Nathan Jones - Shortage

“Okay,” Trev said. “Only she wasn’t very polite with us.”

“Really? That’s unusual.” Matt grinned at him. “Maybe it’s her way of saying she likes you.”

Trev tried to laugh that off, but even though he knew it was a joke he was still secretly pleased at the thought. Maybe it was the winter of forced isolation with only his cousin for company talking, but even if Jane had been a bit, um, curt with them earlier he was willing to entertain a glimmer of hope.

She was cute.

The evening around the campfire didn’t turn out to be quite the wellspring of news about the outside world that Lewis had hoped for. Matt mainly wanted to talk about Sam and the wedding, while Tom was mostly interested in talking about the hardships the town had gone through.

It was from the older man that they learned about the attack on the shelter just before Catherine had sent Matt looking for them. Lewis wasn’t pleased about that at all, and after that mostly grumbled about the damage to his door and whether the wind turbines on the vents and the hat on the stovepipe could be cleared to working condition again, if they hadn’t been already.

His cousin was also more than a little irked that the attackers had used some of his gasoline, and was less than pleased when Matt couldn’t tell him that the shed had been locked tight once again. Even Matt’s assurances that the family was guarding the shelter and nobody would mess with the stuff in the shipping container didn’t completely mollify him.

For Trev’s part he tried a couple times to strike up a conversation with Jane, only to have Matt’s assessment of her confirmed by her terse answers as she stared into the flames. He didn’t think she said more than half a dozen words the entire time, and on his third attempt to tease some sort of discussion out of her the redheaded woman abruptly stood and walked to her tent, disappearing inside without a word. Trev worried that he’d said the wrong thing until Tom assured him that it wasn’t unusual for her to just leave without excusing herself.

A bit later Tom also called it a night, looking more than ready to sleep. That left the three of them sitting quietly around the fire, playing chicken on which of them would be the first to break up the party. Trev was almost surprised when Lewis spoke up.

“I’m glad you managed to make things work with the refugees, but should you be letting them guard the town?”

Matt shot him an annoyed look. “There’s no “them” anymore,” he corrected sharply. “It’s all “us”, residents of Aspen Hill. We buried the hatchet last fall and pulled together to survive the winter. I’d especially avoid calling Jane or anyone from her group a refugee. She doesn’t see herself as one.”

“I suppose you’re right. As long as the town survives everyone who lives there has a home.” Lewis abruptly stood. “Speaking of which we should probably get an early start tomorrow.” They said their goodnights and Trev and Lewis made their way back to the hideout. They’d have to be up even earlier than the others to pack up everything they planned to take with them.

Trev must’ve been more excited about his return to civilization than he’d thought, because it took him longer than usual to get to sleep. And in spite of his weariness he was up and out of bed the moment his cousin showed signs of stirring.

They planned to leave behind everything that had already been there when they arrived, since it was all stuff they already had down in the shelter, which meant they’d only be taking what they’d brought or found since. In fact, the wagons wouldn’t be quite as weighted down for this trip since they’d eaten through a bit of their food.

They still had enough to last them both for nearly four months, which Trev felt fairly proud about: through hunting, fishing, and foraging they’d managed to gather over half the food they’d eaten during the time they’d spent up here, only needing to dip into the food storage for two months’ worth. Or at least the equivalent, since while packing up they’d emptied the icehouse of the roughly 70lbs of meat they still had in there to take with them, to replace what they’d eaten from their stores.

They hadn’t quite reached self-sufficiency, yet, but then again they’d eaten well all winter without having to go below optimal caloric intake.

Lewis also loaded the deer and rabbit skins he’d laboriously cured over the winter, and then they piled their camping gear and other equipment on and stacked the weapons they’d taken from the bandits along with their own weapons and ammo up top, wrapped in their sleeping bags to protect against any accidental banging.

His cousin had been about to load Jane’s .30-30 with the other weapons, but before he could Trev intervened. “I’ll take it,” he said, casually picking up the rifle and slinging it over his shoulder.

His eagerness earned him a knowing look. “Don’t mind lugging the extra weight down if it means you get to be the one handing it to the cute redhead?” Lewis asked. Trev felt his face flush and his cousin grinned. “I thought you didn’t like her.”

“I’ve been snowed in on a mountain for four and a half months with just you for company. I’m willing to give her a chance.”

“You think she’ll give you a chance? She didn’t seem to like you either. Besides, you heard what Matt said about her disengaging personality.”

Trev shrugged. “I get along with you, don’t I?”

Lewis held up his hands. “Hey, if you want to give it a shot go for it. I just figured after Mandy it would be once bitten twice shy.”

He could’ve done without the reminder. “Do you honestly think Jane’s anything like her?”

His cousin paused in rearranging the large but fairly light tarp-wrapped bundle of solar panels and batteries he’d scavenged over the winter atop the stuff on his sled, frowning thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, from what I’ve seen she’s pretty close to the exact opposite.”

“I can’t think of any higher praise.” Trev stooped down and grabbed lengths of cord to tie down the stuff on his wagon, and once that was finished covered it all with a tarp and tied that down as well. By the time he finished Lewis had already tarped and tied down his own wagon, so Trev picked up the towing rope. “Ready?”

Lewis nodded and went over to secure their lock on the hideout’s door. There was no need to lock up the empty icehouse, and if anyone had the desire to steal something from the outhouse they were more than welcome to it. Just like that they’d done as much as they could to secure this place in their absence, against intruders and elements both. With a last look around his cousin picked up the rope to his wagon and motioned for Trev to lead the way.

Always planning ahead, Lewis had suggested that they carve runners to tie to the wagons’ wheels to turn them into sleds, in case they needed to get their stuff out fast while the snows were still piled high. Trev had been happy to take on the project, as much because he thought his shoddily built moving dolly wagon with its small multidirectional wheels would be easier to handle as a sled as because he agreed that it was a good precaution. It was also something to do on long winter nights.

Now he was glad they had, since it meant they were ready to go with no need for major preparations.

Instead of taking the wagon sleds up to the logging road and following it all the way around the way they’d brought them in last fall, which would’ve been a pain and taken forever, instead they pulled them down the slight slope to the cliffs and found a sturdy tree. Lewis got out the pulley and hooked it to the trunk, and together they lowered the wagons one by one to the slope below, where Matt was waiting to catch and untie them. It went off without any disasters, and in around fifteen minutes they’d retrieved the pulley and were heading down the gap.