by Pete Thorsen
The kitchen cupboards did contain a fair amount of food but when Bev tried the water faucets she got no water out of them. Don said he was not surprised because it was likely drained so not to burst from freezing in the winter. He said he would find the shutoff and get the water turned back on.
There were a couple magazines lying on a table in the living area and they had a name and address of someone in New Jersey. Both Don and Bev said the owner would never likely see this place ever again. At that point they decided to move in here at least for awhile. With the house key was a smaller key that fit the padlock on the gate and Don drove the truck up by the house. It took him about a half hour to find and turn on the water for the house.
Then he looked over the solar electric system. It had been disconnected maybe to try to protect sections of it from lightning strikes. It did not take very long and he had it hooked up and the lights in the house worked. He didn’t know if the solar panels were working or not but at least the batteries had some charge left in them. The solar controller seemed to be bad because none of the little lights lit up on it. For now he bypassed the controller and he would try to find a new one at some point. Everything would still work but the batteries would likely over charge without a controller. It would be fine for awhile but he would have to check water levels in the batteries often.
While he had been working Bev had started cleaning and as soon as he could Don started helping her with the cleaning. Having running water even if it was just cold water was a big help with the cleaning. The running water would make living here a whole lot easier also.
When the cleaning was done in the kitchen area Don started bringing in all their food. Bev was surprised at how much Don had brought with in his cart when she saw it all. Between what was already at the house and what both Don and Bev had there was enough to hold them for awhile, maybe a month or so. They got it packed away and started on cleaning the two bedrooms.
There were some men’s clothes and Don thought he could wear them though they were a little small for him. The man must have lived alone because there were no other clothes in the home. The bed linens were removed and hung outside on a clothesline they found to air out and the top covers Don beat with a broom to help shed any dust. By late afternoon they were done cleaning and this time Don made supper for the both of them using the gas stove which worked fine after Don turned on the valve at the tank and lit the pilots.
For this first night they decided to leave the bed linens outside to air and just use their sleeping bags. They both put their clothes in their respective bedrooms and soon called it a night and went to bed.
Day Eight
In the morning Bev looked much better after getting a good night’s sleep. After breakfast Don went out to go through the shed and the garage to see what was in them. He also finished unloading the truck by putting the gear into the shed when he found there was plenty of room in there. Outside there was a good sized stack of cut and split firewood. There was also a large pile of cut but not split wood, so Don knew he had one project before winter.
The shed and the garage had many different tools. There was a chainsaw that he could not get started but there was a small older tiller that started fairly easy. Don assumed the electronics in the chainsaw were fried from the EMP and it would not ever start. The tiller maybe was old enough to not have any electronics or the metal shroud may have protected it Don guessed as he was hardly an expert.
Don went in the house and sat down with Bev and said they should make a list of things they needed or wanted to find and bring up here to their new home.
“We need more tanks of propane. I checked and there is only the one we are using right now and I don’t know how much is left in it.”
“We will need a lot more food if we are going to stay here very long. I would love to have a water heater so we could have running hot water.”
“There is a very small water heater here and it’s hooked up so I assume it works. I never lit it because I am trying to save on propane. One more reason to get more propane tanks. I can hunt for more meat but without a freezer it would likely spoil before we could eat it up. So a small freezer should go on the list but then I don’t know if we have enough power to run a freezer along with the small refrigerator that we already have.”
“So we should add more solar panels to the list.”
“We could get a lot of batteries from all the vehicles that are stopped on the roads. That would increase our power storage capacity a lot.”
“If we got more panels and more batteries, wouldn’t we need wire and stuff to hook them up?”
“Yes we have to add that to the list. We might have to get a small trailer to help haul the stuff up here so we don’t have to make so many trips.”
“There are trailers on the highway hooked up to dead trucks I bet. You know I bet there are some semi trailers on the highway that are full of food they were delivering to the stores that we could salvage.”
“Man that’s a good idea about the food transports. If we found a full one we could get a lot of food from just one. Enough to last us a long time.”
“Another thing for the list is books. If we winter here books would help keep us sane. Also candles and oil lamps in case the solar power breaks down.”
“So many things we could use. I will leave in the morning and try to find some of this stuff. The sooner the better before someone else thinks of the delivery trucks.”
“OK. We will leave in the morning.”
“This is a good spot and I think you will be safe here. Evil is going to grow out there. There is no law and order anymore. For at least awhile evil will rule out there and I don’t know if I can protect you if you come with. So maybe I should say please consider staying here.”
“I have already seen the evil. I reacted poorly that time but I think I am stronger now. I will go with you in the morning and every other time you go out there. We can be stronger together. I will not let you down and maybe I can repay you at some point for saving me.”
