by Zack Finley
The erection instructions for the steel buildings insisted the heaviest piece weighed only 50 pounds. The framing was galvanized tubular steel and sections slipped into others. My dad bought this style because it could be assembled without heavy equipment.
Of course, once it was assembled, the hard work would start, turning it into an acceptable place for people to live. The water and sewage connections were at one end. Someone else would need to put in the wood stove, showers, sinks, and toilets. Steve’s crew deal would supply the power.
They needed to put in bunk beds and hangings to separate sleeping areas. It was another thing that we planned for, sort of. Another design on the fly. There were plenty of bunk beds, sheets, and wool blankets. Hopefully, our newcomers would adjust to their new digs.
I also wanted to prep my house for the arrival of Steve’s family. We needed to put my queen-sized bed in storage and move bunk beds into the girl’s room and into my room. At least the bunkbeds were sized for adults. Craig and I would take the bottom bunks and let Steve’s two boys have the top bunks. Steve and Mandy would take Craig’s room.
I decided to go ahead and send the dining room furniture to storage and bring in the three sets of bunk beds for six of my Rangers still staying in Huntsville. I suspected getting enough alone or family time was going to be at a premium for the rest of the winter.
I’m not sure where dad got the bunk beds, but I was sure he got one heck of a deal on them.
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Chapter 9
Force Beta arrived before dawn with a golf cart pulling a small utility trailer. In no time they carted my old bed, the unneeded bedroom furniture, and the dining room furniture out of the house. They took off to get the bunk beds, leaving me to get the girls up.
They hauled three bunk beds into the dining room first then three more into my former bedroom. Now dubbed the boys’ bunkroom.
They took both of the girl’s twin beds and replaced them with bunk beds. While we didn’t know who else would stay there, I expected a full house before long.
Neither of my girls was happy with the change.
We could still put beds in the family room and in the basement if necessary. We needed to shift all the stores out of the second floor to turn it into another residence.
The breakfast gong rang as I was carefully removing the plastic covering from the bunk mattress. I reminded the girls to save it for some future project.
That seemed the last straw because they both put their pout on and refused to talk to me on the way to breakfast. I noticed Craig disappeared with the rest of my Rangers.
This morning’s breakfast was scrambled eggs, breakfast meat, applesauce, and a small serving of oatmeal. I suspected the oatmeal was left over from yesterday’s breakfast. I judged the sausage would be more filling and took it although I looked fondly at the bacon and ham.
The oatmeal was pretty tasty, especially after I mixed it with my applesauce.
I noticed some of my guys were cashing in poker chips for large glasses of milk. I didn’t know when there was time for them to get weighed.
My girls immediately went to the kid’s table, even though we were the first people at breakfast. I suspected part of the problem with doubling up was they really didn’t like Steve’s daughter, Ellie. If that was their biggest complaint today everything was rosy.
I scraped my plate clean and put it in the dirty dish area. I hugged my girls over their objections and got to work.
We left the defense platform unfinished once the floor was finally bolted in place. We hauled up several sandbags and put them along the edge facing the bridge. Craig said as far as he was concerned, it was already a great sniper’s nest.
I told him we needed it to be a good watchtower at some point. He was already making plans to mark distances and make it easy to dial in tough shots.
We switched to the new building. We moved a lot of gear to get to the building parts. The forklift really helped deal with that.
At first, I was sure someone made a mistake. The stack of material didn’t look sufficient to build a 40-foot by 100-foot building. I checked the parts list, and the pile seemed complete. It took a lot of careful trips with the forklift to get the parts bundles to the concrete pad.
It was really like a giant erector set. The erection diagram was easy to follow, and soon everyone was building away. It used mechanical expansion anchor bolts.
We dragged out the chalk lines, tape measures, tin snips, hammers, frame squares, levels, and all the power drivers I could find in the tool shop. Including the pneumatic hammer drill and masonry bit. We brought all the tall stepladders we could locate.
The kit came with radiant insulation to be installed inside the exterior panels.
I visited our power coordinator to warn her we were going to operate a lot of power tools today. She monitored the system carefully, starting up generators if needed to sustain the voltage. She was irritated we disrupted her power plan but knew this was a top priority none of us expected. I suspected dishes would be washed by hand and no one was going to get any laundry done for days.
I told her we would be pulling a lot of electricity tomorrow as well since we weren’t going to finish it in one day. I wanted to get all the steel up today, but I was afraid even that would be a tall order. To complicate matters, a pre-hung double door, two pedestrian doors and a stack of windows needed to be accommodated.
The galvanized steel members were color-coded. Most joints slipped together and were finished with steel screws. The roof trusses were formed with plates and brackets.
