A Season of Wolves, page 12
part #2 of Rangers of Walden Series
“Wait, I recognize that voice,” said another. “She’s the one that killed Claude!”
The raiders came out from behind the houses, and she noticed that not one of them had a gun—a small blessing—but there was no way she could defend herself against them all. “Are you seriously asking for more of the same?” she asked. “In case you’ve forgotten, you attacked me at my camp, not the other way around. Sorry for your loss and all, but they call that self-defence, and I sure as hell ain’t going to hold back this time either.”
“I think our little lost bird means it,” said one of the raiders with a bit of a laugh. “Did you forget how to count?”
“I can count just fine,” she said. “But I’m not the one a member short.”
“You’re headed in the wrong direction, little bird,” said the first raider. “And Cecelie still wants blood for the man you took.”
“You’ve said that before,” said Gina. “But I’ve yet to meet this Cecelie or hear it from her mouth.”
The raiders looked at each other.
“Did she seriously just ask to be taken to Cecelie to hear it from her?” asked one.
The first shrugged. “Fine, if a meet she wants, a meet she’ll have.” He pointed at her. “Drop the stick, lady, or we’ll drop it for you… but we’ll take you to Cecelie and let her decide.”
Gina threw the handle of the shovel to the ground and held up her hands as the first raider approached her, taking one hand and then the other to tie her hands behind her back. A hood over her head was next, and Gina tensed up. With no way to defend herself or see what came, the punch to her gut doubled her over, and she dropped to her knees. The impact of the stick she likely dropped across her shoulders and a kick to her ribs once she was down made her suck in a hiss of air.
They kept it up until she could only lay there and groan.
“I think she’s suitably softened up and cowed,” said that first raider. “Doesn’t come close to what you deserve for doin’ in Claude, but until Cecelie says otherwise, it’ll do. Pick her up or drag her. I don’t bloody well care. But she’s for Cecelie to decide what to do with.”
The sound of a four-wheeler starting—and where they had found enough fuel to run that was a wonder—made Gina realize which way they had decided, and she prepared herself for the pain she would expect. However, when they lifted and threw her on the back of it like something caught in a hunter’s trap, she refused to let herself feel relief.
She still had to survive the meeting with this Cecelie.
* * * * *
Daniel stepped outside into the sun, smiling as he did. The snow only remained where the piles had been high or under the boughs of trees or the edges of roofs. It had melted everywhere else. The ground was still cold for months, yet it was warm enough to plant everything but the hardiest of plants.
All the easier for Harnet to catch up with us, thought Daniel, frowning as he did.
He picked up his staff, dressing in the clothes they had given him.
There needed to be a direction to pick from. While they all had chosen others to serve as security, and still others found work in the fields, the athletic complex had been turned into or hunted in the woods beyond. A select few hung close to the roads and the golf course, watching for Harnet or his people. This left him with little to do but wander.
Even Victoria had found a purpose or was little more than a prisoner.
Daniel followed the footpath through the central courtyard and out under the arch to where the street met with a parking lot. First, the residences were built for students; some even allowed adult students with families to have a place to live while their parents were in school. Laurentian was one of the first universities to do so.
He leaned against his staff for a moment before he took the path behind the residence through the wooded area following the tree line. This led behind the residences to another parking lot at the bottom of the hill meant for the students to park at the residence. On the other side of this lot was the medical school and, beyond it, the athletics field and classes. On the other side of the road, slightly above the road, were offices and more buildings dedicated to classrooms, although some—while part of Laurentian through an agreement—were their colleges and universities.
The hospice was to his left and not on university property, but it had been completely abandoned. He frowned, knowing that before, it had been almost full of both patients and workers. For it to be empty meant something had happened—something no one spoke about.
From Kaine’s mysterious fever to this and other little things.
Nothing added up.
