Avenging Home

by Angery American

  There was more noise outside, and Mike burst through the door with Doc right behind him.

  “What the hell’s going on in here?” Doc asked, looking around.

  Dalton laughed. “Ole Morg got himself a bear!”

  “No shit? A bear?” Mike asked and leaned in to see.

  Doc looked at me. “You alright?”

  I looked myself up and down. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  He pointed to my leg. “What’s on your leg? Is that blood?”

  I pointed the light at the floor and looked at my leg. Dalton stepped in and inspected it. Running his finger across my pants, he brought it up to his nose. “No, that’d be bear shit.” Then he wiped it back on my pants.

  “Oh thanks,” I said.

  The floor was covered in bear scat. That soft pile I stepped in was now spread all over the kitchen floor, and me.

  Mike pinched his nose. “Damn, you stink!”

  “What the hell are you doing over here?” Doc asked.

  I told them I was getting the trailer to put the generator on when I heard a bump inside. I thought it was a person and went to investigate.

  “And found a bear,” Doc said. I nodded.

  “Hey, Morg. Next time, just step over the pile of bear poop. Don’t roll around in it.” Mike said.

  Dalton laughed. “Gotta say, I ain’t never seen it done like that before.”

  “You guys can kiss my ass,” I said.

  “Let’s drag this thing out of here,” Dalton said.

  We got to work and pulled the beast out the back door. Sarge was there with Ted and Thad when we got it out to the concrete slab behind the house.

  “Hot damn, boys!” Sarge shouted. “That’s one fine looking bear.”

  “I’m surprised there’s any left,” Doc said. “I figured they’d be hunted out by now.”

  Sarge nodded. “Me too. But we got us one now.” He looked at me and said, “Nice work.” Then wrinkled his nose and looked me over. “Why are you covered in bear shit?”

  “He was rolling around in it in there,” Mike said. I gave him the finger and he smiled.

  Looking at Sarge, I said, “I’ll see your gator and raise you one bear.”

  Sarge smiled. “Hell of a job, son. Let’s get this thing out of here. We got some butchering to do.”

  Thad was standing off to the side not saying much. I stepped over to him. “What’da think?”

  His arms were crossed over his chest as he inspected the bear. After a moment, he said, “I think you white people is crazy for messin’ with these wild animals.”

  I started to laugh. “That’s pretty good, Thad.”

  He smiled. “But now that it’s dead, I’ll deal with it.”

  I went with Mike and got the trailer connected to the truck and backed it over closer to the bear. We picked it up and loaded it onto the trailer and headed towards Danny’s house. Mike and Ted went to relieve Danny so he could come to the house and help with the butchering. Thad and Dalton rode with me.

  Looking at Thad, I said, “You know you have to go with me this morning.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’d like to work on that bear, but we got work to do.”

  “Don’t fret, lads. I’ll skin the beast!” Dalton shouted from the back seat.

  Thad looked over his shoulder. “Take good care of that hide.”

  “But of course! I’ll make me a furry kilt of it!”

  I started to laugh. “Now there’s an image I don’t need in my mind.”

  Laughing, Thad added, “I know, right!”

  After unloading the bear at Danny’s, we left him and Dalton. Thad went to get the tractor while I got the truck back out onto the road. Sarge took forever, but finally came out of the house carrying a plastic shopping bag.

  “What the hell were you doing?” I asked as he climbed in beside me.

  He held the bag up. “Getting Mario some lizard meat.”

  With a smirk, I replied, “You were just making time with Miss Kay.”

  “Just shut up and drive!”

  Smiling, I pulled off. I made a quick pit stop at the house to change my pants. I stunk to high heaven and wasn’t about to spend all day covered in bear shit. We met up with Thad on the road and headed out towards town. As we passed the road to the house Ian shared with Perez and Jamie, I saw Perez slumped against a fence post. Rolling up, I asked, “Well, look who’s still alive.”

  Perez took a drag on a cigarette and started to hack and cough while giving me the finger. Once he finally got it under control, he looked up with watering eyes and asked, “You headed to town?”

  “Yeah, we’re on our way there now.”

  Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, he said, “Good, I’m going too.”

  Sarge looked at him. “You look like shit. I think you should stay here.”

  “Tough shit, Top. I’m going to check on Jamie.” Perez replied as he climbed in the backseat. Once in the back of the truck, Perez slumped over and almost immediately fell asleep.

  I had to keep an eye on Thad on the tractor to make sure I didn’t leave him. I was glancing back at Thad when I heard Sarge ask, “What’s that?”

  I looked down the road past the bullet holes in my windshield - I still hadn’t forgiven Danny for that. And I saw something lying in the road. As we got a little closer, I said, “Looks like a person.”

  “Sure is. Let’s stop and check him out.”

  I stopped short of the body and we got out. I looked back at Thad and waved him forward. He pulled the tractor around the truck as I walked over to the body.

  “Somebody did a hell of a number on his head,” Sarge said.

  “Yeah, I used to joke about striking someone repeatedly about the head and neck. Shit. Someone did it to this poor guy,” I said.

  Thad shut the tractor down and pronounced, “Damn! He took one hell of an ass whoopin.”

