"What is it, Jones? You look like you've seen a ghost!" David queried, worried.
"Ethan?" Nanako demanded, pulling on my arm.
"We gotta go – now!" I said, scared out of my wits. The colonel knew we were out here and he wanted me taken alive. That couldn't be good.
The windows of the pharmacy beside us had been smashed by vandals decades ago, so I motioned for everyone to follow me and scampered into the shop's darkened interior.
We rushed past the back serving-counter, its veneer surfaces peeling back to reveal the rotting wooden frame beneath, through aisles of shelves stripped bare of anything worthwhile decades ago, and finally to the front of the store, where we hunkered down beside the front sales counter. I poked my head cautiously out the empty doorframe, watched and listened for the signs of Skel activity in the street, and then ducked it back in again a minute later.
"Well?" Leigh demanded.
"The Skel are searching the buildings on both sides of the street, but are only coming into the street when going from one building to the next."
"Then we're stuffed!" Leigh squealed. "I knew this venture was gonna turn out bad – they're gonna catch us; they're gonna catch us!"
"Quit fussing, Leigh!" I snapped.
"Let's play leapfrog," David suggested.
"Say what?" I asked.
"When they enter the Asian grocery store, which is the building down from this one, we pop out and run into the next building down, you know, the one they've just vacated," he explained.
"You gotta be kidding. They'll see us!" Leigh protested.
"Not necessarily," I said.
"And the Skel on the other side of the street, what if they spot us when we pop out?" Leigh asked.
"It's a matter of timing."
"And how are we gonna know the Skel have entered the shop beside us? If your head is poking outside the door, they're gonna see you."
Although it was pretty dark in here, Leigh saw me point to my ears.
Leigh stood back from us and paced up and down while running his hands through his auburn hair. "I can't believe this is happening," he muttered over and again.
Nanako gripped my hand and met my gaze, her determination to succeed in escaping this trap shining through her eyes. "We can do this."
I nodded, and then reached up to grab Leigh and pulled him down to join us. "Okay everyone, get ready. As soon as I say go, follow me outside and do exactly what I do. Okay?"
They all met my gaze and nodded, though I could tell they weren't convinced it was gonna work.
I shuffled over to crouch down beside the doorframe and then strained my ears, listening to the barbaric Skel as they came ever closer as they searched every building on both sides of the street. I realised there must be dozens of them out here in Footscray, for they wouldn't be only searching these buildings, but the whole surrounding area. I drew my pistol and checked the magazine. I had only four bullets left; not enough to get us through any scrap we may have with the Skel, let alone the highly professional Rangers.
I listened as the Skel barged into the Asian grocery shop next door, and was about to gesture for the others to join me in a mad dash to the next building down, when three Skel exited a bank across the street. But instead of going straight into the next building, they started arguing, gesturing wildly as they went on and on about some slight one had given the other.
"Come on, come on!" I whispered, willing them to get a move on.
"What’s going on?" Leigh asked worriedly.
I was about to explain about our predicament, when a loud crash sounded next door, followed by a gun going off and a lot of angry shouting.
And then, to my utter astonishment, the Custodian girl I’d left upstairs next door suddenly dropped down from the awning, landed awkwardly on the sidewalk, and then sprinted off down the street, heading west. The Skel who’d been searching the grocery store came charging after her – including one who also dropped down from the awning. The Skel across the road also joined in the pursuit, racing down the road as fast as they could run in their skeletal suits of armour. Which, I must say, was actually pretty fast. Skel were unbelievably fit and strong.
I waited until both girl and Skel had disappeared around a corner, and then stood with a sense of purpose. "Okay, let’s get out of here before they come back!"
Sticking close to the shop fronts, we jogged off in the opposite direction. This, of course, was the wrong direction, for we wanted to go west towards Ballarat. But Ballarat was suddenly no longer a priority; we had to escape the Rangers and Skel, and that meant heading east.
