With a slightly better attitude than I’ve had in days, I ventured into Moose Creek to see how the town was handling all that has happened.  I was surprised, and yet not, to see it was business as usual: people were walking around; Fram’s was still open a few hours a day for hardware or for weekly gas allotments; notices were posted; and the township hall was back to being the hub of activity.

“Good morning, Deborah!” came a cheery greeting from Donna.

“Well, you’re in a good mood,” her good mood was contagious.

“I am!  My work just got a lot easier.”  Apparently, with all the weapons confiscated from The Wheelers, and especially the thousands of rounds of ammo, our new Law Enforcement no longer had to depend on their own reserves that were beginning to get severely strained.  “Plus, our new deputy is down at the Big Guppy supervising the replacing of the logs.  I might be able to take a real lunch break!”

“Whoa!  What new deputy? And what about the logs?  I thought Danny had already moved them out of the way.”  In fact I knew he had moved them, it was the only clear route, and how Paul had taken the bodies to town and the GFS truck had gotten up here.  “What have I missed?”

Donna just grinned.   “We deputized Vince, yesterday.  He’s going to work out great.  I can’t believe we actually suspected him of those fires.”  She shook her head in disbelief.  “He’s eager to do even the crappy jobs, like organizing the mess Danny left.”

The dozen logs Danny had put in the path of The Wheelers, had just been dragged out of the way when they were no longer needed and then haphazardly piled to the side.  After further discussing the situation, it was realized that if those were needed again it would take twice as long to move them as they were now: looking like a bunch of giant pickup sticks with bark.  By making two piles, one on either side of the road, and arranged in a 3-2-1 stack, replacing the barricade would take only half the time.  And we were well aware how valuable a few minutes could be, and what a difference it could make to our safety.