by P. A. Glaspy
“Ho-lee shit!” he exclaimed out loud. “I found the mother lode!” The problem was he had ridden a bike there, since his car was too new and no longer ran. How am I gonna get this to the house? He quickly ran through the list of people he would be willing to share this haul with who still had a working vehicle, even though he didn’t want to share any of it. He knew he would have to so that whoever he chose would agree to haul the stuff back to his house. He just had to figure out who he could trust to keep their mouth shut about it. He settled on Kevin.
Kevin Barnes had been a buddy of his since high school. They hung out a lot when they were teenagers. They weren’t as close now but Kevin had been in the group that looted the grocery store so chances were pretty good he’d be up for this. Not wanting to take the chance that someone else thought of the cafeterias at the school before he could get them cleaned out, he went straight to Kevin’s house.
The place was dark but he thought he saw the glimmer of a lamp or candle behind the blinds. He knew Kevin would be armed, so he knocked on the front door and called out at the same time.
“Kevin! You in there? It’s Doug. I need to talk to you.”
The door opened just far enough for one eye to peer out at him. When he saw that it was indeed Doug, he opened it a bit wider. “What the hell are you doing here this time of night? What do you want?” He didn’t invite Doug in.
“I’ve found a shit ton of food and I need someone to haul it. I’ll split it with you—say, seventy-thirty. All you have to do is haul it back to my house, then take your share and bring it back here.”
Kevin eyed him suspiciously. “Where is this stash?”
Doug shook his head. “Not telling unless you agree to the deal. Are you in?”
Kevin opened the door wider. “Sure, if I get the seventy. My truck, my gas.”
Doug’s mouth dropped open. No way! Fine, I’ll go sixty-forty then. I get the sixty.”
Now Kevin was shaking his head. “Not gonna happen. Tell you what. I’m in if we go fifty-fifty. Your find, my truck, your muscle, my gas. That’s fair.”
Doug scowled at him for a moment. Finally, he said, “Fine, fine! But we gotta go now, before someone else finds it.”
Kevin returned the scowl. “It’s fucking dark! Why can’t we do it in the morning?”
“Because this can’t wait that long. I ain’t stupid but I ain’t a rocket scientist either. If I could think of this so could someone else. We need to get the stuff now.”
“Shit. Alright, c’mon in while I find my shoes. In the dark.”
Doug stepped through the doorway. “Okay, just hurry the hell up. We don’t want to lose this one.”
****
Kevin whistled when he saw the food. “Oh man, you weren’t lyin’. This is a gold mine! What made you think of it?”
Doug was shining his flashlight over the food stores. “Just trying to think of places that stored a lot of food for a lot of people that weren’t actual stores. I came up with schools and prisons. Prisons might have people still in them but schools? No way. Let’s get busy. I haven’t even checked the other two yet.”
They loaded all the food from all three schools into Kevin’s truck. It took them the better part of the night and multiple trips but they cleaned them all out. Doug stored his part in his basement. It took him days to get it all down there since Kevin told him his duty ended at the garage. At first he was pissed, then he thought, What else am I gonna do? It’s not like I gotta go to work. He chuckled at the thought.
When he had finished, he had number ten cans stacked floor to ceiling along an entire wall two rows deep, plus a pile of fifty-pound bags of flour, sugar, cornmeal, and instant milk. To celebrate, he opened a big can of fruit cocktail. He sat in the floor of the basement eating his fill and estimating how long he could live off the food he had now. I bet it’s years.
****
Gary went to Doug’s house right after he left Manchin’s. He had stopped to pick up Jasper on the way for backup. He was relatively sure Doug was the culprit who had cleaned out all three school cafeterias, but he had to see for himself. He told Jasper to wait in the truck and walked up the front steps. He knocked on the door and called out, “Doug, you home? It’s Gary Burns.”
Doug peered out through the curtains. He yelled back from inside the house, “Yeah, I’m here. What cha need, Sheriff?”
