by Robert Boren
“Well, we need too large ones for the generators. Here’s a picture.” He showed his phone to Howard. He had the picture that Terry took on there.
“Yep, that’s a special order for sure,” Howard said. “They’re pricey, too. About three hundred each. What else?”
“There’s a big diesel tow truck out there,” Charlie said.
Howard’s mouth dropped open. “That tow truck is still there?”
“Sure is,” Charlie said. “It runs, too. We used it to jump start the generators.”
“How’d you get it started?”
“Jumped it from Gabe’s SUV,” Charlie said.
“Oh. Yeah, I’ve got a battery for that…no problem. What else?”
“There’s four travel trailers and a 5th wheel out there that look salvageable. They’ll probably need batteries, but I don’t know what kind yet. Since we got the generator running, we’ll have power to the trailers, anyway.”
“Is there a department store around here?” Hilda asked. “Maybe we should go get some bedding. You know that’s going to be gone.”
“Yeah, there’s one down this road about half a mile,” Howard said.
“Good,” she said. “Honey, why don’t I take Trish and Mary and go shopping?”
“Sounds good. I’m going too, though. We can take Gabe’s SUV.”
“Okay, I’ll round them up. You said four trailers and a 5th wheel. Maybe two or three sets for each?”
“Yeah, that would be good,” Charlie said. “I can think of some other household wares we should buy…I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.”
Hilda walked off, meeting Mary by the front of the door and then looking for Trish.
“What else you gonna need, Charlie?” Howard asked.
“Do you deliver diesel?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact. Lots of folks out here have generators.”
“Good. We’ve got about two thirds of a tank out there. I have no idea how long it will last.”
“How big is the tank?”
“I don’t know,” he said. He pulled out his phone again. “Here’s a picture.”
“Oh, yeah,” Howard said. “I remember this setup. I’ve delivered out there before. That thing is huge. It’ll hold several hundred gallons.”
“How long will that last?”
“A few weeks if you don’t run it full time,” he said. “You really need to get the city power turned back on, though. I can call them for you, and I’ll let the mayor know what’s going on too, just in case. It’ll probably cost you, though.”
“Yeah, I know…taxes.”
“They’re going to want something. How you folks set for money?”
“Most of us are retired. Some of us have more money than others. You sure there’s no next of kin? If not, maybe we could get the county to deed the place over to us. Then at least we could sell off the stuff when we’re done there.”
“Good question, but I know who I can ask. As long as you agree to pay the taxes, I’m pretty sure they’ll turn on the power. That would cost a lot less than running that diesel generator all the time. Trust me.”
“Yeah, I believe it. We’re going to need other stuff, of course.”
“What else?”
“Glass. Somebody broke out most of the windows in the Clubhouse and Office,” Charlie said.
“Damn tweakers,” Howard frowned. “Sure, no problem. We have a contractor that’ll come out to the site. Just call me when you know the sizes, and I’ll get them out there. Anything else?”
“Was Chet a survivalist?” Charlie asked, lowering his voice.
“He used to talk about that all the damn time. Why, what did you find?”
“We found a trap door in the floor of the barn. There’s a friggin bomb shelter in there. Fully stocked, with several bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bunch of food and supplies.”
“No! You’re kidding,” Howard said.
“There’s a lot of valuable stuff at this place too,” Charlie said. “Why didn’t the kid sell it?”
“Just between you and me, this kid was pretty strange. He might have figured he’d come back eventually. Who knows?”
“He didn’t like the business, from what I heard.”
“True, but his dad had him interested in this survivalist nonsense,” Howard said. “Most of the old folks living out there were into that nonsense too. They all got old and died waiting for the apocalypse.”
“Well, they only missed it by about five years,” Charlie said, laughing. Howard cracked up.
“Well, we haven’t had the apocalypse here yet, but you do have a point. I’ll get the batteries on order for you, and make those calls. You want the power turned on right away?”
“Yeah,” Charlie said. “We’ll figure out the dollars when we get together out there. I’ll call up Frank and let him know. Does he need to turn off the generators?”
“Naw, that’s a backup system. When the juice comes in over the wires, she’ll turn off. If the power goes off, she’ll turn back on too, if there’s a good battery.”
“Why’d he have those, anyway? Seems like overkill for a survivalist…it’s hard to get fuel deliveries during the apocalypse.” Both men chuckled.
“Winter. If the city power goes down, those generators come in real handy. He had to use them more than once.”
“Winters pretty bad around here, eh?”
“Oh, yeah,” Howard said. “You guys think you’ll be here that long?”
“Maybe,” Charlie said.
Hilda was back, along with Mary and Trish. “We’re ready whenever you are,” she said.
Earl was behind them with a push cart full of supplies. “Guess we’d better ring this stuff up,” he said, smiling.
Howard nodded, smiling. “Wait a minute,” he said. He went into the back and brought out a big battery. “For the tow truck.” He rang that up, and put it on the push cart, and then started ringing the rest of the stuff up.
