Apocalypsis: Book 2 (Warpaint) (9 page)

“I’d like to take him with us hunting,” said Trip.

“We would also,” said Kowi.

The two chiefs were facing each other, almost like a showdown.  The temperature of the place rose as moods shifted. 

I spoke without even thinking.  “Hey!  I have an idea!”

They both looked at me, waiting for me to continue.

I paused, not exactly sure what my idea was.  “Um … why … uh … don’t you, like, share him.  Share everybody.  Everything.”

Trip frowned at me.

Kowi said, “What?” looking just as confused as the other chief.

“I’m sorry.  That wasn’t very clear was it?”  The idea took shape in my mind as I spoke.  “What I meant was, why do you continue to live separately?  Why don’t you combine forces for everything?  Weaving, hunting, cooking.  Whatever.  Why keep it yours and theirs?  Why not
ours,
as in
all indians in Kahayatle?”

“We lost our identity once.  We’re not going to do it again,” said Trip.

“No, we didn’t,” said Kowi, dismissing his concerns.  “Working together doesn’t change who we are.  It just makes us safer.”

“And it makes the most efficient use of your talents and resources,” volunteered Peter from the sidelines.

Everyone looked over at him and he shrank down, looking at the ground.  If he could have made a hole open in the ground in front of him, he probably would have stepped into it.

“I don’t agree, personally.  But I’m willing to give everyone a vote,” said Trip.

I nodded.  It seemed fair.

“Who agrees with Kowi and who agrees with me?” he said, looking out at the group.

I rolled my eyes. 
“Pfft. 
Like that’s fair.”

“What?” he asked, trying to act like he didn’t understand what he’d done wrong.

“That’s just intimidation.  No one’s going to give you their real opinion if you put it like that.”

“She’s right,” said Kowi.  “Either do it the right way or don’t bother.  It doesn’t matter to me.  I’m going to do what’s right for all of us - not just the Miccosukee.  It’s not that long ago that our parents were friends.  And so were we.”

“I know that.  And so am I.  Doing what’s right, I mean,” said Trip, offended. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone here.”

It was a smooth move on Kowi’s part.  I tried not to smile at him and get Trip all upset about a possible conspiracy that didn’t exist.

“Let’s have a secret ballot vote,” I said.

Both chiefs looked at me confused.

“Everyone gets … uh … a leaf.  And they put the leaf in one basket or another to cast their votes.  Behind a tree.  So no one can see it.”

Kowi and Trip nodded.

“Everyone find a leaf,” ordered Kowi.  Within seconds the whole mass of people was reaching over to grab leaves off the ground, passing them around to friends until everyone had one.

Two baskets made their way up to the front.  One was square and one was oblong.

“You want to take over, Nokosi?” asked Kowi, handing me the containers.

“Not really.”  I wasn’t kidding either.

“Do it,” said Trip, his voice brooking no argument.

I rolled my eyes.  Sometimes his macho act was really annoying.

“Fine.”  I spoke up so everyone would hear me, holding up the baskets in my hands above my head.  “The square basket is for staying square - everyone staying in his own little box.  Keeping the tribes separate.  The oblong basket is one big body of water - everyone being part of the Kahayatle as one tribe.  Put your leaf in the basket representing the way you want to go.  If you want to join the tribes, put it in the round basket.  If you want to stay separate, square basket.”

I brought them down to waist-level.  “Where should I go?”

“Go sit behind that tree.”  Kowi pointed over where Peter was standing.

I nodded and walked towards Peter, gesturing with my head for him to come with me.

“How do we know someone won’t choose one basket over another based on peer pressure?” asked Peter, joining me as I walked behind the tree.

I flipped the baskets over and put them down on the ground with their bottoms up.  Luckily they weren’t totally solid and had spaces between the fibers.  “Like this.  They have to jam their leaves into a hole.  They won’t be able to see how many are in either one.”

“Sweet.  Man, did you plan that out all ahead of time?”

“Nope. Totally pulled it out of my butt.”

“Nice.  Your butt has voting machines in it.”

I shove him gently.  “Shut up.  It’s a voting system, not a voting machine.”

“Okay.  Yeah, that sounds so much better.  You have a voting system in your butt.”

“You’d better be quiet or I’m going to cast a vote from my system right now.”

