Matt wasn’t sure what the punk was talking about, but he wasn’t about to stop and ask. He started down the road past the five thugs as quickly as he could, leading the others and fighting the urge to look over his shoulder.
As he passed Razor the man casually leaned down and picked up a can of bear spray. “This is what you were defending yourselves with?” he asked, pointing the nozzle at his face with a grin. “Not a bad idea. Work well?”
“Yeah. You definitely don’t want to get sprayed with it,” Trev answered reluctantly.
“I’ll bet.” Razor flipped the can in his hand and without warning sprayed Terry in the face. April’s husband went down with a strangled noise and she screamed and dropped to her knees next to him, even as little Paul in her arms began choking and coughing from the residual mist in the air.
The refugee turned the still-spraying nozzle towards Trev, and Matt watched his friend start to duck away, too late. But before the spray could reach him the flow petered out to nothing.
“That’s it?” Razor demanded, glaring at the empty canister. “A few seconds? No wonder nobody uses this stuff.” He flung the can at Trev’s face, hitting him in the forehead. “Get out of here.”
Together Matt and Trev picked up a choking, wheezing Terry between them and did their best to drag him away as April hurried ahead with the two boys. After a hundred feet or so Matt glanced back to see that the refugee bandits were digging through the wagon and their backpacks, laughing as they tossed clothes aside to get to the food and other useful stuff inside.
Once they’d put a few curves in the road between them and Razor’s thugs April rushed back to take Terry in her arms, pulling him gently down to the ground with his head in her lap. “We have to wash out his eyes!” she snapped.
Terry nodded, looking scared as he choked out some desperate advice. “I’ve interned at the hospital long enough to see what pepper spray does. I could go temporarily blind, but more importantly if I pass out you need to check to make sure my airways stay clear and I keep breathing.”
Trev was already pulling a water bottle from his pack. “Let’s be quick. I want to get away from that nutjob before he decides to do anything else to us.”
For a tense minute they doused Terry’s face and flushed out his eyes, nose, and mouth, as April used the sleeve of her sweater to wipe away the snot streaming from his nostrils while he hunched over on the road, hacking and spitting over and over again. Matt had a lot more sympathy for the other people he’d sprayed when he saw his brother-in-law’s misery. Even if it had been necessary to defend himself it still looked like a miserable experience.
Long before Terry seemed the slightest bit recovered he pushed to his feet, staggering slightly. His eyes were scrunched shut and every time he opened them they were bloodshot and endlessly leaking tears. “Let’s get out of here,” he insisted. “Just guide me along, okay?”
Matt and Trev got under his arms to support him again while April led the boys ahead, and they walked as quickly as they could in the direction of the town. As they went Matt did his best to sort out what had just happened.
Who was Ferris? Why had Razor claimed that nobody in town had guns? And more importantly why was Turner letting this psycho and his refugee thugs mug people just a few miles outside of town? If Razor really didn’t care if they told anyone about him then did that mean he didn’t think there was anything the people in Aspen Hill could do to stop him?
“I have a feeling we’ve been gone too long,” Trev said grimly.
Matt tried to smile in spite of the adrenaline pumping through his system. “At least this time it’s not the cops taking our stuff.”
His friend surreptitiously patted his underarm holster, where he had the empty .357. “And at least they didn’t frisk us. For once I get to walk away from a shakedown without losing my gun.”
“What do you think they meant about Ferris and no one having guns?” Terry asked in a phlegmy voice.
Trev shook his head. “We’ll find out soon.”
Matt was slightly alarmed when they hiked the entire rest of the way to Aspen Hill without seeing anyone. Where were the patrols? It was bad enough that Razor was robbing people just outside of town, but if there was nobody defending the place he could just waltz right in and start looting houses or who knew what else.
At the edge of town were the houses on larger plots of land, widely separated and usually connected to the gravel road by dirt or gravel driveways. They walked several blocks before they reached their first paved street, and to Matt’s shock he saw a dark-haired woman walking along it towards them. That shock turned to elation when he recognized her, then a little bit of worry as he thought about how close she was to the edge of town with no one between her and Razor’s thugs.
Sam had been looking down at her feet, but when she finally looked up and saw them she slowed to a halt in the middle of the street, staring at Matt with wide eyes. He gently extricated himself from Terry and started forward, calling her name, and at that she gave a happy cry and rushed forward to throw her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder.
He returned the embrace awkwardly, looking down at her with surprise. Not to mention a surprising amount of his own happiness at seeing her. As they hugged the others reached them and gathered around, and April gave him a strained but genuine smile. When the hug still continued his sister mouthed “see you at home” and hurriedly ushered the others on down the street to give them some space. Or maybe to get Terry to their parents’ house where she could make him more comfortable.
They were almost out of sight before Sam finally pulled back, cheeks a bit pink at her show of affection but still smiling broadly. “I’m so glad you’re back! We’ve all been worried sick about you since you left, waiting each day for you to make it home with no way of contacting you to find out if you were okay.”
It surprised him how good it felt to hear that she’d been worried. It was also surprising that in spite of the hardship she must’ve suffered she somehow looked even more lovely and alive than he remembered. “It was a long and hungry walk and we saw some terrible things, but we didn’t run into any real trouble.” He kept the encounter just outside of town to himself.
Her beaming smile abruptly slipped. “Oh, you probably want to get home and see your parents and then finally get some rest. I was going to go help the Widow Harris since she told your mom she’s got a whole garden of root vegetables, carrots and potatoes and beets and radishes, that need harvesting. She said if I help her dig them up she’ll give me a quarter of them.” Her smile slipped even more, coming perilously close to a frown. “I want to come back with you, but I already said I’d help and we could really use that food.”
“I’m not that tired,” Matt said, which was nearly true since it was still early in the day. But even if he was exhausted he would’ve agreed to endure being pummeled by 2x4s for a chance to spend more time with her. “How about I come and help you?”
Sam gave him a hopeful look, but immediately shook her head. “I can’t ask that of you. Not after traveling for so long.”
On impulse he took her hand and started back down the road. Mrs. Harris’s house was only a few blocks away, and even the work of digging would seem like a vacation compared to the endless walking. Or at least a change.
She didn’t protest anymore, seeming happy to walk along beside him holding his hand. Her own hand was small and soft in his, aside from some calluses on her palms from the hard work she must’ve been doing while he was gone. After a short, contented silence between them she abruptly spoke. “I can’t believe how much in my life has changed because of asking you to let me come south with you. Everything would be different now if I’d lost my nerve and stayed in my dorm.”