After The Fires Went Out: Coyote (Book One of the Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Series) (72 page)

“I can help,” Elodie said. “I can go with you. No one would be suspicious of two girls driving around.”

“We’ll all go,” I said. “Elodie and I will trade places. That way, if things go bad... well, I’ll be there.”

“Okay,” Kayla said. “But please... oh pretty please... let’s stick that moist wad of scarf in
your
mouth.”

I chuckled and started untying Elodie’s ankles.

We found two snowmobiles on a trailer hitched to a running truck. The truck was parked outside a house not far south of Val-Paradis. Kayla dropped me off on the road a few metres away, and after she’d driven back north for a minute or so I made my way to the truck.

The door was locked.

I smashed it with the butt of my SIG.

I climbed in and followed after the little two-seater.

I don’t think the owner heard a thing.

We went back to our resting place north of Val-Paradis.

We repacked the best we could, using the saddlebags that came with our new snowmobiles. I had no choice but to strap the C12 over my shoulder and leave the guitar case behind.

When Elodie saw the assault weapon she started to panic.

“Please,” she said. “I helped you...”

“It’s okay,” I told her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Can I have my car keys?”

I shook my head. “Sorry, Elodie... you need to come with us.”

Kayla grabbed my elbow. “What are you doing?” she asked me.

“We can’t leave her here. She’ll drive into town and tell them about us. They’ll find us.”

“We’ll be off the roads.”

“Not really... just until we get clear of civilization. Then we’ll need to follow the road so we don’t get turned around out there.”

“Then tie me up again,” Elodie said. “Leave me in the car. It will be some time before someone finds me.”

“That could work,” Kayla said. “As long as you don’t freeze to death first.”

“It won’t work,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Why would we risk getting caught? We’ll take her with us and let her go just past the gate at Eades. By the time she makes it there we’ll be home free. That’s the best plan. For all of us.”

“So just another couple hours or so?” Kayla asked. “Then we can let her go?”

“A couple more hours. That’s it. Then they’ll take her back to her car and she can go home.” I turned to Elodie. “Then you can go home.”

I went over to the trailer and tilted it, before pulling the first snowmobile down to the road.

I checked the fuel gauge. Pretty close to full.

“You’ll ride with me, Elodie,” I said. “No more rope.”

But I did pack it in one of my saddlebags.

The sun set while we were riding; it set just before we crossed what the map told us was the Pattern River. By the time we reached Abbotsford Lake I was half-frozen. Snowmobiling isn’t much fun when you aren’t dressed for it. To be honest, I’m not sure when snowmobiling
is
fun.

We reached the intersection of the two logging roads, and we turned left, heading south toward the gate at Eades. We skirted around an unexpected steel and concrete barrier that would have been pretty effective against anything wider than a snowmobile, and then we came to the next junction, a little triangle of roads that probably hadn’t seen a visitor in two years.

I stopped my snowmobile.

Kayla pulled up beside and cut her engine.

“Problem?” she asked.

“What’s your gauge at?” I asked her.

“Shoot... less than half.”

“Me, too.”

“We’re not going to make it.”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “You know these gauges seem to jump a little. But we should adjust the route to make sure.”

“Skip Eades?”

“Yeah.”

“But what about her?” Kayla asked, nodding toward our captive.

“How far is it?” Elodie asked. “Can I walk there?”

“Not safe,” I said. “It’s at least a couple of hours.”

“Well it’s not your decision,” she said.

“We should risk it,” Kayla said. “Take her down there, or closer at least... if we have to add an hour of walking to our trip... I think that’s fair.”

“I’m not getting stranded outside our gates,” I said.

“We can siphon fuel out of one of the machines... We don’t need two of them once we drop Elodie off.”

“We don’t have a hose... look, Kayla... it’s not going to work.”

“You just said my name.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t matter.”

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

“Baptiste,” Kayla said. “Come on... she doesn’t deserve to die...”

“No one’s gonna die,” I said. “Can we all just shut up about dying already?”