Peter looked at me, horrified.  “Can I just say,
ew? 
Ew, Bryn.  Ew.”

I shrugged.  “You started it.”

The first voters showed up to join us.  We could hear the sounds of the group gathering and talking on the other side of the tree as the tribe members mingled, waiting for their turns to come.

I instructed the girl who approached.  “Push your leaf into a crack in the basket.”

“Round is for combining, right?” she asked in a soft voice.  I recognized her from our training.

“Yep,” I said, smiling as she pushed her leaf through the bottom of the round basket.

She smiled back.  “Thanks, Bryn.  For everything that you’re doing.”

I was embarrassed by her compliment and momentarily dumbstruck.

Peter spoke up while jabbing me in the ribs with his boney elbow.  “She says thank you and that it is her pleasure.”

She giggled.  “Bye.”

“Bye,” said Peter.

When she was gone he looked at me.  “Hello?  Anyone in there?”

“Shush,” I said, as another girl came around the corner.  I felt really weird taking thanks from anyone.  Everything I was doing, I did for what seemed like selfish reasons.  I just wanted a safe place to live for my little family, and to get it, I
had
to help them.  It didn’t seem right, acting like I was being this altruistic nice person they all seemed to think I was.

We repeated our voting instructions for this second girl and the other almost one hundred kids who came behind the tree eventually.  It took a really long time, even with several of them coming to vote together, not worrying about hiding their choices from anyone.

When we were finally finished, Trip and Kowi came back and joined Peter and me.

“Is that everyone?” I asked.

“Yeah.  What’s the vote?” asked Kowi.

I lifted up the square basket to reveal a small pile of leaves.  One of them was Trip’s.

I lifted up the round one, the pile of leaves underneath about five times bigger.

“Well, I guess that’s it, then,” said Trip.  “I’ve been out-voted.”

Kowi punched him lightly in the arm.  “Don’t worry about it, man.  I got your back now.”

Trip tried not to smile, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitch.  He reached over and punched Kowi back.  “You’d better.”

Kowi winced.  “Oh, shit, that hurt.”  He massaged his muscle.

“Have you gone soft on me, dude, or what?”

“Hell no.  I went to the Nokosi school of krav … whatever the heck it is.  I’m sore as shit.”

“It’ll be worse tomorrow,” I said, trying not to smile.

Trip lifted his chin at me once and said, “How do we get in on these lessons, anyway?”

“Talk to my manager,” I said, sticking my thumb out at Peter.  

“Yeah.  I meant to talk to you about that,” said Peter to Trip, completely forgetting his shyness in favor of organizing my life.  “I’m going to need names and so on so I can get the schedule together.  Who do I talk to about …”

I missed the rest of it, walking away with Kowi, back towards the crowd on the other side of the tree.  Trip stayed behind with Peter.

“Good work, Nokosi.  You solved a big problem for us today.  Again.”

I smiled shyly.  “I didn’t do it for you guys.  I did it for my friends.”

“Whatever your motivations, thank you.”  He put his hand on my shoulder and stared into my eyes.

I saw golden flecks mixed into the brown of his irises.  They reminded me of sparks that came out of a campfire.  I was momentarily speechless, but my problem was solved by the agony of my toes being crushed beneath a moccasined foot.

“Hello, Kowi.  How did everything go?” asked Coli, giving him a beaming smile.  It transformed her face, making her incredibly beautiful.

Kowi’s hand slipped off my shoulder, and he stared at Coli for a second before answering.  “Uh, it went well.  You can let everyone know the tribes are together now.”

She stood on tiptoes and kissed him right on the mouth before turning and making the announcement to a mostly jubilant crowd.

Kowi smiled absently, watching her go.  “I guess she doesn’t like me talking to you.”

“I guess she doesn’t,” I said, smiling and flexing my sore toes.  “At least she’s not obvious about it.”

We both laughed, the uncomfortable feeling between us evaporating.  When Coli looked back at us, Kowi winked at her, making her smile ramp up to level ten in a split second.

He looked as stunned by his girl’s beauty as I was.  Apparently she was never without that scowl, even around him.

Now we both knew that next to her, when she was smiling, I was about as pretty as tree bark.  I had a feeling I wouldn’t have to worry about fighting off
his
advances at least, regardless of my boyfriend-less situation.