“Very well. I will be pleased to have you accompany me in the morning. Have you ever shot a rifle?”
“I grew up on a ranch with a couple of brothers. Yes I have shot a rifle and a shotgun though it has been a few years.”
“I have a spare rifle but it is only a 22. My plan was to use it to acquire small game because it is fairly quiet but it will be more accurate than your pistol at anything more than a couple car lengths away. I’ll grab it and show you how to use it and my other rifle. We won’t shoot them up here because I don’t want to advertise our presence here but you can learn how to operate them at least.”
Don went and retrieved his two rifles and showed Bev how to load and operate them. Then he went outside and dug around in the garage and shed and made some simple holders for both rifles so they would sit on the floorboards of the truck and be held to the dash with the barrels pointing straight up and yet be ready if they needed them quickly.
He also put a few tools in the truck that might be very handy tomorrow. Then he opened the hood on the pickup and tried to see if there was something simple that he could see that was making the truck run so poorly. Looking around he saw where one of sparkplug wires had gotten pushed down and jammed against some metal. He pulled it free and tried starting the truck. It started and ran much better so he shut it off.
Tomorrow he would grab a couple long sparkplug wires from a stalled car or truck to replace the bad one and have a spare. The truck already had a ball hitch on it so it was ready to pull a trailer. Don then grabbed a screwdriver and removed the tail light lenses so he could access the bulbs that he removed before replacing the lenses. He did not want to advertise their presence by having those bright brake lights come on.
Don looked over the solar panel and battery bank set-up and tried to remember how it was all wired up so he would know what wire and connectors to look for to hook up more of each if the found some.
While Don was busy doing stuff outside Bev
rearranged the food in the cupboards and took a mental inventory of what they had to get an idea of how long it might last. Then she retrieved the bedding from the clothesline and made the two beds. While hanging some of her clothes in the closet she bumped the wall of the closet and thought she felt it move.
She looked it over closely while lightly pressing on it and saw that it moved slightly. She then pressed sharply on the wall and it pushed in a little and made a click sound. When she withdrew her hand the wall swung away and revealed a small hidden area almost as big as the closet itself. There were even lights inside that came on when she found the switch. The area contained several guns and containers of other stuff. Bev closed the ‘wall’ and went to find Don to show him what she found.
Bev found Don outside in the garage and asked him to come inside for a minute. She led him into her bedroom and walked to the closet.
“Watch this.” Then she pressed on the wall to unlatch it and let it swing open. Don just stood there with his mouth open for a moment.
“Wow. How on earth did you find that? It is impossible to see that it is there when it’s shut.”
“I bumped it and thought I felt it move. Let’s see what we found.”
Don stepped into the hidden area and carried out all the stuff and laid it out on the floor. Bev opened the few different containers to look inside them. One box was very heavy and just was full of ammunition. Another had more ammunition and some of what Don said was gun cleaning supplies. Another heavy box was full of silver coins and there were a lot of them. A plastic case opened up to show three pistols with holsters. There were three rifles and a shotgun.
“Look two of those rifles are the same as yours.”
“Well they are almost the same. Mine is an AR-10 which is .308 caliber and those two are AR-15’s which shoot the smaller .223 caliber. The bolt action rifle with the scope on is in .308 caliber. One of those AR-15’s would be an excellent rifle for you because they have very little recoil. I might switch to the same rifle so our guns would be the same and take the same ammunition.
For right now we should just put everything back where it was. We will have to take those two rifles with us on one of our trips and try them out to make sure they work well and are accurate enough to use. For tomorrow we’ll stick with what we have. This is a great find you made.”
“I think we should hide some of our food in here. If we are gone and someone takes all of our food we would still have a little that way.”
“That is a good idea. I would say that this is good spot for you to hide if there is ever any trouble but I don’t think you would do it anyway.”
“Well, at least you are starting to get to know me. OK we’ll put this stuff back and I’ll pick out a little food to put in here.”
They put the guns and stuff back in the secret room and Don went back outside. Bev picked out a little food and put in the secret room before closing it. She thought if they did find more food she would put more in there later. They both kept busy until it was time for supper and they talked about where they would go and what they hoped to find on the scavenger run tomorrow. Both were excited about the next day and each had a little trouble falling asleep that night.
Day Nine
They were both up a little earlier in the morning and had just a quick breakfast before leaving their new home. They locked the gate but did not bother locking the house up because if someone did come they did not want the house damaged by someone breaking in.
“The truck is running much better this morning. You’re a mechanic too?”
“I am a very poor mechanic. But miracles happen and I was able to make the truck run a little better. I just hope it keeps running because it is a big help to us.”
