Two days ago they’d caught a couple bandits who’d committed serious enough crimes to warrant more than warnings, with the testimony of a traumatized pair of children a patrol had found along a road and brought back to town, whose family had been victims of the two men. The crimes were horrific enough that no one had any objections to the criminals being executed according to the town’s openly stated laws.
All of it done with full disclosure over the radio and endless requests for the military to step in or at least offer input on the situation. Requests which were, as always, ignored.
Matt was glad Chauncey was tirelessly on the radio pleading their cause. The retired teacher honestly laid out the situation to everyone who would listen, while confirming that Rogers was doing his best to spread disinformation about the town and what was happening.
Even now the camp coordinator was misrepresenting the situation, suppressing facts, and capitalizing on the natural sympathy people had for refugees. His falsehoods were so outrageous it was no wonder Grimes had effectively booted out the Aspen Hill delegation in a fit of anger.
The way Rogers laid things out made the people of Aspen Hill look like unspeakable monsters. He wove an impressive fiction of an agreement by Aspen Hill to take the refugees in, with food and supplies delivered to the town ahead of time. Then, when the refugees came expecting aid, Aspen Hill instead opened fire in the air above them and drove them scattering into the hills, then hunted individual groups too close to town and chased them still farther away, wounding, injuring, and even killing some.
Needless to say his fictitious refugees were mostly defenseless women and children. Rogers even spoke of going to the town to retrieve the refugees’ food and deliver justice, only to have guns turned on his brave soldiers, forcing him to withdraw. Nobody seemed to question his timeline even though Chauncey had been giving Aspen Hill’s side of things for nearly two weeks, and even more vehemently in the eight days since they’d been forced to turn back the thousand refugees Rogers sent their way.
It was a sickening distorting of the true events to paint Aspen Hill in the worst possible light and make the major a saintly martyr. Matt couldn’t even conceive of the type of mind that could concoct such a scenario, let alone actually believe it.
The things the man was accusing the town, and specifically Matt, of made his blood boil, but there was nothing to be done but keep dealing with events as they came and telling the truth to anyone who would listen. Still, it was worrisome that things weren’t calming down, and were instead getting worse by the day. And Rogers got to sit back in his camp and watch things fall apart without needing to directly go after the town again.
After dinner on the eighth day found Matt sitting at the radio desk with a handful of others, listening to Chauncey’s regular report of what he’d heard and who he’d spoken to.
“I suppose the good news is that it’s not all bad news,” the retired teacher said. “Word is that the nearby towns are rumbling in protest and asking awkward questions about what’s going on up here. They don’t like the idea that the problems with banditry we’re seeing here might spread closer to them, they don’t like the idea that the military isn’t saying or doing anything about the situation, and they really don’t like the idea that their rations might be taken away as punishment for displeasing Rogers or someone like him.”
“That’s good,” Trev said.
Lewis shook his head. “Good but not great. Remember, the military is centered around the refugee camps. They’re going to have an unconscious bias for the refugees, not just because they’re responsible for them but because those people vastly outnumber the independent residents living in the area. They might not care as much about what the surviving towns have to say.”
“There’s one other big piece of news,” Chauncey said. “I’m not sure it’ll directly help us with our refugee camp coordinator problem, but it’s indirectly related.”
Matt frowned. “What is it?”
The retired teacher looked to the side as if gathering his thoughts. “Well, even though the military is mostly controlling what goes over the radio, Rogers’s behavior is calling into question things like overreach of military power and lack of a civilian government. It’s mostly still an undercurrent at the moment, but people are genuinely worried about the possibility of a military dictatorship.”
“Possibility?” Lewis said. “All respect to Generals Lassiter and Erikson, but we’ve pretty much been in one of those since they came to the Rocky Mountains. Although there wasn’t much worry about that while we were fighting the blockheads.”
Chauncey hesitated. “There’s plenty I could say about how far the nation has strayed from its roots, and watching it all collapse after the Gulf burned certainly didn’t help. But the majority of US citizens still have a healthy disdain for tyranny, and now that the crisis has passed they want Caesar to set aside his dictatorial powers, so to speak.” He shrugged. “To get to the point, more and more people are talking about reinstituting the civilian government and holding some form of elections.”
“Well that’s good,” Matt said. People like Rogers would have trouble getting away with anything if they were accountable to someone besides fellow military officers who might be inclined to take their side.
“Good, but it doesn’t really help us. There’s no time to organize any of that before the first snows, and anyway people are focused too much on surviving the coming winter to spare the time. That’s something for next spring, assuming nuclear winter gives us a summer before the snows start falling again.”
Trev grimaced. “So it’s not actually good news.”
“I never said it was.” The retired teacher shrugged again. “If nothing else, the idea of future civilian authority and having to deal with politics might make our rogue major a bit more cautious about his public image. Assuming the military is actually willing to cede power to a civilian government.”
“Fantastic,” Matt muttered. “That’s the sort of optimistic thinking I like to hear.” He clapped the older man on the shoulder. “Anything else?”
Chauncey sighed. “It’s been fairly quiet around here, but Brandon’s patrol radioed in about a camp to the north that a handful of refugees are setting up for the night, close enough to town to warrant sending them packing. He’s heading in to do that now.”
Matt noticed Trev stiffen slightly. Deb was still on Brandon’s team, and he understood his friend’s worry. But so far they’d encountered quite a few people setting up camp within their territory, mostly out of ignorance, and only a few had caused real trouble when the defenders demanded they move. Besides, a few refugees didn’t seem like too great a danger.
“Tell him to be careful,” he said anyway.
“Will do,” the retired teacher replied, bending back over his radio.
Matt sighed. “In the meantime I need to have a conversation with some of our people who want to go out and hunt, even with all these bandits around causing problems. Why don’t you come with me and tell them why that’s a bad idea, Trev?” If nothing else it would take his friend’s mind off any worry for his kind-of girlfriend.
Deb missed Trev. No, not because she was emotionally dependent on him and had become a wreck without him. At least not like she had been.
But she liked being around him. He tended to look on the bright side of things while acknowledging life’s imperfections, but he didn’t let any of that keep him from sincerely caring. Or from finding humor in topics she would’ve found troubling otherwise, somehow managing to set her at ease and help her look on the bright side too.