Grow barns was misleading because the buildings each covered ten acres of land and that’s what they’d planted in. That was what Arthur had to have all the heavy steel beams for. There was a deep concrete footing all the way around for support but the floor was dirt. After the buildings were up, the dirt was dug out to six feet deep and then all the rocks were sifted out. Those would be used for the wall. All along the bottom, pipes were laid to supply nutrients and water directly to the soil. Then all the dirt was put back but mixed with rich topsoil made from all the methane cubes, which were just big composters that collected the methane.
The first grow barn was completed in August and was set up with dikes, then flooded and planted with rice. She and Arthur had grown rice in greenhouses before, so they had a foundation to build on. But inside the grow barn, they controlled everything. If the sun wasn’t shining, grow lights came on. There was snow on the ground now, but inside the rice barn it was still eighty degrees. The rice had been harvested last week. On a rice farm that was outside, the average yield was over seven thousand pounds of rice per acre. The grow barn did nine thousand per acre. That was what had been eating so much of their fuel until the hydro-power station had come online, fuel for the generators. This week, they would be replanting the rice because they could grow year-round.
The last two grow barns grew soybeans and corn, and both would be harvested this week. A farm average for corn was one hundred and sixty bushels an acre. Last week Arthur had gone through the corn and said they would double that easy. Wendy had been in the grow barn much more and was expecting three hundred per acre. On the soybean estimate, she did agree with Arthur. A farm averaged fifty bushels an acre and Arthur again said they would double it. But unlike a regular farm, they would replant a few days later. The pipes in the ground let them replenish what nutrients they needed.
They would eventually change crops, but they needed food now. That’s why Arthur had pushed the grow barn project. Albert and Jill had taken in more people than Arthur had expected. In truth, he hadn’t expected them to find so many. Until they had hydropower, neither site would be able to grow enough food to feed their people. Oh, they had chickens for eggs. They still didn’t have enough chickens to eat yet, but they were working on that. Another thing each site had enough of was cattle for beef. They also had dairy cows and had milk and cheese, but they couldn’t grow enough vegetables. Wendy was certain by spring those at both sites would be tired of rice, beans, and corn, but it was food. At the ranch, their diet would be more varied but not like before because the basement pantry was empty. What vegetables they ate now were brought in the night before. In the next few weeks, they planned to start storing food from the new greenhouse.
Turning to the north and looking at the huge slope across from her, Wendy just stared in awe at the new greenhouse. It ran up the south facing slope two hundred yards, and was a hundred and twenty-five yards wide. Inside, it was tiered in steps with a large area filled with elevated beds to grow in. The higher up you went, the higher the temperature got. It had been finished at the end of July and was the only reason they’d gotten the chance to plant the rice barn. It was just now starting to produce food in the amount to feed those here at the ranch, and that filled Wendy with relief.
More than once, Arthur had talked to her about going out to huge truck depots and looking for food, just in case. The fact Arthur knew those were high targets was what worried Wendy. It wasn’t a question of if they would be attacked, but how many times, when they got the food.
Just thinking of ‘attack’, Wendy thought of the Tomb. It had come online just this week. By Arthur’s original plans, they weren’t supposed to start on the Tomb until next year at the earliest. And Arthur hadn’t planned on it being completed until summer. All that had changed when LL, Jason, and Samantha got there. It wasn’t until the first of November when every adult who’d come in with Joseph could actually work, because Rudolph had been very hard on them. Even now, three of the adults still got short of breath, but Doc said it would go away. Doc had a clinic that any doctor would love to have. He could do tests, X-rays, ultrasounds, and after Jason and Arthur had taken off and come back with a portable CT scanner in a tractor-trailer, there was now a CT machine, and that’s what Doc was basing his findings on. Their lungs were improving, but it was slow. Even Doc admitted they would never be back to their normal before Rudolph. Since they now had a CT machine, Jason and Arthur had taken off and also found an MRI unit in a trailer, but it wasn’t hooked up yet.
