Ichabod

by Mark Goodwin

  Alisa and Dana came walking up. Dana was carrying a bucket and Alisa had the AK-47, in keeping with the standard security protocol.

  Alisa surveyed all of the electronic components for the solar charging station. “What’s all of this?”

  Danny gave her and Dana a quick rundown of what Nick was doing.

  “So, we have a radio that works?” Dana asked.

  “Yeah, but no radio stations. The US military made sure they turned off the lights for everybody,” Steven answered.

  Nick paused what he was doing. “Cami, bring me that ammo can on the bottom of the stack.”

  Cami brought that can over to Nick. He opened it and took out a small AM/FM/shortwave receiver and handed it to Dana. “One of those cans against the wall has some batteries. If someone wants to fish those out, we’ll get this thing working. Who knows? Perhaps we will find a ham operator who had the forethought to put away a radio and a way to power it.”

  Dana examined the radio. “This will pick up a ham radio?”

  “Yeah, if you click the single-side band button, the one that says SSB, it will. Once you get the batteries in it, just keep scrolling through and looking. There’s also a long cable antenna in the box. The higher you can get that hung, the better your odds of catching a signal.” Nick continued connecting the solar components.

  “What’s in the bucket?” Danny asked.

  Alisa rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask!”

  “Chicken poop and rabbit poop. Want to look?” Dana offered the bucket to Danny.

  He put both hands in the air. “I trust you.”

  “Nana says we have to build a compost bin to mix the poop with leaves, paper, and forest debris so it can break down to be used as fertilizer. She said it might kill the vegetables if we put it directly on the plants.” Dana swung the bucket back and forth.

  Catfish shook his head. “You can put rabbit poop straight on the garden. It won’t hurt nothin’. But she’s right about the chicken droppin’s. They’ll burn your garden up if you don’t let ‘em break down first.”

  “Good to know. Do you want to tell her she’s wrong about the rabbit poop?” Dana smiled at Catfish.

  “Best you go on and put ‘em all in the compost. Might help everything else break down faster anyhow.” Catfish pointed to the trailer with which he’d brought his pigs. “I got some wood pallets over yonder that you can use for your compost bin. Just string four of ‘em together with the bailin’ wire. Don’t need no top.”

  “Thanks.” Dana looked around. “Any volunteers to help me build the poop box?”

  Steven raised his hand quickly. “I’ll give you a hand.”

  Alisa looked puzzled and began to raise her hand as well. Danny grabbed it before she could and lightly shook his head.

  “Great. Let’s go build a poop bin.” Dana carried the bucket toward the pallets, and Steven walked beside her, carrying his shotgun.

  Alisa stuck her tongue in her jaw. “What just happened?”

  Danny shrugged. “Just let nature take its course.”

  Alisa frowned as she watched them walk away. “Nature is fine, but he needs to stop leading her on if he’s not interested. After his public apology in the barn, she was expecting a little more interest than what she got.”

  “We talked for a little while yesterday. I think he saw the light,” Danny said.

  Alisa crossed her arms. “I hope so. If he hurts her feelings again, he’ll see lights all right.”

  Once the solar generator was set up, Nick hit the power button on the inverter. “We’ve got juice!”

  Everyone clapped and whistled.

  JC asked Nick, “How hard is that to relocate?”

  “Not hard at all. Why?”

  “If it’s easy for us to move, it’d be easy for someone else to haul away. We might want it closer to the house.”

  “Good call.” Nick looked around. “This isn’t the best exposure for the panels anyway. We could move the entire shed to the courtyard. Then, I could hang the inverter and charge controller right over top the batteries. I’ve got enough cable that we can reposition the panels every morning to an eastern exposure and each afternoon for a western exposure. That would maximize our solar collection time.”

  “And, it would be secure.” JC looked the system over.

  Rocky interrupted, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go ahead and get your RV moved. I need to get started on the field right away if I’m going to get it plowed today.”

