Fuel (Best Laid Plans Book 1) (16 page)

“Halssons?” she repeated.

“My friend Lewis and his dad. He's the cousin of another of my friends, Trevor Smith, and Trev was up at the university with me.” Matt made a face. “He warned me about leaving Orem after the attack and even offered to let me come along when he left, but I assumed things would get back to normal before too long, or at least wouldn't get bad as quickly as they did.”

“Well I'm glad you didn't go,” she said, patting his arm. “It may be selfish, but I'd still be stuck up in Orem if you had.”

“Yeah, I'm glad too,” Matt glanced north along Main. “I should go out and say hello to the two sometime soon. They've got their own place up northwest of town.” He was about to tell her about the shelter that he'd done a little to help the cousins build and had visited a few times after it was finished, but Lewis had asked him to keep quiet about it and he respected that request.

Main Street ended in a road that led out to Highway 6. Just outside the city limits, a stone's throw from the spring Aspen Hill had first been built around, he saw men working together to push cars into place perpendicular across the road, in such a way that they could be pushed to either side to let vehicles in if necessary. More cars were situated behind them all the way to the sidewalks, and a few heavy dressers had been placed across the sidewalks to finish blocking the way.

The properties on either side of the street were fenced in, which did a fairly good job of preventing anyone from going around, but more important to securing the roadblock were the people themselves. Turner had a shotgun slung over his shoulder with a bandolier full of shells looped across his chest, as well as his service weapon at his hip. The handful of other men helping build the roadblock were also armed, some with pistols and other with rifles leaned up against the dressers where they could be quickly picked up if necessary.

Matt made his way over to the policeman and introduced Sam, then mentioned they'd like to volunteer for helping with roadblocks or wherever else they were needed. Officer Turner nodded at that, looking approvingly at the 9mm on Matt's hip. “I've seen you out at the range a time or two, so I assume you've at least used a firearm before.” He turned to Sam. “How about you?”

The dark-haired woman looked a bit sheepish. “Once, on a date a bit over a year ago. We rented an automatic rifle of some kind at a gun range in Salt Lake City and he let me try it out. I, um, wasn't very good with it, but I'm willing to learn.”

Turner smiled slightly. “Well I appreciate the offer and we can put you on the list, but at the moment we've looking for people who won't shoot themselves in the foot or smack themselves in the face when their firearm recoils. If you want to help out there's plenty you can do, though: Councilwoman Tillman is organizing volunteers for all sorts of things down at the new town storehouse.”

Sam nodded, although she gave Matt a slightly disappointed look. Had she wanted to stay with him? “I will, thanks. But I hope you'll keep me in mind if you need anyone, even just to run errands or be a lookout. I want to help out.”

“That's the spirit.” The policeman turned to Matt. “By the way, I don't know if you've heard yet but with the power out the Mayor wants to get the word around that anyone who's got more perishable food than they can eat before it goes bad is welcome to bring it to the storehouse for vouchers. He's going to bring the freezer units from Mercer's grocery store around and hook them up to a few generators. We've got enough fuel to keep the units running until we've eaten up the food in them, and to help empty them quicker the town's going to hold a parking lot potluck at around 6. Everyone's invited, and we'll use up the food that'll go bad the soonest or doesn't freeze well.” He glanced at Sam. “There's another way you can help out, if you want to come early and help the Councilwoman and her volunteers cook it all up.”

“Sure,” Sam said uncertainly. “I'm not much of a cook but I'll do what I can.”

“I'll come along too,” Matt offered. “It'll be fun.”

Turner abruptly turned towards the men working on the roadblock. One of them, Tam's husband Carl Raymond, had been tying the bumpers of the two cars across the road together. “Don't do that,” the policeman shouted, starting over, “we need to be able to move those in a hurry!” He paused to glance back at Matt. “We should be good for today, but come around tomorrow morning and I'll let you know when your shifts are.”

