Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series)

by Peter R Stone

  "Call an ambulance and perform first-aid," he yelled back, before turning back to us. "How did you two get here?"

  "The Bushmaster," I replied.

  "Oh, the one that went to Hamamachi."

  "That's right."

  "Well, you'd better start her up and get out of here. And Jones?"

  "Yes, Sir?"

  "Your family's fine – I check in on them from time to time. Your sister got married two weeks ago to your old boss, the guy who runs the Recycling Works," Xiao informed me.

  "Really? That's great – thanks for the news," I said and shook Xiao's hand.

  Madison and I then made our way quickly out the gates to the Bushmaster and climbed in through the rear door.

  While I swung the door shut and locked it, Madison switched on the ignition and turned the clumsy vehicle around. I climbed into the front passenger seat beside her as she drove off across no-man's land and into the ruins beyond. As we drove, I watched Newhome's foreboding walls slowly disappear from view through the window in the rear door, and wondered if I'd ever see my family again. My father, who'd disowned me, choosing to believe the Custodians' word over mine; my mother, who'd always doted over me; and my two sisters: one just married after thinking she was cursed to be a spinster for life, and one finally enjoying life again after a spell of poor health.

  "Well," I said, "never in a million years would I have guessed you'd be making this return trip with me, Madison."

  "Me either," she said wryly.

  "Can't believe I finally got through to you."

  "I had seen clues, the signs that things were amiss, I just refused to face or admit them. But when you told me what the Korean children said, it was like this veil was torn from my face and I realised you were speaking the truth."

  "Hey!" I exclaimed suddenly. "The councillor asked me to give him a call when we were done to let him know how we went."

  I pulled the Smartphone from my pocket, thumbed it unlocked, and began typing in the councillor's phone number, when the most overwhelmingly powerful sense of déjà vu I'd ever experienced exploded in my mind, convincing me with complete and utter assurance that this had happened before – and then, as the seizure continued and a memory was dredged up from the depths of my mind, I realised that on this occasion, the feeling of déjà vu was right – I had been through this before...

  ...it was two years ago and I was sitting dejectedly on a crumbling red-brick fence on the outskirts of Skel territory, for I'd just been forced to kill my own Ranger teammates to stop them from handing a bunch of innocent refugees over to the Skel. And while the faces of my teammates as I shot them kept going through my mind on continuous replay, I pulled my Smartphone from my pocket, thumbed it unlocked, and rang someone to report what had happened. He asked me where I was, and then told me to stay put and he'd come and get me.

  An hour passed, then two. I was still sitting on the fence, with my assault rifle on my lap and my Smartphone in my hand when I heard a big 4WD approach and park nearby. The driver – the chauffeur – remained in the car, like he normally did, and the passenger, an older, heavier man, got out of the vehicle, approached me from the left, and sat on the wall beside me.

  "Are you alright, Ethan?" Councillor Okada asked kindly.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  "What do you reckon? You asked me to infiltrate the Rangers to find out what they were up to – you never hinted they could be doing something so despicably evil, or that they'd try to kill me when I tried to stop them." My voice trailed off to a whisper. "You never mentioned I'd have to kill them."

  "I am sorry, Ethan, if I had known it would come to this, I would not have asked to you infiltrate them."

  He asked me something else then, and I replied in the negative, but the memory was kind of fuzzy and I couldn't make out the words.

  "So what happens now?" I asked tiredly.

  "There will be an internal investigation, but do not let that concern you, for I will explain everything to them," he replied.

  "Oh great," I sighed.

  "In the meantime, I will have to ask you to hand over your weapons – it is procedure, that is all."

  "You can have the blasted things – I never want to see a gun again," I replied despondently, my eyes still fixed on the ground. I handed him the Austeyr, and then unclipped the pistol and handed it to him too.

  "I am sorry, but I have no choice," he said, and placed my pistol against the side of my head and pulled the trigger.

  My last thought was of Nanako, my beautiful young wife, who was going to be a widow at the age of sixteen...

