Councillor Okada’s nephew didn’t say a word as he drove us back towards Newhome. Sullen to the point of being discourteous, he just stared ahead as he navigated a road that had once been a major highway. A hundred years of neglect had left it in a serious state of disrepair; its surface was cracked and pitted and it was being overgrown by weeds and wild grass.
Considering he couldn’t see a thing other than what his headlights illuminated, I wished Ken’d slow down a bit – once he’d almost blindsided the rusting wreck of a truck abandoned on the side of the road, and another time he’d come close to trashing the car’s suspension thanks to a large dip in the road. I got the impression he hadn’t exactly signed up to take us back home.
I was sitting in the back left passenger seat with my right arm around Nanako, who was sleeping soundly with her head on my shoulder. Seriously, it was so not fair that she could sleep anywhere and anytime.
I’d spent the first few hours of the drive alternating between looking out the driver’s window, and squeezing my eyes shut and grimacing from the throbbing pain in my head.
Getting shot in the head, even if only a glancing blow, can do that to you. I had the late Lieutenant King to thank for that. All I tried to do was stop him from blowing us all sky high with a hydrogen bomb he’d smuggled into Hamamachi, and then he went and shot me. He’d have killed me, too, if Michal hadn’t attacked him and thrown off his aim.
That thought send pangs of heart-rending sorrow sweeping through me. Michal had saved my life, but at the cost of his own. I wondered how I’d survive in Newhome without him. His friendship and wisdom had been a beacon of light in that oppressive, dark place.
Another wave of stabbing pain in my head brought my thoughts back to the present. The Hamamachi paramedics had given me only minimal medical attention after I’d been shot, and I was paying for that now, but the thumping headaches were the least of my problems. The wound had started burning terribly a while ago, and not long after that came the fever. And for the past hour, I'd been flitting in and out of a nightmare filled, feverish shallow sleep while shivering nonstop.
The car suddenly bounced over a particularly large pothole, slamming me into my seatbelt and waking Nanako.
“What time is it?” she asked sleepily as she stifled a graceful yawn.
“Almost six,” I replied through clattering teeth.
“Ethan, you’re shivering!” she exclaimed, coming fully awake. She placed a small, warm hand gently on my head. “And your wound’s on fire – how do you feel?”
“Never felt better,” I assured her.
“Doofus – you probably feel like death warmed up, yeah? When are you ever gonna tell me the truth when I ask you how you are?” she scolded me, though her expression showed nothing but loving concern.
Ken interrupted our conversation by unexpectedly bringing the battered old 4WD to a complete stop. "This is as far as I take you," he announced gruffly.
"What are you talking about, Ken-san? We haven't even reached Melbourne's outer suburbs yet," Nanako pointed out.
A glance out the window confirmed Nanako spoke the truth; we were on a road winding through fields of gumtrees, untamed bushes and wild grass. Not far ahead, the road ended at an intersection with what was once a major thoroughfare, by the look of it.
"The road ahead is the Maroondah Highway. Follow it left and you'll be in Lilydale," Ken replied as he turned towards Nanako and me, his face partially visible in the light given off by his glowing dashboard.
"Councillor Okada said you'd take us to within a couple of klicks of Newhome: you can't drop us off here!" Nanako protested strongly.
"There's no way I'm driving through Skel infested ruins. So get out – all of you."
"Ethan's wound is infected and requires medical attention. You have to get us to Newhome!"
"Not my responsibility," Ken replied, his tone acerbic. "Now get out of my car."
"That's absolutely out of the question – there's no way we can walk fifty-plus kilometres to Newhome with Ethan in this condition," Nanako declared emphatically as she pulled out her phone and thumbed it unlocked. "Let's see what Councillor Okada has to say about this."
A gun suddenly appeared in Ken's hand. "He's not going to say anything because he's never going to hear about it. Now hand over the phone."
"How can you do this to me, Ken?" Nanako said, clearly shocked. She glanced at me, hesitated, and then added, "And we've known each other since we were kids."
Ken pointed the gun at my leg and cocked the trigger. "Give me the phone and get out or so help me, I'll put a hole in your husband's leg. Let's see how well he can walk then."
Even in my feverish state I could tell Ken wasn't kidding, and having no desire to have a hole in my leg as well as my chest and my head, I opened the car door and stumbled outside. The early morning air was crisp and cold, causing me to shiver more violently.
I saw Nanako begrudgingly hand over her phone and then she, David and Shorty, hopped out of the car as well.
"I don't care how long it takes, Ken, but I will find a way to tell Councillor Okada what you've done to us tonight," Nanako said before she slammed the door shut.
"Hey, why'd he throw us out of the car?" Shorty asked as Ken did a U-turn and sped back the way we'd come. "Did one of you guys fart?"
"Shorty," I groaned.
"'Cause if David let one rip, I wouldn't blame him," Shorty added.
I'd forgotten Shorty and David couldn't understand Japanese and hence didn't know what had just gone down. "He didn't want to drive through Skel-infested ruins," I said through clattering teeth.