  “Of course.” Nick tossed the RV keys to Cami. “Cami will turn the steering wheel and guide it into position.”

  Rocky started the engine of the tractor. “Okay, I’ll get the tow chain hooked up. I’ll try not to tear anything up.”

  “The EMP took care of that. Not much left to tear up, mechanically speaking,” Nick said.

  Rocky had the chain hooked up within minutes. He pulled the RV to the position between the barn and the house as Nick directed.

  “Looks good.” Nick gave Rocky a thumbs-up.

  Catfish unhooked the tow chain and handed it to Rocky, who drove off to get his plow.

  Nick began unhooking the system so it could be relocated. “Catfish, can you pull your truck around so we can set this all up in what will be the courtyard?”

  “Yep. I’ll be around directly with the vehicle.” Catfish adjusted his overalls and went to get his truck.

  Everyone worked together to roll the metal shed over on its side so Catfish could pull it to the yard with a makeshift harness of rope and two ratcheting tie-down straps. Next, everyone pitched in to help Nick affix the charge controller and inverter to the inside of the shed wall. The two large six-volt batteries were connected in series to create a twelve-volt cell, which was compatible with the rest of the system.

  Nick plugged in the chargers for the radios. “Once the batteries and radios are fully charged, we can decide what other applications will have priority. It looks like a big system, but it’s actually fairly limited in what we can actually run with it.”

  “On the bright side, most of our electronics are fried, so we won’t need much.” Alisa stuck her hands in her pockets.

  Nick chuckled. “Yeah. We can run a couple of lamps, a hot plate, fans, maybe even a refrigerator as long as it doesn’t have a circuit board. If Nana’s fridge sucks too much electricity, we can power the little one in the RV. It’s small, but could make a big difference for preserving leftovers and such.”

  Danny glanced over at JC. “Did you get anywhere with Rocky?”

  JC sighed. “He agreed to position some of his preps in the barn, but he doesn’t want to leave his house to move into a shack 300 yards over. I see his point, and I hope we don’t get taken by surprise, but, our security force won’t be able to have a guard up on the hill to watch his house around the clock.”

  Catfish yelled out his window. “JC, we best get a move on if we’re gonna go over by the Reeses’ place. I still got to get my gasoline supply to bring over here. And my toothbrush.”

  “You ain’t fooling nobody. You don’t use a toothbrush.” JC waved to the others as he got in the truck.

  Alisa held Danny’s hand as Catfish and JC drove away. “What if we built a really cute place for Rocky and Pauline? Maybe they would move then.”

  Cami smiled. “If you guys can build something with a little space and a good roof, I’ll help Alisa decorate. I’m sure that would go a long way with convincing them to come.”

  Nick smiled and put his arm around Cami. “We can give it a shot. If we build it and they don’t move, it will be available for anyone else who wants to come.”

  Nana yelled out the back door. “When y’all get done fixin’ your spaceship, come on to the table. Lunch will be ready.”

  “Thanks, Nana,” Cami yelled back. “She’s determined to make sure none of us starve.”

  “Should I run and get Steven and Dana?” Alisa asked.

  Danny winked. “I’ll make sure Nana saves something for them to eat. Why
don’t we let them take their time with the compost bin?”

  “Okay.” Alisa carried the AK in one hand and held Danny’s hand with the other as they walked back to the house.

  CHAPTER 12

  If the ax is dull, And one does not sharpen the edge, Then he must use more strength; But wisdom brings success.

  Ecclesiastes 10:10 NKJV

  Danny lay on his bed, scrolling past the static on the shortwave radio.

  Alisa walked in and continued towel drying her hair. “Finding anything?”

  “Nothing.” He glanced up. “How was your bath?”

