Regan Wolfrom - After The Fires Went Out - Coyote

“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 picture.”

“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.”