Survivors

by Rich Goldhaber

  I chose a cold bottle of water, and the four of us sat down around a table overlooking the campus mall. I said, “Rebecca, the three of us are from the Naples area. We’ve been finding survivors, and we’re trying to find somewhere for us to live. We thought the campus might be a good place. The solar field is an unexpected bonus. First, tell us what’s happened here. Are you the only person left on the campus?”

  Rebecca began to cry again, but she finally was able to regain her composure and tell us her story. “It was terrible. As soon as the CDC began saying it was a major pandemic, almost everyone started to leave the campus. People just got into their cars and left to try to find their parents. Then a month ago everyone still here began to get the disease. It spread very quickly. They couldn’t bury the bodies fast enough. There still must be almost a hundred bodies just lying around. I didn’t know what to do. I just covered the ones outside with sheets, but the birds and other animals just pulled off the sheets and began eating the flesh.”

  Rebecca’s recollection of the horror resulted in another breakdown, and she shook uncontrollably. Jessie knelt down next to her and held her in her arms, but her sobbing continued for another minute. Finally, she recovered. “I’m sorry but just thinking about those bodies is too much for me. My best friend is lying in her room being eaten by insects.

  “Before the telephone system broke down, my parents told me to wait here. They were driving down to pick me up. I don’t think they’re alive, but I didn’t know what else to do other than wait here for them. That’s why I was waiting on the road. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  Jessie asked, “Rebecca, if we all move here, are there good places for us to stay?” Rebecca thought for a moment. “There’re plenty of places to stay, but most of the places still have student’s belongings”

  I said, “In the next week there may be as many as a few hundred people needing a place to live. Where would be a good place to stay?”

  Rebecca was quick to answer. “North Lake Village is the best place. There’s a grouping of apartments, and each unit can house up to four people. Each place has a bathroom and a small kitchen; they’re just like regular apartments. Other places might work, but that place is the nicest, and it’s alongside a lake.”

  George asked, “Can we see the place?”

  Rebecca answered, “Sure. It’s a long walk, but we can drive there.”

  Chapter 8

  Five minutes later we arrived at Building H, a three story structure amidst a multi-building apartment complex. Rebecca led us inside, and we found an apartment with an open door. We walked inside, and it was almost too good to be true.

  George, who still had electrical power on his mind, said, “If this solar field is what I think it is, we can tap off the system and provide power to this apartment complex, at least during the day.”

  We stepped out of the apartment’s backdoor and immediately walked onto a beach with enough water toys to keep the little kids happy. They would be in paradise. I looked at the others, and they were all smiling. This was the perfect place for us to build our new community. I was certain we would run into some problems, but the place had the all right infrastructure to make for a successful lifestyle.

  I turned to Rebecca, “This place looks perfect. Can you show us the solar field now?” Rebecca answered, “Sure, let’s go. The solar field was a joint venture between the power company and the university.”

  The solar field was back toward the main entrance. She led us onto a narrow back road that suddenly opened up onto a field with a huge solar array. George and Jessie, our two technocrats, wandered around the place.

  George said, “These solar arrays move to always face the sun. That building over there probably controls the system. Let’s take a look at it.”

  We made our way through the solar field and finally arrived at the small shack in the corner of the field. The door leading inside was locked, and we didn’t have the tools to break inside.

  George stood back and looked inside the fenced-in area adjacent to the building with an engineer’s eye. “Look alongside the building. This is where the electricity from the solar array is transmitted to some central energy distribution point. The equipment inside the building must monitor the solar array. I’ll know more as soon as we can break inside.”

  Jessie said, “So I guess this place is even better than we thought, and a side benefit is the library, and think of the chemistry and engineering labs. We’re going to need those facilities. This is the perfect place to start a new life.”

  I said, “Rebecca, we’re going to bring survivors here starting tomorrow. Do you want to come with us now or wait here?”

  Rebecca said, “I need to stay here for my parents, but I can’t wait for you all to get here. It’s more than I could have ever hoped for. I’ll be with other people again. You don’t know how good that will feel.”

  Jessie said, “Rebecca, we know exactly how good it feels. All of us have been there, just like you.”

  We dropped Rebecca off near the main entrance to the campus, and George led the way to the water filtration plant off Alico Road. I had never been to the place, and it was in an out of the way spot. Except for the sign on the gate, you would have never suspected the place’s real purpose.

  George parked his car by the front of the building, and Jessie and I parked our cars next to his. George looked at us and asked, “How long after the power went out did the water stop flowing?”

  I answered, “One, maybe two days.”

  Jessie agreed. George continued, “That’s what I remember too, and that’s good news for us. I think here’s how this place works. Water from those wells over there is pumped up into those two tall reservoirs. Each must hold thousands of gallons at least. Whenever there’s a power failure, they’ve got all that reserve to meet the demand. That’s why the water lasted for a couple of days after the power went down. All they need is a small pump to keep the pressure up in each tank, and they can power that with a backup generator. ”

  I asked, “Why is that good news?” Jessie smiled and said, “Because if we start things back up with solar power, we can store the electricity in just a few batteries to keep the water pressure up during the night. We can use the water in the reservoir at night. We just have to be careful not to use too much water in the evenings.”

