Forager (Forager - A Dystopian Trilogy)

by Peter R Stone

  "Fine," she said, "I'll cover you."

  So with Nanako at my back, I ran after the Skel as they collided with the Custodians, swinging their lethal weapons left and right like farmers scything through tall grass. Some Custodians screamed in agony and fell while others fired frantic and ill placed shots at the nightmarish skeleton-armoured brutes who hacked away at them in the dark.

  Into the midst of this insane swirling melee I ran, the only combatant who could 'see' what was happening as long as I kept shouting ultrasonically. Nanako ran as closely behind me as she could, for that way she wouldn't mistake me for a Skel or Custodian. I fired my pistol, seven, eight, nine times as I ran through the Skel, aiming at their necks and throats, while also being careful to avoid wild shots sprayed about by the Custodians. Seven of the monstrous apparitions went down - seven shots hit their mark while two struck hardened-bone armour and ricocheted off into the night. That immediately changed the odds of the battle, but more Skel were running towards us.

  I ejected the empty clip from the pistol, withdrew my left hand from my pocket and grabbed another clip, but before I could slam it home, a Skel smashed a metal-studded wooden club into my stomach. The bulletproof vest took the brunt of the impact and saved my life, but it was still like being hit by a sledgehammer. I was smashed off my feet and landed on my back, almost passing out from the pain that exploded through my chest from the crossbow-bolt wound. Winded from the blow as well, I rolled to the side and gasped for breath while I waited for the pain to subside.

  The Skel who had hit me was a massive brute - taller than Michal and with goat’s horns adorning his human-skull helmet. He stepped forward and was about to finish me off when Nanako, wearing a bulletproof vest several sizes too big, darted forward and fired her assault-rifle at him on full auto - she was looking out for me just as she promised. Riddled with bullet holes, the Skel collapsed towards me, but Nanako threw herself against him, knocking him off balance so that he fell beside rather than on top of me.

  That particular Skel would not be getting up again, so I rolled over to my stomach and crawled towards the ammo clip I had dropped behind me. I noticed that at least half the Custodians were down, but those still standing were fighting back with almost fanatical fervour, using their guns like clubs and firing whenever they found an opportunity.

  Nanako gunned down another Skel who charged us but then her gun made an ominous click as it ran out of ammo. At that moment, a smaller, quick-footed Skel knocked Nanako's gun out of her hands with a sweep of a converted pickaxe. The Skel bellowed a string of extremely offensive insults and swearwords in a high-pitched voice, revealing herself to be female. I crawled as fast as I could manage in an attempt to retrieve the ammo clip so I could come to my wife's aid.

  I saw her duck and dodge two great sweeps of her opponent's weapon, after which she jumped forward and delivered a knife-hand strike to the side of the Skel's unarmoured neck. She followed this with an elbow to the throat, sending her opponent staggering backwards. Although choking and gagging, the Skel shook her skull-adorned head, readied her pickaxe adorned with rusty metal spikes and charged Nanako again.

  I retrieved my ammo-clip, slammed it home and put a bullet through the Skel's throat, sending her tumbling to the ground and out of the fight for good.

  Nanako retrieved her gun, slapped in a fresh ammo clip, and rushed over to me as I slowly regained my feet. "Thanks, that was too close! Are you hurt?"

  "The vest saved me," I assured her. I didn’t tell her that the fall had reopened the crossbow-bolt wound and it was bleeding again. My stomach was going to be black and blue as well.

  "We've got to get to the sub, they must be almost through by now," I said as I stood to my feet.

  "Lead the way, I've got your back," she said as she couched the assault-rifle to her shoulder.

  I jogged as fast as I was able for the wharf, firing my pistol at three Skel who tried to stop me. The two I failed to bring down were finished off by Nanako as she followed close behind.

  The skirmish behind us had fallen silent, with the Custodians having overcome the surviving Skel, although at great cost – only five of them were still standing, and that didn’t include Captain Smithson. With King in the lead, the Custodians advanced cautiously behind us. I tried to blot out the disturbing sounds of the wounded and dying Custodians and Skel who littered the ground like broken, discarded dolls.

