Nathan Jones - Shortage

In the last week a few parties had already returned with deer and elk down from the mountains to escape the snowstorms, and one sent word back that they’d found a small herd of sheep unattended in the higher foothills and were bringing them down.

Between that and some of the livestock Ferris had gathered but never got around to butchering the town wasn’t going hungry, although portions had to be spread thin among so many people. True to her word Catherine had returned a lot of that livestock to their rightful owners, but any that remained unclaimed or were donated to the town provided a vital boost to Aspen Hill’s perilously low stores. Matt and his family counted themselves among those that needed that assistance, although he assured Catherine that he’d repay the food once they could get at the cache.

Until then they weren’t going hungry, and busy as Matt was with organizing the town’s defenses his worried thoughts constantly turned to his dad, who they hadn’t heard from since he disappeared the night of Ferris’s first inspection. He was asking the people he sent out on patrols to keep a special eye out, but so far there’d been no luck.

Even more worrisome, the patrols reported sightings of some of Razor’s gang who’d escaped after the attack roaming the area outside of town. Matt had considered forming a group to go out and track the bandits, but he wasn’t in any condition to lead it and when he ran the idea by the Mayor and a few others they decided after a bit of debate that the town should just focus on defense until things had settled down.

Which left him no choice but to worry and hope that his dad would find a way safely back home.

The seventh day after the attack put them on the day before Thanksgiving, and Matt finally decided his leg was healed up enough that he could start following the patrol routes to personally check them out and see if he could recommend any adjustments.

Sam was watching the boys while Terry and April were out. Sometimes it was April watching while Sam helped Terry with the sick and wounded, and on busier days they both went while Matt’s mom watched her grandsons.

After the attack Matt had argued that Sam was still recovering from her beating at the hands of the looters and needed to rest. But he didn’t really have a leg to stand on considering that he was pushing himself hard with his own duties defending the town even though… he didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Sam had staunchly brushed aside his objections and insisted on helping. At least the physical signs of her injuries had disappeared after a few days, aside from lingering bruises, and he could reassure himself that she was doing just as well as she claimed.

Before setting out Matt kissed Sam goodbye and hugged his nephews, leaving them waving on the porch as he strode out of the yard. His first stop that morning was to the storehouse, which now also doubled as a more permanent clinic where Terry and whoever was assisting him waited ready to treat those in need of medical care.

It was a decent setup in a way, since now that April’s family had moved into their parents’ house even when Terry was off duty resting he was still only a block away if someone really needed him. Matt didn’t envy his brother-in-law that sort of burden of responsibility, although he supposed he had responsibilities of his own now.

Matt had come to get his sutures removed, as well as to ask whether an extended walk was all right. He’d healed up well over the last week and was now moving around with barely any twinges of pain as his leg got stronger, so he thought it would be. Terry agreed, although reluctantly.

The storehouse seemed oddly deserted now that Catherine had moved back to the town hall to run the city from there. But there were still guards to watch over the supplies, at the moment Scott Tillman, Tam Raymond, and Chauncey and Rick Watson.

Matt thought Rick had developed sort of a hero complex after watching him bust out of the back of the store like a crazy person. Matt considered himself lucky he hadn’t been shot or had his face smashed in with a sledgehammer, but the slightly younger man didn’t see it that way.

Chauncey’s son came over to chat while Matt was having his sutures removed, as well as to gawk at the wound caused by the gang leader’s famous razor. Since he was there Matt decided to get some updates on what Rick’s dad was learning about the outside world on the radio.

It turned out there was some fresh news to share there. For one thing Ferris’s decision to cut and run from Aspen Hill hadn’t been sanctioned by his superiors in Price. They hadn’t even realized the administrator and his soldiers had left until Chauncey called in asking what to do about the prisoners the morning after the attack.

Whatever blowup they’d had over that news when they heard it from Chauncey they’d kept to themselves all last week. It was only last night while the town’s radio operator was giving a followup report on how they’d dealt with the criminals that he realized the topic had shifted to Ferris’s departure, and the FETF agents down in Price were subtly grilling him about why the man had left.

They should have known why he was gone if they’d given him the order to leave, and after a bit of questioning of his own the retired teacher was finally told that Ferris was acting off script. Since the coordinators down in Price didn’t know why he’d left they obviously didn’t know where he’d gone or what he planned.

In the last week they’d tried to find those answers on their own with no luck, which was why the FETF in Price finally decided to closely question Chauncey over the radio about Ferris’s activities in the town over the last month.

Although the retired teacher was on the receiving end of the questions he was able to learn quite a bit from what he was asked. For one thing it sounded like while Ferris was overseeing Aspen Hill the administrator had gone far beyond his authority in numerous ways, including confiscation of food storage below the two weeks mark, confiscation of other valuables, allowing his soldiers to form romantic relationships with women from the town and refugee camp and turning a blind eye to less legitimate forms of companionship, using lack of compliance as an excuse to deny access to the ration line, and everything to do with his informal deal with Razor.

Ferris’s authority had also only been meant to extend to relief efforts and coordinating with the town on keeping the peace. The fact that Ferris had completely taken over running Aspen Hill and formed his own little dictatorship on top of all his other infractions made the FETF coordinators down in the county seat very, very displeased.

The long and short of it was that they wanted to know where he and his soldiers had gone, and according to the retired teacher were communicating with every radio operator in Carbon, Sanpete, and Emery counties looking for him, and sending feelers even farther.

Terry shook his head when Rick finished. “We thought FETF was just overstepping their authority in general, but Ferris was playing by his own rules the entire time. Why didn’t we ever think to ask anyone about what he was doing?”

Matt shrugged. “He was in charge, and he was FETF. Also Turner and Anderson both got behind him. Besides, even if he went way overboard it’s not like FETF is all that great either. We know that from personal experience. We saw what we expected from them so we didn’t question it.” He turned back to Rick, wincing slightly as another suture was pulled. “Any other news?”

It turned out there was. And while the news about Ferris had more to do with Aspen Hill the next thing Rick had to share was more pressing and much, much worse.

Apparently the massive refugee camp just north of Price had been suffering major problems with starvation, finding clean water, poor sanitation, and crime, and for all their efforts the FETF coordinators there couldn’t seem to provide any relief. The supplies they’d brought when they arrived were long since gone, leaving them to deal with an impossible situation. Sort of like the situation in Aspen Hill on a much larger scale.