Back at the RV Park, the men made three large piles of debris. Gabe lit them up, and the men watched them burn for a few minutes. Luckily there wasn’t wind, and the fires burned lazily. Terry turned and walked back to where the trailers were. They looked a whole lot better on the outside after he raked up the mess under and around them. He went into the first of the travel trailers with a box of plastic bags he found in the clubhouse and started pulling trash out. Then he went on to the next one, then the next. He got done with all of them in about an hour. None of the trailers were in terrible shape…they were dusty and dirty, but that’s about it. It would have been worse a few years ago, before the food in them completely rotted away to dust. He got all of the windows open to air them out.
Frank and Gabe were in the barn, looking through things and puttering. The generator purred away quietly. The tow truck battery wouldn’t charge, so they drove it back into the barn and shut it off. Frank’s phone rang. He answered it.
“Frank?”
“Charlie, what’s up?”
“The city power is getting turned on in a little while. When it does, the generator should go off on its own. It’s set up as a backup generator.”
“Howard’s getting us set up?”
“Yeah, but we’ll have to take up a collection. The country and city will let us have this place if we pay the taxes.”
“The back taxes?”
“Naw, just going forward,” he said, “but it’ll still be a little pricey.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Frank said. “I’ve got a lot of money. I don’t mind spending a chunk of it.”
“Yeah, me too, but a lot of us don’t.”
“When are you guys coming over?”
“We’re leaving in about half an hour,” Charlie said. “I just got back from the Department store with the women. They picked up new bedding for the trailers and some other household stuff. How are they looking?”
“I haven’t been in them. Terry’s been cleaning them out. They look good from the outside, now that we
’ve cleaned up the ground around them. We’ve got plenty of spaces for our rigs cleaned out, too.”
“Excellent,” Charlie said. “I told Howard about the other stuff we need, like glass. He’s helping me set that up. Oh, and I got a battery for that tow truck, and we put in an order for the generator batteries.”
“Good, things are falling into place.”
“Been on your app lately?”
“Yeah, Charlie. No movement of the cretins.”
“They’re dead, ten to one.”
“Hopefully. See you in a little while, Charlie.”
“Okay, take care.”
Frank put his phone back in his pocket.
“What’s the deal?” Gabe asked, walking up.
“Charlie and Howard are getting the power turned back on. When you hear the generator stop, we should have it.”
“Oh, fail over system, eh?”
“Yeah. You pick out a trailer yet?”
“I was just about to go over there,” Gabe replied. “I saw Terry bring quite a few trash bags out and throw them on the fire. What are you doing?”
“I’m getting ready to start messing with the internet set up,” Frank said. “But I think I’ll wait on that until after the city power comes on to try it. Don’t need a surge screwing the electronics up.”
Gabe nodded, and started walking out towards the trailers.
“I’ll go measure for the windows,” Frank said. He picked up a dusty pad of paper that was sitting on the work bench, and the measuring tape that he found in one of the drawers. He left the barn, heading for the clubhouse.
“Hey, Terry,” Gabe said, walking up. “How do they look?”
Terry turned around and smiled, a damp rag in his hand that was covered with dirt. “Surprising good. We need some stuff though. Bedding especially. I trashed all of it.”
“Know which one you want?”
“Any of the four travel trailers would be fine,” Terry said. “The nicest one is the 5th wheel of course, but I’m fine with letting Dobie have that one.”
“At least they all look level, thanks to the jacks,” Gabe said. “These suckers probably haven’t been moved for more than ten years.”
“So who all needs trailers again?” Terry asked.
“Jake, Dobie, me, and you,” he said. “We’ll have one left over.”
“Well, go ahead and pick one, then,” Terry said. “I’ll be able to let Trish pick between a couple of them, at least.”
“There much difference?”
“All but one of them are about twenty six feet. The little guy over there is only about twenty. It’s old, but it’s got a lot of class.”
“Okay,” Gabe said. “Any of them you’re partial too?”
“I like this one the best,” he said, pointing to the one right behind him. “But any of the larger ones would work. I don’t think I want to deal with the small one...it’s a one person unit, for sure.”
“Oh, that’s right, you won’t be alone, will you?” Gabe said, chuckling.
Terry just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “Who knows? She might change her mind and take the little one for herself.”
“I doubt that.”
The generator shut off.
“Uh oh,” Terry said. “That thing crapped out already?”
“No, it’s probably the city power. Frank got a call.”
“Well, one way to find out,” Terry said. He walked to the trailer that was his favorite, and flipped the breaker on the power mast. Then he went in the door and flipped the light switch. The lights came on. “Yes!” he said. He walked over to the fridge and turned it on. The light inside came on. He shut the door.
“Good?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah, good,” Terry said. “I’m going to go check the others, and turn on the refrigerators.”
“You got the fridges cleaned out already?”
“Yeah, that was the last thing I did,” Terry said, holding up the dirty rag.
Over by the clubhouse, Frank was just finishing up the window measuring. He heard the generator shut down, so he turned on the lights. The floor still had the broken glass all over it. He walked over to the barn and found a big push broom. He brought it back to the clubhouse with him and started sweeping up. That was a big job…it took him close to an hour, because he had to move tables and chairs. He couldn’t believe how much better the place looked when he was done. He came out on the front porch and leaned the broom against the wall. Then he sat down on the bench against the wall, in the shade, and stared out over the park. It was still a mess, but they made a lot of progress. Gabe walked up.
