After The Fires Went Out: Coyote (Book One of the Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Series) (7 page)

BOOK: After The Fires Went Out: Coyote (Book One of the Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Series)
8.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Sara disappeared just before dinner again, like she had on Sunday after Matt had brought Ant home. I knew she was hiding up in Lisa’s bedroom. She still likes to think she shares a room with Lisa whenever she doesn’t want to share a bed with me. When that happens I’m never sure if it’s because she’s angry with me or if it’s the only way she knows I’ll leave her alone.

That last time she’d ended up staying in there all night, not appearing again until after we’d finished breakfast. I didn’t want that to happen again.

I knocked on the door but she didn’t answer. I opened it slowly, trying to make my intrusion seem a little more polite.

She was lying on her old bed, the blankets pulled up to her shoulders.

“You just left,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I meant it. “I didn’t want to get carried away with all of it.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“We need to be strong.”

“Are you kidding me? Seriously?”

“What?”

“You need to support me, alright?”

I sat down on the bed beside her, running my hand through her half-curled hair. “I’m sorry... I should have stayed.”

“Damn right you should have stayed,” she said. “Christ... no one needs to see you acting like a goddamn robot. I know you’re hurting, Baptiste.”

I shook my head. I tried not to cry.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” I said. “I should’ve been there to keep him safe.”

“He was the one who chose not to be safe... that was Ant... not you.” She brought up her hand and squeezed my thigh. She’d forgotten who was supposed to be doing the comforting.

“Do you think we made the right choice?” I asked her.

“We took him in and gave him a family,” she said with a hint of a smile. “Ant was happy.”

“I don’t mean that... I mean by staying here. Maybe if we’d made the trip out over the summer we’d be down in Temiskaming or somewhere, and Ant would be out spray-painting stop signs and humping fire hydrants.”

“We made the right choice,” she said. “Staying here meant bringing in the Porters and the Tremblays, maybe saving their lives. As much as Justin pisses me off sometimes, I’m glad he’s here and that he’s on our side.”

“That doesn’t mean it was the right choice.”

“Bad things happen. And they’ll happen no matter what.” She sat up and leaned in against me. “At least Ant wasn’t alone when it happened.”

“He was with Matt.”

“Yeah, with Matt... his friend. And the rest of us are still here, Baptiste. And we’re doing okay.”

“For now...”

“No... we’re not doing that. No more doom and gloom...”

“We’re running out of fuel,” I said.

“We’ll talk to the Walkers. Or the Smiths... they must have some to share. They owe us for the extra eggs we’ve been sending them.”

They owed us for far more than that.

“That’s not how it works,” I said. “No one shares fuel.”

“We’ll find a way,” she said. Her voice didn’t waver as she said it. “You’ll figure it out, Baptiste. You always have and you always will.”

I smiled; I was tired of talking about it, of fishing for reinforcement. It’s not like I could just wave my hand and lose the guilt I feel about Ant... or about everything else.

“We’re lucky to have you,” she said.

“You’re just sweet-talking me...”

She pursed her lips. “Is it working?”

I nodded.

“You’re an easy man to please, Baptiste.”

“And you’re the perfect piece of tail to do it.”

She giggled a little as she leaned over and kissed me.

I kissed her back and wrapped my right hand around the back of her neck, drawing her closer to me. And then I kissed her neck, listening to the slow deepening of each breath.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you...” I kissed her neck some more.

She moaned and it shot right through me.

I made sure to move us to the right bedroom.

 

Today is Friday, December 7th.

The weather was good, so Graham and I went into Cochrane today in the old grain truck. We skipped the weekly meeting and we did our best to put whatever shit’s between us on hold.

Graham drove the truck and I was on lookout, both of us wearing as much protective gear as we have. If we know we’re crossing the river, we’ll start off with our riot suits; they’re light enough that it’s not that bad wearing them, except for a few hot weeks we had in July and August now that the sun’s back. And once we cross the West Gate, the one on the road bridge, we’ll strap our vests on over our suits and we’ll throw on the helmets and goggles. It’s a lot to wear, especially when we’re lifting and hauling, but there’s a big advantage to being some of the best equipped guys coming into Cochrane.

We reached the outskirts of town, passing by the industrial buildings along the highway as it runs along the tracks and into town.

“So... best place for batteries?” Graham asked. He was obviously eager to get started.

“I need to look for more pills first,” I said. “I want to check Lady Minto again... just to be sure.”

“You’re serious? That’s all the way across town.”

“I’m serious. If we leave it for last we’ll run out of time.”

Graham winced like I’d kicked him in the nuts. “You can’t just spring this on me, Baptiste. Plus... don’t you think we should focus on what’s best for the whole team?”

“Don’t tell me my job,” I said.

“That’s not your job, Baptiste. Your job is security, not supplies.”

“Well... when I die in six months I’ll be taking on a new job as weed fertilizer. That sure as hell won’t do you guys any good.”

Graham shook his head. “You have pills for now. We don’t have enough batteries.”

I laughed. “There are probably three hundred car batteries left in this town. We can pull those out once we’re done checking the hospital again.”

