Regan Wolfrom - Coyote

“It’s been around three days,” Natalie said.

“We… we were headed back to my parent’s place,” Tabitha said. “But everyone was gone when we got there.”

“They left?” I asked. “Uh… without you?”

“I don’t know what happened… the house was empty. They didn’t even leave a note. It doesn’t make sense.” She began to cry again.

“It’s going to be okay. We’ve got to go.”

I had the girls wrap themselves in bedsheets and I rushed them downstairs. There was no sign of their clothes or any boots, and unusually, no sign of any clothes in the entire cottage, so I had them wait on the front steps while I made my way to the garage.

The door was locked, so I kicked it open. There was nothing inside, no car, no ATV.

“Dammit,” I said. I walked back over to the porch.

“Don’t you have a car or something?” Natalie asked.

“I had a truck. But things have gotten a little messed up.”

I grabbed my handheld and pushed for Justin again.

“Justin? Rihanna? Are you okay? Over.”

I hoped that the silence was only because they’d driven out of range.

“Are you there?” I asked. I turned to the shivering girls, standing barefoot beside me. “We need to get moving.”

I led them silently across the road and into the trees, and we ran further up the road, the wrong direction from where I’d said I’d meet the Porters. Of course, I didn’t expect them to come back anytime soon, assuming they were still alive.

After five minutes of running in the woods I knew the girls would need to get out of the cold; it wasn’t winter yet, but it was cold enough to hurt.

I took off my riot suit and clothes, everything short of my underwear, and parceled it all out as best as I could between the girls. Each girl took a sock on one foot and a boot on the other. I had them lean together, hidden against a tree, and the two of them stood like shivering flamingoes as I made my way to the nearest garage.

I approached in a straight line up the driveway of an older cottage, right to the overhead door of the small single garage. Once there, I reached down to see if I could pull it up, but it didn’t surprise me that it was locked. I made my way towards the side door.

It looked old and flimsy enough that I might be able to bust it down. I had to take a running start, however, as I threw my shoulder against it, since I no longer had a boot left to kick the door in. I had to launch myself against it twice more before the door gave way; by that point I could barely move from the pain of repeatedly smashing my shoulder against the wood.

Inside the garage I didn’t find a car or an ATV, but I did find a riding lawnmower. I wasn’t sure if that was worth anything to me. I also found a smelly pair of work boots on top of a toolbox that I was barely able to squeeze onto my feet.

I went back and retrieved the girls, each one limping across the road with one boot and a wet sock, and we found our way inside the cottage with the help of a crowbar from the toolbox.

I didn’t know if the Spirit Animals would be able to find us, but luckily I still had a contingency holstered on my belt.

After scrounging up some musty clothes for Tabitha and Natalie to wear and some less than appetizing food for them to eat, I found myself a pair of binoculars on the lakefront veranda and peered out over the lake.

The way the shore wrapped around a bay, I could see a corner of the A-frame cottage and I could make out a thin wisp of smoke still rising from the chimney. I hadn’t taken the time to check, but my guess was that the stove was wood and not propane, and the small amount of smoke likely meant that they hadn’t returned to throw more wood on the fire.

It was still three hours until dark, so I had no reason to expect any lights to come on; the wood stove was the only guess I had.

I could expect once they’d returned that they’d come looking for the girls; and if they came looking, I’d see the truck. But if they didn’t give a shit that those girls had gotten away… well, then I guess they’d just get back home and stay there.

Either way, I wasn’t sure how we were going to get past them. It was too far to expect the girls to travel with me on foot and through the woods until we reached the nearest family I felt I could trust; even by car the Marchands were a half hour away. And trying to crowd three people onto the riding lawnmower would be even more ridiculous.

Our best chance would be to wait until I knew they’d left their cottage again and start looking for some other form of transportation, hoping to find it and then to escape before they returned.

Of course, I couldn’t actually see where their truck would be parked from where I was standing. All I could see was that little billow of what I’d guessed was wood smoke.

I went from the porch back into the cottage to check on the girls. It was warmer there than it was outside, but since we couldn’t light a fire without giving ourselves away, it still wasn’t much above zero.

Tabitha and Natalie were huddled together on a couch, neither of them doing much other than shivering.

“You girls doing alright?” I asked.

“We’re okay,” Natalie said. “Thanks.”

“I wish I could be more help right now… this isn’t really going according to plan.”

“I just wish I could have a shower,” Tabitha said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I could probably try heating some water with the lawnmower battery, but I think there’s a good chance I’d set myself on fire.”

Both girls nodded; neither one seemed close to a smile.

“I’ll get you girls out of here. It’s just going to take me a little while.”

“We know,” Natalie said. “We feel safe with you, Mr. Jeanbaptiste… probably safer than we’d feel with anyone else right now. I know you’ll take care of us.”

I nodded, unsure of how to respond. I certainly didn’t want those girls to know just how little faith I had in me.

I heard the noise of the engine at least an hour after the sun had set. I looked outside to see the pickup truck, its lights off, barely visible aside from the glint of the moonlight.

The girls were sleeping; I felt no need to wake them. We were better off being as quiet as possible.

I watched and waited as the truck drove by, not slowing down or stopping as it passed us by.

Once it was gone, I waited by the window, knowing that it would come back our way soon enough, as they turned around at the end of the road.

It was back within twenty minutes, but by that point they’d sped up and the headlights lit up the road in front of them.

The rest of the night passed and morning came without any further sign of the Spirit Animals and their Toyota. The wood smoke had faded completely now, and it was starting to look like they had not bothered to stay.

Natalie found us some cereal for breakfast, and even some powdered milk and bottled water to complete the meal.

“This tastes much better than it should,” I said as I sucked up the last of the milk.

“I’ve been drinking powdered milk for months,” Tabitha said. “I’m not sure I’d even like the real thing anymore.”

“Well all we’ve got is goat’s milk,” I said. I quickly realized that I sounded like a jerk. “Just ignore me.”

“We’ve got goats, too,” Natalie said. “But we still use powdered milk to make up the difference. And like everything else, we’re starting to run low on it.”