Caleb strained as he lifted a large boulder up a slope. He may have extremely large muscles, but it still required effort.
"Come on Caleb.", he thought to himself, You got this one."
After rolling up another few feet, Caleb paused.
"Now for the roll downward.", he muttered( his translator is on).
Slowly, Caleb allowed the boulder to push him, but only enough for him to work on his arm strength. After a bit, he hit flat ground and when the rock stopped pushing him, he took his hands away and wiped his brow.
"If I can't push a boulder this size up all the way, I'll have no chance against Shawn.", he thought to himself as he looked at the hill he was rolling the boulder up.
The hill was very high and very steep. Made good exercise and Caleb saw other members of the Undesirables pushing rocks up and rolling them down also. He then took a gulp of water and used a cloth to wipe his sweating face.
"Caleb?"
Caleb turned to see Zeke heading over( his translator is on too).
"What are you doing training at this hour?", Zeke asked seeing that Caleb had a cloth in his hand now wet with sweat.
"Working on my endurance.", Caleb answered, "What time is it anyway?"
Zeke checked a pocket watch he had with him.
"It's almost seven in the morning. We better see if the gatherers have come back with breakfast."
Caleb and Zeke made their way to the other side of their community to where the entrance pipe way was. It connected directly to the sewer system underneath Petropolis. Each day, some of their fellow community members went above to gather food scraps from city dumpsters and made sure the food was safe to eat before claiming it. After a bit, several members of the community came into the dim light of the early morning as portrayed by the lights coming on each one carrying a large sack which had the food they were gathering to bring back below. Caleb stopped them before they went passed.
"You checked this batch?"
The lead nodded and Caleb let them go on. He and Zeke followed to the banquet tables where they had Thanksgiving not so long ago. There, the gatherers unloaded their loot of gallons of milk, discarded breakfast burritos, half priced eggs, yogurt cartons still sealed, and other stuff like that. Soon a rooster came out of his house and gave a loud crow to signal a new day had started.
As the other Undesirables made their way to the tables, others came carrying breakfast dishes they made themselves just in case the gatherers didn't bring enough back. Everyone got a place and even Reynaldo had made the trip.
"Where were you?", Zeke asked him.
"Keeping my eyes on my foresight.", Reynaldo answered(his translator is on), "Dudley and Jeremiah's fate seems set in stone."
Zeke cringed. Sometime ago, Reynaldo had a prophecy that when Zero was fought, either Dudley or Jeremiah would perish. That still lingered among some, and some tried to forget. Caleb saw this and quickly changed the subject.
"So Rey, you got my special medicine?"
Reynaldo pointed behind him and a couple more Undesirables came in carrying a large barrel.
"Just as I always do.", Reynaldo answered, "Now, let's eat."
As everyone ate, Caleb looked carefully at the containers the gatherers had brought. They were decorated with bats, pumpkins, and other stuff.
"Must be Halloween.", Caleb thought.
As if someone heard him, Reynaldo put his hand on Caleb's arm.
"Petropolis is preparing for the annual Halloween activities.", he said in a calm tone, "Maybe this year we can go above ground and-"
"Certainly not.", Caleb said firmly, "We are not part of the world above. We're Undesirables and we have to stay here for our own defense."
Reynaldo seemed to get the idea. Ever since Jeremiah liberated them from Hades during the Underworld Civil War, they had been living underground living off what the earth would provide. But he wasn't going to back down.
"Can't we celebrate Halloween here?"
Caleb looked thoughtful for a minute.
"As long as we don't leave the community, I guess that would be okay."
After everyone had breakfast, they started preparing for Halloween. Farmers grew pumpkins as large as wheelbarrows, luckily though there were a lot of strong folks around so that wasn't much trouble. Reynaldo inspected each one to make sure it wasn't rotten. If it was, he sprinkled some powder he had which made the pumpkins healthy looking again. The farmers brought the pumpkins to the tables where carvers were hard at work carving jack-o-lanterns.
"Candles are coming soon.", Reynaldo thought to himself, "Wonder how Caleb is doing."
Caleb came over carrying a large black iron cauldron and placed it near the table.
"Fresh from the blacksmith.", he said, "He worked on that all week with his fellow iron makers. They're helping with decorations now."
Reynaldo looked at Caleb's face.
"You okay big guy?", he asked, "You seem distant."
"Seems like yesterday we celebrated Halloween like everyone else.", Caleb answered, "Now we celebrate it here underneath."
Reynaldo got the point.
"Hey, we still have humanity right? Who cares where a holiday is celebrated? As long as it's celebrated, a holiday can happen anywhere."
That cheered Caleb up a lot.
"Yeah it does. I'm gonna go help with our candy makers. They haven't made candy like this in ages."
Reynaldo got that detail. Since they lived like pilgrims back in the 1500's candy making was new and had to be rediscovered. Luckily Jeremiah taught them this before he left Caleb in charge. And just like the 1500's the candles were handmade as fellow civilians were demonstrating. They dipped a short piece of wood lined with strings hanging down and left them in for a bit. When they lifted it out, the strings now had dripping wax covering them. Caleb helped out setting up the large festivities where they were going to have their celebration. Poles were lifted into place around the large tables and some iron workers were forging iron cauldrons large enough for small children to sit in. That would take a while, but luckily Halloween was a few days away so they had time.
For the next two days, Caleb and the Undesirables worked long and hard getting their community ready for the big Halloween party they were going to have. The air had grown crisp and chilly so that set the tone. Even Reynaldo was getting into the swing of things. The pumpkins were carved into nice looking lanterns and were having their candles placed inside. Everyone was busy cooking their sweets for the celebration as well. There was homemade caramel corn, sticky buns, smores, and more sweet stuff like that. Caleb was done hoisting poles into place, but he looked kind of lost in thought and Zeke noticed this.
