After The Fires Went Out: Coyote atfwo-1

by Regan Wolfrom

  “We’re not forgetting about her,” Lisa said. “She matters to all of us.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Fiona said. “We won’t see her ever again if we leave.”

  Lisa looked upset. “That’s not far, Fiona. Sara is my friend, too.”

  “You have friends?” Justin asked.

  “More than you.”

  “We’re getting off-topic,” Kayla said.

  I stood up from my chair. “It’s my turn to speak,” I said.

  Kayla nodded.

  “It’s too dangerous,” I said. “I’m not going. It’s that simple.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Lisa asked.

  “It means that I’m not going.”

  “So you’re going to stay here by yourself?”

  “I’m not going, either,” Fiona said. “Not without Sara.”

  “I guess you want to vote, then,” Kayla said.

  “Don’t I get to speak?” Justin asked.

  “Might be better for everyone if you don’t,” I said.

  He spoke anyway. “Baptiste is right. It’s a stupid idea to go.”

  “So we vote?” Kayla asked.

  Some nodded; most of us didn’t say or do anything.

  “Okay…” Kayla said. “A vote. So…um, all in favour?”

  “In favour of what?” Lisa asked.

  “In favour of leaving.”

  “So all in favour of leaving raise your hand?”

  “Yeah.”

  Lisa’s hand shot up.

  So did Graham’s…and Alain Tremblay’s…and Suzanne Tremblay’s…and Eva Marchand’s…

  I counted the votes.

  The Tremblays and Marchands were four. The Porters were on my side.

  “Five to six,” I said. “The motion fails.”

  “Learn to count,” Lisa said. “Six to three.”

  “Where are you getting these numbers?” Kayla asked. “Six hands up, but a very large number of hands down.”

  “Every cottage gets two votes,” I said. “Except ours. We get three.”

  “That’s right,” Lisa said. “Graham and I say ‘go’. That’s two votes. That plus the Tremblays and Marchands equals six.”

  “You and Graham get one vote. And you’re forgetting Fiona’s cottage.”

  “Fiona doesn’t get two votes.”

  “I know. Sara, Fiona and Gwyneth get two votes. And I know how Sara would vote.”

  “You can’t split into two cottages and grow your vote,” Alain said. “You had three before, you have three now. And Lisa and Graham voted with us.”

  “I’m the chair,” Kayla said. “I’ll count the votes.”

  “Sounds good,” I said. I knew Kayla would see things my way.

  Kayla took out her tablet and turned on the calculator pad. She started typing on the keys lit against the pinewood table. “Five in favour,” she said after almost a full minute. “Four against. Motion carried.”

  Those words kicked the shit right out of me.

  “Bullshit,” Justin said. “You have no authority anyway, Kayla. I don’t remember agreeing to that particular ruling.”

  “Which ruling?”

  “That the chair is automatically the last person Robert Jeanbaptiste pounded in the ass.”

  “That’s uncalled for,” Kayla said. “You lost the vote, guys. Fair and square.”

  “You can’t just make up the rules.”

  “No one’s making up rules,” Lisa said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We’re not going.”

  “We voted.”

  “I’m exercising my veto.”

  “You don’t get a veto,” Lisa said. “Not this time.”

  “It’s the will of the people, Baptiste,” Graham said.

  “Half the people, maybe,” I said. “Probably less than half.”

  “Five to four,” Lisa said.

  “I don’t want to leave,” Fiona said.

  “I don’t want to, either,” Kayla said. “But we took a vote.”

  “And I vetoed it,” I said. “Or did you not hear me?”

  “Maybe there’s a compromise,” Matt said. “Maybe we can split up. Those who want to go can, well, go. And the rest of us will stay.”

  “No one’s splitting up,” I said. “We’re staying put. All of us.”

  “I’m leaving,” Lisa said.

  “We’re willing to take anyone who will come with us,” Katie said. “The stronger we are, the better.”

  “It’s suicide,” I said. “You’d be better off just eating a gun right here. Then at least we’d have a place to bury you.”

  “You are disturbed,” Alain said. “You need to accept the decision, Baptiste.”

  “I don’t have to do anything. I’m in charge of security. That hasn’t changed. It’s not safe to go, so we stay. End of discussion.”

  “We’re going,” Lisa said. She turned to Katie. “If Baptiste won’t come, that’s his problem.”

  “Enough of this,” Justin said. “We can’t spare the manpower. No one is going.”

  “So what are you going to do, Justin?” Lisa asked. “Are you going to wave your little rifle around? Is that supposed to scare us into submission?”

  “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “He’s right,” I said. “We can’t let you leave.”

  “You can’t stop us,” Lisa said.

  She was right. I had nothing.

  “We’ll do a count of who’s leaving and we’ll split up the supplies accordingly,” Graham said. “We can’t take all that much, so I doubt it’ll be an even split for most things.”

  “You won’t get far without any vehicles,” Justin said.

  “We have several trucks,” Eva Marchand said. “We’ll make sure we have enough space for everyone.”

  “No you won’t.”

  “You don’t have enough fuel,” I said.

  “We have fuel,” Eva Marchand said.