  George smiled at Jessie, “You’re pretty smart for a genetic engineer young lady.” Jessie gave him a high-five and said, “You’re lucky you didn’t say I was pretty smart for a girl, because I would have smacked you over the head.”

  I think George believed her.

  “So what are we going to do here?” I asked. George answered, “We’re going to break in; I want to find their electrical drawings. We need to find out how much energy we need to power up the pumps.”

  We looked around for something to use to break a window by the front entrance. We finally gave up, and I decided to sacrifice my car. A low window off to the side of the entrance seemed like a good target. I started up my car, fastened my seatbelt, backed up, lined things up, and punched the accelerator.

  My car jumped forward and crashed into the window. As the window shattered, my car’s airbag deployed. I hadn’t figured on that. The window was broken, and I had a few scratches from the airbag; but after I backed the car away from the window, we were able to enter the facility’s lobby.

  We walked around the place and found the Chief Engineer’s office. Inside George found one of those large grey horizontal metal cabinets containing drawings for the entire facility, including the electrical schematics. The three of us rolled up hundreds of drawings and carried them out to George’s car.

  “We’ll study them tonight and then decide what we need to do.” My car was of no further use. I guess I could pick out any new car from the dozens of new car dealers in the area. I always wanted a Lamborghini or maybe a Bentley. There would be plenty of Bentleys to choose from.

  I drove with Jessie, and we followed the navigatio
n system in her car to the industrial park near the Naples airport. Opti-Solar was located on Industrial Boulevard just off Airport Pulling Road.

  Luckily, we found a heavy metal post out in their parking lot, and we used it like a battering ram. Three swings and the front door to the company burst open.

  We walked past the front office area and entered their warehouse. A few skylights in the roof provided a modest amount of light, just enough so we could look at the company’s inventory of solar equipment. Jessie and George were like little kids at Christmas as they walked down the aisles looking at pallets of solar arrays, sophisticated batteries for storing the electricity produced during the day, and elaborate control systems for controlling the electricity generated by the photovoltaic cells.

  Jessie finally spoke. “We can pick up all this stuff tomorrow. We should have more than enough to power up the water filtration plant.”

  George agreed. We found a variety of equipment manuals for the various pieces of equipment. Jessie and George sorted through the literature, and by the time we left Opti-Solar, we had three stacks of documentation.

  We headed back to Blaine’s house. It had been a very productive day, and I was interested in what the others in our little group of survivors had found.

  Chapter 9

  When we arrived back at Blaine’s house, the driveway was filled with several new cars. It seemed the others had discovered more survivors. Mary and Blaine found three: Patty Greyson, a lawyer, Greg Langer, a chemist, and a teenager named Frank Blake. Stan and Bill, while searching for portable generators, found four others: an elderly lady named Beth Horton, an adult man in his forties named Josh Stanton, and two people who were walking down Route 41, a lady named Emily Fox and a fifteen year old girl, Sally Nelson.

  Margaret, Janet, and the two boys hadn’t found any survivors, but they were able to break into Wynn’s and replenish our food supply. Margaret smiled as she said, “Bill and Stan stole a UHaul for us. I guess that makes me an accessory to a crime. We took things that weren’t frozen or refrigerated. Tonight we’re serving chili and Raman Noodle soup for dinner, and we found a couple of wax-coated full wheels of an imported Swiss cheese that seemed to be okay. There were a couple of loaves of bread without any mold, and Jack and Bobby wanted Hostess Twinkies for dessert. I told them they could only have the Twinkies if they finished their dinners, and they promised. Isn’t that right boys?”

  In unison, Bobby and Jack promised again. Stan and Bill had a successful day. They found four gasoline powered generators by breaking into several hardware stores. Maybe we wouldn’t need them if we found a way to quickly tap into the solar field at the university, but we would definitely need them to set up the solar array at the water filtration plant.

  Margaret had interviewed each of the new arrivals and then provided everyone with an updated spreadsheet with everyone’s skills. Margaret was going to be worth her weight in gold, although in our new world, gold probably wouldn’t have much value.

  Jessie, George and I updated everyone on what we found at the university. Then George and Jessie summarized our findings at the water filtration plant and at Opti-Solar. Our new arrivals seemed to be delighted to have joined our little group, and from Margaret’s spreadsheet, it seemed we were growing in important skills.

  Beth called us all to dinner. Our expanded community filled all of the available space on Blaine’s lanai. I watched Jack and Bobby devour the chili and cheese, and as a reward they each received two Twinkies. I tried one of the golden cakes for dessert. I hadn’t had one in about twenty years, and I had forgotten how good they were; and then I remembered the center cream filling was mostly pure lard and sugar. I decided to pass on the second one.

  After dinner, the technocrats, Jessie, George, Bill, and Greg began pouring over the OptiSolar manuals and the water filtration plant drawings. Meanwhile, I grabbed a cold bottle of water and found Josh. Margaret’s spreadsheet indicated he was a butcher who worked at Publix.

