"This girl," Shorty said, indicating Madison with a flick of his head, "is a legend. She took out the Ranger driving your truck first, then the one driving the 4WD, and then the 4WD's passengers..."
"Then we loaded all the slaves from your truck into the other two, plus two Rangers who'd only been wounded, and drove straight to Inverloch," David added.
"Them older dudes, Martin and Judy? They knew a back route to Inverloch, so we were able to get there without the Rangers spotting us," Shorty continued. "Madison directed us straight to their local radio station, and they just about pooped 'emselves with excitement when we told 'em who we were and where we were from. They started airing our story and interviewing the slaves on the air pretty much straight away."
"Once the information was out, we took the slaves to the hospital, and that's where they are right now," David explained. "They were pretty worried about you and Nanako, especially Beth and Jack, so when we got the message from Councillor Okada that you two had been found and were okay, they were so relieved."
"Yeah, Beth, Jack, and the others – they all send their thanks, by the way," Leigh added.
Councillor Okada cleared his throat, and the lads suddenly piped down. "I apologise for having dragged you away from your wife's side at this time," the councillor began. "But a serious situation has developed that requires your immediate attention."
"The Rangers have escaped," Madison said.
"They what?" I blurted, unable to believe my ears.
"Specialist Madison speaks the truth, I am ashamed to say," Councillor Okada added in embarrassment. "It appears that the Rangers who were still in the field managed to infiltrate the town undetected, and then sprung all of their incarcerated comrades from the jail, including – I'm afraid – Colonel Yamada."
"Then you'd better send the Militia out to round 'em back up again," I said, wondering why the councillor thought I needed to be told about this.
"That is not possible."
"And why not?"
"We have been able to locate them by tracking their Smartphones."
"And?" I prompted, irritated that the councillor wouldn't just come out and say it. Wait – were they on the way here, wanting to take me out in revenge?
"They are on the way to Newhome," he replied.
"Oh no," I replied, as I recalled the Colonel's words that he wanted to see every Korean man, woman and child in Newhome dead. "Still, there won't be a great deal they can do, right?"
"They raided the Militia's armoury before they left," the councillor admitted. "And among other items, they took a Javelin missile launcher."
"They're gonna blow a hole in the wall," I concluded, and then looked up. "Still, I don't get why you're telling me all this."
"I am going after them. I'm leaving in a few minutes," Madison said, taking a step forward. "And I want you – all of you – to come with me."
"Can’t Hamamachi stop the Rangers – it’s their mess – and their responsibility, right?" Hadn’t I done my bit by exposing the Rangers? I'd been tortured, my wife had been shot and tortured and was lying in a hospital bed and needed me by her side. This wasn't my fight anymore, right?
David, Leigh, and even Shorty, sighed in relief when they heard me say that.
"The council will not send the Militia to help Newhome, not after they tried to nuke our town," Councillor Okada declared emphatically.
"Which they did in response to your Rangers sicking the Skel on them!" I protested.
"Nonetheless."
"How convenient!"
"Jones, do you think the Custodians will stand a chance against the Rangers?" Madison asked gruffly.
"No. But..."
"Look, I realize you are feeling down right now with the loss of your child..."
"That’s not fair!" I snapped angrily.
"And that the Rangers beat you up, but you can’t quit before the job is finished. Ask yourself why you went to Skel territory to expose the Rangers. Was it not to break their alliance with the Skel and get them taken out of the picture?"
"Yeah, but..."
"Jones – if you stop now, you have failed the mission that Captain Smithson gave you to save Newhome from the Rangers and the Skel. Right now, at this very moment, the Rangers are on the way to Newhome, no doubt to team up with the Skel, and then attack and destroy it."
"Councillor, you have to convince the council to send the Militia," I pleaded.
"I tried, young Ethan. I argued and shouted at them until I was blue in the face, but they would not be moved."
"Ethan, your family, do you care about them?" Madison asked.
"Of course I do!" I snapped, as my emotions rose up and threatened to overwhelm me.