He kept walking and found himself in front of the medical school. He smiled slightly as he stared at it. I remember when I first dropped Sheridan off here, that first day when she entered as a student, he thought, leaning on his staff. Seems like yesterday.
Daniel stopped, looking around as he did, his brows creasing. He looked around again but shook his head. He turned to walk toward the athletics field but then turned back, instead strolling along the front of the medical school and through the parking lot to the bush and forest just past the building. A buzzing caught his attention, and he walked through the woods to a small ravine.
He stopped, staring at what he found.
At the bottom of the ravine, the creek running through them were bodies. So many that he couldn’t count them all—and he slid down to look closer. The smell was overpowering, but he grits his teeth. While it was never easy to find a body, especially if they had been dead for a while, it was part of his job to find out what happened, and there was only one way to do that.
He knelt in the mud, rolling the closest body over.
The woman was dressed in a lab coat and scrubs underneath. His eyes widened as he pulled her identification out and read it. Now I know what happened to everyone in the hospice, he thought. But why? Who?
Kaine woke up and didn’t know an ohm from an amp.
Daniel’s eyes widened as he looked up.
He clawed his way back up the ravine and retrieved his staff. I should tell Victoria, he thought. And…
Kaine stood there with two others he hadn’t seen before.
“What do we have here?” asked Kaine, lifting a brow. “You know, curiosity killed the cat.”
“That had to be the cheesiest cliche to use,” said Daniel, leaning against the tree.
Kaine shrugged. “Fits, though. You found yourself here because you couldn’t help but look into something you had no business looking into. We gave you a new home. All you had to do was accept what we offered.”
“Did they accept what you offered?”
“Didn’t give me a chance to offer,” said Kaine as he stepped forward. “Had to make them.”
“If you kill me, every cop up there will know something happened,” said Daniel. “Even unarmed, I’m pretty sure you can accept that they will find out what happened and lead the others against you.”
“I’m quaking in my boots,” said Kaine, and he tapped his lip. “Still, though, you have a point. If I give dear Victoria any cause to doubt me, her support will slip, and I can’t have that.”
“You’re as bad as bloody Harnet,” said Daniel.
“Am I now?” Kaine’s eyes thinned. “Enough of this. Lock him in one of those offices in the medical school. See if he comes to his senses after sitting there for a while.”
The others stepped forward and dragged him from the woods, through the parking lot, and into the medical school. He was taken through a few hallways and up a set of stairs before they opened a door and threw him in. An empty box broke his fall, and he rubbed his knee just as the door shut and locked with a loud click. He moved to the door, still limping as he tried the knob.
Locked from the outside, he realized. I didn’t even know they could do that…
He sighed as he walked to the edge of the room again and sat down.
Chapter Eighteen
Derek looked up from the counter in the kitchen and his cup of Labrador tea as Shiloh strode into the house. Still mud-splattered from the road. To her credit, however, she stopped short of walking in. “Did you find it?” asked Derek.
Shiloh nodded. “It needs some repairs, but yes, we’ve found it. In one piece, even.”
Sheridan ran in from the tiny room between the sunroom and the living room Marissa had taken over as her office space. “Did I hear you correctly?”
“Yep,” said Shiloh, and she finally grinned. “Cornered her right where Derek said we would. They had no choice but to ditch everything they could to escape across the river… they had a good boat to cross it, but it was small. Abby dove into the river to get the damn thing, but we managed to fish her and the boat out of the river.”
“Good heavens,” said Marissa, touching her lips with the tips of her fingers.
“Don’t worry, she’s fine. She was soaked and madder than a wet hen but fine,” said Shiloh.
Derek fought a smile. He was relieved, though. Losing Abigail would have been a terrible loss. He knew she planned on returning to the other end of the First Nation, where the primary part of the town was once she had found the missing children, but he kept hoping she’d stay. That’s not very far, though, he thought. If we can liberate up to Naughton and Simon Lake, we could remake those connections east, at least that far. Abby could make regular trips here…
But first, they had to reclaim that from Cecelie and her raiders.
