by Geo Dell
Donita entered the large park and let her eyes travel over her army. Thousands upon thousands here and more waiting on her word. In other cities the same things were taking place. Battles against the breathers. The cities were falling, she could feel it. Sense it with her eyes.
Her eyes lifted to the tall buildings that stood silently in the early morning light outside of the park: Marching away into the fog and cloud cover that hung over the city. Immense clouds of flies lifted and settled, looking like some sort of black ocean spread over the city outside the park. But the air was cool and the flies would be gone soon.
The flies did not bother her. They were partners of a sort. The flies carried death to those she could not reach. And that death would then bring them to her. She squatted, tented her fingers to support her body, and scented the air with her eyes.
~
“So this is it?” Mike asked. He was standing in the tunnel with Ronnie and they were pulling wire. What it amounted to was bringing the wire bundle from up top to the power room. All the other circuits were in. The batteries had been charging for three days and they were topped off. The clinic: The large open meeting area of the cave. The entire tunnel and all three entrances; the bath and shower house, and the new space inside the other cave that was being converted into a barn, were all wired: Lights; a few precious outlets for the clinic.
They had also wired Sandy and Susan's home, Josh and Sharon's, and installed lights in all the storage rooms. This line, the last line that had to be pulled to the circuit box, went up to the guard post and fed two huge outdoor lights for the field.
At the entrance to each of the three caves they had installed lighting. They had also installed low voltage lighting for the ledges and the pathways, steps and even the narrow pathway that led to the top of the mountain.
“This is it,” Ronnie agreed.
To pull wire, Mike had learned, you started at a junction box and determined how much wire you needed to reach the next junction box. You could begin by running what was called a fish, a long, stiff steel line through the conduit, snagging the wire or attaching it once you reached the other end, and then pulling it back to you, dragging the wire along with it. Or you could begin by pulling or pushing the wire through the conduit to breaks in the conduit where you could work it into the next section. In any case the goal was to get the wire in the conduit and to the place you needed it.
The wire could be run as is and left, but there were too many problems that could arise from that. In the conduit the wire was protected from the elements, small animals and accidents where it could be cut or crushed. But pulling the wire wasn't all that hard, Mike decided, it was more of a smooth, careful pull so that you didn't damage or kink the wire. You continued in that manner from junction to junction until you reached the panel box or the circuit completed itself and terminated at an outlet, light or some other box.
When this line was completed, Tim would power up the main panel box. There was what Tim called a main trunk line that ran down to the power house. It could both supply power when needed, or take away and store excess power when it was generated. The power house itself was still being worked on and was a few weeks away from being operational.
They had tested the power house and it worked well. They had installed the battery banks for it and the diesel engines that would run the generators during down time. What remained to do was to divert the stream into the channel that turned the wheel that was attached to the generator. That channel was deeper, angled so that the water would pick up speed as it came. The channel was finished and encased in concrete. Behind the power house they had created a large lake that Cindy had envisioned and would work on stocking with fish next year. All that remained to do was to open the channel, it was currently blocked off, check the flow rate and then gear the wheel so the RPM would be correct for the generator. Mike understood the basics of all of that, but had no idea how to actually do much of it. Tim had two crews working to finish it. Tim himself, as well as Bob were nowhere to be seen today though. They had never left the barn last night. The work was nearly done on the OutRunners trucks and they intended to make absolutely sure it was finished sooner, rather than later. Tom had come in to pull wire for an hour before Mike had cut him lose sending him down to help Bob and Tim.
'Where's your head?” Ronnie asked.
Mike laughed and looked at Ronnie. “This military base under Watertown... I want to say if it exists, but I guess that is just denial.”
“Yeah... But we all knew it. It shouldn't really be a surprise at all. We knew the government fucked us over.... Suspected they did, anyway.” Ronnie said.
Mike was nodding.
“So... We decided the way we had to... Bear and Billy know what they are going into. Pearl certainly knows. Why is it still renting space in your head?” Ronnie asked.
Mike frowned. “Responsibility, I guess. I feel like I should be there.”
“Candace would kill you if she heard you say that,” Ronnie said unsmiling.
“Been there. She was upset when I said pretty much that same thing this morning. She said I promised... I couldn’t break my word.” Mike said quietly as he pulled at the wires wrapped around his gloved hand slowly, coaxing them through the conduit.
They both fell silent and Mike began to get his thoughts back on the wiring once again. Over the next few weeks they would be running wire to the houses in the valley and stringing wire for lights along the pathways that lead to the houses, school and barns. The pathway lights would be something like streetlights for the valley.
The wires to the houses wouldn't be good for much more than basic light, but eventually, with more wire, they would be able to run more circuits. Probably next spring, or maybe even next fall before they could get to it, and that depended upon a lot of things, including how this mission went with the OutRunners.
“It's hard to believe that we are nearly out of wire already. We loaded so much on those trucks I really thought we had enough to last us,” Ronnie said.
I thought that same thing. I was just thinking it,” Mike agreed.
