sato?"

  "You're not getting anything out of me until Nanako's been seen to by a suitable doctor."

  The lieutenant nodded, and the private beside me smashed his fist into the side of my jaw, sending waves of pain shooting through my head and blood into my mouth.

  The lieutenant leaned forward. "What happened to the team we sent into Newhome to retrieve the second nuke? Lieutenant Nakano, Corporal Sato, and privates Maeda, Miyazaki, and Kimura."

  "My wife. The hospital," I said, glaring defiantly up at him.

  He nodded, and the muscular private beside me struck me across the face. I tried to ride the blow, but the pain was immense all the same.

  "Corporal Sato sent us a text message saying that the nuke was to be fired into the ocean – and we saw it go – but that was the last time we heard from her or any member of her team. What happened to them?"

  "My wife."

  Another nod, another punch in the face.

  "Do you even know?" the lieutenant demanded, becoming frustrated.

  "Hospital."

  Another blow to my jaw. I doubled over, and spat a mouthful of blood onto the table.

  The door was suddenly wrenched open and the powerfully built Colonel Yamada – the leader of the Rangers – strode in. He and I had been close once, according to my wife. He had taken me onboard as his protégé, teaching me everything he knew. What he didn’t know at the time was that it was all an act on my part. I had been asked to infiltrate the Rangers to find out what illegal activities they were engaging in.

  "You'll never get him to talk like that," he said to the lieutenant.

  "Then how, Sir?"

  "Like this," he replied as he turned to the still open door, and added, "Bring her in."

  A Ranger dragged Nanako in and dumped her on the floor, where she immediately curled into a ball and held her stomach. I'd never seen her so pale, but somehow, she found the strength to look up at me, and her eyes widened in shock when she saw my bloody and bruised face. I tried to leap from my chair to go to her, but the private grabbed my shoulders and slammed me back down. I saw that Nanako's left over-knee sock was rolled down below her knee and that a thick white bandage was wrapped about her thigh. At least that wound had been properly treated.

  "What kind of heartless monster are you, Colonel? She needs to see a doctor right now!" I demanded as I tried to stand up from my chair again.

  The Colonel strode forward, grabbed me by the hair, and tilted my head back so that our eyes met. "You want me to send her to the hospital? Then start talking."

  "Okay, I'll tell you anything you want to know!" I replied frantically.

  The Colonel relinquished his grip on me and took a step back. "That's more like it." And then he just stood there with his fists on his hips, staring – or rather – glaring, at me. "Do you remember me?" he asked at last.

  I shook my head. "No, I don't."

  "What about all the training sessions I did with you?"

  "Sorry, no."

  That clearly wasn't the answer the Colonel had been looking for. What little light had been in his eyes at the prospect of talking to me, faded away, and then the real questions came.

  "What happened to Reina Sa
to and her team? Your man, David Chen, assured us we'd be able to get in, grab the nuke, and get out before the Custodians were any the wiser."

  I considered trying to sell them only half the truth, but one glance at Nanako lying on the floor, curled into a ball, and I threw that idea out the window. "David let slip to Shorty what was going on. And as I feared the Rangers would try to detonate the nuke in Newhome in revenge for the Custodians trying to nuke Hamamachi, I alerted the Custodians and then went to the warehouse myself as well."

  "Keep going."

  "I tried to take them prisoner, but the lieutenant ordered them to kill me. So I took out the lieutenant and two of the others, but was caught by Corporal Reina Sato. Reina and I talked, and when we discovered that we had the same goal – to dispose of the nuke so the Custodians couldn't use it – we teamed up. David and I reprogrammed the nuke to come down in the middle of the ocean while Reina and the other Ranger kept the Custodians at bay. We fired off the missile, but regretfully, Reina and the other Ranger were shot and killed by the Custodians."

  "You honestly expect me to believe that?" the Colonel scoffed. "That you and your two foraging buddies got out while Corporal Sato was killed?"

  "Reina..." I paused, choked up by the painful memory. "Reina was injured – fatally – so she told us to get out and that she'd buy us time to do so."