“Okay, thanks,” Matt called at his back. He turned and glanced at Sam. “Sorry if he was rude.”

She gave him a puzzled look. “He's fine. Should we head back to Tillman's and see what we can do, then?”

Matt hesitated, glancing northwest past the few houses outside the town limits. About a mile beyond them were a few hills leading up to the foothills below the mountains. “Listen, I've got another errand to run real quick. Can I meet you there in about an hour?”

“Oh I can go along too,” Sam offered.

He shook his head, cursing Lewis's paranoia. He didn't want to insult Sam or suggest in any way that he didn't trust her, but at the same time he couldn't bring her around to the shelter without the cousins' permission. “It's going to be a long walk and I'll just be visiting some neighbors to let them know about the potluck. They live far enough out that they might not have had a chance to come around to hear about it.”

Luckily she didn't press the issue. “Okay, I'll see you at Tillman's.” With a quick wave she headed back the way they'd come, while Matt made his way around the roadblock towards the hills.

He'd been relieved to hear from his mom that Trev had made it safely, but he wanted to go around to personally make sure his friend was okay and see how the cousins were faring with all this. He was also interested to get their opinion on everything, since preparing for society's inevitable crash and burn had been their area of expertise for years.

* * * * *

There was music playing on the other side of the heavy metal-sheathed door leading into his friends' shelter when Matt arrived.

At first that completely threw him for a loop, wondering how they'd managed it with the power out, until he remembered the solar panels up on top of the rounded dirt hill the shed was buried beneath. Trev and Lewis might not even know the rest of the town had been thrown back into the Old West days.

He knocked loudly with his fist to be heard through the thick door and over the music, and about half a minute later it cracked open to reveal Lewis in the doorway, wearing camouflage gear and holding a can of chili in one hand. “Oh hey, Matt, you made it home,” his friend said, stepping aside. “Your mom was worried about you last night at the meeting. Come on in.”

“Thanks.” Matt followed his friend in and over to the small living area they'd set up beside the door, which had a couch and a few beanbag chairs, and settled onto the couch. “Sounds like those solar panels are paying off,” he added with a jerk of his head to refer to the music in general. “At least until you get sick of the songs in your collection.”

His friend plopped down on a beanbag and set his chili on a nearby table, leaning back and grinning. “That might take a while. I've got ten terabytes of movies, TV shows, music, and books on a server. I don't know if I'll even be able to get through it all in a lifetime.”

Matt whistled. “Ten terabytes! You must've been pirating for years.”

His friend gave him an insulted look. “Not a single thing. I converted over my parents' old collections of songs, TV shows, and movies, and Trev's parents' stuff too. I also found cheap or even free collections of older stuff online. As for the books a lot are free downloads from legitimate sites, but most are from projects that collect free domain works, especially the old historical and cultural classics, and archive them for posterity. Sure, it was a bit more effort doing it that way and I had to go with what was offered, but I'm not complaining.” He suddenly brightened. “You should bring your family over for a movie night sometime.”

“Yeah, sure.” For some reason talking about movies after what he'd seen in the city yesterday annoyed Matt. “Where's Trev?”

Lewis pointed vaguely towards the back of the bunker. “On patrol. Mayor Anderson asked us to watch the northern border. We were up early this morning finding a good patrol route and planning things out, which took us about four hours. Even though it means he'll have to patrol longer today Trev asked for the four hours remaining in the shift, so I'd come on to do a full eight hour shift afterwards. It means he'll basically be doing 16 hours, and I'm a bit worried about how he'll hold up doing all that just after getting done with a 50 mile hike, but he was pretty insistent.”

“Wait, hold on,” Matt demanded incredulously. “You guys are trading off eight hour shifts? Officer Turner's got a dozen men at the roadblock and half of them are sitting around!”

His friend shrugged. “Anderson's sorting it out. He said it would only be a few days until he could set up a better patrol roster, a week at most.”

