Sam was watching the boys while Terry and April were out. Sometimes it was April watching while Sam helped Terry with the sick and wounded, and on busier days they both went while Matt’s mom watched her grandsons.
After the attack Matt had argued that Sam was still recovering from her beating at the hands of the looters and needed to rest. But he didn’t really have a leg to stand on considering that he was pushing himself hard with his own duties defending the town even though… he didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Sam had staunchly brushed aside his objections and insisted on helping. At least the physical signs of her injuries had disappeared after a few days, aside from lingering bruises, and he could reassure himself that she was doing just as well as she claimed.
Before setting out Matt kissed Sam goodbye and hugged his nephews, leaving them waving on the porch as he strode out of the yard. His first stop that morning was to the storehouse, which now also doubled as a more permanent clinic where Terry and whoever was assisting him waited ready to treat those in need of medical care.
It was a decent setup in a way, since now that April’s family had moved into their parents’ house even when Terry was off duty resting he was still only a block away if someone really needed him. Matt didn’t envy his brother-in-law that sort of burden of responsibility, although he supposed he had responsibilities of his own now.
Matt had come to get his sutures removed, as well as to ask whether an extended walk was all right. He’d healed up well over the last week and was now moving around with barely any twinges of pain as his leg got stronger, so he thought it would be. Terry agreed, although reluctantly.
The storehouse seemed oddly deserted now that Catherine had moved back to the town hall to run the city from there. But there were still guards to watch over the supplies, at the moment Scott Tillman, Tam Raymond, and Chauncey and Rick Watson.
Matt thought Rick had developed sort of a hero complex after watching him bust out of the back of the store like a crazy person. Matt considered himself lucky he hadn’t been shot or had his face smashed in with a sledgehammer, but the slightly younger man didn’t see it that way.
Chauncey’s son came over to chat while Matt was having his sutures removed, as well as to gawk at the wound caused by the gang leader’s famous razor. Since he was there Matt decided to get some updates on what Rick’s dad was learning about the outside world on the radio.
It turned out there was some fresh news to share there. For one thing Ferris’s decision to cut and run from Aspen Hill hadn’t been sanctioned by his superiors in Price. They hadn’t even realized the administrator and his soldiers had left until Chauncey called in asking what to do about the prisoners the morning after the attack.
Whatever blowup they’d had over that news when they heard it from Chauncey they’d kept to themselves all last week. It was only last night while the town’s radio operator was giving a followup report on how they’d dealt with the criminals that he realized the topic had shifted to Ferris’s departure, and the FETF agents down in Price were subtly grilling him about why the man had left.
They should have known why he was gone if they’d given him the order to leave, and after a bit of questioning of his own the retired teacher was finally told that Ferris was acting off script. Since the coordinators down in Price didn’t know why he’d left they obviously didn’t know where he’d gone or what he planned.
In the last week they’d tried to find those answers on their own with no luck, which was why the FETF in Price finally decided to closely question Chauncey over the radio about Ferris’s activities in the town over the last month.
Although the retired teacher was on the receiving end of the questions he was able to learn quite a bit from what he was asked. For one thing it sounded like while Ferris was overseeing Aspen Hill the administrator had gone far beyond his authority in numerous ways, including confiscation of food storage below the two weeks mark, confiscation of other valuables, allowing his soldiers to form romantic relationships with women from the town and refugee camp and turning a blind eye to less legitimate forms of companionship, using lack of compliance as an excuse to deny access to the ration line, and everything to do with his informal deal with Razor.
Ferris’s authority had also only been meant to extend to relief efforts and coordinating with the town on keeping the peace. The fact that Ferris had completely taken over running Aspen Hill and formed his own little dictatorship on top of all his other infractions made the FETF coordinators down in the county seat very, very displeased.
The long and short of it was that they wanted to know where he and his soldiers had gone, and according to the retired teacher were communicating with every radio operator in Carbon, Sanpete, and Emery counties looking for him, and sending feelers even farther.
Terry shook his head when Rick finished. “We thought FETF was just overstepping their authority in general, but Ferris was playing by his own rules the entire time. Why didn’t we ever think to ask anyone about what he was doing?”
Matt shrugged. “He was in charge, and he was FETF. Also Turner and Anderson both got behind him. Besides, even if he went way overboard it’s not like FETF is all that great either. We know that from personal experience. We saw what we expected from them so we didn’t question it.” He turned back to Rick, wincing slightly as another suture was pulled. “Any other news?”
It turned out there was. And while the news about Ferris had more to do with Aspen Hill the next thing Rick had to share was more pressing and much, much worse.
Apparently the massive refugee camp just north of Price had been suffering major problems with starvation, finding clean water, poor sanitation, and crime, and for all their efforts the FETF coordinators there couldn’t seem to provide any relief. The supplies they’d brought when they arrived were long since gone, leaving them to deal with an impossible situation. Sort of like the situation in Aspen Hill on a much larger scale.
Unfortunately because of the poor conditions sickness had broken out in the camp. The local and FETF doctors had identified it as some type of flu, but whether it was a mild strain preying on the already weakened people in camp or a more virulent strain that had been brought by some group of refugees or possibly even the relief convoy itself, no one could say.
What couldn’t be denied was that dozens of people had already succumbed to the flu and it had spread to hundreds of people. All efforts at containment had failed, and was probably impossible now because many people were fleeing the camp to escape before falling ill themselves, some inadvertently spreading the virus with them.
Price had closed off the town as best they could, forbidding refugees or even FETF coordinators and soldiers from entering. Thus far the flu hadn’t spread to them, but it was anyone’s guess whether things would stay that way.
What concerned Matt was that some of the infected might find their way up to Aspen Hill. Surprisingly, considering all the refugees’ bitter complaints and maligning of “townies” when they’d been on the other side of the situation, now that they were part of the town they seemed happy to get behind the idea of closing the borders.
Only the new Mayor wasn’t having any of it. She insisted that any refugees who agreed to keep the peace and fend for themselves were welcome, same as the refugees in the camp had been. More mouths to feed would mean more deaths when everyone was struggling to feed themselves, but she’d staunchly held to the position that if any incoming refugees wanted to make a go of it they could. As long as they were willing to accept that no help was coming for them and they had to take responsibility for their own survival, and breaking the rules meant being turned out in the cold.