***

Now that the voting was over, the hard work had to be done.  Everyone was sitting again, waiting to hear what the tribes’ next steps would be.

“So, we’ve voted.  We’re going to get our tribes together and start working on combining forces.  That means food, clothing, maybe shelter, I don’t know …” Kowi looked over at Trip and received a shrug in return.

“Trip and I discussed it, and we think you guys should get together - those of you doing the same kind of work - and talk about how you could work as mixed teams.  You guys are better at knowing how this stuff could function for you than we would be.  Come see me or Trip if you have questions or disagreements on how it should be done.”

I leaned over and whispered to Peter.  “Seems like it could work, right?”

“Maybe.  If everyone cooperates.”  He looked over meaningfully at a couple Creeks who were sitting with their arms folded, definitely looking defensive with their posture.

“Uh-oh.  Trouble in paradise,” I murmured.

“I warned Trip,” said Peter softly.

“Oh yeah?  What’d you say?”

“I told him he’d have to monitor the groups or he’d have little rebellions going on all over the place.”

“What’d he say?”

“He said he didn’t need me to tell him how to manage his people.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“Agreed.  But I like the fact that he seems to be allergic to shirts.”

“Holy wowza, I know, right?” I admired Trip’s totally solid form from across the hut.

Peter gave me the cutest smile ever in response.

I put my arm around him and squeezed.  “That’s the bright side of Trip’s personality, for sure.”  I thought about it for a second and added, “I’m glad he’s not gay.  I don’t think I could handle you dating a mean guy like him.”

Peter snorted.  “As if a guy like him would want to be with a guy like me.”

I squeezed Peter harder, looking at him now instead of Trip.  “What’s that all about?  Any guy would be lucky to have you.”

“Whatever,” he said sadly.  He tried to shrug me off, but I refused to be detached.

“Peter.  Don’t make me hurt you.  You are cute and sweet and funny.  And even in the middle of all this mess you haven’t lost your class
or
your cool.  Like I said.  You’re a hot property.  Anyone would be lucky to have you.  Just not Trip, cuz he’s mean.”

“Well, I appreciate the thoughts, as misguided as they are.”

“Don’t worry.  Your knight in shining armor will arrive someday.  And when he does, I know he’ll not only be totally adorable, but he’ll be a good cuddler, too.  I’ll bet Trip is a horrible cuddler.”  I narrowed my eyes at the offender, ignoring his amazing body in favor of his imagined snuggling crimes.

“Yeah,” said Peter, gamely.  “He probably just lays there and expects to be the cuddlee all the time and not the cuddler.”

“You are
so
right.  Just look at him.  I’ll bet you twenty bucks he’s a cover-stealer, too.”

“Not that twenty bucks means anything, since bills are only good for feeding fires right now, but yeah.  I get it.  I’ll bet you a can of beans he’s a cover-stealer.”

“A can of beans
and
a bag of chips,” I countered.

“Whoa.  That’s serious.  A bag of chips?  Really?”

“What’s serious?” asked Kowi, coming up from behind and scaring both of us enough to make us jump.

“Uh … nothing?” I said, looking sheepish.

Kowi eyed me suspiciously for a second, but thankfully changed the subject.  “I think we got a handle on this stuff now.  You guys don’t have to hang around if you don’t want to.  I can have someone bring you dinner.”

“Awesome,” I said.  “I just need to talk to Coli for a second before we go.”

“About what?” asked Peter.

“Girl stuff.”

Kowi stepped back, giving me room to leave their presence and find his girlfriend.  As I moved away, I heard Peter talking about his schedule again.

I smiled, thinking about how seriously he took his job.  I wasn’t going to have to worry about a thing with the training, other than getting these noobs out of amateur status as quickly as possible.

I found Coli standing on the fringe of a group of girls, all of them talking about weaving cloth for clothes and making shoes out of deer skin and gator hide.

“Coli, can I talk to you for a second?”

She stepped back and faced me.  “Maybe.”

I ignored her bratty retort since I was about to impose on her a little bit.  “I need to ask you for a favor.”

“What is it?”

“Well, before I ask, I kind of need you to agree to keep it a secret.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “I don’t keep secrets from Kowi.”

“Yes you do.”

“No I don’t,” she said, sounding pissed.