The Fight for Life

by S G Read

  The following day they lowered the oil tank into place to free the lorry of its burden, then parked the lorry behind the garages. Now they dug the hole which would house the generator, although they had no idea if they could shift it from where it was, to the house but they decided to try.

  ‘So what are these wind farms like?’ Ray asked when the children were in bed and Clem was soaking in the bath.

  ‘They work and they will give us enough power! Why?’

  ‘Well there are some on the coast over there and I wondered how difficult it would be to redirect the power to a sub station near here!’

  Will whistled. ‘You do think ahead. Well, if we send it unaltered down the pylons and redirect where we need it to change direction we could use the pylon infrastructure to send in as near as we can. Then we put a sub station there to control the output and cable it to here but there would be more than we need.’

  ‘For now, yes. But I hope to find other people who are like us and not clan members, who will live here and let us start rebuilding our lives and our country.’ Ray answered.

  The next day they put a waterproof liner round the hole they had dug and protected it with sand, then they laid concrete on the floor, thick enough to take the weight of the machine. They laid blocks as walls but with a gap between the waterproof membrane and the block, that gap was then filled with more concrete. Now they had a waterproof base, they needed to make a cover over it to keep the rain out and to deaden the noise it made. Ray had lain there listening to the generator they had now, chugging away and hoped he would not hear the new one! They built a temporary cover over the hole to keep it dry, then they drove to the supermarket to try to work out a way of taking the generator. They took both lorries with their cranes on them, in hopes of lifting it out. They had to kill several dogs before they opened the gates and drove inside the compound but they still closed the gates again to keep out any other dogs that came along. Will and Ray sized up the task ahead of them, Clem took one look at the size of the generator and walked away. She did not think for one minute they could move it, let alone load it on a lorry and take it away with them!

  ‘The cover needs to come off.’ Will declared.

  ‘Yes and some of it we can reuse back at the house to build a cover over it once it is in.’ Ray added.

  They took the cover to pieces a bit at a time and loaded it on to one of the lorries, marking it as they removed it. When they took the fence apart Clem had to be there to shoot any dogs which ventured back. Finally they had enough room to get a lorry next to the generator. Ray disconnected it from the supermarket and from the oil tank which was now empty. While he was next to the generator, he fitted straps round it, so stat they could lift it but when they tried to lift it one end came slightly of the ground and that was it!

  ‘Well unless we are going to drag it all the way to the house and drop it into the hole I think we have had it!’ Will declared.

  ‘Drag it? That has merit, actually!’ Ray retorted.

  ‘Surely not!’ Will replied.

  ‘If we can lift one end by lifting the whole lot in the middle, we can lift one end better by attaching the strap at one end. Then we can drag it onto the lorry!’

  Will thought about it. ‘We need to lower the back end down when we drag it on but it might work.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter if we break the generator, if we do we just dump it so we might as well have a go.’ Ray answered. ‘How do we lower the back down though?’

  ‘Well now, you know you said don`t bother with those ramps, we don`t have to repair a car, just take another one?’ Will asked.

  ‘Yes, how will they help?’

  ‘We put the front wheels on a ramp that will automatically lower the back, slide some of these scaffold poles on the lorry as a ramp, not rollers but the other way round and drag it on with the other lorry.’

  ‘How do we keep it up then?’ Ray asked.

  ‘The lorry we are putting it on can lift one end and as long as there is enough strap to allow it to get onto the poles, it can be dragged up. If need be we can lift it more when it stops.’ Will answered.

  ‘Let’s go for it!’

  ‘I need a clip.’ Clem called for the gap in the wall.

  Will threw her a clip and she caught it with an ease which surprised both of the men.

  ‘What! I can`t catch because I`m a girl!’ She threw back and shot another dog that had ventured out of hiding. ‘They must really be hungry!’ She watched as a dog dragged one of the dead dogs back into the bushes. ‘Now they’ll keep back.’

  The two men dragged the generator into position and put the lorry where they wanted it with the front wheels on two ramps. They laid the scaffold poles on the lorry with the ends close to the cab and the rest on the floor and dragged the generator onto the poles. Each move was about half a metre, then they had to reposition the cranes and the other lorry. Slowly they pulled it onto the lorry until none was overhanging the back. The scaffold poles were overhanging and would be all the way but with no police to pull them over they did not worry about it. There was a problem with reversing the lorry of the ramps but the weight of the generator and flat metal plates slid under the end of the poles, overcame the fact that they were trying to dig into the concrete.

  Will drove the lorry a little way and stopped. ‘I will have to take it slow!’ He shouted. ‘It`s a lot overweight!’

  ‘We`ll follow all the way, just in case Will. Did you hear that Clem?’

  ‘Yes, we`ll follow him all the way.’ She answered. ‘I`m not deaf!’

  It was a painfully slow drive to the house, Will was taking no chances with the lorry. A broken axle would do them no good at all!