“I assume if this truck runs other people will get vehicles running also. I could see where people might be very anxious to get a running vehicle.”
“That is exactly right. We are a big target whenever we are in this truck. We will have to keep a very good watch out for other people. Not all will be bad people but we will have to assume the worst if we see anyone else.”
“We can’t just shoot people for no reason!”
“No. No. Nothing like that. But we can be very cautious. I certainly hope we never have to shoot at anyone ever again. But we have to be careful and realistic. Even good people will be getting desperate by now.”
“OK. I understand that caution would be advisable. I would think there are likely many people that are using bicycles by now instead of just walking.”
“And there are a lot of riding horses around here also. People will be getting around some. Many must be really hurting for water by now though. Everyone just about depended on electricity to pump the water. There are not very many windmills anymore and many of the windmills you see are no longer functional.”
“I don’t know where people will be able find water around here because it’s so dry. And if they do the water is very heavy and hard to carry very far.”
“That’s right. Plus it will be getting very hot around here soon so people will need more water just to survive. We are very lucky to have found the house we did.”
“That wasn’t really luck was it? You knew about the house and planned ahead for something like this didn’t you?”
“Nobody could have predicted this would happen. But I do keep my eyes open and I had thought about different situations that might happen at some time.”
“I am certainly glad you did plan ahead and you let me come with you.”
“This is a partnership and I have no doubts at all that you will pull your own weight. Look just yesterday you found that secret room. That alone was a huge help and you are the one that found the key to our house also. No, I think I may be getting the best end of this partnership. I just hope you don’t decide to kick me out.”
Bev just smiled at him as a thank you for trying to cheer her up. The old pickup was certainly running much better though on the dirt roads they couldn’t go very fast anyway. Soon they were on the highway and Don asked Bev to watch the other lane across the median for a trailer or a semi they could check out. It was just a short way and there was a stalled pickup with a small covered trailer that Don stopped at. He opened the back of the trailer and it was empty so Don disconnected it from the stalled pickup. This trailer had a wheeled jack on the hitch so he just pushed it back away from the other truck so he could hook on easily. Now they were ready to haul a lot more if they found a treasure trove of food and other items.
Bev spotted a semi on the other side of the highway so Don drove across the median to check it out. The semi trailer was unmarked and not locked so Don opened it up. It was full of wrapped pallets of bagged fertilizer at least in the back so they closed the door and continued driving. Again after a just a half mile there was another semi and this one was a Safeway grocery truck.
Very excited they opened the back of the truck to be greeted by a mostly empty trailer. There were a couple stacks of empty pallets and a few empty cardboard boxes but that was it. A little dejected Don closed the trailer up and they moved on.
Next Don stopped at a cube truck which is much smaller than a full sized semi but is commonly used for smaller stores and more local deliveries. After opening they discovered this one was bound for the World Market store. It was mostly furniture and household goods. Don found a case of coffee and said while there may be other foods on the truck they would be better off to leave it and look for a regular grocery truck. Bev agreed but they did take the case of coffee.
Next was a Home Depot truck but they did not stop for that one even though both thought there might be many useful things inside. Another cube truck was mostly full and was a delivery for a dollar store. This one they did search through for awhile and took cases of many items both food and other stuff they could use like three cases of candles and two cases of jerky.
They both got excited again when they spotted the Albertson’s Market semi. Opening the back of the truck they both were ve
ry happy with what they saw inside. The truck was about a third or more full with food. Don went back to the pickup and backed his trailer up to within a few feet of the back of the semi trailer. Bev was inside the truck and loading cases on the two wheeled cart inside.
“Bev I’ll take that and load our trailer.”
“I’m not afraid to work and I’m a hard worker.”
“That’s not it at all. I bet you are just about as strong as me but one of us has to be outside keeping watch. I’ll start loading and when I get tired we’ll trade off. I don’t want either of us to get too tired. Maybe work for ten or fifteen minutes then switch to being the look out. We will both be doing an important job all the time that way.”
“I see that. It’s a good idea. OK. I’ll take first watch.”
So Bev got down and started keeping an eye out in each direction while Don started moving the food quickly from the big trailer to their small one. It was tiring work that he wasn’t used to and after fifteen or twenty minutes he told Bev it was time to switch.
She handed him the rifle and she climbed into the trailer. They were stopped about an hour at that spot before Don called a halt because the trailer was full and the pickup box too. They closed the door to the semi and thought they could get the rest in one more load.
Don drove home even slower with the major load they had for the old pickup. After he turned on to the dirt road that led to their house he stopped and walked back to the turnoff. He cut a branch from a bush and brushed out their tire tracks for about a hundred feet on their driveway.
“That’s a good idea. We should always do that both coming and going.”