Forager (9781771275606) (6 page)

“
Next time, let us know. We’ll cut it up good for ya, long as
you give us a bit,” Dan said.

“
Yeah, bring it straight here before the mayor sees it,” Ben
joked.

All three of them laughed, and even though it was at my
foolishness, I joined in. A little tension came out with the
laughter.

“
Seriously if it should happen again, bring the deer here right
away. I’ve worked in here for more than ten years, and I have yet
to see the mayor walk through our door,” John said.

“
Besides, it’s not like you’re the only one who’s ever shot a
deer,” Ben said. “It don’t happen often, but every now and then the
three of us spend a bit of extra time avoiding the mayor and his
Bulls. If you know what I mean.”

My mouth dropped open and I missed the pedal with my foot. How
could they so calmly and openly talk about breaking the law, about
going against the mayor? I’d never seen this side of the townsfolk
before. In a way, it was exciting. Even though these men weren’t
being loyal to the mayor, they trusted me to keep their secrets.
They wanted me to be loyal to them. The right thing would be to
report them. Not that I would. Their faith in me made me part of
the gang.

Two hours later, the guys finished. “Thanks for your help
tonight,” Dan called. I hopped off the pedal generator and made my
way across the now dark room, opened the door, and slipped out into
the night.

I thought about Ben’s words. It never occurred to me that some
of the townsfolk might secretly be breaking the law. Then I
realized that if they were hunting, then they almost certainly
stashed food somewhere in their houses. Maybe the mayor wasn’t as
all-powerful as I had thought.

I rubbed my sore butt. It was a long, lonely walk back to my
RV along the deserted streets, but walking helped relieve the pain.
In the yards, crickets chirped and somewhere above an owl hooted
its arrival to its mate. Long ago, the street lights would’ve lit
my path. Now, only the faint light of a crescent moon and my own
memory served to guide my feet.

When I neared the RV, the faint glow of LED bulbs shone
through the front windows. I hoped Sawyer was doing better than
when I’d left. The memory of him pouring the alcohol on his own leg
made me shudder. Would I ever have the courage to do something like
that?

Inside, Sawyer was busy with an old cordless drill. He’d
inserted a crank into the chuck, and was rotating the chuck by hand
using the crank. Wires stuck out of the hole where the drill’s
battery pack should have been. Those wires were hooked to an old AA
battery.

I liked that he offered an explanation even before I could
ask. “See, cranking the drill like this charges the
battery.”

We didn’t have many AA batteries. The few that remained were
strictly rationed. Those little cylinders could power so many
items, but the one thing everyone wanted them for was light. We had
our LED bulbs and candles, but they couldn’t compare to a
battery-powered flashlight. Not only that, but taking a candle
outside on a windy or rainy night was useless.

Sawyer finished cranking the drill and packed it away in his
saddlebags. “Your LED isn’t really bright enough for a dark night
like this. If you get me some cups, I’ll make a few more
lights.”

I half-filled three coffee mugs with water and brought them to
Sawyer.

He reached into another of his saddlebags and took out a box
of salt, galvanized nails, some old copper house wiring, some
connector wires with alligator heads, and an LED bulb.

It took him less than five minutes to assemble the battery. A
few minutes later, the LED began to glow.

“
Do you know why it works?” I asked.

“
No idea, but I remember doing it as a project for a science
fair when I was a kid. I remember how to build it, but not the
science behind it.”

We built two more batteries with more cups from the kitchen.
The small LEDs didn’t put out a lot of extra light, but adding them
to mine was a big improvement.

Now that there was more light, I thought it was time for some
answers. The questions, of course, were all about the mayor. How
did he and Sawyer know one another? Why didn’t they like each
other? And most importantly, what was it that Sawyer knew about the
mayor that the rest of us didn’t? Why had he made it illegal to
hunt?

It didn’t seem right
to
just up
and ask Sawyer. So I started small, hoping to build up to it.
“Could you tell me more about the Collapse?”

Sawyer leaned back on the sofa and put a hand on his injured
leg. He made sure to keep the hand high enough on his thigh so that
he wouldn’t disturb the bandage. “What do you want to
know?”

I thought for a moment. My limited knowledge came from school.
We learned how the bottom fell out of the dollar and inflation
soared. People all over the country began to starve because the job
market had dried up and people couldn’t buy food for their
families. We’d learned how the government itself went bankrupt and
could no longer help those that needed it. I knew what I wanted to
ask. “Why? Why did everything fail?”

“
That’s a complicated question. I’m not sure I can answer it
for you fully, but I’ll tell you what I think.” He put a hand to
his chin and let the silence fill the room. “Greed—that’s the best
answer I can come up with. It went something like this. Someone,
somewhere, say the owner of a farm-implement factory, wanted more
money. He raised the price on his machines. Now the farmer had to
pay more for those machines. Instead of losing money to the
increase, the farmer charged more for his grain. That led to higher
food prices. Higher food prices led the worker in the implement
factory to want more money. Now we’re back to the owner—who’s in
worse shape now than when he first raised the prices on his
equipment because it isn’t just one worker that needs more money.
It’s a vicious outward spiral. Once started, it’s very difficult to
stop.”

“
So the economy collapsed because people wanted more
money?”

“
There’s more to it than that, but in the end, yeah, I think it
all comes back to greed. Everyone wanted more, and more, and more.
Now there’s almost nothing.”

Interesting thoughts, but not the ones I really wanted.
Steering the conversation back toward the mayor, I asked, “So how’d
you get to be a Forager?”

