SHE HAD LEFT EARLY, WANTING TO CHECK IN on the new mom and baby, see if they needed any help getting to the meeting. Johnny said everyone had to be there, no exceptions. It would be her first outing from the infirmary, Susun telling her to stay put for a week, saying “You need to cocoon with that baby of yours, just cuddle up and don’t think about anything but each other.”
“Hey, Susie.” It was Tiny, leaning in the doorway between the kitchen and what was lately called the Meeting Room, Tiny bitching that before it was perfectly fine to call it a dining room.
“I guess this is it, eh?” she said.
Tiny looked grumpy, said, “What? What’s this supposed to be?”
“The big plan.”
“Big fucking plan, my ass.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we’re in deep shit Susie girl.”
“I thought that was obvious,” answering him, but not really paying attention, seeing Slaught come into the room with Chumboy and Larose, looking all calm, leaning into Shaun as he passed by to say something to him.
“Hey Slaught,” Tiny shouted, “if you and your two ladies in waiting are done socializing, can we get this bastard of a meeting on the road?”
Slaught nodded over at Tiny and headed up to the front of the room. Larose stayed with Shaun, and Chumboy drifted over to Susun and Tiny. “Ever cranky you,” Chumboy said to Tiny, and then to Susun, “When does Ricky get back?”
“Tomorrow. He sure didn’t want to go, though.”
“I think he’s scared to come out of hiding, thinking that Mitch Black is going to reappear somewhere.”
“Yeah, well, she’s pretty scary, I know how he feels.”
“Bullshit she’s scary, that woman can’t even peel a goddam onion,” Tiny said.
Chumboy told Tiny that women like Mitch don’t need to cook because they eat their men alive, but then Tiny told him to shut the hell up because Johnny had cleared his throat and was waiting for people to stop talking. “Gotta hear this,” Tiny muttered.
Slaught started off saying “Good day folks,” like he was welcoming people to a show or something, “and thanks for coming out. I know we’ve been through some rough shit this last week and people might have something to say about it. Now some of us, well, we’ve been talking this thing over and we’re going to put a few options on the table here. If anyone thinks it’s bullshit and has another way of doing things, speak up. Loud. That clear?”
People were nodding.
“Alright then,” Slaught started. “So we got bad trouble. Those folks who were here, Laskin and his crew, were some sort of special Talos outfit, probably sent here to get rid of a few of us. I think we, well, I think I, was a little naive in thinking we could handle them. Should’ve known better, after seeing the things I have but…well, what has happened is done, I can’t fix that.” Slaught noticed a few people glance over at Shaun then look away quickly—maybe the young lad shouldn’t have come today. A few of the women at the back were sort of huddled together, looking like they’d been crying. There’d been a lot of crying over Kirstie.
Slaught looked down, trying to gather his thoughts. “Can’t change what’s happened, but we can try to fix what’s coming down the pipe, ’cause I don’t think it’s going to be pretty. Those guys have every intention of coming back.”
“When?” someone shouted from the back.
“This is crazy,” someone else muttered. Too many people for Johnny to see who it was that was talking.
Johnny shrugged. “My guess would be sooner than later. But we’re thinking that they are going to have to bring trucks, so they can move most of us out of here. Ricky Skinner, he came up from the City. He was sure there’d been a truck contingent to the requisition forms that had come through for this operation and I don’t see any other choice. There’s over fifty people here now, and might be more along the way that they want to clear out, so they can’t do that on snowmachines. They need those trucks. From what Ricky tells us, they use the outpost there at the bottom of Thibeault Hill as their staging ground, so the old highway route seems most likely. Does that make sense to everyone?”
No one had much to say, couple of people leaning into their neighbour to whisper something. Then Shaun spoke up. He was standing near the back with a few of the other young guys and his Dad. “I don’t think they’re gonna need the trucks Johnny.”
Slaught could hear the challenge in his voice, asked, “Why’s that Shaun?”
“’Cause they’re just gonna come in here and kill us all.”
That set off the crowd, most people muttering things like “Don’t be ridiculous” or “Calm down, you’re gonna upset the kids.” Slaught stole a glance over at Larose. His face was impassive. Johnny took that as a bad sign, thinking probably Larose agreed with his kid, otherwise he’d be telling him to shut the fuck up and sit down.
