Nathan Jones - Shortage

“I don’t think anyone in a costume is going to be ringing our doorbell looking for a treat.”

“I hope not.” His cousin closed his eyes. “Although speaking of which, I think you should patrol around the hideout just to be sure for the rest of the day. Especially along the logging road. Try to hide the tracks you made dragging me here, too.”

Trev jolted to his feet. He’d completely forgotten they might still be in danger. “Right. You’ll be okay in here?”

Lewis waved at his leg. “I’m not going anywhere. Maybe I’ll get lucky and fall asleep, but if not I can always browse my book of edible plants.”

Nodding, Trev hurriedly shrugged back into his coat and retrieved his Mini-14. He’d probably want to clean it soon since it had been fired, but for now there was decent chance he’d be firing it again before too long.

He stepped out into the late afternoon sun and immediately started up the hill to cover their tracks.

As a young child Matt remembered dressing in a costume and going out with his dad to trick or treat at all the houses in Aspen Hill he could manage to visit before his dad got sick of the long walk and insisted it was getting late.

About the time he started to feel he was too old for it the custom changed and the town organized a Trunk or Treat activity along Main Street where all the parents would bring their car around and park them in a line so the kids could get their candy in safety. Matt had always thought that took the fun out of things and was a bit overcautious for a quiet town where everyone knew each other, but he supposed people had gotten more suspicious while he was growing up.

There’d be no Trunk or Treat this year. If anyone had candy they wouldn’t be giving it out to a bunch of other people’s kids while their own went hungry, but most people didn’t since Ferris and his goons had altered their inspections. Two weeks was too lenient, it seemed, and now they were confiscating any food they found. They justified it with their ration line, but it was looking less and less like organizing relief and more and more like outright theft.

At least they still only inspected houses when the owners gave them permission, holding the daily rations as the carrot, but there was no telling how long that would last. Matt had heard from a few people that food wasn’t the only thing the soldiers were taking anymore, and if their restraint was slipping in that area it was only a matter of time before they kicked down the doors of the few people who refused inspections.

There was also the fact that refugees were starting to make themselves more at home around the town, wandering the streets begging or offering to work for food, or hinting at even more questionable services. Most of Matt’s neighbors who had fruit trees or berry bushes they still hadn’t harvested were discovering that the uninvited guests had no qualms with walking right into their yard and picking the unripened fruit, getting belligerent or even violent if the owners tried to stop them. Matt had spent the last few days with his family digging up the garden for every single scrap of edible plant matter in it before the refugees hopped their fence as well.

So needless to say no parents were comfortable taking their children out to seek out candy, and it was shaping up to be a pretty miserable Halloween. The only bright point was that Ferris had announced that any children who came to the storehouse that evening would receive a chocolate bar, and in an attempt to brighten spirits around town many parents were dressing their kids in costumes for the event and trying to make it an informal party.

Matt was well aware that Ferris’s chocolate was an obvious ploy to regain some scraps of goodwill from a town that was quickly becoming hostile to the presence of him and his shoulders. That didn’t stop him from agreeing to join April and Terry in escorting his nephews to get their chocolate. His sister had managed to scrape together some costumes out of the clutter in their parents’ attic, and in spite of the grim mood around town it did make Matt smile to see the boys looking so happy and excited.

That wasn’t the only thing that made him smile, though. He’d been trying to find ways to take Sam out on “dates” without putting her in danger, an increasingly difficult task, but tonight was a perfect opportunity. The dark-haired woman had used a bit of twine to turn her bedsheets into a simple ghost costume, while Matt had dusted off his old high school basketball uniform. They were now walking hand in hand beside April and Terry, while Aaron and Paul kept running ahead as far as they could get away with before their mother called them back. For a while Paul had insisted on riding on Matt’s shoulders, but after watching his older brother running around he’d gotten too excited and had practically jumped off before Matt could lower him to the ground.

It was a chilly evening, no surprise for the end of October, and Matt couldn’t help but worry about what the cold portended. That and the fact that his basketball costume wasn’t meant for cold weather and he was slowly freezing. He used the cold as an excuse to put his arm around Sam, who saw through his motivations and turned to grin at him through the small face hole she’d managed to finagle without cutting the sheets.

“I should’ve been a blanket ghost,” she teased. “We could’ve been a two-headed one and you wouldn’t be trying so hard to put up a stoic front about not shivering.”

“It wasn’t this cold when we left to pick up the boys,” Matt defended, but from the laughter of his sister and her husband he had a feeling public opinion wasn’t on his side.

“You know he did it on purpose so he’d have an excuse to snuggle up,” April said, further ganging up on him. Matt endured the ribbing good-naturedly as they left behind Tom Watts’s house, where the Lynns were now staying, walked past his parents’ house, and continued another block to the storehouse.

Half the town was already there, along with most of the remaining refugee families that had children. There weren’t as many of those in the camp these days as there had been when Matt and Trev returned with April’s family from their trip north. Small surprise with Razor running clandestine prostitution and other unsavory and illegal activities out among the tents. The families that remained did so out of desperation, and in spite of the attempts at a cheery atmosphere Matt could see that desperation on the faces of the refugee parents ushering their children through the chocolate line.

Seeing it Matt felt his blood boiling in spite of himself. In town Ferris was coming down hard on the slightest infraction and was on the verge of kicking down doors, but he wouldn’t do anything about what was going on in the refugee camp.

Sam must have felt the tension in his arm around her, because she abruptly leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder in support. Then, clapping her hands, she went and took Aaron and Paul’s hands and helped them get in line, while Matt followed close behind with his sister and her husband.

The boys had found an instant friend in the dark-haired woman, and Sam warmly returned their affection. Even though she’d been introduced as just Sam and that’s what everyone called her, the boys had somehow decided to call her Aunt Sam. Aaron had even started asking embarrassing questions about whether Matt and Sam were going to get married.

Waiting in line quickly got old for a 5 year old and 2 year old, and Matt and Sam were doing their best to occupy the boys when he was sharply prodded on the shoulder. He turned to find Mandy standing there, smugly nibbling on a chocolate bar even though they were only meant for the kids.