Fuel (Best Laid Plans Book 1) (15 page)

They weren't the only ones surprised at their arrival, it seemed: Matt actually saw people coming out onto the porch to stare as he drove by. Were running cars really that unusual? Aspen Hill had one gas station so the City Council should've had fuel to use where needed, but maybe they were saving it for emergencies.

His parents' house was a block off Main Street near the center of town, a modest 2-storey structure with a large yard that had a few fruit trees, some currant bushes, and a small vegetable garden his mom kept up, mostly for fresh greens. The lights in the living room were on, and as Matt pulled into the driveway behind his dad's old truck his parents came rushing out of the house to stand on the porch waving.

His mom even took it a step further, coming down to practically pull him into a hug as soon as he got out of the car. “You've scared me half to death tonight!”

Matt hugged her back. “You didn't get my email, then?”

“No,” his dad answered as he came down the stairs to clap Matt on the shoulder. “No cell phones, no internet, no cable.”

The sound of the car door opening turned Matt around, but before he could introduce Sam his mom beat him to the punch. “Oh, you've brought a guest!”

Matt knew his parents well enough to know that in spite of the grim present situation and the lack of warning that Sam would be with him there was no accusation in her tone, just surprise and pleasure. As well as that familiar unspoken question that everyone comes to recognize when bringing a member of the opposite sex anywhere near inquisitive parents.

“This is Samantha Hutchins. She's in one of my classes, and when she saw I was leaving town she asked to come along. She found us the gas we needed to get here, and without her we wouldn't have even gotten out of the dorm parking lot.”

“Hi, Mrs. Larson,” Sam began, pausing hesitantly as his mom rushed around the car to literally greet her with open arms. The dark-haired girl looked surprised at the hug, but she wasn't awkward in returning it.

“Mona, please,” his mom insisted. “Welcome.”

“Thanks.” The hug ended and Sam stepped back, shifting a bit awkwardly. “And call me Sam. Look, I don't want to be a bother. If there's a hotel in town I'll go ahead and stay there until I figure out what to do.”

“Absolutely not,” his mom said, equally insistent. “We have a spare guest room and I had a big dinner waiting for my son that's ready to eat with a little heating. There's plenty for two and I couldn't dream of sending you away. Besides, there's no hotel in town. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like.”

Sam was about to answer when the lights in the house abruptly flickered and went out. Not just those but the streetlights as well, and also the few other houses in sight that had still been lit up. In the sudden darkness Matt exchanged glances with everyone.

“Well it was bound to happen soon,” his mom said with a sigh. “Ed, you'll need fetch the camping lanterns so Matt and Sam can unload. Good thing we had them ready just in case.” She put her arm around the younger woman. “Now really, dear, I couldn't forgive myself if I let you go wandering off in the dark. Come on, let me show you where you'll be putting your things.”

As the two made their way into the house, their way lit by Sam's flashlight, Matt grabbed some things out of the car and started after them with his own flashlight. On the way he passed his dad coming out with two brightly glowing electric lanterns. “How bad is it?” he quietly asked.

His dad shook his head. “We had a meeting tonight about it. I'll tell you tomorrow after you've had a chance to rest. But basically we've already got hungry people in town and refugees are on the way. I supported your friends the cousins when they suggested we turn the refugees away and Officer Turner is going to be putting up roadblocks tomorrow. He's looking for volunteers to man them.”

Well that was a bombshell to drop after saying they'd discuss things in the morning. But Matt just nodded tiredly. “I'll talk to him about volunteering tomorrow.”

“I think that would be good. But for now let's worry about getting this thing unloaded so you can get some sleep. Looks like you managed to bring back some things that might be useful.” His dad paused, then continued awkwardly. “So about Sam. This is, um, the first time you've mentioned her.”

He felt his face flushing in embarrassment. “I barely even knew her before tonight. I was a bit surprised when she asked to come with me.” He looked up thoughtfully at the light coming from the guest room. “But from what I've seen I'm really impressed with her. She's a good person.”

His dad chuckled. “Didn't mean to put you on the spot. Come on, let's get to work.”

Chapter Seven

Helping Out

Matt woke up early the next morning, troubled by worries about the future. Since he could hear noises in the kitchen he went downstairs and found his mom and Sam working together to cook food with no electricity, using the little propane camping stove his dad must have pulled from the shed. He stopped in to say hello and let them know he wanted to do some errands before breakfast, and his mom let him know that his dad had gone to Tillman's to pick up water jugs they could fill up while they still had pressure in the tap.

“I think I'll go down and meet him there then. There's some things I need to get too.”

“Oh then you should take Sam with you, show her around the town,” his mom immediately suggested.

The dark-haired girl looked torn by the offer, but after a moment shook her head firmly. “There'll be plenty of time to see the town. I can't just run off after I said I'd help you.”

Matt was surprised to find he was a little disappointed. He'd wouldn't have minded a chance to spend more time with her. But he supposed there'd be plenty of time for that, too, so he put on his shoes and walked the block or so to Tillman's Sporting Goods along Main.

