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

by Peter R Stone

  “Hang on; first let me see how Ryan and Romy are doing. Give me a hand over there, can you?” I said.

  “Specialist–”

  “Please, medic.”

  The Custodian frowned but acquiesced to my demand and helped me walk. However, we hadn’t taken more than two steps when the Custodians manhandled Cho and Jeong past us, their hands cuffed behind their backs.

  “Stupid, mangy cur, I should have put you down when Madison brought you in,” Cho said. He looked at me as though I was the most despicable thing he had ever seen.

  “Misjudged me, didn’t you?” I wanted to reward him with a mocking smile, but didn’t have the power.

  Cho’s reply was cut off by the shockingly loud retort of a gun going off. Doctor Jeong suddenly dropped to the floor like a stone. Blood trickled from a bullet-sized hole in the side of his head.

  Stunned, I looked to the elevator just in time to see Bhagya aim a pistol at Cho and pull the trigger again. A Custodian standing beside her was faster, though. He grabbed her gun and wrestled it up so that the bullet slammed into the ceiling above the general’s head.

  “Let go – Cho and Anna have to die too!” Bhagya shrieked, her face contorted. That was the first time I’d seen her expression any form of emotion.

  The Custodian tore the pistol from her grip and restrained her, an easy feat considering her condition.

  “What are you doing, Specialist Singhe?” Smithson bellowed.

  “Jeong and Cho are guilty of multiple homicides! Jeong dissected and murdered eleven genetically engineered boys, and Cho stood there, overseeing it. Let me execute him too!”

  “Justice will be done, but not like this. General Cho and Specialist Georgiou will stand before the magistrate and be judged for their crimes according to the law.”

  “No! You have to let me kill them now – I vowed I’d make them pay for what they did.”

  “That’s enough!” Smithson said.

  General Cho suddenly shrugged off his Custodian handler and knelt beside his slain comrade-in-evil. He checked Jeong’s pulse, and then slowly closed his eyelids.

  “You fool, Singhe, do you know what you’ve done?” he shouted. “You’ve killed the greatest mind the world has ever known!”

  “Greatest mind? He was nothing but a sadistic serial killer riding on the laurels of Dr. Zhao, copying his work rather doing anything original himself,” I said.

  Cho didn’t hear me; he was too busy lamenting over the doctor’s passing. Anna, who was still kneeling beside the desk with her hands cuffed behind her, appeared to be in a similar state of mind, watching everything in disbelief. I guessed she thought she had her life all mapped out, only for it to go pear shaped at the last moment.

  “General Cho,” I said, speaking as loudly as I could manage. “Why don’t you tell Anna the truth – that you were never going to take her with you? That you were going to put a bullet in her head the moment she had killed the rest of us girls.”

  “Are you that obtuse, Chelsea?” Anna said. “I’ve been spying on my ‘sisters’ and reporting to the general since I was a young girl. Of course he was going to take me with him.”

  The general glanced at Anna, then back to me. “Specialist Georgiou is a gullible fool. But being a pathological liar, she served my purposes by consistently fooling Specialist Singhe in regards to her true affiliations and intentions. She snitched on her sisters the whole time she was in the lab, and was particularly useful in helping me identify which girls had been turned. That’s why I asked her to lead the attack on the water purification plant with the bogus biotoxin canister. The mission’s real purpose was to force the traitors into showing their true colours.”

  “The biotoxin canister was a fake?” I asked.

  Cho stood, his eyes still fixed on mine. “And of course I was going to put a bullet in her head the moment she completed her assignment in assassinating her sisters.”

  “What?” Anna shrieked. “I did everything you ever asked me, General – you said I was special, that you’d always look out for me!”

  “Enough!” Smithson bellowed. He summoned two of his men. “Take Specialists Singhe and Taylor to hospital along with the other wounded and see that they receive priority treatment. The whole town – the entire human race – is indebted to what they did this morning.”

