Nathan Jones - Shortage

“Well aren’t you a cute little thing?”

Sam jerked her eyes up from the ground and around to look down the street she was on, freezing in pure panic when she saw three men approaching. Her instincts told her to run but the only way she could go was west, away from the Larsons’ house, and she was already at the outskirts of town.

Her panic only increased when she saw that the small, nondescript man who’d spoken had his hands thrust deep into his front pockets. That was enough to recognize Razor, the same man who’d robbed Matt and April’s family and had hurt Terry.

While she’d stood frozen the man and his two friends had continued to saunter her way, the bigger goons circling around to either side of her in case she suddenly tried to bolt. Sam regretted her decision to not run when she had the chance, but she’d never been a very fast runner and she was certain if she tried now she’d be quickly caught by the longer-legged men.

Besides, she had the bear spray Matt had given her in her pocket. Maybe she could brave it out and get past them and just go home. Razor hadn’t seemed to want to hurt the others when he’d robbed them and had only sprayed Terry when he talked back. Not to mention it was broad daylight, and even if she was close to the outskirts she was still in town, with houses visible in every direction.

“Are you lost, miss?” the nondescript man said. “Or maybe you need a place to stay?”

“I’m fine,” she said politely, starting forward past him. “Excuse me, I need to get home.”

A hand that wasn’t much larger than hers closed around the forearm of her hand holding her daily ration, stopping Sam’s forward progress, and she felt her flesh crawl under his unexpectedly iron grip. “Got your day’s worth of gritty flour, eh?” he said, still in that same pleasant tone. “Bet you’re sick of just eating that for every meal, and it hurts my soul to see an unhappy woman. Wouldn’t you like a proper meal?”

Sam’s heart was beating out of her chest, but she did her best to keep from shaking as she pulled her other hand out of the sleeve of her coat and pointed the bear spray at him. “Let me go.”

Razor threw back his head and laughed, but at least he let her go. “No need to get scared and start threatening people, sweetie. I just wanted to know if you’d like to work for me out in the camp. I guarantee you’d eat better than anyone in town, and the work’s so easy you can practically do it lying down.” He winked lewdly. “Or literally.”

She knew exactly what he was talking about and the thought filled her with disgust. Especially after he’d put his hand on her. “No thanks, I’m doing fine.” She lifted the bear spray a bit higher and took a step back, opening her mouth to tell him to leave her alone.

That step slammed her right into the chest of one of Razor’s thugs, who’d moved to stand directly behind her, and Sam barely had time to squeak before the large man plucked the bear spray from her hand. “There, that’s more like it,” Razor said. “A sensible girl like you should really know better than to threaten someone, especially these days. I’m perfectly within my rights to defend myself if I’m threatened, although I’d rather not hurt a woman.”

Was he seriously trying to pretend that she was threatening him ? Sam tried to step away from the thug, only to feel his heavy hands on her shoulders pinning her in place. “I’ll scream,” she warned.

Razor grinned and put his hands in his pockets, and Sam felt a sudden surge of dread. While describing their encounter with the bandits on the way home Matt had told her why the nondescript man liked to have his hands in his pockets, and what he kept there. Her dread turned to alarm when he started to pull one hand out again, obviously holding something.

Before he could complete the motion a taller figure slammed into him from the side, seemingly out of nowhere, and bore the bandit leader to the ground. Sam felt an overwhelming sense of relief when she realized it was Matt, positioning himself atop the smaller man and making sure to use his knees to pin Razor’s hands in his pockets. The entire time his fists flew, slamming into the bandit leader’s face over and over again.

Sam immediately turned and yanked the can of bear spray out of the hand of the surprised thug standing behind her, stumbling backwards even as she aimed it up at his face and pulled the trigger. He staggered away cursing and screaming before his breath faded away to choking coughs, and Sam turned to help Matt.

Razor was still caught completely unprepared by the tall, wiry man’s attack, but the other thug reacted quickly to lumber forward and direct a brutal kick right at Matt’s face. He saw it coming in time to duck away, but the kick still caught him in the shoulder hard enough to throw him off the bandit leader.

Sam hurriedly raised the bear spray and aimed it at the large thug’s face, but unfortunately he saw her and ducked aside in time. She had to keep spraying as she readjusted her aim to hit him, and only managed to connect with a short blast before the can emptied and the spray petered down to a fizzing mist that barely shot a foot. The man still fell back coughing and swearing, but she didn’t think it would distract him for long.

In the meantime Matt had managed to roll over and come to his feet, backing away defensively as Razor also sprang to his feet and yanked his namesake weapon out of his pocket, swiping at his bloody mouth with his other hand. The nondescript man had looked furious as he stood, but now he was smiling broadly.

Sam screamed at the sight of the sharp blade, helpless to do anything as Razor lunged towards the man she was quickly coming to love. Guided by pure desperation she turned the bear spray upside down to try to get anything that was left, but it barely released a dribble that just dripped down to the ground. She could only watch in horror as events unfolded.

The bandit leader swung his razor at Matt’s face with blinding speed, and Matt barely managed to yank his head back in time. He tried to reach out and catch Razor’s arm, but the bandit leader yanked his weapon back towards his chest and without hesitation slashed at the back of Matt’s hand.

Again Matt barely managed to avoid being cut, but while he was focused on defending himself from the weapon the thug who’d taken a short blast of pepper spray lumbered in blindly and backhanded him with a heavy fist to the face. The blow knocked Matt to the street with a jarring impact, and Sam screamed again.

Smile widening to a snarl, Razor dropped to his knees straddling Matt and pinning his arms out to the sides, then brought his straight razor around for a precise cut.

Before it could land a deafening gunshot from behind Sam froze everyone where they were, even the thug she’d sprayed first who’d been rolling on the ground. Sam slowly turned her head to see a FETF soldier approaching with deliberate steps, M16 pointed at Razor’s chest. “Drop it and back away, now!” he barked.

The bandit leader reluctantly complied, tossing aside his weapon and stumbling to his feet as he swiped his hand across his bloody face again. His noise was bleeding like a faucet from one or more of Matt’s punches. “Did you see what these two did to us?” he demanded.

“Are you kidding?” Sam shouted incredulously as Matt stumbled to his feet and hurried over to put an arm around her shoulders. It was part comfort, part protective, and for Sam completely welcome.

The soldier shot her a warning glare before turning his eyes back to the three refugees. “I’m not stupid, man,” he said with just the slightest Spanish accent, which fit his classically handsome Latin features and dark hair and eyes. “I didn’t think you were stupid either. At least not stupid enough to come into town when everyone knows who you are.”