  I ran onto the concrete wharf to which the submarine was moored and past the corpses of four Custodians – the security detail that had been guarding it.

  As I hurried over the metal decking that lead from the wharf to the sub, I heard Nanako trip and fall headlong to the wharf, her gun clattering from her hands to the concrete.

  "Nanako?" I called out anxiously, terrified she'd been shot.

  "I'm okay - go, get those Skel!" she called back.

  Holding my pistol before me, I stepped onto the sub and carefully navigated the narrow decking that surrounded the conning tower. After that, I moved quickly between two large, empty horizontal missile launch tubes, and then straight for the two Skel at the sub's stern. One was crouching down with the oxy-acetylene torch, which lit up the surrounding area and the two bone-armoured Skel with an eerie glow.

  I was tempted to shoot the oxy-acetylene gas tank, but had no idea what effect such an explosion would have on the satchel of explosives, so I slowed to a walk and fired a shot at the Skel instead, dropping him to the submarine's decking plate with a clatter of bone upon steel.

  The second Skel whirled around, spotted my silhouette in the dark, and madly fiddled with the detonator's timer. I tried to shoot him before he could but I was out of bullets. While I quickly reloaded the pistol, the Skel dropped the satchel, grabbed a club and charged at me while cursing and cussing.

  Afraid that he may have set the detonator to go off any moment, I rushed straight for him while firing my pistol. The first three shots didn't even slow him, but the fourth sent him careening off the top of the submarine and into the water, where he sank like a rock.

  I holstered my pistol and fell to my knees beside the satchel, turning it around to face me. It had a glowing red timer, which was at fourteen seconds and counting down.

  I didn’t know if the explosives would damage the submarine if it went off here on its upper deck, but I couldn't risk finding out. And that meant I had to fling the bag as far as I could into the river. I stood and prepared to do so, but the bag was heavy and my chest was in such pain that I doubted I could even manage to throw it off the sub at all.

  Heavy footsteps bounded up behind me. I spun about and found myself face to face with Lieutenant King - who had his assault-rifle pointed at my head.

  We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity but could not have been more than a couple of seconds. I knew what he was thinking - if he put a bullet through my head now no one would ever know the truth. He would claim the Skel shot me or that I’d been hit by a stray Custodian bullet. It was an opportunity too good to pass up.

  Well, it was until we heard Nanako's light footsteps as she ran up behind King. From this close to us, even in the darkness she could recognise what was going on, so she aimed her gun at King and said, “Don’t even think it, Lieutenant.”

  Realising his opportunity for getting away with murder was gone, King lowered his gun, and as he did so, my mind switched back to the present so I turned the satchel around and showed him the glowing timer, which was down to five seconds.

  In one smooth motion, King dropped his gun, grabbed the bag, and swung it around once and then far out into the river. "Hit the deck!" he shouted, and we complied without hesitation.

  The satchel exploded in a massive pyrotechnics display, creating a small tidal wave that dumped water over us and rocked the sub violently from side to side.

  And then, all was quiet.

  Disguising it as a yawn, I lifted my head and let off one last ultrasonic shout as I glanced about, checking to see if any Skel were left stan
ding. Upon seeing that none were, I surrendered to the pain and overwhelming exhaustion that wracked my body and collapsed back onto the sub's deck.

  Nanako was at my side in a heartbeat. I tried to convince her that I was okay, but she saw straight through the lie.

  After he got his breath back - and heart rate down - King switched his radio on and reported our success to Custodian HQ, who replied with the encouraging news that the Skel had just started to withdraw from North End. They must have had a Smartphone equipped scout watching the battle for the sub, and he must have reported the failure to destroy it to the Skel in the town.