“Any sign of the support we suspect she had from the west?” asked Derek.
Shiloh shook her head. “No, and while I can’t confirm this, Cecelie looked as surprised as us. We’ve cut her off, and she won’t forget this soon. Whether this works in our favour or not remains to be seen.”
“We will close down any path she might have—even if that means patrolling both the four lanes and the rail,” said Derek. “So far, we have been lucky, but we must be sure that any path they could have becomes our path for our people. That will be the only way we know they cannot access each other.”
“Agreed,” said Shiloh. “I’ve already started making regular patrols with our people, building guard towers, and starting walls and other obstacles. Even if they have the fuel or the battery charge, they won’t be able to use a vehicle to come at us. The only thing that could get through is a train, but that’d be a hell of a feat and if they have that…”
Derek sighed. Shiloh had a point. If the raiders had a train, there was not much they could do to stop them, even if they pulled rails. A train and the ability to run it meant resources they didn’t have, both in people and supplies… not yet, at least.
And the fact that we can think in not yet rather than never is a significant step up that others won’t have, he thought. It’s something. It may not be enough right now, but hopefully, we can repel them by the time it is a problem.
“And the river?” asked Sheridan.
“Slowly subsiding,” said Shiloh. “The worst of it is downriver from us, and I’m concerned about the dams from here and once the Vermillion spills into the Spanish River. Some big dams there that, if they collapsed, would be catastrophic for anyone close by. That entire valley would be underwater in minutes.”
“Not to mention High Falls on the Spanish River,” said Derek.
Silence met him. “Dear God,” whispered Shiloh. “Dad took us to that dam once… on the lake behind it. Going off how tall the dam is and how big the lake is behind it…”
“There used to be a waterfall from old Agnew Lake that led into the Spanish River,” said Sheridan. “Before they built the dam. It’s underwater now.”
Derek paused as he thought about it. “That’d be like Lake Mead and Hoover Dam breaking.”
“Maybe not quite that big, but it would be catastrophic to everyone downriver if High Falls failed,” said Sheridan. “And that is now a real danger the longer this goes on. When you were still too sick to awaken, Abigail, Shiloh, and I talked. We suspect what caused the surge we saw was the dam on Vermillion Lake collapsing.”
“Unfortunately, we cannot confirm it,” said Shiloh. “By foot or even by horse, it’s a long ride up to Chelmsford and that part of Vermillion Lake.”
“Assuming there still is a lake,” said Derek. “No dam means that reservoir no longer exists. What a thought. Northern Ontario is peppered with dams, small and large, everywhere. The problem is not knowing when one will go. For all we know, another further upriver is waiting to burst that will wipe out our valley next.”
“You were thinking of heading east and to Garson. I know the library would have more maps showing that. Maybe even a registry at City Hall,” said Shiloh.
Derek blew out a breath. “All the more reason to go. We need to know that information. In the meantime, create a plan where we get to high ground if we see a surge start. Start planning for it now,” he said. “And I will add that to my list of what I’ll need to do when out there.”
* * * * *
The relief of not being dragged didn’t last long as the four-wheeler stopped, and then she was kicked off the back while still tied to it. The cheers of numerous others told her she was now in the depths of the camp, where ever it was. Thankfully, she felt grass and snow under her, not gravel, so when the four-wheeler’s engine was gunned, and the ropes’ snap was taught to drag her through the rest of the camp, she slid through the muck and wet instead of gravel.
The short run through the camp abruptly stopped, and she lay there on the ground, still winded from both the beating and the dragging through the center of the raider’s camp.
The four-wheeler’s engine cut out, and the first raider said, “Cecelie, we’ve brought you the bitch that killed Claude.”
“Is that so?” came a woman’s voice, accented—French Canadian, if Gina was not mistaken. “This one little thing killed Claude with a knife? Against his gun and larger size?”
