Every instinct screamed for Matt to again sympathize but remain firm. He thought a few more curses Roger’s way, hoping the man saw some reckoning for this. “Give me a second,” he called. It didn’t feel good to turn his back on so many angry men, but he tried to keep his posture confident as he started back up the hill to confer with the town leaders.
There weren’t many of the main ones here. Chauncey was back in town, Lucas, Ben, and Scott were out trying to get help from Colonel Grimes, which was all the more important. But Catherine, Carol Clarkson, Tam Raymond, and Terry were all there. He gathered them around, along with Lewis, Trev, Rick, and Gutierrez, and presented the plight of the refugees.
Catherine immediately shook her head. “The town’s problems with refugees just after the Gulf burned started when we gave them water and weren’t strict enough about insisting they leave. Any gesture we make here could become an excuse for them to hang around and cause problems. We could have a dozen more Razors to deal with if we’re not careful.”
Terry cut in equally vehemently. “This isn’t just about perception. It doesn’t have to be too cold before you need to start worrying about hypothermia, and at this time of year up here in the mountains at night we’re well past that point, and probably would be even without the nuclear winter effect. If those men are forced to camp right here on the road with inadequate shelter people could die.”
The former Mayor shrugged grimly. “Everything’s a matter of life and death these days. They can huddle together for warmth and share whatever tents and blankets they have. It’s not ideal, but we cannot let them think they’ll get anything from us. We need them to turn around and leave, the sooner the better. Our responsibility is to the town.”
Matt again had a new appreciation for Anderson, who’d called Trev and Lewis unChristian for insisting they couldn’t afford to share any food with the refugees last fall. The cousins had been right, but even so it was a painful decision to make.
Where was the line when you refused a helping hand to a fellow human being due to self interest? For some there was no line, they wouldn’t do it ever, and those people were usually held in contempt. Then again, those who gave everything they had tended to quickly become in desperate need of help themselves, and did little good for the world.
What a mess. He could see why Catherine had finally stepped down from this position, after so long buckling under the burden of carrying all the responsibility for the town and making these sorts of no-win decisions.
“How about fires?” he asked. “We’ve got plenty of people with hatchets and even a few axes, and we’ve got more than enough helping hands to gather deadfall. We can at least make sure they have as comfortable a night as possible under the circumstances, and we wouldn’t be giving them anything but our time.”
Everyone was nodding thoughtfully, but it was obvious Catherine didn’t like even that. “I think it’ll still give them the wrong message about leaving.”
Matt bit back a sigh. “From the looks of things we’re probably going to all have to camp here ourselves to keep an eye on them and make sure they leave in the morning. We can be kind tonight, and stern tomorrow.”
Trev nodded. “I like it. Sort of a “we did what we could to help you, but now look at all these guns and see we mean business, so please go back the way you came.”
“Besides,” Lewis added. “If we handle this right it’ll make us look better than if we turned them away completely. Even if we’re in the right we still have to consider how everyone else will view us. Moral considerations aside, if some of the refugees died of the cold people would probably lay the blame on us instead of on Rogers.”
That was a good point, even if Matt didn’t like the pragmatism. He wanted to do things because they were right, not because of public image. Still, having that be a side benefit of kindness couldn’t be a bad thing. “All right, it looks like we’re having a campout.” He turned and started back towards the refugees.
They spent the hours until full dark setting up camps. The refugees complained, some of them bitterly, about the situation in general as well as the reception they’d received from Aspen Hill. Trev thought most of that was shattered hope, likely even more crushing after the year these men had to have been through.
The townspeople set up their tents on the ridge right where they were. It was uncomfortable with the elevation and no shelter from the wind blowing almost constantly from the northwest, but it gave them a good defensive position over the refugees setting up on the road below. Trev approved Matt’s decision.
Most of the time was spent gathering firewood and setting up fires. Nobody from Aspen Hill wanted to risk going in among the refugees, even in large groups, so they simply deposited enough firewood to accommodate a thousand men at the edge of the ramshackle camp, along with precious matches and other firestarting tools.
The refugees begged, whined, demanded, and even threatened for food and other supplies from the townspeople, but everything they said was met with polite refusal and a not so subtle display of enough firepower to gun them all down where they stood, if things turned violent. Eventually the ragged men resigned themselves to their situation and did their best to set up camp with what they had.
Trev couldn’t help but notice that the refugees built massive fires, which wasn’t a huge problem since they’d been given plenty of wood. Still, he couldn’t help but think of that old quote he’d heard so often on camping trips as a kid, the one about building large fires. With so little camping gear the refugees might’ve been better off huddling close to small fires, rather than sitting several feet away from a bonfire getting broiled in front with their backs to the frigid night air.
He set a strong watch around both camps that night, ensuring dozens of his people got poor sleep but they would all be forewarned if anything happened. Although he didn’t consider the refugees enemies and had no desire for violence, hard experience had made him cautious.
Luckily the night passed uneventfully, aside from sentries and even people who’d been in sleeping bags in their tents all night complaining about the cold wind the next morning. With his better gear Trev had barely even noticed while sleeping, although since he’d taken a watch he could definitely sympathize.
As planned, as soon as the sun started warming things up Matt had everyone gather up in their lines again, and he came down to politely but firmly insist that it was time for the refugees to turn back for the camp.
There was a lot of grumbling from the ragged men at that, and more than a few curses and angry shouts. But the truth was that the refugees were hungry and only going to get hungrier, and with it clear they wouldn’t be getting anything from Aspen Hill most reluctantly started back down the road.
A few groups broke off and disappeared into the surrounding countryside, though. Either they didn’t think they’d be welcome back in camp, or they thought they had good enough supplies to strike off on their own. That seemed like a recipe for potential banditry, and anyway the men might’ve had more nefarious reasons for heading off into the hills, so as Matt got the townspeople ready to return home Trev had a team of volunteers follow each group. He also split more defenders off to jog home at a faster pace and start patrolling the area around Aspen Hill. Last of all he assigned Trent to take twenty people and shadow the refugees to make sure they kept going back to Rogers’s camp, or report in if any of them did anything else.