Ferris turned to her. “Your food? Have you forgotten we brought an entire aid truck to this miserable town? What we’re taking is nothing in comparison.”
The councilwoman put her hands on her hips as she glared at the nearest bike trailer. “I think you’d be surprised how it adds up, especially with you folks here for a month eating that entire time. Besides, those buckets you’re loading up have L.H. written on them. I’d bet every dollar left in town that those initials stand for “Lewis Halsson”. This food isn’t yours.”
“No offense, but twelve M16s disagree with you.” Ferris jerked his head towards his soldiers, busy loading up the trailers with their assault rifles slung across their backs.
Catherine also turned to look towards the working soldiers, but her attention was on Randall Turner, who was working alongside them. Matt wondered if he should even be surprised that the former contracted police officer for Aspen Hill was with them preparing to leave, since he’d been helping Ferris from the start. He was even wearing the same uniform as the others. “And you? You’re leaving with them?”
Turner set down a pair of buckets and straightened. “People swear at me behind me back, and a few even spit on the ground or flip me off when they think I’m not looking. I’m not feeling the love keeping me in Aspen Hill.” He glanced around at the soldiers. “Besides, I have a feeling I’ll be better off going with FETF. There are other places that need our help.”
Under the circumstances Matt didn’t know how the man could say that with a straight face, but amazingly he seemed sincere.
Wes started over to where the rest of the Watsons were gathered, and Matt followed to greet the couple and their oldest son. “Can you believe this?” Chauncey asked, grinning. “It almost feels like a holiday.”
Matt looked around at the crowd. “I’m happy to see them leaving, but it doesn’t look like anyone’s celebrating.”
“Well they are taking a bunch of food,” Edna Watson pointed out.
“At least they’re leaving our guns,” Chauncey replied. “With those we can hunt for more food. We should’ve been doing that all this time as the deer came down from the mountains to escape the cold, but Ferris was more interested in kicking down doors than filling bellies.”
His wife put a hand on his arm, shushing him. “They’re not gone yet,” she whispered.
As they watched the trailers being loaded Matt’s attention was drawn to a commotion near the door, where Private Gutierrez had been helping the other soldiers work but was now being dragged off to one side by an irate Mandy Townsend. The soldier seemed impatient at the distraction.
“What do you mean you’re not taking me with you?” Mandy demanded, loud enough for Matt to hear clearly where he stood in the parking lot over 30 feet away. “I love you!”
At that Gutierrez actually laughed in her face. “Sure you do. Listen, lady. Administrator Ferris says no tagalongs, but even if I could take you with me I wouldn’t. I’m sick of your bad attitude and lazy lovemaking, which by the way is literally the only thing resembling work that you actually do. And baby, you don’t do it well… I’d see more life out of a store mannequin, and I wouldn’t have to do every single little chore for the mannequin and put up with its nonstop pissing and moaning either.”
“So that’s it?” she demanded, livid. “You’re just going to use me and leave me with nothing after almost a month together?”
“Don’t try to talk to me about who was using who,” the young soldier snapped, expression darkening. “You got a place to stay, food, and my protection for weeks. Not to mention I doted on you like a puppy and actually had feelings for you, at least until I figured out what a spiteful leech you are. You should feel grateful I didn’t kick you to the curb weeks ago, but then again gratitude isn’t something you do, is it?”
Mandy looked like she was going to leap at Gutierrez and go for his eyes, but something in his stance must have made her think better of it. Instead she kicked the wall next to him and started to storm away, only to stop and turn back after ten feet. “I’ll find someone else. I can replace you in a day.”
Gutierrez just laughed at her again. “Give my regards to the poor sucker if you can find anyone stupid enough to go for it.”
Fuming, the blond woman turned to rejoin the crowd only to suddenly realize that just about everyone had been watching her public humiliation. Mortified, she turned and hurried the other way, circling around the storehouse to flee into town.
Not too long after that the bicycles and packs were loaded and the soldiers were all mounted and ready to go. As he prepared to get on his own bike, one without a trailer, Ferris turned to the crowd. “In my absence the world will have the chance to see the kind of people you are in how you treat the refugees. If I’ve taught you anything then maybe this town has a chance.”
The words were greeted by stony silence by the townspeople. Matt wasn’t usually one to swear, but after that pompous speech he could think of a few choice words he’d like to toss the bureaucrat’s way. Almost as if he was satisfied by the hostile reception, like it confirmed some strongly held belief, Ferris mounted the bicycle and started out, wobbling awkwardly at first until he got some speed.
Behind him the rest of the FETF convoy followed, pedaling north along Main Street. In their wake they left their two trucks abandoned on one side of the sporting goods store’s parking lot, as if to symbolize the mess they’d left behind.
Before too long Turner, at the back of the convoy on another bike without a trailer, disappeared from sight. The silence in the crowd continued as everyone looked at each other, wondering what to do next.
That silence was shattered by Scott Tillman bursting out of the store with Anderson hot on his heels, waving frantically for him to stop. “There’s no food!” Tillman shouted, ignoring the Mayor’s angry glare. “Forget what that FETF pencil pusher said about being called north, he left because the storehouse is empty and we had nothing left for him to steal!”
Anderson sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat as the crowd erupted in rage at that news. He raised his hands for quiet, which took an embarrassingly long time. “It’s true,” he finally shouted over the fading noise. “Even though we were involved in distribution Ferris and his goons never let us see inside the storehouse. We had no way of knowing the situation was this bad. It looks as if that food they packed up to carry out was the last of it.”
“The food’s bad enough, but who’s going to protect us now that the Feds are gone?” Eve Anderson, the Mayor’s own wife, demanded anxiously. “Our policeman left with Ferris!”
“Good riddance, the traitor!” a man in the crowd shouted. “He helped Ferris and his goons rob his own neighbors!”
The Mayor held up his hands for quiet against the general murmur of agreement that swept over the crowd. “Easy people, easy. FETF didn’t have anything aside from their bicycle trailers to haul a load with so they left behind most of what they’ve confiscated, including our weapons and most of our ammo. We can still handle protection for ourselves. I’d recommend we set up our roadblocks once more and renew our guard and patrol rosters.”
“Why set up the roadblocks?” the same man shouted. Matt thought it was Ian Childress, Pete’s dad. “You’ll just take ’em down again the moment another government official comes and we’ll be right back to having all our stuff stolen to give to refugees!”
That got another wave of agreement from the crowd, at least until angry swearing over near Ian parted the crowd slightly. Matt saw the older man stagger as a raggedly dressed young man shoved him. “That’s my family you’re talking about!” he shouted. “FETF kept us alive when you would’ve let us starve to death on your doorstep!”