  “Fuel you haven’t been sharing?”

  “Emergency supplies. Your men know about it.”

  “My men?” I looked over to Graham.

  He nodded. “They have enough.”

  “Not after we’re done splitting up what they’ve been hiding from me.”

  “Fuel doesn’t matter,” Sky said. “We’ll have enough fuel. We’ve got almost a full barrel of biodiesel in the back on our truck.”

  “We figured you’d need a few extra drops,” Katie said.

  “We’re leaving,” Lisa said. “So don’t try and stop us. Don’t try slashing tires or hiding supplies…we don’t want this to get ugly.”

  “It’s going to get ugly,” Justin said. “You can bet on that.”

  “Cooler heads,” I said. “Let’s take a break.”

  “It’s not a break,” Lisa said. “The discussion is over. We’ll get you our headcount, Baptiste. And we’ll go over the inventory and figure out what we’re taking. Seriously, guys…don’t try to mess this up for us. It won’t end well.”

  “Is that a threat?” Justin asked.

  “Sorry I wasn’t clear, Mr. Porter. Let me try again. If you get in our way I will shoot you in the head.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “I’m not.”

  I’m pretty sure everyone in the room knew she was serious.

  Justin stayed around as everyone broke off. Only Kayla and I were left in the dining room with him.

  “You need to leave, Kayla,” Justin said. “I need to talk to Baptiste.”

  “She can stay,” I said.

  “I don’t trust her.”

  “Because I’m trying to be fair?” Kayla asked.

  “Kayla’s staying,” I said.

  “Forget it,” she said. She left the dining room and went upstairs.

  “We need to stop them,” he said.

  “I know,” I said.

  “It’s Lisa and Graham. They’re the problem.”

  “I know.”

  “So we take them out of the p
icture.”

  “We’re not killing them, Justin.”

  “Fuck, Baptiste. I know that. But we need to take them away from here.”

  “Take them where?”

  “Anywhere. With those two gone, the rest will fall into line.”

  “I don’t believe that. If we move against them, they’ll just draw closer together.”

  “It won’t matter. It’ll blow over. Alain Tremblay is too weak to lead.”

  “Maybe…but Eva Marchand isn’t weak. Neither is Katie Walker. If you want to eliminate every possible opposition…well, that’ll be a lot of missing persons.”

  “There won’t be any mystery here, Baptiste. We’ll take Lisa and Graham away and we’ll do it in front of everyone. We’ll make it crystal clear that anyone who wants to risk our safety will be removed from the equation.”

  “You’re insane,” I said. “Certifiably insane. We’re not going to start exiling people we don’t agree with.”

  “Exile. That’s what it is.”

  “I know. It’s still a bad idea.”

  “It’s the only idea we’ve got. Unless you’ve got something rattling around…”

  “We lock down the supplies.”

  “With what?”

  “We’ll find something.”

  “There’s no time. I’m sure they’re already grabbing stuff they need. We can’t police over a dozen people.”

  “We can’t use violence to keep them in line.”

  “What violence?” he asked. He really did seem confused.

  “Lisa and Graham aren’t going to take a ride with us just because we asked them nicely. We’d need to force them. Forced exile, remember?”

  “So we find something we can drop into their drinks or whatever.”

  “Like roofies?”

  “Yeah. Or sleeping pills. We’ve got those, don’t we?”

  The whole idea sounded ridiculous. I was tempted to lie, to say that we didn’t have anything that would knock those two out on their asses. But our drugs were on the inventory list…if Justin wanted to find them, he would.

  So I’d have to hide them from him.

  If I wanted to stop him.

  If we lost those people, we’d lose half of our strength. More than that. Rihanna can shoot, and Kayla claims that she knows how, too, but it would only be Justin and I who could do much to keep us safe.

  And if something happened to me, there’d be no one left to protect the girls from Justin.

  Everything we had would fall apart.

  “I can get something,” I said.

  “Then go get it.”

  “I’ll handle it, Justin. Not just Graham and Lisa, but Sky and Katie, too. They’ll stay with us overnight, and I’ll cook them a nice breakfast. Once they’re out, we put them in a couple trucks. We’ll make sure we’ve loaded up some of our supplies, too.”

  “How many trucks?”

  “We’ll give up our gravel truck to go with Katie and Sky’s pickup. We’ll take some of that biodiesel as compensation. When they come to in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, they’ll keep heading south if they know what’s good for them.”

  “What if they come back?”

  “We’ll make it clear that they aren’t welcome.”

  “We’ll need three guys,” Justin said. “Driving a third vehicle to take us home.”

  “I know. Between the two of us we should be able to get Matt on board.”

  He nodded. “You’d better be sure about this, Baptiste. No half measures.”

  “It’s worth it. As long as I can keep my people safe.”

  I realized after I said it that Lisa and Graham would no longer be “my people”. I’d be sending them off to be killed on the road.

  It’s what they want. To leave…but that doesn’t get me off the hook.

  Today is Wednesday, January 16th.

  Matt and I met Justin by the junction last night after we were sure that our guests were asleep; I made sure to sneak out of bed without waking Kayla.

