The Weak Shall Die: Complete Collection (Four Volume Set)

by Taylor Michaels

  "We have generators," John said, trying hard to counter the negativity. But he was beginning to understand what Fred and George were telling him. In a few years, they would slip back a thousand years and life would become even more difficult and less satisfying. Surviving wasn't good enough. Just staying alive wasn't good enough.

  "Those generators use gasoline and their noise attracts predators. And the tractor uses diesel fuel. We have plenty of those now, but neither will be around in a few years. Maybe five if we're careful and lucky and we find a few more stations with leftover fuel. Then what? How do we plow the ground for the garden? We use horses, if we can find some. That one horse we found with Abby would work, but he won't do a lot of plowing. Not fast anyway. Most animals have died or been killed by hungry people. We'll have to live like people did a thousand years ago and a thousand years before. If we are here in five years and all our crutches fall out from under us, then we'll be pushed a thousand years back into history, maybe two thousand. We just survived the virus, and only lost a few years, but next time, our standard of living will go back far and fast -- to the stone age."

  "I've been trying to think positively, but now you're making me depressed, Fred. Maybe you're right. Maybe that's why I stayed in the near future. In the back of my mind, I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle the more distant future. I knew it would be hard, but I didn't have a better answer. So, what's your answer? Do you have one?"

  "We have two. We've been talking about this for a while. We need to base our standard of living on something sustainable and we have to make it happen while we have electric tools and electricity."

  "Yeah, Fred," said George. "That's the key to the future. We can make something better now, but we can't make it later. If we wait until we lose our electricity and we're pushed into history, it will be too late. We will never climb out of that hole. We have to create the replacement technology while we still have the old technology to make it happen. Otherwise we will lose a thousand years. I think we should give it a high priority."

  "OK, I'm beginning to see where you're going." He punched Fred on the shoulder. "And I thought you were just being pessimistic. I should have known better. But the only thing we have which is sustainable is wood. And solar and wind. But those require technologies we can't reproduce. I've read articles on building wind turbines to generate power. That requires magnets and copper wire and polyester resin. Those aren't sustainable. And we can't make solar electric panels. So, you're saying that the way we are living right now, we are living a shadow of how good it was before. That sun will set and that shadow will disappear in a few years, if we don't do something before then. And once it goes away we'll never go back to where we were no matter how smart we are or how hard we try."

  "Exactly, John. We need a long term plan. Something that only relies on things we can be sure will be here in ten years or fifty years. Offhand that sounds like those gas generators burning wood and using small engines and car generators to make electricity. We'd have to use existing engines, but tons are available and they are reliable."

  "How does that work, George?"

  "In a nut shell, we have a big container where we burn wood. We light it off and then put on the lid. We pipe the gas it produces through filters and coolers and suck it into the engine. Maybe best to start with a small engine, like a lawn tractor engine. Then, we attach car generators to that and produce electricity. Simple and easy. We use car batteries as a reservoir and to stabilize the system. Then, we put car light bulbs into all the houses. That's the simplest system, but I have lots of upgrades in mind."

  "Yeah," said Fred. "If we can find a household generator, we could run that on this gas and use all our existing appliances and tools. I'll bet a bunch of those big houses in the rich section of town have one."

  "But the container with the wood has to be insulated and air tight, right?"

  "Mostly. If it's not perfect, it'll still work. Bricks from fireplaces for insulation, but it doesn't run under pressure. A little vacuum. They modified cars to run like that back in World War Two in Europe. A few people in the US have done it recently. I downloaded some articles before the internet went out."

  "Once or twice a day, a new batch of wood has to be added. Is that the way it works?"

  "Yeah, John, we could even have two burners and switch back and forth to make things continuous. For a fixed use, like power generation, weight and size are not big problems."

  "Do you have the stuff to build it?"

  "Yeah, mostly. The first one won't be pretty. I'll start looking for things we might need on our foraging trips so we can make it better. Mainly steel sheets and pipes."

  "When do we do this? We already work sixteen hours a day. After chopping wood all day, none of us is ready to do something else at night. I'll help and I'm sure everyone else will, too. We'll have to sandwich the work between other short-term things, like chopping wood, foraging and hunting."

  "Sure. This will be one of those cold weather projects, but in the worst of winter, we won't be able to do too much outside, even in the barn."

  "If this works …"

  George held up his hand, palm toward John. "When it works, John. We've been talkin' about this for a few days and we're certain we can do it. It's not like we're inventin' somethin' new. In World War Two, half a million cars were runnin' on wood, mostly in Europe. We have to put together the gasifier, a filter and a cooler, but gettin' an engine to work shouldn't be a problem. Might have to use an older car without all the fancy electronics, though. Makin' a steam engine would be a problem."

  "OK. When it works, after everything settles down, we could sell our 'technology' to others. Trade it for food. How much would people pay for electricity? People used to have it, but don't any more. They would pay an arm and a leg. That's how Thomas Edison made it big. Right?"

  "Sure, don't know why not, right George."

  "Yep. We could turn this apocalypse thing into a payin' proposition. People will pay big bucks for lights, if they're in the dark."

