by AJ Newman
Granny B was cussing the world as she wiped the horse crap from her face and shoulder. Tom looked up from the prone position to see Jerry, who had begun snorting and laughing. Jerry slapped his knee. “Did you really think I’d waste a real bomb for the demonstration … snort … that was a … snort … empty bomb with a .22 primer for a blasting cap. Oh! Crap! Look at Granny B!”
Jerry took off running as Granny B came running toward him with a shovel in her hand. Tom ducked and tried to not be noticed.
Granny B yelled, “I’ll teach you SOBs to scare an old lady half to death! I’m coming back for Tom after I make Jerry clean this horse shit off me!”
Tom took off for the bunker, and Jerry had to outrun Granny B for two days. On the third day, he walked out of the barn and had a bucket of horse crap dropped on his head. Granny B just stood there laughing with a shovel in her hands.
Jerry looked at the feisty, little woman. “You have a sadistic mean streak just like a rattlesnake.”
“It would do you well to remember that the next time you play a prank. Two can play that game,” Granny B strutted away like a banty rooster and cackled like a hen as she left.
*
Chapter 28
Granny B’s cabin and barn.
Kate and Jackie had spent hours searching for the perfect target to scavenge.
The cabin on the southeast end of Granny B’s property was perfectly located to conduct the scavenging trip's overwatch and provide a spectacular distraction. Kate looked for tractor trailers abandoned on the highways after identifying several hardware stores and a feed and tackle store. She flew the drone along Highway 5 when she noticed a mile-long line of rail cars that were abandoned in the middle of nowhere. The engines were about five miles from the Ashland city limits.
Several of the cars had been broken into, and boxes were strewn around the boxcars. Thirteen of the cars at the end of the train contained new cars and trucks. The next ten were bulk liquid tanks with several different chemicals. The only two Kate recognized were Methanol and Benzene. She made a mental note to ask Tom if the trucks would run on either of the chemicals.
The next dozen boxcars had bottom chutes that emptied from the bottom and piqued her interest. The signs on the side indicated the cars hauled grain. Kate guided the drone all around the cars and noticed one had corn seeds piled below it. Someone had found the train first and had taken as much as they needed. Kate made notes about all of the train’s cars and her best guess as to what they carried.
She was deep in thought, examining the next car in line when the drone control beeped and gave the low battery signal. Kate selected the return to launch site button and went to find Tom. She took the drone’s control with her to track the drone’s progress when she saw something that made her stop. It was a field full of old machinery, cars, trucks, and mining equipment. Kate marked the coordinates and brought the drone back to her. She put the batteries off to the side to cool, and replaced them with the next batteries in the rotation.
“Tom, I found an abandoned train that I think has boxcars full of grain and other supplies. Hey, can we use methanol and benzene?”
Tom looked at Kate all bundled up in her parka, boots, and Russian looking cap with the ear flaps. He stared at her for an extra minute. She said, “What? What are you looking at?”
“I’m looking at an angel.”
Kate huffed. “No way! My ribs still hurt like hell.”
“Do what? Oh! Can’t I compliment my beautiful wife without an ulterior motive?”
“Yes, but I look like a deserter from a Russian gulag in this outfit.”
Tom took her hand. “Beauty is only skin deep. I was complimenting the beauty of your soul. You’re a good person. You make me better.”
Kate’s heart melted, but she remembered her ribs and changed the topic. “Speaking of grain and chemicals, what about an answer?”
Granny B had walked up behind them. “Stop flirtin’ and give us a report on what ya found.”
Tom’s head shook as he answered. “We obviously need grain. The benzene and methanol could easily fuel a hit and miss engine and maybe our older vehicle engines. I don’t think we’d get much life out of the engines, but there have to be parts in the auto parts stores and junkyards.”
Kate remembered the old vehicles. “I also found a private junkyard between here and the train. It had acres of old vehicles and machinery. We might get some of the old vehicles and farm machinery running. I even saw a couple of old gas tanker trucks. They’re straight trucks, not semis.”
Tom was delighted with the news. “Great! We’ll get the farm trucks ready to haul the grain and get it first. That’ll be a hell of a lot of shoveling.”
Kate smiled. “I’ve worked at my uncle’s and a couple of other farms during the summer to make a little spending money. They had something called an auger that would pick up the grain and deposit it in the truck or silo. I saw a couple of them in that junkyard. Maybe we send Jerry down with a crew to see if he can get one working. That would be a lot faster and wouldn’t kill all you big, strong men.”
Tom thought it was a great idea. “Can you describe the auger to Jerry? I’ll bet it runs off a tractor’s PTO. We’ll probably have to take one of our tractors down to power the thing and then auger the grain. That makes me think about looking for other old school factory and farm equipment. I’d give all the money in my worthless bank account for a couple of huge hit and miss engines.”
Kate laughed. “A few hundred dollars for life-saving equipment would be a bargain.”
Tom shuddered. “Make that $9.75 million in my worthless bank account.”
“Holy crap! How did you get that much dough?” Kate asked.
