Nathan Jones - Fuel

Trev squinted at the distant group, catching sight of a hint of green at the back of the group. Mandy had been wearing a green shirt. “Don’t blame them, she’s my fault. I should never have let her into town.”

“Hindsight.” In spite of his cousin’s even tone he looked pissed as he put away his binoculars.

Trev supposed it didn’t matter now. “So what do we do? Fight?”

“Against half a dozen soldiers in body armor?” Lewis asked incredulously. “Besides, we don’t want to get on the wrong side of government agents no matter how questionable their actions.” His cousin abruptly pulled them both back behind the cover of the hill and removed his underarm holster with its 1911 to hand over to Trev. “I’m glad we got the ammo and my other guns out to the new cache already,” he said, tone urgent. “Listen, take these and hide them there too, then hurry back. I’m going to go lock up the shelter.”

Trev accepted the weapon, glad he was carrying his own revolver in its underarm holster as well as his Mini-14. “You want to meet them unarmed?”

“The outcome’s the same either way, and anyway meeting them unarmed looks less aggressive. Also if they’re in the mood to confiscate weapons rather than push their stupid food for firearms program I don’t want ours anywhere to be found.”

That made sense. Trev nodded and trotted down the hill to the woodpile, doing his best not to jostle the guns he held. Once he got behind the cache he hurriedly pulled wood off the pile in the spot they’d planned for easy access, scraped away just a few inches of dirt, and lifted the corner of the tarp to tuck the guns underneath, including taking off his underarm holster to store the revolver as well.

Once he’d covered the cache again he decided to circle far north to return to the shelter from a different direction so he wouldn’t give anything away if he was spotted. It meant going all the way around the shelter to get to the south facing door, but to his relief by the time he climbed up to stand next to Lewis, in the concealed sentry post atop the shorter hill the underground structure had been built against, Ferris and the others still hadn’t arrived.

As they waited he got a chance to get his first look at Ferris, a small weasel of a man whose stick-up-the-butt posture and absurdly out of place suit screamed petty bureaucrat. He also got a good look at Mandy, who was doing her best to hide behind the six soldiers in full riot gear, including bulletproof shields and helmets. Looking at them Trev was glad they’d hid their guns.

When the group arrived Lewis led the way down to where the road passed the bottom of the hill to meet them. His greeting was directed at Turner, not Ferris. “What’s this about, Officer?”

Turner had the grace to look shamefaced. “I’ve been made the Aspen Hill FETF liaison. Hoarding food in excess of two weeks’ supply is illegal according to Federal law.”

“Since when?” Lewis asked evenly.

Before the policeman could answer Ferris spoke up. “Actually, hoarding has been illegal for years now. The law just hasn’t been enforced because it’s a minor issue at any time except during a disaster. Like now.”

Lewis seemed ignore the interruption, still looking at Turner. “Are you going to help these soldiers rob the people you swore to protect and serve?”

Turner’s guilt vanished into irritation. “Come off it, Halsson. You’re sitting on enough food to feed half the town while people are starving. This is better for everyone.”

“Everyone but the people you’re robbing,” Lewis said, voice still calm. Trev had to admire his cousin’s cool head: he knew from personal experience that if he was the one talking he’d be shaking from nerves by now, like he had at the roadblock up in Spanish Fork. In fact even though he wasn’t saying a word he still had to fight to keep motionless and stay calm.

Ferris gave a fake yawn. “Sorry if I have no sympathy for selfish lawbreaking hoarders.” He abruptly turned to stare contemptuously at Trev, who gave a start of surprise at the sudden attention. “Not to mention scum who solicit sex from starving, desperate women.”

Trev opened his mouth to protest but Lewis put a quieting hand on his shoulder, still speaking to Turner. “Is he being charged with anything?”

The officer also glared at Trev. “Not at the moment. As long as he denies the charge it’s “he said, she said”, and anyway we’ve got more important things to worry about. Like that illegal bunker you built without getting permits and filled with hoarded supplies that can help the town.”

Lewis was starting to look irritated, but his voice stayed calm. “From what I was able to find in my research the structure is perfectly legal. It’s a shed, not intended for habitation. I’ll admit we’re living there now, but you can hardly fault us for that considering the extenuating circumstances.”

Before Turner could answer Ferris abruptly held up a hand. “Quit wasting our time, hoarder. As of this moment your assets are forfeited, including the structure used to hide illegally stored supplies. You are ordered to vacate the premises.”

His cousin finally turned his attention to the FETF administrator. “And if I refuse?”

“Then we’ll be forced to take legal action against you,” Turner cut in, “up to and including use of force if you resist. You preppers should’ve thought of the consequences before behaving so selfishly.”

“Selfish?” Lewis demanded, finally losing his cool and losing it bad. “ We anticipated future problems and spent every extra penny we had on necessities instead of on luxuries and impulse buy items like the rest of the country. We prepared for the possibility of disaster. We learned the skills we’d need to survive. Those people out there in the refugee camp? They didn’t prepare. They didn’t think ahead. And when disaster finally came they were in a terrible situation they did nothing to prevent. And now they want you to take everything from us so they can have it even though they’ve done nothing to deserve it and you’re calling us selfish?”

Turner flushed. “You’re selfish because you knew a disaster was coming and only thought about saving yourselves.”

Trev couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. “Dude, less than a minute ago you called us “preppers” like it was something between a joke and a swear word. Before the attack whenever I talked to people about what I’d do if things got bad they actually laughed at me, and just about everyone looked at me like I was a nutjob. How exactly do I go about saving anyone else when they think I’m a joke or a loony?”

“For that matter why should we?” Lewis interrupted. “Ultimately our responsibility is to ourselves, and if there’s a problem we can never depend on anyone else to help us if we can’t help ourselves, and no one to blame for the consequences. You’re talking like everyone else who didn’t help themselves has a right to be helped now, even if you have to force other people to help them. Besides, after the disaster hit we donated more food to the storehouse than just about anyone else in town, so I’d say we’ve already done our part.”

Ferris abruptly cleared his throat, looking impatient. “This isn’t about who’s right and who’s wrong, it’s about the law. It’s illegal to have more than 2 weeks of food storage and according to the testimony of this woman you have much, much more than that, so it will be confiscated. You built this structure without permits or proper blueprints or any official oversight hoping a loophole would save you, but it won’t. It, too, will be confiscated. If you’ve got a problem with that take it up with your local, state, and Federal leaders at the next election. Until then obey the law or be arrested, and be grateful we’re not bothering to arrest you anyway.”