Survivors

by Rich Goldhaber

There was no indication the boys had heard her or would obey; in some respects nothing had changed. The rest of us explored the four apartments with unlocked doors. I looked at my fellow survivors, and they all seemed pleased. I think this place had exceeded all of their expectations. I noticed the hinges to the front doors of the apartments were located on the hallway side of the door. That was good news because we could easily open the locked doors by removing the hinge pins.

  George pulled me aside. “Jim, why don’t you and I get started on the solar power? Let the others get settled in, and then as soon as I figure out what we need to do, the others can help out.”

  I announced George’s plan to the others, and everyone agreed it would be an efficient use of resources. Emily and Sally said they would work with Rebecca to remove the hinge pins on the locked apartments.

  George and I arrived at the solar field, and George jumped out of the car like a kid eager to play with a new toy. I followed him around as he inspected the solar panel arrays. After walking the entire solar field, I asked, “Can you explain how the thing works so a business major can understand?”

  George smiled. “I’ll try Jim.” He pointed to a small section of a solar panel. “Each of these little photovoltaic cells produces electricity when exposed to sunlight. The voltage from these individual cells is combined, and this solar field has four separate circuits.”

  George led me to the end of one of the rows of arrays and pointed to a box attached to a support rail. “This box combines all of the voltage produced by the photovoltaic cells in this one circuit. The electricity then travels underground over to this area.”

  We walked toward a small fenced in area at the edge of the solar field. Not unexpectedly, the gate to the inside was locked. George continued. “Inside this fence, the electricity from each array goes thorough an inverter that converts the D.C. voltage produced by the photovoltaic cells into A.C. voltage. Then those transformers over there boost the voltage up to several thousand volts. The higher voltage makes the transmission of the electricity more efficient. The electricity then travels underground to wherever their energy plant is located. That’s going to be our next stop.”

  “George,” I said, “You’re a good man; I actually understood that.”

  George laughed, “Maybe there’s hope for a business major after all.” We stopped at an information booth near the entrance to the university and found a map of the campus. There were two different energy plants on the site. George said, “Let’s try the one closest to the solar array. All things being equal, it would make sense to keep the shortest distance to the solar field.”

  The main entrance to the energy plant was unlocked, and the body of a man who must have died several weeks ago lay on the floor near a reception desk. It was in the process of being devoured by a variety of insects and three large rats. The rats looked at us with a total lack of concern. Perhaps they now considered themselves at the top of the food-chain. The smell from the decaying flesh and half-devoured innards was overpowering. Even after having seen dozens of dead people, this was beyond what I could endure. My chest contracted violently, and I threw up onto the concrete floor. George held on to me, and we quickly walked past the lobby and into the main section of the plant.

  George said, “I think this is the right place, but let’s go out back; I want to check something.” Behind the backdoor to the energy plant was a fenced in area. George pointed to a grouping of transformers. “They’re just like the ones over at the solar field. These transformers drop the high voltage down to a safer level, probably 480 volts.”

  “What’s special about 480 volts?” I asked. “It’s a multiple of 120 volts, so by tapping into the different wires you can get; 120, 240, 360, or 480 volts. Some types of specialty equipment use the higher voltages.”

  We walked back inside the energy plant and George spent some time searching for the plant’s electrical schematic. He found it in a small room off the main plant along with electrical drawings for the entire campus. “We hit the jackpot,” George said.

  He took the power plant layout drawing back into the main room, and the electrical schematic directed him toward a back corner. “Here’s the key Jim. Electrical power from those transformers outside are routed to these controllers. There are two electrical inputs; one’s from the solar field and the other is from the Florida Power and Light plant. The output goes to that distribution panel over there. During the day the controller takes power from the solar field and brings it to the distribution panel. Any excess power goes over to the Florida Power and Light grid. At night the controller takes power off the grid and brings it to the distribution panel.”

  “So what do we need to do to get power to Building H?” George pointed to his electrical schematic. A section was labelled North Lake Village. He walked fifty feet to his right and stopped at a distribution panel labelled North Lake Village. “Actually, it’s quite simple. All we have to do is run wires from the output of the controller to the input of this distribution panel. Of course we need to make sure we’re not electrocuted in the process.”

  “What can I do to help?” I asked. “While I’m gathering the tools we’ll need to change the wiring, why don’t you drive back to the apartments and find the main electrical utility box. I saw it near the complex’s main entrance. Get inside and turn off the main circuit breakers. Then go to all of the apartment buildings in the complex and turn off the power. When you’re done, you can come back here and make sure I don’t get electrocuted.”

  I drove back to the apartment complex and found the large utility box near the entrance. Rebecca showed me where the tool shed was located, and I destroyed the lock on the utility box with a couple of well-directed blows from a heavy hammer. I’m not very technically inclined, but I found the circuit breakers and pulled them out of their receptacles.

  It took me almost an hour to find and disengage the circuit breakers from the electrical service boxes on the sides of each apartment building. By the time I returned to the energy plant, George had found everything he needed to reroute the wiring. First he checked with a voltmeter to make sure the power from the solar field was disengaged.

