“I told you it would just take a minute,” she said, rubbing her sore right arm. “I’ll be right out.”
“I know,” he replied. “I just don’t like the thought of any of us being alone, even for a minute, not in the current climate.”
She worked her way toward the back of the store. As it turned out, the shelves were not entirely clear. A few things had been left behind, particularly along the shelf in the back corner, and it was here that Jodi spotted a single generic-brand home pregnancy kit. It hung from a hook near the bottom shelf, as if it had been waiting for her. Shane was walking toward her, however, and she wasn’t sure how to grab it off the hook without being seen.
“If you see anything we could use, take it,” she said.
“Like what?” he asked.
“Oh…anything. Just look around.”
He stooped down and picked something up from the ground. “Like this?” he said, holding up a bottle of animal-shaped gummy vitamins. Someone had already opened the bottle, spilling most of the vitamins on the floor. “This would be good for Kaylee.”
“Yeah, grab them,” she said. “I think they’re still good.”
As he bent over and began picking up the loose vitamins, Jodi quickly swooped down and grabbed the pregnancy kit, jamming it into the pocket of her jeans.
“You didn’t come in here for kids’ vitamins,” Shane said, screwing the cap on the bottle. “Why are we really here?”
Jodi looked around frantically for some excuse and saw a small box of tampons on a nearby shelf. She lunged for it, grabbed the box, and held it up so he could see it.
“Oh, right,” he said. “Of course.”
She carried the box to the front of the store and set it on a small display table. “I’ll leave it here for now so I don’t have to carry it to the meeting. I wanted to check while there was still daylight, but I’ll grab it on the way home. Remind me.”
He shook his head, clearly still suspicious about the whole thing. “If you say so.”
Jodi didn’t wait for any further questions. She slipped outside and hurried to catch up to Mike and Beth.
They arrived at the school after most of the attendees had already taken their seats. Walking into the auditorium, Jodi got an expansive look at almost three hundred locals, and she thought they were some of the most unhealthy, emaciated people she had ever laid eyes on. The room smelled quite bad—the body odor of unwashed people mingled with some undercurrent of sickness. People already seemed agitated, and as Jodi led her people to a row of open seats near the front, many turned to look at her with hostile eyes.
“I don’t think anyone wants to be here,” Shane muttered, as he took the aisle seat.
Jodi sat beside him, with her mother and brother on her right, and she sank down in her seat, trying to get below the level of all those unpleasant faces. Mayor Frank and Sheriff Cooley stood together at the podium this time.
“Well, at least Ryan isn’t here,” Jodi said. “That should make things go a little easier.”
“I hope he’s enjoying his delicious jail food,” Beth muttered.
Nora was also missing, which meant neither of their primary accusers were present. Somehow, the crowd still felt on the verge of a meltdown. Unlike previous meetings, Mayor Frank gestured for the sheriff to kick things off.
“Folks, I want to thank you for coming out this afternoon,” James said. He found Beth in the crowd and winked at her. Jodi still didn’t know quite how to feel about this. “I know it was short notice, but there is an issue we to deal with right away. Before I get to that, is there anything else we need to discuss? Let’s get other business out of the way.” He turned to the mayor.
“Things seems to be going better on my end,” the mayor said with a shrug, and then to the audience, “You’re starting to receive your ration boxes. I’ve already seen many of you at the food bank this week.”
“It’s not enough,” someone shouted.
“Ration boxes are too light,” said another.
“They don’t last the whole week,” said a third.
“I hear you. I hear you,” Frank said. “Yes, ladies and gentleman, I know the ration boxes are light, but we’re doing the best we can. Something is better than nothing, right? We plan to increase the allotted food per household once we have the means to do so.”
“Will we even survive long enough?” some screechy woman said from the back of the room.
“We’re working as fast as we can,” the mayor said. “The community garden is coming along, and we’re considering other options. Hang in there just a little longer. Sheriff?”