  Clem cheered when she saw the gates come into sight and again when they closed behind her. She overtook both lorries, as they drove up the drive and parked by the right hand garage to keep the car out of the way! Will chugged up to the side of the house and drove round to the left, went right round the house and drove down to the hole which the generator was going to go into. Ray parked round the front and walked round the back to see Will looking at the hole and then the generator. Ray did the same. It did not take a mathematician to work out that the hole they had slaved over was not big enough. They both looked, first at the hole with its cement jacket and then at the larger generator.

  ‘I think your memory is going.’ Will said at length and then started to laugh.

  Ray looked at him and then joined in. Clem walked round and laughed without knowing why but when Will explained through his laughter, she laughed even harder.

  When the laughter died: and it took some time! It was Will who spoke first.

  ‘What the hell do we do with that hole then?’

  Ray walked to the edge of it and looked in. ‘Too small for a swimming pool!’

  ‘And too deep for a paddling pool.’ Clem added remembering her little brother’s paddling pool.

  ‘At least it saves us the bother of trying to lower that thing into it!’ Ray declared. ‘We`ll dig a new hole behind the garages and finish three sides, then we can drag the thing into it and make the last side but we will have to tank it well!’

  ‘I hate the smell of them tar boilers!’ Will complained. ‘But that is what we will have to use to tank it properly.’

  ‘What`s tanking?’ Clem asked.

  ‘Making it waterproof.’ Will explained.

  ‘Oh! Why didn`t you say that then?’ Clem answered and walked back to the door of the house, to let Donna know that the electricity supply was not going to be turned off for the foreseeable future.

  It took two days to dig the hole for the new generator and they checked several times that it was the right size. They had a foray to find enough tar, tar boilers and more cement. They laid a concrete base, then poured two inches of tar on top. Before adding another layer of concrete on top of the tar, they built the walls on three sides on top of the concrete. They used hollow blocks for the walls and filled the hollows with more concrete
. They left a gap outside the wall and filled it with tar. The floor inside was covered with the next layer of concrete with shuttering to stop it covering where the last wall was to be built and the three sides filled with concrete with shuttering to stop it falling out the open side. They waited until it was ready then painted the floor and walls with sealant before they dragged and pushed the huge generator slowly inside on scaffold rollers. They built the final wall with a pipe passing through it to take the cables, so that the cables could be run underground.

  ‘Do you want me to wire it up for you?’ Will asked.

  ‘Did you go as small as this then?’ Ray asked in returned.

  ‘This was part of the exam, wire up something like this for a single phase supply without distressing the other two phases!’ Will answered. ‘A piece of cake but I suggest we run a three phase supply into the garages to run that big freezer room. I saw the way you were looking at it!’

  ‘It would be useful, and save all these freezers going all the time.’

  ‘And if we can get this here in one piece I`m sure as hell we can get that here and get it working again!’ Will declared.

  While Will wired it to the house and garage Ray ran the oil pipe across from the oil tank and into the generator housing. He used the digger to dig the trenches for the cables and oil pipe. They had both taken turns to use the digger and were getting quite good with it.

  The house was without electricity for two hours, before the immanent turn on was announced. Everyone gathered outside, the grown ups with champagne and the children with cola, for the toast, as Will turned it on. It hummed into life and the house had power again.

  They spent the next two days making the waterproof cover over the top, one which allowed good air circulation but kept out all water, as water and electricity do not mix well.

  With that done they had a well earned rest. Ray had decided to go and get both the deep-freeze room and the cold room, when they had gotten over the stress of collecting the generator.

  The morning after the generator was turned on Ray sat in the kitchen, Clem was outside playing with the children, Donna was upstairs still sorting all she had taken from the chemists and Will was reading in the television room.

  The buzzer on the gate rang. Ray looked at it and assumed that it was Clem playing about but when he looked she was still playing with the children. He answered it by pushing the button.

  ‘Can I help?’ He asked, conscious that Will was now behind him.

  ‘I have been walking for four days and I heard the children screaming.’ A young voice replied. ‘Can I come in please?’

  ‘What do you think Will?’

  ‘Could be a ploy by the clan, I`ll get baby out and watch from upstairs, I can take out anyone who comes through the gate unannounced!’

  Ray nodded.

  ‘Step back from the gate and I`ll press the button!’ He answered the young voice.

  ‘Okay.’ The voice answered.

  ‘Do you have a name?’ Ray asked to give Will a chance to get into position.

  ‘James Hancock.’ The voice answered.

  ‘Let her rip!’ Will called down.

  Ray walked outside and used the remote to open the gates, he noticed that the children were no longer playing but Clem was by the garage wall. The gates opened and a young man walked in. The gates closed and he walked up to the house. Clem stayed put, her fingers not far from her gun but Ray walked down to meet him.

  ‘Come far?’ He asked.

  ‘From Hastings.’ James answered.

  ‘When did you last eat?’

  ‘This morning I found a shop and ate some chocolate, I was attacked by dogs in there but they liked the chocolate I threw them, rather than me.’

  Ray saw the bite marks on his hands and arms.

  ‘Donna will patch them up for you.’

  James looked over at Clem, obviously thinking she was Donna.

  ‘That is Clem, cuddly but can be dangerous.’ Ray informed him.