  "And why would she do that?"

  "She and I...we used to be close friends, back before my injury."

  "I see," the Colonel said, lost in deep thought, as he ran his hand over his jaw. "Okay, let's go back two years. Why'd you kill your Ranger teammates?"

  "He did what?" the lieutenant gasped in shock. The common belief among the Rangers was that I'd led my team into a Skel ambush, abandoned them to their fate, and then attempted suicide in shame. The Colonel lifted his hand and the lieutenant backed down.

  "I didn't want to," I began. "When they tried to deliver a batch of refugees to the Skel, I tried to stop them. When they wouldn't listen, I attacked..."

  "You attacked them?"

  "No! I attacked the Skel. But then the sergeant told the other Rangers to take me out, and so I was forced to shoot them all in self defence."

  "What did you do after that?"

  "I got the refugees into the Ranger truck and helped them get away. Look, are we almost finished?" I asked, looking at Nanako scrunched up in agony on the floor.

  "One last question. Who shot you, Jones?"

  "What – you know about that too? Everyone else thinks I tried to kill myself."

  "It was made to look that way, but there was no gunpowder or blood splattered on your left hand, the hand holding your pistol when we found you. Besides, you're right handed."

  "I haven't remembered who it was, yet."

  "Rubbish! Come on, for your wife's sake, Jones – who shot you?"

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  "Colonel, you have to believe me – I don't remember!" I panicked.

  "Yet you've remembered the rest of it?"

  "No, just bits and pieces. The memories only started to return when Nanako came back to Newhome a few weeks ago," I said with all sincerity, desperately trying to convince him.

  The Colonel took a step closer, "Who asked you to infiltrate the Rangers, Jones? That's why you joined up, isn't it? Took me for a ride, you did."

  "You're right; someone did ask me to infiltrate the Rangers, but I haven't remembered who, yet. All I know is that he's the same person who shot me when I reported to him that I'd been forced to shoot my teammates."

  The Colonel slammed his fists on the table, causing it to rattle across the floor. "I know he's someone in the council or high up in the Militia, and I know you're covering for him. But look at your wife, lying over there. Who means more to you, him, or her? Tell me who he is and I'll have Nanako taken to the hospital immediately."

  "I don't remember – you have to believe me!"

  "You're a liar, Jones," the private said. "You told me earlier that you hadn't recalled any of your memories of your time in Hamamachi two years ago."

  "I'm not lying now!"

  "Tell us who asked you to infiltrate the Rangers!" the Colonel barked in my face. "I must know who he is!"

  Realising we'd reached an impasse that could only be overcome if I remembered who'd shot me, I cast my memory back to that time, even though my mind automatically recoiled from the memory as though it was some dangerous, poisonous thing that could harm me.

  I recalled the crumbling, redbrick fence I'd sat on, depressed since I'd just been forced to kill my own teammates to rescue the refugees. My assault rifle was on my lap and my Smartphone in my right hand...

  "Hey, did you find my phone?" I asked the Colonel.

  "Yes."

  "Well, didn't you check the last number I called? That's the person who shot me."

  "It was an unlisted number."

  "What does that even mean?" I asked, stumped.

  "It's impossible, that's what it means," the Colonel snarled. "All of our phone numbers are registered, and they all go through the same satellite. Yet somehow, this mystery person who asked you to infiltrate our organisation had an unlisted, untraceable number. A number that has been disconnected. Now quit mucking around and tell us who he is."

  "I'm trying!" I snapped back, and returned to the memory. I remembered hearing a car arrive, and heavy footsteps approach from my left...and then a sharp, acrid metallic taste spiked through my mouth, and then again, and again.

  I kept pressing on, trying to uncover the identity of the person who shot me, but this time a massive roaring erupted in my head, drowning out even my thoughts. Then, as to be expected, came the overwhelming sense of déjà vu that I'd lived this moment before. This was followed by a crystal clear image of an enraged Skel charging me. I was in Police Road, in Mulgrave, near the community centre, and I was surrounded by my Ranger teammates and a whole bunch of frightened, terrified refugees. The vision faded, and then came the rest of the seizure, but stronger this time, so much so that I fell towards the desk, gasping for breath.

