Super Pulse (Book 4): Defect

by Conifer, Dave

  “You thinking about learning to be a mechanic?” Lou asked. “Or maybe you already are one. You’re everything else.”

  “Blue, I think,” Plankton said. “Or green, maybe.”

  “I’ll be a mechanic, or anything else, if it gets us back into a car that works,” Squid said to Lou. “That’s why I’m bringing this up.”

  “If you ask me, I don’t think he did anything to it,” Plankton said. “I saw other cars driving around in the city before that. Didn’t you? Not many, but some.”

  “I spent most of my time hiding in a basement, curled up in a little ball trying to forget about my broken leg,” Squid answered. “Remember when I told you about that?”

  “Yeah, right,” Plankton said. “Well, the one thing I noticed was that they were old. The ones that could drive around, I mean. There were plenty of newer ones rotting away. The ones that ran were like from the seventies, or even before that.”

  “I remember something about this,” Lou said. “They always said the Russians, or maybe the Iranians, could send some kind of bombs over here that wouldn’t blow things up, but they’d make all our electronics fail. And it would trash the electrical grid. I think that’s exactly what happened to us.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I think too,” Squid said. “Something like that. But what about the cars? Why is it that some work and some don’t? Is Plankton right about the older cars running?”

  “I’m guessing he is,” Lou answered. “I think it has to do with how the older ones are made. Older cars are just engines and metal parts and mechanical stuff. They don’t have all the electronical gadgets or computers or all that. So maybe there’s nothing there in the first place to get ruined by electrical impulses. In other words, an old engine isn’t gonna’ get trashed by this fancy kind of bomb. It’s too simple to.”

  Squid nodded. “That makes sense. A lot of sense.”

  She eyed Squid. “I think you already knew everything I just said, and a lot more. Any military man knows about the kind of bombs I was talking about, and what they do. Don’t tell me you didn’t already know this.”

  He held up his hands defensively. “No, I didn’t. Hand to God. It’s not my area of expertise, I guess you could say.”

  “Okay, then what is your area?” she asked.

  “We already covered that,” Plankton said. “Eating bugs and staying warm. That’s his bag.”

  “So what does this all this mean for us? Right here and right now?” Squid asked, making it plain that, as always, Lou’s question about his background would go unanswered. “We just have to find an old car and we’re good? It sounds too easy.”

  “We’re probably too late,” Lou surmised. “I doubt we’re the first to think of this. Or notice it, I should say.”

  “Maybe so,” Squid allowed. “But at least we know what to look for now, if we’re right about this.”

  “What about gas?” Plankton asked. “We can’t get anywhere without gas.”

  “What about it?” Squid replied. “It must be out there, if other people are driving. And we’ve seen cars moving. We saw two yesterday alone. I nearly broke my other leg trying to hide.”

  “I’ll bet it’s right where it always was,” Lou said. “The tanks in the ground at the gas stations are probably still full. Just in case you haven’t noticed,” she said with a half-smile, “demand is down. And the price is probably right.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet that’s true,” agreed Squid. “And not only that, I’ll bet all these broken down cars have gas in them. We just have to find a way to suck it out.”

  “So I don’t think gas is a problem,” Lou said.

  “Just the car is,” Plankton said.