  "If you think you could have a salable model ready by summer, I could start looking for customers, once things settle down. Maybe in the spring."

  "You're saying this now for what reason?"

  "Right now we're all busy. Chopping wood. Working in the garden. Cooking, canning. In the next few months, it will be cold and the garden goes away. What do we do? We can still chop wood, but not every day. I found an old almanac and I think we'll be able to work outside less than forty percent of the time we did in the summer. Because of available light and weather."

  "In that case it would be a good idea to build a building to put this thing in. Keep it out of the public view and out of the rain. Also, keep it warm inside so we can work on those cold days."

  John could almost see the wheels spinning in George's big Texas mind. "What are you thinking about George?"

  "We could take apart one of those metal garages. Everybody around here seems to have one. We could take one down, move it and reassemble it in less than a week. Quite a few around. Plenty of houses around with insulation."

  "Sounds like you're also saying we'll need even more wood."

  "Maybe not," said George. "One of my upgrades is to circulate water around the burner to capture waste heat. That combines this idea with another idea we talked about. A water stove. Those things use wood to heat water and then circulate it to the lodge and the cabins. We could put heating pipes through the tunnels. It would be more efficient than using a fireplace. We might even end up using less wood and making the electricity for free because of the efficiency. That would take another few weeks."

  Fred quickly piped in. "And if we have extra electricity, we could put it into the Demon fleet. Right now it takes three to six days to charge all three cars even when it's sunny. With this system, we could use electricity generated at night to power the fleet."

  "Sounds like you guys have figured out how to recreate a thousand years of technical progress all by ourselves."
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  "It won't be the same, but it'll be so close, we won't miss civilization. And the new civilization will come back much faster. As long as we have electricity, we'll be able to bring about that new and better world much faster than we ever imagined before."

  After a moment of silence, John said, "Can you find the materials? You can't order them on the internet any more."

  "I think so. We've become more innovative, lately."

  "Talking about innovation, you said you had another idea."

  Fred shifted in his rocker. "One. It's along a totally different theme. Elspeth kept talking about not being able to travel. Using the Demon fleet, we can go forty miles, one way. That means we could trade with people in this county, but no farther. Beyond that requires either some kind of fuel or another form of transportation."

  "We had horses at one point. But you can't go forever on a horse. Thirty miles per day. We would have to bring enough food for ourselves."

  "In ancient times, John, towns were ten to thirty miles apart for that reason. People could travel to town on horses, conduct their business and then go back home in one day."

  "We thought of a couple things," said George. "First was a car, using a wood gasifier. Once we have explored everything we can with the Demons, we could do that next. The car using the wood burner could travel a hundred miles or more. Put wood in the back seat for the return trip. Also, we could have a gasifier engine in a boat and we just stop along the river and pick up more wood as we go. Unlimited range. How's that for high tech? If we were selling the gasifier electrical system, we could transport it by boat. Remember the movie 'African Queen'? He had a steam boat that burned wood. Single cylinder. Just stopped along the river anytime he needed more fuel and gathered wood. The gasifier system would be more efficient, have better range."

  "That gives me an idea," said John. "We have limited rivers, but almost unlimited railroads. You make a car that can travel on rails using a gasifier and it would be almost like having our own train. Another way to trade."

  "I like it," said Fred. "We would have to make it light enough to change rails if a switch were bad. That brings up the second idea we had. It was for a bicycle. People have made recumbent bicycles with fairings and even enclosed cockpits which will go thirty miles per hour for many hours. A normal bicycle has high wind resistance. By enclosing a recumbent bicycle, you can go twice as fast and twice as far with less work."

  "That could be done on rails, too," said George. "The railroads got the flattest land, usually around a river. Would be great for a human powered vehicle."

  "OK. So you two put together a plan with a list of all the materials we'll need and a timeline."

  "For which idea? Which do you like best, the wood gasifier electrical system or the human powered vehicle?

  John leaned into Fred and George. "Both, of course. Find whatever you need. Checkout houses for sheet metal and bicycle parts."

  "By the way," said Fred. "We have a few of those culverts left over. They could be used for the burners."

  "Yeah," said John. "They would withstand a moderate amount of vacuum. Could be perfect. Also a fermenter. Those in the wineries were made of stainless steel. Could also be a good source of stainless piping, too. If you need that."

  "I forgot you were an engineer, John."

  John leaned back in the rocker, satisfied that he had chosen the right people for his group of survivors. "You guys have discovered the secret to our future. We could become rich selling electrical power systems and transportation devices. Trains and boats and cars. That new world we are going to invent just became a lot brighter, guys."

  Chapter 48 - The Thief

  The office was located off the lodge's living room and John found himself there on most days. Today he was busy poring over Marceau's proposed dinner menus and checking them against the inventory sheets. The shuffling of feet broke his concentration. He looked up and saw Fred.

  " 'Sup, Fred?"

  "How are we doing, Boss?"

  "OK. I think we'll make it. Of course, we could use more food, but you know that. Looks good though."

  "We do have a problem."

  "Tell me what you want to tell me, Fred. No games. No dancing around. No sugar coating."