"What of the chancellor and the councillors? They are all going to die!"
"That doesn't particularly worry me," I said, though that was only part of the picture, and I knew it. The Colonel wanted to kill all the Koreans, even the children.
"Ethan," Madison said, surprising me by using my first name. "There is something I have not told you."
"And that is?"
"All of the Korean children aged ten and younger, they are like you and me. And if we do not stop the Rangers, they will all die too."
So the geneticists in Newhome had managed to successfully reverse engineer the echolocation genetic modification. And having done so, the chancellor and councillors had given this bio-engineered enhancement exclusively to the Korean children. Their children. That was so unfair. It should have been made available to all.
I thought of the bio-engineered Korean children, who had no choice in any of this. They were completely innocent. I realised then that I couldn't bear the thought of them being murdered just because the Rangers blamed them for something their forebears did a century ago.
The Rangers – the Colonel – had to be stopped.
When I looked up and met Madison's eyes, there was a fire in my eyes. To my surprise, even she took a step back. "Fine, I'll come, but just me, not my boys. I gave them a promise that I'd never ask 'em to fight Rangers, and I'm sticking to it."
"I knew I could count on you, Ethan. Let us leave right now!" Madison smiled with delight.
"Just one thing."
"Yes?"
"Providing I survive this night and we beat the Rangers, how will I get out of Newhome again?"
"I give you my word that I will get you out, and I assure you that I have the authority to make this promise," she said.
"Okay," I replied, kind of convinced.
"Right, let’s go. There is a vehicle waiting for us outside.
"Weapons?"
"In the vehicle. Pistols, Austeyr assault rifles, even a hankyu Japanese half-bow."
So this was it, I was just gonna up and go to Newhome to take on the Rangers and Skel virtually single handedly, without even saying goodbye to Nanako? I choked back the tears that threatened to flow as I realised that if I didn't make it back, Nanako would be set free from me and the curse of my inability to give her children. I wouldn’t have to divorce her.
I turned to the councillor. "Sir, please apologise to Nanako that I have ducked off without saying goodbye, but I don't want to wake her. Besides, she wouldn't let me go, and I have to do this. And if I'm not back within a week, it means I have been killed. If that happens, please look after her and encourage her to remarry when she passes out of her period of mourning."
"I will take good care of her, you have my word." The councillor took my hand and shook it firmly. "Oh, I almost forgot. Here is a phone. Call me and let me know when you're done so we can know when to expect you back. I've already put my number in it."
"Thanks." I took the phone and tucked it in my pocket. I sucked in a deep breath. "Okay Madison, let's go."
Shorty took a tentative step towards me as I turned to follow Madison from the room. "Jones?"
"No, Shorty," I said firmly. "Stay here and look after David and Leigh, okay?"
"I can’t let you do this by yourself."
"It’s okay, Shorty. Really. Madison and I'll handle this one."
"Okay." He looked both guilty and relieved at the same time.
"Take 'em all out!" Leigh shouted after us as we left the room.
"You come back, Jones, you hear me?" David shouted.
And then we were gone.
But when Madison led me out of the hospital and I saw the vehicle she'd commandeered, I staggered to a stop. "You've got to be kidding. Do you even know how to drive that thing?" Right there, parked outside the hospital's front door, was the Custodian Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle that Lieutenant King had driven here a few weeks ago.
"I do, yes. And can you think of a more suitable vehicle? It is fast and bulletproof and the Custodians will not shoot at us when we approach the town in it."
"Your logic is impeccable, as always. Okay, let's get this show on the road."
Chapter Thirty
I sat in the front passenger seat while Madison drove the large, bulky Bushmaster at near breakneck speeds. Luckily, the headlights worked, or we would have crashed a dozen times over.
And me, I was heartbroken. Whether I survived the night or not, either way I would lose Nanako. If I died, I lost her. And if I survived and got back to Hamamachi, I was going to divorce her. Then I would travel throughout Victoria until I found some other place I was willing to live out the rest of my lonely days. Days in which I would mope and mourn the loss of my soulmate and best friend.