  As I lay there shivering in my soaking wet clothes, I pondered how the Skel had managed to get their hands on Smartphones, guns, the oxy-acetylene torch and explosives, even the ability to drive the captured Bushmaster. And there was also the ambush they sprung upon Councillor Okada, and their astounding feat of managing to ambush all of our foraging teams on the same morning.

  The answer to these questions was staring me in the face - a major player, and quite possibly Hamamachi or perhaps a faction therein, was backing their attacks on us.

  All began to go dark as Nanako removed my bulletproof vest to check on my condition and discovered that the left side of my chest was soaked with blood. The last thing I heard was her demanding King to get a medic over pronto.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  I came to slowly, as though waking from the deepest sleep I'd ever had. I was back in intensive care, lying in a hospital bed with a drip in the back of my left hand. There was a bandage around my chest and shoulder, and another around my head, thanks to King smashing his rifle butt against it earlier. In spite of my injuries, I felt little pain, so they must have drugged me on some pretty strong painkillers. I decided then and there not to rush out of hospital this time, but give my poor body a chance to recover.

  It was dark outside and the ward was shrouded in semi-darkness as the lights had been dimmed. Every bed I could see was filled and male nurses were quietly checking on patients who were worse off than others. Some patients groaned, others sobbed quietly.

  Nanako was lying beside me with her head on my right shoulder. She was fast asleep. I ran my hand through her hair, simply glad to be with her and away from danger.

  She stirred and her eyes flicked open. “Decided to rejoin us in the land of the living have we?” she teased.

  “Well, you know, thought I’d pop in,” I laughed, and then grimaced from the pain that erupted in my chest and midriff. “How long have I been out?”

  “About eighteen hours,” she replied, glancing at the timepiece on her wrist.

  “And what’s the prognosis, will I live?”

  “You lost a lot of blood and they had to close your wound again. But you’ve had a blood transfusion and have been on the drip ever since.” Rolling onto her stomach, she propped herself on her elbows. “You gotta be more careful, Ethan. No more heroics from you, like, forever, okay? You were so pale I was afraid I was going to lose you.”

  “Don’t worry, you’ve got my full co-operation there,” I promised her.

  “They wanted to give you a CAT scan for the blow to your head but I refused to let them do it. But wow, they tried so hard to talk me into it. I had to make up some story that you and I were dead-set against X-ray technology because we believed it would harm us.”

  “You did well,” I said, impressed by her ingenuity. “What’s the situation with the town and the sub?”

  “After we stopped the Skel blowing up the sub, the rest of them pulled out of North End pretty quick, I was told. But so many Custodians and civilians have been killed or injured. North End’s hospital overflowed so badly that they had to bring many North Enders to this hospital, and they’ve even using a school as a temporary hospital as well.”

  I shook my head, finding it hard to believe the Skel had become so bold as to attack our strongly defended town so openly, the first time in a hundred years. I hoped they had paid dearly for their audacity.

  “Can I ask a question?” I said after we’d been silent for a while.

  “Of course you can, silly.”

  “What was our wedding like?”

  She drew herself up onto her knees. “Would you like to see a photo?”

  The excitement that rose within me was so strong that for a moment I forgot all about my injuries. “What kind of question is that? Of course I do. Have you got lots of photos of the time I was in Hamamachi?”

  She removed the weird goggles that were hanging around her neck. “I do, but I’m hesitant to show them to you yet because I don’t want the photos to form the basis of your memories. I want you to keep pushing your mind until you remember these things yourself. I don’t mind showing you this one photo, though, it’s kind of important, eh?” She put the goggles on and pressed her finger repeated against some buttons on the goggles’ frame.

  After a moment she pressed them against my eyes - she couldn’t put the strap on because of the bruise from King’s gun.

  I gasped as soon as I saw the image. It was in 3D, with depth I hadn’t thought possible with digital media. We were standing in front of a little old brick chapel hidden away in the bush, set in the midst of a landscape of long grass, bushes and the occasional gum tree. It had a slanting slate-tile roof, wooden door, and stained glass windows. It must have been very lovingly maintained over the decades.