“Remember back in the spring when a local man won the thirty million dollar lottery? That was me. The joke was on me because I only bought two Jeeps, three farm trucks, and some gold and silver. Oh, and I did buy some survival gear and guns.”
Kate’s eyes popped open. “I’m married to a millionaire who can’t spend his money. As Granny B says – that’s FUBAR!”
“Yep, FUBAR.”
***
Jackie watched as June circled the area around the junkyard. “June, you’re doing great. Move the drone down to street level in front of the large building at the street side of the machinery.”
The drone descended rapidly and flew to the front of the building. A large sign over the door read, “Billing’s Antique Machinery Restoration.”
“We need to get into that building. There could be restored machines on display,” Kate looked at June and then added, “Look, that right side overhead door is open. Fly the drone into the building.”
June moved the small joystick slowly to enter the door. Kate tapped her back. “Turn on the lights. It’s the button above the return to launch site button.”
The lights came on, and the darkness peeled away to reveal a row of farm equipment on the right side and old vehicles on the left. All were in various states of disassembly. June said, “Nothing’s ready to use back here. Look at the front wall.”
The lights shown on a nice showroom with several tractors, a two-ton farm truck, and an enormous hit and miss engine. Kate said, “Tom would give a million dollars for that putt-putt engine.”
June shook her head. “What’s a putt-putt engine?”
Kate said, “That big hit and miss engine with the red flywheel. They were popular around farms over a hundred years ago when there wasn’t electricity or today’s small gas-powered equipment. Most farmers called it a putt-putt engine because that’s what it sounded like when it ran. The flywheel turns slowly compared to modern gas engines. Tom will love this one. That is, if he can load the thing on our flatbed.”
***
The sun rose over the mountains as Tom’s crew arrived at the junkyard. The drone surveillance showed the area to be isolated, with all of the homes within a mile abandoned. Tom chanced the daylight run so Jerry could work on the machinery as fast as possible.
Just working on the machinery was dangerous enough without stepping on something in the dark.
Jerry started one of the restored grain trucks parked in front of the restoration shop after apologizing for not thinking about checking the restoration shop out much earlier. “Tom, I bought most of the parts to fix or restore our old vehicles where I worked before the shit hit the fan. This is where I bought those parts. This place is a mechanic’s dream.”
Tom’s crew loaded the hit and miss engine on the grain truck and secured it for the ride back to the ranch. He couldn’t wait to power some shop equipment for Jerry. He found a smaller engine that he wanted to take to the cave. It was on wheels. He hoped to figure out a way to vent the exhaust to the outside.
Jerry then checked out the three augers in the junkyard and found two were operational. He chose the best one and greased all the fittings before running it with the tractor’s power take off (PTO) unit. “This is ready to go. Hey! Tom, there are dozens of machines and vehicles we could use if I can get them running. The farm equipment will save thousands of man-hours plowing, disking, and harvesting.”
Tom thought for a minute. “You’re right, of course, but that much activity won’t go unnoticed. Will it?”
Jerry rubbed his jaw and shifted from foot to foot. “No, but we can’t hide in a cave scavenging forever. We either have to find a place where no one can ever find us, or kill all the bad people trying to take away our freedom.”
Tom knew it would soon be nut-cutting time, and a decision would have to be made. Do they stay and fight or run and hide? “Jerry, you nailed the dilemma.”
***
Kate flew the drone to Ashland’s north end following Highway 5 and then flew over to Highway 99. Jackie and Kate took turns watching the gang members transferring anhydrous ammonia from the sizeable agricultural tank to small cans. This made them confident the gang was using the buildings to make Methamphetamine.
Kate said, “How people could do something so vile in normal times, much less these days is unfathomable. Let’s eliminate this vermin and create our distraction.”
An hour later, two drones flew over the northern building the gangs used to process drugs. Kate pushed the button to activate the servo to drop the first bomb. The five-pound bomb exploded on contact with the roof and blew out all of the windows. The second bomb was a gallon jug of napalm, which exploded when it hit a steel girder protruding from the gaping hole in the roof. Fire rained down into the building and onto any survivors.
Jackie dropped her two bombs on an empty building close to a hotel where most gang members lived. The explosions rocked the air and received the attention Tom thought would happen. Most of the gang members on the southern end of the city flocked toward the north to counter what they thought was another attack by the vigilantes. The south end of the city was unprotected. Tom felt safe spending most of the day scavenging the train cars.
***
The auger’s mouth slid under the railcar chute, and Jerry hitched the auger’s driveshaft to the tractor’s PTO. The farm truck was in place, and Jerry started the tractor and moved the lever to start the PTO turning. “Open the grain chute just enough to keep the auger’s hopper full. Let’s rock and roll!”
While Jerry’s crew loaded the grain into their trucks, Tom’s team began checking the other rail cars for anything useable. Most of the boxcars were loaded with raw materials for manufacturing and would come in handy in five to ten years, but not now. Several refrigerated cars had been opened and stunk so bad, Tom had to close the doors himself because his team wouldn’t go near the cars until the doors were closed.
“You’re a bunch of pussies,” Tom said, and then gagged.
