We made it to the middle of the small town, parking in the shade, scavenging what food and cooking gear we could find before building a fire to prepare a feast. By the time we actually ate, it was close to dinnertime. We talked it over with Terri and decided to remain overnight there in Nenana. First thing tomorrow, we’d get on the road and we wouldn’t stop until we were home. I couldn’t wait. I decided to go fishing as that would help me relax so I could get to sleep.
Of course, that meant more scavenging, but I barely noticed what I was doing. I took the best rod from a house next to the river and even helped myself to a four-year-old warm beer. It was bad, but seemed to fit the moment. I even caught a fish, but released him. I cast and reeled, cast and reeled. I wished that I had my music with me.
Terri joined me. I pointed to the house and told her to get herself some gear. She returned shortly with a jig and a bobber attached to a child’s pole. She punched in the thumb button and cast straight into the shore. We both chuckled as she kept trying.
“I’d offer you a drink, but it’s really bad. And warm. Warm and bad is no way to drink a beer.”
She took it regardless and helped herself to a big swig. She coughed and smacked her lips.
“You weren’t kidding. That is horrible,” she said with her mind clearly on something else. I didn’t interrupt her thoughts as I cast my lure back into the river. “Thanks for waiting for us, Chuck. And you’ll have to keep waiting. We’ll require a lot of patience.”
“When you see what we have, what little we have, you’ll find the only thing we can really give you is our promise to help. We have food, enough for all of us. And you’ll get the chance to work, too. There’s always something that needs doing. But the work will be on your terms. Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to do some fishing here,” I said in my most stodgy voice.
“Is that what you call it?” she said with a smile as she took her pole to the house, putting it back where she’d found it.
She’s going to fit in just fine, I thought.
POWER
Shane woke up after a full day in bed and was able to walk himself to the outhouse. He refused to talk with anyone, but they’d seen that before as his way to cope. The Community was rocked by the tragedy, especially as the engineers were coming into their own as full members.
Chris spent his breaks and spare time with Shane. Although the young man seemed unresponsive, Chris talked to him anyway. He shared stories of himself, of the Community, of what they did and what they meant to each other. Of the tragedies we’d all seen. Felicia’s death, my fight with the hostile strangers, and how we overcame it all to escape, only to return after a few short months.
The twins seemed the least affected. They kept Phyllis and Husky close, never straying far from the dogs. Madison did not worry that they were being taken care of, either children or dogs. They all knew to ask for help when they needed it, and they weren’t afraid to. They also had no doubt that Lucas and I weren’t dead. They were fearless and unperturbed. They spent half their days in school and the other half helping Abigail and Phillip at the kennels or at the pasture where Penelope and Sophie ran free.
Chris found an antique hand scythe and worked three overgrown fields outside the town. His job was to lay in enough feed for the horses for the winter. He was incrementally filling a shed that had previously been a machine shop. He was working eighteen hours a day, straining himself to do more than anyone else.
He had gone through the hangar and missed finding their injured comrades. His failure meant they’d spent an extra hour breathing toxic air. Colleen told him that it could happen to anyone. In this new world, accidents would happen, and they tended to be deadly. The rest had to accept it and move on.
But Chris worked himself to the point of passing out. Only then could he sleep.
After class one day, Charles stopped to visit Shane to ask a question about a bridge that he’d seen in his schoolbook. “How could something that looks that weak support something so heavy as a train?” he asked in his small voice and waited patiently. “Shane! Shane? Do you know?” Charles’ small calloused hand nudged Shane’s shoulder. And the child waited longer.
Shane turned his head and focused on Charles’ face. “A train?” he asked in a scratchy voice. He cleared his throat. “The forces are redirected along interconnected beams. By directing the weight along the axis of the beam, we maximize its ability to hold weight.”
“I knew it! I have to tell Aeryn I was right.” The boy beamed and bolted off.
Shane laughed to himself. Life goes on, doesn’t it, he thought. Because I wasn’t strong enough to tell Cullen not to check out the barrels under the tarp, there’s only me to bring power to the Community. Without electricity, we’ll spend the winter cold and in the dark. These people are still counting on me.
Shane got up and dressed. There was a lot of work to do and the first thing was to go back to Eielson and secure the generator they’d found. He needed to find Chris as soon as he got something to eat. He was ravenous.
THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN
Having refueled with avgas and restocked with oil, just in case, our caravan of two vehicles left Nenana, heading to Fairbanks. Lucas drove slowly at first, but sped up over time. We stopped after each hour to make sure everyone was okay and give everyone a relief break.
That was mostly for me. We’d found coffee and I was drinking too much of it, which necessitated frequent breaks. And I was happy as can be. We continued to the outskirts of Fairbanks, turning off short of the city to take the roads that led around the north side. We had to take Goldstream. After nearly four years, I wondered if the bodies of the two men I’d killed would still be there.
I was happy to see that they weren’t. One snow machine sat there, a monument to a battle fought long ago, a life and death struggle best left behind.
