Forager (9781771275606) by Ron Scheer Read Free Book Online Page B

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