When he was done Trev nodded grimly. “April’s family got a firsthand look at how they operate up in Midvale, so I’m not surprised they’re doing the same here.” He grimaced, glancing towards town. “I was hoping Aspen Hill would refuse to let them in. We’ve already voted to turn away refugees, after all, so FETF has no business here. But it looks like as soon as the first petty bureaucrat showed up everyone changed their minds.”
“They did more than change their minds, they bent over backwards.” Lewis also glared towards town, as if he could see Ferris taking over the storehouse across the mile and a half of distance. “The townspeople are sheep. They don’t care that Washington DC burned. They don’t care that the Federal government is at best in exile, at worst struggling to keep from imploding. They don’t care that the nation is on the rocks and we’re on our own and nobody is coming to save us.”
His cousin took a deep breath. “When Ferris came they didn’t see a “petty bureaucrat” with two trucks and a dozen soldiers. They saw an extension of the vast and infinitely powerful Federal government that doesn’t exist anymore. In their minds he’s the lifeline to the help that’s going to solve everyone’s problems. So if Ferris tells them to give up all their food so it can be redistributed to refugees they’ll do it, expecting that more FETF trucks full of food will be coming in the future.”
“And they won’t,” Trev said, but in spite of his experience with the FETF up north there was the slightest question in his voice.
Lewis had been leaning down to pick up his buckets again, but at that he paused to stare at him. “You’ve still got the barest flicker of hope about that?” He took a breath, then lowered his voice even though nobody could hear them. “Trev, it’s on the radio. More FETF help isn’t going to be coming from up north because the FETF doesn’t exist up there anymore. The Antelope Island refugee camp rioted after a food shortage led to rations being severely cut.”
Trev stiffened in shock. “Antelope Island? I was just there!”
“Then you’re lucky you left. Thousands of refugees went on a violent rampage. The fuel, food, and munitions depots were all seized, FETF soldiers ran for their lives before their own weapons could be turned against them, and over a hundred thousand people flooded back out into the ruins of Salt Lake City. The area has erupted into chaos again, and this time I don’t think anything’s going to stop it.” His cousin finally picked up the buckets and started for the hill again.
After a few moments standing stunned at the news Trev hurried to follow. “Does anyone in Aspen Hill know?”
His cousin shrugged slightly, not pausing. “They’ve got their radio. But even knowing it won’t matter to them because they can’t put two and two together. Ferris is Federal, which means he’s authority, and even if now he’s as much a refugee as anyone and his authority extends exactly as far as the fuel in his trucks can take him everyone will still mindlessly obey his orders. Because that’s what people do.”
A long, uncomfortable silence settled, and then Trev took a deep breath. “Okay, what do you need me to do?”
“Help me move things.” Lewis pointed up the hill with his shoulder. “I’ve finally got the woodpile moved and the cache hole dug where it was. Took me most of yesterday with this rocky soil, and by the time I had it big enough I was too exhausted to start moving buckets. I’ve been hard at work all morning but it’s taking me longer than I expected. Hauling a hundred pounds more than a hundred yards, a good chunk of it uphill, is a lot different than walking for hours. My muscles just aren’t used to it.”
Trev grimaced. “I’m pretty wiped out myself but I’ll do what I can.” As Lewis continued up the hill he headed back to the shelter to grab some buckets of his own. With his cousin’s secretive nature he might’ve hoped that it would take FETF a while to learn about their place, but after Mandy’s threat he had no idea how long they had to get this done so he was in a hurry.
Speaking of which, he should probably give some warning about her. As he carried two of his own wheat buckets towards the cache he met Lewis coming back the other way and followed his cousin back inside to fill him in on his confrontation with the blond refugee, then back out and they carried their buckets towards the cache together talking as they went.
Trev was even more outraged when he learned that the reason Mandy knew about the shelter was because the Larsons had sent her out to get some of his food to “keep his promise”, and had a few choice words to say about it.
“I don’t think she started out as a bad person,” Lewis offered once he’d let off some steam. “I’m sure the experience of being a refugee made her desperate enough to do what she wouldn’t otherwise do.”
Trev shook his head, hefting his pair of heavy pails and quickening his pace a bit. “That’s a reason, maybe, not an excuse. I’m sure people who’d want to kill us and steal our supplies have good reasons too.”
“It’s just an attack on your reputation, though. In the end it’s not the worst thing she could’ve done to you.”
It actually kind of annoyed him that his cousin was trying to defend Mandy. He wasn’t the one getting smeared by her lies. “We’re in a close-knit town where we have to depend on each other for our lives. Reputation can make all the difference. Also don’t forget she plans to rat me out to Ferris. She’ll probably tell him about our shelter.”
“Yeah, that’s a much bigger problem,” Lewis agreed grimly. They reached the peak of the hill and Trev got to see the fruit of his cousin’s efforts.
True to Lewis’s words Trev saw that his cousin hadn’t been carrying things for long. His effort since FETF arrived yesterday had produced a good sized, tarp-lined hole where the woodpile had been, with that entire massive stack of wood scattered everywhere to clear the space beneath. That made sense since the area around here was all sparse grass and the occasional shrub, and a cache anywhere else would be immediately noticeable. Especially one as big as the one Lewis was working on. For this one once it was filled they could move the woodpile back over to hide it.
When he’d first arrived here after being gone so long for school Trev had wondered why the woodpile was so far from their shelter, all the way on the other side of the hill. Lewis had answered that he’d needed the flat space directly in front of the shelter for driving while loading supplies, and over the hill was the next closest flat spot off the dirt road. His cousin had also mentioned that if an enemy set the wood on fire the farther it was from their front door the better, which seemed a bit paranoid to Trev.
Either way here it was, and that was good because it meant the cache would be farther away from the shelter, and possibly harder to discover since it was out of sight behind the hill.
They carefully arranged their buckets in the hole to efficiently fill the most space possible.“You did a good job with this hole,” Trev offered. “But there’s a lot of stuff in the shelter. How much can we cache?”
“Not even close to all of it, that’s for sure, but as much as we can.” Lewis grunted in annoyance as the bucket he was trying to lower into the hole tipped over and he was forced to hop in to right it. “Just remember that every bucket you take out is around a month’s worth of meals, and that’s just for the wheat at about 1400 calories per pound, which is near the lowest CPP out of all the food we’ve stored. Those are meals you’ll be glad you have this winter, or next summer, or even the winter after this one depending on how much we can save.”
Fair enough.
On the way back to the shelter Lewis paused at the top of the hill to scan the perimeter with a small pair of binoculars he carried on his belt. That reminded Trev and he told his cousin about Razor and his bandits robbing them. Not too far away from here, in fact.