The mayor stepped back, and Sheriff Cooley moved to the center of the podium, resting his weight against the edge. People were still murmuring about ration boxes, so he glared at them until they began to settle down. James looked about as sleep-deprived as Jodi felt, and he seemed to collect his thoughts for a few seconds, his lips working soundlessly, before speaking.
“Okay, the real reason I called you all here this afternoon is not so we could debate the quality and quantity of the weekly ration boxes,” he said. “Folks, we’ve had a bit of a problem. You might remember our friend Ryan, the contentious young man who always faithfully attended our little meetings.” He pointed at the front row. “He liked to sit right there. Well, I’m sorry to say, that young man is currently sitting in jail. We caught him breaking into a home attempting to steal food.”
This caused immediate chaos. It seemed like every person in the room began speaking loudly all at the same time. Jodi glanced around and saw anger on every face. At first, she wasn’t sure who the anger was directed at, then she began to pick up on some of the comments.
“Can you believe this is what it’s come to?”
“Locked up for trying to find food. We’ll all be that desperate soon.”
“He didn’t deserve to be jailed. He was hungry.”
Comments like these came at her from all sides. She reached over and grabbed Shane’s hand. Finally, someone stood up one row in front of them. Jodi didn’t know his name, but she remembered him. He was young, well-muscled, notably thinner than before but still beefy, and he had a U.S. Navy tattoo on his right forearm. He had once stood up to oppose Ryan’s idea.
“Sheriff, if a person is starving and they know there’s food inside a private house, is it so hard to believe they might try to get inside? Does he deserve to be locked up for that? Me and my family have been getting pretty desperate ourselves. I have to tell you, if it comes down to my daughter dying or taking a can of beans out of someone else’s pantry, you know damn well what I’m going to do. I say let him out of jail so he can take care of his family, if he has one.”
And what that, he dropped back down onto his seat and crossed his arms.
“Let him out of jail, Sheriff,” someone shouted.
“Yeah, let him out of jail. Show mercy to a starving man!”
Others echoed the sentiment until it became a cacophony. James first tried shouting over them, then visibly sighed and raised his hands instead, patting the air to call them to silence. Still, it took almost a full minute before they settled down.
“Listen to me very carefully,” the sheriff said. “I am not letting Ryan out of jail. I cannot and will not allow people to break into private homes. The community voted against it, and even if it were legal, confiscation would have to be done in an orderly fashion. You do not have the right to trespass on someone else’s property just because you’re hungry.”
The longer he spoke, the more people began to grumble. Finally, Mayor Frank stepped up beside the sheriff and loudly cleared his throat.
“Now, look here, friends,” the mayor said. “Sheriff Cooley is just doing his job. He’s got to follow the law, even now. But I understand your sympathy for Ryan. As far as I understand it, he didn’t attack anyone, and when he was confronted, he immediately surrendered without resisting. In fact, the only thing he took from the home were some crackers, which he quickly stuffed in h
is mouth before the sheriff put him in handcuffs.”
This produced a number of sympathetic groans and even a few “oohs” and “aahs.” It made Jodi sick to her stomach. Shane leaned against her, bumping her gently with his shoulder. She knew him well enough to know what the bump meant: Get ready for worse.
“I’m making an executive decision,” Mayor Frank said. “It’ll get our good sheriff here off the hook, and it’ll give the community what it wants. I hereby formally pardon Ryan Langdon. It was a crime of desperation, and we will try to find a better way to address it.”
Sheriff Cooley smacked the podium with an open hand, the sound booming out across the auditorium. “Breaking and entering is still a crime. I am not going to let this criminal out of jail.”
The mayor turned and gave him a hateful look, his eyebrows drawing down until his eyes were in shadow. His lips came together in a tight little line. Jodi had never seen the man like this. He had always been so gregarious.
“I am pardoning him, Sheriff,” he said. “That means he’s not a criminal any longer.”
The crowd was clearly on Frank’s side, and they let their feelings be known. Maybe they felt like any of them could be just one step away from making a desperate decision like Ryan. Jodi’s skin tingled with the sense of imminent danger, and suddenly she wanted very much to leave.
