After The Fires Went Out: Coyote (Book One of the Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Series) (26 page)

I approached in a straight line up the driveway of an older cottage, right to the overhead door of the small single garage. Once there, I reached down to see if I could pull it up, but it didn’t surprise me that it was locked. I made my way towards the side door.

It looked old and flimsy enough that I might be able to bust it down. I had to take a running start, however, as I threw my shoulder against it, since I no longer had a boot left to kick the door in. I had to launch myself against it twice more before the door gave way; by that point I could barely move from the pain of repeatedly smashing my shoulder against the wood.

Inside the garage I didn’t find a car or an ATV, but I did find a riding lawnmower. I wasn’t sure if that was worth anything to me. I also found a smelly pair of work boots on top of a toolbox that I was barely able to squeeze onto my feet.

I went back and retrieved the girls, each one limping across the road with one boot and a wet sock, and we found our way inside the cottage with the help of a crowbar from the toolbox.

I didn’t know if the Spirit Animals would be able to find us, but luckily I still had a contingency holstered on my belt.

After scrounging up some musty clothes for Tabitha and Natalie to wear and some less than appetizing food for them to eat, I found myself a pair of binoculars on the lakefront veranda and peered out over the lake.

The way the shore wrapped around a bay, I could see a corner of the A-frame cottage and I could make out a thin wisp of smoke still rising from the chimney. I hadn’t taken the time to check, but my guess was that the stove was wood and not propane, and the small amount of smoke likely meant that they hadn’t returned to throw more wood on the fire.

It was still three hours until dark, so I had no reason to expect any lights to come on; the wood stove was the only guess I had.

I could expect once they’d returned that they’d come looking for the girls; and if they came looking, I’d see the truck. But if they didn’t give a shit that those girls had gotten away... well, then I guess they’d just get back home and stay there.

Either way, I wasn’t sure how we were going to get past them. It was too far to expect the girls to travel with me on foot and through the woods until we reached the nearest family I felt I could trust; even by car the Marchands were a half hour away. And trying to crowd three people onto the riding lawnmower would be even more ridiculous.

Our best chance would be to wait until I knew they’d left their cottage again and start looking for some other form of transportation, hoping to find it and then to escape before they returned.

Of course, I couldn’t actually see where their truck would be parked from where I was standing. All I could see was that little billow of what I’d guessed was wood smoke.

I went from the porch back into the cottage to check on the girls. It was warmer there than it was outside, but since we couldn’t light a fire without giving ourselves away, it still wasn’t much above zero.

Tabitha and Natalie were huddled together on a couch, neither of them doing much other than shivering.

“You girls doing alright?” I asked.

“We’re okay,” Natalie said. “Thanks.”

“I wish I could be more help right now... this isn’t really going according to plan.”

“I just wish I could have a shower,” Tabitha said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I could probably try heating some water with the lawnmower battery, but I think there’s a good chance I’d set myself on fire.”

Both girls nodded; neither one seemed close to a smile.

“I’ll get you girls out of here. It’s just going to take me a little while.”

“We know,” Natalie said. “We feel safe with you, Mr. Jeanbaptiste... probably safer than we’d feel with anyone else right now. I know you’ll take care of us.”

I nodded, unsure of how to respond. I certainly didn’t want those girls to know just how little faith I had in me.

I heard the noise of the engine at least an hour after the sun had set. I looked outside to see the pickup truck, its lights off, barely visible aside from the glint of the moonlight.

The girls were sleeping; I felt no need to wake them. We were better off being as quiet as possible.

I watched and waited as the truck drove by, not slowing down or stopping as it passed us by.

Once it was gone, I waited by the window, knowing that it would come back our way soon enough, as they turned around at the end of the road.

It was back within twenty minutes, but by that point they’d sped up and the headlights lit up the road in front of them.

The rest of the night passed and morning came without any further sign of the Spirit Animals and their Toyota. The wood smoke had faded completely now, and it was starting to look like they had not bothered to stay.

Natalie found us some cereal for breakfast, and even some powdered milk and bottled water to complete the meal.

“This tastes much better than it should,” I said as I sucked up the last of the milk.

“I’ve been drinking powdered milk for months,” Tabitha said. “I’m not sure I’d even like the real thing anymore.”

