Nathan Jones - Shortage

Once everyone else had headed up to their rooms Matt and Sam stayed down on the couch for a while talking about their own plans for the future. Nothing formal, although they both seemed to be constantly edging around the topic.

Matt had an idea there, too, something he’d been contemplating for a long time but had kept quiet about because conditions weren’t right for the topic. Now that his dad was back most of their problems were solved, and hopefully after he’d checked things out tomorrow their situation would be even more secure. Either way he’d save it as a surprise for after dinner the next day as well. Assuming he could get some help from his mom.

It was fairly late before they finally agreed they should get to bed. Since that first night after the attack Matt had permanently moved onto the couch to sleep, giving Sam his room. He preferred it since it allowed him to keep watch on the house while the rest of the family was safe upstairs, although he knew Sam felt bad about kicking him out. But for once she didn’t mention it as he kissed her goodnight and settled in to sleep, looking forward to tomorrow.

It could be the most important day of his life.

Thanksgiving dawned clear and cold outside their hideout, something Trev was more than aware of as he got up to prepare their feast as best he could.

Lewis wouldn’t go in for them gorging themselves on Thanksgiving, and he didn’t relent in spite of the fact that the hunting, fishing, and trapping had been going fairly well for the last few weeks even with the temperature steadily continuing to drop and getting another foot or so of snowfall.

What his cousin would bend on, however, was variety. So Trev had spent the last few days going over all their food to select out small portions of everything. Their dinner would include rabbit, trout, fresh venison from the deer he’d brought down and skinned and quartered himself just yesterday, currants, beans, rice, wheat, chocolate, chili, jerky, jalapenos, and a wide variety of spices to cook them with. His cousin also produced a small container of powdered lemonade for an extra treat.

Trev had to be pretty creative finding ways to cook the small portions with the few dishes and utensils available to them without getting all the flavors mixed up. He also had to make three meals’ worth of portions and promise Lewis they’d eat them over the course of the day. But when dinnertime arrived they came in from tossing around a crude ball his cousin had made from rabbit skin and pinecones and sat down to the meal he’d prepared.

Lewis wasn’t hesitant in complaining about some of the offerings, and Trev would be the first to admit that his attempts were hit and miss. Even so they cleaned their plates with great enjoyment, washed it all down with slightly watered down lemonade, then bundled up again and dragged the chairs outside to sit and enjoy the view of the mountains across the canyon and to either side, as well as the strip of road meandering down below alongside the river, as the meal digested.

After a few minutes of contented silence Trev glanced over at his cousin. “I like the picture and all but it sure would be nice to change the channel.”

“To what?” Lewis asked, idly watching a few scattered clouds to the north slowly drift towards them. “I don’t know about you but I haven’t watched anything on an actual TV with actual channels in years.”

“Well good news, your streak is going to continue.”

His cousin smiled at that, and a comfortable silence settled between them for a few more minutes. Finally Lewis stirred. “Guess we should keep up the tradition, even if it’s just us this year. I’m grateful for this hideout, for the supplies we have, and for the fact that we’re pretty much all alone up here and if we do have any neighbors they’re keeping to themselves as much as we are. Oh, and that chocolate earlier was really, really good.”

“Hey save something for me to be grateful for,” Trev complained. “Not much of that going around these days.” His cousin gave him a patient look. “Well I’m grateful for all that stuff too. And I’m grateful for the knowledge I’ve gained up here and the fact that we’ve been able to find ways to provide for ourselves, and that I didn’t botch the job with the deer yesterday. I’m also grateful to have the best survivalist I know for a roommate.”

Lewis gave him a slightly mocking salute. “Well that’s the tradition taken care of. Want to toss the ball around some more?”

“Not really. No offense but that thing kind of sucks.”

His cousin’s response was to reach down and scoop up a handful of snow, packing it as he spoke. “I guess it’s a snowball fight, then.”

Trev lunged sideways, tipping his chair over as the snowball zipped above his head. Grinning, he rolled over and came up to his knees, bringing an armful of snow with him that he hurled at Lewis. His cousin rose from his chair just in time to get a face full of powder, and with a bit of spluttering he bolted the other way to regroup.

Hastily scooping up a few quick snowballs to tuck under one arm, Trev lumbered through the couple feet of snow in pursuit. His aggression earned him a snowball to the face, and as he did his best to wipe his eyes more snowballs pelted him around the chest and shoulders. By the time he finally managed to launch his own counterattack Lewis was safely hidden behind a tree.

Trev closed the distance at an awkward run and circled around the obstacle until he could get a clear shot. But just before he was about to launch his snowball Lewis slammed his shoulder into the evergreen’s narrow trunk and sent the accumulated snow on the branches pouring down on Trev’s head.

He huddled against the unexpected shower, and before he could think of retreat he found himself tackled to the ground, thrashing as Lewis tried to bury his head in the snow. “Okay I give up!” he shouted.

Chuckling, his cousin helped him up. “You sure? You look better with a snow beard.” In spite of the ribbing Lewis also helped dust him off as they headed back to gather some things for their trip.

Now that the meal had settled a bit they’d agreed they would take the risk of leaving their hideout for a few hours to do some more long distance exploring. They hadn’t seen any sign of refugees on the road since the group they’d helped, and if they did have any neighbors up here neither of them had seen any sign of them. Considering the fact that they’d kept to their patrols and regularly panned the surrounding mountainsides with their binoculars and hadn’t come under any surprise attacks up to this point, Lewis was pretty certain either they were alone or anyone out there capable of staying out of their notice was content to live and let live.

Their day’s route would take them north a few miles, to where the road curved up a hill alongside the slope of the earthen dam holding back Electric Lake. Lewis had pointed out that automated signs along the road and around the dam had solar panels they could scavenge, and if they were lucky and their stuff in the shelter remained in good condition over the winter then they could rig up a system to power them even after Ferris had stolen the solar panels and batteries his cousin had set up there.

Trev wasn’t certain it was worth the effort, but then again he liked the idea of listening to music. Or watching a movie. Or reading one of the thousands of books his cousin had on his hard drives. He only wished they had that stuff up here so he wouldn’t go insane with boredom over the winter.

They took one last careful look at the road below and the slopes around them for any sign of intruders, and once satisfied with their continued isolation locked up the hideout and icehouse and left. A determined thief could break in fairly easily, but they trusted the lean-to’s seclusion and out of sight location to protect it for a short time as they followed the logging trail above the hideout heading north.