“But what if you took me in yourself?” she demanded. “If you’ve got food to spare you could feed me, and nobody would have a right to say you can’t be generous with your own possessions.” She reached out and shyly took his hand. “That would be okay, wouldn’t it? I promise I’d pull my own weight.”
Trev took his hand back, uncomfortably reminded of her initial offer. He wanted to help her, but at the same time she was a complete stranger. He was almost certain Lewis would refuse to take her into the shelter, and for that matter he wasn’t sure he wanted the commitment of being completely responsible for her future wellbeing just an hour after meeting her.
Just like with the town’s decision to refuse the refugees, if he took Mandy in he’d feel more and more pressure to take in anyone else who came by his patrol route. And he wasn’t about to be a hypocrite who told other people not to take in refugees then did it himself. Besides, two people eating from his stores halved the amount of time he could live off them: careless generosity could clean him out pretty quickly.
And he needed that food. He was still worried he didn’t have what it took to survive long term, and that food was the only buffer he had to figure things out. As terrible as it made him feel to send her on it was the best thing. “Sorry, I can’t,” he said. “You need to go on to Price.”
Mandy frowned at him. “Well fine then. Thanks for a meal and a bed at least.” She didn’t sound nearly as thankful as she had before.
They continued the rest of the way into town in silence. Trev followed the dirt, gravel, and then narrow paved streets towards Main Street, planning to follow it to town hall and talk to Turner or Anderson or whoever about his decision to take Mandy in. The situation was made more awkward by the fact that he couldn’t take her to the shelter and she needed a place to stay.
But it turned out he didn’t need to go that far. A crowd was gathered at Roadblock 1, and it looked as if a delegation to the refugees was just returning when he arrived.
Before he could seek out Anderson or Turner Matt caught sight of him and waved frantically. “Trev, I’m glad I found you!” his friend called, hurrying over. “Listen, I’m really worried about—” he cut off abruptly, looking over Trev’s shoulder at Mandy. “Who’s this?”
“This is Mandy,” Trev said, stepping to the side to introduce the refugee. “I found her heading our way on the north border.”
Matt gave him an irritated look. “Weren’t you the one telling everyone that we can’t survive if we welcome people in? You sure managed to convince everyone else!” Trev could only look helplessly at his friend, and after a few seconds of angry silence Matt glanced at Mandy and took in her pitiable state, then looked quickly away to give Trev a slightly more understanding look.
Trev took his friend by the arm and led him away a short distance. “Listen,” he whispered, “has anyone been out to the refugee camp to check things out? From what Mandy told me on the way here things were pretty bad in her group, and those people out there might be having the same problems.”
“That’s what I needed to talk to you about,” Matt replied. “At least kind of. It is pretty bad out there, and the refugees want to camp closer to town to avoid more dangerous groups even though we’re not letting anyone through the roadblock…” he said that last bit with another pointed look at Mandy. “But that’s not the problem.”
His friend fell silent, looking worried. Trev waited for a few seconds and then lost patience. “What is it, then?”
“I went out with the delegation so I could look through the refugee camp,” Matt said heavily. “I was searching for news about my sister and her family. They were planning to stay put in Midvale, but with things so bad up north I was hoping they’d come south after all. But nobody has seen them or recognized their names, and from what I’ve heard from the refugees about their trip south I don’t want my sister’s family in that sort of danger. Terry’s great, but I’d feel better if they had more people protecting them.”
“You’ve got that right,” Mandy said over Trev’s shoulder. “If your sister’s hot you should definitely be worried.”
Trev gave the sunburned woman an irritated look. Whatever she’d suffered that was a pretty callous thing to say. “I’m sure she’s fine,” he quickly said.
But even as he said it he felt his own worries for April’s family. Trev had heard all about the chaos in the valley from his friend after Matt had finally decided it was time to get out, and had heard more from his cousin about the dire situation in other cities. If Terry and April and their boys were still back in the middle of that they could have run into real trouble.
But as a friend he thought he should be the voice of hope. “If they just decided to stay put until things calmed down they might have avoided all the trouble,” he offered. “They could still be up in their house in Midvale. It was on the outskirts closer to the mountains, right?”
Matt shook his head, but not in answer to his question. “The refugees had plenty to say about what’s going on up there. Looting, rioting, even gunfights in the street. Word is FETF has come in to restore order, but before they did anything else they sent off the refugees to their designated evacuation areas. After that nobody’s quite sure what’s happened up there, and with the internet and phones out there’s no way of telling.”
“We could try Lewis’s radio,” Trev offered. “There’s got to be people up there exchanging news.”
To his surprise Matt shook his head firmly. “I need to go up there,” he said. “It’s the best way to find out what’s really going on, and if I can find my sister and her family I can help them get back down here safely.” He hesitated, then squared his shoulders and looked Trev square in the eye. “Will you come with me?”
The request hit him like a blow. That was a huge thing to ask, even for a friend. After all Trev had done to make sure he had a place to escape from the chaos, and especially after he’d left immediately after the attack just to avoid getting caught in it, going back up into the cities was the last thing he wanted. They could end up getting shot, or at the very least robbed and stranded with no food in a desperate situation.
A situation April and her family might already be in. Matt’s sister was enough older than them that she’d barely acknowledged Trev’s existence, aside from to come down on him and Matt and Lewis hard for any disturbance that pestered her. But at the same time he she was a good person, and he knew his friend loved her and absolutely adored his nephews. He’d even showed Trev pictures of them after visits.
“This is insane and it’s going to end badly,” Trev warned. “Do you really want to go over a hundred miles to get there and the same distance back, about half of it through densely populated areas where who knows what kind of violence is happening, on the off chance your sister might still be at her house? We might pass right by her and never know, so she gets here safely with her family while we end up dead up north trying to save her.”
“We’ll follow Highway 6 up to I-15 and take it the rest of the way to Midvale,” Matt said. “That’s the only way they could go so if they’re headed south we’ll meet them.” His friend met his eyes miserably. “Please, Trev. I don’t think I can do this alone.”
Trev looked away. “Fine. But I’ll need you to find Mandy a bed and let Turner know we’ll both be away so he’ll need to replace us on our shifts. Pack up just what you need, food and water and a sleeping bag and warm clothes, along with your gun and as much ammo as you think you can carry over long distances. I’ll go pack up and let Lewis know what I’m doing.”