“That’s a yes, then?” their friend asked. Trev nodded along with Lewis. “Good. Lewis, I’d like you to start on patrols again. We were patrolling in pairs for a while but unfortunately we don’t have enough people to do that anymore. Although while you’re learning the new routes Jane’s agreed to patrol with you.” He grinned. “Just be ready to take detours to hunt game. She likes to have a meal to bring home by the end of her shift.”
“I’m just fine taking patrols with Jane too,” Trev said quickly, slightly irked that Matt had paired her with Lewis. His cousin shot him an amused look.
Matt shook his head. “If you don’t mind I’d like you to rotate through the three roadblocks for a while.”
Trev slowed down. “You’re kidding. Even if you’re short-manned on patrols you’ve got to have people willing to sit behind some cars across the road for a few hours.”
His friend snorted. “I do. That’s the whole problem.” They both looked at him, and he made an annoyed sound. “What’s the most likely route people are going to take into town? And if enemies with vehicles did attack us, where would they be coming from? The roads. You obviously think the roadblocks are a vacation and that’s the problem… so does everyone else. The shifts there always have plenty of volunteers, the problem is people are treating it like a gossip circle. They just sit around chitchatting the entire time and barely even look past the roadblock.”
“So why me? I’d rather be patrolling with J—” Trev cut off, feeling his face flush, “with just my two feet and a lot of open ground to cover.”
Matt smirked at him. “You don’t have to dodge around it, I know you’ve got the hots for Jane.” Trev opened his mouth to protest and his friend kept going. “And I’d love to pair you two together, but I won’t for two reasons: one, I need someone serious at the roadblocks to try to get everyone back doing their jobs. No matter what I say they mostly ignore me and keep gossiping. You’re more easygoing than Lewis so you’d get along better, but you’d also take it seriously and have a better chance of convincing them to take it seriously too.”
His friend fell silent. “What’s the second reason?” Trev asked.
“Jane prefers to patrol alone.”
That didn’t make any sense. “You just said she’s going to show Lewis the routes.”
Matt coughed carefully. “That’s because Lewis didn’t spend the entire trip down the mountain following her around trying to talk to her.”
Trev gaped. “I barely talked to her a dozen times, and I always made sure I had a good reason!”
“Her words, not mine.”
It took a few seconds for him to pick up the pieces of his dashed hopes. “I guess that means she doesn’t like me,” he said ruefully.
His friend clapped him on the shoulder. “No, she just doesn’t want to talk to you. Don’t take it personally, she doesn’t want to talk to anyone, including me. She and Lewis will probably spend the entire time not saying a single word and both will be happy as clams.”
“You know I’m right here, right?” Lewis asked.
Trev sighed. “I’ll try to get the roadblocks in order. You’ll probably want me to start soon, right?”
“First thing tomorrow morning at Roadblock 3.” Matt clapped him on the shoulder. “Look on the bright side, at least you won’t have to walk around.”
“I like walking,” he grumbled, but he wasn’t really complaining.
The next morning Matt and Lewis left the shelter early, his friend to get things back in order as he resumed responsibility for the town’s defenses, and his cousin to find Jane and learn the new patrol routes.
Trev didn’t need to be at the roadblocks for another few hours, so after sleeping in as long as possible he got up and helped Sam, April, and Mrs. Larson cook breakfast. He did his best to hide the fact that he brought more food to the stove than he needed for himself, and mixed it in with what they were cooking so they’d have more than the palm-sized cakes they were getting by on. He wasn’t a very good actor, but luckily they didn’t bring it up.
After breakfast he did a tour around the shelter, checking the shipping container shed and its contents. Lewis had replaced the destroyed lock on the door with one of the set he’d also used to lock the hideout, the icehouse, and in case everyone was away from the shelter the front door as well, like they had last night. Although they didn’t plan to leave the shelter unattended that often: even last night Matt’s dad had insisted he wasn’t in the mood for movies halfway through and had returned to bundle up in the observation post keeping watch.
When the sun was halfway up the horizon Trev made his way into town to start his shift at Roadblock 3, passing Roadblock 1 as he went. In spite of his comment about a few cars pulled across the road the roadblocks were actually much sturdier than the ones Turner had supervised building last fall. The cars across the road remained a feature, of course, but behind the wheels cinderblocks were stacked generously to hold the cars in place in case someone tried to ram their way through.
The furniture to either side was also stacked much higher and sturdily nailed into place, complete with a platform behind the wall of furniture that defenders could stand on to shoot at anyone attacking from down the road, protected by bits of metal and sturdy sandbags that hopefully would protect them from return fire.
It meant it might take longer to clear the way if a vehicle needed to get through, but since Aspen Hill had no vehicles that wasn’t a problem for them.
Trev made his way to the south end of town and waved as he approached the small group at Roadblock 3. He got a few waves in return, from the two men on duty and one or two of the several women ranging in age from early teens to some who seemed far too old and frail for the duty.
They seemed only too happy to welcome him and immediately pump him for information about a surprising number of topics. Within the space of five minutes he found himself bombarded with questions about Matt, the food the Mayor had brought, the variety of entertainment Lewis had on his hard drives, Ferris’s confiscation of the shelter and everything in it the previous fall, and conditions in the mountains during winter.
It looked like Matt was right about the gossip circle nature of the roadblock sentries. Trev did his best to shift the conversation to any activity on the road outside the roadblock. That mostly earned him amusement, since few people had approached the town during the cold months from any direction. The amusement didn’t last long when he started asking about early warning measures, which Matt had set up but weren’t being carried out.
The general consensus was that if he was so interested in making sure that stuff happened then maybe he should do it. The only person who didn’t seem to think that was Hans Miller, a man in his 30s with a wife and children who’d remained at the periphery of the group, looking sad and withdrawn. The other man at the roadblock, Rob Jonas, was older and didn’t seem interested in the roadblock or the gossip. Trev thought he might’ve just been there for the comfortable chair.
Since any further discussion seemed like a waste of time Trev excused himself and climbed over the cars to walk down the road a ways, checking the area with eyes accustomed to seeing every detail up on mountainsides blanketed with trees. He even pulled out his binoculars for a more thorough check.
When he returned he nodded politely at the others, still gathered around on reasonably comfortable seats chatting idly and most not even in a position to see past the roadblock. Then he pointedly hopped up onto the roof of the lefthand car and settled down in a crouch to watch the road.
After a few minutes Hans, as if embarrassed about being shown up, joined him on the car and sat with his legs dangling off the roof. Trev was actually a bit relieved, and more than happy to strike up a conversation with the man as they kept watch, if a grim one as Hans shared his grief.