  "I was just checking out the tunnels. I go through them all once a week. Just want to make sure we haven't had any leaks. Also, I spread around some new sand if it's been wiped away. The base is dirt, but the sand is on top of that."

  John let out a sigh. "Fred, you're driving me crazy. We're friends. You can tell me anything. Say what you're going to say. You said we have a problem. What is it?"

  "You're a hard man to talk to John."

  "I'm an easy man to talk to. Just say it."

  "The door from the tunnel to cabin five is broken."

  John sat bolt upright in his chair. "That's a storage cabin. Any food missing?"

  "Yes. Quite a bit. At least ten pounds, maybe twenty."

  John slammed his hand on the desk. His words were quick and to the point. "I can't believe this. I thought we could trust everyone in the group. Any idea who it was?"

  "No. The sand was scuffed up, but I didn't see any pattern or foot prints."

  "The storage cabin wasn't locked?"

  "No. Actually, the lock on cabin eight seemed to be broken."

  John let out a few puffs of air in frustration. "Seemed to be broken? You mean the lock was faulty?"

  "It is now. Somebody bashed the hell out of it with a hammer. Is that what you wanted me to say?"

  John's anger was beginning to kick in. "I just want you to tell me the unvarnished truth." He checked his anger before continuing. "Nobody reported hearing anything, but I suppose it's between two other storage cabins. Most people keep their doors to the tunnel closed."

  "Dinner is in an hour. You want to bring it up then?"

  "How about planting some kind of camera in number eight? Or a wireless alarm if you have one of those? Or finger prints."

  "We don't have any of those gadgets. Everyone has been in cabin eight at one time or other. We could wipe all the prints and then check the new ones after the next break-in. Then we'd have to fingerprint everyone. Wouldn't go over well."

  "One of us could just go sit and wait."

  "One of us?"

  "We'd have to run shifts."

  "You are wanting me to take the first shift? Just say what you want to say, John, don't sugarcoat it. Just the unvarnished truth."

  "Point taken. You start after dinner until midnight and then I'll replace you."

  At two o'clock in the morning, John was in cabin eight, reading by candlelight when he heard the door open in the basement. He snuffed the candle and grabbed his flashlight. He made a quick check to make sure his three twenty seven magnum was stuffed into the back of his pants. The crumpled papers he had scattered on the floor of the basement were being crushed underfoot. The crushing stopped and he heard footsteps on the stairs. The door to the basement creaked opened and he turned on the overhead light.

  "Come in and have a seat. Let's talk."

  "Bloody hell, John. You almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

  "It's quiet here. Good place to read. What's your excuse, Elspeth?"

  "Oh, yes. You must think I'm balmy."

  "I think you're hungry. We are all hungry. I can understand that. But stealing?"

  "You are going to give me an ear bashing."

  "Is that what you think I should do?"

  "Bloody hell, John. I don't know what you should do. You run this place," she said, tears streaming down her face. "I've been so hungry." She held her hand on her stomach. "I've lost twenty pounds. You heard what George said months ago. I didn't have twenty pounds to lose. I look like a ghost."

  He looked at her seriously and said, "I've always said we have a democracy. Maybe we should bring it up at breakfast. See what everybody says. Determine your punishment, democratically."

  "Just like we voted
how to punish Carla and Isaac?" Elspeth's words were shaky and she felt fear tying a knot in her stomach. "They will vote to throw me out, won't they? Just like Carla. Give me a car and three gallons of petrol. Nobody liked Carla, especially the women. And none like me. They think I'm a slag, trying to steal their men."

  "That's not true. Everybody likes you. They wouldn't want to see you go."

  "Rubbish. They've been hungry for the last two weeks and I've been stealing food. They will be happy to see me go." She felt her legs tremble and steadied herself against the wall.

  "Go back to your cabin, sober up and think about it. We'll all talk tomorrow. Things will look better in the light of day."

  Elspeth turned and stumbled back down the stairs, through the door and then fell to her knees and crawled through the tunnel to her cabin.

  As she came up the stairs into the living room, Tom was sitting on the sofa.

  "Bloody hell, Tom. First John and now you."

  "What do you mean 'first John.' You're tired of Charles and you're going after someone else? John could throw us out of here. Do you understand that? What would happen to us in this country -- here alone. Remember what John said back in England? He said to make sure we wanted to go to the States because that's where we would die."

  "You prat. I didn't go after John. He was waiting for me."

  "What do you mean, 'waiting for me?' Did you have a meeting with him? You set it up at dinner? You're seeing him now!"

  "I had a meeting, but not with him."

  "You had a meeting with someone else and he caught you? You little tramp. You keep throwing this in my face. You are making me mad. First, you threw yourself at Charles. You have flirted with every man in this group and publicly proclaimed you are available. How do you think that makes me feel? Now John. I won't have it. You will stop this randy behavior -- right now."

  "Or what? What are you going to do. Beat me? Like your father beat your mother. You thought I didn't know. She told me your great family's nasty little secret. All the men were like that. And that's what you want to do to me. Well forget it. I won't have it."