“That’s not a decision you get to make!” Ferris snapped. “We represent the provisional government up in Utah Valley and we’ve come to collect taxes.”
Catherine started to reply and her voice cracked slightly. She coughed. “All this shouting is a bit hard on the vocal cords. I don’t have a megaphone like you. Could you come a bit closer?”
Matt stiffened. Was that a hint she wanted to try an ambush, or a sincere request? Either way he casually reached down to the radio at his waist and pushed the talk button, then tapped the mic twice with his fingernail. They hadn’t arranged any preset signals, but hopefully that would at least alert everyone to be ready.
To his surprise Ferris motioned the lead vehicle to come even closer, to within forty feet. The gunner behind the .50 cal looked nervously at all the weapons in the crowd, ducking slightly behind the front and side armor plates attached to the gun emplacement. Matt almost didn’t know the thin, clean-shaven face at first, until the truck got a bit closer. Then he was able to recognize a hungrier, crueler looking Randall Turner looking back at him from behind sunglasses. From the sharp intake of breath from beside him Catherine must have recognized the man as well.
“Better?” Ferris boomed, his megaphone still at the same volume but closer now.
“Better,” Catherine called at a more reasonable volume. “But let’s keep this short. We don’t recognize whatever provisional government you claim to serve and we want you to leave. We’re prepared to defend ourselves if we have to.”
The small man sneered at the crowd behind the roadblock. “With what? Hunting rifles and pistols? I have more firepower on this truck than your entire town combined. Lucky for you I have no desire to hurt you. I’m a Federal agent, sworn to help the people. I’ll do that, same as I always have.”
“You seriously want to keep pretending, Ferris?” Matt called. He waved behind him. “Look at us! You think we all gather at the roadblock in an armed crowd all day every day just in case? We knew you were coming, and we know who you are and what you’ve done. You’re not representatives of any government, you’re common thieves.”
“Thieves?” Ferris snarled, face twisted in rage behind the megaphone. “Thieves? I spent the entire winter trying to keep stupid yokels like you alive! I watched a lot of people die this winter, enough to make the entire population of your podunk town look like a joke. I tried to save all of them and failed. Then I tried to save some and found that to be impossible as well. I realized that all I could do was save myself and my men. Us, by any means necessary, must be alive to impose order during these times so that at least some remnant of our once great nation survives in this area.”
Matt had to fight his own rage. “Over five hundred of our people died this winter. I dug a lot of the graves myself. I don’t call that a joke, and neither do the people behind me. We remember who took the food from our mouths and then left once it ran out. It won’t happen again.”
In answer the bureaucrat-turned-bandit pounded his fist against the side of the truck near his head. “We’re going to take half of what you have, and I call that generous!” he boomed through the megaphone. “If you try to stop me I’ll do what I have to. This is to make sure you have a taste of what you can expect if you resist. Fire!”
Immediately Turner hauled the massive gun he stood behind down to point towards the roadblock.
Behind Matt his friends and neighbors screamed and scattered, or simply dropped to the road right where they were. Matt desperately caught the Mayor around the shoulders and lowered her behind the car, which probably wouldn’t do much to shield her from .50 caliber bullets but was better than nothing. By the time he managed that it was too late to save himself, so he he stayed where he was as the muzzle of the big gun turned to point straight at him.
If he was going to die at least he’d do it staring Ferris right in the eye, to give lie to the man’s claims about not wanting to hurt anyone.
At the last moment Turner heaved down on the back of the gun, sending the muzzle up into the sky as a deafening staccato roar rang out for several seconds. Matt watched fire pour from the gun around a line of bullets closely spaced enough that in spite of their speed he could see them trace off into the distance over the town. Amid that burst of gunfire he heard his friends and neighbors screaming in terror and the expectation of pain.
Then the gunfire stopped and the screaming slowly died as everyone realized they were unharmed. Heads started poking up above the roadblock as Ferris gave them a smug look. “Six hours to give us what we want,” he boomed. “When your time’s up we smash right through that pathetic roadblock and gun down everyone where they stand. I think you’ll make the right choice.”
He ducked back into the truck, slamming the door behind him, and the vehicle began to back away down the road.
The radio at Matt’s belt squawked. “Lucky Turner didn’t try aiming at any of you,” Lewis said. “The moment he did he would’ve got a bullet through the side of the head.”
Matt suddenly realized he was shaking so hard he could barely stand, and he disguised it by dropping down to the road to see if Catherine was all right. She seemed to be, as did everyone else. “Do we attack him?” he whispered to the Mayor. “Now’s the chance.”
She shook her head. “The other trucks are too far away. Besides, he might still change his mind between now and his deadline, and even if he doesn’t it’ll give us more chance to get prepared.”
Matt looked up at the sun. “It’ll be close to sundown by then. What if they have night vision gear? If we attack now—”
Catherine straightened and gave him a firm look. “No. Not yet.”
With a sigh he lifted the radio to his mouth and told everyone to stand down. Then he told everyone he’d put in charge of things to organize the people with them to keep doing what they’d been doing and come meet him and the Mayor at the roadblock. “We’ve got some planning to do.”
“Ferris can pretend he’s not a bad guy all he wants,” Chauncey said bitterly. “All his claims about not hurting people as long as they do what he says? Complete BS. He hurts everyone he comes across. Every time he steals from others he guarantees some, maybe all, of those he robs are going to be dead from starvation in a few weeks. And that’s a horrible way to die. We survived this winter, we all know just how horrible it is. So if you ask me I say no, we don’t do what he says and trust he’ll be merciful. The only thing Ferris and his raiders deserve from us is a well placed bullet.”
There was a strong surge of approval from the group, and from the crowd around them listening in, and Matt nodded. “I agree. Last fall Ferris made a bad situation worse and hundreds of our people died because of it. Besides, his claims of not hurting anyone will go right out the window the first time someone doesn’t do what he says. If they haven’t already, which wouldn’t surprise me. I say stealing from us once was too many times, and if he wants to do it again he’d better be ready to die trying.”
This got even stronger approval.
Catherine raised her hands for quiet. “So we agree that we’re not giving him half our things?” The crowd made their response clear. “And we’re willing to fight to defend ourselves, whatever Ferris and his men might do?” This got a less defiant roar of approval, but everyone still seemed to be in agreement. “Very well.”
She turned to Matt and lowered her voice. “What are we going to do?”
Matt wasn’t reassured by the fact that the normally in charge Mayor was looking to him for suggestions, even though this was his job. And to be honest he had his own doubts. There might be hundreds of people in town willing to fight, and enough guns to equip many of them, but Ferris had real soldiers armed with real weapons.