“Gators? What the heck are Gators?”
Mark pointed to one, sitting in a field all by itself a hundred yards from the pill box. It looked like a lonely puppy who’d lost his way and sat there, lost in time and slowly turning to dust.
“Utility vehicles. John Deere makes them. Or rather, they did before the world went dark. They’re great pieces of equipment. Easy to operate, almost never break down. And they can haul a boatload of stuff. We have another one about half a mile away, parked alongside a roadway.”
Dave was incredulous.
“You have working vehicles and you just leave them out in the open like that? Aren’t you afraid somebody will take them?”
“Oh, no. We decided early on the best thing to do with them was to hide them in plain sight. The keys are in their ignitions, but they don’t run until we want them to. That’s because when we park them we pull the battery cable and take it with us. Anybody who happens along can jump on it and turn the key all they want. It won’t start. And they’ll leave again, assuming it got fried during the blackout like all the other vehicles.”
“What do you use them for?”
“Not much anymore. Right after the blackout we made milk runs to several tractor trailers on the highway a few miles outside of town. We grabbed cases of canned goods and dry stock to augment our stores. Medicine and coats and anything else we thought we could use. We brought back the equivalent of two fifty-three foot trailers full of stuff over the course of a couple of months. We finally stopped when the bunker was bursting at the seams. We were climbing over piles of boxes just to move around.
“These days we use them mainly to go hunting, although we run them for twenty minutes a month just to keep the batteries charged.”
Mark turned to Sarah and Karen.
“I’ll tell you what. You all follow me through the danger zone and go inside the bunker. I’ll introduce you to Kara and she can give you the grand tour and show you your sleeping quarters. I’ll grab Mason and he and I can help Dave unload your stuff.”
Karen and Sarah didn’t argue. Although neither was keen on spending the next few weeks or months underground, each had a natural curiosity about how such an operation ran and was anxious to see their new temporary home.
Chapter 9
While Dave and Mark carried boxes and duffle bags carefully through the mine field the women and children met Kara at the entrance to the bunker.
“Jacob and his brothers purchased sixteen shipping containers from a company in Kansas City. They only cost two thousand dollars apiece because they bought so many of them. They had to take out a loan for them, but as soon as the power went out the banks all went out of business. So it turns out they were a lot cheaper than we expected.
“Once they were on site, Mark rented an excavator and spent five weeks digging out the ground to bury them in.
“Then they rented a crane to place the containers into the hole and once they were arranged used cutting torches to cut out holes in some of them so they all fit together. They welded them together so all sixteen pieces became one big structure. Then they piled dirt all over it and poured concrete to build the pillbox. The whole operation, once we had the containers delivered, took about four months. We were praying every day that disaster didn’t strike before we were finished. As luck would have it, we finished with two years to spare. And that was plenty of time to get all the equipment installed and our stores in place.
“They’re arranged in the form of a huge letter H, with the center of the H right below the pill box. The two south extensions are the living and lounge areas. That’s where all the bunks and day rooms are.”
“Day rooms?”
“TV rooms might be a term you’re more familiar with. Couches and televisions and shelves full of DVDs. Books for reading, tables for playing cards and games. There are three such rooms, so if you’re not into whatever movie someone else is watching, you can probably find another day room where nobody’s watching anything and you can choose your own.
“The two north extensions of the H are mostly used for storage, but also house our generator room, pump house and ventilation systems. We don’t need air conditioning or heating because we’re ten feet underground. It stays nice and cool in the summertime down here. During the winter we had to wear long underwear and jackets, but it wasn’t bad at all.
“The card tables in our east day room serve double duty during mealtimes as dining room tables. Instead of a kitchen we have a bank of microwaves to heat up our food fast. By not cooking in the traditional sense we don’t have to worry about stocking cooking fuel or ventilating fumes to the outside.”
Karen asked, “But what kinds of foods do you cook in a microwave? And how do you boil your drinking water?”
“Oh, we don’t boil our water. And our meals are what we jokingly call ‘homemade MREs.’ Do you know what MREs are?”
Sarah and Karen nodded their heads. Lindsey just looked confused.
For her benefit, Kara elaborated.
“MRE is a military acronym. It stands for ‘Meal, Ready to Eat.’ Military people pretty much agree that most of them are nasty and barely edible, but they will keep a person alive. They can be stored practically anywhere and last for ten years or more.
“Unfortunately, they are very expensive. So we decided early on to make our own versions of MREs, minus the water. Did you ever have one of those microwavable macaroni and cheese cups before the blackout? The kind you just added water to and put in the microwave?”
“Yes.”
“We made our own. Only we made a thousand of them. We took Styrofoam coffee cups and added half a cup of dry elbow macaroni. Then we added a quarter cup of powdered cheese and a little powdered butter. Then some powdered milk.
“That only filled the cup about halfway, so we were able to stack a whole bunch of them together and then shrink-wrap them twenty at a time. They have no water, so they’ll last for years. All you have to do when you want one is take it off the stack, add a cup of water, and microwave for four and a half minutes. It tastes good and has five hundred calories. A quarter of our daily calorie allowance. And it’s so easy even the guys can cook for themselves.