His dad wasn't there when he came in. Tamara Raymond, Scott and Catherine Tillman's married daughter, was the only one in sight as she greeted him from behind the counter. “Hey Matt, good to see you made it into town safely. Your mom was really worried about you after the phones died. If you're looking for your dad he just left with my dad to check a few things. Or did you come to donate?”

“Hey Tam,” he replied, coming over to the counter. He was awfully fond of the petite auburn-haired woman, since she had enough school spirit for the entire town and even though she'd graduated five years before him had always come to his team's basketball games to cheer them on. He wasn't sure what she meant about donations, though. Maybe something for the cheerleading squad, which she still helped out with. “Just here to buy a few things.”

She smiled. “You came just in time then. We're about to turn this place into the storehouse and most of the stock will probably be the first donations.”

Matt blinked in surprise. “Storehouse?”

Tam's return look was equally surprised. “The town storehouse. Mom and Dad donated the store for a location. Anything extra people have comes here to help the town through the winter. I guess you must've missed the meeting, but didn't your parents tell you about it? Ed had a lot to say.”

“First I'm hearing about a storehouse. Anyway at the moment I need some stuff for this.” He pulled out the Glock Trev had given him, which he'd emptied at his house and checked several times to be sure, and set it on the counter. At the moment he only had one full magazine and the gun itself, and if he was going to help Officer Turner at the roadblocks he'd want everything else he needed for it.

She picked it up and did a quick chamber check. “Just bought it? Always liked these, and this one is almost new.” She frowned. “Dirty, though, and looks like it's been that way for months.”

Matt felt embarrassed, even though he had no reason to be since
he
wasn't the one who'd owned the firearm
. “Yeah, I just got it. Will it still shoot?”

Tam racked the slide and dry fired the gun a few times into a compartment against the back wall behind her that was specifically designed to mitigate accidental discharges. “Probably, although you may run into malfunctions. I'd clean it thoroughly before use anyway, or at least not wait too long doing it. Keeping it dirty like this long term can damage sensitive mechanisms.” Her tone became stern. “And also I like to see firearms properly cared for as a matter of principle. They're not just expensive tools . . . properly cared for they can literally be the difference between life and death.”

“Yes ma'am,” he said, fighting a smile. Tam had been a cheerleader in high school and was now married with a young daughter, but for all that she was her father's girl: a tomboy through and through. “I'll need cleaning tools for it then. I also need a holster and some ammo and several spare magazines. Whatever you recommend.”

With her help he was able to gather up all the things he needed plus a good bit of extra ammo, and once he had his stack of goods he took them over to the counter to be rung up. He'd been keeping the money for next semester's tuition in an envelope in his room, which was more than enough, and he figured since tuition was out of the picture now so he might as well make use of it. He might even buy some extras after doing some careful shopping at a later date.

But when he pulled out the stack of 20s, 50s, and 100s to pay up Tam frowned. “Oh. Um . . .”

“What?”

She gave him an uncomfortable look. “We're not taking money for items anymore.”

Matt tried to work his mind around that. “But you're a store. Also the internet's down so credit and debit cards won't work. If you're not taking cash and customers can't charge purchases then how do I pay? I don't have a checkbook.”

“We're not taking dollars in any form,” she said, then hurried to continue at his further confusion. “Since we're effectively cut off from the rest of the world we just decided that going to a barter system made sense. Before we went dark yesterday there was word that the dollar's dropping like a stone, and none of us want to make deals today only to have a neighbor come around tomorrow complaining that we cheated them paying with worthless money.”

“And when did you decide this?” Matt demanded, looking at the couple thousand dollars in his hand. What now, he had a bunch of money and nobody in town would take it? Even with all that was happening they had to have more faith in the dollar than that. He'd worked really hard in sales at a used car dealership to save up that much!

“The meeting last night. You didn't hear
anything
about it from your parents
?”

“No,” he said miserably. “Look, Tam, all I've got is cash.”

The auburn-haired woman frowned. “I'll have to ask my dad, but I don't think he's going to go for it. It's not you it's the money itself, and that's a liability we can't take even for old friends.”

“What's a liability?” came a voice from the backroom. Scott Tillman emerged from the open door leading Matt's dad. He was wearing his reading glasses which suggested he'd been doing paperwork.

Matt went over and shook the older man's hand. “I'm trying to pay in cash but apparently the town decided to go to a barter system. Whose crazy idea was that?”

Tam snickered, and Mr. Tillman smiled slightly. “My wife's. Catherine felt that moving to a barter system before the US economy collapsed and the dollar became worthless would at least keep the local economy fairly stable. The rest of the City Council seemed to agree. Didn't you hear about the meeting?” Behind Matt Tam made a choked noise, like she was trying not to laugh again.

Matt shot her an annoyed look over his shoulder. “No. But I tell you what, I'm going to be at the next one if you're making these sorts of decisions.”

“I'm sure we can work out an arrangement, Scott,” his dad said, then glanced at Matt. “This is all stuff you need, right son?”

He nodded. “Well yeah. If I'm going to volunteer for the roadblock I'd like to have a clean gun, plenty of ammo and extra mags, and a reliable holster.”

