Grid Down Perceptions of Reality

by Bruce Buckshot Hemming

  To ease the apparent tension, Scott quickly said, “Brett, this fellow says there’s a way to rig up generators to run on wood gas. We were wondering if you had any information, or if you could help him.”

  Brett seemed to come out of his trance and said, “Gentlemen, gentlemen, I’m sorry, please come in.”

  They entered and followed Brett into the kitchen. The table was covered with electronic parts. There was a soldering gun plugged into an inverter, wired to a battery, which in turn was rigged up to a bicycle driven alternator.

  Brett said, “Don’t mind the mess, I’ve been working for weeks, robbing components to get a switchboard operational for the windmills. As for your gasifier, I have the answer in my library.”

  “The answer? Sorry, but you lost me.” Scott said. “What’s in your library?”

  “I have the FEMA handbook on how wood gasification works, and how to use it to run cars, tractors, and generators.” He looked at Preston and smiled, “Where were you last winter when we really needed you?”

  “Oh my God, this can be so easy. Why didn’t I think of this before? All we need are barrels, piping, and generators.

  Without another word, he rushed off and said, “Follow me gentlemen.”

  They followed him into what used to be a bedroom, but was now a complete library, with a desk in the middle, covered with papers and open books.

  Brett started shuffling through the books and was thinking aloud, “Now I just have to remember what binder I put that print out of the PDF in.”

  One whole bookcase was dedicated just to binders. There was a slip of paper listing all of the books, and which binders they were in.

  “You see gentlemen, I never trusted important documents to computers hard drives or disk. I always printed everything out and put it into my binders.”

  As he continued to look through the binders, he said, “I was so stuck trying to figure out how to make the windmills work, because they would produce an incredible amount of electricity, that I spent months and months trying to get at least one up and working, and the whole time we could have been rigging tractors, trucks, and generators to wood gasifiers for everybody’s houses.”

  He continued in sort of a mumble, his mind going a million miles a minute. He turned around all excited and looked at them. “Now from what I can remember, charcoal works better than wood, but of course you can use wood, but it needs to be chips. You understand it’s not like burning in a wood stove, it’s different. He turned back to the bookshelf scanning quickly and still mumbling to himself.

  Preston looked over at Scott with the “I see what you mean look.” Scott smiled and shrugged.

  He said, “Brett, are you sure you printed it out?”

  Brett swung around, “Of course I printed it out. Do you think I would trust a computer, or my failing memory, to something this important? Do you gentleman understand pyrolysis? It means to break down a compound by heating it in an anaerobic atmosphere, thus producing a gas.”

  Preston said, “In layman’s terms, please.”

  “We have to heat the wood, without combustion, which breaks down the compounds, releasing the wood gas. It’s really not that complicated, and just sounds complex, and it’s really quite simple, once it’s set up. Wood gas was used during World War II to operate cars, and they used charcoal, instead of wood, so that they could skip the pyrolytic phase and minimize the size of the generator.”

  Preston looked at Scott and asked, “Is there a coal mine anywhere around here?”

  “I have no idea.” Scott replied.

  Preston asked the Professor, “So if we could find coal, it would make the refining process easier. Is that what you’re saying? How much coal do you think we would need, say per household, or per year? A ton of coal, two tons of coal?”

  The professor turned around from the bookcase and looked at Preston, “Well, I don’t know for sure. It all depends on how much they run their generator per day. If we can rig up batteries, they would only have to run it two or three hours a day. That’s just for generators. Now on vehicles, that would be something totally different. Why, do you have an idea where we can get coal?”

  Preston responded, “Well this is a long shot, but I do know that the trains that traveled through this area in the fall, carried large shipments of Wyoming coal. It was shipped back East, and mixed with Eastern coal to meet EPA standards for emissions. Now I looked into this once, and I’m just going by memory of course, but it seems to me that each train car held like 30 tons. If we got lucky, and one of those train shipments broke down close to here, we could be sitting on a year's supply of coal.