“Really? Because it looked like you were lost in thoughts of Watertown again,” Ronnie said quietly as he pulled another three feet of wire through the conduit.
“Yeah, well, that too, I guess. Hard to stay away from it.”
Ronnie nodded.
Mike went back to thoughts of electricity. There was a windmill planned. The windmill itself was already up. It had gone up in two mornings of work a few days back. But it needed a custom computer program to run it and it also needed the proper software. It was a project Tim would eventually get back to.
A second and third bank of solar panels to supplement the ones that had already been installed, were planned for the tops of the ridges on both sides of the valley. He and Janna Adams had carefully crafted a computer system that Tim would use to run the power system. Mike had readily conceded that most of the real programming work had been done by Janna Adams. He was okay, but more of an HTML and Java guy, not the hardcore C++ language that Janna used to build the bones of the software. And Mike had no doubt that Tim would soon be better than both of them combined. He had that natural ability to pick up nearly anything you threw at him.
The computer system would regulate the power flow between the power plants: Monitor all the separate systems for usage; keep track of the two storage sites where the batteries were kept. That included charge states and incoming and outgoing power levels.
The line was stuck. Mike grasped the ends of the wire with his linesman pliers and kept a steady pull of pressure as Ronnie worked the kinks out of the plastic jacket and sprinkled it with baby powder.
“Push it backwards just a little, Mike.” Ronnie said. “Good... Good... Pull it forwards now.”
Mike pulled and once again the wire pulled steadily along through the conduit.
The conduit was nothing more than inch and a quarter pipe in ten foot lengths. It fastened together with couplers, or el
bows where it needed to make a turn. Those transitions also offered a place to pull the wire from.
“Okay... Getting there,” Ronnie said as both men went back to pulling wire.
~
“How you feeling, Lil?” Candace asked as she came into the room.
“Ugh, like someone shoved a two year old inside of me.,” Lilly said.
Candace laughed, Lilly laughed too.
“I'm not kidding about the two year old though. This kid is huge. I feel like I'm stretched as tight as I can go,” she said.
“Baby you are big, that's for sure,” Candace told her.
“Hey, Lil,” Amy said, as she came up behind Candace.
“Aim,” Lilly said. “Did you bring it?“
Amy held up a big bag that held three outfits Lilly had made for the baby, a couple of blankets and a pair of booties. “Right here,” she said.
“Thank you, Aim,” Lilly said. She pulled herself up a bit in the bed as the pain began to move through her lower back and abdomen again. Candace held her hand.
“You're welcome,” Amy said as she moved up to hold her other hand.
“Twenty minutes,” Candace said. “The other one was only fifteen.”
“Ugh,” Lilly said.
“Honey, is that a word?” Amy asked.
“Yeah, it's cave woman for I can't believe I let Grug stick his thing in me,” Lilly said, laughed and then groaned.
“That bastard,” Amy said.
“Who?” Lilly asked.
“Why, Grug,” Amy said. “I can't believe he did this to you.”
They all laughed. Steve came in with Sandy as they were all laughing. “How we doing?” He asked.
“The last one was twenty, the one before was fifteen,” Candace told him.
“Sounds like a little work yet then,” Steve said. He snapped a pair of latex gloves on his hands and lifted her gown. Sandy held it as he examined her. “Coming along nicely,” He told her. “You're dilating. I would expect that those contractions might start getting closer together very soon... How are you feeling?”
“Unbelievably big,” Lilly said.
“Well, you are,” He chuckled lightly, “But it's looking very good. I'll be back in just a little while. Meantime if you need me I'm right in there.” He pointed back toward the door.
Sandy smile at her. “I tested positive,” She told her.
“What?” Lilly said as another contraction began.
“I'm pregnant,” Sandy said.
“You must be nuts,” Lilly said through gritted teeth. Her voice was a snarled growl from talking over the pain of the contraction.
Sandy laughed. “A little, yes,” she agreed.
“Little less than fifteen,” Candace said solemnly.
“I figured, now that we have a doctor... Me first and then Susan wants a child.”
Lilly rode the pain out. She took some deep breaths and looked a Candace. “That bastard,” she said. “Grug.” She couldn't get more than one or two words in a breath.
Candace and the others laughed while Lilly rode the pain out.
Sandy frowned.
“Not you,” Lilly said once the pain began to roll back down. “I'm happy for you... Honestly, Sandy. Susan too... It's that damn Grug.”
Candace squeezed her hand and smiled.
“That one hurt a lot,” Lilly told her.
Candace squeezed her hand again.
~
Outside the morning progressed, but the sky stayed the same leaden gray.
Josh walked to the cave entrance and looked out over the valley. The sheep were out and the goats with them. A great deal of the space behind him was now the biggest barn the Nation had.
He had yet to convince the horses into the barn, but the Bison had come in after only a few days. They had readily eaten the grasses and hay Josh had given them, and many of them could already be hand fed. A few of them were downright curious and would walk right up to Josh.