I kept a lookout for Skel and Rangers as we ran down Barkly Street, using echolocation and listening for the slightest sound that might betray their whereabouts. We had to stop frequently too, for Leigh and Nanako would go only so far and then stagger to a stop, panting for breath. David wasn’t doing much better.
We crossed over Nicholson Street and continued east along Hopkins Street, but the sound of a Skel truck approaching from the north sent us scurrying south down Leeds Street. We crossed over Irving Street, slipped between some old factories, and stumbled upon a railway line set amidst an area taken over by the bush. Native and imported trees, ferns, shrubs, and wild grass had turned the area into a virtual forest.
Leigh fell on his knees in the tree line that bordered the railway line. "Enough," he panted.
Seeing Nanako collapse beside him, I realised we had to stop and get our strength back. So we moved back a ways from the railway line and hid ourselves in a copse of gumtrees.
"Eat and drink up. We need to replenish our strength," I said as I dug into my backpack to retrieve a banana, an apple, and my water bottle.
"Whose lame idea was this venture anyway?" Leigh grumbled as he got stuck into an apple.
"I dunno 'bout that, I’m having a blast," Shorty said, smiling broadly. "Playing hide and seek with the Skel sure beats sorting scrap metal in the Recycling Works."
"At least the scrap metal wasn’t trying to kill us," David said.
Nanako was leaning back against a gumtree, trying to swallow a mouthful of a banana that had seen better days.
"How are you feeling, Nana-chan?" I asked as I sat beside her. What I would've given for a damp cloth, so I could wash the blood off her face.
"I’m fine," she replied, glancing up at me.
"The truth this time."
"Okay, I’m exhausted. I just wanna hole up for a week and do nothing but eat and sleep."
"And how are you feeling, you know, emotionally and mentally?" I asked. Two days ago, she was lying on her bed in a foetal position, too depressed to move.
"I felt pretty bad this morning, but it’s wearing off now. And mentally I’m at peace, now I know you didn’t try to kill yourself – that you didn’t try to leave me. There are still a few residual doubts and fears lurking away in the back of my mind, though, but I’m just ignoring them."
"Just keep focusing on the truth," I encouraged her as I leaned forward to plant a kiss on her cheek. I turned and studied the others. Poor David was still as white as a sheet. "How you holding up, David?"
"It hurts," he conceded.
"Your chin?"
"Everything. That cow did a right number on me," he said, grimacing each time he bit into his apple.
"That cow," I replied gruffly, "Just saved our lives."
"Talking of cows, how’d the little heifer get free? I thought you tied her up, Jones?" Leigh demanded.
"Well, I…"
"You untied her, didn’t ya, ya big softy," Shorty said with a grin.
"And it's lucky for us I did."
"That remains to be seen," Leigh said. "I don't think we've seen the last of her yet."
"So what are we gonna do now?" Nanako asked.
"We can’t go north or west, not without risking running into Skel or Rangers, so we have to keep heading southeast."
"Now hold up right there," Leigh said, his voice rising in alarm. "There ain't nowhere to go
in that direction except over the river and into Skel territory, and you said we're going to Ballarat."
"That was the plan..."
"You promised!" he said, coming up onto his knees.
"I know what I said!" I snapped angrily. "But there's who knows how many Skel searching for us back there, plus the Rangers, including their senior commander, the Colonel. And I, for one, don't want to get caught again. How 'bout you?"
"But Jones..." Leigh pleaded.
I scooted forward, grabbed him by the shoulders, and stared into his light-brown eyes. "I'll look out for you, okay? You're gonna be fine."
"What, like you did last time? In case you don't remember, that didn't turn out too well."
"Hey, you're not the only one who got shot," I protested as I ran my fingers over the ugly scar on the side of my forehead.
"Took three in the chest, did you?" Leigh shot back.
"That's not fair…" I began.
He cut me off. "Don’t go making promises you can't keep, that's all I'm saying."
"Can I get a word in edgeways?" David interrupted.
"Sure."
