"Woah, someone did a real job on your mind if you believe all that," David said.
"The boys were five years old," I said.
"What?" Madison snapped.
"The first boys they caught – they were five years old when they killed them," I said, taking a menacing step towards her. "How can a five year old be deemed so uncontrollable that they have to be killed?"
Chapter Nine
"They were all carefully screened and tested," Madison declared with conviction.
"That's rubbish, Madison, surely even you can see that. And besides, they didn't euthanize the boys when they caught them, not at first, anyway."
"What are you talking about?" she demanded.
"They dissected them."
"What utter nonsense! Why would they do that?"
"So they could reverse engineer the biological modification – learn how it was done – and therefore, control who receives it."
"More nonsense! Who is the 'they' you are talking about, Ethan Jones?"
"The geneticists under the auspices of the chancellor and councillors. In other words – the Koreans."
"Nothing but wild conspiracy theories."
"What I'm telling you is no conspiracy theory, Madison. It's the truth."
"Okay, prove it."
"I was given the information by a reliable source," I said. I was tempted to say it was from Bhagya Singhe, but as Madison would know her, and as I figured we'd have to let Madison go eventually, I could not reveal her name and endanger her life.
"So you didn't witness these so-called dissections yourself?"
"Of course not. As I said, I was given..."
"Name the source."
"I can't – it's confidential."
"That is rather convenient, don't you think?" she gloated with a mocking smile.
"Can we gag her?" David asked.
"I vote we knock her out," Leigh said.
"That's right, if you cannot beat me, resort to threats of physical violence," Madison sneered. Then, after fixing me with her piercing blue eyes, added, "and in seeing the treacherous actions perpetrated by you, Jones, it more than justifies the councillors' directive to have all male echolocaters euthanized."
"I blew the hole in the wall to create a diversion so I could rescue Nanako from execution – on trumped-up charges, by the way – so they brought that on themselves."
"You endangered the livelihood of every person in the town!" Madison barked angrily.
"How about when Ethan almost single handedly saved the Custodians from getting wiped out when they attacked the sniper's hideout. Have you forgotten that? What about when he took out the Ranger sniper?" Nanako said.
"What absurd logic. It doesn't matter how many services Jones did the town; one traitorous action still qualifies someone as a traitor," Madison replied.
I was exhausted, and tired of this pointless argument. I took a step closer to Madison and held up my hands. "That's enough, we're getting nowhere. Let me finish with this last thought, Madison. We're actually out here on Custodian orders, did you know that?"
"What?" she asked incredulously.
"A Custodian officer asked us to save the town from the combined Ranger/Skel threat."
Comprehension dawned on her freckled face. "Captain Smithson. He's the one who helped you escape, isn't he? Never figured him for a traitor."
I smacked my palm against my forehead. "Arrgh, can you come out of your little world, just for a moment, and look at the big picture? The Rangers are trying to destroy Newhome, and they are manipulating the Skel into helping them do it. Why, we don't know, but unless they're stopped, Newhome's gonna fall. Now the question is, are you going to help us?"
Madison snorted. "I will not consort with traitors and terrorists."
"Why do we even talk to you," I said. I was beginning to wonder if we could get through to her. I turned to address the others. "Let's finish off the rest of our provisions, and have another rest. After that, we can rustle up some wallabies and have us some meat."
An hour later Nanako and I teamed up to go hunting. My chest still hurt too much to use a bow, but that didn't matter, as Nanako was a better archer by far. Using my enhanced hearing and flash sonar, we put our stealth techniques into practice and entered the strip of bushland between the end of the road and the beach beyond.
The palm trees that lined the cracked concrete paths in the area – the Catani Gardens according to a road sign – were competing for their right to survive with native gumtrees. Seven paths converged at a bandstand in the centre of the gardens, but several of the bandstand's support beams had collapsed. The hexagonal roof had fallen to the ground and broken apart.
As I stood there, staring at the mess and reflecting on how beautiful this place must have been a century ago, an unrelated memory from my missing year exploded into my mind, carrying me along with its vision strength clarity...
...I was seventeen years old, and only a few days earlier had accepted Nanako's invitation to come back to Hamamachi with her and her forager friends after meeting them in Lilydale. That was when I'd run away from Newhome while foraging. Nanako had arranged for me to stay with her next-door neighbours, an elderly couple with a room available for rent. I didn't spend much time there, though, since Nanako invited me to have breakfast at her place, and to spend the evenings with her and her family after work. I'd also joined her foraging team.
I was kneeling on the floor in Nanako's lounge room at a very low table called a kotatsu. The table was covered by a futon, over which sat the tabletop, and there was an inbuilt heater under the table. The table was covered with Japanese dishes, including bowls of miso soup, rice, pickled cucumber, and a large casserole dish with oden. And unlike when Nanako had made the meal for me in Newhome, this oden was filled with all the authentic ingredients, boiled eggs, daikon, fish cakes, and jelly-like konnyaku.