“We did essentially the same thing with two dozen other varieties of food. Some in cups, some in disposable food trays. A typical food tray, for example, might include a Salisbury steak patty we dried out in the oven before the blackout, covered with powdered gravy. Next to it another compartment has dried potato flakes with butter powder. In a third compartment are dried veggies or fruit.
“Each one has specific instructions. For example, the Salisbury steak dinner has to have a specific amount of water for each compartment. Then it has to soak for forty minutes, and microwaves for seven.
“The end result is a TV dinner which rivals any other TV dinner on the market when it’s prepared right. And it was homemade at a fraction of the cost.”
“That must generate an awful lot of garbage.”
“Nope. That’s the beauty of it. Because the Styrofoam cups, once empty, stack within one another. So do the used food trays. The soda cans and water bottles are crushed, so they take up little space at all. Up until now, the five of us and the baby generated about two trash bags of garbage per week. The boys throw it in a pile at the bottom of the hill, and whenever it’s safe to do so they burn the pile to keep the rodents at bay.”
Sarah didn’t hear the last part. Her mouth was watering. She asked, “Did you say soda cans?”
“Oh, yes. We still have thirty or forty cases of Coca Cola and a few other flavors left. The cans have a really long shelf-life, as long as you can keep them from freezing. And it never got below freezing down here all last winter.”
“Oh, my God. I haven’t had a soda in months.”
“Well then, my newest friend. You’ve got a real treat ahead of you.”
Chapter 10
“You said something about your drinking water… that you didn’t boil it. How is it safe to drink
?”
“It’s well water. We drank well water for years even before the blackout. It’s still safe. The guys ran a line from the north end of the property, where the well is located. Our sewer line is located twenty seven feet below the ground, beneath the bunker. It uses gravity to transport our waste into a nearby valley. In the valley it’s deposited into a dry creek, where it accumulates until periodic rains flood the creek and flush it all down river.
“How do you know it doesn’t seep into the well water before you drink it?”
“Because that end of the property is where they tried to drill for water originally. The wells kept coming up dry. They thought there was no water source under the entire property until they tried drilling on the north end, then found a big one there. The south end is dry as a bone. And it’s mostly rock there. So the waste just drops into a pile and waits for a rain to come along and take it away.”
They walked into a string of shipping containers which were connected end to end and modified into sleeping quarters.
The left side was but a narrow walkway, barely shoulder width. They walked single file through the walkway, the steel wall of the container on one side and a plywood wall on the other.
Every six feet a doorway was cut into the plywood wall. But there were no doors. Merely dark-colored shower curtains held in place by expandable curtain rods.
The containers were divided into compartments, each about six feet square. Each compartment was just large enough to hold a single bed and a small bedside table. A wall to wall clothes rod hung over the bed to hold clothing. Sarah noticed that even blue jeans and socks hung from the clothes hangers dangling from the rods. There was simply no better place to put them.
Kara saw the look on Sarah’s face and laughed.
“I know. It’s rather sparse. But if you’ve ever spent time in a prison, you’ll feel right at home.”
She looked directly at Sarah and smiled so she knew it was a joke.
“As you can see, we don’t have a lot of privacy, but these berths are mostly for sleeping anyway. We have a quiet policy for this whole wing. Everyone is asked to use I-pods and ear buds to listen to music, and there are no televisions or electricity in here other than the ceiling lights. Nobody spends much time here except for sleeping. Jacob and I are the only couple, so sometimes we sneak back here when we’re particularly romantic. But we always place a chair at the end of the hallway. Everybody else knows what that means and give us a little bit of quiet time when they see the chair. And now you know too.”
She smiled broadly, then flushed red when she realized she’d just shared a very personal piece of information with a group of people who were essentially strangers.
She knew they wouldn’t be so for long.
What impressed Sarah the most were the working washer and dryer in the equipment wing. For a year they’d been doing laundry by hand. They had no expectation of ever seeing working electric appliances again outside of Karen’s farm. And Karen only had a few, and only because she and Tommy had protected them from the destructive power of the electromagnetic pulses.
“How were you able to protect everything from the EMPs?” she asked Kara.
Kara laughed.
“The nice thing about having everything in underground metal containers was that it doubled as a Foley cage. Everything in here, provided it was on the plywood floor and not touching a metal wall, was protected. It all worked perfectly well, even after everything on the outside world got shorted out.”
Lindsey said, “The only thing that worries me about this is living in the dark all the time. Do you ever miss the sunshine?”
“Oh, yes. Definitely. But after a few days down here you’ll get used to it. And we take turns pulling guard duty. If your mom thinks you’re old enough to pull a regular shift you’ll have the chance to look out of the pill box’s firing ports. You’ll catch a little bit of fresh air and sunshine. And we do go outside occasionally when we think it’s safe. We always go heavily armed and don’t go far, just in case.
