Coyote

Chapter 12: On The Water Train

Sneaking onto the water train wasn't hard at all. I'll tell you all about it sometime. Maybe we can meet up in a park and chat over some hot cocoa and voles. Have you ever dipped a vole in hot cocoa? They really like it. Voles are big fans of chocolate, especially in liquid form, and they'll lap it all up as you dunk them in. Just make sure that you pace them. They have very tiny stomachs that fill up very quickly, and they empty out quickly too if you aren't careful.

But anyway. Once we made it on the boat, we just had to keep out of sight from Lulu. She had also managed to sneak onto the boat, albeit in a much more boring manner than we had. Seriously, she's the villain in this story, and she didn't think to use grappling hooks and potatoes? All I'm saying is that someone clearly needs to put a little bit more effort into her career of evil.

Lulu and her Trench-Coats found an empty room with some pipes on one of the lower decks where most of the group fell asleep. It was out of the way and there was little risk of anyone stumbling upon them there, but just in case I helped Kai and Eli move a large crate to block the door. It was really heavy, and if anyone wanted to leave that room, they'd have to push that crate first. Upon completing our act of sabotage, Kai, Eli, and I scampered back topside, yipping at anyone who walked in our path. It felt great to be one step ahead of Lulu for once. Who was a real wolf now? We were. And with the immediate threat neutralized, we could relax.

"Success!" I exclaimed to Asher and Mr. Rodgers as we found them sunbathing on the top deck. The two of them lay on their backs, holding reflective sheets that one of the beautiful men in the white uniform had given them, and wearing sunglasses. The light must have been really strong, because some of the ends of Asher's red fur were starting to smoke a bit.

Mr. Rodgers, without turning over or removing his glasses, said, "you sure?"

"Yes," I replied, indignantly. "Of course I'm sure. We won't be seeing head or tail of Lulu anytime soon."

I was backed up by Kai. "Yeah, there's no way they're escaping from that room. It took all three of us to move that crate. Lulu is going to have a tough time moving it all by herself and with her four other tall friends."

"Sure," grunted Mr. Rodgers. I don't know if his eyes were open and he saw us staring at him, or if he just sensed us. "Look, you can do whatever makes you comfortable, and I'll do whatever makes me comfortable. Okay? Sheesh."

"I'm sorry, but did you take the initiative to do something to stall our friends on the lower decks?" asked Eli.

"I didn't take any initiative. Whoever is looking for an initiative, it wasn't me. I just thought that maybe I should do something to keep those Trench-Coats off our backs."

Eli turned and whispered to me. "Brother, I don't care for this development. Not one bit. No siree bob."

I shrugged. Maybe Mr. Rodgers hadn't done something incredibly risky and was just busting our chops per usual.

The water train pulled out away from the dock and headed out. First we went north along a river, and then out into the Long Island Sound. It wove between other water trains, big and small, and floating red and green cones. Cars drove over nearby bridges, and sky trains flew overhead. If I had questions before about regular trains, I was absolutely dumbfounded by the sky trains. How did the humans manage to tame those without them flying away? I guess sometimes beasts like the sky trains didn't realize their own capacity for free thought. Hegemony was weird like that.

One of the beautiful crewmen walked by, and Eli called him over. "Sir," Eli asked, "can you tell me exactly where we are going?"

"I can," replied the man, smiling brightly. His face positively shone in the light. We waited for him to answer us, but he said nothing. His smile grew brighter with each passing moment.