  He had found several fifty foot sections of heavy duty wire. They must have been at least one inch in diameter, and George had stripped the insulation from both ends of the wires. He then removed the power input wires from Florida Power and Light going to the North Lake Village distribution panel and attached one end of each of the heavy wires to the input terminal on the distribution panel.

  It took both of us to string the heavy wires over some pieces of equipment. George wanted to make sure the wires weren’t lying on the concrete floor where they could get wet. George began working on the solar field power control panel. He removed the inputs from Florida Power and Light and then removed the output wires leading to the engineering campus. They would no longer receive electrical power.

  Finally he hooked up the other ends of our fifty foot wires to the output terminals of the control panel. “Now,” he said, “power from the solar field will go directly to our complex during the day. While you were gone, I checked on the system performance specs. We’ll be using just fifteen percent of the solar field’s maximum output; it can supply almost a quarter million watts if we need it. That should be more than enough to meet our shortterm needs. I’ve got some ideas on how we can get some power during the nights, but I’ll discuss that with the others tonight.”

  “So are we ready to throw the switches?” “We are; do you want to do the honors?”

  “George, it’s your show. The honor is all yours.” George stood at the control panel and threw several large circuit breakers. He then walked over to the North Lake Village distribution panel and checked the voltage. “We’re good to go; we’ve got power.”

  He threw the circuit breakers on the outputs of the distribution panel, and once again confirmed the voltage. “Okay,” he said, “Let’s go over to the apartments and turn things on.”

  Geor
ge checked for voltage at the apartment complex utility box, and after confirming the presence of electrical power, he activated more circuit breakers. George smiled and said, “Let’s have everyone gather outside building H for a little ceremony.”

  Ten minutes later, everyone in the area had gathered outside the building. Mary held little Carla while Jack and Bobby played in a nearby pile of sand. George smiled and said, “Let there be light.”

  He threw the main circuit breakers and several lights came on inside the building. More importantly, the air-conditioning unit on the side of the building started up. Everyone clapped and why not, we would now have the comforts of cool apartments during the day. George bowed graciously and everyone gave him hugs and high-fives.

  While the others fine-tuned the electrical power to the apartments, I decided to head over to the water filtration plant over on Alico Road.

  Chapter 11

  The team at the water filtration plant was busy assembling the solar array on the plant’s flat roof. Jessie, who was working on the electrical system, stopped what she was doing and updated me on the group’s progress. “We found a 6000 watt solar kit in Opti-Solar’s warehouse. The kit has everything we need to power the well pump and some other key equipment. We also took some Hawker gel batteries. At 24 volts they can each generate 1100 amp-hours of power.”

  “Wait,” I said, “I’m lost already; why do we need batteries?” “We’ll use the extra electricity from the solar array to charge the batteries during the day. At night, there’s enough power stored in the batteries to keep the pump running, so we should have water pressure 24/7.”

  Bill was supervising the assembly of the array on the roof, and Jessie was working on mounting the inverter to generate AC voltage just inside the entrance to the building. I climbed the ladder to talk to Bill. To my untrained eyes, it looked like they were making good progress. They had completed the assembly of mounting rails on the roof and were now carefully attaching the solar panels to the rails. About half of the panels had been attached. I asked Bill the status of the project.

  “We should finish the arrays by lunch tomorrow. Jessie’s just about done with the mounting of the inverter, and by the end of the day today, we should be finished with all the electrical work. We should be able to fire things up by the end of the day tomorrow unless we run into problems.”

  I yelled to the group. “Hey everybody, George finished getting power to the apartments, and I’m pleased to report we now have lights and air-conditioning, at least during the daylight hours.”

  After the shouts of approval died down, I climbed down the ladder and found Jessie waiting at the bottom. “Let me give you some of these gel batteries. I’ll bet George can use a couple dozen to help provide power at night. Explain what we’re doing here. I think he’ll want to do the same thing at the apartments. A couple dozen batteries should be more than enough.”

  As I drove back to the apartments, I thought about what extraordinary things people could accomplish in the midst of a catastrophe. Necessity is absolutely the mother of invention.

  Chapter 12

  Back at North Lake Village, people were hard at work preparing the apartments for their new residents. Beth had the two boys helping prepare the evening meal. She was going back and forth between the kitchens in two adjacent apartments. Beth sort of looked like everybody’s grandmother. She was a little overweight but seemed to handle the extra baggage well as she supervised the young kitchen help.

  Mary, who was in her early sixties, looked like she could climb Mount Everest with no training. She was having problems assembling Carla’s new crib in one of the bedrooms. “You’re just the man I want to see.”

  “What’s up?” I asked. “We’ve got a health and safety issue. We found two dead bodies when we opened up the apartments. The insects were having a feast. I’m sure there’re dozens of bodies all around the campus. We need to get them buried as soon as possible and disinfect the apartments with concentrated bleach or we’re going to risk spreading some pretty terrible diseases, and we’ve all had our fill of terrible diseases.”

  “What do you suggest?” “I know there’s a nursing school on campus. I’ll check things out. I’m betting they have hazmat suits. Maybe one of the guys can find a tractor with a backhoe, and we can bury them all in a common grave.”