Kneeling at the table to my right were Nanako's brother and sister, Kazu and Akiko. They were busy teasing each other and me. Kazu was a skinny boy with short-cropped hair, and Akiko, two years his junior, was small but irresistibly cute. I wondered if Nanako looked like her at that age.
Nanako and her mother were on my left. Every time I glanced at Nanako, she rewarded me with a dazzling smile, which I couldn't help but return in kind. I'd only known her a week, but I was totally smitten. That I was allowed to talk and socialise with her without breaking any town rules blew my mind. I couldn't believe that, after a lifetime of suffocating rules and regulations in Newhome, I was finally free. I loved Hamamachi and never wanted to leave.
The doorbell rang and Nanako's mother, who was two inches shorter than she was, hurried out to the foyer. I heard her talking to a man, and then she led two men into the room, and with much bowing, encouraged them to join us to eat. They bowed and knelt at the table opposite me. One man was in his late forties with slowly greying hair, while the other was probably around twenty. He shot a glance in my direction, and then fixed his gaze upon Nanako with what was clearly more than passing interest. Nanako, however, barely acknowledged his presence.
I looked up at the older man in fear, wondering who he was and if he'd be like my father, overbearing, controlling, and aggressive, but to my surprise, he met my gaze and inclined his head respectfully, and spoke to me kindly.
As I hadn’t learned much Japanese yet, Nanako immediately began translating what the councillor said to me, and what I said back to him.
"Nice to meet you, I am Councillor Okada. You must be the boy from Melbourne I've heard so much about," he said with a winning smile.
One of the town's ruling councillors, here? I'd only ever seen Newhome's councillors from a distance, and then only at the Solidarity Festivals. And they always looked so aloof, so arrogant. No one was permitted to talk to them without an invitation. But Councillor Okada didn't seem that way at all.
"Nice to meet you too, Sir. I am honoured to make your acquaintance." My voice wavered uncertainly.
"No need to be
so formal," he laughed. "We are all family here, yes?"
Nanako's mother laughed too. "That's right."
"The councillor was my father's best friend, so he drops by often," Nanako explained. Her father had passed away nearly two years ago, from cancer.
The councillor indicated the young man who had come with him. "This is my nephew, Ken. He is my chauffeur."
Ken tore his gaze from Nanako long enough to incline his head in my direction, and then went back to staring at her. I wondered if there was some kind of history between them. Though to be honest, Nanako just ignored him, and divided her attention between me and the councillor...
..."Ethan!"
Nanako's voice pulled me out of the memory, leaving me temporarily disorientated. I blinked and looked around, and realised I was in the Catani 'Gardens' in St. Kilda.
"Are you okay? Are you having another seizure?" Nanako gripped my shoulders and looked at me with concern.
I grabbed her hands excitedly. "I just had another flashback. I remembered when I met Councillor Okada at your place."
Nanako's worry vanished, replaced by wonderment. "That's great! Tell me what you remembered!"
I related the whole memory back to her, except for the bit about Ken staring at her, and she listened, enraptured.
"I'm so glad your memories are returning," she said when I'd finished. "But how 'bout you remember the special times we had together, hey? Like when you asked me to marry you? Stuff like that."
"Working on it," I assured her with a laugh. "Now, shall we go get us some dinner? There's a wallaby that way..."
* * *
Nanako bagged two wallabies, which she had to skin, gut, and prepare for cooking. Us guys all held our hands up and stood back, having had no experience with such things.
Nanako cooked the wallabies on a spit we put in a storage shed behind the restaurant. We couldn't cook outside because a smoke plume would announce our presence to any Skel who may be in the area.
While Nanako was cooking, the rest of us hit the bush outside and gathered more quandong, muntries berries, and blackberries. Oh, and cicadas from David, though this time he fried them in a battered old frypan he found in the restaurant cupboards.
Eating roasted wallaby after nothing but quandong and berries, was simply heaven. Even Madison accepted some, so I guess hunger was winning over pride.
Chapter Ten
For the next two weeks, we just concentrated on getting our strength back. Between searching for bush tucker, and bagging wallabies or wild dogs to eat, we engaged in numerous physical exercises.
We practiced archery to improve our shooting skills and strengthen our chest muscles. We pumped iron with a set of old weights we found in one of the neighbouring buildings. We went for long runs through deserted side streets at night, and even bathed at the beach.
We also journeyed most every day to a creek a couple of klicks to the south in order to refill our water bottles. On the way back, Nanako and I sometimes took a detour into one of the mansions on the beachfront for some private time.
All this exercise did wonders for my chest wound. It finally healed up and I was even able to use a bow again. It seemed like forever since I'd used my left arm normally.
The terrible fears and doubts that plagued me ever since Madison dropped the bombshell that Nanako and I couldn’t have kids were still there, but I tried to distance myself from them by keeping myself busy.
Madison remained as stubborn as ever, so we kept her bound and secured to a pipe in the storeroom for much of that time. Her arm was healing, but very slowly, and she still had trouble moving it. I tried to get through to her on numerous occasions, but it was like talking to a plank of wood for all the good it did me.