  “Cold. It takes way too long to boil water for a hot bath. First you have to pump the water, then you have to get the fire going and position the grate so the pots don’t tip over. And all the pots that fit on the grate will only fill the tub halfway. By the time you’ve gone through the entire process again to fill the tub all the way, the water from the first round is already cold. It’s just not worth it. So, I fill the tub with one round of hot water, then just put enough cold water to make it like a foot deep and make it work. It’s such a hassle.”

  Danny continued pressing the button to scan the frequencies. “A lot of folks are dying because they don’t even have water to drink. It could be worse.”

  She bit her lip and looked at the bed where Danny lay. “I know. I don’t mean to complain, but I’m exhausted from planting corn all day by hand.”

  He looked up at her. “I understand. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad; I just wanted you to be grateful for what we have. And I totally know what you mean. It would have been nice to come in from the field, take a nice hot shower, and relax. Farming is hard work, especially the way we have to do it. But once again, it could be worse. At least Rocky plowed the field with his tractor.”

  Alisa twirled her wet towel up and snapped it right by Danny’s feet. POP!

  “Hey!” He jumped up from the bed. “What was that all about?”

  “You just gave me a great idea!” She slung the towel over her shoulder like a weapon.

  “And that’s the thanks I get? Being beat with a wet towel?” Danny scowled.

  “If I had wanted to hit you with it, you’d have a red mark on your foot the size of a tomato. I just wanted to wake you up so you’d be as excited as I am.”

  Danny set the radio on top of a plastic bin full of supplies which he was using as a nightstand. “Okay, let’s hear your idea.”

  “Have you ever seen a camping shower?”

  “Probably not. Why?”

  “Well, I was thinking we could make something like that. Basically, it’s a black water bladder with a hose that’s like a foot and a half long. The hose has a little nozzle that you squeeze when you want the water to spray out. You fill it with water, let it hang in the sun all day to get hot, then you have a nice warm shower waiting for you at the end of the day.”

  Danny shook his head. “Too bad you didn’t think of buying one of those when we still had stores, online shopping, and free shipping on orders over thirty-five dollars.”

  Alisa began twirling the towel again. “Is that a criticism?”

  Danny shielded himself from the fury of the towel. “I meant to say, too bad I didn’t think of buying one when they were available.”

  “That sounds better.” She slung the coiled towel back over her shoulder. “Anyway, it’s a simple design. We would just need to put a hook in the ceiling over the bathtub. Then we could hang a five-gallon bucket from the hook with a small length of garden hose coming out the side, near the bottom. The hose could even have the sprayer on it. We just need to figure out how to get the hose to stay in the bucket and not leak around the opening. Even if it leaked a little bit, that would be fine since it would be hanging over the tub anyway, and it only has to hold the water for a few minutes. Especially since showers use less water than a bath, we would conserve so much time pumping and boiling water. And less water boiled means less firewood that has to be collected to boil it. Heck, we could heat enough water on the grate at one time for three or four people to get a shower. Seems like something where we could all put our minds together and come up with a solution.”

  “Rocky rebuilt his tractor. I’m sure he can figure out how to make a piece of hose stick in a bucket without falling out.” Danny tried to envision Alisa’s suggestion. “I think I’m following you for the basic principle, but you lost me on heating the water. I thought you said the camping shower was heated by solar.”

  “It is, but I’m just trying to figure out the mechanics of using the gravity-fed water delivery system for now. Heating the water is the smaller issue.”

  Since he was responsible for collecting firewood, Danny was stuck on heating the water with the sun. “But, the camping showers, they heat up in the sun because they’re black. So all we have to do is pump the water for the showers in the morning and let it sit in a black container all day. We could even set it up on the roof so it never gets hit by the shade. We could use buckets, milk jugs, whatever, as long as we can paint them black.”

  “Yeah, that should work.”

  Danny continued pondering possible solutions. “So I’m trying to envision the camping shower. Does it look like the water bladders that Nick and Cami have for their backpacks?”

  Alisa looked confused. “What water bladders?”