  “George and I found one body in the energy plant, and there were a couple of rats taking their time with the banquet. Let’s talk about it at dinner tonight. We’ll divert some resources tomorrow to make it happen.”

  I spent the next hour helping Mary finish assembling Carla’s crib. The assembly instructions appeared to be written for a previous version of the crib and never updated, and it took several attempts before we got it right. We moved Carla from the carpeted floor to her new home, and she expressed her approval by depositing a smelly load in her diaper.”

  Mary laughed, “What gratitude.” I found Beth and asked her what was for dinner. She smiled, “We’ve got soup and Chef Boyardee Ravioli, and I made a few apple pies for dessert.”

  “Apple pies, how did you do that?” “The girls found everything I needed when they robbed Wynn’s yesterday, and now that George gave us power, I used the electric ovens to bake the pies.”

  I gave Beth a hug. “From now on, you are officially our Head Chef, as long as you’re willing to accept the honor.”

  Sporting a Cheshire cat grin she answered, “I would consider it a rare privilege and indeed an honor to become this community’s Head Chef.”

  I asked Beth, “Has anyone assigned apartments yet?” “Nope, it’s on a first come first pick basis, and if I were you I’d pick something on the ground floor facing the beach. It’s got a nice view and you can relax in an easy chair on the beach anytime you want.”

  I chose a three bedroom apartment facing the beach, just as Beth had advised. The previous tenants had been two gals and a lucky guy. I guess I was born too soon and missed out on these new co-ed living arrangements. I decided to use the largest bedroom and moved all of the girl’s clothes in the closet into the second bedroom.

  The sound of an airplane circling overhead caught my attention. By the time I arrived outside the building everyone was looking up into the sky and pointing to the small bright-yellow Piper Cub circling overhead. Jack and Bobby were jumping up and down.

  The airplane finally lined up with the straight section of the road Blaine had mentioned and then disappeared behind a grouping of trees. A minute later the small plane taxied into our apartment’s parking lot. Blaine headed for a far corner and killed the engine.

  He had a white silk scarf wrapped around his neck, and he looked like one of those World War I fighter pilots. The boys raced over to the plane. Blaine lifted them both into the cockpit, and they waved to the rest of us.

  The crowd gathered around him, wanting to hear all about his exploits. Like the perfect showman, he kept us all in suspense for a few moments as he slowly removed his scarf, rolled it up, and put it in the pocket of his brown leather jacket.

  “I flew down to Marco Island. There’s a group of sixteen down there. They said they’ve checked things out and that appears to be everyone who survived. I told them about our group and explained we were setting up shop at the university. They want to join our little club, and they said they would drive up tomorrow. They seemed like nice people. One woman looked like she was still in shock over the death of her husband.

  “On the way back, I flew over Fiddler’s Creek, and there were another dozen people waving as I circled overhead. There was no place to land, so I dropped a parachute message down to them.”

  “What did the message say?” I asked. “It said we were all gathering here at the university. Then I flew over East Naples and found two small groups, and I threw down messages to those people too.”

  Mary asked, “How many people do you think you saw?”

  Blaine answered, “Maybe three dozen in total, but maybe they told others.” “We’re going to have t
o open up another two apartment buildings for sure, maybe three or four,” I said.

  I looked around our apartment complex. There were over twenty buildings similar to ours. Each building had eighteen apartments, and they could each hold at least three people. With some quick math, it came to accommodations for a little over 1000 people. If we began to pull people from the Tampa or Miami areas, we could easily reach well over 1000 residents. We were definitely going to need more infrastructure.

  The boys jumped out of the airplane cockpit and ran up to Blaine. “We want a ride; when can we have a ride?”

  Blaine answered, “Soon boys, in a couple of weeks I’ll take you both for a ride.” A convoy of trucks and cars from the water filtration plant arrived, and Bill was still projecting tomorrow afternoon for starting up the water. Beth emerged from her kitchen and explained dinner was going to be served on the beach, just outside the two apartments she was using as her community kitchen.

  Beth had set things up as a buffet line. She stood behind the kitchen counter and ladled out bowls of soup and dishes of ravioli. Slices of pie were already plated and waiting for us to take to the picnic tables just outside the building. A variety of bottles and cans of soda and juice completed our menu. Everyone thanked Beth, and she was clearly enjoying her new role.

  George, Bill, Jessie, Stan, Mary, Blaine and I sat down at one of the picnic tables and discussed tomorrow’s workload. I explained the need to find and bury the dead bodies around the university campus. Mary stated in no uncertain terms the importance of the task. “So how will we do it?” I asked.

  Mary said, “I took Carla for a walk in the stroller we found at the kid’s store. We walked over to the nursing school. I found a couple of hazmat suits. Not only that, but they had a completely outfitted operating room. If someone needs to be stitched up, we can take them there.

  “Here’s my recommendation. We’ll need a backhoe to dig a burial trench, someplace far away from the apartments. Someone should drive over to a Bed Bath and Beyond store and get us all of the plastic mattress pads they can find. We’ll wrap up the dead bodies and then transport them to the gravesite.”