Gary looked to the windows and saw Doug. “I’d like to talk to you. Could you come to the door please?”
Doug hesitated, then walked to the front door. He opened it but left the security chain in place. “Okay, I’m here. What’s up?”
Gary looked frustrated. “I’d like to talk to you about some town resources that have gone missing. Can I come in?”
“You got a warrant?”
“Do I need one?”
Doug seemed to consider that, then closed the door, slid the chain and opened the door wide. “Naw, I got nothing to hide. C’mon in, Sheriff.”
Gary walked through the doorway looking around. As with many single men during the apocalypse, house cleaning was not an important trait or a priority. There were clothes and dirty dishes laying all over the living room and kitchen, which he could see from the door. The house smelled of unwashed clothes, stale beer, possibly urine, definitely body odor. The room was stifling, with the windows shut and the curtains drawn. Gary wrinkled his nose. “You know, you might want to open some windows, air this place out a bit. How can you stand this heat?”
Doug looked around the room. “I guess I got used to it. I sit out back in the shade a good bit. So, what’s this all about, Sheriff? Whatever resources you’re looking for, they ain’t here.”
Gary was still surveying the rooms. He didn’t see any evidence of the missing food stores, but he also couldn’t see the whole house. He turned to Doug. “Someone broke into all three schools and cleaned out the cafeteria storage. I’m looking for that food. It would help the townspeople greatly and, by all rights, it belongs to everyone. Do you know anything about it, the missing food?”
Doug shrugged his shoulders. “Nope, I don’t know anything about that. Is that it?”
Gary looked him in the eye. “Mind if I have a look around then?”
“Yeah, actually, I do mind. You got a warrant? This is still America last time I checked.”
Gary narrowed his eyes. “No, I don’t have a warrant, but I can get one in about ten minutes. And I can wait here while I do. Is that the route you want to go down?”
Doug’s eyes darted left to right, as if trying to find an escape. There was none. With a heavy sigh he replied, “Okay, fine. Yes, I have the food from the schools—well, half of it. It’s in my basement. But, it was fair game, Sheriff. I thought of it, I found it. Why shouldn’t I get it?”
“You broke into the schools to get it. That food was paid for by the people of this town, all of them. They all have a right to it. Just because you got it, doesn’t make it yours. What if someone broke into your house while you were out and took it. Would that be fair game, since you weren’t home?”
“Hell no! That’s different. This is my home. I own it and everything in it.”
Gary nodded. “Exactly. The people, the citizens, the town owns the schools. You stole from everyone in town. I should arrest you for grand theft.”
Now Doug looked scared. “But, but, I wasn’t looking at it like that! I was scavenging empty places, just like everybody else. Why am I in trouble and nobody else is?”
With a disgusted look, Gary said, “Because you took enough food to have easily tided the town over until the crops came in. Because while you were sitting here with a full stomach, women and children in town were starving. There’s no excuse for that level of selfishness. Now, where’s the food?”
Dejectedly, Doug replied, “In the basement. I’ll show you.”
“No, I can find my way. I need you to go outside. My deputy will be with you while I take a look.”
Gary walked him to the door and motione
d to Jasper to join them. When Jasper got there, he asked, “Any luck?”
Gary nodded. “Seems so. I’m going to take a look. Keep Doug company while I do.”
“Sure thing, Gary.”
Gary turned and went back in the house. He found the door to the basement and went down. When he saw all of the food cans, he was livid. “Selfish bastard,” he said aloud. He stormed up the steps, through the house, out the door, and straight to Doug. Grabbing him by the shirt front, he said through gritted teeth, “You said you had half. Where’s the other half? Where’s the rest of the damn food?”
“K-k-k-Kevin has it! Kevin Barnes! I swear, Sheriff!”