"You know, there is a good chance you can stay in Newhome if you want to," Madison said out of the blue. We were speeding down the Bass Highway through rolling fields of grass that waved in the gentle wind.
"What are you talking about?" I snapped. "You said I'm a wanted terrorist with a death warrant issued for me."
"About that..."
"Yes?"
"I lied."
"Really?" I scoffed.
"I was ordered to bring you in alive."
"So why did you say..."
"I was trying to shock you and throw you off your game so I could overpower you more easily."
"Didn't quite work, then, did it?" I surmised.
"My point is," Madison continued, undaunted, "Providing we beat the Rangers and Skel tonight, once I point out the considerable service you have done our town, I am sure they will grant you a full pardon. Especially if you were to volunteer to work with the geneticists."
"Work with the geneticists? In what way?" I sneered. I wanted to kill the geneticists, not work with them.
"Volunteer to assist them in their experimental breeding program. You are, after all, the only remaining male echolocater of a suitable age."
"You've got to be kidding."
"No, I am serious. You know that this is the only way you will be able to have children, right?"
"And if the children were boys, they'd euthanize them. You really don't think things through sometimes, Madison."
"If the boys were born under the strict supervision of the breeding program, they would not be euthanized. They would be raised since birth in the way the chancellor wants them to be."
"You mean they'll be brainwashed from birth, and to me, that's worse than euthanisation."
"They are not brainwashed, Ethan. They are enlightened."
"Oh, please. And tell me, is that how you view yourself – enlightened?"
"It is the truth."
And to think I thought we'd be able to get through her brainwashing. I couldn't have been more wrong. "Madison?"
"Yes?"
"I'm just gonna forget you even suggested I volunteer to join your breeding program, okay?"
"Just letting you know the option is on the table," she said.
"Answer's still no."
"Fine."
A little while later, my body reminded me that I hadn't slept since the night before, and I was soon lulled to sleep by the rocking motion of the Bushmaster as it sped over the pitted surface of the highway...
...a couple of weeks had passed since I overheard Ken ask Nanako to marry him, and try as I might, I couldn't find inner peace after that moment. Scenario after horrific scenario kept playing through my mind, that some other, more eligible guy and his family would approach Nanako and her mother, and ask for Nanako's hand in marriage. And I knew, without even the slightest shadow of doubt, that if that happened and Nanako accepted such a guy's marriage proposal, I'd be devastated. And not just temporarily. No, I'd be devastated forever. Because Nanako was the most amazing, kind, gentle yet passionate, and beautiful girl I'd ever met. She had, in fact, become my world – my life. I woke thinking of her and couldn't wait to get over to her house for breakfast so I could see her. I loved the days when we worked together as foragers, and I hated the days when we were separated 'cause one of us was on Militia duty. And the evenings after work were pure bliss, as I dined with her and her family, and spent the rest of the evening (often into the wee hours of the morning) lost in deep conversation with her.
It was after dinner, now, and the sun was low on the horizon. Nanako and I were sitting on the glazed clay roof tiles of her house, looking out to sea.
"You know, Nana-chan," I said suddenly, my heart fluttering with nervousness. "Before I met you, I vowed and declared I wouldn't marry until I was at least thirty. But I never dreamed in a million years I'd meet someone as special as you when I said that."
Nanako peered up at me from beneath her dark pink fringe, and smiled with her cute, upside-down smile, encouraging me to continue.
"Well, I, ah, I don't know what age you want to get married at – maybe twenty, maybe later – but if you'd have me, I'd love to draw up a marriage contract with you now, stating that we’d get married at whatever age you choose," I said. At least, that's what I tried to say, 'cause I was only seventeen and as nervous as anything and I got tongue tied and stumbled all over the place.
Nanako took my hand in hers and laughed. "I think there's a question hiding in there somewhere. So come on, you know me well enough to know I don't bite, so just go ahead and ask me. You know, all proper like." And she sat there, on the roof, watching me keenly.