"Are you saying we're gonna go into Skel territory right now, without resting up first?" he asked, looking as troubled as Leigh.
"Just to the outskirts of the south eastern suburbs – it's the last place they’re gonna think of searching for us," I replied. "We should be able to find a safe place to rest up and regain our strength."
"Nice theory," David said.
Chapter Seven
We rested until Nanako and Leigh were strong enough, and then resumed the trek south towards the West Gate Bridge, walking on the railway line. The rails were barely visible now, as the gravel ballast had been covered by dirt and grass. The wooden sleepers, what we could see of them, were rotting away. The power lines drooped overhead, though the steel poles still stood tall, even after a century of neglect. But the best thing was a thick line of trees and bushes that grew right up to the railway line, providing us with the perfect cover. No one would ever spot us in here unless they were to come onto the railway line too.
Leigh had become sullen and kept sending dirty looks in my direction as we walked. I seriously don't know why he was blaming me for this; it's not like I was in any way responsible. I did feel for the guy, though. He'd set his hopes on getting away from it all – I even told him he could – and yet here we were trudging straight for the last place on Earth that any of us ever wanted to go – the nuclear-bomb devastated, south eastern suburbs, home to the barbaric Skel.
We followed the railway line until we hit the West Gate Freeway and then followed the freeway east towards the West Gate Bridge, which was the only way to cross the Yarra River.
The bridge itself was massive, ten lanes wide with steel box girders that reached high above us. Thick steel cables hung from the girders. Once thousands of vehicles would have travelled these lanes every day, but the long bridge was hauntingly quiet now, occupied by the wrecks of perhaps a dozen cars and trucks that had run out of fuel while attempting to cross it when fleeing the city.
The guardrails were still in place, but a hundred years of wind and rain had all but stripped them of their enamel paint, causing the exposed metal beneath to slowly rust and corrode. Cracks had appeared on the bridge's asphalt surface, revealing the joints between the sections.
Leigh stumbled to a stop when we stepped onto the bridge, clearly worried as he took in the scene before us and the river below.
"What?" I asked impatiently.
"You can't seriously expect us to cross that."
I listened to the wind as it howled and whistled its way through the bridge, and I could relate to his concern. "We'll be fine."
"Didn't a whole selection collapse once?"
"Only while they were building it," David replied.
"What's to stop it happening again?"
"As I said, it only happened while they were building it, and that was 140 years ago," David said as he went over and reached out a hand to Leigh. "Come on, I'll walk with you."
Leigh held up a hand, keeping David at arm's length. "Don't invade my space, man."
I sighed, wondering when Leigh would stop pushing David away for what he'd done.
"If it hasn't fallen down in a century and a half, it's not gonna fall down today, so stop being stupid and keep moving," I said.
"Fine!" he spat, and hurried over to Nanako, Shorty and me. "But if we get blown off or the bridge collapses; I'll never forgive you."
"That's the spirit," I said, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder.
And so with David now trailing behind, we passed slowly over the bridge. As we went I marvelled at the commanding view it afforded us: the broad, meandering Yarra River, nicknamed the 'Upside Down River' due to the water being brown rather than blue, the dilapidated warehouses that butted up against the river on our left, the miles of wild bushland that surrounded the warehouses, and the Coode Island – a concrete landscape dotted with terminals where container-ships once came to unload their cargo.
We were about three-quarters of the way across the bridge when one of my habitual glances over my shoulder caught a flash of blonde hair.
"We’re being followed," I informed the others.
"What?" Leigh squeaked.
"Let me guess – it’s her," Nanako said dourly as she shot me a dirty look.
"That's my guess."
"What do we do?" David asked.
"We’re gonna have to catch her and take her prisoner – we can’t leave her running around; she’s too dangerous."
"Killing her would be a lot easier," Leigh suggested.
"Not an option!" I hissed.
"May I point out that if you hadn’t untied her, we wouldn’t be having this conversation," David said.