The next two dozen cars had everything from cheap Chinese-made toys to housewares no one needed. Tom had just about given up when Rick called out. “Bingo! Tom, get over here now!”
“What’s got your panties in a wad? What did you find?”
“Here, try this on for size.”
The railcar was full of outdoor and sportsman clothing. The Gortex jacket had an inner jacket that kept the wearer warm down to minus thirty degrees. Rick said, “I’ll bet we find pants and some winter socks.”
Tom said, “This is great, but I thought maybe you’d found a rail car full of ammunition.”
“Sorry. Warm clothing will have to do for now.”
Tom quipped. “You’d better find some in women’s sizes or risk the wrath of every lady back at the ranch.”
Later, Rick made Tom happy by finding the bullet reloading equipment and supplies to reload all of the popular ammo in the railcar's far end. The other end had camping and archery supplies. The rest of the railcars didn’t have anything their team couldn’t live without, except one of the last cars they opened. It had books; thousands of books of all types filled the car. Tom brought the teams back several times until they were snowed in for the winter to go through the books. He knew there wouldn’t be any more printed for a long time and didn’t want any knowledge to be lost.
It was midnight when they started filling the first truck with the grain. It was full in fifty minutes. They kept the auger running and filled all three of their trucks before leaving for the night. They returned three more times before the first snow. They didn’t dare drive anywhere after the first snow since it would be impossible to keep someone from following the tracks back to the ranch or caves.
Tom’s most significant issue was driving the trucks down to the cave and loading the grain into one of the side tunnels. The trucks made it to within fifty yards of the cave’s entrance with incredible difficulty. The grain had to be hauled into the cave in gunnysacks. That was backbreaking work and wore everyone down. Even the kids pitched in and helped carry small bags. Tom wasn’t sure if Sam knew about the cave, so he made sure she and Lucy stayed at the ranch, even though he would have loved to see her lifting the heavy bags.
The real problem became apparent a week later when the rats ran rampant in the cave. There weren’t any bins to store the grain. The rats and mice had a field day. Fat mice and rats could barely walk until Jackie, June, and Granny caught enough house cats to get rid of the vermin explosion.
The cats solved the vermin problem, and Tom asked Granny B to take a bunch of them to the ranch and the Community.
*
Chapter 29
The stranded train
The use of drones for the overhead watch was responsible for saving Tom’s team more than four times from impending peril. The drones also kept his team from running into locals who might have reported their movement to the gang. Tom’s drivers had plenty of notice to pull off the road and hide from Mendoza’s patrols. Even with the drones above, Tom changed their route to the cave or ranch every trip. Tom hated what the gang had done to the area, but also hated the conflict and killings. He now better understood why his grandpa had preached hiding and isolation.
During the last trip to the train, Jerry thought Tom had gone nuts. “Tom, why are we loading computers, laptops, large holograph TVs, old-style DVD players, and boxes full of antiquated DVDs? We know the electronics are fried.”
Tom rapped his knuckles on the thick steel wall of the railcar. Jerry’s frown turned upside down. “Okay, the metal protected them from the EMP, and we can operate them off the turbine’s electrical output.”
“We also have a bunch of solar chargers, and every vehicle charges its batteries. We can use those for the cave and the Community. I plan to use a hit and miss engine to run several old twelve-volt generators to make electricity if the bunker’s generator craps out. They will charge a bank of batteries that’ll provide the electricity to watch movies and use the computers. We could also use it at the community.”
Rick said, “I’m thinking the internet is dead.”
Tom laughed. “Maybe so, but take a good look at those DVDs. Many are about edible plants, world history, chemistry, and many other topics. We can use them to help learn and teach our children how to survive.”
***
The bunker at the ranch
One day, Tom asked June to fly over their several routes to the cave, and saw just what he’d expected but hadn’t wanted to see. The trucks had flattened the grass, and one could plainly see where the trucks had passed through. The tracks would be there until late next spring when the new grass filled in the tracks. Even then, an experienced tracker could follow the betraying signs. The ranch hadn’t suffered the same issue, since they just drove up to the barn on the roads and driveway. The tractor’s box blade was used often to remove the truck’s tracks, and then they had the horses walk around to remove the box blade’s trail.
Granny B asked Tom what they were doing, and Tom explained. Granny B said, “It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. It’s the start of winter, and no one has been up this way for several weeks. No one wants to be up in the mountains in the winter. Even then, they stayed on the paved roads. The gang’s hunters are lazy and concentrate on catching escaped cattle and sheep for their meat. Next year, when that source dries up will be our challenge. The snow will flatten down the grass over the winter, and new grass will grow to hide the tracks.”
Tom disagreed, but kept his thoughts to himself. Tom was more serious as winter approached. The weight of making sure his group survived the winter and had enough food weighed heavy on his mind. He knew they had the corn and could slaughter some cattle. He also knew that every cow the wolves killed was one less to build up the herd for long-term survival. He knew the winter and predators would take their toll on the herd.
That evening, as bad luck would have it, Jack interrupted Tom’s train of thought. “I have good news and bad news.”