  Brett said, “All right gentlemen, I’ll find this book.” looking at Scott, “You need to put together a scavenging team, send them out to collect barrels, piping, generators, battery chargers, any good batteries they can find, and we’ll need inverters too.”

  After a pause, Brett said, “Oh, I almost forgot, we’ll need plenty of wire. Now get out of here while look for that book. I’ll write down a plan for home generators first.” Then turning toward Preston he said, “Why don’t you and another team go search the train tracks. If you could find coal, it would make my job that much easier. Good day gentlemen.” With that, he abruptly turned around and went searching for the book.

  Preston looked at Scott and Scott nodded toward the door. They walked outside and climbed on their horses. Scott chuckled, “I told you he was a little different. I did warn you, but he’s a super great guy when he gets on a project like this. It’s best just to leave him alone to work on it.”

  Preston smiled, “Actually I’m very grateful to him. Now the pressure is off of me, and it’s on him to make it work. He is one of those guys that are perfect for helping to rebuild society.”

  As they rode down the road, Scott said, “Tomorrow, we will put together teams to look for the items we need. I’ll be with the scavenging team assigned find the materials, and assign one man down with you, plus you can take Michael to look for the coal. The man I assign can bring you extra horses so you guys can search the train tracks. Sound good?”

  “That sounds like a plan. You know if it involves horses, Michael’s going to love it. Thank you for the use of them.”

  Scott smiled, “Heck, you’re only a kid once. It will be good for him to get out in the woods.” He stopped his horse and pulled out a map. Pointing to a spot, he said, “Just south of here is the main railroad tracks, if you remember we crossed them a couple miles from where we rescued you guys. I would say, as a suggestion, you go down and ride west for four hours the first day, and then turn around and come back. If you haven’t found any coal, then spend the next day going east.”

  “That sounds like a really good plan. Thank you. I was wondering how the horses are on train tracks.”

  “We don’t ride them on the tracks, ride beside them, on the shoulder.”

  The next morning, Preston and Michael were up early and ready to go. A man rode in with two saddled horses behind him. They went out and greeted him.

  The man’s name was Barry, and he seemed like a user-friendly kind of young man. He was about 28, had a young wife and two children. He liked Michael and they instantly hit it off. The road down to the railroad tracks seemed to take forever, as it was a hot July day, even for northern Wisconsin.

  After arriving at the railroad tracks, they rode down the shoulder of them without a problem, but when they had to cross a bridge, it became a problem. The railroad bridges had steel pilings that the railroad beams sat on, and you could see clear down to the stream. They had no choice but to go down and cross the creek or ravine bottom.

  When it came to crossing a small river, Barry knew just how to do it. They carefully led the horses down and rode them a crossed. They were slow moving streams and one side was shallow, so crossing them wasn’t too bad.

  The miles clicked by and there was nothing, just empty track for mile after mile.

  When they came up to another stream at noon, they sto
pped for lunch. After they eaten the sandwiches Amy had packed for them, Michael interrupted their conversation and said, “While you two old men are sitting around talking, can I go fishing?”

  Preston looked up with a surprised look and said, “You brought the fishing equipment with you?”

  Michael laughed, “What have you always taught me? Be prepared. I have my survival kit with me.”

  Preston laughed, “Okay, good job. You can fish for an hour. Barry and I will ride the tracks for another half hour, and then turn around and come back. When we return, you be ready to go, right?”

  “Of course I’ll be ready to go, with the whole stringer of fresh fish.”

  Barry laughed, “Pretty confident for such a young man, aren’t you.”

  Michael looked up and said, “I sure am. I caught a 5-pound Pike all by myself,” looking at Preston for confirmation, “didn’t I, Preston.”

  Preston nodded, “Yes you sure did. You’re a great fisherman. We’ll see you in an hour, so stay out of trouble.”

  Barry and Preston mounted their horse and rode back up to the railroad tracks, continuing westward.