On Thursday morning, the fifteenth day after we’d arrived in St. Kilda, we were all outside behind the restaurant. The area was enclosed on two sides by wooden fences and on the other by the back of an apartment block. We’d cleared a lot of junk, including crates and plastic rubbish bins, out of the way in order to give us some room. For a change, I’d brought Madison out for some fresh air today.
We made a target for archery practice. Our arrows were specially modified to penetrate Skel armour, so we made the target from softened, rotten wood. Otherwise we'd never be able to get the arrows out again. We also found two bows in a house further up the street during one of our exploratory excursions, so we were all bow armed now. Well, except for Madison, of course.
In fine form, Nanako put five arrows in quick succession into the hand-drawn bull's eye when Madison surprised us by actually speaking. "I don’t get why you lot waste your time with such archaic weapons."
I pulled out my pistol with its four remaining bullets, and showed it to her. "The only way to beat Skel is to beat them at their own game by ambushing them. Fire one of these at a Skel and you’ve thrown away any chance at surprise. Maybe you’ll kill the Skel you shoot at, but all the others in the area will come running." I pointed to the bow and arrows Nanako was carrying. "Take out a Skel with an arrow, and the only person who’ll know about it is the one you just hit. And if he’s dead, he isn't gonna be telling anyone."
"What a load of baloney," Madison scoffed. "If guns can’t penetrate Skel armour, what good are bows and arrows?"
"These ain’t no ordinary arrows," Shorty said as he walked over and showed her one from his quiver. "David modified the arrowheads to penetrate Skel armour."
"Bah."
"Over the past two years we’ve taken out many Skel this way," I assured her. "In fact, David and Shorty used their bows to kill one of the Skel who attacked you two weeks ago."
"And the other four? What happened to them?" she demanded, eyeing me sceptically.
"Jones popped ‘em with his gun," Shorty explained.
"Which of course alerted every Skel in the area we were there, but as time was of the essence, I had no choice," I added.
"You shot four Skel with a pistol, Jones? I don’t think so. Come on, what are you guys hiding? Where did you really find me?" she asked angrily.
"You have to shoot Skel in the throat or neck; it’s the only place they don’t cover with bones." I was annoyed by her continual refusal to believe us. "One shot, one kill."
"Custodians are trained to shoot at the chest because head shots are too easy to miss. Do you expect me to believe you can hit four Skel in the throat in quick succession – in a combat situation?" she scoffed.
Nanako threw her hands up in exasperation. "Madison, you don’t listen, do you? I told you before that you echolocaters are different. With training, you’d be able to do it too."
"That's right," I agreed. "And it's a bit more effective than emptying the entire magazine like you did, just to bring down one Skel, don't you think?"
Her head snapped around, and she locked her eyes on mine. "So you really were there, when the Skel caught me?"
"Only reason you’re still alive," I said.
"And you really took down four of them?" She glanced from me to David and Shorty, challenging them to contradict me.
"He did," David said.
"Though the fourth one fell on top of him. You should have seen him, trying to squirm his way out while the fifth Skel was trying to brain him," Shorty said with a laugh.
"Which is why Shorty and I had to take down the last one with our bows, ‘cause Jones was pinned beneath the Skel," David explained.
"And the Skel, were they really trying to…you know?" Madison asked, her expression softening slightly.
I nodded.
Her eyes widened as the truth finally sank in. "That means that you three guys, you saw me..."
"We didn’t look," I declared solemnly.
Shorty and David, however, contradicted my statement by shifting nervously from foot to foot and avoiding eye contact with her.
"Yet you got my clothes back on?"
"Yeah."
"Without looking?"
"Pretty much."
"I see," Madison said, and fe
ll silent.
I stared at her hard, and reflected on the fact that she'd finally bought the truth that we'd rescued her from the Skel. So I pulled out my Custodian combat knife and approached her.
"What are you doing?" she snapped, staring fearfully at the exposed blade.
"Tell you what," I said, pointing at her bound wrists. "If you'll join us on our mission to expose the Rangers, I'll cut your bonds right now."
"Jones?" David’s voice wavered.
"What are you doing, Jones?" Leigh squeaked at the same time.
"Join you? Forget it!" Madison snapped, her face closing up again.
"Well, the offer's there if you change your mind," I said.
"Bah!" she replied. She wasn’t currently tethered to anything, so she went and sat by the restaurant's back door.
"Let's see some more of that archery," I said to Nanako, who had retrieved her arrows from the target.
I watched her as she prepared to shoot again. She withdrew an arrow, fitted it to the bowstring...
...and my mind did a virtual flip as another memory surfaced, initially superimposing the present and then eclipsing it.
I was with Nanako and Councillor Okada on an outdoor archery range, along with many other Japanese folk. But I'd never imagined archery like this; it was extremely ritualised and formal.
Everyone, including me, wore traditional hakama pants, and leather gloves to protect our hands. Nanako, and the other women present, also wore a leather breastplate, to protect them from the bowstring when they fired.
The technique to fire was formulaic, with every person following the same process to fire their bow.
Forager - the Complete Trilogy (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Trilogy) Page 54