The Tomb, for all intents and purposes, was just a bunker. A thirty-thousand-square-foot bunker buried forty feet deep to the southwest of the house. It was located just under the peak of the highest point inside the ranch. Arthur had only planned on burying it twenty feet deep, but Joseph had told his dad it needed to be forty. Not about to ask Arthur because he’d make her feel like the kids when they asked a question, Wendy had asked Joseph, “Why deeper?” With a very sad face, Joseph had answered, “Bombs, Mom.”
Oh, Wendy had hightailed it to Arthur then. Arthur had explained that anyone who would attack them would try to do it without hurting the ranch as much as possible. The Tomb was mission control, and as a last resort, a bunker to ride out an assault. He called Joseph in and they both explained ninety percent of all jets would take a phenomenal amount of work to get in the air. Jets were high maintenance, and with the world flooded with rodents that loved to chew on shit, not many would be up to the task. Prop planes could be repaired though, and it wasn’t nothing to lash a bomb to one.
There wasn’t any part of the fence surrounding them that couldn’t be monitored from the Tomb. One wall in the Tomb was covered with hundreds of monitors and when motion was detected, the screen would flash. Along with the game cameras Arthur had out, wired cameras were being strung out because they now had power to spare. She’d seen the map for the cameras and was still having trouble seeing how they were going to put up a hundred outside the fence. Then LL and Jason had gone over to the map and added more. Cameras and cable they had aplenty. It was putting them up outside that worried Wendy. Dogs were a very big problem now and she knew in time, they would become a much, much worse threat.
Because of the ranch, Jill and Albert’s groups would survive the winter and then next year, they would have hydropower like the ranch had. Next winter they would be able to supply their own food. She didn’t count the new group which Arthur called ‘Chad’s bunch’. They already had food.
She, along with Arthur, LL, Jason, Samantha, and Joseph liked the new group. After Chad had taken the shot, Arthur had driven over and drawn blood from Chad. When he’d called back four hours later reporting antibodies were present, everyone in Chad’s group had lined up for shots. Skannish had told them to stay in isolation for fourteen days, and they did. Wendy, Arthur, Jason, Samantha, LL, Joseph, and Sarah all went over for formal introductions on the fifteenth day. They saw kids just running in circles outside, happy to be out of the suits and masks. Many kids just walked around smelling the world once again. Chad’s group all voted to join up with Arthur. Unlike Jill’s and Albert’s groups, Chad’s group didn’t need anything.
Arthur did tell them Jason would be coming over to survey because they needed a fence, and showed them what he was setting up for Jill’s and Albert’s power. Chad had nearly fainted when Arthur asked if they wanted to put a real power station there. Wendy had no idea what those in Chad’s group had done before, but that group could work. Jason had gone over and surveyed the land, mapping out where the fence would go.
The next day, Arthur had brought the equipment and the crew. Wendy still laughed to think of when everyone in Chad’s group had gasped in shock at the kids operating the heavy machinery. Every kid in Chad’s group had wanted to do it too. For two days they’d watched how a hundred-yard path was cleared, trees cut down, poles selected, and boards cut. At the end of every day Arthur and the crew would come home, leaving the machines. Then go back after sunup and start the day.
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When Arthur had shown up with the crew on the third day, they’d found Chad’s group on the machines, the adults only. They’d worked through the night and the six-mile-long fence was done by the fourth day. What surprised everyone was when Chad’s group swept the inside area, they’d found and killed over a hundred dogs in the twelve hundred acres.
Another thing that separated Chad’s group from Jill’s and Albert’s groups, every adult there could shoot, along with every kid who was old enough. Wendy wasn’t stupid; she knew if the ranch wasn’t part of the deal, Chad’s group wouldn’t have joined up with Jill and Albert. When she’d told Arthur he agreed, but pointed out that it would’ve been a mistake. In a year, Jill’s and Albert’s groups would be a major bonus. Seeing Wendy didn’t understand, “They have numbers, and in a year will be able to fight. In any fight, numbers are an advantage,” he’d told her.
