Nathan Jones
SHORTAGE
Prologue
Prisoners
With the power out and batteries, lamp oil, and candles hard to come by the Larson household had taken to going to bed early. Which is why even though it was only a bit past midnight, Matt felt like it was the middle of the night when Trev came around to warn him about the tied up bandits in Aspen Hill Canyon due west of town.
Matt supposed that’s what midnight was supposed to be, give or take an hour or two, but before the attack he’d often been up at that hour even on a school night. He told his sleepy family members, and a sleepy but insistent Sam who still wanted to come along, to go back to bed as he slipped on his boots and grabbed a can of bear spray before heading out the door.
Trev was already long gone, headed back to the canyon so he and his cousin could make themselves scarce before anyone from the town arrived. Matt wasn’t super pleased about having this task dumped on him while his friends bailed, but he supposed he understood where they were coming from.
The rest of the town seemed to share his sleeping schedule as he hurried over to Officer Turner’s apartment above his office in town hall and roused him out of bed. The policeman wasn’t too happy about being woken up, especially since it was technically no longer his duty to lead the town’s defenses, but once Matt explained the situation he reluctantly belted on his service pistol and grabbed his shotgun and followed Matt out into the night.
After a bit over a half hour of walking they found the camp just where Trev had said it would be, with the three robbers trussed up with zip ties like presents. Matt confirmed that the biggest of the three was one of the men who’d robbed them that morning, and on his word and Trev’s passed on statement about their intentions Turner cut the ties on their legs and hauled the men to their feet, shining his heavy flashlight in front of him so they could see as he led them down the canyon. Matt paused a moment to kick dirt over the smoldering embers of the fire and then hurried to follow, walking alongside Turner at the back of the group.
“Awfully conscientious of the cousins, patrolling the canyon road behind town late at night even after Ferris told everyone protecting us was his job,” the policeman mentioned.
“Yeah well this Razor guy had them spooked,” Matt replied evasively. It was true enough, he was sure, but he wasn’t about to tell Turner that his friends had only been in the canyon because they were booking it for the mountains. Not when earlier in the day Turner had been there helping Ferris take their home away from them.
When they got back to town hall with their prisoners in tow they discovered that not everyone was asleep after all. It turned out Matt’s dad had gone to give Mayor Anderson a heads up about the bandits, and he and Catherine Tillman were waiting outside the town’s single pair of holding cells in the town hall’s basement, which usually ended up being used as drunk tanks for unruly teenagers or one of the town’s few alcoholics on a bad night.
“I let Ferris know what’s going on, or at least as much as I know,” Anderson said as they arrived and Turner herded the robbers into the cells.
“Good.” The policeman slammed the barred doors shut and yawned into his fist. “Do me a favor and wait around for him, all right? I’m going back to bed.”
Catherine gave him a surprised look. “You’re not going to stick around to sort things out?”
Turner shrugged. “According to Ferris it’s not in my job description anymore.” Matt couldn’t be sure but he thought the man sounded almost pleased about that. “Night, everyone.” He made his way out of the room with his shoulders slightly hunched, as if expecting to be called back.
Anderson stared after him, shaking his head. “I’d gotten the feeling we were piling too much on his shoulders, and he was never too eager about taking on the job to begin with. Still, didn’t expect him to just wash his hands of everything the moment someone else showed up to take the responsibility.” He sighed and turned to Matt. “Oh well. Anyway your dad didn’t have much to tell me aside from the basic details. What’s this about?”
Matt quickly explained being awakened by Trev and his friend’s explanation of what had happened, confirming again that the biggest thug had been one of those with Razor that morning. Then he needed to explain the robbery when they’d arrived in town and lost all their things, including Razor assaulting Terry with the bear spray.
Catherine had been looking the three men over thoughtfully as he went over everything he knew, but once he finished she turned to look at him. “What were Trev and Lewis doing in Aspen Hill Canyon this late at night? Officer Turner shut down all the patrols, and anyway that’s not even their route.”
“They had a good reason,” Matt said stoutly, but left it at that. His friends had already suffered a lot from their secrets getting out, he wasn’t about to betray any more about them.
The councilwoman sighed. “They left, didn’t they? I can’t really blame them after being kicked out of their home and having all their things stolen.” Matt tried to keep his expression neutral and she waved at him. “You don’t have to tell me one way or another. The town’s going to be worse off without them, though. Such a shame.”
Anderson gave her an irritated look. “Stolen, Catherine? Ferris was operating under Federal authority.”
Her return glare was equally irritated. “Are you seriously going to tell me that anything agents of the Federal government do is all right since it’s them doing it? Where’s the justification for stealing from honest citizens and kicking them out of their homes? Isn’t there enough suffering around here?”
The Mayor’s irritation turned to unease. “I’m not sure how smart it is to be calling the FETF administrator and his people immoral.”
Matt was almost disappointed that Catherine backed down a bit at that. “Well no, I wouldn’t necessarily say Ferris and his soldiers are bad people, although I certainly find the man unpleasant,” she said. “But bad or not they’re following bad policies, and I think it’s safe to say under the circumstances that they’re using this crisis as an excuse to exceed the limits of their authority and deprive US citizens of their inalienable rights.”
“Like what?” Anderson demanded.
“Well how about the third amendment?” the councilwoman responded. “They’re housing troops in my family’s store!”
The Mayor scratched his cheek. “That only applies to times of peace, doesn’t it?”
Catherine paused, suddenly looking a bit unsure of herself. “Well I’d say Aspen Hill was pretty peaceful before they arrived,” she rallied. “Besides, that’s not the only thing they’ve done. How about this mandatory food for firearms program, or confiscating people’s food?”
“Well you have to weigh that against the aid FETF brought us,” Anderson argued.
An uncomfortable silence settled as Matt stared between the two. It was obvious Catherine wanted to say more and was debating with herself whether to bother. He was almost surprised when she abruptly spoke up. “I wonder if you could even say FETF brought aid at all.”
“What are you talking about?” Anderson demanded. “They brought an entire truck full of food!”
“And thirteen more mouths to feed. If they plan to stay for any real amount of time they’ll eat more than they brought. And as soon as they arrived they immediately took what little the town had to spare at the storehouse and “redistributing” it among the refugees, which I’d call a major net loss. At this rate we’ll all run out before winter even begins and we can starve to death together.”
“We should at least look on the bright side. The “mouths” FETF brought also have guns to protect the town.”