“
The only way a person can.
Another Forager who thought I had the right…stuff
took me to the governor.
After listening to Finn, the other Forager, the
governor agreed.”

“
How long have you been doing it?” I asked.

“
What do you really want to know?” He
lifted an eyebrow and gave me an
I know what you’re thinking
look. “Just ask,
kid.”

I feigned ignorance. “What?”

“
Don’t ‘what’ me. Quit beating around the bush and ask me
what’s really on your mind.”

Was I an open book to him? He sure could read me like one. I
hesitated and struggled with how the questions should come out.
Even if prying for secrets was exactly what I was doing, I didn’t
want my question to sound that way. Finally, I just blurted, “How
do you know the mayor?”

“
So that’s it is it? It’s easy enough. We went to school
together. Of course, that was way back when. Before everything fell
apart.”

I waited for him to continue. He didn’t.
He wasn’t going to tell me more unless
asked,
so
finally I did. “Why don’t the two of you like each
other?”

“
You picked up on that did you? I suppose it does jump out when
we’re near each other. We never did get along, him or his
brother.”

“
The mayor has a brother?”

“
Had, he died in an accident a long time ago.”

“
How long?” I asked.

“
Thirty, maybe thirty-five years ago. It was before the
Collapse.”

That explained why I’d never heard anything about him. Josh,
Jason, and Chane wouldn’t have known him.

“
So what happened between you guys?”

“
Back in our school days, we fought over everything. We could
never see eye to eye. It came to blows a few times. I’d get in a
few good licks but…” He pointed to his slender build. “Harold, your
mayor, he’s got a hundred pounds on me, maybe more. His brother was
the same. They were always bigger, always stronger. Not that it
ever stopped me. They’d beat me up good, and we’d leave each other
alone for a while, but the next thing I knew, we’d be right back at
it again.

“
I haven’t seen Harold in a long time. After we graduated, he
went off to college and I stayed home. That is, until the Collapse.
After that, I wandered around for a while until I met Finn, the
other Forager I was telling you about.”

His story reminded me of my own problems with the Mason
brothers. Josh, Jason, and me, we couldn’t stand each other. After
listening to Sawyer, I wished I had his guts. That I, too,
possessed the courage to not only throw a punch at one of them, but
to stay in the fight and take one. I pushed all that away. The
Forager was answering my questions and I had one more.

“
Can you tell me why the mayor made it illegal to
hunt?”

Sawyer tilted his head back and rested it on the couch. He
closed his eyes. I could tell he was thinking hard about the
question. After a while, he opened his eyes and stared at me.
“That’s not mine to tell, Dillon. If you want the answer to that,
you’re going to have to ask the mayor. I’m not going to share
secrets that aren’t mine.”

I chose not to argue with him. Sure, I was disappointed, but
at the same time it made me respect Sawyer even more. It impressed
me that he could keep someone’s confidence, even if he didn’t like
the person.

I shifted the conversation. “So tell me, what do you miss from
the old days?”

“
Wow, that’s a big question.” His eyes shone in the light of
the LEDs. “I miss everything. Grilled cheeseburgers, cell phones,
driving, and going to movies. I miss grocery stores and peanut
butter. I miss the city lights and the Internet. A better question
is, what don’t I miss?”

“
So what’s a kid like me missing?”

“
The first thing that pops into my head is video games.
Shooting aliens and zombies all afternoon was one of my favorite
ways to kill a day. Heck, with an Internet connection, you could
even play against players on the other side of the
world.”

My teachers tried to explain the Internet, but without working
computers, I could never make sense of it. A knock on the RV’s door
interrupted us.

My first thought—hope, really—was that Chane had stopped by. I
doubted it, though. She was friendly enough, but I realized she
didn’t look at me the same way I looked at her. Then I thought the
mayor wanted to punish me right now, and had sent a Bull. I’d never
heard of anyone being jolted at night. Most likely, the mayor liked
having people watch the punishments in full daylight. He wanted us
to see what would happen if we broke his laws. I finally decided
that the visitor was probably there to talk to the
Forager.

Opening the door, my jaw dropped. To my horror, it
was
the mayor standing
there. My knees and elbows turned to jelly. He’d come for me after
all.

“
Good evening, Dillon. May I come in?”

Looking past him into the darkness, I hesitated. Surely he
hadn’t come alone.
The blackness was
impossible to pierce with my eyes.
As hard as I hunted, though, no Bulls
lurked where I could see them. Of course, that didn’t mean they
weren’t there.

I waited a moment too long. The Forager
ahemmed
. Finally, I stepped out of the
narrow doorway and let the mayor enter. He looked around and to my
surprise he actually nodded approval when he saw Sawyer’s LEDs next
to mine.

“
I remember when you made one of those for
the science fair that year,” the mayor said. “I don’t think I ever
told you,
but it was quite impressive back
then.
Now
it’s much more relevant.”

His friendliness seemed strange, suspicious. Especially after
Sawyer had explained their history.

We waited for the mayor to say something else. I wanted to ask
why he was here, but I was afraid of the answer. After an
uncomfortable pause, the mayor finally said, “The reason for my
visit tonight is to see if you,” he pointed at Sawyer, “can find a
new alternator for our combine harvester. It broke down shortly
before the Scavengers attacked. I mentioned it earlier, but with
your wound… I didn’t know if you’d even heard me. I’ve got people
pedaling to charge our spare batteries, and the combine should be
back to harvesting first thing in the morning, but without that
alternator those batteries will drain quickly. We’ll be forced to
do a lot of the harvesting by hand, and it won’t be possible to
make our quotas that way.”