  “Yes, sir,” one man said before he gently but firmly shepherded Bhagya towards the elevator.

  The second Custodian helped me limp after them. As I went, I couldn’t help but sneak another look at Dr. Jeong, shuddering when memories surfaced of him dissecting my brother and overseeing my ‘voluntary’ IVF pregnancy. Even though I would never condone Bhagya’s horrific act of gunning him down in cold blood, I felt relieved he couldn’t hurt anyone again. That feeling was followed by guilt. How could I justify finding relief in the premature death of another person, regardless of the crimes they had committed? He should pay for his misdeeds in prison, not with his life.

  Tearing my eyes away, I followed Bhagya into the elevator to join our unconscious companions – Ryan and Romy – and the Custodian medics attending them. The three Custodians who had given their lives to save ours had been carried into the office and covered with long white lab coats.

  Unable to bend my right leg, I leaned heavily against the Custodian as we rode the elevator back down to ground level.

  “Is Lieutenant Hill going to be alright?” I said to the senior medic present, indicating Ryan with a nod.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood – we need to get him to hospital ASAP,” the man said.

  I looked at Ryan’s pale complexion and struggled with conflicting emotions. How could he so recklessly throw himself on top of Bhagya and me? He knew I’d rather take a bullet than let him be hurt, so why did he do that? What was the point of us overthrowing the chancellor and his regime if I couldn’t share the brave new future with him?

  I was already broken hearted by the prospect of facing the future without Madison and the rest of my sisters who Anna murdered. My spirits fell ever further when I remembered Madison telling us how her hope was to be reunited with her family.

  * * *

  It was nearing midday. My right arm and leg had been stitched up and were heavily bandaged. There were no beds available in the hospital’s intensive care unit because of the great number of wounded Custodians and Undergrounders. That was why I was lying on a gurney pushed against the wall of an adjacent corridor. Thanks to Captain Smithson’s influence, Bhagya, Romy, Ryan and I were seen to by doctors almost as soon as Lieutenant Xiao brought us to the hospital in Bushmasters liberated from Gamma Company when it surrendered.

  I was still receiving a blood transfusion when I woke after surgery. The first thought on my mind was the loss of Madison and the rest of my sisters who died last night. I couldn’t believe they were gone. Groggy from anaesthetic, I tried to sort out my feelings, but the sense of loss at their passing was overwhelming. I truly believed that if I were to rush back to the lab right then, I would find them all there, working in the gym, studying in the classroom, resting in the lounge. I hoped the Japanese could deprogram Claire and send her back to us, whole in mind and body. Anna was a different matter. Would they hold her responsible for her actions after setting her free from her brainwashing? To what degree was she responsible for her actions?

  Images of Madison holding my hand and telling me that the baton was mine filled my mind until I finally fell back to sleep.

  I had awakened again a little over an hour ago. The blood bag was gone, replaced by an IV drip that was pumping me full of much needed fluids and antibiotics to stem off possible infection.

  Captain Smithson was with me, standing beside the bed. To be honest, I think he woke me.

  “You did good, Thomas,” he said. “If it wasn’t for your quick thinking the virus would have been released.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Don’t thank me yet, Thomas. I can’t stress how disappointed I am with you for not tellin
g me Jones brought a nuke with him.”

  “Captain, I didn’t know, honest. I only realised he must have brought it with him at the last moment. But why are you so disappointed? Do you think I should have looked for another way to stop the general?”

  “No, I think you did the right thing – nothing else would have stayed Cho’s hand. I just would have liked to have been included in making that decision.”

  I nodded, then perked up. “What’s going on in the town? Is the fighting all finished now?”

  “Indeed it is, Thomas. Word has spread that the chancellor’s regime has been toppled. The townsfolk have already started calling today ‘Liberation Day.’ They began gathering in the streets an hour after the fighting stopped. Some are openly jubilant about the change in government and talking about possible changes, others are responding more cautiously.”

