Lewis sighed. “I hear you. Right up until the attack last week everyone was still laughing at “preppers”. And now they’re all starving and it doesn’t seem quite as funny.” Rather than looking satisfied by the vindication of his viewpoints his cousin seemed resigned. “You know. In a perverse way I almost think it would’ve been better if this had all happened a year ago. It’s like the last year weakened us to make this blow fatal, when if it had happened a year ago the nation as a whole might have managed to come out better, or at least lasted a few weeks more before things got really bad.”
A grim silence settled as they both looked over their preparations and contemplated what the nation had in store. Then Trev cleared his throat. “So what do we do now?”
Lewis shrugged. “Hunker down and survive in here. Although I have to admit I’m a little worried.”
“About the nation running out of gas and facing slow starvation and worse?” Trev asked with a grim smile, trying to lighten the mood with some dark humor. “Gee, I wonder why.”
His cousin shot him an irritated look. “I mean the fact that we’re 75 miles away from a population center with millions of people who have zero food and none coming in, and with mountains to the east and desert to the west they’ve only got so many directions they can go. Even on foot that distance doesn’t seem so far when you think of an endless wave of hungry mouths flooding over this entire area.”
Trev frowned. “I always figured they’d go north or south along I-15, or maybe try to make their way east along I-80 or Highway 40. Even Highway 89 through Sanpete county would be more understandable since it’s fairly green and leads somewhere. But why would they head for Carbon county? There’s nothing around here worth traveling towards besides maybe Price, and aside from where we’re at along the greener strip below the mountains the area is so dry they can’t be hoping to live off the countryside.”
“Highway 6 is a fairly big road, and refugees will be taking every road looking for somewhere to go. If nothing else they’ll make for I-70 hoping it will take them somewhere where things are better. They can’t stay where they are so they have to keep going, even if it’s hopeless.”
“Okay so they’ll be coming. But isn’t that why we hid this place underground and between two hills, a pretty good distance away from Highway 6? They’re not going to find it easily.”
Lewis shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not going to be enough. We’re a half hour’s walk away from the center of town, and even though Aspen Hill is well off Highway 6 on a smaller road we are on a road and people will eventually find us. Not to mention the City Council took Federal money to accept refugees in an emergency situation, so that’s potentially hundreds of people coming right for us.”
“Wait, what?” Trev demanded. “Since when? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“Yeah well they weren’t exactly broadcasting the information. Just the Mayor and council members knew, along with a few county and state people. But pretty much every rural town across the nation has the same sort of deal going, so even if they’re keeping it hush-hush news is bound to get out if you know where to look. I’m not 100% sure about Aspen Hill, but I know for a fact other towns in Carbon county have taken the deal, and I’d be genuinely surprised to find any town that hasn’t.”
Trev frowned. “Why? The Feds can’t be giving out enough money to buy the supplies to actually help hundreds of people in an emergency situation for any length of time. Why would towns take a bad deal like that?”
“You really have to ask?” his cousin said with a grim smile. “The Federal government pushes pretty hard to get local governments to accept their money with all the strings attached, and you’ll find corruption in small towns as often as in the Capitol. Besides, it’s free money now on the promise of fulfilling future conditions. Shortsighted politicians almost always take that kind of deal.”
Lewis shook his head as if to clear his troubled thoughts. “But I get the feeling that a few hundred people sent this way are just going to be a drop in the bucket compared to the flood of refugees fleeing the cities. I don’t know. I’m genuinely afraid that after all the work we put into this place we might have to abandon it after all.”
“And go where?” Trev demanded, not liking this line of thought at all. “We can defend this place if we have to. That’s what our guns are for, right?”
“There are more people up north than we have bullets. Anyway do you really want to think about massacring a bunch of starving, desperate people, even if we could manage it without being overwhelmed and ripped to pieces? Even if they’re trying to steal from us and maybe even kill us it’s still a horrible thing to contemplate. Besides, if they managed to swamp Aspen Hill and all our neighbors ended up dead, either from direct violence or through slow starvation when the extra mouths eat all the food, what then? Wind up living next to the people who at worst murdered our friends and at best starved them out, or completely alone in a valley full of corpses?”
Lewis shook his head again, answering his own question. “No, we can’t just count on ourselves. It would be safer and easier if we could, but we can’t ignore the fact that we’re a stone’s throw from the people of Aspen Hill. We just need to make sure the town survives with us, and we’ll all be stronger as a community anyway. If we can manage it.”
Trev felt a surge of relief. His cousin was extremely pragmatic, especially where the issue of preparing for long term survival was concerned. He’d been afraid Lewis would insist that they go it alone and leave their neighbors to their own devices. “So we’re going to give away some of our food?”
“No, not if we can avoid it,” Lewis said hastily. “I don’t want anyone in town knowing just how much food we have to keep them from getting any ideas. Besides, it may seem like we have plenty now, but three meals a day just between the two of us will do its work on even this stockpile. A town full of people would chew through it in weeks or even days. Besides, it’s always good to keep the option of trading that food for things we need.”
“Okay, that makes sense I guess. So if not food then how exactly are we going to help the town?”
“We can volunteer our help doing whatever Aspen Hill needs: guard duty, manual labor, foraging, that sort of thing. Show we’re part of the community.” His cousin abruptly straightened. “And tonight’s a great opportunity to begin doing our part to make sure the the town pulls through.”
“How?”
Lewis held up his phone, quickly opening up a text message. “Town meeting, and only a week after the attack too.” That was said with some serious sarcasm. “Looks like Mayor Anderson has finally noticed society is crumbling around him.”
Matt was relieved to see the supermart was still open when he arrived. From some of the stories he’d heard from roommates who’d gone for groceries he’d half expected the place to be stripped bare.
It was almost odd to walk across a nearly empty parking lot, but even though there were no cars there seemed to be twice as many people as usual coming and going on foot. He nodded to a couple girls heading towards the major street and the sidewalk alongside it leading down the hill that he’d just come from, but they only clutched their purchases tighter, huddled closer, and gave him a wide berth.