“Okay, we will discuss this matter in private,” Sheriff Cooley said, finally. “Folks, don’t turn to crime. Please, don’t turn to crime. We will find another way. Hang in there a little longer.”
But the rising tide of voices suggested that the community had just about reached its limit. The garden was growing too slowly, the ration boxes were too small, and no other solution had been presented.
How long until they come for us? Jodi wondered.
19
The mayor let people complain for another thirty minutes or so, and every single person had the same issue in mind. They were all desperately hungry and wanted more food. Nothing else mattered. They didn’t care if the power came back on, they just wanted more food. Their base animal need had taken over. Shane felt it vibrating in the air, starving lions scanning every direction for zebras.
Mayor Frank leaned over and said something to the sheriff. James first shook his head, but then he stepped aside and gave the mayor the podium
“Okay, folks,” the mayor said. “I cannot, in good conscience, allow things to continue falling apart. If I don’t take decisive action, we’re going to wind up with a bunch of people dead, a bunch of people in jail, and everyone else just barely holding on. I’m not okay with that.”
Jodi felt a sinking sensation. Mayor Frank hadn’t been the most decisive leader thus far. She couldn’t imagine what he had in mind.
“Now, we’re not voting on this,” Frank continued. “I’m making an executive decision. Starting this week, I am ordering every household to bring all of their food to City Hall. You’ll register your family and receive a weekly ration box. You have until Friday to comply.”
There was immediate applause from most of the crowd. When the sheriff tried to take the podium, Frank blocked him and pushed him aside with his shoulder.
“Failure to comply will result in arrest,” the mayor said, shouting over the applause, “and a denial of rations. This is what we have to do.” Jodi watched his eyes track across the crowd and settle on Beth, but Beth didn’t react. She seemed resigned—she’d known this was coming.
Shane started to rise. Jodi grabbed his arm in both of her hands and tried to restrain him. The worst thing he could do now was antagonize the crowd. They just needed to get home as soon as possible. But Shane had a furious scowl on his face, and he pulled his arm out of her grasp. This made her injuries sting, and Jodi relented.
“You are a mayor,” Shane shouted. “Not a dictator. You don’t have the right to seize private property.”
Frank adopted the sheriff’s technique, pounding on the podium with his fists. “I am sick of this, Shane McDonald. I am sick of this attitude. I’ve danced around it long enough, but you are either with this town or against it.” He turned and pointed at Sheriff Cooley. “Sheriff, I don’t want this man on sentry duty. Take him off the volunteer list. Furthermore, I want you to make sure his family stays in town until Friday. I don’t trust them not to pack up and try to run, especially since we know they have more than one working vehicle. Do you hear me?”
Sheriff Cooley glared at him without saying anything. Someone in the crowd rose and shook a fist, shouting, “Mayor, don’t you know the sheriff is dating the matriarch of that family? He won’t do anything to stop them.”
Frank frowned. “I hadn’t heard that, sir. Thanks for the tip. Can I get a couple of volunteers to do guard duty at the end of their street? They live on a cul-de-sac so it’s one way in or out. Anyone?”
The big Navy man raised his hand.
“Gabe Watts,” the mayor said, gesturing at him. “Thanks. You’ll do just fine. Anyone else?”
Shane was still standing, and he resumed shouting, “Why are you singling out my family, Frank? How can you be sure other households are complying with your order? The honor system certainly isn’t going to work.”
This was the first thing he’d said that gained some sympathy from the audience. Jodi saw people nodding in agreement, though others glared at Shane and grumbled.
“He’s just trying to deflect attention,” someone said.
Shane turned and pointed at the person who said this. “See there? I’m guessing there are plenty of families hiding stuff in their homes. If it’s good for us, it’s good for everyone else. That’s how a smart dictator operates, Frank. Get it right.” He turned and stared daggers at the mayor. “If you’re going to be a tyrant, be a smart tyrant, you loser,” he said, finally, and dropped down into his seat.