  We began talking about how we were going to be able to procure fresh meat. “We get our meat deliveries daily from a huge distribution center just west of the Orlando airport. I know they have backup power generators to keep the meat frozen or refrigerated in case of a power failure. Maybe they’re still working.”

  “We can take a day trip up there to see if anything is still good, but what about the long term? What will we do when all that meat’s gone?”

  Josh answered, “We’re going to have to find a source of live beef, pork, and lamb. I know there’re a lot of cattle farms in central Florida. Maybe there’re some farmers who survived. If not, we’re going to have to raise the animals ourselves.”

  “Josh, how about you taking on the role of fresh meat and produce supplier for the community? Figure out a plan, and then we’ll find a way to make it happen.”

  Josh considered my proposal. He looked around the group as if searching for another person who might be better qualified. I could see he was wrestling with the task, looking around our group for help, but also understanding he was the best person to make it happen. “I’ll try to put something together for tomorrow. You need to understand, it’s not going to be some highfalutin strategic plan, but I’ll put my thoughts down on paper.”

  “Josh, that’s all I can ask. Everyone just needs to do the best they can. The good news is we have a lot of skills now, and I believe we’ll be successful.”

  The techies were still busy making their plans. They had found some blank sheets of paper and were making sketches. George was clearly the lead expert, but Jessie, Bill, and Greg were also busy drawing.

  The kids had been pushed off to bed. Margaret had found a baby crib in an upscale specialty store on Fifth Avenue for Carla, but she said she would put it together when we moved up to the university. All of Blaine’s guestrooms were now full, and we were doubling up in the rooms with twin beds.

  Blaine was busy in his office. He was sipping a snifter filled with some port wine. He poured me a glass, and I sat down on the easy-chair in the corner of the room. Blaine sat down and turned his desk chair toward me. “We stopped by the Naples airport today. I found a small Piper Cub with a short takeoff run. I’ll be able to land it on any twolane road. I think it’s time to expand our search. The internet’s not working, but I checked the university campus out on my car’s navigation system. There’s a straight stretch of road on the campus about 3500 feet long. The Piper Cub needs about 3000 feet to take off. I’m going to fly the plane up there tomorrow.”

  “Great idea Blaine. While you’re up in the air, how about flying down to Marco Island to see if you can find any survivors there?”

  “I’ll do that. Oh, and by the way, I stopped at a marine supply store and found some hand operated bilge pumps with extra-long hoses. We should keep one in each of our cars. We can use it to pump gasoline from underground storage tanks at gas stations.”

  Blaine and I walked back out onto the lanai. The techies were done. George called everyone over. “We’ve got two projects for tomorrow, and we’re looking for volunteers. I’m going to be working on the solar array system at the university. We’re going to try to redirect power from the engineering campus to North Lake Village. That’s where we’re going to live.

  “Second project is to work at the water filtration plant. We need to start it up as soon as possible. Tomorrow we’ll be setting up solar arrays to allow us to generate electricity and operate the well pumps. We’re going to need people who are mechanically inclined. Everyone who wants to help on the water filtration project, talk to Bill or Jessie. If you want to help out on powering up our apartments, see me.”

  Greg, Patty, Stan, Frank, and Josh reported to Bill and Jessie. Emily, Sally, Margaret, Janet, Mary and Ruth walked over to see George. Beth volunteered to take care of the kids. That left me without a commitment. “I’m going to go back and forth between the two projects, and if anyone needs supplies, I’ll be the go to guy. Tomorrow, Blaine’s going to fly his plane over to Marco Isl
and to look for survivors.”

  With everything set for tomorrow’s activities, we all wandered off to our bedrooms for some much-needed rest. Memories of the last few months continued to invade my attempt to fall asleep. I wondered if they would ever fade away. I tried to think of something pleasant, something from my childhood, but even that didn’t work. I finally fell asleep wondering whether my ex-partner Bruce was still alive.

  Chapter 10

  The kids had evidently gotten up early, because when I walked into the kitchen Beth and Mary had been fixing pancakes for the boys. The kids were doing well considering they had both lost their parents. A psychiatrist could probably explain it, but it seemed very strange to me. Were they just in denial? We would all have to keep an eye on them.

  After breakfast the group heading up to the university campus set out in a convoy. I sat in the front seat of Mary’s car holding onto Carla, and the two boys sat in the backseat with their seatbelts fastened. We would have to get them some car seats, and a trip to Target was probably in order.

  As we turned into the campus, I saw Rebecca waiting in the same spot still hoping her parents would show up. She waved as our convoy pulled in the front entrance. I opened the car’s window and introduced her to Mary and the three kids. She squeezed into the backseat between the two boys, and Mary followed her directions to Building H in the university’s North Lake Village residential area.

  All of us piled out of our cars and looked up at our new home. I introduced Rebecca to everyone, and she led our group into the residential apartments. Rebecca said, “There’re only four apartments with their doors open. We’re going to have to break into the others. I’m not sure where the school keeps the extra keys.”

  Jack and Bobby ran down the hallway on the first floor and explored every open door. Mary yelled at them. “Boys, stay on this floor. I don’t want you to leave the building.”