The goats and the sheep used a small area of the barn. There were a half dozen cows who were already pregnant, crossed with the bison. Almost a dozen bison cows who were also pregnant, and they had culled the males down to just four of the biggest. Two they had gelded to use as Oxen, and the other two they intended to keep for stud. One in the barn, the other in the field. Never together at the same time as they tended to be very territorial when the cows were present. They were every bit as aggressive as the bulls were.
He walked back into a corner of the barn where Queenie was. The kids had named her Queenie and her mate Rex. He had made the little area up for her earlier when Shar had told him it might be her time. Just yesterday Angel had, had her puppies. Six, all with gray fur. That litter was down in the valley in the second barn.
Shar was bent over in the corner when he approached.
“Five, so far,” she told him. She moved aside so he could see and as she did the mother slid another pup out easily and quickly chewed at the cord and cleaned off the sack that surrounded it. The puppy was crawling around blindly, searching for a nipple in just a few seconds.
These puppies were a little larger than Angel's puppies had been, but not by much, Josh thought.
“Gonna be monsters,” Josh said aloud.
“That's for sure,” Shar agreed. She leaned over and kissed Josh and then went back to watching the puppies. Content to have him by her. He reached out and took her hand, rocked back on his heels and watched as another puppy was born.
~
At the large cave that opened into the field above the cave, Jessie Stone kissed Brad and then stepped out into the wide tunnel. She peeked out into the field. The gray sky hung above it. The clouds nearly touching the tops of the grasses in the field. It reminded her of snow.
She and Brad were still building their home in the cave itself. Brad spent nearly every day working on it. Sometimes Tom or Bob would stop by to lend a hand or some advice, but for the most part Brad was doing the work himself and enjoying it.
They had intended to move to the other cave that fronted the valley on the opposite side of the valley, but the plans for that cave had changed. One end of the ledge that overlooked the valley had only been about twenty feet from the valley floor, due to the way the rocky floor of the valley sloped upward. But it had prompted Jessie to ask why they didn't simply continue to build it up until it was level with the ledge itself. That way they could build the barn right there and run the animals in and out easily.
“That would allow us to drive vehicles in an out to,” Josh had said.
“Jessie,” Bob had said laughing, “I think you just talked yourself out of a home.”
In the long run it had worked out for the better. They had moved the sheep right down into the valley using the tunnel to get them there and the new slope down from the ledge. It had saved days of work trucking or driving them around to the opposite side of the mountain. They had been there in a few hours. In the spring they planned to refinish the ledge in concrete, but for now it worked equally well with built up earth topped with stone and gravel from the creek bed and the slopes of the valley.
Harvests, animal movement, meat, storage, it was all available from either side of the mountain now by vehicle or on foot. In another few weeks they would be opening up part of the main original cave to allow vehicles to drive through more easily. Now they had to maneuver through the main meeting area and twist around into the tunnel. A little work would change all of that. They had closed off the same part they now intended to open up very early on, but since the discovery of the tunnel to the other side of the mountain it would be a perfect entrance to make the trip nearly a straight shot and keep the vehicles out of the parts of the cave they used for people, storage and even animals.
The only real obstacle was the slope that came up out of the valley to the ledge of the cave. It was passable as is, but they were already making plans to change the slope and lay down concrete there too. The four wheel drive vehicles had no trouble, but it would make things
easier for other vehicles, wagons, and the larger trucks too. Bob was excited about a couple of the big trucks to use in the valley during harvest. They had four, so each side could have two.
The big trucks could hold a lot and then drive right back through the tunnels to the storage areas.
Jessie was on her way back down the tunnel to the first cave. Eventually there would be a stairway entrance straight down, but that would be after the electrical work was done.
She had received the call on the radio from Steve. There was also a telephone system that they planned to install eventually. Bob had been against that at first, but he had changed his mind. They depended so heavily on the radio system now that it only made sense to make the jump to a telephone system.
It was a short walk, but she quickened her pace. She had thought that they had plenty of time, or at least Steve had thought that the last time he had called. So she had pitched in to help Brad put up a long section of wall. That was when Steve called and said that Lilly's water had broken.
The Nation was about to meet its first baby. Jessie smiled to herself as she walked along. And, she told herself, one more was coming: She had tested herself this morning and she was pregnant. She hadn't even told Brad yet. She was saving that for tonight. She smiled to herself again. She felt great. Life was good. She picked up her pace as she walked through the tunnel.
SIX
Tom stood at the stone wall overlooking the valley. He had stayed inside, paced the ledge back and forth: Thought about going down the tunnel and helping Ronnie and Mike. Rejected that idea. Reconsidered going in to watch the baby being born, a once in a lifetime experience, he agreed, but he just didn't believe he could do it. To him a man's place was in the waiting room, only they had no waiting room, so here he was looking out over the valley and waiting.
The air was crisp and clear. The morning fog that usually covered the valley had burned off as the sun had risen, but the temperature had risen only a small amount. It still felt cold enough to snow to him.
The door opened and Mike and Ronnie stepped outside. Tom grinned, Mike patted him on the back and then Ronnie did too as they both shook his hand. Mike handed him a cup of coffee he'd bought out to him.