  ..."Ethan! Snap out of it, come on!"

  I heard a scream, a wailing, pitiful sound, which I realised after a moment was coming from me. I shook my head and everything came back to me.

  Madison had pulled the Bushmaster over to the side of the road and was shaking me by the collar.

  I held up a hand. "I'm okay now."

  "You sure? You looked like you were in some kind of trance."

  "I was, in a way," I admitted while looking down at the phone in my hand with Okada's phone number only partially entered. "I just remembered who shot me."

  "What, you mean the person who shot you two years ago?"

  "Yes. It was Councillor Okada."

  "You cannot be serious."

  I quickly explained to her what I had recalled.

  "No wonder you had a seizure every time you tried to remember who it was – he was like a father to you, was he not?"

  "Yeah," I admitted softly, trying to get my head around what could have possibly motivated him to shoot me after asking me to infiltrate the Rangers. I mean, I did what he asked me to do, I found out what illicit activities the Rangers were up to, so why did he try to kill me when I told him what it was?

  "Oh shoot," Madison said.

  "What?"

  "You know you left your wife in his hands?"

  "Oh no! Madison..."

  "I am on it!" she said, grabbing the gear stick.

  "No, wait, I have an idea." I lifted the phone and typed in Okada's number again.

  The phone rang a long time, so long I thought it was going to ring out, but he answered just before it did. "Ethan – is that you?"

  "Yes, Sir – just ringing to let you know we got to Newhome just in time. The Rangers are all dead, including Colonel Yamada."

  "Job well done, Ethan. Where are you now?" he asked casually.

  "Just starting back now, Sir."

  "Great, I will let Nanako know. Oh, and I will send a squad of Militia to meet you outside Lilydale and escort you safely back here."

  "Thank you, Sir, I appreciate it," I said, and cut the connection.

  "You know that has to be a trap, right?" Madison asked.

  "I'm counting on it. In fact, I reckon I know exactly who'll be setting the trap."

  * * *

  Ken was exactly where I thought he'd be, lying on his belly in a copse of trees overlooking the Maroondah Highway as it exited Lilydale just before it hit the Warburton Highway. Also, as expected, he was armed with a Javelin missile launcher loaded with an anti-tank guided missile that would've taken out the Bushmaster with one shot.

  But while Madison and the Bushmaster were hiding around a bend further down the road, I'd come in on foot and crept up behind Ken. I was currently squatting right behind him, with my pistol in my hand, hanging loosely over my knee.

  "Trying to kill me with an anti-tank missile – not particularly sporting, is it?" I asked after I'd been there for a while.

  Ken just about injured himself in shock as he leapt into the air and twisted around to come down on his butt. "What the...how did...where..." he stammered as he reached for a pistol stuffed down the back of his jeans.

  "I wouldn't do that if I was you – unless you want me to put a bullet in your head, that is," I remarked casually.

  "No! Please, look, I...I was just following orders, okay?"

  "Lame excuse, Ken."

  "What...what a
re you gonna do to me?"

  "Well, that all depends on you."

  "On me?"

  "Yeah. You see, if you don't want me to put that bullet in your head, you're gonna have to make a little phone call for me."

  "Okay," he said, nodding frantically.

  "Right, this is what you're gonna do. Ring Okada and tell him you blew the Bushmaster sky high and can confirm I'm dead."

  "But..."

  I pointed the gun and pulled back the hammer.

  "Okay, okay already, I'm on it." He picked up his phone and speed dialled the councillor.

  "Yes?" the councillor asked impatiently as soon as he picked up.

  "Job's done, Sir," Ken reported.

  "And the body?" Okada demanded.

  "I disposed of it just as you instructed me to, Sir."

  "Good work, Ken – now come back home before anyone starts wondering where you are."

  "Sir," Ken said, and broke the connection. "Now what?" he asked, eyeing my gun nervously.

  "Now we go for a little drive, just the three of us," I said as I grabbed his phone so I could call Madison and tell her it was safe to join me.

