“What did you do with the other two rooms?”
“Nothing yet. One of them is gonna be turned into a library. We’re building rows and rows of book shelves. Once they’re done we’re going to raid the local library to fill the shelves. We’re also gonna stuff a thousand DVDs in there for people to take out and to their cells.
“The electrician is running conduit to each of the cells now. They never had TVs in them before, but they will by the time he’s finished. A TV and a DVD player. Just like home. The idea is to make the occupants forget they’re in a prison cell.
“The third storage room will remain what it is. A supply room. We’re putting shelves in there too, and they’ll be stocked with all manner of common-use stuff. Shampoo and toothpaste. Blankets and t-shirts and socks, and a hundred other things people use a lot of. We’ll have someone in charge of keeping the shelves stocked from our reserves, so that most of the things people need on a daily basis are right there convenient for them.
“That’ll lessen the need for seventy people going into the other cellblocks and rooting through pallets every time they need a toothbrush or a new can of deodorant.”
“Good idea. But you mentioned wood stoves?”
“Yes. Three of them.”
Tom led Marty to the center of the common room and pointed out three holes cut into the ceiling above them.
“They’ll be spaced evenly in here and will be mainly used to burn garbage as long as your central heating system is working. If it fails, we can start burning the excess wood to keep the place warm. If they’re all burning together they’ll keep the common area toasty warm. Some of the heat will seep into the cells, especially on the upper tier. Those cells that don’t get a lot of the heat will get extra blankets.
“Each of them will have a long stove pipe that will go through those holes in the ceiling and be ventilated to the outside above the second tier of cells.”
“Call it a backup plan, just in case the heater ever goes out. And like I said, the wood stoves will double as incinerators.”
Marty was impressed. Way more impressed than he ever expected to be.
“Tom, are you sure you won’t let me kiss you?”
“You try and you’ll lose a few teeth.”
-24-
David was a dentist by trade. He, like most men, knew the basics of maintaining a car. He knew how to change a battery. He knew how to check the oil, and could even change it himself if there wasn’t a Quick Change around.
He knew how to check his fluid levels, and where to add fluids when the levels were low.
But David had never been a backyard mechanic. And even if he had been he’d have been ten years out of practice. For it had been close to ten years since Saris 7 had collided with the earth, and practically nobody worked on cars these days.
It was for that reason that David perhaps could have been forgiven for not thinking to check on a very important item.
They’d made three previous trips from the mine to the recreational vehicle sales lot on the outskirts of San Antonio. Three times they’d brought back five small RVs from the lot to be placed into the mine to house residents and give them each a comfortable place to sleep at night.
And on all three previous trips there had been no complications. No problems. No mechanical failures.
There had been no reason to believe that this time would be any different.
He duly checked the fluid levels on all five RVs before they left the lot. Walked around the vehicles and kicked the tires. Made sure they had enough fuel.
And he knew damn well there was plenty of brake fluid in the reservoirs.
But because he wasn’t a mechanic by trade, it never dawned on him he should crawl beneath the vehicles. To see whether the brake lines themselves were rotten and cracking.
The RV that Eva drove had been a trade-in. It was five years older than the others, and had been driven on the lot just a few days before Saris 7 hit the earth.
That’s why it was still on the front of the lot, in the same area as the new line of coaches.
Oh, it was ultra-clean, having been meticulously detailed the same morning it was brought in. And it was very low mileage, having spent most of its time parked behind the owner’s garage. It would have made someone a fine motor home and a great place to ride out another freeze.
But the sad fact was it was older than the other RVs being picked up from San Antonio on this particular day.
The tragic fact was, despite its good looks it was not road worthy.
David was in the pickup, as was the procedure in every one of the previous trips. Behind him were five RVs, in tight formation, just as before. He was running interference, watching for bandits or other hazards. Around every bend he looked in his side mirrors and counted the vehicles behind him. Just to make sure no one had fallen out. And to make sure no hostile vehicles might be coming up behind them.
Eva and her RV were bringing up the rear on this last and fateful trip. There was a good hundred feet of space between her and Debbie, in the RV directly in front of her.
After they crested a steep hill a few miles south and east of Kerrville, Eva tapped her brakes. They were on a steep downgrade now, and she was picking up speed.
The area around Kerrville was mountainous. It wasn’t the first time she’d had to tap her brakes to control her speed.
But this time nothing happened.
It was the brake line David hadn’t thought to check. The one that was five years older than those on the other RVs. The one that the dealer’s service department would have swapped out before it was placed back up for sale again, but never had the chance.
The one that was brittle and cracked.
It couldn’t take the pressure of the heated brake fluid and gave way, spewing the fluid all over the highway beneath Eva’s RV.
Because she was bringing up the rear, there was no one behind her to warn her there was an odd pink mist coming from beneath her vehicle.
Or bright red fluid all over the highway behind her.