"You sure you're okay?", he asked, "What's on your mind?"
Caleb sighed.
"It's just that Jeremiah can't be here. He was a big part of our liberation and I was hoping he could come and celebrate with us like Thanksgiving last year. I understand he's busy fighting off Zero's advances and schemes, but I still miss him."
Zeke put a hand on Caleb's muscular arm.
"I know. I miss him too. But Jeremiah wouldn't want us to feel bad when we're together."
Caleb cheered up a bit, but not much. Then Zeke remembered something.
"Why don't we call him?"
Caleb looked interested.
"How?"
Zeke smiled.
"Remember that Jeremiah left us a communications device before he left? The telephone connected with the television screen?"
Caleb remembered that. Jeremiah had left a technological device that allowed the Undesirables to make calls to him even though he was above ground. Not many used it cause it was special, but this was an exception. Caleb followed Zeke to what seemed like a town hall of old with some civilians working on hanging decorations. They went inside and at the front of the room was a huge television screen big enough to fill three chair seats and a telephone at it's base. Caleb picked up the receiver and punched in a code on the pad. A few rings later, the screen lit up and Jeremiah's face appeared.
"Caleb, long time no see."
Caleb felt better right away.
"Nice to see you again Jer.", he said shyly, "What have you been up to?"
"Dudley and I are clobbering some dingos in Australia.", Jeremiah said, "We won't be heading out for a while. How are things down below?"
Just then, Jeremiah was tackled and Dudley's face came on the screen too.
"Hey it's Caleb!", he said rather excited, "Hey Caleb!"
Caleb felt like he shouldn't respond to this one cause Jeremiah pinched Dudley's lips shut.
"Sit!", he said harshly.
Dudley sat and Jeremiah turned back to Caleb.
"Sorry bout that. By the way, what's with the decorations?"
Caleb looked around and saw that Halloween decorations were inside the town hall as well as outside.
"We're getting ready for our Halloween party and I kind of wanted to call you and talk to you since you won't be here."
Jeremiah looked understanding.
"It was nice of you to do so. I better get going. Jake Legs really gets wound up if the mission is delayed."
After a salute from both ends, Jeremiah faded from the screen and Caleb hung up. He felt better now and he was ready to get the party underway. Unfortunately for him it wouldn't be til tomorrow night, but things were on schedule.
The very next day, Caleb was up bright and early(as he normally was) and had a stroll around the place. Everyone looked like they were ready for tonight when they would have a huge Halloween based dinner and have fun visiting other houses til late.
"Well, things look okay.", Caleb thought to himself, "Best thing to do now is hope it all works out."
Caleb walked around and sure enough, everyone was getting into the swing of things. Farmers were harvesting, children enjoying the crisp chilly air, and even the moss was changing color( they used these instead of tree leaves). Caleb walked over to Reynaldo's home which was set up a little outside the community, but that was natural. Reynaldo liked to keep to himself most of the time so he could do his biz. Before he could get close enough to see the house, Reynaldo showed up carrying a basket of apples.
"What are those for?", Caleb asked.
"A farmer gave them to me asking if I can help with caramel coating. I went back to get this basket I left here."
Reynaldo mentioned toward the basket to prove his point. Before long, evening was setting in and everyone was set. The jack-o-lanterns were being lit, children getting into costume, and the Halloween feast was being prepared. Reynaldo made sure the feast was in order and even filled the large cauldron with his own special mixture that bubbled, glowed and hissed as the fire burned beneath it. Even though Reynaldo wore a cloak made from discarded cloth, he looked pretty creepy as the others arrived. As everyone took their places, Caleb stood in front and everyone turned and went silent.
"My people, today we celebrate a tradition we have not since the day our enemy enslaved us. Through our savior Jeremiah Jackal, we have regained our reason, our hopes, our humanity, and most of all our honor."
Everyone applauded and Caleb continued.
"As we stand here, we may not live among those above, but that does not make us monsters. They celebrate up there, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate down below. They have their customs and we have ours. Let us celebrate our harvest and playful antics of Halloween to relive our days when we were like everyone above. Though I caution all that only a degree of mischief will be tolerated and in conclusion, let us thank Jeremiah for giving us our freedom so this event can occur."
The whole place rang with applause as Caleb backed away to seat himself in the huge chair at the head with Zeke on his left and Reynaldo on his right.
The rest of the night went really well. Children were trick-or-treating, people were hanging out, even Zeke and Reynaldo got into the swing of things. Caleb watched all this and pulled out his military dog tags he had around his neck.
"Thanks Jeremiah.", he said to himself, "For accepting us as civilians and not as wretches that Zero tried to force us to believe. Through our pain, our fear, and our despair, you showed us we could change and be more than just slaves. You proved that we could even celebrate the holidays we used to before Zero took us away and ensure our children could be like those above."
"Caleb, you coming?"
Caleb turned to see Zeke and Reynaldo mentioning him to come chat. Caleb put his tags away and smiled before coming over.
"We really pulled this off didn't we?", Reynaldo asked as they watched the festivities.
Caleb nodded.
"Just like how we used to above the ground."
Zeke put his hand on Caleb's muscular forearm.
"Happy Halloween big guy."
Caleb didn't answer, but Zeke knew he was in the moment. Reynaldo smiled too as he stood at Caleb's side. This really was one good Halloween they had in a very long time.