  But it was Nanako herself who rendered me speechless. She was wearing a magnificent red kimono, embroidered with cranes, trees and mountains in gold, white and green thread. Her hair was put up with golden hairpins, with a few stray locks hanging down the sides of her face. The joy and rapture she felt on that day had been faithfully captured by the camera, for she was glowing with happiness, complete with joyous smile and sparkling eyes.

  I stood beside her wearing traditional Japanese men’s clothes. It included pleated skirt-like black-and-white striped hakama pants, a white undershirt, and black kimono and haori, the latter being a lightweight long coat with wide sleeves.

  "You look simply gorgeous. Must have been such a wonderful day - what I'd give to get those memories back," I said when I took off the goggles and reluctantly handed them back, delighted to have a concrete image with which to associate to our wedding day.

  "It was the second happiest day of my life," she said, smiling broadly.

  I raised my eyebrows, suddenly feeling a little threatened. What could mean more to someone than their wedding day? "Really - what was the happiest?"

  She lay back down beside me with her head on my shoulder and took my left hand in hers. "Last night, when you told me that you are mine, now and forever, and we put our wedding rings back on."

  I slipped my right arm around her and within minutes, her arms and legs twitched erratically - she had fallen asleep again.

  It was hours before I fell asleep, but I didn't mind in the slightest. As I lay with my petite Japanese wife in my arms, I felt content and completely at peace. The ever-present emptiness I had felt since awaking from the operation two years ago was gone. And I knew why. That emptiness I had felt was her absence.

  * * *

  “Hey Jones, wake up!” said a familiar voice.

  I jerked awake from a shallow sleep and saw my three workmates clustered around my bed. It was just after 8am according to the clock on the wall.

  "This is new,” Shorty said as he appraised Nanako sitting cross-legged on the bed beside me and holding my hand.

  “So are the wedding rings,” Michal pointed out, observant as usual.

  “Did we blink and miss something?” Shorty asked.

  “Guys, may I present Nanako Jones, my wife,” I replied while grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  “Yep, I think we did,” Shorty said to Michal, and then to me, “Jones, what on earth are you talking about?”

  I spent the next five minutes explaining to the lads how I went to Hamamachi in 2120 and married Nanako, about her bringing me back after the injury and subsequently being
thrown out of town, and her plan to get me back.

  “Man, what a story,” Shorty said when I’d finished, “I’m getting a headache just trying to get my head around it.”

  "Great to see it work out for you two at last," Michal said sincerely. "Make sure you inform the Custodians or they'll get the wrong idea."

  "Already have," I assured him, though not quite in the manner he would have assumed.

  Shorty and David murmured similar comments, but truth be known, they were clearly awkward with Nanako around. I questioned Newhome's traditions of so rigidly segregating males and females. I remembered how relaxed and natural Nanako and her foraging teammates had been together when I first met her, and concluded that Newhome had gotten lost somewhere in the past.

  "So how are you three going?" I asked in an attempt to end the awkward silence.

  "Saturday was a blast," Shorty said with heavy sarcasm, "I never realised how much fun can be had digging through piles of junk and sorting it into its components."

  "Well hopefully the Skel will count their losses and give Newhome a miss for a while," I replied thoughtfully.

  "Don't count on it," Michal said dryly.

  "Yeah, we need to find a way to drive the Skel out of Melbourne altogether," David added.

  "Maybe the Custodians will work out something?" Nanako suggested.

  "I don't think they're interested in what goes on outside the city," Shorty said quietly, sending a dirty glance at David.

  Nanako noticed the exchange and looked enquiringly at me.

  "It's a long story, I'll fill you in later," I said.

  She nodded and David looked most relieved. The last thing he wanted was to experience his shame in public again.

  "Look, we've got to trot, we just popped in on the way to work to see how you were going," Shorty said. And then, “And you know guys, I don’t think we need to look after him anymore, somehow.”

  “Yeah, we’ve been superseded by a newer model,” Michal said, smiling bashfully at Nanako.