  Sarge rolled the body over on its back. The man’s face was severely beaten. So bad, the nose sat at an extreme angle. Both eye sockets were probably shattered from the looks of them. His jaw also appeared to be broken.

  “This was personal,” Sarge said.

  “That, or whoever did it just enjoyed it,” Thad said.

  Sarge looked around. The road was covered in blood. Bloody footprints were in a large circular area around the body. “Looks like it was a hell of a fight.”

  “He ain’t got no shoes,” Thad said.

  The man’s bare feet were rather clean compared to the soiled clothes he wore. Someone relieved him of his footwear. It was a stark image, to imagine this man being beaten to death over a pair of shoes. It harkened back to the days when inner city kids would jack one another up over a pair of whatever was the sneaker of the day. But this wasn’t done over envy or some sense of fashion. This was more than likely done for need. Someone didn’t have shoes, or theirs weren’t in as good a condition, and they decided to take this guy’s.

  Sarge looked at me. “What do you want to do with him?”

  “Let’s get him out of the road and we’ll pick him up on the way back I guess.”

  “Just put him in the bucket. I’ll bury him out at the farm,” Thad said.

  We agreed that was the best idea, and Sarge and I hefted the body into the bucket when Thad pulled it over. I couldn’t just leave the man there. While I knew nothing about him, it was the proper thing to do. We got back in the truck and headed for Mario’s.

  Looking over at Sarge, I said, “Wonder what Mario’s going to think with us pulling up with this corpse in the bucket.”

  Sarge laughed. “Well, I told him we’d bring him some meat today.”

  “Oh, that’s just wrong.”

  We stopped at the gate and I honked the horn an
d waited. After a couple of minutes, I hit the horn again. Not long after, I saw a side by side come out from behind the warehouse. Mario stopped at the gate and opened it. I pulled through and watched in the mirror as Thad came through with the tractor. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw him crane his neck to look in the bucket. The feet sticking out the side of the bucket gave no doubt what was in it.

  I saw him say something to Thad and point at the bucket. Thad shrugged and replied as he rolled through the gate. Once Mario secured the gate, he walked up.

  “What the hell is that?” He asked, pointing at the feet sticking out of the bucket.

  Before I could reply, Sarge leaned forward. “Told you I’d bring you some meat today!”

  Mario pointed at the tractor. “That don’t look like a gator to me.”

  Sarge started to laugh and slapped the dash of the truck. I shook my head. “Just ignore him. We found him on the road. Couldn’t just leave him there.”

  With a quick shake of his head, Mario replied, “You ain’t leaving him here either.”

  Waving him off, I said, “No, no. I just need to get the generator on the trailer. We’ll deal with him later.”

  “Alright then. Follow me, I’ve got the backhoe over at the generator. Shouldn’t be too hard to load it up.”

  We followed him around the warehouse to a small lean-to structure. The generator was out from under the structure, Mario having used the backhoe to pull it out. Once he was off the ATV, I asked him where he wanted me, and pulled the truck in as he indicated.

  Sarge got out and walked around the generator, looking it over. “You sure this thing’s gonna run?”

  Mario smiled. “Hell yeah.” Stepping up to it, he flipped one switch and then another. The generator rumbled to life, coughing thick black smoke for an instant before settling into a loud rumble. “She’s great!” Mario shouted over the roar of the machine. Since it was just sitting on the ground, it vibrated furiously.

  Sarge gave him the kill it signal, and Mario shut it off. “Have you checked the output?” Sarge asked.

  Mario nodded. “Yeah, it’s about 487 volts.”

  “That’s good enough,” I said.

  “Let’s get this contraption loaded up then,” Sarge barked.

  Mario explained his plan. He would lift the front of the generator up with a chain connected to the bucket of the backhoe. Then I was to back the trailer under it and he would set it down and move to the back of the generator and using the bucket again, lift it from the bottom and push it up and onto the trailer. Sounded pretty easy.

  Mario lifted the front of the generator and Sarge guided me back. Sarge gave me the signal to stop, and I waited as Mario lowered the generator onto the end of the trailer. That’s when things went sideways. While the trailer was more than sufficient to handle the load, having all of it on the very end wasn’t working out. The front of the trailer rose steadily as he lowered the load. It was putting a lot of pressure on the hitch itself. Sarge yelled at Mario to hold up. I got out to see what was going on.

  “This ain’t going to work. It’s putting too much pressure on the hitch,” Sarge said.

  Thad stepped over and looked at the problem. “I could come over here with the tractor and put pressure up here on the front. That should be enough for him to get off it.”

  Sarge nodded. “Alright, let’s try it.”

  Thad pulled the tractor up and lowered the bucket down onto the tongue of the trailer. He forced the trailer back down but had to roll the bucket down a little to get enough pressure. Sarge called to Mario, and he let off the load entirely. It worked and the trailer sat fairly level. Sarge climbed up and quickly unhooked the chain, and Mario moved the machine to the back of the generator and slid the bucket under it.

