Regan Wolfrom - After The Fires Went Out - Coyote

But I knew…that was where they’d died.

“Keep going,” I said. “We don’t want anything to do with this place.”

“They dump their bodies there. The Souls.”

“No, Kayla. That’s how they kill them.”

We parked the truck at the intersection with a road called Tamarack. The only sign of a machinery road was a lack of trees across the road from us.

We were lucky; The Fires hadn’t taken the forest between us and Highway 101.

We put on the snowshoes and loaded up with as much as we could carry. Kayla took the Mossberg and the backpack filled with grenades and shells, while I took out the C12 and stuffed the last four magazines into my small pack.

We started walking due east, past an abandoned yardsite, into the trees.

After a few minutes we reached a marshy stream, cattails poking above the snow.

“We should keep going to the next stream,” Kayla said. “We can follow it up to the highway, look for our people.”

“I’m guessing the fixed blockade is directly on the junction of 101 and 572,” I said. “It’s the first chance anyone coming from Quebec would have to turn off 101, so The Souls will try and stop that from happening.”

“So the blockade is meant for people heading west?”

“They were probably surprised to see a caravan travelling the wrong way. But not too surprised to keep them from throwing something together to box that caravan in.”

“So the other roadblock is lighter.”

“I’d guess so. So we hit the heavy one. We launch some of your grenades and we add some bullets to the mix. The guys at the other roadblock will think that there’s an assault from Aiguebelle or something.”

“And all of the sudden that caravan won’t be so important anymore.”

“Hopefully they’ll just push right past. I’ll let Alain and them know that once the roadblock behind them falls apart, they need to get moving back toward home.”

“They won’t want to head back,” Kayla said.

“They don’t have a choice. It’s that or die, isn’t it?”

Somehow I knew they wouldn’t see it that way.

We followed the second creek north to where the highway passed over it. We then took to the ditch, trudging through the tops of the snow-covered wigeongrass, trying to keep our heads low.

The three trucks from McCartney Lake weren’t far away. I saw someone in matching armour…maybe Lisa, maybe Sky.

I wondered if whoever it was would start shooting.

“It’s me,” I said. “Baptiste.”

“Thank Trudeau,” Lisa said.

“And Kayla,” Kayla said.

“Where’s Justin?”

“Not here,” I said. “I can’t believe you guys are still in one piece.”

“I can’t believe you guys are on foot,” Lisa said.

“Have they tried to get in contact?”

“They have a megaphone. They don’t have that much to say. Just ‘lay down your weapons and you won’t be harmed’. As if we didn’t notice their goddamn pit of corpses. So what’s your plan, exactly?”

“You and I are going to hit the east roadblock from the other side,” I said. “We’ve brought enough firepower to keep them busy and to hopefully draw the guys on the other side of you into the fight.”

“We don’t want to draw people up here.”

“Everyone needs to get into the trees. If they come through they’ll see you’ve all run off into the bush. You guys don’t matter as much as the supplies you’re leaving behind. And we’ll make enough noise that they’ll come straight to the two of us.”

“And once they’ve joined in on trying to kill us?”

“Then everyone else gets the fuck out of here, heads back home.”

“We’re not going home.”

“Well you can’t stay here.”

“We need a new plan.”

“That’s the plan,” I said. “Take it or…well, you gotta take it.”

“We’re going to Temiskaming.”

“You can take the last concession road south to 572,” Kayla said. “Tamarack Road. That’ll get you to Hwy 11, and you can try your luck on there.”

“There’s no way that junction’s unguarded,” I said. “It’ll be just as locked down as the one up the road here.”

“We need to destroy the roadblock,” Lisa said. “It’s our only option.”

“No…the smart option is to come back home with us.”

“This isn’t up for debate.”

“Well, here’s what we’ll do, then. You and I will try to kill every last man on that roadblock. And then we’ll try to kill the guys rushing to reinforce from the second one. Once we manage to murder two dozen hardened and well-armed bikers, we’ll go our separate ways.”

“You don’t think we can do it.”

“I don’t think we can. Because we’re not John Rambo.”

“What?”

“Fuck, Lisa. You’re going to get me killed.”

“I’m coming, too,” Kayla said. “We have three sets of armour. We should use all three.”

“Then we’ll get Alain to suit up,” I said. “You’re of no use to us, Kayla. We need someone who can shoot.”

“Alain needs to stay with his family…and all I need to do is lob some grenades at anything that moves.”

“And you think you can do that why?”

“Because I know how to throw a ball, Baptiste. Haven’t you ever heard of a strip club softball league?”

“I thought you were a free agent. Touring the north or whatever.”

“You know a lot about it for someone who never came to see me dance.”

“Maybe I managed to sneak in a show. We’re going to need another set of snowshoes.”

“I don’t need snowshoes,” Lisa said. “You’ve got Justin’s phone?”

“I do.” I pulled it out of my jacket pocket and checked. “We’ve got a signal. Works better down this way.”

“So we’ll call Alain once it’s done.”

“Yeah.”

“And we’ll tell him to keep on down 101.”

“Shit, Lisa,” I said. “If we actually pull this off you can tell Alain whatever the hell you want.”

After Lisa passed the plan on to the caravan, the three of us followed the creek back into the forest. I could tell that Lisa was having trouble keeping up with her boots sinking into the snow, but I wasn’t about to mention it.

Once we were at least a klick in, we turned east.

We crossed followed another stream it led us to a plowed gravel road.

“572,” I said, not that there was much doubt.

We kept as low as we could as we crossed the highway.

I could see a large truck at the intersection with 101. It looked like an old military cargo truck, the kind of deuce-and-a-half you’d pick up from army surplus.

I couldn’t tell if they could see us.

We headed into the forest on the far side of the road, just deep enough that we couldn’t see the highway from the trees.

Then we turned north.

We slowed down once we started to hear voices.

The voices were in French. It’s nice that The Souls are functionally bilingual.

We crept toward the edge of the trees. Within throwing distance.

There were two men in kuttes standing by the truck. Both were armed with shotguns like ours.

The rest of the men were spread along 101 facing east by their bikes, but they were more involved in drinking and talking than keeping an eye on the caravan.

I couldn’t see well enough what weapons they had.

“Grenades,” I whispered to Kayla. “We’ll each take a couple to start things off.”

Kayla opened her pack and pulled out a wrapped bundle. She held up a grenade for us to see.