The downgrade veered to the left, and as David was routinely checking his driver’s side mirror he saw Eva’s RV speed up and close the gap between her vehicle and Debbie’s.
He saw as it disappeared from view, then immediately looked to the other mirror. But because of the curve of the road all he could see were the mountains.
Debbie, her eyes on the road, never saw Eva coming up close behind her.
Poor Eva, in her last moments, had a critical choice to make.
She could have hit Debbie hard from behind, very possibly killing her good friend in the process.
Or she could veer off the road.
Out of the corner of her eye Debbie saw something flash in her side mirror.
It took a moment to figure out what it was.
And by the time she did there was nothing she could do.
Eva’s RV sped past her on the right, down a thirty degree embankment, and then rolled. Five, six, seven times.
Recreational vehicles aren’t built like cars. There are none of the stabilizing bars or heavy steel frames to help keep them intact during a high impact crash.
And when they roll, they disintegrate into a thousand pieces.
Poor Eva Woodard never had a chance.
Debbie screeched to a halt.
David saw her and did the same. The other drivers followed suit.
All of them got out of their vehicles and ran to the spot where Eva had left the roadway, and then down to the smoking wreckage below.
All of them knew what they’d find. There was no way anyone could survive such a tragic event.
Eva Woodard had just celebrated her sixty fifth birthday the week before.
-25-
Each of them, in their own way, tried to do what they could to help.
Debbie, a trained paramedic, threw on her backpack and made her way down the steep hill. The backpack contained her first aid kit, a few narcotics, and rudimentary medical tools. She h
alf climbed down, half slid on her butt, to get to where the smoking wreckage lay.
She was the first one to reach Eva, and it made sense since she was most qualified to treat her.
But her worst fears were confirmed as soon as she felt for a pulse.
She knew she wouldn’t find one. The body was just too badly crushed. Way too mangled.
Next at the scene was Joel, who was just getting used to walking on flat ground with his prosthetic legs. The steep hill was too much for him. He lost his footing and rolled to the bottom, smacking is ribcage hard against what was left of the RV’s frame.
He was up immediately, shaking off his own injuries, making no mention of the three ribs which were probably broken.
David was just behind him, saying, “Oh Lord, no.”
Over and over again he said it, as though he were trying to convince himself it was only a dream.
Becky and Sami were the last two down the hill. Both looked to be in shock, yet seemingly had the wherewithal to know to just stay back. That they’d be in the way.
But they would be helpful in their own way.
Once David saw the extent of the carnage he called back to them.
“Would one of you girls go back up and look through the box in the back of the pickup? There are a couple of blankets in there. Bring them down.”
“Yes, sir.”
They left together, as though carrying two blankets was too much for one person to handle.
The truth was, neither of them wanted to be alone. They’d gone down the hill expecting the worst. The lack of urgency at the scene by David and Debbie confirmed those fears.
“And please,” David called after them. “For God’s sake, stay off the radio.”
News like this would have to be delivered in person.
Debbie met the girls halfway down the hill and took the blankets from them. The view of Eva’s body was blocked from their view by a large piece of wreckage and Debbie wanted to spare them from seeing it.
She suggested they wait in one of the RVs while she and Joel prepared the body for removal.
It was more than okay with them.
They’d brought two full-sized blankets. Debbie used one to wrap Eva’s broken body in, and looked to Joel for his help.
“You’ve probably got way more experience in this kind of stuff than I do. Do you know how best we can get her back up that hill?”
Joel had to think for a minute. He could make a makeshift stretcher using a couple of branches and the extra blanket. Getting the stretcher with the body back up to the RVs was going to be a little tougher.
But it could be done.
It had to be done.
“I’ll need two tree branches, two to three inches thick, maybe six feet long.”
It wouldn’t be a problem. This was the hill country of Texas. Fir and pine and mighty oak country. Tall trees abounded in this part of Texas.
And sure enough, it only took them ten minutes to find two suitable branches. Another five minutes to shave all the twigs from them.
Joel laid the blanket onto the grass, then placed the branches in the center of the blanket, running parallel to one another, and about eighteen inches apart. They were just long enough to hang over several inches on the east and west sides of the blanket.
He lifted the north side of the blanket and draped it over the two branches. It extended almost completely to the other side.
Then he lifted the south side of the blanket and did the same thing.
“Her body weight will keep the blanket in place on the branches. Now all we have to do is get her up the hill.”
The men very tenderly lifted Eva’s body and placed it on the stretcher, then used strips of a bed sheet Debbie found in the wreckage to tie her down.
“You guys wait here. I’m going to go get some rope.”
The pickup David brought on the RV run that particular day was an F-150 the men frequently took on hunting trips. It had a large cargo box in the truck’s bed which opened from both sides of the truck.
And it held a heck of a lot of stuff.
Including two spools of rope.
Sami and Becky caught their breath when they saw David climb into the pickup and start the engine.
But if they thought he was leaving them there, they’d have been wrong.