“Well, Shaun, I think you might have a point. I guess after the other night we gotta anticipate a worst-case scenario and have a plan for that. But I think for now we need to assume that they aren’t going come in here all postal like.”
“Why?”
“Because they aren’t going to get here, Shaun.”
“Yeah, why’s that?”
“’Cause we’re going to stop them. Right at the bottom of Thibeault Hill.”
Shaun said that sounded good to him and maybe they should take a vote. Slaught wasn’t too sure what exactly they were all voting on but he figured it might help move the meeting along. “Okay, show of hands?”
Slaught figured everyone must have a pretty good idea of what he meant, even if he didn’t, because it looked like his plan had unanimous support. Even Mrs. Merrill raised her hand.
Slaught was thinking this was a fairly crazy situation, figured too that most people were probably relieved that the showdown with Laskin was going to happen elsewhere. “I’m not going to lie to you, we are flying a bit by the seat of our pants, and things could get haywire, but if you’re willing to give it a go, then I think we have a chance of beating these bastards back. I think just to be on the safe side, we’re going move as many of you as we can out of the hotel, and the rest of us are going to do our best to make sure they never get here in the first place. If any of you want to hightail it on out of here, hide out elsewhere till this thing is done, got for it. Just let us know where you’re headed so we aren’t worrying about you down the road. How does that sound?”
“Is this going to be it?” old McLaren asked. “We want these sons of bitches to go away and stay away. Leave us alone, once and for all.”
A few people said yeah, and others were nodding.
Slaught nodded too. “You’re right on the mark with that. We got a few ideas about how to do that.”
“Are we going to war with the city?” It was the new mom Melinda asking, holding her baby tight and looking worried, glancing over at Susun. Susun asked, “Do we have a position on violence?”
Shaun stood up and said, “Yeah, we’re for it.”
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard anyone say.” Mrs. Merrill was fussing in the back. “You should be ashamed of yourself, there’s children here.”
“Well, they didn’t take a drill to your head, did they? Or shoot your girlfriend right in front of you. I don’t remember seeing you there so what do you know about it? This is fucked up, seriously fucked up.” He was yelling at her by the time he finished and Mrs. Merrill’s cheeks were pink and flushed and Slaught was wondering if this meant the vote was off.
“Whoa a minute here,” Slaught holding up his hands. “Shaun, you got some strong feelings about this, I understand that. But we can’t go off half-cocked on this. And we also gotta let everyone have their say without trying to shut ’em down, alright? Those rules are for all of us. We need to have a plan and stick to it, but I also don’t want anybody getting pressured into something. If it takes all day, we’ll stay here all day.”
Jordan stood up, pushing a chair out of his way. Slaught noticed his hair was a dark blue-black, all spiky now. Must’ve been Susun’s work, he remembered her saying something about hair therapy. Jordan was looking over at Melinda. “It’s not really an issue of whether we are for or against violence. Jeff and I’ve been talking, trying to get our heads around all of this. To be honest, violence, like, it really scares me. Guns scare me. Sometimes you guys scare me. But those guys from Talos are completely mental. So whether we like violence or not, we gotta prepare for the worst, unless we want to pick up right now and go down to the City. And hope we don’t get thrown in jail.” He shrugged. “Well, that’s what I think.”
“I’m scared to go to the City.” It was Melinda, looking like she was going to start to cry. Her nose was a little red already. “I don’t want baby Grace anywhere near that place. When the winter leaves, and I know it will one day, I want Grace’s daddy and me to have a garden, and a little house of our own, and I want us to decide how to raise her.”
Jordan nodded. “I understand how Melinda feels, and I know for me, my future isn’t in the City either. Not by a long shot. I mean, I’m hardly a fighter, but I just can’t see any other way. And it would have come to this sooner or later. Talos wants the stuff up here, the mines and the dams. And they don’t want us here.”
“You’re right about that,” Shaun said, “and everyone knows where I stand. Me and my Dad are staying.”
Susun was shaking her head, saying, “It’s too scary, why can’t we go hide somewhere, avoid them altogether, we’ve never even talked about that.”