  They returned an hour later and Michael was ready to go. He had one 12-inch smallmouth bass. He showed it to Barry and Preston, saying, “You should’ve seen the monster that got away,” and he stretched out his hands about 2 feet wide, “it was the biggest bass ever seen in my life. He spit the hook out just when I reached down to grab him.”

  Barry laughed. “Here we go with the monster that got away. He was 9 feet long right?”

  Michael looked frustrated and said, “I’m serious. He was huge. A great big fat bass.”

  Preston chuckled. “I believe you, now come on, we have to get back and have a lot of ground to cover.”

  They arrived back at the cabin around 6 o’clock. Michael jumped off his horse, grabbed his rifle and holding the fish right in front of him, raced toward the door.

  Preston said, “Whoa there son, aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Michael stopped on the porch, turned around with a quizzical look, and said, “What?”

  I think you should thank Barry for bringing you a horse to ride, don’t you?”

  Michael looked at Barry and said, “Sorry. Yes sir. Thank you for letting me ride your horse.”

  With that, he ran inside yelling for Amy. “Look what I got us. A fresh fish for dinner.”

  Preston asked Barry if he needed any help taking the horses back, and then asked if he would like stay for dinner.

  “Thank you, but no. The wife is waiting for me. I’ll take care of the horses and see you in the morning.” Preston handed him the reins to the two horses they had ridden.

  “Okay, my friend. I’ll see in the morning.” He grabbed his rifle and started walking toward the house.

  Suddenly, the loud crack of a rifle shot, followed by the smack of a bullet hitting flesh. He reacted from years of training, without even thinking, he flipped the safety off as he brought his rifle up to his shoulder, and swung in the direction the sound had come from.

  He saw 10 men on horseback bearing down on them. He shot the lead two horses that crumpled and fell, tossing their riders on the ground. He fired five more shots at the remaining riders and they broke off the attack, stopping their horses and running for cover. He ran over and helped Barry up. He supported him with his left arm while he fired one-handed, as they ran toward the door.

  Bullets were flying and snapping all around him as they dove in the door. Amy was already armed and standing by the door. She quickly shut and locked the door.

  Preston yelled out for Amy to patch Barry’s wound, and Michael to close the shutters. Like a well-oiled machine, they automatically went to work and the house was secured.

  Amy was using Kotex maxi pads for a battle dressing, stopping the bleeding. She said, “He must’ve been turning on the horse because the bullet hit him in the left arm and exited the back, going clear through.”

  Earlier, Michael had followed Preston’s direction and had the men stack the firewood all around the cabin. This created 16-inches of wood, giving them some bullet protection. It was stacked 4-feet high, so they just had to keep their heads down and let the bullets pass over them. The shooting was intense for a few minutes, breaking bottles, pictures and putting holes through walls, and then silence.

  They heard a voice call out. “We want the girl. There’ll be no more bloodshed if you just give us the girl. She’s my commodity, I own her.”

  Preston responded, “Like hell we will.” He then told Barry that it was the guy that had kidnapped Amy.

  “Look, you don’t stand a chance. I’m a retired lieutenant from the Sheriff’s Department, and was in charge of our SWAT team. We’re experts at breaching houses.”

  Preston yelled back, “To protect and serve, eh. Well there’s only one way to deal with crooked cops like you, and that’s to put them down like a rabid dog.”

  The response was, “Okay. We tried to be nice about this. Now we are going to burn you out.”

  They heard something crash on the roof. They heard a bottle breaking and the flames erupt with the whoosh.

  Amy, with a frightened look on her face, looked at Preston, “What are we going to do now?”

  Preston smiled, “You did notice we have a metal roof, right. It was painted with the new outdoor fireproof paint, released in 2013. The whole outside of the camp is painted with the same stuff. They are just wasting their time.”

  The fire burned for a few minutes, and then nothing. Preston pulled a board off the wall, revealing a 12” x 8” shooting port. Looking for targets, he scanned the front lawn and noticed that the horses had run off.