  “But now we know what to look for,” Squid repeated.

  ~~~

  Armed with a plan, they packed their meager belongings shortly thereafter. Squid laughed to himself as he watched Plankton and Lou conscientiously pound out the fire before shoveling dirt onto it. Who would care if these woods burned, he asked himself. The world’s gone kaput anyway. What difference would this stretch of land ever make?

  For the past few weeks they’d been following the highway while staying out of sight a safe distance off the shoulder, be it woods or open country. Now that they’d be staking out the highway for potential transportation, they’d obviously be hiking much closer to the road. Squid hadn’t brought it up, not seeing the point, but this made their travels much more dangerous. Simply put, they were coming out of hiding and would be in full view. Contact with other humans, friendly or otherwise, was far more likely. In light of this, he called a quick meeting before they emerged from the woods.

  “Okay, like I said,” he began, “I’m not the boss of you, but—”

  “Get real,” Lou interrupted. “You’re the boss and we’re good with that. Just say what you’re gonna’ say.”

  “I just think we need to make sure we have a strategy for when we come across other people,” Squid said. “Which I think we will, and very soon. I don’t want to be pushy, but we need to be prepared.”

  “Well, you’ve thought about this, and we haven’t,” Lou said. “Why don’t you just quit tiptoeing around and tell us what you’re thinking?”

  “Okay, sure,” Squid replied. “First of all, we should try to avoid any contact at all. We can’t afford to trust anybody. The best way to avoid that is to stay out of view and let them pass, if we can. There’s not much chance they’ll have anything to offer us, but I’m sure they’ll be looking us over for what they can take. Agreed?”

  “Roger,” Plankton said. “I’m not looking for friends right now.”

  “I’m fine with that too,” said Lou. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah,” Squid said. “If we do run into anybody, we keep it short and sweet. No talk about cars, where were going, where we came from, nothing. We’ll just tell them we have a camp a few miles from here. Maybe we can make up some nonsense about how well off this fake camp is. Anything to get their attention off us. If they’re the kind of people we’re trying to avoid, chances are they’ll go looking for this paradise we described.”

  “Okay,” Lou said. “I like the sound of that, too.” She stared at Plankton until he nodded his agreement.

  “Above all, we don’t want trouble,” Squid said. “We turn the other cheek as long as we can even if they hassle us.”

  “I’m okay with that, too,” Lou said. “Only let’s not use the phrase ‘We don’t want any trouble,’” she suggested. “That’s never good. All it ever does is tell bad guys that no matter what they do, we won’t fight back.”

  Squid smiled and nodded. “I do believe I’m in full agreement on that, Lou. But we’ll do our best to avoid a fight. Sound good?”

  “There’s fresh air at the barricades,” Plankton said, effectively ending the conversation.

  ~~~

  From then on they traveled along the shoulder of the road, hiding behind any available cover to stay out of sight when they saw other travelers. Just as Squid had told them to expect, the wreck-strewn highway was where the people were. They were forced to take cover several times a day as bands of ragged men, occasionally joined by a woman or two, passed by in both directions. Most of the time they were on foot. Once they’d been in a car, another time in a panel truck. None carried any weapons more sophisticated than a club or a spear. Firearms were going to become more and more scarce as time went by, Squid knew. They were lucky to have the three they had.

  “Where are all the women these days?” Lou asked. “It seems weird.”

  “Back in the nest, maybe,” Squid suggested. “Life is primitive now, and women are more vulnerable, so they’re staying where it’s safer. That’s my best guess, anyway.”

  As they moved along they inspected the abandoned cars that were so abundant on the highway, looking for ones that met the qualifications they’d agreed on that morning by the fire. Plankton was surprisingly adept at identifying the various makes and models, and usually knew approximately ho
w old each was even before getting close. But there were far fewer old cars on that roadway than they’d expected. Night after night, when the sun approached the horizon with no suitable car yet found, they moved back into the woods and made camp with the hope that they’d find something the next day.

  Squid thought they were well into the winter season by then, but it felt like the weather was turning even colder. He was confident that he’d be able to provide enough food regardless of the weather, but it wasn’t going to be much longer before staying healthy in the cold was going to be a problem. It was just another reason for hoping that they’d find a car soon. Along with allowing them to move faster, they could store and carry more of the necessities of life they acquired, so they wouldn’t need to start fresh every night when they gathered what they needed to make camp. Finding a car felt more important to him with each passing day.

