We had to stop several more times for Nanako and Leigh to rest. I continued to echolocate as we went on the off chance there could be Skel ambushes, but it seemed they kept a low profile in this area. And no wonder, for no foragers from Newhome came here. Not to mention that Newhome was under siege anyway.
As we walked, I decided to tell Nanako about the recently returned memory. Maybe the simple act of sharing this memory would drive back the darkness that was trying to engulf me.
"Hey, I've got good news – another memory returned," I said.
"Really?" she asked, perking up.
"I remembered when we got married..."
Her face alight, Nanako grabbed my arm. "Finally! Come on, spill the beans, tell me everything."
And so I told her how I remembered Councillor Okada walking her up the aisle, of how stunningly beautiful she was in that traditional Japanese wedding dress, and of the incomparable joy I felt. Yet as I shared these wondrous memories, I felt conflicted, guilty, and under a crushing burden of condemnation, for not telling her that we may not be able to have children.
By some miracle, Nanako didn't notice my anguish, for she was overjoyed I'd finally remembered this most precious day of our lives. She plied me with questions, then, trying to hear everything I'd remembered, hoping that would trigger more memories.
We reached St. Kilda around midday but kept going until we reached Fitzoy Street, and then I called a halt. This had been a picturesque place once, with a large brick cenotaph, palm trees, and tram-tracks down the middle of the road. But not anymore, for St. Kilda was on the outer areas of the blast radius of the nuke that hit the south-eastern suburbs a century ago. Fire had raged through a number of surrounding buildings, completely gutting them, and others had partially collapsed. On the whole, though, most buildings were still standing. We would have to head further southeast to see increasing signs of the bomb’s damage – something we would have to do soon enough.
"This is as good a place as any to call home while we recover from our wounds," I said as I headed for a two-storey building just back from the corner of Fitzroy Street, its facade partially obscured by a row of palm trees. The ground floor was a restaurant, with an open-air seating area out in front. Several plastic chairs lay on their sides before empty tables bolted to the cracked sidewalk.
The large, open area that surrounded the cenotaph that stood between the buildings and the beach had been reclaimed by the bush, and I was hoping it would provide a source of food. For starters, I'd spotted a couple of wallabies in there. Wallabies were smaller cousins of kangaroos.
We crunched over a gazillion glass fragments that covered the sidewalk in front of the restaurant and stepped into its darkened interior. The place was an absolute mess. Paint was peeling in great strips from the walls and ceiling; windblown dirt and leaves covered the floor, serving counter, tables and chairs. Great cracks ran through the ceiling and walls. And though that didn't inspire me with confidence, I believed the building was still structurally sound.
Upstairs was an office, a bedroom and a storeroom. The bedroom and office had windows overlooking the street, which I figured would do for temporary lodgings.
"I claim this room for me and Nanako," I said, after we'd adjourned into the bedroom and stood looking out the window to the quiet street below. The view was partially obscured by the blind, which was only attached at one end.
"Hey, that's the only room with a bed," David complained.
The bed stank of mould and its doona cover was rotten and soiled. Flash sonar revealed the mattress to be in no better condition, with a number of springs already having broken through. "I don't think we'll be using the bed, somehow."
"Not with us in the next room, you won't be!" Shorty exclaimed, feigning shock.
"Ha-ha."
Nanako sat on the floor beneath the window and its broken blind, which looked like it was gonna drop on her head at any moment.
"If you two are sleeping in here, and we three in the office, where are you gonna stuff her?" Leigh asked, indicating Madison with an inclination of his head. She was leaning back against the wall, still grimacing thanks to her arm.
"Why are we even here?" Madison asked gruffly.
"As in this room 'here' or in St. Kilda 'here?'" I asked.
"The south eastern suburbs, on the edge of the nuclear radiated zone," Madison clarified. "You could have gone anywhere, so why here?"
"We were actually planning to go to Ballarat to rest and recuperate, but the appearance of the Skel and Rangers kinda changed that plan," I replied.
"But we were gonna come here after that on our way to Mulgrave. Why don't you tell her why, Jones?" David prompted.
"We're gonna go to Mulgrave to gather evidence on the Rangers’ illegal alliance and dealings with the Skel, and then we're gonna present that evidence to the Hamamachi Council," I explained.
Madison looked at me sceptically. "Are you trying to tell me the Hamamachi Council doesn't know what the Rangers are doing?"
"They really don't," Nanako answered. "They think the Rangers are patrolling Hamamachi lands and keeping the Skel out by force of arms."
"Whereas, in reality," I continued, "They have made an alliance with the Skel. They give the Skel old guns, Smartphones, and refugees who were seeking asylum in Hamamachi to be their slaves. And in return, the Skel do not encroach upon Hamamachi lands or abduct its people."
"You expect me to believe that?" Madison scoffed.
"It's the truth."
"And how do you know this?"
"We got caught by Rangers nigh on three weeks ago, when we were on our way back to Newhome from Hamamachi, and they practically admitted it. The other half I know because I used to be a Ranger and was with them during one of their refugee deliveries."
"Then you're just as bad as they are!" Madison said, glaring at me.
"I didn't know what they were up to until we were making the delivery," I answered. "Besides, I'd been asked to join the Rangers to spy on them, so when I realised what they were doing, I stopped the delivery and helped the refugees to get out of there."
"And the Rangers just let you?"
My face clouded over. "Of course not! They attacked me, as did the Skel."
"And..."
"I took them down," I replied.
She looked at me disbelievingly. “All of them?”
“Yes.”
"By yourself?"
"You don't get it, do you?" Nanako snapped from where she sat slumped against the wall. "You and Ethan, and the others like you, you're not like us. And I'm not just referring to your ability to echolocate. You're smarter, faster, and better co-ordinated. You've been biologically engineered to survive in this post-apocalyptic nightmare we live in."
"I don't know about smarter," I laughed, but all the same; I stared at Nanako in surprise, for I'd never thought of myself that way. That she did, and had hidden it in her heart, touched me deeply.
Madison was clearly taken aback by Nanako's answer as well, for she was ogling her with her mouth hanging slightly open.
"Now imagine how much safer Newhome would be if the Custodians hadn't declared our kind illegal, hunted us all down, brainwashed the girls and murdered the boys," I pointed out.
I struck a nerve with that comment, for Madison looked like she was about to have an apoplectic fit.
"The genetic modifications you and I carry were done without the parents' or council's consent or approval! Regardless of what Dr. Zhang intended, his actions were illegal. People with hearing as advanced as ours pose a significant threat to the welfare of the town's peace and solidarity. The females needed to be raised within strict guidelines to ensure they did not abuse their abilities and use them for personal gain, and the males, well; they were uncontrollable and therefore, had to be euthanized for the good of all."
"Whoa, someone did a real job on your mind if you believe all that," David said.
"The boys were five years old," I pointed out.
"
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 ever 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, and 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 echolocators euthanized."
"I blew the hole in the wall to create a diversion so I could rescue Nanako from being executed – 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 Ethan almost single handedly saving the Custodians from being wiped out when they attacked the sniper's hideout – have you forgotten that? What about when he took out the Ranger sniper?" Nanako pointed out.
"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, beginning to wonder if we could get through to her. I turned my back on her and addressed 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 enhancing 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, and its 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 fifteen 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, for 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, who 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," I said, my voice quavering.
"No need to be so formal," he laughed. "We are all family here, yes?"
Nanako's mother laughed too. "That's right."
&nb
sp; "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 kept ignoring 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 asked as she 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 out the back of the restaurant that trapped the smoke. We couldn't cook outside for 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.
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 54
