“Well I’m glad you didn’t go,” she said, patting his arm. “It may be selfish, but I’d still be stuck up in Orem if you had.”
“Yeah, I’m glad too,” Matt glanced north along Main. “I should go out and say hello to the two sometime soon. They’ve got their own place up northwest of town.” He was about to tell her about the shelter that he’d done a little to help the cousins build and had visited a few times after it was finished, but Lewis had asked him to keep quiet about it and he respected that request.
Main Street ended in a road that led out to Highway 6. Just outside the city limits, a stone’s throw from the spring Aspen Hill had first been built around, he saw men working together to push cars into place perpendicular across the road, in such a way that they could be pushed to either side to let vehicles in if necessary. More cars were situated behind them all the way to the sidewalks, and a few heavy dressers had been placed across the sidewalks to finish blocking the way.
The properties on either side of the street were fenced in, which did a fairly good job of preventing anyone from going around, but more important to securing the roadblock were the people themselves. Turner had a shotgun slung over his shoulder with a bandolier full of shells looped across his chest, as well as his service weapon at his hip. The handful of other men helping build the roadblock were also armed, some with pistols and other with rifles leaned up against the dressers where they could be quickly picked up if necessary.
Matt made his way over to the policeman and introduced Sam, then mentioned they’d like to volunteer for helping with roadblocks or wherever else they were needed. Officer Turner nodded at that, looking approvingly at the 9mm on Matt’s hip. “I’ve seen you out at the range a time or two, so I assume you’ve at least used a firearm before.” He turned to Sam. “How about you?”
The dark-haired woman looked a bit sheepish. “Once, on a date a bit over a year ago. We rented an automatic rifle of some kind at a gun range in Salt Lake City and he let me try it out. I, um, wasn’t very good with it, but I’m willing to learn.”
Turner smiled slightly. “Well I appreciate the offer and we can put you on the list, but at the moment we’ve looking for people who won’t shoot themselves in the foot or smack themselves in the face when their firearm recoils. If you want to help out there’s plenty you can do, though: Councilwoman Tillman is organizing volunteers for all sorts of things down at the new town storehouse.”
Sam nodded, although she gave Matt a slightly disappointed look. Had she wanted to stay with him? “I will, thanks. But I hope you’ll keep me in mind if you need anyone, even just to run errands or be a lookout. I want to help out.”
“That’s the spirit.” The policeman turned to Matt. “By the way, I don’t know if you’ve heard yet but with the power out the Mayor wants to get the word around that anyone who’s got more perishable food than they can eat before it goes bad is welcome to bring it to the storehouse for vouchers. He’s going to bring the freezer units from Mercer’s grocery store around and hook them up to a few generators. We’ve got enough fuel to keep the units running until we’ve eaten up the food in them, and to help empty them quicker the town’s going to hold a parking lot potluck at around 6. Everyone’s invited, and we’ll use up the food that’ll go bad the soonest or doesn’t freeze well.” He glanced at Sam. “There’s another way you can help out, if you want to come early and help the Councilwoman and her volunteers cook it all up.”
“Sure,” Sam said uncertainly. “I’m not much of a cook but I’ll do what I can.”
“I’ll come along too,” Matt offered. “It’ll be fun.”
Turner abruptly turned towards the men working on the roadblock. One of them, Tam’s husband Carl Raymond, had been tying the bumpers of the two cars across the road together. “Don’t do that,” the policeman shouted, starting over, “we need to be able to move those in a hurry!” He paused to glance back at Matt. “We should be good for today, but come around tomorrow morning and I’ll let you know when your shifts are.”
“Okay, thanks,” Matt called at his back. He turned and glanced at Sam. “Sorry if he was rude.”
She gave him a puzzled look. “He’s fine. Should we head back to Tillman’s and see what we can do, then?”
Matt hesitated, glancing northwest past the few houses outside the town limits. About a mile beyond them were a few hills leading up to the foothills below the mountains. “Listen, I’ve got another errand to run real quick. Can I meet you there in about an hour?”
“Oh I can go along too,” Sam offered.
He shook his head, cursing Lewis’s paranoia. He didn’t want to insult Sam or suggest in any way that he didn’t trust her, but at the same time he couldn’t bring her around to the shelter without the cousins’ permission. “It’s going to be a long walk and I’ll just be visiting some neighbors to let them know about the potluck. They live far enough out that they might not have had a chance to come around to hear about it.”
Luckily she didn’t press the issue. “Okay, I’ll see you at Tillman’s.” With a quick wave she headed back the way they’d come, while Matt made his way around the roadblock towards the hills.
He’d been relieved to hear from his mom that Trev had made it safely, but he wanted to go around to personally make sure his friend was okay and see how the cousins were faring with all this. He was also interested to get their opinion on everything, since preparing for society’s inevitable crash and burn had been their area of expertise for years.
There was music playing on the other side of the heavy metal-sheathed door leading into his friends’ shelter when Matt arrived.
At first that completely threw him for a loop, wondering how they’d managed it with the power out, until he remembered the solar panels up on top of the rounded dirt hill the shed was buried beneath. Trev and Lewis might not even know the rest of the town had been thrown back into the Old West days.
He knocked loudly with his fist to be heard through the thick door and over the music, and about half a minute later it cracked open to reveal Lewis in the doorway, wearing camouflage gear and holding a can of chili in one hand. “Oh hey, Matt, you made it home,” his friend said, stepping aside. “Your mom was worried about you last night at the meeting. Come on in.”
“Thanks.” Matt followed his friend in and over to the small living area they’d set up beside the door, which had a couch and a few beanbag chairs, and settled onto the couch. “Sounds like those solar panels are paying off,” he added with a jerk of his head to refer to the music in general. “At least until you get sick of the songs in your collection.”
His friend plopped down on a beanbag and set his chili on a nearby table, leaning back and grinning. “That might take a while. I’ve got ten terabytes of movies, TV shows, music, and books on a server. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to get through it all in a lifetime.”
Matt whistled. “Ten terabytes! You must’ve been pirating for years.”
His friend gave him an insulted look. “Not a single thing. I converted over my parents’ old collections of songs, TV shows, and movies, and Trev’s parents’ stuff too. I also found cheap or even free collections of older stuff online. As for the books a lot are free downloads from legitimate sites, but most are from projects that collect free domain works, especially the old historical and cultural classics, and archive them for posterity. Sure, it was a bit more effort doing it that way and I had to go with what was offered, but I’m not complaining.” He suddenly brightened. “You should bring your family over for a movie night sometime.”