Still holding Doug by his shirt, Gary looked at Jasper. “There’s so much food down there. We could feed the town for a month, easy. If there’s twice as much, we can get through the next couple of months, maybe more. I need you to stay here and guard this place. I’m taking this piece of shit to the jail for now, and picking Tim up to back me up at the Barnes’s place. We’ll be back with able bodies and vehicles to haul this stuff in. We’ll need to set up guard duty for the food at the community center when we get it back. This will definitely be worth someone trying to take. I’ll be back as soon as I can. You got water?”
Jasper gave him a quick nod. “Yep, I’m covered. Do what you gotta do.”
Gary let go of Doug, spun him around, and yanked his hands behind his back. After slapping a set of cuffs on him he pushed him toward the truck. “Get your ass in that truck. If you try anything—anything at all—I’ll shoot you. Do you understand me, you selfish prick?”
Doug stumbled, catching himself before he fell. He righted himself and turned to Gary, eyes full of hate. “Yeah, I understand. Just remember, Sheriff, when you’re threatening people like that—every dog has his day.”
“That wasn’t a threat. It was a promise.”
****
Doug went to Kevin’s door with Tim at his side. There was no wondering this time. He knew Kevin had the food. When Kevin saw through the peephole that it was the sheriff, he opened the front door. Gary pushed past him and walked into the house.
“Hey, what’s going on here? You can’t just barge into my house like this!” Kevin said indignantly.
Gary replied, “Actually, we can. We have reason to believe that you are in possession of stolen goods.” He was scanning the room as he said it. Among the trash and dirty clothes, he spied a couple of large cans sitting on the floor, empty. He gave Kevin his full attention. “And the evidence is there,” he said, pointing to the cans.
Kevin crossed his arms over his chest. “That don’t mean nothin’. How do you know I didn’t have that from before?”
Gary looked at him, disgust written all over his face. “Because the packaging is different for bulk bought by institutions. It’s very generic … like those.”
“Maybe I bought bulk online.”
Gary shook his head. “Kevin, you know damn good and well you stole that and a whole lot more. We already have Doug in custody. He gave you up. Stop lying to me.”
“That little piece of shit. I shoulda known he’d cave at the first sign of trouble. Fine, yeah, I’ve got the food. Well, half of it.”
“Where is it?”
“Back bedroom. I’ll show you.”
Gary shook his head. “No, you stay here with Tim. I can find my way.”
Kevin jerked his head toward the hall. “Last room on the left. I’ve got a lot of stuff in there that is legitimately mine. It best all be there after you take the food.”
Gary stopped and turned back to Kevin. “So, it’s okay for you to steal from others but not okay for them to steal from you. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“It wasn’t stealing! It was scavenging! Everybody is doing it.”
Gary took a couple of steps back into the living room. “Let me see if I can explain the difference to you. Scavenging is going to the house of a person who has died, or just didn’t make it home when everything went down. Getting a few days, maybe a week’s worth of food and supplies. Stealing is taking things from people who are still around, like the whole damn town.”
“How is it taking from the whole town? Everybody ain’t got kids in school. That food was bought for the school kids.”
“Right. Who are still here. And starving, by the way.” Gary shook his head. “You and Doug are cut from the same bolt of cloth. All you see is what’s in it for you. You think you’re entitled to all that food back there while other people in town—who, for your information, paid for that with their tax dollars—suffer. I’ve seen you at the meetings we’ve held, discussing how to move forward. I saw you with your hand out taking some of the rations we dispensed. I’m pretty sure you were part of the looting party that emptied the grocery store and almost killed a man. All the while, you were sitting on enough food to feed them all. You disgust me.”
Kevin stopped him. “Now wait right there, Sheriff. We didn’t have this food when we cleaned out the grocery store.” Realizing he had just admitted to what Gary already thought to be true, he said, “I mean …”
Gary held his hand up. “Stop before you admit to any other crimes, Kevin. Just sit down over there and keep your mouth shut.”
Gary walked back to the bedroom and did indeed find the rest of the food stores. He also found guns, ammo, jugs of water, and smaller piles of canned goods; kerosene heaters and lanterns; stacks of blankets, clothes and footwear. He went back to the living room.