He carefully backed up the pickup until the back bumper was overlooking the point where the RV left the highway. It was directly above the wreckage and about a hundred fifty feet away from it.
He put the vehicle in park and jumped out, then tied the end of one length of rope to each end of the bumper.
Then he heaved both spools as far out as he could.
They unrolled as they fell and landed within a few feet of Joel.
Joel didn’t need coaching. He’d figured it out as soon as he saw David throwing the rope.
The two men picked up the stretcher and gingerly carried it over to the base of the hill, then tied one rope to the tree branches at the head and foot of the stretcher.
Joel took the remaining rope twice around his midsection and David followed suit.
David looked to Debbie and instructed, “Go very slow, in case we lose our footing.”
She gave him her handheld radio.
“Is yours in the pickup?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Let’s switch them to channel five.”
It was a macabre sight indeed, Debbie sitting on the side of the driver’s seat and leaning out, looking intently at the ropes behind the truck. Her left foot rested on the jamb of the open door, the right on the gas pedal.
Inch by inch she slowly pulled, until she crossed both westbound lanes and the inside shoulder of Interstate 10, then across the grassy median which divided the highway.
Slowly, ever so painfully slow, the stretcher rose up the side of the mountain, the two men struggling to keep their friend level, and to maintain their footing on the side of the hill.
It was especially difficult for Joel, who couldn’t feel the earth beneath his artificial feet. Couldn’t even see the feet beneath the stretcher. He had to rely on the pressure of the prosthetics against the stumps of his legs to know his footing was firm.
Sami and Becky stood at the crest of the hill until the stretcher cleared the drop, and helped ease Eva onto the highway while the men freed themselves of the ropes.
The only words spoken were from Sami: “She deserves more than to ride in the open bed of a truck. Let’s put her into one of the RVs.”
As they carried her aboard a Winnebago and placed her gently upon a fold-out bed Debbie said a short prayer for her.
In the hour just before the accident the group laughed and joked and chattered incessantly over their radios to pass the time and fight the boredom.
For the rest of their journey they were completely silent.
-26-
Frank’s shift ended at twelve hundred hours that day and he turned the security control center over to Hannah. He’d been in an exceptional mood and had teased her about the two gray hairs she’d managed to sprout in her chestnut brown bangs.
“Don’t worry about them,” he’d said. “You look good in gray. You’ll be a fine granny to Markie’s children.”
“Oh, shut up, Frank. It’s only two hairs.”
“Turn around, sweetie.”
She did.
“Two hairs, huh? Is that what Mark told you? I guess he didn’t want to get beaten.”
She turned back around and eyed him with some suspicion.
“You mean there’s more?”
“Well, now… I’m not saying there are, and I’m not saying there aren’t. I’m just gonna say that’s it’s not the end of the world. A lot of us old timers think it’s sexy for a woman to be all feeble and gray.”
She couldn’t tell if he was teasing or not. But she would damn sure she visited her lighted makeup mirror after her shift ended so she could examine her scalp.
And every single hair on it.
Frank went off to the lounge to take a nap in his favorite recliner.
Frank was a notorious workaholic. On most days he spent much of his free time hanging out at the control center, even after working an eight hour shift.
Today, though, he was exhausted.
He hadn’t been sleeping well lately.
Actually, he’d have slept fine, except that Eva had been tossing and turning all night long. And he, being a very light sleeper, kept waking up no matter how hard she tried to be still.
Frank doted on Eva. Ever since the night he proposed to her so many years before he’d known he was lucky to have her.
“You’re beautiful in every way,” he’d told her. “I don’t know why on earth you want to spend your time with a big ugly flat-footed cluck like me. But if you’d care to continue, I’d be proud to have you for my bride.”
Besides beautiful, Eva was also classy, even way back then. Frank had scrimped and saved for months to put a down payment on the biggest ring he could afford. It was an impressive token indeed.
But she didn’t even look at it.
She looked into his eyes and said, “Frank, you’re calling the man I love, the man of my dreams, the man who is my whole world, names. Nobody, and I mean nobody, calls my man names. Not even you, Frank. If you ever call my fiancé an ugly flat-footed cluck again I’ll kick your skinny little ass.”
“You said fiancé. Does that mean yes, you’ll marry me?”
“Of course I will, Frank. I’ve loved you since the day we met.”
Since that day Frank treated Eva like the queen he thought her to be. She lacked for nothing, if he was within his capacity to get it for her.
And he didn’t mind being awakened at night when she was troubled.
“Honey,” he’d said. Can I get you something to drink? Massage your shoulders? Get you some aspirin?”
“No thank you, Frank. I feel fine. I just… I’m just worried. That’s all.”
“Worried about what, honey?”
“I don’t know. I’ve just been having this… premonition that something bad is getting ready to happen. A crisis is on the horizon.”
A New Start: Final Dawn: Book 9 (Volume 9) Page 9