Matt thought about being sent home from the roadblock today and the vaguely promised future shifts if he was needed. He almost regretted volunteering there now, since it seemed like he could do much more good here. At least with three people they'd all be doing 8-hour shifts a day instead of trading off 16 hours. “Listen, I'm going to be doing shifts at the roadblock but I can help you patrol too. Tell Trev I'll take the last shift tonight, and once I see the schedule for the roadblock I'll fit in as many patrols out here as I can.”

Lewis nodded. “Thanks, that's actually a huge relief. Come by around 8 and we can walk you along the patrol route before your shift starts. If you don't have a flashlight I've got one for you, and it looks like you still have that pistol Trev got when Nelson tried to mug him.” He said that last with a nod at the gun at Matt's hip. “You'll probably also want to bring food and water, and dress warm.”

“Okay sure.” Matt hesitated, almost apologetically. “By the way, the town's holding a potluck at 6. I don't know if you want to cancel your shift or what, but . . .”

“I'm good,” his friend said, “but I'll let Trev know.” He reached for his can of chili and took a bite. “So I guess that's all settled. How about you? It sounds like you had an exciting day yesterday and I'd be interested to hear about it. The news can only tell you so much about what it's like to be caught in up in the chaos.”

Matt shuddered. “I managed to get away before things got really bad.” He briefly described the riot at the store, the mugger on the sidewalk and defending himself with one of the dozens of cans of bear spray he'd dumped into his cart, curfew at the dorms, and the fires on the horizons. He also told his friend about meeting Sam and her help with the gas to get down to Aspen Hill, then asked if she could maybe come around to see the place sometime.

Lewis hesitated, looking reluctant. “You know I don't like telling anyone about this place. Aside from my family you and your parents are pretty much the only ones who know exactly where it is. Everyone else just knows I live somewhere north of town.”

“She's a good person,” Matt insisted. “You'll like her.”

“I'm sure I will. There are a lot of good people in town but I still like to be cautious.” Lewis frowned thoughtfully, then sighed. “I guess if she ends up staying with you long term, which is probably going to happen since I don't know what else she can do, she'll pretty much be part of your family. If you decide she's really trustworthy at that point of course she should know.” He abruptly grinned. “After all, I did invite you guys to a movie night.”

“It'd be my first underground movie,” Matt admitted, looking around the shed with its rounded walls. “I've already seen this place a few times but it's still pretty impressive how you managed to bury it. Not sure what the point was, though: staying hidden from prying eyes?”

“Didn't we ever tell you when you were helping us with it?” Lewis asked. Matt shook his head. “Putting it underground is for staying warm in the winter and cool in the summer, mostly. Although being hidden and less likely to draw attention is definitely a plus.”

That made Matt frown as he looked around again. “I can see that for the summer, maybe, like a cave being cooler than outside, but in the winter you've got the ground all around you constantly leeching heat out of this place. How is that better than a raised and insulated house?”

“Because a raised and insulated house isn't really all that insulated. Just think of how fast it heats up or cools down when you turn off the heat or air conditioner. Underground the temperature stays fairly constant, going up a bit in the summer and down a bit in the winter but never too extreme. It also makes great insulation so the temperature change is slow when it does happen.”

Lewis stamped his foot on the carpeted wooden floor. “This place isn't quite as ideal as true underground, since it has to be ventilated which lets cold or hot air in depending on the season. It's also not buried quite deep enough to truly match ground temperature, which stays around 55 degrees fahrenheit year round. Still, it's way better than a frame and wallboard house: no matter how cold it is outside the coldest this place has ever gotten is 40 degrees, and even on the hottest day of summer it's always comfortably cool in here.”

His friend pointed at the large stove in the back corner and the stovepipe snaking its way along the ceiling to disappear upwards out of a hole near the front. “And we've also got the stove to heat the place up to something more comfortable than that, and with the underground insulation it doesn't take nearly as much firewood to get the same results as heating a house like your parents'.”