  Picking up the ass end of the machine, he started to push it forward. The generator was mounted on a frame made of four-inch I-beam. The deck of the trailer was diamond plate; and as Mario started to push, it slid rather easily across the bed. That is until it hit a small piece of weld we hadn’t noticed. When it hit the weld, the whole trailer and generator shuddered hard. The body in Thad’s bucket rolled out and ended up with the upper torso on the ground and the legs on the trailer.

  Mario stopped and asked what was going on. Sarge quickly told him, and Mario jumped off the machine and disappeared into his warehouse. He returned with a long pry bar and handed it to Sarge, who jumped up onto the trailer and jammed the edge of the bar under the I-beam and put some pressure on it. Mario was back in the hoe and gave it a little push.

  The generator came free and moved forward quickly, throwing Sarge off balance. In trying to catch himself, he tripped over the dead guy’s legs and fell off the trailer in a barrage of curses. I ran around the trailer to help him up, but he was in no mood for it.

  He shoved me away. “Get off me you fucking potato head!” Sarge shouted when I tried to help. I laughed and stepped back.

  “Be careful, old man. You don’t want to break a hip.” I shot back, trying not to laugh. He wasn’t hurt, so I wasn’t worried about him now.

  He got to his feet and dusted himself off. “I’ll break your fucking hip!” He shouted. Then, looking at the corpse he had tripped over, he shouted, “Get on the other end of this sack of shit!” I helped Sarge get the body back into the bucket, and Thad backed away.

  “Taken down by a dead man,” I said. “I think you’re slipping.”

  Sarge pointed at me. “Keep it up, peckerhead.” I laughed, but decided it was probably best to leave the grumpy old bastard alone. Best for me that is.

  Mario brought out some chains and binders, and we secured the generator to the trailer. It wasn’t long before it was properly secured and we were ready to go. Sarge stepped back and inspected the load.

  “That went better than I thought it would,” he said.

  Mario huffed. “What? It went exactly like I expected.”

  “Shit, I’m happy. I didn’t know what to expect,” I said.

  “Me too. It’s on the trailer. That’s all I expected,” Thad said with a chuckle.

  Sarge shook Mario’s hand. “Thanks for the help, Mario. Hopefully, those engineers can get that generator running.”

  “Not a problem. Glad to do my part,” Mario replied.

  I grabbed the bag of gator meat from the truck and brought it over. “Here, Mario. Here’s some of the old man’s lizard.”

  Mario smiled. “Thanks. This’ll be good.”

  “Hope you enjoy it,” Sarge said, then looked at Thad. “You and your buddy there ready to go?”

  Thad smiled. “I am, and he’s always ready.”

  “You two are messed up,” I said as I got in the truck and gave Mario a wave.

  Sarge climbed in beside me. “What’s eatin’ your ass?”

  “Me? Nothing. Let’s get this thing delivered and go to town so we can check on Jamie.”

  “Yeah. I need to set up a time to sit down with Sheffield,” Sarge replied. “You’re going to need to be there as well. But we’ll also need Mikey and Ted to be there.”

  Sarge called the armory on the radio to let them know we were on our way to the plant with the generator. One more stop before we could get into town. I was eager to check on Jamie. Not to mention we needed to get the farm up and running. Thad and Cecil would oversee the work, but we needed more bodies out there. That meant we needed either volunteers, or needed to make some volunteers.

  Pulling up to the plant, I drove around to the building that held the controls for the plant. The power would have to go in there first, so it was only logical. The engineers weren’t there yet, so we got out and looked around.

  “Where do you think it needs to go?” Sarge asked.

  “Let me look around,” I said.

  “I hope you know, ‘cause I ai
n’t going to be no help on this,” Thad said.

  Going inside, I looked at the banks of breakers and motor control centers or MCCs. I found the main for what looked to contain most of the pump motors and other associated components of the plant. But there was another one on the other side of the room, and the two weren’t directly connected. Trying to rig power between the two would be a real pain in the ass. There had to be a better way.

  Going outside, I started looking for transformers. The power for the operation of the plant would be tied in with the main grid somewhere. There would also be a switchgear someplace that would allow the plant to swap between grid power and the plant’s own output. If I could find that, then we would have one point of connection, making it a lot easier.

  “What are you looking for?” Sarge asked.

  “A transformer, a big one,” I replied.

  Sarge walked with me as I went around the corner of the building. And there it was. A giant green transformer sat just outside the back of the building. Considering the power of an EMP and the fact that this thing was tied to the grid, it was probably no good. But that was alright. Our generator would produce the same voltage that this thing did on its secondary side. Power came into the transformer at line voltage of 7200 volts, and was stepped down to 480 volts. The generator produced the same 480 volts.

  Trying the handle on the big green box, I said, “Right here. This is where we need to put the generator. We need to get into this transformer so the engineers can connect to the wire going into the building.”

  “I’ll go get the truck,” Sarge said as he disappeared back around the building.

  There was a padlock on the doors of the transformer. It was the typical power company lock they all seemed to use down here. One of the round ones with a stamped metal body designed primarily to keep honest people honest. Getting it off would be no great feat.

  Sarge drove around the corner with a Hummer following him. I was glad to see the engineers because I wanted to get going on the other tasks for the day. So I smiled when Scott and Baker climbed out of the truck.