All The Dark Places

33. Confidence Woman

    People were leaving, and that was fine with her. She would miss Valerie, but Valerie was the only one she would miss of the departing groups. The food supply was gone, and people were moving on to find places with smaller populations. Some took the opposite approach and went to Athelgate, soon finding that resources there were even more scarce. Those people moved on, to where she had no idea. She guessed small farms and little villages that would not exactly be welcoming to new mouths to feed. On Monday, Valerie left and with her a trade mission. The wagon was filled with trade goods, and four armed guards accompanied Valerie to the Westingham Organic Farm in Bixby. Rosalind made a show of Valerie's mission, holding a small ceremony at the South Gate of the castle. She said goodbye to Valerie and gave a handshake to each of the guards, all of them young men who looked excited to be doing something that might change the way things were going at Thornwood. On the way back, the guards would stop at farms and business establishments that were relevant and see about opening more trade spots along the route. Scott was going with them for this reason. Scott was persuasive and smart. She hugged Scott and whispered in his ear,

"You come back in one piece, dammit."

"I will. I'm Superman now, remember?" he grinned.

"Yeah, well, none of it grows back, so be careful."

They loaded sacks of dried meat, beans, oil, goat cheese and other goods onto the wagon, and she hoped she was not making a huge mistake. They needed seeds desperately. This was risking a wagon full of important goods, but it was well guarded. The men were well armed with axes and pikes. Ethan gave Scott his rifle and told him to use it to scare anyone who got in the way. No one knew the guns stopped working yet, at least not in Thornwood. She hoped that people hadn't figured it out elsewhere. In any case, a rifle would be a good intimidation tool. Rosalind and Ethan covered the wagon with a large tarp and secured it down with bungee cords. She felt a rumble in her stomach as she watched the trade mission leave the South gate and down the road toward Athelgate.

The very next day, the Cameron family, a family of six, made it known that they were planning to go North. They had family there, and likely they would be taken in and seen as welcome members of a tiny community. They asked for guards to accompany them, and she got two volunteers who would return when the family was delivered. This sparked a trend. People were learning quickly that those who did nothing to contribute to the community were last in line for food and supplies. Most households had run out of food completely, and the nights were dark without oil, lamps, and candles. The hunters and gatherers in the community had most of the power over the food supply as they were the ones supplying rations and rations went to those who contributed. She had set up a program to care for the elderly and children under twelve, of which there were not many of either kind. A care package was delivered each Wednesday to those who qualified for the program- just barely enough meat, produce and goods to last through the week if rationed carefully. She had Hannah and Scott look in on those in the program to make sure they were being fed. Twice, Hannah and Scott found that care packages had been stolen from the elderly, and she made it a point to hunt down the culprits and publicly shame them.

Shaming wouldn't last long though. She knew that. Soon, when people started starving, those care packages would not be possible at all, and what supply was left, people would fight for and people would die trying to get what they needed. The elderly would be the first to be forgotten, and those with children would use that fact against everyone else to inspire guilt. Others wouldn't care and would resort to violence. It was coming, and it was coming soon. Families began leaving in droves, some of them grouping to make caravans on the road, heading to somewhere, anywhere that had room for them.

"They're looking for Shangri-la," Ethan said to her as they watched another group depart through the South Gate. She gave a ceremony for each departing group. She wanted it to seem heroic, a trend that was the right thing to do. Hopefully, more would leave. "They want a place where they can put in minimal work and take out plenty of food."