Hearing Jason holler at one of the kids outside the house, Wendy still couldn’t help but grin. Arthur was still acting like a twelve-year-old kid with his buddy. One thing Wendy didn’t like about Jason, just like Joseph, Jason could look at Arthur’s drawn-out plans and do it without Arthur explaining. But what really chapped her ass, Jason could make changes on the fly to Arthur’s plans and they always worked. Not even Joseph could do that. A part of Wendy still believed Jason only did it to piss her off because her ‘on the fly’ changes sucked and she knew it. But at the time, they’d always looked really good and seemed to make sense. Just thinking about it irritated her, and she kicked the snow around her feet.
The first week in November it had snowed. Then they’d gotten more snow a week later and snow still covered the valley and trees. Arthur had constantly said, “It’s going to be a bad winter.”, but many just thought he’d been talking about ‘bad’ meaning over ninety percent of the globe was dead. Now, most were agreeing with Arthur with snow this early, but Wendy knew the hard part of winter Arthur was talking about was still to come.
On the radio, snow was being reported all the way to Houston. Even Gulfport, Mississippi had gotten an inch of snow this week.
“Hey, they’re almost here!” Arthur called out behind her. Wendy turned around watching Arthur walk through the gate in the chain-link fence that surrounded the twenty-five acres around the house, carrying Nicole of course. Cutting her eyes to the dorm, Wendy shook her head. There were two more wings now. One on each side between the first two legs of the H. When Arthur had laid out the area the new wings were being built on, Wendy had noticed there was six feet between the walls of the old wings to the new ones. Seeing that, Wendy knew Arthur had planned it that way from the start. Since most kids slept two to a room, they still had empty rooms, but for some reason, Wendy felt those rooms would only be filled by babies who were born here. She didn’t think they’d pull in any more.
Thinking about babies, “What did Sarah report this morning?” Wendy grinned.
“No,” Arthur barked. “Tell Joseph to watch some pornos, maybe he’s not doing it right.”
“That’s the daddy’s job with boys,” she grinned.
“He knows where they are on the server, tell him he won’t get in trouble,” Arthur fumed, and Nicole stretched out her hands to the snow. “You didn’t like it a few minutes ago,” Arthur reminded Nicole.
“They need time, babe,” Wendy said, thinking she sounded very grown up and was proud of herself.
“How long before we take steps?” Arthur asked as Nicole babbled, still reaching for the snow.
Thinking for a minute, “Next Christmas,” Wendy answered, and Arthur just gawked. “Then we tell Doc to start running tests whether they want them or not.”
Seeing Wendy wasn’t going to shorten the timeline, “Fine,” Arthur moaned. “Nicole, I let you down in the snow and you started crying. Why do you want back down?” he asked, holding her up to his face.
Wendy had no idea where in the hell Arthur had found a pink snowsuit for Nicole, one that fit her tiny body, complete with snow boots, but he had. The bulky outfit made tiny Nicole seem smaller with her little face surrounded by a ring of faux fur. When she’d asked, Arthur just shrugged and was just hoping Wendy never went into Joseph’s room in the old house. When Joseph had taken Sarah down to see his room, he could barely open the door. Stacked chest high all the way around the room were baby clothes, mostly baby girl clothes that Arthur and others had collected on outings and patrols. Baby boy clothes were in the guestroom.
With Nicole grunting now as she reached for the snow, Arthur got down on his knees and sat her down in the snow. Nicole quickly informed him she didn’t want to be that close. Picking her up, Arthur held her face first over the snow and this Nicole liked as she investigated this white wonder that was everywhere.
Tilting her head back to look at the sky, “Thank you so much for making Joseph a boy,” Wendy told the heavens.
“You know I heard that, right?” Arthur chuckled as they both heard Jason yelling again from the back of the house. About to inform Arthur she wanted him to hear and ask what Jason was yelling about, Wendy just groaned seeing Robin round the corner of the house wearing her pink boots and nothing else. Running full bore, Robin was churning up snow as she ran. Before Wendy could say anything, Noah came around the corner followed by eight other toddlers, naked and running through the snow. The only thing any had on were boots.
“Fuck, they’re increasing in number,” Wendy whined and just felt like crying.