  “What about that one?” Plankton asked one afternoon as they were slogging along in waist-high weeds that were beginning to dry up and fade to brown. Squid saw what he was pointing at, a boxy powder blue sedan in the right lane. Immediately in front of it was a newer car, something Japanese, Squid thought. It appeared that at some point there’d been a collision, but he didn’t see any damage. “It’s a Dodge Dart. A Swinger,” Plankton announced. “Late sixties, maybe.”

  They all looked at each other. “What do you think?” Lou asked. “The numbers are right, anyway.”

  “It’s a no-brainer,” Squid said. “Good eye, Plankton. You know your cars. I say we go for it.”

  They looked up and down the road as they left the obscurity of the weeds and approached the Dodge, but saw nobody. When they reached the car, Lou and Squid watched Plankton to see if his assessment changed. “Hey, where’s my camera?” was all he said after he suddenly stopped and stared into the distance. They waited. It wouldn’t be long before he snapped out of it.

  In the meantime, Squid did some probing of his own. The trunk was ajar, so he yanked it open, only to find it completely empty. One of the rear windows had been knocked out cleanly. There was no shattered glass to be seen; the window was just gone.

  “That’s odd,” Lou said, eying the opening. “But maybe it was already like that before somebody took it for a drive that day.”

  “Pretty wet in here,” Squid said after poking his head into the back seat. “Doesn’t smell so good. I guess it’s full of rainwater and everything else.”

  “Wet and smelly I can live with,” Lou said.

  By then Plankton was in the driver’s seat, feeling around under the dashboard. “It should be easy to hotwire,” he said. “Of course, the battery could be dead. Or fried. We didn’t think of that. But there’s only one way to find out. And if it’s no good, we can keep checking other wrecks until we find a battery that still has some juice.”

  “The gas cap is open,” Squid said. “Does that mean somebody drained the tank already?”

  “Could be,” Plankton answered from where he sat. “Take a whiff. Do you smell gas?”

  Squid bent over and jammed his face up against the round opening. “No,” he reported. “Not really. I guess you two were right. Somebody already had all my ideas.”

  “It’s not something we can’t solve. We might need to suck some gas from another car, that’s all,” Lou said. “What do we need so we can do that?”

  “Some kind of tube or a hose,” Plankton said. “And a can or something to suck the gas into.”

  “Let’s you and me search the other cars for that,” Squid suggested to Lou. “While Plankton checks this one out.”

  “Okay,” Lou agreed. “Good plan.” She was already heading for the Nissan that the Dart was pushed up against.

  “Hey, I’m popping the hood,” Plankton called. “See if you can get it open, while you’re up there.” While Lou went through the Nissan looking for supplies, Squid groped around under the hood until he felt the catch, then raised the hood as Plankton had requested. The engine looked old, but not decrepit. He saw nothing that discouraged him. This could work.

  “That car’s been ransacked,” Lou said, returning from the Nissan. “They all probably were. There’s nothing we can use in there.”

  “We can take a walk,” Squid said. “There are plenty of other cars we can check while Plankton works on this one. Hey, what about a battery?” he called to Plankton. “Should we bring one back?”

  “I guess,” Plankton said. “If you can get one out. I don’t have any way of testing them to see if they have any power, though. Except for just starting the car, if I get that far.”

  Both Lou and Squid pulled out their weapons and readied them as they returned to the sunken terrain beside the highway, where they could walk without being as visible. After a hundred yards they looked back and saw Plankton’s figure, poking around under the hood. Squid wished he’d reminded him to keep the shotgun handy. He’d always been careless with weapons. The last he saw, it was leaning against the back of the Dart, where Plankton must have left it in the anticipation of finally finding what they’d been looking for. Hopefully it wouldn’t matter.

  They’d searched four or five cars, coming up with some rope, a box of crude tools and some maps, when they heard the unmistakable sound of a moving vehicle in the distance. It was coming from behind where Plankton was, and coming fast. So fast, in fact, that there was no way they could get back before it reached their partner.