  Just then, a man came running up, holding a Molotov cocktail with the rag ablaze. Preston dropped him in his tracks with one shot. Another man ran up and as he reached to pick up the bottle, Preston shot it, shattering the glass and gasoline flew bursting into flames, engulfing the man. He did not waste another bullet on the man.

  The man was running and screaming in pain, flames shooting out behind him as two men raced over to help him. Preston dropped both of them. Nobody else moved and the man on fire fell over, and soon the screaming stopped.

  “Hey SWAT boy. Looks like your team isn’t doing too well, is it?”

  The man responded, “More men will be arriving soon. We are going enjoy cutting you to pieces.”

  Preston yelled, “I suggest you retreat while you still can.”

  Preston’s comment was answered with a flood of bullets. He ducked down laughing.

  Amy said, “What the hell is so funny.”

  “He just lost four men, and it’s my guess he probably doesn’t have very many Molotov cocktails left. It would be kind of dangerous to be traveling on horseback with them don’t you think?”

  The shooting died down. The stovepipe had been hit several times. These guys must be fool’s or have unlimited supply of ammo to be wasting so much.

  Barry had lost quite a bit of blood, but was still ready to fight. His rifle was still in the scabbard on his horse, so he asked Amy, “Do you have another rifle I can use?”

  Amy handed a rifle to Barry and he moved to the front wall of the cabin, ready to follow Preston’s orders.

  Preston told Amy to keep her head down, but look out the kitchen window and tell him what she saw. He told Michael to do the same on the other wall. He told Barry where the shooting port in the back of the cabin was, and he went to check for movement at the rear. Preston kept look out through his shooting port.

  Amy called out she couldn’t see anything and nobody was moving around. Michael reported the same thing. Preston could see some movement but nothing to shoot at. They were still there and probably trying to figure out their next move, just trying to come up with a plan.

  Amy yell out, “Oh no you don’t.” And she fired through the shooting port on the kitchen side. She was too late. Preston saw the Molotov cocktail fly through the air and crash on the porch, just below his
shooting port. This isn’t good. If that catches the firewood on fire, they could be in serious trouble.

  Chapter 18

  The Armory Safe

  No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

  Voltaire

  Joe walked into the other room and looked at the wall protecting the safe. “Wonder how thick this steel is, and how in the world are we going to get in there?” he thought.

  Thinking to himself, he noted that there were six sides total. “There has to be a weak spot somewhere.” He walked back into the hallway, deep in thought. The armory might be holding what they really need. It sure would be nice to find the blueprints, but nobody would be careless enough to leave those lying around. “Maybe we could use a blow torch. This might take a few days to figure out.” He walked back out to the entry way and saw men carrying food out to the wagon, and then he remembers the five mercs that had escaped.

  He started thinking, “I bet they didn’t have time to grab everything they wanted. They are most likely watching the place, and plan on coming back.”

  He found Philip and Jacob, saying, “I have an idea that those remaining mercs might want to come back and grab more stuff before they leave. Tell everybody quietly that the three of us are going to stay. If we get lucky, they’ll come back. Hopefully one of him knows how to open up the armory. Either way I would feel better if all five of them were dead.”

  Within an hour everything was loaded into the wagons and everyone left. The three of them found places to hide in the library. Joe felt certain that they would try to sneak back at night time, so one stayed on watch while the other two slept. The hours ticked by. Not a sound, and finally the sun started going down. They closed all the drapes so they could move around and not be seen, they tried being as quite as church mice, in case the men were listening.

  Once darkness had set in, they waited restlessly. Jacob whispered to Joe, “I don’t think this is going to work. We should get back to our families.”

  Joe whispered back, “Sorry, but we’re spending the night. If those men are still in the area, we need to finish them off.” He continued, “The rest of the men will be back in the morning to finish loading up what’s left. If nothing happens by then, we can assume they have left the area. Just relax and get comfortable.”