All he could do was bring them in and see what Matt and the others wanted to do. He didn’t envy his friend the decision.
What a mess.
Matt was waiting when they entered town with the six men. Trev had filled him in on the situation over the radio on the way back. The intruders hadn’t admitted where they were from, but Lewis had scouted out a camp several miles northwest of town with a hundred or so displaced refugees in it. They didn’t know much about the place, and so far none of the men there had done much roaming south in their direction, but when Trev mentioned the camp to his prisoners a few jerked in guilty recognition.
Not enough to confirm anything, but Trev guessed that was where these guys had come from.
“We’ll lock them in a spare cabin for now,” Matt said, motioning. “I’ve already secured one.”
Trev was only too happy to follow as his friend led the way. Aside from cursing from the prisoners they worked in silence to get them situated in the bare, dirt-floored structure. The door was sturdy and had a hasp and padlock, though, and with the men’s arms still bound and a few defenders watching them they shouldn’t be a problem.
At least short term. “What do we do with them?” Trev asked.
Matt gave him a crooked smile. “I guess we contact the military and have them come take them away.”
They all shared a good laugh at that. The military wasn’t doing anything, and this wasn’t about to be the incident that made them start.
Then his friend sobered up and sighed. “Still, I will have Chauncey radio the proper authorities to inform them about this. At least then if they ignore us we have some excuse for dealing with it ourselves.”
“Which will be how?” one of the defenders demanded. “If we warn them they’ll be shot on sight if they come back they won’t believe us… they’ve already come back once even after we pepper sprayed them. Sure, I have no problem actually shooting this trash, but a bunch of dead idiots isn’t going to help the town.”
Matt sighed again. “We’ll talk it over. Trev?”
Trev followed his friend into the town hall tent, where he chatted with Derek while Matt gathered up a few of the other leaders. Chauncey arrived not long after that and took over from the veteran, radioing in about the attack and asking what the town should do with the attackers.
By the time the town leaders had gathered the retired teacher still hadn’t heard any response back, to nobody’s surprise.
The brief but heated debate that followed went around in circles. Everyone agreed something needed to be done with the prisoners, everyone agreed that the military looming over them made simple solutions awkward, and nobody had any suggestions on what to do going forward. If they kept the men imprisoned for the time being they’d have to feed them, and nobody wanted to do that.
Finally Lewis gave the tactless but unfortunately probably best solution under the circumstances. “I guess we shove guns in their faces until they piss themselves, then toss them out with a warning that we won’t just threaten next time.”
Trev could imagine the military wouldn’t be thrilled about that if they heard, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it himself. Not to mention the idiots had come back after one painful warning. Still, there didn’t seem to be a better option.
At the very least it was a bit satisfying to haul the intruders out of the impromptu jail and line them up on their knees while his men formed up with weapons ready. A few really did wet themselves, and from the smell one might’ve lost control of his bowels when Trev ordered his men to raise weapons and take aim.
Then he waved the rifles down and stomped forward to lean over the leader, who didn’t look quite as intimidated as the others. “If you come within three miles of this place again,” he said in a voice just loud enough for all the prisoners to hear, “we’ll shoot you before you even know we’re there. Got it?”
The man hesitated, looking as if he was going to spit some defiance, then glanced around Trev at the defenders standing in a firing line behind him. “Got it,” he said reluctantly.
Trev hauled the man to his feet and started marching him north out of town, his defenders rounding up the others. It took a while to get them out to the perimeter, where they shoved them away with shouts to keep going and not come back, training guns on the men as they took off in a stumbling run for safety with their hands still bound behind their backs.
For caution’s sake Trev had some of his defenders follow the men, confirming that they had in fact come from the large camp to the northwest. The camp accepted the humiliated and shaken men in with some jeers, but from the looks of it weren’t planning anything immediate so the defenders came home.
No telling whether the fate of their friends had served as a deterrent for the rest of the displaced refugees up there. Trev had his doubts, but he could hope.
Chapter Twelve
Tipping Point
The next four days didn’t get any better. In fact they got much, much worse as Matt struggled to deal with a situation on the brink of spiraling completely out of control.
Displaced refugees kept coming at the town, even more insistently than before, and were more likely to become violent when turned back. Those who were armed, violently aggressive, and moved fast provided little option but to shoot them in self defense. And from bitter experience, not just Trev’s but others who’d been involved in fighting the raiders and blockheads, the defenders didn’t hold back.
At Matt’s order, with the agreement of his friend and the town leaders, going forward they shot to stop their enemy, which usually meant seriously or even fatally wounding them. After the fact the town provided what medical help they could while using as few of the town’s supplies as possible, but the displaced refugees who got violent usually didn’t fare well.
Even the unarmed or less aggressive intruders who refused to be turned back were dealt with cautiously, in case they were hiding weapons or suddenly decided to attack with their bare hands. They were brought down with nonlethal crowd control like pepper spray or one of the town’s few stun guns, bound with zip ties, and held along with the wounded attackers while calls were made to the refugee camp to come deal with them.
Calls that were never answered, of course.
The town was forced to repeat its initial song and dance of dragging prisoners into a firing line and warning them not to come back. As an extra measure Lewis snapped pictures of each of them with his camera, so the men would know there’d be no mistakes and they wouldn’t fool the town trying to come in again.
If there was one small mercy it was that none of those who were turned back with the warning that they’d be shot actually did make another attempt. Matt was sure it was only a matter of time, but from the looks of it the defenders shooting to defend themselves from attack were providing some deterrent there, showing that Aspen Hill really was willing to use lethal force if called to. And when the first people actually did call the town’s bluff and were shot on sight, hopefully that would be an even stronger deterrent to the others.
Matt didn’t completely blame the refugees. They were being used by Rogers and had been put in a terrible position, and although their individual choices were their own responsibility they were largely acting in desperation. That didn’t change the town’s duty to protect itself, though.
As another deterrent, decided on after Trev’s group was attacked, Matt put far more of the town’s defenders to patrolling along roads for miles around the town, keeping peace and doing their best to protect their nearby neighbors. Over the last few days they’d also taken in a few families who’d been forced to flee their isolated homes or small communities, at least until this situation could be resolved.