“She surprised him, more like,” said the raider. “But we surprised her this time.”
There was a long, silent moment where Gina counted the seconds. She was sure this was where she would die—tied up and bound, a bag over her head, tossed in the nearest lake or river to be fish food. There are worst fates, I suppose, than being returned to nature, she thought. I’m sorry, Russell, I didn’t make it to Whitefish to tell your mother you live. I’m sorry, everyone else. I did not find your children…
“Take off her hood,” said Cecelie.
Gina blinked as the statement sank in. She forced herself to relax so they wouldn’t expect a fight from her. If she could escape, she could eventually free herself of the bindings on her wrists. Knowing where she was meant, she could find the children, run straight back to Lively, and bring the others. It was a long shot, but it was the only one she had, and if she were given it, she would take it.
There was still a long pause.
“Vous a-t-elle frappé aussi bien de sourd que de muet?” said Cecelie, her voice rising and becoming sharp and clipped. “J'ai dit d'enlever la putain de cagoule.”
Gina wished she understood more French, but whatever Cecelie had said caused her raiders to grab Gina roughly, sitting her upright. The ties to the hood were loosened, and then it was pulled from her head. Gina sat on her heels, blinking as the sunlight filtered through the trees. The water of another lake, or perhaps another arm of a river—given the lack of ice on the water—and a long dock into the water was in plain view. To her left was a mountain; if she was not mistaken, it meant she had been taken further down Old Highway 17 into another subdivision, still part of Naughton, called Oja.
“Much better,” said Cecelie as she looked at Gina, and then she laughed. “This slip of a girl killed Claude. Tabernac, Michel, you’re getting sloppy as shit.”
The raider, the first one who had led the other group, shrugged. Gina assumed that meant his name was Michel, which at least gave her a way to think of him instead of Raider number one. She still had no names for the others, but it wasn’t as if she was looking to ask them either.
“So, tell me, a stranger with a knife, why did you come this way? Surely those idiots in Lively told you that there was danger here,” said Cecelie. “I do not think you simply walked through there without being told we existed.”
“No, you’re right,” said Gina, and she saw Cecelie’s eyebrows raise at her accent. “They did tell me, but I came to see why their children were missing. I happened to find Lively at the same time as those bozos were leaving. Right mess, they left too. So I followed them.”
Cecelie looked over at the small group. “She followed you.”
“Cece, we had no idea she was there,” said the raider.
“And that is supposed to make me feel better? That you didn’t know that you were being tailed straight back to our camp when I told you all to make sure you weren’t,” said Cecelie.
“But she…”
Cecelie pulled out a pistol, aimed, and shot the man dead. “Anyone else mistake ‘don’t get followed’ for something else?”
There was silence.
“I didn’t think so,” said Cecelie as she holstered her gun again. “Such a waste of ammo, don’t you think? Better served elsewhere. But you… you have a head on your shoulders and can slip past guards as if they were never there. You could be useful.”
“And what makes you think I’ll join you?” asked Gina, snorting simultaneously. “That’s a big assumption… and even if I do, what makes you think I won’t slip off as easily as I followed them the first chance I get?”
“Because you are smart,” said Cecelie as she motioned around. “Look around you. What do you see?”
“Oja,” answered Gina.
Cecelie stared at Gina and then shook her head. “God gave you no shortage of attitude and zero fear to use it, I see.”
“Then tell me what I should be seeing,” said Gina. “My knees are cold.”
“Shattered remains of an old world that is dead or dying but still clings to a past it needs to forget,” said Cecelie, pointing back east and to Lively. “Those in that town cling to the past and the old world like it is coming back to save them—stubborn fools. We make our future. This is a new world and one for us to shape where those who can take what is theirs can do anything they want with nothing and no one to hold them back. You are someone like that—I can see it. There is a wild creature in those eyes begging for a world that it belongs in, and this is that world. What I offer is someone who knows it just as well.”
