by Robert Boren
“Maybe. Might be worth a try, but even if we can get it started, the batteries might not hold any charge.”
“Maybe Howard sells them,” Terry said. He took out his iPhone and took pictures of the batteries.
“Before we go trying to start these things, I think we’d better go looking around for switches that are on…especially in those trailers out there. We don’t need any fires.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that,” Gabe said.
“I’ll go shut off all of the breakers on the power masts,” Terry said. He turned and walked out of the barn.
“I’ll take a look at the fuel system on the first generator and see if it’s messed up,” Gabe said.
“I’ll work the other one,” Charlie said. “I know quite a bit about these things too.”
“Comes with the territory, I guess,” Gabe said, laughing. “We are the best people around to fix up a place like this. Howard was right about that.”
Jerry and Frank were on the other side of the barn, looking at the metal cabinet in the corner. It had a hasp and lock on it. Jerry saw a crowbar leaning up against the work bench. He used it to break the hasp, and then Frank opened the double doors.
“Satellite,” Frank said. “Probably both modem and TV here. We need to find the dish.”
“Do these have much bandwidth?”
“Not great,” Frank said. “This thing is from about 2006. Maybe Jake has something better. A lot depends on the dish. This is a heavy duty unit, so he was probably feeding some Wi-Fi antennas, but I’ll bet it’s slower than molasses in winter time.”
“Let’s go out around the back of the building. The dish is probably on the roof.”
Frank nodded, and then went out the front door and around to the back side of the barn.
“You see any Wi-Fi antennas around when we drove in?”
“Nope, but I wasn’t looking,” Jerry said. “There were light poles here and there…he might have them there. He might have only had internet in the office and clubhouse too, you know.”
“Yeah, that’s possible. It’d be okay if he did.”
“You check the LTE out here, Frank?”
“No, not yet.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. “A little weak, but it’s there.”
“Good,” Jerry said. “If worse comes to worse, at least we have some coverage.”
“Oh, I’m pretty confident that with you, me, Jasmine, and Jake’s supplies, we’ll cobble something together.”
“Shoot, can’t see on the roof,” Jerry said. “We’ll have to go up there.”
“I saw a ladder attached to the wall inside, in the middle section by the snowmobiles, which went all the way up. There might be a trap door.”
“Hope it doesn’t have a padlock on it. Working with a crow bar that high up doesn’t sound like fun.”
“You afraid of heights?” Frank asked.
“A little. Never used to be. Must come with age.”
“Yeah, well, I’m a little bit afraid too. I don’t know if I’ll be able to function up there or not,” Frank said.
“Maybe Terry could help. He’s still young, and Jasmine’s pretty good with heights too. A lot better than I am.”
“Maybe,” Frank said.
“I’m okay to climb up the ladder inside, though,” he said. “If the dish is close enough to the trap door, I can probably get to it. It’s not a steep roof.”
“Alright, let’s do it,” Frank said. They walked back into the barn and over to the middle back wall.
“Wish I had some gloves,” Jerry said, looking up at the ladder.
“I saw some over on the work bench,” Frank said. “They’re probably a little dusty.”
“I can take dusty. I just don’t want to cut my hands on that metal ladder.” He trotted over to the workbench, found the gloves, and came back over. “These are perfect, nice thick leather.”
He started up the ladder, with Frank watching from below. It was a long climb. He got to the top and looked at the trap door.
“Locked?” Frank asked.
“Nope,” Jerry said. “It’s just got a latch on it. Might be a little tight. He reached over and tried to turn it. “Yeah, it’s tight. I need some channel locks or something like that.”
“I’ll go find some,” Frank said. He went over to the workbench and started looking in the drawers below the work surface. He found channel locks and pliers in the third drawer he looked in. He brought one of each over. Jerry had come off the ladder, and was waiting at the bottom.