  He took him into the house and gave him a plateful of what they had eaten the night before as it was ready to eat. James ate it all. While he was eating it Donna started on his bites and scratches.

  ‘This might sting.’ She announced, when he had finished eating and gave him an injection.

  ‘What was that?’ James asked, rubbing the spot the needle had gone in.

  ‘Anti Rabies I expect.’ Will answered from the doorway.

  Ray looked at Will who shook his head, meaning that he had seen no one.

  ‘That is Will. Will this is James Hancock.’

  ‘You look worn out.’ Will declared.

  ‘It`s a long walk from Hastings to here!’ James retorted.

  ‘Why didn`t you drive?’ Will asked.

  ‘I can`t drive I`m only fourteen.’ James answered.

  ‘Well that is the last time you will say that.’ Ray declared and looked up, ready to shout for Clem but she stood in the doorway with the children. ‘Clem, take James here and teach him to drive.’

  ‘Okay but don`t blame me if he wrecks the car! I know we`ll just take another one but what if he wrecks me!’

  ‘There is always Donna to rebuild you!’ Ray answered.

  ‘What and make me bionic?’

  ‘You used to watch some pretty old programmes when the televisions were working, didn`t you?’ Ray concluded.

  ‘They were a laugh.’ Clem answered and turned to go. ‘Time for your first driving lesson James.’

  ‘How old are you?’ James asked as he followed her outside.

  ‘Fifteen!’ Clem answered proudly.

  ‘So how long have you been driving then?’

  ‘Since I met Ray, a couple of weeks I reckon, could be longer!’

  ‘Two weeks and you are going to teach me!’ James declared.

  When they reached the car Clem jumped into the driving seat, waited for James to get into the passenger seat and then roared away up the drive, screeching to a halt just before the gates.

  ‘They were called the brakes.’ She declared.

  She turned it round and drove back at a more leisurely speed. Then she went through the controls one by one and showed him how to change gear smoothly, she had made a few noisy gear changes herself and stalled the car a few times.

  Those watching from the house knew when James was having a go, even if they did not see the two young people swap places. The car jerked, stopped dead, started again, jerked some more and stopped dead again. Eventually he managed to go along and to every ones` relief, including Clem, he stopped at the gates. His efforts at turning the car round went on for some time but Clem made no effort to do it for him, he had to learn!

  It became a spectacle for all to watch, although surreptitiously!

  Finally he drove round the house, turned the car round fairly quickly and drove back round again. Clem let him park it and they walked back into the house where everyone was going about their business, as though nothing had been going on.

  ‘Done that then?’ Ray asked looking up from loading the dishwasher.

  ‘He`ll do!’ Clem answered. ‘He`ll get better after he has driven for a while, I was a bit dodgy at the start!’

  ‘Didn`t notice.’ Ray remarked.

  ‘Yeah right.’ Clem retorted. ‘What was it about you going bald because you were pulling your hair out?’

  ‘No one likes to be a passenger.’ Will answered looking up from his book. ‘Donna`s made you up a bed in one of the rooms upstairs but there are a few more to chose from, if you don`t like that one. That`s if you want to stay, of course?’

  ‘If you`ll have me?’ James answered.

  ‘Stay long enough and you might get to see Clems` party piece.’ Will answered, drawing a sharp look from Clem.

  ‘Come on I`ll show you your room.’ Clem said ignoring the comment and led James upstairs.

  ‘What is your party piece then Clem?’ James asked.

  ‘You might get to see it one day.’ Clem answered.

 
; ‘Run before she gets to the finale!’ Will called after them.

  Ray finished loading the dishwasher and sat opposite Will.

  ‘We didn`t see him coming.’ He said even though Will had returned to his book.

  ‘No we didn`t.’ Will agreed without looking up. ‘Are you thinking cameras?’

  ‘Yes but it means someone will have to be looking at the monitors all day.’ Ray answered.

  ‘Not if we have movement sensor fitted on the cameras, they can ring a bell when they are tripped and turn on the camera.’

  ‘Worth a look.’ Ray replied.

  ‘I take it we are going camera shopping tomorrow?’ Will asked.

  ‘We are.’ Ray agreed. ‘We need all the help we can get against the clan.’

  ‘We have one more fighter but he needs to learn to shoot.’

  ‘I`ll teach him but we cannot afford to waste too many bullets.’ Ray answered but he did not go up to find James, it was better to let him come down first.

  ‘So what is it?’ James insisted as Clem showed him his room.

  ‘Well it`s a sort of diversionary tactic.’ She answered.

  ‘What like, look; what’s that?’ He asked, pointing somewhere to divert her attention.

  ‘Sort of, just a bit longer and a bit more engaging.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘You are not going to shut up about it are you until I show you?’

  ‘No.’ James answered.

  Clem showed him, slowly and deliberately but kept her pants on for decorum’s’ sake. Usually I strip naked.’ She explained. ‘But if I ever take these off again when I`m near you, it will either be because we are in trouble and I am getting their attention or you are just about to have a bit of luck!’

  When James came down his face was red and it was not from being slapped.

  ‘I have something else for you to learn.’ Ray said when he saw him but did not get any response. ‘Are you okay?’