  “‘Liberation Day’ – I like it. But what happened to the chancellor and all the Koreans? Were they arrested?”

  “I threw the chancellor, councillors, geneticists, and several high-ranking Custodians in the slammer, pending an official investigation and trial.”

  “And the town? Who’s calling the shots now? Jones?”

  “Nope, he didn’t even put his hand up. It was only a couple of hours after sunrise when Pat Tori announced the creation of a new interim council. It’s made up primarily of Underground Resistance Movement team leaders and Custodian senior officers...”

  “Including you?”

  “Of course.

  “No one from the Freehome Resistance Movement?” I asked, frowning. This council sounded very unbalanced.

  “Just Mal Li.”

  “How many women on the council?”

  “None.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Ask Pat Tori.”

  “What’s the point of liberating the town from the chancellor and then continuing with the same mistakes?” Anger coloured my words. “How can Pat form an entirely male dominated council after we’re finally free after a century’s discrimination?”

  “Thomas!” Smithson barked. “I suggest you save your questions for Pat Tori – I was not involved in the council’s formation. He appears to have prepared this way in advance – he didn’t deliberate on whom to invite to the council, he simply announced their names. And the first thing the councillors did was elect him as acting mayor.”

  “So this is his town now?”

  “That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it, Thomas?” Smithson said. “He’s been working towards overthrowing the chancellor for over a decade, so it’s no surprise he wanted to lead the council. But remember, it’s only interim. I don’t understand this display of animosity towards him.”

  “You can’t trust Pat, Captain. He’s utterly ruthless and thinks the end always justifies the means.”

  “Well, maybe this will put your mind at ease. I saw him pushing a wheelchair with a disabled girl through the market earlier today, accompanied by his wife. Turns out the girl is his daughter – they’ve kept her hidden in a secret, soundproofed room since she was born. That’s the first time a disabled person has been seen in public since the town’s founding a century ago.”

  I had to choke back tears hearing the good news about Pat’s daughter. Never again did his family have to live in fear of Custodians taking her away to euthanize her.

  “I see,” I said after regaining control of my emotions. “All the same, I’ll have to have a word with him about the council. Where and when does it meet?”

  “In Newhome Proper’s secondary school.”

  “Not the chancellery?” I was surprised – I thought they would have fallen over themselves to get access to the previously restricted-access building.

  “No. I had the chancellery and Genetics Laboratory evacuated. Entry has been restricted to authorised personnel only – we have to catalogue and examine all of the documents and data stored there. I can’t risk letting the Koreans destroy any of that information to hide what they’ve been doing over the past century.”

  “So where are the Korean civilians living now?”

  “I housed them in North End’s two schools pending their resettlement to vacant apartments throughout the town.”

  “Bet they’re not happy about that.”

  “Suits me just fine.”

  I paused and took a small digital playback device from my pocket. I thought of the part Pat Tori played in liberating the town, and of him taking his disabled daughter out in public.

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m wondering whether I should give this to you,” I said. I stared at the device, tempted to put it back in my pocket, but memories of Pat’s criminal deeds pushed themselves to the forefront of my mind. Putting cyanide in my drink bottle, assaulting and later kidnapping me, even inviting the Rangers and Skel into the town.

  “Well?”

  I handed it to him. “Listen to it when you’re alone. Then track down Dylan Morton and Mehmet Turan and ask them to tell you about Pat Tori’s involvement the night the Rangers and Skel broken into town. Mention my name and they’ll tell you everything.”

  “Will do.” He examined the playback device with concern.

  I sat up after Captain Smithson left, gritting my teeth from the pain. Knowing that the chaotic scene in the corridor would hide me from the doctors and nurses present, I peeled back the tape on my hand and yanked out the IV needle. Swinging my legs over the edge of the gurney, I slipped carefully to the floor, taking the weight on my good leg. I was still wearing my uniform, my right sleeve and trouser leg having been cut away.

  “Going somewhere?”