“Perfect,” he said. He put the fliers in one pocket, and the channel locks in the other, and climbed back up. He brought out the pliers and tried that. It worked, and he got the latch open and pushed the trap door open on its hinge. “This isn’t so bad,” Jerry said. “There’s a climb rail outside the trap door, and the roof isn’t that steep. The dish is a ways away from the edge, too.” He climbed all the way up, and then Frank could hear him walking on the thick metal of the roof.
“What the hell,” Frank said. He started up the ladder. His heart started to pound as he got about half-way up, and he looked down. Mistake! He started to tremble, but then forced himself under control. He went the rest of the way up, and poked his head through the trap door.
“Frank, you made it,” Jerry said, chuckling. “Need to change your drawers?”
Frank shook his head no, and got himself up on the roof. He walked over, hoping that the breeze wouldn’t come up. He was okay without any wind.
“Well, what do you think? Is this thing going to do us any good?” Jerry asked.
“It’s usable,” Frank said. “If we can get something a little more up to date, it would be better, of course. We’ll have to chat a little with Howard about what’s available in this town.”
“You don’t think Jake has what we need?”
“I didn’t see any satellite dishes in his truck,” Frank said. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one, though. In any event, we could limp along with a combination of this and LTE if we have to.”
“So the key is getting the power on, then,” Jerry said.
“As far as I’m concerned, yes,” Frank said. “Assuming we don’t find big problems with other critical systems like the water supply or the electrical delivery, we should be okay. Let’s get off of this roof. It’s making me nervous.”
“I know, me too.” He took photos of the dish with his phone, and then followed Frank back to the trap door.
They got down the ladder in a few minutes, and walked over to the generators just as Terry was walking back in.
“I got all of the power mast breakers turned off,” he said. “What else?”
“We need to find the park lights, and also check the buildings,” Gabe said. “I’ll go with you…I can probably find that stuff pretty fast. I want to bring my Suburban back here anyway. We’re going to try to jump start the generators.”
“Cool,” Terry said. They walked off together.
“How are they lookin?” Jerry asked.
“Promising,” Charlie said. “Top notch stuff. We’ll need new batteries, though, I’m sure of that. Gabe’s SUV might not have enough amps to crank these suckers. One of them looks like the fuel has turned to gel, but that’s easy enough to fix.”
“Where’s Jeb and Dobie?” Jerry asked.
“They went out to walk the perimeter of the place,” Charlie said. “They ought to be getting back in a couple minutes.”
Gabe drove his SUV into the barn and close to the generators. He pulled the hood latch and got out. Terry got out of the passenger side, and got jumper cables out of the back. They hooked them up, and Gabe got back behind the wheel and started the engine. He revved it up, and then gave a thumbs up to Charlie.
“Here goes nothing,” he said. He pushed the starter button. The starter motor turned, but not fast enough. Charlie put his hand up in a ‘stop’ motion. “Not enough amps.”
“Crap,” Gabe said. He shut down his engine and got out.
/> “Well, what now?” Charlie asked.
“We know what kind of batteries we need. Maybe we just go buy some,” Terry said. “I took pictures.”
“Hey,” Jerry said. “How about this diesel rig? You might have enough amps to start that, and that big diesel might put out a lot more amps once it’s running. These things were made to jump start other vehicles.”
“That’s a damn good idea,” Gabe said. “Let’s try that. Keys in it?”
Jerry opened the cab door and climbed up. The keys were hanging in the ignition. “Yep, the keys are here.”
“Okay, I’ll bring this thing over,” Gabe said. He got back behind the wheel as Terry pulled the jumper cables off and shut the hood. He drove over to the rig, nose to nose, and shut off the engine. Terry came over, pulled the hood open, and put the jumper cables on. Jerry pulled the hood release in the diesel rig, and Terry opened that. He found the battery, and put the jumper cables on it.
“Okay,” Terry said. “This thing got fuel in it?”
“Can’t tell,” Jerry said. “Hope so. Go ahead and start the SUV.”