We continued to Steese, then Chena Hot Springs Road. I pointed to the street that led to our house as we passed. Agnes nodded as we kept going. I started to get excited when we made the slow turn onto Nordale Road. If anything happened from here on out, we could walk the rest of the way.
But nothing happened to hold us up. When we entered the outskirts of North Pole, I laid into the horn and Lucas quickly followed. Then mine froze and blasted a continuous, annoying tone. Lucas stuck his hand out the window, reaching past the wide mirrors to give me the finger. I stuck both my hands out the door to show that I wasn’t holding it down. He changed it to a thumbs up and we found ourselves back on Steese for a brief drive to the exit for the school. Lucas turned off, followed the road, rolled past the school, and parked on the street.
Amber raced from the building, almost knocking Lucas over as he walked toward her. He lifted her and swung her around in a circle as the other survivors exited and gathered around.
I stopped, opened the hood, and ripped the wire from the horn before running toward the school. Madison jogged toward me.
“I’m so sorry,” I cried into her hair as I hugged her to me. I could feel her sobbing in my arms. She pushed me away with a smile, wiping her tears on her sleeve.
“Don’t ever do that again,” she said, sniffling. “Looks like you brought company.”
“Hi there, I’m Agnes and we are so happy to be here. I expect you’re Madison?” My wife nodded. “I just want to tell you that he saved us. He saved us all.”
Madison looked at the number of women and children standing around. “Of course he did. It’s not the first time, you know. Maybe you can introduce us?”
People started haphazardly delivering introductions. It was just after noon and most of the Community were working. The only other adults were Jo and Clarisse. The small children were there, but the twins were not, although we expected them shortly as the kennel was close. There was no way they’d missed the honking horns.
I stood on a step and called for everyone’s attention.
“For those of you who just arrived, welcome to the Community. The most important thing is that we make you feel welcome. There’s plenty of work to do, but I think the first thing we need is to eat and then get your rooms ready. There’s nothing like a full belly and a warm bed. Welcome home.”
The twins had arrived with Abigail and Phillip. They looked surprised and relieved. For some reason, they saw the humor in the number of people that we’d brought with us.
“Hey, Dad,” was all my children said as they went to their mother to ask about the new people.
Abigail stifled a laugh, turning it into a snort. “They never doubt Superman, do they?”
“No, they don’t,” I said proudly. Then leaned close, speaking conspiratorially, “and they’ll have nothing to worry about as I think I’ll be grounded for the next ten years.”
AND BILL BELLOWED
The first thing we did after eating was hand Tanya the satellite phone. She looked at it and apologized that she didn’t know her father’s phone number. Madison and I both heard her say “don’t know” as opposed to “don’t remember.” There was a world of difference between those two phrases.
“It’s programmed into the phone,” I said as I scrolled through the phone’s address book. I saw that most of the other members of the Community had added listings. I wasn’t surprised. Technology was a drug that we found too difficult to shake off. “Ready?” I asked and she responded with a terse nod.
I pressed the button and the phone started dialing. Madison and I excused ourselves, even though we were in our room. Tanya deserved privacy.
We shut the door carefully as she was saying “Daddy?” We didn’t want to interrupt, but our good intentions were ruined when Bill let out one of his trademarked glass-shaking cries. I almost jumped out of my skin. The little hell-spawn was standing right behind us.
“God! Would you lose the bullhorn already!” I said a little too sharply. He started bawling and ran off howling. I looked at Madison only to see her scowling at me. I held up my hands in surrender. We walked away to check on the others.
Settling the newcomers was easier than I imagined. Once Terri got the lay of the land, she brought the adults together for a brief powwow. The orders were issued and off they went.
Ben and Colleen ran into a couple of the new women as they were raiding a house looking for mattresses.
“People,” Colleen said while pointing. The women waved and continued on their mission.
“Maybe that’s what the honking was all about. It looks like we have visitors,” Ben answered as he waved back. He’d only been a settler for a couple of months. Strangers weren’t new to him. They continued on their way to the school without another word.
The impressive truck and fifth wheel were parked prominently on the road in front of the school. The first thing they heard was Bill expressing his displeasure about something. Then they saw the children and the women. “You were right, Ben. We have guests.”
Madison and I were heading out the door when we ran into Ben and Colleen.
“You’re alive!” Ben exclaimed. “Sorry, never doubted it. Hey! You’ll like how the fish wheel turned out. Wanna go see it?” He received the look that Madison had given me moments before. As good men do, he withered and stammered something about having to talk to Clarisse. He smiled at me as he patted my chest.
“Me, too, Ben,” I told him.
“Newcomers,” Colleen started. “This was all your doing, I expect.”
“Guilty! But we couldn’t leave them. They were starving. They made a break about a year ago from the Russian camp,” I said easily, but then got choked up.
“They’d been abused, that’s where the kids came from.” I couldn’t say the word “rape.” It tore me up inside to think about it, let alone say it. I wanted to help them past that chapter in their lives. Everyone deserved to be happy. This was our chance to build that very society, one where people were safe. “I couldn’t leave them there,” I said barely above a whisper.