“We can’t take her with us. That’s not much better.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Have you forgotten what we just saw?” Kayla said. “I’d give my left nut to live in Aiguebelle. We live like a bunch of cockroaches compared to them.”

“She’ll adjust.”

“No. There’s no way.”

“What?”

“I said no, Baptiste. We are not taking her home with us. You don’t get to keep her. She goes home.”

“Aiguebelle will know what we did,” I said.

“That was your plan all along... to take her with us. Another girl for the harem.”

“No,” Elodie said. “I won’t...”

“I just want to get home, Kayla. I didn’t really think about what we’d do with her once we were clear.”

“Well I’m thinking about it now,” Kayla said. “And we’re not taking her back with us.”

“Is this some kind of jealousy thing?”

“Screw you, Baptiste. We’re not ruining this girl’s life.”

“So living with us would be ruining her life?”

“Yes. Yes it is. If you can’t see that... well, then I don’t know...”

“So what did you want me to do?” I asked.

“We’ll give her one of the snowmobiles. She’ll take it to Eades. If we run out of fuel before we reach our gate, we can rest assured that we still have body armour and a goddamn assault rifle.”

“If she tells them about us... they’ll come for us.”

“They might. If they want to risk starting something with Ryan Stems.”

“I don’t think Stems could give a shit what happens to us.”

“He cares.”

“She’s going to tell them,” I said. “And then they’ll come after us. We won’t have a strong enough lead.”

Kayla pulled the key out of the ignition. “You want a head start?” She threw the key into the forest, dropping a little hole into the snow. “There. By the time she digs that out we’ll be long gone.”

Even when I want to scream at her, I admire just how clever Kayla can be.

The world’s shittiest snowmobile ran out of fuel not that far past the junction at Wade Lake. It took two hours of walking before we made it to the gate at Murphy Road.

Once we were inside, I raised Matt on the handheld to tell him we were home. Then Kayla and I sat down in the middle of the road, exhausted.

Justin pulled up fifteen minutes later in his car. He acted surprised to see the C12 hanging from my shoulder, but he didn’t ask about it.

I guess Kayla was probably right; it hadn’t been much of a secret for quite a while now.

Today is Saturday, January 19th.

I noticed I was getting a signal on the phone this morning. I tried calling Alain but the phone didn’t ring.

That could mean so many different things.

Justin didn’t have anything to report on the day and a half that we were away. I half-jokingly said that I was surprised he didn’t crown himself king, and he replied that he was giving me up until Sunday night before he assumed I wasn’t coming back. There was no joking on his end.

Kayla spent most of the day in a rage, since Matt didn’t bother to do a single thing for the goats or chickens while we were away. I think she should have been happy; Matt touching your livestock is a great way to lose your livestock. Even an old hen can fend for itself for a day or two.

That night Matt called on the handheld to let us know that he was just going to stay at the Porters; I didn’t want to ask if he’d left our cottage empty last night, too.

He had no problem wasting twenty hours a week on that stupid firebreak, but actually taking responsibility for something that mattered?

Not his style.

So it was just Kayla and I in that big house; I didn’t mind.

I made us some raspberry tea and took it upstairs to her.

She was sitting on the bed. She’d changed, but not into her pajamas. Or even into something more... inviting... she was dressed in a tight black t-shirt. And just her panties.

“Thank you for the tea,” she said as she cupped one of the mugs in her hands. “I’ve had a chill all day.”

“Today you’ve had a chill? Not yesterday when we spent half the day outside in minus twenty-five?”

“Today I’m allowed to feel it.” She smiled. “I’m so glad to be home, Baptiste.”

“I wish we’d brought Lisa and Graham back with us.”

“I know... but let’s leave that alone for now. I... I want to try something different with you.”

“Okay...”

“It’s a little... different...”

“You said that part.”

She reached down beside the bed. I couldn’t see what she was reaching for.

“I have a fantasy,” she said.

She put her pink scarf on the bed.