“Well, it looks like you’ve done quite a bit of scavenging. Also looks like you’ve thought ahead to winter. Heaters and blankets—why?”
Kevin looked at him grim faced. “Hell, you know as well as I do this ain’t no ordinary power outage. This is bad, and it ain’t gonna get better for a long time. Everybody is thinking about right now, sweatin’ their asses off. What about six months from now? What they gonna do when there’s no heat? Them fancy gas logs ain’t gonna do shit, are they? No, we’re way more likely to freeze to death than burn up.”
Gary cocked his head and considered what Kevin had said. “Kerosene heaters don’t work without fuel. Did you think about that?”
Kevin snorted. “I ain’t stupid, Sheriff. I’ve got fuel. I just ain’t got it in the house. It’s out back in the garage.”
“And where did you get that?” Gary asked.
“I already had it! I keep kerosene on hand all the time. It don’t go bad like gas, and it works in heaters, lanterns, even refillable lighters.”
Gary nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you credit for doing that. I can honestly say it’s more preparing than I had done.” He looked at Tim. “We need to load all this food up and get it town. It’s going to take more than my truck. Jasper has a trailer we can use. We can probably do it in two loads, one from each place, with that and a truck. I’m going to take him to jail. I’ll pick up Jasper’s trailer and get back here as quick as I can. I’ll grab a couple of guys in town to help. We should be able to get it all loaded and back to town before dark.”
Tim asked, “How come we aren’t making him and Doug help? They stole it. They should help get it back.”
Gary replied, “Because I don’t want to waste space in the truck with their asses. I’ll bring a two-wheeler to hopefully help get it out and loaded quicker. Oh, and tarps. I don’t want the folks in town knowing about all this until we have it secured.”
“Why’s that, Sheriff?” Kevin asked.
“Because hungry people are desperate people. I don’t want anybody to die over some cans of food they should have had access to all along. I want to make sure we have it in a place we can control and use it for the good of everyone. Everyone.” He pointedly glared at Kevin when he said the last word.
“So, how come you get the say so over it? How come you get to divvy it out? Who made you boss of the town?” Kevin retorted.
Gary gave him a grim smile. “You did. You and everybody in the county did … when you elected me sheriff.”
“Not me,” K
evin stated with a smirk. “I voted for the other guy.”
The supplies were taken to the community center and a guard duty was set up to protect it. Angie was ecstatic when she heard about it. Good news travels fast, and before long, the street out front was filled with people from town with questions as to the distribution of the food. They were becoming increasingly louder and more agitated. Angie and Gary decided they needed to get them focused on how the items could best be used. Gary stepped out on the landing and held his hands up. “Folks, can I have your attention please?” He waited and there was no decrease in the volume of voices. He spoke louder. “Folks! I need you to quieten down and listen!” There was a slight lessening of sound but not quiet. Angie put her two index fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Everyone looked up then. She turned to Gary with a smile, and saw he was chuckling to himself. He leaned over and whispered, “Thank you, darlin’.” She nodded and looked at the crowd. Gary began.
“I’m sure you’ve all heard about the cache of food we got from the schools.”
“We heard Doug and Kevin took it, then you took it from them.” Silas was of course the first to interrupt. “Thanks, Sheriff. Now when do we get some of it?”
Gary held one hand up. “Please, let me finish. I don’t know how many of you have ever bought or used industrial sized cans of food. There’s about two dozen servings in one can, depending on the contents. If we start handing out cans, some of the contents could go bad before it gets eaten. Also, do you want a large can of green beans, while your neighbor gets a large can of corn, and the next person gets a large can of tomato soup? I think we should try to get the most out of this in a way that benefits everyone.”
Loretta King raised her hand. “What if we set up a soup line, Sheriff? We could make soups or stews, those take a few cans of ingredients put together to make big pots of food. Did you get flour or cornmeal?”