Colleen read my body language well and understood. “You wouldn’t be you if you left them. Did you have to kill anyone?”
I perked up. “No!” I said with a half-smile, “but he won’t be walking upright for quite some time.” I hadn’t told Madison about breaking Agnes out of the bed and breakfast. I wasn’t trying to hide anything, but we’d talked more about the airplane crash and the survivors themselves.
We were still outside talking when Tanya came through the door and handed me the satellite phone. Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she looked happy. She mumbled, looking for the words.
“No need,” I said. “It’s just the way we do things here. By the way, what’s your little boy’s name?”
“Mark, after my grandfather.” The boy held on to his mother’s leg. Madison led them back inside to show Mark where he would be going to school. My wife wasn’t ready for full classes, but she hoped the increase in numbers would help the others to socialize. With the new children’s ages from three months to three years, there was variety for all.
“I’ll just wait out here until Bill is done doing what he does,” I said to the door as everyone else had gone.
JUST DO WHAT NEEDS DOING
Shane found Chris in the field, soaked with sweat as he swung the scythe, harvesting the grasses for the horses’ feed. Shane waved, wearing a closed-mouth smile as he drove the quad into the field. Chris dropped the scythe were he stood and wiped his hands on his pants as he walked toward the engineer. Shane reached out from the driver’s seat and they shook, warmly, as friends do.
Chris made to speak and Shane stopped him with a gesture.
“Thank you for everything,” he started, speaking slowly. “I heard you when you talked with me. I heard it all, but I held myself hostage. I need to leave that behind. I’ve never been counted on before, and all of you have shown me that it isn’t about leaning on other people. It’s about just doing what needs to be done. I’m here, and I need your help. The right-sized generator is at Eielson. Let’s unhook the trailer and go get it.” Shane wasn’t trying to convince Chris of anything except that something needed done and they were the ones to do it.
Chris put his shirt on, grabbed his water bottle, unhooked the trailer, and climbed in. Shane drove without excess, maintaining a steady speed. He was probably their slowest driver and for good reason.
Chris didn’t mind. The drive was therapy for them both. For Chris, he could only think about Cullen’s body rotting away in the morgue. For Shane, he couldn’t remember anything beyond joining Cullen under the tarp to check one last thing. He hadn’t gone very far in when the fumes hit them. That saved his life. Cullen was too close for too long.
But that was a completely different world. Shane saw today as his rebirth. There were new challenges, like how to get the generator out of the hangar.
Chris didn’t have any ideas, but he wasn’t worried either. He knew they’d get it out, because they had to. They’d do what needed to be done.
Eielson looked the same. The hangar looked the same. When they turned off the quad, it sounded the same, too. Chris hesitated before going through the door. Shane shrugged and went in, stopping two steps within to let his eyes adjust. Chris joined him. They turned on their flashlights and Shane walked directly to a piece of equipment and pointed at it when they stood before it.
“Twenty kilowatts,” he said proudly. “Should be enough to run that whole school. We’ll have power for all the good stuff and maybe even a little heat. I’m thinking a burn rate of seven gallons an hour under a full load, maybe one hundred fifty gallons a day for thirty-thousand gallons. That’s running all out 24/7. If we don’t use that much electricity, we’ll give ourselves a reserve. So, two things. How do we get this out of here, and you were saying you think there’s a storage tank of fuel nearby? If they stored it correctly, then we should be able to
use it. Just need a little water separation filter and we’re home free!”
Chris’ funk over being where Cullen had died was short-lived. Shane’s excitement was infectious. First thing they had to do was get the big door open.
It was a really big door. It needed electricity for the drive wheels to move the door sections, of which there were three on each side of the center. Without power, Shane hoped the door drives didn’t failsafe by locking onto the track. There had to be a manual release. He searched the edges carefully and found what looked like a bottle jack pump. He inserted the lever stored conveniently next to it and started pumping. He felt it build pressure and it became harder and harder to pump. He asked if Chris could muscle it.
Chris looked at a manual switch above the contraption. It was rotated to the right to the “close” setting. He flipped the switch to the left until it pointed to “open.” “Now try it,” Chris said, giving way to Shane. The engineer chuckled as he worked the handle with fresh energy. The door creaked and there was one pop as one of the wheels broke free from its rust. The door opened, agonizingly slowly. They changed positions twice before the door was open far enough to get the quad through.
The rest was easy. They hooked up the generator and drove carefully away. Without the standard trailer hook-ups, the only brakes they had were those on the quad, and the generator probably weighed as much as their vehicle. It would be a long, slow drive home, but well worth it.
Shane checked the manifold buildings and suggested he could rig the generator to pump the fuel out of the tank and into a tanker truck. There were a few of those on the flight line. They’d dump the avgas, if they had any, and refill them with diesel from the tank. He checked and was pleased to find that it was full. That meant less oxidation and less algae buildup.
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