  * * *

  We dumped the Bushmaster in a wood not far from Hamamachi lands and then continued into Hamamachi in Ken's 4WD. Madison sat on the floor in the front passenger compartment and I sat on the floor between the front and back seats. I didn't want anyone eyeballing us on the way in.

  A phone call from Ken confirmed that Okada was still in the hospital visiting Nanako, so we went straight there. Madison and I hid our pistols in our belts, and then pulled out our shirts so they hung down and covered the weapons. That done, I marched into the hospital with Madison and a very nervous Ken following behind.

  Ken wasn't the only one nervous – I was absolutely packing it. Firstly, because I was desperate to get to Nanako and protect her from Okada, and secondly, because I knew my heart would shatter the moment I saw her since I'd be leaving her soon.

  The hospital confirmed that Nanako was still in the same bed, so I headed over there as casually as I could. When I reached the room, I motioned for Madison and Ken to remain outside, and then, with my heart racing, stepped lightly into the room.

  Nanako was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling, her expression deadpan, as though a part of her had died. Her mother sat beside her on this side of the bed, and Okada was on the other side near the window.

  The councillor noticed me first. His eyes bulged wide and he jumped to his feet, knocking his chair over in the process.

  Nanako turned slowly to see what had upset him so, and when she caught sight of me, she flung off the bed covers, swung her legs off the bed, and limped towards me with her mother's help. I reached out for her, but she didn't come into my arms as I expected, but hammered her fists on my chest over and over again.

  "What did you think you were doing?" she shouted, "Rushing off to Newhome all alone to try and save the day – and without even saying goodbye? You could have been captured or killed and I would've never known what happened to you! What would I have done then? Hey? What would have become of me?"

  I enfolded her in my arms anyway and the punches slowly wound down. Finally, the blows ceased and she melted into my embrace and sobbed against my chest. I rested my chin on the top of her head and stared at the councillor, who was just standing there, watching me with his mouth open.

  I didn't know if he was armed or not, so I pulled my gun from my belt and aimed it at him.

  Nanako noticed the gun straight away, as did her mother, who took a step back fearfully. The two other patients in the room cried out in alarm.

  "What's going on, Ethan? Why are you pointing a gun at the councillor?" Nanako asked, worried.

  "I remember who shot me," I said, keeping my eyes on the councillor.

  Okada went a paler shade of white.

  "Ethan, you're scaring me," Nanako whimpered.

  "Councillor Okada," I said slowly, "You were like a father to me. You took me out to practice archery; you took me on bush walks and taught me how to speak Japanese. You gave me permission to marry at the age of sixteen and gave away Nanako on her wedding day. You asked me to join the Rangers to sus 'em out because you suspected they were up to no good..."

  Nanako gasped in shock at the last point, for she must have remembered me telling her that the person who shot me was the person who asked me to join the Rangers.

  "...you are the one I turned to for help when I had to shoot my Ranger teammates in self-defence."

  "I am sorry, Ethan," the councillor said sadly. "But your memories are inaccurate. I did not ask you to join the Rangers, and I most certainly did not shoot you. As you yourself said, you are like a son to me. So please, put down the gun and let us get you to the neurologist so we can find out what is going wrong with your memories."

  "Bring him in," I said softly.

  Footsteps immediately sounded outside the room and Madison pushed in a rather unwilling Ken, who stopped just inside the door and stared at the floor.

  "Do I need to ask Ken to tell us where he was earlier today and what he was trying to do?" I asked sternly.

  Okada's shoulders slumped and the fight went out of him. He broke eye contact and stared at the floor.

  "I have just one question, Councillor – why? Why did you shoot me?" I demanded.

  "I had no choice," he whispered.

  "We always have a choice!" I snapped. "Now answer the question."