“You're volunteering to defend the town, eh?” Mr. Tillman asked. “Well then tell you what, we can set you up on credit for now and next time you come around we can talk about bartering.”

Matt rubbed at the unshaven stubble on his chin. He hated owing anyone anything and did his best to avoid debt, but at the same time this stuff could save his life in the future and his money was useless. Besides, he had all the stuff he'd bought at the store up in Orem, as well as his other possessions. He should be able to find
something
to pay the debt off.
“All right. That would be great, thanks.”

Mr. Tillman nodded and got behind the counter beside his daughter, taking a cheap pen and clipboard from beneath it as he began looking over Matt's purchases. Under “Matthew Larson” written large and underlined in its own column he began making a list of all the goods.

As the older man worked Matt watched him in confusion. “Um, the tally's right there on the register. Why are you writing everything down?”

Tam shook her head at him, and his dad chuckled. “Tally up with dollars?” Mr. Tillman asked. “We're not on dollars anymore, so it has to be the goods themselves we jot down so we can guess at their value later. The dollar value is just a place to start.”

“Yeah, but in a barter system the value of the stuff I'm getting can change at any moment. Especially the longer we go without getting supplies.”

Tam shrugged. “Taking credit presents its own complications I guess. We're still feeling this all out as we go but we'll do our best to give you a fair deal.”

Matt wasn't happy about it. The Tillmans were the most honest people in town, but even though he trusted them it was uncomfortable being in a situation where nothing stopped them from talking up the value of the goods when it came time to settle.

“Well just so long as you know what you're getting into,” he said as he picked up the paper bags Tam loaded his things into. “I think I can manage bartering, since I'm probably one of the few people in town with any real negotiating experience. I was selling cars to pay my way through college, remember.”

Mr. Tillman glanced past him out the store's big window, to a couple parked vehicles in the parking lot with empty tanks. “I know. I won't hold it against you.” His daughter laughed.

Matt finally smiled too, appreciating the humor of the situation. Of course he'd also appreciated the humor of it while trying to sell cars with gas prices climbing steeply all last year. “Thanks again. I'll be back when I've got the time, depending on what Officer Turner says and what my family needs from me.” He turned to look at his dad, who'd come to stand beside him. “Breakfast is probably done by now.”

His dad waved him on. “I'm going to stick around and help Scott in here. If you get some free time maybe you can swing by too and see what needs doing. Bring your new friend Sam if she wants.”

“Ooh, a new friend?” Tam asked, brightening. “And a girl. Does that equal girlfriend?”

Matt felt his face reddening. “We just met,” he protested, backing through the door. “I'll, um, let Mom know you might miss breakfast Dad.” With that he turned and hurried away.

Back at home he came into the kitchen to see that his mom and Sam had prepared an enormous breakfast. At first glance he was dismayed at their irresponsibility, but then he realized that with the power out the food in the fridge was probably already going bad, and what was in the freezer wouldn't be far behind.

As they ate he let his mom know what her husband was up to, then quizzed her on what he'd missed at the meeting. Sam was an active participant in the discussion, genuinely seeming to care what happened in the town. To Matt's surprise she even agreed with the decision to turn away the refugees, although he'd still been on the fence about it in spite of being willing to help Officer Turner.

“I know it's a bit hypocritical since I'm basically one,” she admitted. “But we saw how the food situation is up in the cities and it sounds like it's only a bit better down here. If all those people come around looking for a meal any hope the town has of surviving goes down the drain.”

“Well I agree with just about everything you said,” his mom answered. At Sam's quizzical look she smiled. “Except that you're not a refugee, you've got a home right here.”

Matt had expected Sam to protest, but to his further surprise her eyes welled with tears and she went around the table to hug his mom. “I'll find ways to pull my weight, I promise. You can't know how grateful I am.”

She abruptly turned to Matt, businesslike. “Speaking of which, your mom mentioned you were going to go see about helping at the roadblocks. I want to come and volunteer too.”

“Sure,” he said, pleased at the chance to spend more time with her. Although he didn't know how he felt about her being in a potentially dangerous situation. He cleaned the last bites off his plate and stood. “Should we get going?”

The dark-haired woman nodded and hurried to grab her shoes. While she was doing that Matt retrieved the holster he'd purchased from the bags still near the door and looped it on his belt, then holstered his Glock. Sam gave the gun a curious look as she finished putting her shoes on, but she didn't comment on it.

Together they set off north along Main Street to the edge of town, where his mom mentioned that the policeman and town volunteers were setting up the first roadblock. On the way he pointed out a few features of Aspen Hill and named the neighbors who lived in all the houses they passed. Sam seemed interested in the information, but he couldn't help but notice her eyes constantly darting to the mountains to the west.

“This has been my favorite thing about living in Utah,” she admitted when he asked her. “I love having mountains on my doorstep. Back in Provo-Orem I'd go up to Rock Canyon on weekends to hike the trail. I even tried rock climbing with friends a few times, although I wasn't very good at it.”

Matt had always appreciated the beauty of the mountains himself, but he hadn't really thought about them since they'd always been around. “There's some nice lakes up there,” he offered. “I've been fishing a few times with my dad and the Halssons.”