Gabe fired up his engine, and revved it up. Jerry turned the starter on the diesel rig, and the starter motor spun. He cranked it for almost a minute. Nothing. Gabe let his engine idle.
“Let it sit for a minute, and try it again,” Charlie said. “You probably don’t have enough pressure behind the injectors yet. It might take a few tries.”
They waited, and then Jerry gave Gabe the thumbs up. He revved the engine, and Jerry hit the starter. It cranked for about twenty seconds, and then the engine started, spewing black smoke out of the exhaust pipes.
“Phew,” Terry said, laughing.
“Should have left that trap door open,” Jerry shouted over the noise, grinning.
“Hey, this thing has a jumper socket on the front bumper…look,” Gabe said as he got out of his SUV. “Look in the back of that rig…there’s probably a big jumper cable in there.”
Terry set Gabe’s jumper cables on the hood of the SUV and went back there. He found the large cable in a box along the passenger side of the truck bed.
“Here it is,” Terry said, smiling.
“Excellent,” Gabe said. He tossed his jumper cables in the back of his SUV, and backed it away from the diesel.
“Hope the tires on this diesel hold on the way over there,” Jerry said, out the window to Frank.
“It’ll probably be okay,” Frank said. “It’s been sitting here in the dark the whole time. They’re a little low on air, but I see a compressor over in the workshop area.”
Jerry put the truck into gear and drove it over by the generators. Then Terry brought up the jumper cable and plugged it into the receptacle on the bumper. Gabe picked up the other end of the cables and put them on the generator battery. Charlie pushed the generator button. The starting motor ran full speed this time. The generator started after about 20 seconds of grinding.
“Yahoooo! Gabe shouted. He unhooked the cables from the generator battery and then pulled it out of the bumper socket. “Hey Jerry, why don’t you move that truck outside and let it idle for a while. Maybe the battery is still good enough to charge up.”
“Yeah, sounds good. He slowly backed up, and then drove out of the barn and down the road about fifteen yards.
“Let’s see if the lights work,” Frank said. He walked over to the switch by the door and hit it. Several rows of fluorescent lights turned on.
“What about the other generator?” Jerry asked as he walked back in.
“The fuel system needs to be gone through on that one. There’s gel. I suspect that was the backup generator, and it didn’t get run very often. Might have been sitting there for years before the park closed.”
“Hey, guys!” Jeb shouted. He was standing where the tow truck was, looking down at the floor. “Take a look at this.”
The men ran over and looked. There was a large trap door in the floor, with a flush handle.
“Should I?” Jeb asked, squatting down.
“What do you mean ‘should I’? Pull that sucker open,” Gabe said, laughing.
Jeb pulled on the handle and the door opened up. He laid it all the way back. There was a light switch on the side of the door frame. He turned it on, and a glow came out the opening.
“Holy shit,” Gabe said. The others just stood there looking in.
Chapter 5 – The Bunker
Frank walked out of the barn and took his phone out of his pocket. He dialed.
“Jane?”
“Hi, Honey. How is it?”
“Needs lots of work, but it’s got everything that we need. You feel up to driving the rig out here?”
“You want to stay there?”
“Yeah, sweetie. Since we’ve cut all the locks, we want some folks to guard the place…we can also clear the mess away from the RV sites while you guys are on your way.”
“Any switchbacks or anything?”
“No, Jane, it’s all flat and straight. It’s an easy drive.”
“Who’s going to stay there with you?”
“Terry and Gabe. Everybody else has to go back to drive their vehicles over.”
“You guys got guns, right?”
“Yes, all of us do. We’ll be fine.”
“When are the others going to be back here?”
“Less than an hour. If we need any supplies, you might want to go to the store about now.”
“Okay, Frank, will do. You be careful out there.”
“I will. You be careful on the road, sweetie. Love you.”
“Love you too, honey. Bye.”