We would definitely need the forklift and maybe even the front-end loader to lift the finished ribs into place. Everything else could be raised by a single person.
While the guys were hard at work assembling the truss ribs. I laid out the windows and doors. I sketched in the windows, three on each side, the double door at one end, a door at the other end and one in the middle.
The main group was still assembling the wall and roof frames or ribs when we finally squared up the base plate. I was pleased that the 40-foot by 100-foot slab was pretty true. It still was a complete pain in the ass to caulk and put down the base plate. We drilled and blew out the holes for our anchors and tightened them up. Then we cut out the baseplate where the doors went.
The base plate came with male stubs that allowed the female rib connections to slide over and then be secured. No, I wasn’t trying to be grossly sexual, it was just how these connections worked. My building crew couldn’t let this aspect of our construction go without comment. I was just glad we didn’t have any women or children hanging out to be offended.
The two days of building provided a pleasant respite for my team. It was a different pace, and we saw the immediate benefits of working together. It was fun. Not a term I thought we would use on the edge of civilization’s fall.
Squaring up the frame was a significant pain. But patience, a pair of sledges, and a come-along got us squared up. One crew installed the back and then the front enclosure while the rest of us framed in the windows and doors. We used the actual pre-hung doors and windows as templates.
When the bell rang for supper, we were ready for a break. We still needed to finish the wall girts and hat channels to provide rigidity to the frame before installing the exterior skin. I wanted at least some of those up before nightfall.
Supper was some kind of stew. I suspected it began as yesterday’s rabbit stew, but we didn’t have enough leftover rabbit stew for a second day. The thick broth was tasty, so that worked for me. There was a hunk of cornbread. Salad greens with radish and carrots. There was also a small bowl of yogurt. This was the first time the kitchen served yogurt. I suspected they were experimenting with ways to save the milk.
No one lingered over supper, and we went back to work. We no longer needed the air compressor, but we kept all of our electric drills working hard. We couldn’t keep the whole crew working so I released those who wanted to go help with other tasks or nee
ded sleep before going on duty later.
The hardest part was putting the series of hat channels on the roof. We used the forklift holding a pallet to make one platform, a definite OSHA no-no. I’d have put someone else in the front-end loader but we figured standing on the tallest stepladder was better, especially after the ends were framed in.
By the time the sun went down, we were tired. Our hands and arms were nicked from working with sharp metal parts all day. Everyone wore safety glasses, so we didn’t end up with any eye injuries. We put a tarp over the insulation, roofing and side panels and put our tools away.
I went back to my house first, expecting to walk in on some kind of revolt. Surprisingly, I beat everyone else home. I washed up, using as little of the precious hot water as possible. I then went up to my room and made my new bed. I checked in the girl’s dorm and saw that one of the bunk beds was made up and the plastic wrap was folded neatly near the door.
I left a tiny LED night light on and trudged up to my dad’s to learn the latest from outside the valley.
We needed to distribute radios to Force Beta and key personnel in the valley now communications weren’t overwhelmed by static. We needed to discuss the plans to use the CB radios, without letting everyone know what we were doing.
My mom forced Sally to get some sleep. Sally’s backup would monitor radio channels overnight. All Sally got today were a few broken off appeals for information. Sally anticipated a lot more news today and was very shaken when it didn’t happen.
I was surprised there were no official broadcasts if only to tell people to stand by or similar crap. Two weeks of static probably used up any battery backup and possibly their generator back up, too. Some of those systems were remote and automated so they might have kept sending out messages despite the static until the juice ran out. A human would have known to turn everything off and wait. I assume the unnamed secure location where the president, cabinet, and Congress went had communications capability. I guess they just didn’t have anything to communicate.
All the kids gathered at grandma’s for another sleepover.
Steve, Mandy, and their crew were loaded up and prepared to make the dash to the valley at any time. My dad carried Rangers in the Humvee with the Ma Deuce for an escort. They intended to drive without lights using NVGs. Someone removed all the light bulbs from the brake lights and cabs. The caravan included the Humvee, both box trucks and a bunch of pickups, all loaded with solar stuff and the remnants from Steve’s home.
We didn’t expect trouble but being prepared was still prudent.
I went over to grandma’s house to find out how the first day of school went. I didn’t have guard duty for another hour.
Just like last time, grandma divided the youngsters into boys’ and girls’ rooms.
Exercising power discipline grandma told them they could watch a whole movie together in the family room or the girls could watch half a video, and the boys could watch half a video.
They found at least one movie they could agree on and were watching it together. They were still on opposite sides of the room but were learning how to compromise.