“Can’t see how running and hiding would work,” Slaught said. “The logistics of it alone—like you said we’re almost a town now. We can’t just pick up and move. Some of us could maybe sneak off, maybe me, Chum, Larose and his crew, head for the rez—I guess you could argue we’re the ones they’re really after—but I don’t trust them, especially not after what happened to the folks on your bus there Susun, or to Kirstie. That being said, we have to make this decision together.”
Susun said, “Most of us ended up here because we didn’t want to be stuck in the City, not because we wanted to be freedom fighters.”
Chumboy leaned forward so he could see her. “Hey, some of us are here ’cause we wanted to go fishing and be left alone, so what? It doesn’t really matter why or how any of us got here, we’re here now. Most of us didn’t realize we were doing anything wrong by being here, by wanting to stay. But I think that position is off the table now. And that’s how these things go—Talos wants everything, even our little bit of everything, and they’re going come take it unless we stop them. That is the story. That is always the story.”
Slaught felt people’s eyes turn from Chumboy to him. “I guess that’s true. It’s usually about someone trying to take things away from someone else. Now I think we got a pretty good thing going here, it’s becoming a town, a place where people like Melinda could raise a family, especially if and when the winter goes. And in the meantime, we are starting to build a place for people that they can have a say in running, and I think this place is worth fighting for. So folks, we got to make some decisions now. We have negotiating, fighting, and some of us high-tailing it out of here hoping to take off the pressure. That’s it. A, B, and C.”
Old McLaren rose slowly to his feet. “Do we have a chance if we fight?” He sort of surveyed the crowd. “We all agreed to take the action we did with that bastard Laskin and his bunch. I think now we’d be fooling ourselves if we think they are just going to round us up and put us in jail for a few months. Don’t think that’s going happen. And we all knew Kirstie.”
A general murmur went through the crowd that Slaught figured seemed to indicate people agreed with that position, but it was hard to be sure, still some folks looking out and out terrified. And he could feel Susun’s hard blue eyes on him, pinning him, but he was trying to look anywhere but at her. Then she said, “But what if we can’t fight?”
“What do you mean, ‘can’t’?”
“Like they come in and just bomb the hell out of us.”
“We gotta do the best we can.”
“I’m not into trying. I want this to work.”
“I’m staying.”
Everyone looked to find the voice. Chumboy’s Aunt, sitting in the corner, knitting, didn’t even look up as she added, “I think this place belongs to all of us. We give it up, they’ll just want more.”
Slaught figured that was about as big an endorsement as he was going to get and said, “I think Aunt Verla is right. We’ve made a home here and I think we have a legitimate claim to this place, unlike Talos. The way I figure it, they just want to come up here and do what they’ve always done, gouge what profit they can out of the land and then walk away when there’s nothing left. I just think now is as good a time as any to make our stand.”
Susun still looked uncertain, said, “I just hope we can do this.”
Slaught said, “Susun, we’ll be having Christmas here, okay?”
“Okay, but they aren’t going to be sitting around for weeks waiting for another go at us. We have to get ready, have a plan.”
Slaught said, “Well then, why don’t we get this place organized so it looks like a command centre and not a tea party in a church basement. Everyone, get your own things sorted out and everyone pack a small emergency bag, just in case. If you need anything, Max can help you out. Max, take two guys down to that storeroom and get it together, we need to know what we have and what we don’t. Susun, could you go with Mary and Mrs. Merrill and head down and make sure all our seniors get what they need? Sound like a plan?”
People were already moving, Slaught figuring they were just relieved they had something to keep them busy. He could feel Susun still standing there looking at him as he was walking towards her, not quite sure what kind of look she was throwing his way. When he got up to her she said, “Guess we’re going all the way then.”
He said he guessed so.
She said, “So it’s not the end times?”
He smiled then, remembering what he’d first said to her, her standing there all strung out, telling her they could get to making some babies. He said, “No, not yet, but I’m watching for the signs.”
Chumboy asked, “So what are the signs telling you now Johnny?”
“We need a Plan D.”
Susun said, “I hadn’t realized we actually had plans to go along with A, B, and C.”
“We don’t really. But I’ve been working on Plan D in my mind for a while now, think its almost there.”
Chumboy said, “That’s a good thing Johnny, cause I think soon enough they’re going to be here. Auntie says so.”