"Well, look at that, he's got more brains than we have," Shorty said.
"So he just dumps us here?" David exclaimed as he took off his jacket and hung it around my shoulders. "Good grief, Jones, you're shivering like a leaf."
My strength gone, I sat on the road and wished the nightmare was over.
"His wound's infected," Nanako explained as she tugged on my right arm. "Come on Ethan, you can't sit there."
"I need to lie down."
"Just a little longer and you can, now come on, back on your feet!" she ordered as she pulled me up and helped me get my arms into David's jacket. I wondered how long before this blasted crossbow bolt wound would heal. Of course, King thumping it with his pistol butt didn't exactly advance the healing process.
"So what do we do now? We're not gonna travel far with Ethan like that," David said as he wrapped his arms around his body in a vain attempt to get warm. A hundred years ago, before the world was virtually obliterated by nuclear weapons, this time of year was called summer in Australia. Not sure what season you'd call it now, or if we even had recognisable seasons anymore.
"We need to wash his wound and change the bandages so he can beat the infection," Nanako said as she peered into the surrounding darkness. "Let's head into Lilydale to look for something we can boil water in, and for something we can use as clean bandages."
"Finding some old kettles or saucepans shouldn't be too hard, but clean bandages? In one hundred year old ruins?" David asked.
"We can tear our jackets into strips and boil them if necessary," my wife suggested.
"And where's the water coming from?" Shorty queried.
"There's a stream about three kilometres from here, running through the middle of Lilydale," Nanako answered.
"You've been here before?" David asked.
"This is where I met Ethan, actually," she said, smiling wistfully.
"Is that where we are?" I asked between clattering teeth. I could remember meeting Nanako, but thanks to this blasted amnesia, the details were still somewhat sketchy.
"Sure is," she assured me.
I noticed the eastern horizon was slowly brightening – dawn had come. "We need to get going," I said, "we don't want to be traipsing about in the open during daylight."
"Okay, let's go," Nanako agreed as she put an arm around my waist to support me. I draped my right arm around her shoulders, but as I was a full head taller than her, the height differential did make it a tad difficult to walk in sync.
Shorty lead the way and David brought up the rear, still trying to warm himself. I wondered if I should give him back his jacket.
Since it was still too dark to see clearly, we kept tripping and stumbling over the cracked and pitted asphalt road, which soon veered to the left and merged with a divided road, the Maroondah Highway. We kept on going.
As was my habit when in unfamiliar or dangerous situations, I began to shout in an ultrasonic pitch to check our surroundings with echolocation. What I didn’t count on, though, was that each shout magnified my piercing headache tenfold, causing me to give up straight away.
All the same, those few shouts had given me a surreal, eerie glimpse of our surroundings; of a steep bank to the left of the road completely overgrown with trees, shrubs and ferns, of a median strip between the opposing lanes of the highway overrun by waist high wild grass, and of weathered rooftops of decrepit suburban houses perhaps two hundred meters further down the road.
"How you doing?" Nanako asked, concerned.
"Super."
"Just hang in there, okay?"
"I really, really need to lie down."
"We’ll bed you down in the first house we come to and then scout around for what we need."
I nodded, and encouraged by the thought of being able to lie down, concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. "Nanako?"
"Yeah?"
"This so isn't how I envisioned spending our first week back together," I said.
"I know, right? But don't worry, we'll get you right as rain and then we can get back to Newhome," she promised.
As we walked, I became aware of the occasional odd sound coming from the other side of the highway – a twig snapping, branches forced aside, and furtive footfalls. Thinking I may be imagining the noises thanks to my fevered state, I didn't say anything at first but willed the noises to go away.
However, as we continued, the sounds of someone moving surreptitiously through the bush on the other side of the road became unmistakable – someone was definitely shadowing us. The possibility that this person could be a degenerate, demented Skel filled me with dread, and caused me to fear that every dark shape could be another one of the savages, waiting in ambush to spring out and nab us.
"We're being followed," I announced.
Shorty spun about, eyes wide with fear. "You sure?"
"They're on the other side of the road."
"I can't hear anything," Shorty shot back, confused, for he didn't know about my biologically engineered enhanced hearing.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Is it Skel?" Nanako asked, her voice wavering as she tried in vain to see in the poor light.
I grimaced and shouted ultrasonically, but the pain knifed through my head with such intensity that I almost blacked out. All the same, that brief burst of flash sonar let me 'see' what was on the other side of the road, and what I saw made my face blanch with fear and waves of anxiety to course through me. For forcing its way quietly through the bush on the other side of the road was a nightmarish apparition straight from the depths of hell – it was six-foot tall, carried a wicked rusting metal club, and was decked out head-to-foot in a suit of armour made from hardened human bones.
"Yes," I whispered, feeling suddenly helpless. We had no weapons, were in an unfamiliar place in the near dark, and I was in no condition to run let alone fight. What I would’ve given to have Michal with us right now.