Matt smiled at her. “Regretting not finding somewhere else to hitch a ride to?”
“Are you kidding?” she asked incredulously. “I’d probably be a refugee like one of those poor people out in the camp, if not worse. You have no idea how fortunate I feel that I found you, that you and your parents were willing to welcome in a complete stranger as practically family.”
Her eyes darted away from his face timidly, then back to meet his gaze. “Actually I was sort of wondering if you regretted it. I pretty much tossed my stuff in your car and said I was coming along, and since then I’ve been nothing but a burden when your family already has enough to deal with.”
“Now you’re the one who’s kidding,” Matt chided gently, squeezing her hand. “You provided the gas, remember? And ever since we got here you’ve been doing everything you could to help around the house and out in town. I mean you were on your way to do some serious shoveling to earn food to feed the family when I saw you. If you’re a burden I’d be happy to carry you anywhere.”
Sam’s cheeks flushed again, and Matt abruptly felt embarrassed at the sappy comment. But then her wide smile returned and she squeezed his hand back, turning to look forward again. The contented silence settled between them once more, and in spite of all his weariness and worry Matt couldn’t think of many times when he’d been this happy.
He was home. April and her family were home. And in spite of the hardships ahead they weren’t refugees. They had a home, a family, and a community willing to support each other. “So any news about the town?” he finally asked. “Have you all been doing all right?”
She hesitated, looking over at him. “We have. The, um, City Council finished crunching some numbers recently and discovered that if the winter was mild, we butchered livestock and were able to forage like we have been, and we severely reduced our rations during the coldest days, about 80% of the town has enough food to last until spring.”
Matt wondered how she felt about that. For him, especially after seeing and even being part of the sea of humanity moving through the cities up north, that number seemed phenomenal. As long as his family was on the right side of it. “That’s better than I’d hoped.”
She nodded, then hesitated again. “That was before a FETF relief convoy came with a truck full of food, though.”
“Here?” Matt demanded, surprised. He would’ve expected them to send all their aid to Price, since he’d heard that’s where refugees were being taken in.
“Here,” Sam solemnly confirmed. “Yesterday at around noon. They forced us to take down the roadblock and Ferris, that’s the administrator, took over the town and claimed the storehouse as his base of operations. There’s a lot of people worrying that he’s going to give all the food in there plus everything in the truck to the refugees out in the camp. He’s starting a ration line tomorrow and everyone’s allowed through. From what I hear a lot of the newly arriving refugees who’d otherwise have kept going down to Price are now sticking around because of the ration line, hoping to get fed.”
From his own experience with FETF and what his sister had told him Matt could almost guarantee that was what they were going to do. “Up north they were confiscating all the food from anyone with more than two weeks’ storage,” he grimly told her. “April and her family lost everything and had to go to the refugee camps even though they would’ve been pretty well off.”
It was Sam’s turn to be surprised. “Two weeks? That’s more than half the town, including your parents!”
Matt nodded, stopping abruptly. “Listen, I hate to bail on you but this news changes a lot. I’ve got to warn my parents and help them hide our food before FETF starts going door to door. Can you handle the harvest alone?”
“I could,” she said, coming over to take his hand, “but there’s no need to worry. Ed hid all the food last night. It should be safe.” She sighed. “I wish I could say the same about his hunting rifle. He was on a shift at Roadblock 3 with it when FETF came and Ferris saw him and the others with their weapons. He basically told them right then and there that they could participate in the food for firearms program or have them confiscated at gunpoint.”
Matt wished he was surprised at that news. April had talked about her neighborhood watch program being disarmed as well. “Food for firearms?”
“Ferris’s tactic to get people on board with the confiscations.” The dark-haired woman tugged on his hand, starting forward again, and as they continued on she started filling him in on how things had changed in town, especially since FETF’s arrival.
Trev was happy to escort the Lynns the rest of the way to their parents’ house. Not only because he wanted to make sure Terry made it without trouble but because he wanted to find Officer Turner and tell him about Razor’s thugs and the robbery.
He knew he should’ve been more angry about having his stuff stolen, again, but he was so relieved to be home that for the moment it hadn’t sunken in. Besides, once he got back on border patrol maybe he could do something to prevent others from suffering the same fate. It worried him that the back of town didn’t seem to be patrolled nearly as well as the north, south, and east ends. He’d talk to Turner about that, too.
Mr. and Mrs. Larson were out working in their garden when they arrived, and Aaron immediately gave a happy shout and rushed through the gate to throw his arms around his grandmother, little Paul squirming out of his mother’s arms to follow. Mr. Larson caught him and tossed him into the air a few times, much to the toddler’s delight.
Trev hung back as April and Terry joined the group for their own reunions, while Mrs. Larson fretted worriedly over Terry’s face. When she finally turned to him Trev expected his own hug from the motherly woman, but instead he got a very flat look. “I’m glad you made it back safely,” she said in a cool tone of voice.
He hesitated, confused. After the huge risk and sacrifice of traveling up north with Matt to find her daughter’s family he’d expected at least some warmth and gratitude from the older woman. “Is something wrong?”
“I’ll say,” his friend’s mother snapped. “That girl you left with us. Didn’t do a lick of work, lounges around making demands and spitting venom, and keeps saying you promised to take care of her. She even got in a screaming row with Sam and clawed her arm.”
He stared at Mrs. Larson, bewildered. “Girl I left? You mean Mandy? I just told her she could have a meal and a bed for the night before moving on to Price.”
It was her turn to look bewildered. “Price? Why on earth would she go there?”
“That’s where FETF sent her. I was going to give her enough food to make the trip.”
“Well then one of you is lying,” Mrs. Larson said coldly. “She told me FETF had sent her to Aspen Hill and when you brought her in you promised her a permanent place to stay with you.”
Trev couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Wait, you don’t think I’m the one lying do you?”
The older woman waited too long to answer, which was answer enough. “Anyway it’s your problem you dumped in our laps,” she finally said. “Now that you’re back you can sort it out, and good riddance.”
He supposed that was reasonable, although he could hardly believe she was siding against him after complaining about how lazy and argumentative Mandy had been. “Of course, and I’m really sorry she caused you trouble. We were in a rush to get gone and I didn’t have time to explain her situation, which must have led to some miscommunication—”