  "I suspected the Rangers were doing something underhanded, which is why I asked you to infiltrate them and be my eyes and ears – but I had no idea they were carrying out such outrageous, heinous crimes. If what you had uncovered was to become common knowledge, it would not just be the Rangers who would be dishonoured, but the entire town. We would have lost face with all of our neighbours, we would have appeared weak, and there would have been serious and damaging repercussions as those neighbouring towns demanded justice and reparations. I asked you if we could keep the knowledge of the Rangers' actions between ourselves and let me deal with the situation quietly, but you refused to cooperate. You said the knowledge had to be made public and be made public straight away, regardless of the consequences."

  That wasn't the answer I'd been expecting. I thought he would say he'd attempted to kill me because he was mixed up in it all somehow. But to hear he'd shot me because of his rigid adherence to a misplaced sense of honour, shocked me to the core. "So in order to preserve the appearance of Hamamachi’s honour, because you consider the outward appearance of honour to be more important than true honour, you stooped to murder one you treated as a son."

  Okada didn't answer. He just kept staring at the floor.

  Tears were streaming down Nanako's face and her mother was flabbergasted.

  "You were like a father to Nanako and me, Councillor, yet you took away everything from me – my health, my wife, my entire life."

  He lifted his eyes. "Don’t you think I regretted what I did? For every moment of every day since I shot you, I have been afflicted by guilt and condemnation."

  "What good is guilt if it doesn't lead to repentance?" I snapped. "If you'd been truly sorry for what you did, you would have confessed the crime and revealed the Rangers' actions, but you did nothing. You just went on as though nothing had happened. You let the Rangers continue their reign of terror. You let Nanako and I continue to suffer. And in the end, it was all for nothing, wasn't it? Because we exposed the Rangers' evil deeds anyway."

  "So it would seem," he said, and then, "what are you going to do me? To us?"

  "Me? Nothing. For what it's worth, I forgive you – you and Ken – for if there is one thing I have learnt through this mess with Newhome and Hamamachi, with Japan and Korea's past history and all, is that harbouring unforgiveness and keeping a record of past wrongs is a one track road to disaster. The question is, Councillor, what are you going to do? Are you going to take the coward's way out and commit suicide, or turn yourself in to the Militia and confess
your crimes?"

  The councillor hesitated for a moment, and then walked slowly around the hospital bed and prostrated himself on the floor in front of Nanako and her mother and said, "Please forgive me, I am sorry!"

  Then he stood and headed for the door. He paused as he passed Nanako, but she turned from him, refusing to meet his gaze. As he left the room with Ken in tow, I heard Ken ask, "Where are we going now, Uncle?"

  "To Militia Headquarters."

  I put my gun away, and Nanako looked up at me.

  "I can’t believe it’s him. All that time he spent with me over the past two years, comforting me, helping me, providing for me – and it was him all along. I just can’t believe it," she lamented.

  I held her tightly, but felt guilty for doing so, since I would be leaving her soon. It felt like I was leading her on, or giving her the wrong signal. Oh, but life could be so cruel! I didn't want to leave her, I didn't!

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Nanako was discharged from hospital that evening, complete with a set of loan-crutches. Her mother gave us a lift back to her place. Surprisingly, Madison accepted Nanako’s offer to stay with us until she found a place of her own. David, Shorty and Leigh were still in Inverloch, where they’d become overnight celebrities from what I’d been told.

  On the way home, we heard on the car radio that Councillor Okada and Ken had been arrested for attempted murder and for being accessories to the Rangers' criminal activities. I should have felt some kind of satisfaction, but I felt nothing, nothing at all.

  Nanako's family home was a two-story white-brick townhouse, one of many that lined both sides of the road. It had smoked-gray clay roof tiles and rice-paper screens could be seen behind several windows.

  We entered the house via the carport, which only just accommodated Okaa-san’s car. Hobbling away on her crutches, Nanako led me into a foyer with a polished wooden floor that was cluttered with several pairs of shoes and slippers. I immediately recognised it as the foyer I had seen during one of my partial seizures. After we’d removed our shoes – okay, I removed hers too – she bundled us into the small lounge room, which was somewhat crowded with several plain sofas lining the walls and the low kotatsu table. I recognised this room too.