I took a deep breath and tried again. "Will you marry me, Nanako? I mean, you know, after we both turn twenty, or at whatever age you wanna marry?"
"Well of course I will, silly," she said with a laugh, "And you know, we don't have to wait 'till we're twenty."
"We don't?"
"Nope. With our parents' and a magistrate's permission we're allowed to marry at eighteen."
I was crestfallen. "That counts me out, then. There's no way I can get permission from my parents, with me all the way out here and all."
"In your case, you could get parental permission from a man who's been like a father to you," she suggested.
"Councillor Okada!" I exclaimed. The councillor had been like the father I'd always wished I'd had. He had taken me to archery lessons, on bushwalking treks, and he'd even taken time out of his evenings to teach me Japanese.
"That's right," she said. "And if Councillor Okada gives you permission and my mother gives it to me, we could get married next week, on your eighteenth birthday."
I looked at her then with a mixture of unbridled excitement and enthusiasm and large doses of fear. I had been thinking of two years in the future, so next week seemed so alarmingly close. Yet the thought of waking with her beside me every morning, of coming home to her after work every day, of sleeping together, filled me with irresistible anticipation. Besides, only having to wait ‘til next week sure beat waiting two more years. Not to mention that getting married at eighteen was the norm where I came from – for the girls, anyway.
"Okay, let's do it!" I said at last.
"Why don't you ask my mother for permission now?" she asked.
"Okay," I replied dreamily, thinking I’d pop the question at dinner the following night.
"Well, why are you still here?" she asked, looking at me expectantly.
"Huh?"
"Go ask her now."
"What, right now?"
"Yes."
"This very instant?"
"Yes."
"Ah, okay, I mean. Wow! Right, I'm gonna do it," I said, finally catching on.
So we climbed down from the roof and went into the house. I found Nanako's mother in the kitchen, washing the dishes. She must have guessed something was up from our expressions, because she put down her tea towel. And then, shaking from nervousness – in fact, I was more scared than when I faced Skel in combat – I hesitantly asked Nanako's mother for her hand in marriage. And for permission to do so on my birthday the following week, the 25th of February.
I don't know what Nanako's mother thought we were gonna ask her, but I could tell from her shocked, stunned reaction that it hadn't been that. Yet, as she stood there studying our hopeful faces, she broke into a broad smile and said yes – to both requests.
After that, Nanako and I got so excited that we bounced around the kitchen holding hands and saying, "We're getting married!" over and over again.
Our exuberant display woke Nanako's little brother and sister, and soon they were holding hands and bouncing around the kitchen alongside us, saying, "Nanako and Ethan are getting married!"...
..."We are almost there, Ethan," Madison said, jerking me out of my sleep and the happy memory.
"What time is it?" I asked as I studied the nighttime view out the front windscreen. The powerful headlights illuminated houses in various states of disrepair on our left side and wild, untamed bush on our right.
Madison was still driving like a lunatic.
"Almost two," she replied.
Wow! I'd slept almost four hours. I must have been truly exhausted. And the dream/memory had been so vivid, so real. I wished I could go back to the time of the dream, to two years ago, and relive my life from that point, but without making the same mistakes. For starter, I wouldn’t join the Rangers. However, that wouldn't have made any difference in the long run. We still couldn't have had children.
One thing about the dream, though. Since we'd gotten back together, Nanako kept asking me if I remembered why I'd asked her to marry me. Well, finally, I could answer her question. I'd asked her to marry me because I didn't want to miss out on spending my life with the most amazing and beautiful girl in the world. Yet now, as I pondered that I could answer her question at long last, there was no point in my doing so, because as much as I wanted to spend my life with her, I couldn't do so. For her sake, I had to let her go, for her sake I had to divorce her and get out of her life. The irony of this situation wasn't lost on me.
Forager - the Complete Trilogy (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Trilogy) Page 67