  “I guess they’re what the military uses instead of canteens. It’s like a heavy-duty plastic bag with a drinking tube so the soldiers can just bite down on the end and suck whenever they want a drink.”

  She ripped the towel off her shoulder and popped it again, this time barely grazing his leg. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about!”

  “Give me that!” Danny grabbed the towel and took it out of her hands. “Enough with the towel popping!”

  “You’re no fun. I’m going to go ask Cami if I can use one of her water thingies to make a shower.”

  Danny twirled the towel into a tight coil and popped the back of Alisa’s leg as she was heading for the door.

  “Ouch! Danny! I didn’t pop you that hard!”

  “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.” He grinned mischievously.

  Suddenly, the radio came to life. “This is your eight o’clock nightly update from Pickens Radio. I’m Ranger Dave.”

  Danny dropped the towel and turned to walk slowly toward the radio. Alisa froze, motionless in her tracks.

  The report continued. “We don’t have a lot of new reports for this evening. I did finally hear from another ham operator who has a system that survived the blast, so at least I know I’m not just talking to myself, so a big shout-out to K4CDM if you’re listening. K4CDM is dealing with the same things the rest of us have to face. No stores, no emergency services, and very little information.

  “Our community here, just outside of Pickens, South Carolina, is coming together well to provide for security, which is becoming an increasing problem. As resources in nearby Greenville are drying up, desperate people who have managed to stay alive this long are pouring into the countryside in search of supplies. Most folks around here are not in much of a position to help more than perhaps a meal or two, and many of the desperate refugees are turning aggressive. Many others were already in the aggressive stage when they left the city. Unfortunately, they make up a large portion of the survivors.

  “It’s been exactly five weeks today since the EMP. If you’re still alive at this point, you fall into one of three categories. Either you were prepared for such an event, you weren’t prepared but knew someone who was prepared enough to be able to share, or you weren’t prepared but you’ve taken what you needed by force. Everybody else is either dead or will be soon.

  “If you fall into the first two categories, be aware, the last category thrives in this environment, so you need to get organized and do whatever is necessary to protect your family. And make your mind up now. Hesitation might cost you your life.

  “On to the next topic. I have not been able to pick any civilian
radio signals from anywhere around the world. That fact convinces me that this was a worldwide event, most likely military in nature. The few military signals that I have intercepted have all used heavy encryption, which tells me very little other than the fact that they are active.

  “Once again, if anyone is out there who has the ability to transmit, please call in on this frequency and let me know that you are out there. Every little piece of information will help us put together a better picture of what is going on around the country and around the world.

  “Those of you who are able to listen but not transmit, God bless, stay safe, and take care of each other. Until tomorrow, this is Ranger Dave with Pickens Radio signing off.”

  Danny picked the radio up and looked at it as if it might spring back to life as it just had. He turned to look at Alisa, who stood motionless in their bedroom doorway.

  She put her hand over her mouth. “We’re not alone. I can’t believe how good it feels just to hear someone else’s voice coming over a radio.”

  Danny put his shoes on. “I’m going with you.”

  “Where?”

  “To the RV. Aren’t you going to ask Cami for the water bladder from her backpack, for your shower invention?”

  “I completely forgot. I was so wrapped up in the news broadcast.” Alisa picked the towel up off the floor and hung it on the door knob.

  Danny pushed in the telescoping antenna of the shortwave radio and carried it with him as he led the way downstairs and to the RV. Alisa followed close behind.

  When they arrived at the RV, Danny knocked on the door.

  Cami answered the door in her sweat suit. “Hey, come in. I thought you guys would be asleep by now after planting corn all day.”

  “Did we wake you?” Danny walked up the stairs into the RV.

  “No. Nick just got in from getting his bath. It’s such a long process, and only one person at a time can get their bath. Whoever ends up last in line could be waiting for hours.”

  Alisa smiled. “I might have a solution for that, but Danny has something important to tell you first.”