“And every time we start missing the outside world too much, we just remind ourselves that this is a hard life. But at least we’re surviving and that’s better than most. We talk to people all over the world now on the ham radio, and we’ve heard that only around ten percent of the people in the United States and Europe have survived. Same for the developed Asian countries, although China seems to have taken a particularly harsh toll. It’s said that only five percent of China has survived.”
“I wonder why.”
“No clue. North Korea invaded China and tried to steal some of its food, and China sent nuclear weapons into Pyongyang and basically wiped North Korea off the map. I hear it got pretty ugly over there for awhile.
“No one knows about the African countries. Some say they survived virtually intact, because the tribes over there were used to not having electricity anyway.
“Others say that the blackout kept the aid workers out. That they no longer had outsiders coming in to help them control their diseases and treat their water. And that everybody died from dysentery and other nasty things. And that no one is left. I can’t say for sure which story is true, but one thing’s for sure. If there’s anybody down there still alive with a ham radio, they’re not answering.”
The new group was assigned bunks and were in the process of assigning chores when they heard the hatch door being closed and secured above them.
Moments later a sweaty Dave and Mark came down the stairs to join them.
“We left everything up there on the floor of the pill box,” Mark said. Once you new folks get assigned bunks you can go get your clothes and other stuff and move it in. Kara, can you help me find some nooks and crannies to put the provisions?”
“Sure. No problem.”
Dave waited until the chores had been assigned before asking to meet once again with Sarah and Karen.
Kara asked, “Do you want some space so you can meet in private?”
“No, that’s okay. I’d like for you to sit in too if you want. I need all the information I can get before I set out, and maybe you guys can provide some ideas that’ll help me on my journey.”
Kara and Mark looked at one another, said, “Okay,” and sat down with the group.
Chapter 11
“Karen,” Dave started, “Something has been bugging me a lot since you told me about what happened to Beth.”
“Okay. What, exactly?”
“You said that you went running to the living room after you heard that Sanchez had sold Beth to some nomads. And that you got there just in time to look out the window and see a pickup truck disappear in the distance. You said the truck was being pulled by two horses. Are you absolutely sure about that?”
“Yes. I thought it was odd too at the time. But later, after I was untied from my bed and allowed to heal, I got a visit from Romero. He wasn’t quite as evil as some of the others. I got the impression he was looking for a way to wrest control away from Swain. I told him more than once he would have been a far better leader than Swain. Less brutal anyway.
“Anyway, I asked him what he knew about the people who took my niece. He said he had been pulling sentry duty on the front porch when they brought their rig into the front yard and he had the chance to talk to the couple.
“The rig. That’s what they called the thing. He said their name was Ambrosio. At least that was what they claimed. He said the man was a braggart sort of guy, and he was obviously very proud of his rig. He went on and on to Romero about how he took the hood off the pickup and then pulled the engine out of the engine compartment. How he installed a plywood floor into the bottom of the engine compartment, then built a platform and bench to sit on. He built a structure in front of the truck out of lumber that he could tie two horses to, and it pivoted when the horses turned and made the front wheels turn. He said he patterned it after the old covered wagons in the old west. He told Romero he took the transmission out of it too, to lighten the load for the horses to pu
ll, and installed a brake lever attached to a long metal rod which dragged the ground when he pulled the lever. He said with his brake he could slow the horses down when they were going down a steep grade.”
“I don’t suppose he told you what the make and model of the pickup was, in case there are others out there like it?”
“No, that much he didn’t have to tell me. It was a 1992 Ford Ranger. I recognized it because Tommy used to have one just like it. Except Tommy’s was gold and a king cab. This was red with a regular cab.”
“Any idea where it was headed?”
“No. I’m sorry. The one and only time I saw it, it was heading over the hill toward our main gate. From there they could have gone anywhere.”
“Wait a minute,” Lindsey said. “About a week after she was taken I heard Sanchez talking to Swain. They were on the front porch talking while I was trimming the hedges in front of the porch. Swain was telling Sanchez it would be nice to have a horse-drawn wagon to haul hay he was stealing from an abandoned farm up the road. He was chewing Sanchez out, saying that instead of selling Beth, he should have just shot the couple and taken their money and the rig.
“Sanchez told him it wasn’t too late. That on a fast horse he could catch them before they made it to Albuquerque.”
The dismal look left Dave’s face.
“Are you sure that’s where they were headed? Albuquerque?”
“That’s what he said.”
Sarah asked, “Honey, when are you setting out?”
“I’m going to go back to Karen’s farm and work for a couple of hours, then set out when it gets dark.”
“You’re leaving today? Seriously?”
“I don’t want to waste any time. Each day I delay they get farther away from me.”
“Why do you need to go back to the farm?”
“You left a lot of provisions behind in the basement. If squatters find it, you’ll never see it again. And what’s even more important, I never secured the door to the hidden tunnel. If someone moves into the farm house while I’m gone, we may need to use the tunnel to force them back out again. I also want to repack the provisions that were in the Explorer before one of Swain’s men stole it and crashed it into the house. I saw my duffels in the kitchen over there. Together they hold about three weeks’ worth of food. I want to get it so I don’t have to waste time foraging.”
Her Name is Beth: Alone: Book 5 Page 4