Even as Lewis assured her they had large sturdy wagons just for that purpose and could manage on their own her attention was diverted to the next person clamoring for her time, and Trev allowed the crowd to push him out into a clearer spot along with his cousin.
“Well, if it isn’t our town’s two biggest proponents of shirking Christian charity.”
Trev turned to see Anderson approaching through the crowd. Before he or Lewis could respond Catherine, who’d overheard the remark, broke away from the people she was with to intercept the Mayor.
“Now that was an unfair thing to say,” she scolded with her hands on her hips. “These two young men just donated generously to the storehouse.”
The Mayor had the grace to look embarrassed and quickly continued, getting right down to business. “Listen, I hear you boys live a bit beyond the northern outskirts of town. Since you seem so keen on turning people away maybe you can guard that northern border for us, out far enough to give plenty of advance warning of danger and turn back anyone who comes by.”
Trev wondered if Anderson could be any more of a jerk, insulting them and then asking them to do something for him. It was like the man wanted them to refuse so he could validate his low opinion of them.
Lewis wasn’t happy about the request either, although not for the same reason it turned out. “All due respect, Mr. Mayor, but we’ve got our own troubles trying to survive same as anyone. Night and day patrol duty over that large an area is an impossible job for two people, and doesn’t seem quite fair when there are hundreds of other people in town who could help out. Weren’t you just encouraging everyone to man the roadblocks, even if it was for just one shift a week?”
Anderson glanced at Catherine, who was still facing him off as if to remind him she was a part of the conversation even if she wasn’t saying anything. “Look, that’s a fair point. We’re just a mess right now trying to get things organized. Could you at least keep an eye out up there for a few days until we can get a patrol roster going? A week at most.”
Trev exchanged looks with his cousin. Lewis had said they needed to contribute however they could, and this seemed like a good way to do that. His cousin seemed to agree, because after a few reluctant moments he sighed. “We’ll do what we can with rotating shifts.”
That was a brutal schedule, alternating 8 and 16 hour days with no time off. Trev didn’t like the thought, but if it needed to be done and he’d promised to do it he intended to. He nodded to show his agreement.
The Mayor’s expression lightened a bit with relief. “Good, good. I’ll make sure you guys have radios. Do you have your own guns?” The both nodded. “All right, good. You can bring the radios around to recharge at Officer Turner’s office whenever you need, and report in at the same time or over the radio.”
“We can report in over the radio,” Lewis said firmly, which was a relief to Trev since it would save them a walk to town and back. “We’ve got solar power at home so we’ll be able to recharge the radios ourselves if you’ve got spare chargers.”
“Solar, eh?” Anderson said with a whistle. “Sounds like you boys are set up. Wish we had more of that to go around in town.” He spent a few moments arranging some final details and then excused himself to get back to the people pressing for his time.
“Well I notice he didn’t bother to say “thank you” in all of that, so I’ll do it for him,” Catherine said, squeezing Lewis’s arm encouragingly. “Thank you.” She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. “Excuse me, I’ve got my own impossible task to manage. You boys take care of yourselves out there.”
With that business done they stopped for a moment to talk to the Larsons and share their best wishes on Matt’s safe return, then Lewis led the way to the door.
“I can’t believe that guy,” Trev said for his cousin’s ears only, eyeing Anderson as they slipped outside. The Mayor was shaking hands and easing fears among the crowd. “So we’re unChristian for not wanting everyone in town to starve to death?”
“If I have to be the one to speak the hard truth that leads to everyone’s survival I’m willing to do it,” Lewis replied. “And even if everyone thinks I’m heartless, you notice nobody was in a hurry to disagree with me and say that maybe we really should let thousands of people come eat all our food so we all starve to death.”
“Yeah, funny how that goes.” Trev stretched and groaned, sore from sitting in a chair for so long after a week of walking long distances. “Can’t wait to start a thankless job barely anyone will even know about.”
“We’re not doing it for recognition, we’re doing it to protect the town. Besides, at least you can just bring your weapons and a daypack for the shift. It’ll feel like a vacation compared to lugging that overloaded pack for a week.” His cousin glanced at his leg. “You going to be up for it?”
“My leg’s fine,” Trev said, which was mostly true. The pain and swelling were almost completely gone, just a slight twinge when he really stretched it. “Come on. I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted. After the week I’ve had I wouldn’t mind sleeping for twelve hours straight.”
It didn’t take Matt long to pack everything he though he’d need, so while he waited until full dark so he could try to slip out to his car he watched the news with everyone else in the lounges. He was there for the breaking stories of the riots beginning in Provo and Orem, including the one at the store that seemed to have been the first and some newscasters speculated might have tipped others off when people saw the smoke. He thought he might have seen himself in some of the grainy camera footage, although he couldn’t be sure.
That pastime ended around sunset when the power went out. Due to the suspicious timing some of his dorm mates speculated that the city had deliberately cut power to try to discourage the rioters and encourage everyone to just go home. Matt wasn’t sure if that made sense, especially since with the power cut the rioters might be tempted to light more fires to see instead of giving up. Not to mention that without lights they’d have an easier time looting without being caught.
Either way the RAs came out in force about that time shooing everyone to their rooms and urging them to sleep until morning. Instead Matt pulled out one of his two small but powerful LED flashlights and did a last check of his room. He was using the cart to haul most of his stuff, better organized to fit his personal things, as well as rolling his full suitcase along behind him. He’d also put Trev’s Glock in his jacket pocket in case he needed it.
Once that was done he wheeled everything out to the apartment’s living area and sat on the couch waiting as it got darker and darker outside the windows. That reminded him uncomfortably of Trent, who he hadn’t seen all day. None of his other roommates seemed to be around either, leaving him alone in the dark.
He found himself again wishing he’d managed to get ahold of his mom on the land lines. They’d all shown a busy signal, either because the lines were down or because service had been cut off. He hoped she wasn’t worrying too much. He’d sent her an email on a friend’s computer since internet was still up, so hopefully she’d gotten that.
When it was finally completely dark Matt called a goodbye to roommates that probably weren’t even there and left the dorm. Down the hall he could see flashlights swinging around in the lounge, students talking quietly about what was happening, but he turned the other way to leave by the side doors. It was eerily dark outside, made even more unnerving by the ruddy glow of fires on the horizons all around.