My grandma weighed a little bit of nothing, and I scolded her about eating enough.
“I eat more than those kids,” she told me wagging her finger. “You are looking mighty lean, yourself.”
“Have you been skipping meals,” I accused. “I haven’t seen you at supper this week.”
“Us cooks eat before all of you do,” she said.
I knew I’d be asking Dr. Jerrod the next time I saw her.
“The yogurt was a surprise today,” I said.
“We can’t afford to let the milk spoil, so Evelyn decided to experiment. I don’t like it much, but it is supposed to be nutritious,” she said.
I slipped in to kiss my girls goodnight, telling them about my early guard duty.
They were more interested in the movie than my kiss, but they seemed to have calmed down since this morning.
I trotted down to the gatehouse to make my relief.
I was working with Jim Smith, Roger’s son-in-law. I barely knew him. He and I never worked together before tonight. I confirmed he could drive the Humvee if we needed.
Jim worked mostly with my uncle George raising the livestock. Before the crash, Jim handled most of the purchasing, selling and breeding decisions for valley cattle and horses. He was slow to get involved with the goats or pigs but was now paying them more attention.
I told him we could expect the convoy from Huntsville to arrive any time. They were driving without lights. Since they carried a gate key, we could stay on our side of the bridge and didn’t need to open the gate. I told him if we spotted something to get to the Humvee and I’d be right behind him. We both wore night vision goggles. I reminded him to turn them off before the spotlight turned on or he’d be seeing stars for a week.
At first, I expected the convoy to arrive early. After a few hours, it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.
Jim spent the time in the gatehouse, but I was restless. It was nearly midnight when I heard them. I slid behind the concrete barrier and watched them approach. They gave the expected signal, so I relaxed slightly and slipped into the guardhouse.
“They sent the friendly approach signal,” I said quietly to Jim, as I turned off the spotlight before it reacted to the motion. “Observe the area around them carefully. We don’t want anyone else to slip in with them.”
Jim seemed surprised by that possibility, but he nodded.
“I’ll concentrate on the left if you concentrate on the right,” I said.
“Will do,” Jim replied.
I slipped out of the guardhouse along the concrete barrier and kept watch. When the last truck got through the gate, someone slid out of it and went back to lock the gate. He sent an all-clear signal, and everyone proceeded across the bridge. I slipped past where the vehicles would make their turn on our side of the bridge and watched the woods and road on the other side of the bridge.
I was relieved that all was well and returned to the gatehouse.
The convoy parked the Humvee with the Ma Deuce aimed at the bridge. The guys who came in it were covering the turret and barrel with a tarp.
About that time our reliefs arrived. I told them both .50 calibers were back, and the convoy made it here without incident.
Jim confided he considered shooting the raccoon he spotted washing its food at the river, but he didn’t really want raccoon stew for supper.
I chuckled and decided Jim might not be quite as stiff as I initially thought.
I headed to my dad’s house where I knew the crew from tonight’s convoy was gathered.
Much of the group dispersed before I got there, but the main parties were still awake. My dad, Steve, Mandy, and my mom were drinking water at the kitchen table.
I asked them how it went, and they reported it went as drawn up.
“Any word from the National Guard,” I asked.
“Not that Major Thomas is saying,” my dad said. “Sheriff Lewis continues to expand the definition of strategic reserves. His crew is trying to figure out how to empty the banks. The bank managers keep telling them the vaults are safer than the jail. They brought the drugs and bandages left from both dentists, emptied Dollar General, and all the auto parts stores. I’m not sure what they think they will do with cash. They are still living in a pipe dream.”
Sounded like nothing changed.
“We are ready for you to move in,” I said to Mandy and Steve. The girls are with the rest of the kids at a grandma organized sleepover, but we are ready for you and the kids to move in with us.”
“I could use a good night’s sleep,” Mandy said.
“Breakfast is at dawn and supper is at 2 p.m. You will hear the gongs,” I said.
“Supper?” Steve asked.
“Yes, we are down to two meals per day. Don’t forget to have Dr. Jerrod weigh you,” my mom said. “Check the assignment board for your family. I’ve sched
uled in time for everyone to get resettled, but all the kids have classes tomorrow.”
The moon was making up for the waning light from the Aurora, so we didn’t need lights to get to my house. I showed Steve and Mandy their new room. I could tell he thought they were being short-changed. I said he was welcome to a bunk bed in the boys’ dorm if he’d rather.
He’d see pretty quick he and Mandy were well off. I just hoped Craig didn’t snore.
I didn’t mean to wake Craig up, but he was a real light sleeper.
I set my watch to vibrate at dawn. I didn’t need to be first in line for breakfast.