  I jolted but then breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Bhagya standing next to me, head swathed in bandages. She was wearing an oversized, clean Custodian uniform, but I could tell by her stiffness that her shoulder and chest were bandaged too.

  “Where’s Ryan?” I said, testing my right leg to see if I could walk unaided. The answer was a resounding ‘no.’

  “You want to pop open your stitches?” she asked.

  “What about you? Should you be running around like this after getting shot?”

  “Girl, you were torn open by shrapnel, remember? I can count my stitches on two hands.”

  “Bhagya.”

  “What?”

  “Ryan – he’s alive, right?”

  “He is.”

  “The take me to–”

  “Chelsea, you’re supposed to be confined to bed for several days. See him when you’re both in better shape.”

  “What’s wrong, Bhagya? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Get back into bed. You can’t go traipsing around the hospital in your condition.”

  “Fine, I’ll find him on my own. They can sew me up again later.”

  “Stubborn as a mule. Fine, hang fire while I get you some clean clothes and wheels.”

  She disappeared into the swirling throng of people that filled the corridor and returned ten minutes later with a beaten-up wheel chair and a uniform that was two sizes too big.

  She helped me into the chair, and then, with my right leg propped straight on its footrest, pushed me through a corridor lined with gurney’s bearing horribly wounded and maimed men. The terrible fruits of our revolution.

  We went into an old but sanitized toilet, locked the door, and set about changing my clothes.

  “Tell me about Ryan,” I said.

  “You’ll see him in a minute.”

  “What about Romy then – is she okay?” I asked as we struggled to pull off my bloody, shrapnel shredded jacket.

  “Her thighs got chewed up pretty bad – spent hours in surgery. She’s still out cold, and I haven’t been able to get a straight answer from the doctors about her prognosis yet.”

  “You may be able to detect lies with near one-hundred-percent accuracy, Miss Singhe, but you can’t lie for nuts,” I said.

  She looked at me coldly.

  “Just sayin’.”

  “Oh, very well. The doctors say
she’ll probably make a full recovery, but at the least will have a permanent limp.”

  “Could have been worse.”

  “True.”

  Bhagya wheeled me, wearing a clean uniform and my right arm resting in a sling, into the intensive care unit. We dropped by Romy’s bed first, and the sight of her lying there, broken and battered, made me want to break down and weep. But seeing a middle-aged man and his wife sitting beside her and holding her hand with tears in their eyes, gave me pause. They were her parents, no doubt. This would be the first time they had seen her since she was forcibly removed from them almost two decades ago. I couldn’t imagine what they must be feeling right now, finding their little girl all grown up and in such a pitiful state.

  Ryan was two beds down. My resolve to hide my emotions shattered the moment I saw him. My heart broke and tears flowed when I saw his heavily bandaged body. His eyes were closed – whether asleep or unconscious, I couldn’t guess. He was normally a bastion of strength and source of power, with his muscular frame and inner confidence – now he appeared but a shadow of his former self.

  I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and give him a piece of my mind for risking his life to save ours.

  His parents sat on chairs on the far side of the bed. His father was stone-faced, staring blankly into space. The sight of his missing fingers on his freshly bandaged hand sent twinges of queasiness shooting through my stomach. Beside him, Ryan’s mother, a picture of despair, sobbed silently as she held his hand.

  They both looked up slowly but without comprehension when Bhagya pushed me to the other side of the bed so I could get close to him.

  I grabbed the bed rails with my left hand and hauled myself to my feet.

  “What are you doing, Chelsea!” Bhagya said. She moved closer and supported me so I could take the weight off my injured leg.

  Ryan’s eyes fluttered open at the mention of my name, and he smiled feebly in my direction.

  “You big doofus,” I said, my voice thick with emotion. No longer caring about the town’s defunct rules regarding relations between men and women, nor his father’s earlier declaration that he wouldn’t permit us to marry, I ran my hand through his hair.