The line of naked toddlers was kicking up snow and laughing as Jason rounded the corner of the house with two naked kids under one arm already. “I should just let you freeze!” he screamed, and caught the one at the back of the pack. It was very clear on Jason’s face as he came to a stop, he couldn’t carry any more as he watched the nudist kids passing the front porch.
Moving to the gate, “Are you going to help?” Wendy asked.
“I’ve caught the little shits twice today already. I’m at quota,” Arthur informed her as Nicole finally stuck her mitten clad hands in the white stuff and gave a squeal.
The front door flew open, “Robin!” Little Momma screamed, holding an infant that looked half her size on her hip. Robin skidded to a stop so fast, she fell face-first into the snow and disappeared in the foot-deep white fluff. Seeing their leader had stopped and then vanished, the others halted in a perfect single-file line behind Robin. “Get your little naked butt in here!” Little Momma shouted. “That goes for all of you!”
It was blatantly clear, the other nudists were scared of Little Momma because the single file line bolted for the front door as their leader was just getting back to her feet. “Just because the door is open doesn’t mean you run out!” Little Momma shouted at the line as she stepped to the side, letting them file past. Not even brushing the snow off her skin, Robin took off for the door before Little Momma came outside. “If you were bigger, I would give you double duty!” Little Momma snapped as Robin shot past her. “All of you, put your noses on the wall and stay there till I get tired!”
With a thankful sigh, Jason set down the three tiny nudists he’d caught and they flew inside before Vicki unleashed on them. It was just for his own curiosity, Jason leaned to look in the door over Vicki’s head. The three he’d put down had run in and stood with the others, putting their noses on the wall without being told. “Thank you, Little Momma,” Jason said with reverence and leaned down, kissing her on the head.
“I told you to shut the gate,” Vicki said, but smiled with the kiss.
“I’m sorry. Let me take Duke,” Jason said reaching for Duke on Vicki’s hip and she turned her body, blocking Jason from taking Duke.
“I told you, Duke has a runny nose and isn’t going outside today,” Vicki told him in a very adult-sounding voice.
Yanking his hands back like Duke was suddenly hot, “Well, it’s clear drainage, so I wasn’t worried,” Jason told her.
“He wasn’t runny yesterday, so Duke stays inside today. When Duke is sick, he’s a pain in the butt,”
Vicki informed Jason, lifting her chin high. “If his nose dries up, you can take him outside tomorrow. I told Doc to give Duke some Benadryl to dry him up.”
With wide eyes, Jason’s arms just fell to his side listening in awe. An eleven-year-old knew Benadryl was an antihistamine and knew to tell an adult to get the medicine. There wasn’t a doubt in Jason’s mind, if he went to look for Doc he would find Doc getting some Benadryl. On a hunch, “How much should Duke get?” Jason asked.
Rolling her eyes and adjusting Duke on her hip, “Twelve point five M, Gs to every K, G, Duke weighs, and Duke weighs ten point three K, Gs. You can only give Benadryl three times a day and it has to be more than eight hours each time,” Vicky stated. Jason just stared at her in awe, wondering what they did to kids around here. Vicki said M and G for milligram and K and G for kilogram, so Jason knew Vicki had committed it to memory after hearing an adult spout the pediatric dose out, 12.5 mg/kg every 8hrs.
“Do you know how to measure medicine?”
“Ms. Judy said I’m not allowed, and I know Duke can’t get a full dropper, but I know how to do math to see how much,” Vicki told him, then cast her eyes down like she was ashamed. “I have to do the math on paper. I can’t do it in my head,” she told him like that was something an eleven-year-old girl should be embarrassed about.
“Vicki, I’m a board certified emergency room doctor and I don’t do pediatric doses in my head,” Jason told her, and that really perked Vicki up. “We’ll see if Duke can go out tomorrow,” Jason mumbled in amazement of Little Momma.
Shifting Duke again on her hip because he was heavy and long, Vicki smiled before reaching to close the door and true enough, Jason saw Doc coming up behind Vicki with a dropper of medicine. When the door was closed, “That little girl is better than some of the staff I’ve worked with,” he gasped.
Viral Misery | Book 3 | Revelations Page 13