“Pick out a trailer?” Frank asked.
“Yeah,” Gabe said, sitting down, looking exhausted. “I took some of those beers we found in the bunker and put them into my trailer’s fridge, but those things take a long ass time to get cold.”
“Check the propane levels yet?”
“Nope, still need to do that, but my unit has a ceramic heater in it. Nice job on the cleanup in there.”
“We need to go check out that walk-in.”
“Later,” Gabe said. “I’m used to cleaning those, and so are Hilda and Kurt and Charlie. We’ll get it cleaned up and running in no time.”
There was the sound of approaching vehicles. Frank stood up and looked, getting out to the far end of the porch. He held his hand to his forehead to shade it from the sun. There they were. A long line of RVs, following Gabe’s Suburban. Jake’s bobtail was bringing up the rear.
“Here they come,” Frank said.
“Yes, here they come. Looks like Charlie’s driving the SUV.”
They watched as Terry sprinted to the gate and pulled both sides all the way open. He was grinning ear to ear.
Chapter 6 – Building the Nest
Charlie drove through the front gate of the RV Park, in Gabe’s Suburban. The rest of the vehicles followed…eight motorhomes, Dobie’s truck, and Jake’s bobtail. They parked on the access road in front of the barn and clubhouse. There was just enough room. Everybody got out and met in front of the clubhouse, joining Frank, Gabe, and Terry.
“Wow, this place dump,” Rosie said. “Who fix windows?”
“Don’t worry, Rosie, I already have somebody lined up for that,” Charlie said. “We just need to send the measurements to Howard.”
“I already have them,” Frank said. He handed a slip of paper to Charlie. Jane rushed over and hugged him.
“Where do we park our rigs?” asked the Sheriff.
“We cleaned out the first several rows of spaces,” Terry said. “Go straight ahead on this access road. They’re past that barn over there.” Trish walked up to him and smiled. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. She settled against him and laid her head on his chest for a moment.
“Electrical working?” Kurt asked.
“The city power got turned on a while ago, but we haven’t tested all the power masts,” Gabe said. “Any of you not have surge protectors?”
Nobody raised their hands.
“Good, then I say we just hook up and hope for the best,” Gabe said. “There are about two hundred spaces in this joint, so we should be able to find eight good ones. I’d try the power before doing everything else, though”
“The power works on all of the trailers,” Terry said. “I checked them out, and turned on the refrigerators.”
“How many?” Trish whispered.
“A 5th wheel and four travel trailers,” he replied quietly. “Dobie’s taking the 5th wheel. Gabe already picked his trailer out. There’s three left...one will be extra, assuming you want to move in with me.”
“We’ll see,” she said, with a sly grin on her face. She kissed him lightly, just a peck on the lips. “Let’s go look at them.”
The coaches started to move out as Terry and Trish walked towards the trailers. Jake trotted over and caught up with them.
“Oh, cool, I know which one I want,” Jake said, as they walked up. He was looking at the classic ol
der coach.
“That one is classy, but it’s a little small,” Terry said.
“It’s just gonna be me, so no problem there. I’ll pull the bobtail right next to it…it’ll make a nice storage unit.” He trotted over to it and went in the door.
“That leaves these two,” Terry said, pointing. They were standing in front of the one he liked the best.
“Well, let’s take a look,” Trish said.
Terry opened the door and held it for her as she walked inside. She silently looked it over, looking in cabinets, sitting at the dinette and the couch, then checking the bathroom. She opened the fridge and cold air flowed out over her. Then she looked at the bedroom.
“Well?” Terry asked.
“Let’s go check the other one,” she said in a business-like manner.
“Okay,” Terry said. They left the trailer and walked over to the other one. It was much closer to Jake’s trailer. Jake came out and saw them.
“Hey, honey, I’m going to move the bobtail over here and start stocking up my trailer. I’ll back it up to whatever one you choose after I’m done.”
“Okay, dad,” she said. “That’s is a classy looking trailer.”
“Yeah, I’ve always liked the look of these. It’s a mid-60s model, but somebody gave it a lot of TLC over the years. It’s got solid wood cabinets. Beautiful.”
Terry opened the door on the second coach. Trish walked past him, and went through the same routine she did in the first one, silently looking it over. Terry just sat and watched her.
“What do you think?” Terry asked her. He was nervous, and it showed.
“They’re both suitable,” she said, still in her business-like manner. “Let’s go look in the other one again.”
Terry nodded, and followed her over there. They got inside.
“The air conditioning work?” she asked.
“Sure does,” Terry said proudly. “Want to see?”
“Yes, turn it on,” Trish said. As he turned it on she shut the door, and walked over behind him. When he turned, she was right there. She looked up at him and smiled.
“See, told you,” he said, as the cold air flowed around them. “Which one to you like the best?”
“I could live in either, but I like this one the most.”
“Why?” Terry asked.