Graham started slowing down.

“We’re going to the hospital,” I said.

“There are a half dozen school buses over there,” Graham said, pointing toward a gravel lot on the south side of the highway. “Let’s yank those batteries at least... just to get started.”

“You can yank whatever you like, Graham. But I’m taking this truck up to Lady Minto with or without you.”

He turned to glare at me. I assume it was a glare; all I could see was his helmet.

“I’m not kidding,” I said.

Graham seethed a little, but eventually he gave me a long sigh and a slow shake of his head. “It’s selfish,” he said quietly.

“That’s your opinion.”

He started us moving again, not saying anything more about it. I could tell that he was pissed, and I knew that he’d probably run right to Lisa when we got home to tell her what a big bad asshole I am. It doesn’t make a difference what he says about me; he’ll keep mumbling but we’ll keep working, because that’s really all there’s left for us to do.

 

Graham pulled us into the empty parking lot of burnt-out Lady Minto.

Beside a curb we found her.

The first body of the season if you don’t count Ant.

She’d been pretty once, early twenties, with short brown hair and thick purple-rimmed glasses, but her face was bruised and battered now. Someone had beaten her to death and I didn’t know why.

“Pauline Yarrow,” I said. “Wasn’t she shacked up with the McIvors?”

I wasn’t as horrified as I ought to be. As I used to be with this type of thing.

“I thought the McIvors left,” Graham said.

“They did. Over a month ago. Guess she decided to stay behind.”

I heard Graham sigh. I looked over and saw tears in his eyes. At least one of us still felt something.

I looked at the trail of blood that marked a path behind her.

“Looks like she stumbled over here from somewhere. She’s been here a couple hours,” I said, realizing that I’d become an expert on dead people.

“She thought she’d find help at an abandoned hospital?”

“I guess she wasn’t thinking straight. You know, since she was slowly bleeding to death.”

Although it was possible that she’d been hoping to find something to treat herself, like bandages or painkillers. If we’d left before sunrise we might even have found her before the end.

“I wish we had time to give her a proper burial,” Graham said.

“I wish we had time to figure out who killed her.” I climbed down from the cart. “Are you going to come in and help me look for supplies?”

“I don’t need any heart pills.”

“Maybe we’ll find some pills that’ll make you into less of a whiny bitch.”

He ignored that. “I might go grab a few batteries.”

I looked around the parking lot. There wasn’t a single car.

“I wouldn’t,” I said. “It’s not a good idea for us to split up.”

“But it’s a good idea to wander around looking for pills in a place that’s been picked over by a hundred scavengers?”

“Just wait here, okay? I’ll be back in... I don’t know... twenty minutes.”

Probably enough time for him to dig a shallow grave for Pauline; I hoped he wasn’t stupid enough to try.

“Don’t rush on my account,” Graham said. “I wouldn’t want you to overtax that fragile little heart of yours.”

“Wait here,” I said.

I left the shotgun with Graham and made my way to what was once the emergency department; most of the building was burnt almost to the foundations, but there were still parts left standing, including an old folks’ wing that was close to whole.

I was surprised to see what looked like fresh paper and garbage on the floor, floating on top of the ash and shards of burnt plastic and broken glass. I’m sure there have been other visitors to Lady Minto since the first time we’d scavenged there, people looking for painkillers and syringes and whatever else they thought they’d need for their homemade clinics. I was hoping that most people wouldn’t even know what Laneradine is or why they might need it someday. Maybe they’d just tossed it off the shelves and I’d find a box of it lying under a soiled bedpan.

I still expect to see dead bodies there, which makes no sense since Lady Minto is about the only place in town where you won’t find them, aside from poor Pauline out there in the parking lot.

We actually moved the patients out of Lady Minto a couple days before The Fires started; we knew that the hospital was a tempting target for marauders, so we started moving people and supplies into the green zone, to a couple of doctor’s offices downtown along with some of the equipment we thought we’d need. I know that decision saved some lives, but I wish we’d had enough time to bring over all of the drugs.

Of course, Fisher Livingston had commandeered all the drugs we had managed to store up for his caravan of fools, so either way I’d still be up shit creek these days.

I searched through a pile of ash and what looked like pill boxes by the remains of a nurses’ station, glad to have a pair of heavy gloves designed to protect against stray needles. Antacids, laxatives, antifungals... nothing I needed... just every drug on the planet that wasn’t connected to getting high.

The MDMA must’ve disappeared right away, likely before The Fires had even gone out. Some quick-thinking kids had probably realized the world was ending and had decided that it was the perfect time to throw a rave in their basement with the last few boxes of E.

BOOK: After The Fires Went Out: Coyote (Book One of the Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Series)
8.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Black Chronicle by Oldrich Stibor
The Runaway by Gupta, Aritri
As Max Saw It by Louis Begley
The Hand of God by Miller, Tim
Council of Peacocks by M Joseph Murphy
Animal by Foye, K'wan
The Girl He Needs by Kristi Rose
Chance Encounter by Alesso, Chris