  Hopefully Plankton was paying attention and would notice the oncoming truck in time to hide. As he and Lou scrambled into the weeds and headed back in that direction, Squid’s heart sank as he admitted to himself that Plankton was unlikely to do either of those things. Even if he wasn’t preoccupied with the excitement of what he was doing, it just wasn’t his way. And that meant, most likely, that there was going to be trouble. Because in the world they lived in, bands of men riding around in trucks didn’t pass by harmlessly when they came across somebody like Plankton, or anybody else who looked like easy prey.

  Eight

  Sarah surprised Nick the next day by meeting him on the dirt road as he walked back from the Blacksmith Shop for dinner. He wasn’t surprised that she kissed him; he was getting used to that. For the past couple of weeks they’d been seeing more and more of each other, mostly out of view of other campers. They had been seen holding hands, however. It was a conscious decision by both of them to do that in plain sight, as a way of letting everybody get used to them as a couple. Nick was a lot less concerned, apparently, then Sarah was about public perceptions. But mostly she worried about upsetting her daughters.

  “That was another long day in there for you,” Sarah said. “Dewey said at breakfast that you were up and out at dawn.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said. “Before dawn, actually. And I’m going back after dinner. I have a lot of orders to fill.”

  “Don’t you mean ‘orders to follow?’’ Sarah ask wryly.

  Nick laughed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And the order is to make as many spears as possible. And shovels and spades for when we’re ready for spring planting.”

  “And what are the spears for?” she asked.

  “I’m sure you know,” he answered. “Thanks to me, we lost a lot of weapons.”

  “Don’t start, okay?” she said sharply.

  “Yeah, well, anyway, spears are gonna’ be the weapon of choice around here,” Nick said. “They don’t want the guards in the shacks to be helpless when we run out of ammo for the guns we have left.”

  Sarah took Nick’s hand and gently corrected his direction before he walked off the road. “Watch where you going, will you?”

  “Sorry about that,” Nick said. “It’s hard to see out here in the dark after staring into the fire all day.”

  “It doesn’t help that you’re working so much that you’re asleep on your feet,” she remarked. “So what were you making today?” she asked. “Spears or shovels?”

  “Spears,” he answered. “They’re a lot easier. I’m still learning how to work the metal
, so I started with the simpler job.”

  “Maybe you should pace yourself,” Sarah said. “You said it a minute ago. We’re not out of ammo yet.”

  “Yeah, but you never know how long—” he stopped himself before finishing the thought.

  “How long what?” Sarah asked sharply. “What were you going to say?”

  “Oh, nothing, really,” he replied. “It’s just that I might not be around here forever, that’s all. I want to finish everything I promised to finish.”

  Sarah stopped and grabbed his arm. “What exactly are you talking about, Nick? I know you’ve been going all drama-queen lately, but nobody’s talking about throwing you out, and you know it.”

  “Nothing, I guess,” Nick answered. “You never know, that’s all. Like I said, I committed to hitting some quotas and I want to make sure I hit them, whatever happens.”

  “They’re not going to run you out of here,” she told him again. “You know that. Even if they were thinking about it, which they’re not, look how committed they are to the Blacksmith Shop. You’re the only blacksmith around here, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” he answered dismissively. “It wouldn’t take long for somebody to catch up to me, now that I built the shop.”

  “Exactly,” Sarah said. “You built the shop. You. That’s the point I’m making.”

  They ambled along toward the Village for a few minutes without a word until Nick broke the silence. “Hey,” Nick said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about something. You know how they’re trying to get people to double up in cabins to conserve firewood? Maybe I should, you know, move in with you all. You and the girls. It’s not like we’re trying to hide anything anymore, right?”

  “Wow,” Sarah said. “You’re all over the place. First you’re talking about being gone tomorrow, and now you’re talking about moving in. Are you okay?”

  “I’m not sure,” Nick replied. “I guess it’s too soon. I should have kept it to myself. Let’s just forget it for now. Sorry for bringing it up.”