"You’re right; we’d be having a conversation with the Skel and the Rangers instead," I shot back testily.
An abandoned eighteen-wheel semi-trailer truck just ahead with the driver's door hanging open gave me an idea. "Nana-chan, David and Leigh, you guys keep going, and talk noisily amongst yourselves. Keep saying my name, as though you’re talking to me. Shorty and I’ll hide in this truck and ambush her when she walks past."
"Hey, why do I get the short straw?" Shorty pouted.
"David, Leigh and Shorty can keep going," Nanako corrected, "You and I will set the ambush."
"But…"
She stuck a finger on my lips. "After you, I’m our best fighter, and I’m the best archer too. So suck it up, this ain’t open to negotiation."
I could tell by her expression – you know, the one where she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow – that there was no way I could change her mind, so I nodded.
So while the other three goons continued on their way, chatting noisily amongst themselves, Nanako and I clambered up into the truck’s cab and crouched on the floor between the seats and the dashboard so that we were not visible from outside. I had my pistol ready, and Nanako held her bow and an arrow in her hands.
"Don’t make a sound, not even with your breathing," I whispered, "She can hear as well as I can."
Eyes wide, Nanako nodded.
And then we waited. And waited.
I was beginning to think she wasn't gonna show when I heard furtive footsteps. Well, I could tell the Custodian girl was trying to be quiet, but truth be told, I could have heard her a mile away if it wasn’t for the gusts of wind that buffeted the bridge.
The footsteps continued to approach, and with my heart thumping away in nervous anticipation of what could be another ugly confrontation, I nodded to Nanako, indicating she get ready.
But then disaster struck. Nanako, in pain from crouching so long, tried to move her foot slightly so she could move quickly when she had to, but her foot stuck, and then unexpectedly scuffed across the dirt-encrusted floor.
The approaching footsteps ceased mid step.
"Shoot, she’s on to us!" I said as I sprang from the truck with my gun in hand.
&n
bsp; To my dismay, the Custodian was ready for me. She was also armed with a four-foot long metal bar, which she hewed at me with all her might, forcing me to leap back to avoid being brained. I'd been hoping to scare her into capitulating by threatening her with the gun – I wasn't actually going to use it, for if I did, every Skel in the neighbourhood could hear it and come running.
The girl rushed forward, and with another great sweep of the bar, drove me back against the empty fuel tank beneath the truck cab's open door, causing me to lose my balance. I stuck out my left hand to catch myself when an arrow suddenly whooshed out of the cab and hit the girl in the right bicep, the arrowhead passing right through her arm.
The girl fell back with a strangled cry, the bar slipping from her fingers to clatter noisily upon the road. Taking advantage of the sudden reversal of our fortunes, I pushed off from the truck, and although I didn’t want to hurt her, I smacked a right cross into her chin. Her head snapped back and she went down, out for the count.
"Good shot!" I exclaimed as I stuck my gun back in my waistband and helped Nanako to climb down from the truck.
"Figured having an arrow through her arm would cramp her style."
I stood over the unconscious girl and sighed deeply. She sure was a colossal nuisance. "We'll have to treat her wound before we bring her with us."
Nanako glared up at me from beneath her dark-pink bangs. "You gonna tie her up after we’ve patched her up, and leave her tied up this time?"
"If you think it's necessary."
"I do."
"Okay. Now let’s get to it; we have to catch up to the others."
"This girl's trouble, you mark my words, Ethan," Nanako said as she slung her bow over her back and knelt beside her. We cut off her sleeve and removed the arrow. I was glad I'd knocked her out – that would've been a lot harder to do if she was conscious. Nanako cleaned both sides of the wound with an anti-bacterial hand wipe, popped on two sterile gauze pads, and then wrapped up her upper arm in a compression bandage. We were fortunate the arrow hadn’t hit any major blood vessels. Next, I cut long strips from the sleeve and tied her hands in front of her. To have tied her hands behind her back would have caused excruciating pain.
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 52