“Well all we’ve got is goat’s milk,” I said. I quickly realized that I sounded like a jerk. “Just ignore me.”

“We’ve got goats, too,” Natalie said. “But we still use powdered milk to make up the difference. And like everything else, we’re starting to run low on it.”

“I’ve wanted to ask you girls about something, but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Go ahead,” Natalie said. “Just ask us.”

“Did you know the men who attacked you? Did you recognize them from before?”

“I didn’t know them. Normal-looking guys... uh... white...” She looked over at my half-Haitian face. “Not that white is normal...”

“I’m just special,” I said.

“I don’t think they were from here,” Tabitha said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they came from another province. Or even the States.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know... they just seemed different.”

“Different how?” I could see that she was becoming more upset. “You don’t need to answer right now.”

“I think I know what she means,” Natalie said. “Everyone around here walks around like they’re still a little in shock. We all lost people in the fires, even those of us who still have our families. But these guys... they seemed more excited than heartbroken... like this was almost a game to them. A game where they seemed to have learned the rules long before the rest of us.”

“That explains their equipment,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“They might be ex-military. I’ve known guys like that. Sometimes the guys who come back really aren’t okay...”

“Like PTSD?” Natalie asked.

“Kind of... we all lose something when we’ve been deployed. Some guys never really came back in. This might have seemed like an opportunity for them.”

“An opportunity,” Tabitha said. “So that’s what you’d call it.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to minimize what they’ve done.”

“It was a roadblock,” Natalie said. “After we realized that Tabitha’s family had left... we were almost back through Clute when we ran into them... they had those animal helmets on, and one of them was standing in the back of the truck, pointing that mounted gun right at us. He started to laugh and he took off his helmet so we could see the grin on his face. That’s when I knew they weren’t going to let us go.”

“They would take shifts,” Tabitha said.

“One of them liked to wear his helmet,” Natalie said. “Visor tilted to dark. He kept it on the whole time, like he was the only one who didn’t want us to know who he was. Maybe we would have recognized him from before the fires. I’ll never forget that helmet. The coyote...”

“I’d know him if I saw him again,” Tabitha said. “I’d know.”

I wondered if I’d know him, the man with the coyote helmet. Was it Ryan Stems himself? It’s no secret that he’s always liked them young; everyone in the district has heard about that.

“I don’t want to be an ass,” I said, “but why were the two of you out there on your own?”

Tabitha shook her head. “It was stupid. I got into a fight with my parents and I took off on my bike.”

“Your bike?”

“My bicycle... I know, I’m an idiot. I rode all the way into Cochrane, telling myself that I’d be better off on my own. That’s when I ran into Natalie’s uncles. I stayed with the Girards for a couple of days, and Natalie was driving me back home. Since I hadn’t run into any trouble on the way down, we thought we wouldn’t run into any problems heading back.”

I turned to look at Natalie. “And your parents just let you go off on your own?”

Natalie’s cheeks turned red. “I didn’t tell them we were going. I was going to take Tabitha home and then I was going to head over to see you guys.”

“To see us? Why?”

Natalie blushed some more. “To see Antoine. I wanted to see how he was doing.”

“Ah.” I felt my heart drop.

“How is he doing?”

I hesitated. “Oh, Ant? He’s doing good.”

“Has... has he mentioned me at all?”

“Let’s talk about that later. Right now I think we should think about getting out of here. I think those guys left last night, and I’m not sure when they’ll come back.”

“So they’ve just given up on finding us? Don’t they care that we know what they look like?” Tabitha asked.

I didn’t feel the need to answer that. “We need to find a car or an ATV... something that can get us away from here.”

“I think I know where there’s a car we can use,” Tabitha said. “The Blackwells left a couple of old cars at their place... it’s only a few minutes away.”

“What about keys?” I asked.

“I’ll bet the keys are just where I last saw them. On their key rack.”

“And fuel?”

“They’re both gas engines... we were going to eventually drain them for one of our generators, but we never got around to it. There should be something left in the tanks.”

“That’s probably all too good to be true,” I said. “But I’m overdue for some good luck.”

“We all are,” Natalie said.

And I felt like an idiot all over again.

We travelled together on foot to the Blackwell’s old cottage, Natalie and Tabitha a few paces in front and to the left of me, closer to the trees.