  "What the blazes are you playing at, Jones?" the Colonel barked.

  "He's having a seizure, you stupid aho," Nanako said, looking up from where she lay on the ground. "This happens to him every time he tries to remember who shot him."

  "Bah!" the Colonel exclaimed, shaking his head in disgust as he suddenly strode for the door.

  "Hey, I've got a question for you, Colonel," I said as his hand took hold of the door handle. "What have you got against Newhome?"

  "What makes you think I have anything against it?" he asked.

  "You set the Skel against it, giving them C4 explosives, guns, Smartphones and phone chargers, probably petrol as well. What I want to know is why? What did Newhome do to you?"

  "You really don't know, do you?" the Colonel asked

  "No."

  "Do you know who founded Newhome?" he asked.

  "The Koreans who came in the sub that provides the town with its nuclear power."

  "That's right. Now answer this. Do you know which nation destroyed Japan during the Final War?"

  "No idea," I answered. "But at a guess, the Koreans?"

  "That's right. The United Democratic Republic of Korea launched a completely unprovoked nuclear attack on Japan, which was one of the opening salvos of the war. Our ancestors on the whaling fleet were informed of the attack just before the missiles struck, and hurried home to look for survivors. But there weren't any. Japan had been completely destroyed."

  "So this is all about revenge?" I asked, absolutely dumbfounded. "About something that happened a century ago?"

  The Colonel continued to approach me, stepping past Nanako on the way. "Haven't you ever thought it strange that Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs were nuked rather than the Central Business District?"

  "Whoever fired the missile must have had the wrong coordinates."

  "Don't be ridiculous. It was done deliberately. That submarine you so casually mentioned, th
e Soviet built Whiskey Twin-Cylinder that supplies nuclear power to your town? It originally had three nukes. Now be a clever boy and tell me where you think the third nuke went?"

  The penny dropped, and it must have been obvious by my expression.

  "That's right," the Colonel continued. "Your benevolent rulers suddenly aren't so benevolent, are they? They murdered half the inhabitants of Melbourne, deliberately targeting the south-western suburbs, so they could establish a colony in Melbourne's ruins and have access to the hospitals and universities in and around the Central Business District."

  "Colonel, this is all very shocking and all, but the people who did all this? They died decades ago."

  "You still aren't using your head, Jones," the Colonel snapped. "Do you think the children and grandchildren of those evil doers will be any less monstrous than their ancestors? Do you think the Koreans from the United Democratic Republic of Korea established Newhome out of the goodness of their hearts, because they felt sorry for Melbourne's survivors and wanted to look after them? No, the Koreans running Newhome are pursuing some long-term plan, what, I do not know, but their endless pursuit of genetic modification will have something to do with it."

  Normally, I would have laughed at the Colonel's speech as nothing more than wild speculation, but I actually heard much of this before, from Bhagya Singhe. In fact, she'd said pretty much exactly the same thing.

  "Where did you get all this information from?" I asked, suddenly suspicious.

  "We have our sources."

  "So you're going to destroy the entire town just to stop the Koreans and geneticists from carrying out their plan, whatever it is?"

  "The Koreans must die, every last one of them, man, woman and child. In payback for what they did, and to save the world from their evil machinations," the Colonel admitted, as he turned and strode for the door again.

  I shook my head in disbelief. To harbour a revenge for something that had happened a century ago to the extent that they were willing to destroy a town of ten thousand was absurd. And then a horrid realisation sprang unbidden to my mind. These things that the Colonel was telling us, they were treason. Should the Hamamachi council learn of them, he would be imprisoned for life, if not worse. I knew then, with a sense of fatal finality, that he wasn't going to take Nanako to the hospital, regardless of whether I remember who asked me to infiltrate the Rangers or not. Once he'd finished with us, I reckoned he'd either have us quietly executed or shipped back to be Skel slaves.