Frank put his phone back in his pocket. Gabe and Terry walked out with rakes.
“Should we clear the closest spaces, or go back a ways?” Gabe asked.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have the rigs right on top of each other,” Frank said. “Might as well give ourselves a little bit of privacy.”
“Not a bad idea,” Gabe said.
“You guys should pick out trailers, too.”
“I know, we will,” Terry said. “Dobie already asked for the 5th wheel. He thinks he can tow it with his truck.”
“Can he?” Frank asked. “He needs one of those 5th wheel hitches installed, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, and he’s not going anywhere without new tires and who knows what else,” Gabe said, chuckling. “All of these rigs are gonna need tires, probably batteries too.”
“Yeah, we’re going to need quite a few batteries,” Terry said. “A couple for the generators, one for that tow truck, and at least one for each of the trailers that we’re going to use.”
“You picked one out yet, Terry?”
“Naw, haven’t even been in them yet. I’ll let Trish decide.”
“Ah, so you two are moving into one together, huh,” Gabe said, chuckling.
“Don’t start messing with us about it,” Terry said. “I don’t mind, but it drives Trish crazy.”
“Okay, Terry,” Gabe said. “I’ll only tease you about it when she’s not around.”
Terry nodded. They started raking out the first row of sites.
“What are we going to do with all of this stuff?” Frank asked as he helped.
“Let’s rake it into piles and burn it,” Gabe said.
They worked silently for a while, and got the first row of sites cleaned out, making a good sized pile. They went on to the next row.
“What do you guys make of that place under the barn?” Terry asked. “You think the owner was some kind of survivalist?”
“Yep, a certified nutcase,” Gabe said.
Frank looked at him and chuckled. “I don’t know, Gabe. Maybe those guys got the last laugh on all of us. This is the world they talked about all the time.”
“All that re-loading equipment down there is going to come in handy,” Terry said. “I saw dies for everything except the AK’s, and we could probably get those in town.”
“Plenty of canned food down there too,” Frank said. “We
need to finish exploring that place when we have some time. There’s three bedrooms and a kitchen behind the second door. That place must have a footprint as big as the whole damn barn.”
“Good place to go during a twister,” Gabe said.
“You think that’s why he put it there?” Terry asked.
“Maybe in the beginning, but that place was set up to live in…for a long time,” Frank said.
They had the second row cleaned off, and moved on to the third.
“I’m thirsty,” Gabe said. “Getting a little warm out here.”
“Hey, Terry, why don’t you go over and start getting that stuff away from the trailers?” Frank said. “Might as well make them look half way decent for your woman.”
Terry nodded and walked over there.
Back at the truck stop, Charlie parked Gabe’s SUV next to his rig. He got out with Jerry and Dobie. Jeb pulled his jeep behind his rig, right up to the back so he could get it hooked up.
The sheriff walked up to Charlie. “Terry called. Sounds like we hit the mother lode.”
“Yeah, I think so,” Charlie said. “But it’s going to take quite a bit of elbow grease to get things cleaned up.
Hilda came over and hugged Charlie. “I’m so glad you’re back,” she said.
“You weren’t worried, were you? It’s pretty safe around here.”
“I’m worried whenever you’re out of my sight,” she said.
Where is everybody?
“Kurt, Mary, Jake, Trish, and Earl went into the store to grab supplies.”
“I need to go over there too,” Charlie said. “I want to chat with Howard.” They started walking towards the store, Hilda taking Charlie’s hand. They rounded the front of the building and went in the door.
“Hey,” Charlie said, seeing Kurt and Mary at the counter. They were chatting happily with Howard.
“Charlie! How was it out there?” Howard said.
“A mess, but fixable.”
“Good,” he replied, “I already called the local Sheriff and told him you’d be moving in there.”
“Great,” Charlie said. “We’re going to need quite a bit of stuff. Batteries, for one thing.”
“I have quite a few on hand…can order them if I don’t have what you need.”