  Justin had already started loading up the gravel truck.

  I wasn’t sure I’d have time to check that he’d given them a fair share of supplies.

  And I didn’t have a way of knowing what fair actually was.

  “You’ve got the keys?” Justin asked.

  Matt handed him a keychain with a pink tag.

  “Interesting colour for Sky,” I said.

  “I got them from Katie’s pocket,” Matt said. “Her pants were closer to the door.”

  “I’ll bring the truck in,” Justin said. “You guys have some cans for the fuel?”

  “We’ve got some in the barn,” Matt said.

  “Don’t get your ass seen.”

  Matt jogged off back toward our cottage.

  “You’re sure about this?” Justin asked me.

  “You’re probing me for doubts?”

  “I just want to make sure you don’t change your mind.”

  “We’re doing it. Either this or we lose them all.”

  “We might still lose them all.”

  “What’s going on? Why are you so whingey about this?”

  “I don’t want any blowback, is all. People start hating on you, you can’t just put it all on me. This is a joint decision, Baptiste. Both of us.”

  “I can handle it. I’m wearing my big boy pants today.”

  He laughed and took off toward the gate.

  I started to check the load in the back. A bag of flour, a box of spices, one of Justin’s hunting rifles…

  If anything, Justin had been generous.

  That was more suspicious than if he’d been stingy.

  I heard footsteps on the road.

  I turned around.

  It was Kayla.

  “What the hell?” she said.

  “Just splitting the supplies before they do,” I said. “Making sure it’s fair.”

  “Matt told me.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. Drugging people up and dumping them? Seriously…what the hell?”

  “He told you that?”

  “For some reason, Matt isn’t comfortable with the idea of leaving Lisa and Graham to die.”

  “They’ve made their choice. If they want to kill themselves…whatever…but I can’t let that ruin everything we’ve worked for.”

  “You’re not doing this. This isn’t something you would do.”

  “I’m doing it, Kayla. I have to. It’s that or everything falls apart. And I need you to support me, Kayla…you know, like you should.”

  “Like I should? What would that make me?”

  “A supportive partner?”

  “I’m not a murderer, Baptiste. And neither are you.”

  “They’re getting their supplies.”

  “And a helping of what, sleeping pills?”

  “It’s better this way. We need to keep our people together.”

  “But we won’t be together. We’ll lose Lisa and Graham.”

  “We’re going to lose them anyway.”

  “Not if we go with them.”

  “No,” I said. “We’re not leaving.”

  “If that’s the only way we can stay together ―”

  “It was their decision, Kayla. They’re splitting us up.”

  “No, Baptiste. It was your decision. You lost the vote.”

  “That’s on you.”

  “Don’t do this.”

  “It’s already done.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  I heard the sound of a vehicle coming up the road. Justin was on his way.

  Kayla turned to leave.

  I grabbed her arm.

  “Let go of me,” she said.

  “You can’t tell them.”

  “I’m going to tell them. I’m going to tell everyone, Baptiste. You may as well call this off.”

  Justin stopped the truck right beside us.

  He hopped out of the cab.

  “Matt got caught,” he said.

  “Matt gave us up,
” I said.

  “Where the fuck is he?”

  More footsteps. Hurrying.

  “I’m here,” Matt said as he hustled over to us with a gas can hanging from each hand. “Sorry, guys. She saw me.”

  “And you told her,” I said. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “She hasn’t told anyone.”

  “She’s planning to.”

  “She won’t,” Justin said.

  “You know I will,” Kayla said.

  Justin reached into the cab. “Hold on,” he said. “I’ve got something.” He pulled out a length of yellow rope.

  “We need to tie her up. Keep her out of the way. You need to cover her mouth, Baptiste.”

  “We’re not tying her up,” I said.

  “You can’t back out.”

  I turned back to her. “You need to support me, Kayla.”

  “I won’t do it,” she said. “I won’t be responsible for this.”

  “Take her boots off,” Justin said. “We need a sock for her mouth.”

  “You won’t scream,” I said to her.

  “I will scream,” she said. “You’d better do as Justin says. And then you should get used to doing whatever he says, since it won’t be long before he’ll start making all of the decisions.”

  “Come on, Kayla. Don’t make me do this.”

  “I’m not making you do anything.”

  “This isn’t going to work,” Matt said. “Your whole plan is falling apart. It’s not like Kayla’s going to go along with the cover story.”

  “Shut up, Matt,” Justin said.

  “I won’t,” she said. “I’m going to make sure everyone knows what you did. So unless you’re going to keep a sock shoved in my mouth for the rest of my life ―”

  Justin reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “The rest of your life is going to get awful short.”

  “Don’t touch her,” I said, shoving his hand away.

  “And don’t threaten her, either,” Matt said.

  “She’ll come on side,” Justin said. “She’ll get there. Let’s just tie her up and stuff her somewhere until this is done.”

  “You’re going to have to kill me,” she said.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked her.

  “Sara would be ashamed of you, Baptiste.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “That makes all of us,” Justin said. “Now shut that bitch up.”

  I took a swing at Justin and missed, but only because Matt had thrown out both of his arms and given Justin a shove.