Jodi immediately latched onto his arm to keep him from getting up again.
Mayor Frank was fuming, baring his teeth at Shane as if he wanted to lunge over the podium and attack him. His hands gripped the sides of the podium so hard it creaked. “Call me what you want,” he said, tightly, “but we’ll start with you lot and see how it goes.”
Sheriff Cooley moved to the edge of the stage. Mayor Frank reached out and tried to grab him, but James dodged.
“Sheriff, I’m still speaking,” Frank said, his face contorted with rage. “I’ll thank you to wait your turn, sir!”
But James didn’t speak. Instead, he reached up to his breast pocket, where his shiny badge was pinned. After fiddling with it for a second, he removed it, held it up, and cast it aside. The badge hit the stage with an almost musical sound, bouncing and clattering until it disappeared behind the curtain.
“I will not serve this town under these draconian measures,” he said. “You’ve lost your mind, Frank Zion. You are a small-town mayor. Act like it.”
“Gabe, come up here please,” the mayor said, beckoning the Navy vet. “Can I get a couple more volunteers? Come up here.”
The Navy vet was all muscle and hard edges, and when he stood up, Jodi realized just how tall he was—at least a few inches over six feet. She heard others walking down the aisle, and soon two rough-looking guys joined Gabe as they marched up the stairs to the stage. Sheriff Cooley slowly backed away, his hand creeping toward his holster, but the three men quickly surrounded him. He could have drawn his weapon, but Jodi assumed he was well aware that most of the townsfolk were armed these days.
“Make sure our former sheriff stays with Beth and her family,” Frank said. “They all belong together.”
The three volunteer guards closed in on James, and the one named Gabe finally lunged at him, grabbed his right arm, and pulled it away from his holster. Jodi watched all of this unfold with a growing sense of horror. She couldn’t believe it was happening. They were surrounded by a hostile crowd with no easy way out.
We should have taken a seat at the back of the room, she thought. We underestimated the danger.
And all of her children
were waiting at home. What if she never made it back?
Frank stepped around the podium and pointed into the crowd. It took Jodi a second to realize he was pointing at her brother, Mike.
“Mike, you’re his deputy,” Frank said. “I want you to turn in your badge as well. If he won’t serve, you shouldn’t serve either. I’ll get someone else to replace both of you.”
Mike glanced at Jodi and shrugged. Then he rose, reached into the pocket of his sweatpants, and produced the small gold badge the sheriff had given him. Rearing back, he chucked it as hard as he could toward the stage,
“Catch it, Franky Boy,” he shouted. “Wouldn’t want to work with you anyway.”
It hit the stage beside the podium and bounced loudly toward the back curtain. Frank glanced at it in passing, a look of contempt on his face. Mike promptly sat back down.
“Very good,” Frank said, sniffing loudly. “Thanks for being amenable, Mike. Now, folks, we’re going to ends things civilly tonight. Shane, your family has until Friday to comply with my executive order. That’s it.”
Jodi sensed hundreds of eyes staring holes into her. She felt like a treed raccoon with a pack of hungry dogs waiting below.
“How are we going to comply,” Shane asked, “if you’ve got armed guards preventing us from leaving our street?”
“Gabe and his crew will let you pass if you’ve got a large quantity of food with you,” Mayor Frank said.
Beth piped up then, straining to be heard. “What if we don’t have a large quantity of food?”
Frank gave her a flat, unhappy stare. “If I’m not impressed with the amount of food you bring to the food bank, I’ll order an inspection of your house. Is that clear? Don’t make this difficult, Beth Bevin. You’ve already caused this community enough trouble.”
Jodi wanted to stand up, flip off this miserable, sweating mayor, and unleash a string of profanities the likes of which he’d never heard, but she knew it wouldn’t help them get out of the room safely. Instead, she asked, “How do you define a reasonable amount, Mayor?”
Surviving The End (Book 3): New World Page 19