Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series)

by Peter R Stone

  I considered trying to sell them on 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 Lieutenant Nakano 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 had been 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, for the common belief amongst 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, right?"

  "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 splattered blood on your left hand, the hand that was 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 jump off the ground. "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 been sitting 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 this 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, the Soviet built Whiskey Twin-Cylinder that supplies nuclear power to your town – it originally h
ad 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 it had 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 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 being 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 suddenly, a horrid thought 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 realised 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.

  And I knew a way to test this hypothesis. If he answered the next question I wanted to ask, it meant he was going to kill us. If he didn't answer, he'd send us to the Skel.

  I asked the question. "Why did you try to kill Councillor Okada?"

  The Colonel spun about, clearly shocked. "What did you say?"

  "Don't deny it," I said forcefully, "Nanako said the route they used to get to Newhome was given to them by the Rangers, and it cannot be coincidental that a large party of Skel were waiting for them on that very road."

  Differing emotions warred over the Colonel's face for a moment, and then finally, he answered. "Okada's a blundering fool. By going to Newhome to initiate trade between our towns, he drew attention to Hamamachi. The net result of that was the Custodians blaming us for the Skel attacks on Newhome and attempting to nuke us to oblivion. If the Skel weren't so incompetent and had managed to kill Okada, the Custodians would have never suspected we were behind the Skel. They would have never tried to nuke us, and we wouldn't have had to infiltrate Newhome to try and steal the second nuke."

  "You can't blame Okada for this mess; he doesn't know what you Rangers are up to," I said heatedly.

  "More fool him. Now, enough of this nonsense – you and your wife will stay here until you remember who shot you. If you have to have fifty seizures to remember, then so be it!"

  And with that the Colonel stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him. But I barely noticed, since I'd slumped back in my chair, distressed now that I had the answer to my question. The Colonel was going to have us killed. I looked at Nanako, and saw her staring at me. And I could tell by her horrified expression that she'd reached the same conclusion.

  * * *

  For the next couple of hours, by which time I was pretty sure dawn had arrived, I pretended to be attempting to retrieve my memory, while what I was actually trying to do was work out a way that Nanako and I could escape so I could get her to the hospital. All I needed was for either the lieutenant or the private who were babysitting us to leave, and then I'd make my move. But they wouldn't leave, neither of them.

  Nanako spent the entire time lying on the floor, alternating between moaning quietly and falling into a light, troubled sleep. That I couldn't do anything to help her was tearing me up inside.

  But then the door to the interrogation room suddenly burst open and a Ranger I hadn't seen before rushed in, his face flushed. "Come on, we've been given the order to evacuate."

  "What? Why?" the lieutenant demanded as he stood abruptly from his chair, knocking it over.

  "The game's up," the Ranger panted. "Them three trucks we tried to send back to Skel territory somehow arrived in Inverloch an hour ago, and the slaves in the trucks have blown the whistle on us. Their message is all over the radio and TV – that they are refugees who'd been taken prisoner by Japanese Rangers and handed over to the Skel. So we gotta go before the Militia get here!"

  "What do we do with these two?"

  "Just leave them, now come on!"

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Our captors bolted from the room without a single look back.

  I leaped into action the moment they left, slipping my handcuffed hands under my behind and feet so that they were in front of me, and darted to Nanako's side.

  "Can you walk?" I asked, but it was a stupid question. She was as white as a sheet and weaker than I'd ever seen her. So ignoring the pain in my battered ribs and shoulder, I lifted her up in my arms and ran out of the room. I moved as fast as I could through the Rangers' HQ, minding I didn't bump her head or legs on the doorframes and desks as I went. I hurried out the front door, which was swinging wide open, and out into the car park, hoping against hope that there'd be a car there I could use; but the car park was empty.

  With Nanako in my arms, I sank to my knees, wondering what to try next, when a fleet of large black 4WD cars came roaring down the street and screeched into the car park. At first I panicked, thinking they were Rangers, but then I saw the Militia markings on the side of the vehicles.

  I groaned. Was this a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire? The last time I saw the Militia they accused me of being a terrorist in league with Custodian Lieutenant King, who'd just tried to blow up Hamamachi with a nuclear bomb he'd smuggled here. A bomb that David and I then disarmed. So what reception I'd receive from these Militia, I had no idea. But one thing was for sure, they had no reason not to take Nanako to hospital, so I clambered painfully back to my feet and hurried to meet the lead car, which braked to a stop only meters away.

  Five Militia armed with assault rifles leaped out of the vehicle and ran towards me, while the rest of the vehicles in the convoy pulled up in front of the HQ. More Militia got out, but these ones all rushed inside.

  "Ethan and Nanako Jones?" asked the first Militia soldier to reach me, a slim, young Japanese guy several years older than me and wearing the badges of a lieutenant.

  I nodded and indicated Nanako with a tilt of my head. "Please, Sir, Nanako needs urgent medical assistance. I don't care what you do with me, but can you please, please take her to hospital immediately?"

  "Of course! Quickly, follow me," he said, nodding emphatically. He led me to his car, and with gentle care, helped me place Nanako in the back seat.

  I hopped in the back with Nanako, and the lieutenant and one of his companions hopped in the car. Without a moment's hesitation, he had us out of the HQ car park and full speed towards the hospital. I propped Nanako's head on my lap and smoothed her hair back from her brow. "You'll be getting the help you need before you know it, Nana-c
han" I assured her.

  She flashed me a weak smile and squeezed my hand.

  "Are you okay, Sir? You don't look too good," the Militia lieutenant asked me as he glanced in the rear vision mirror.

  "I'll be fine," I assured him.

  "Did the Rangers do that to you?"

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  "They thought I had information that they wanted."

  "I see."

  "Lieutenant, can you please tell me what's going on?"

  The lieutenant nodded and quickly explained that three trucks filled with Skel slaves had driven into Inverloch an hour ago. They'd been rescued by a Custodian specialist and three foragers from Newhome. They had gone straight to Inverloch's AM radio station, which had immediately broadcast their story live on air, that many of the slaves had been refugees who had been on their way to Hamamachi or Inverloch, hoping to find asylum, but had been intercepted by Hamamachi Rangers, and then delivered to the Skel as part of some immoral deal that the Rangers had made with them. To add weight to their testimony, the rescued slaves had two wounded Ranger prisoners with them. As soon as this information reached Hamamachi, the Militia general issued arrest warrants for all of the Rangers.

  Nanako, who'd listened to the lieutenant's story, smiled sadly. "But how did they escape the Rangers?"

  "Madison," I replied. "She must have overpowered all five of them."

  "Seems you were right about her after all," Nanako sighed, and then groaned again in pain, clutching her midriff.

  "They mentioned you two on the radio, too," the lieutenant added, and then looked up to meet my gaze in the rear vision mirror. "They said that you, Mr. Jones, were the leader of the mission to rescue the slaves and expose the Rangers, but had been captured by them. We were asked to keep a lookout for you specifically, and ensure that you were safe."

  "Thank you."

  "You're welcome."