by Eric Vall
“Yeah,” Bailey added. “Is Rolly okay?”
“Rolly’s fine,” I said, “but Betty says the water pressure is low, we need to go walk the line and check it out.”
“Shit,” Paige breathed. “You think there’s a hole?”
“That’s the only thing I can think of,” I said with a shake of my head. “But we’ll see. Keep your weapons on you and stay behind me.”
“Alright,” Anna agreed. “Let’s go.”
I led the girls over to the faucet and began to follow the water line back into the woods. We’d only set it up earlier this year, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was only needed to work during summer and fall while we grew and harvested so it didn’t need to be. Still, it needed to work for the time being. A leak could be an easy fix depending on the size of it, but I was concerned that we might find multiple ones or that part of the hose could be ruined. I didn’t think that anybody had sabotaged us, but there were animals out in this area, and if we came face to face with another bear I wanted us to be prepared.
I heard the girls’ steps behind me as I made my way toward the stream where the water was fed from. I examined the line as we walked, but didn’t see any wet marks on the ground or any visible signs that there was a leak, which I wasn’t pleased with. A leak would be the smallest of our concerns. I wondered then if somehow the end of the hose had gotten taken out of the water. That could explain low pressure, but it would also more than likely mean that no water would be coming through.
I checked for signs that someone had been there, but I found none of those either, only a few deer prints on the trail, but nothing that looked like it would harm the hose itself. I kept my pistol down by my leg as we walked, but soon I could hear the sound of the stream, so I slowed down and edged my way toward it with the girls behind me.
Once the water was in sight, I holstered my weapon after a thorough look around that proved that we were alone.
“I didn’t see any signs of anybody,” Anna said as she came to stand beside me.
“Neither did I,” I agreed.
“And no holes in the line,” Tara added.
“Guys, look at the stream,” Bailey said, and she drew our attention to the water a few feet away.
Once I looked closely I could clearly see that the water line was much lower than it had been earlier in the year. Granted, water came down from the mountains in spring, and that would cause a larger rush, but even last summer it had not been as low as it was then.
The stream was probably five or six feet at the deepest point, and maybe eight feet across, but as I looked at the bank I could see that the water level was at least two feet low. There was a clear water line from where it had been where the dirt was slightly darker and some algae grew along the wall of the stream.
“Why is it so low?” Tara asked, and she crouched down next to the water.
“I don’t know,” I said with a shake of my head. “But that’s not good.”
“Has it fluctuated this much before?” Anna asked. “I don’t remember it ever being this low.”
“Bailey,” I said, “does the stream dry up on hot years?”
“I don’t know,” the blonde said, and she bit her bottom lip. “I always went home during the summer, but it was here during the school year at least.”
“It didn’t dry up last summer,” Anna pointed out.
“You’re right,” I agreed, though that consideration didn’t bring me any closer to answers as to if this was a usual occurrence or not.
“Maybe it only dries up on really hot years,” Paige suggested. “Last year wasn’t quite as hot as this year.”
“That’s true,” Tara said. “This year is already sweltering.”
The platinum blonde wasn’t wrong, we were all coated with a thin layer of sweat even though we were in the shade of the trees now. This year was certainly hotter than the last summer we’d been here, but if the stream did dry up in hot years then we were going to have to think of something to do, and fast. We couldn’t run out of water.
I remembered that first day with the girls and how I’d gone over the pillars of survival with them. Freshwater had been number one, and it still was, regardless of how many other comforts we were able to build or find. If we didn’t have fresh water, then we were virtually dead already.
“I’ll do some research and see what I can find out,” Paige said.
“Thank you,” I told her with a nod. If anybody could find some information, it would be Paige. We could ask some of the locals, but I wanted to make sure that for the moment this stayed fairly quiet. We didn’t want to panic anyone just yet.
“Why didn’t we notice this sooner?” Bailey asked as she crouched down next to Tara. “I’m sure this didn’t happen overnight.”
“No, it didn’t,” I agreed. “We haven’t been coming out here as much, though, the civilians do most of the morning chores now.”
“That’s true,” Anna said, and she let out a deep sigh. “I can’t exactly blame them for not noticing, either, we never told them to look out for it. They probably didn’t even realize it had gotten lower.”
“Even the people who were checking the trot lines?” Tara asked skeptically. “Somebody had to have noticed this.”
“Who checked the trot lines this morning?” I asked, and my eyes narrowed as I thought about who I’d seen check them recently.
“I think it was Donna and Jeff,” Anna said.
“That’s who I thought I remembered, too,” Paige confirmed.
“They’ve been checking them a lot recently, yeah?” I asked.
“Now that I think about it, yeah,” Anna said with a nod. “Everyone’s kind of claimed jobs that they like, and that’s been theirs.”
“That would make sense as to why they didn’t notice,” Paige sighed.
“What do you mean?” Tara asked. “They were out here every day, they totally should have noticed.”
“No, it’s the opposite,” the brunette said with a shake of her head. “It’s like if someone is gaining or losing weight. If you see that person every day then you probably won’t notice at all, but if you don’t see them for a month and then the next time you see them they’ve gained or lost twenty pounds, then you’re more likely to notice.”
“Right.” Bailey nodded. “You get used to seeing things every day, so you don’t pay as close of attention.”
“Twenty pounds is a lot to lose in a month,” Tara muttered. “I’d hope somebody would notice that shit.”
“That’s beside the point,” Anna said with an eye roll. “We should have everyone switch up their jobs more often. Doing the same thing each day is going to make people less likely to notice if something changes.”
“I think for the time being I’ll take over morning chores,” I said. “I want to keep an eye on this problem, but right now we have to figure out the larger issue.”
“What’s larger than this?” Tara asked with a gesture at the stream.
“Nothing,” I said. “That’s my point. If this stream does dry up then we’ll need a new water source immediately. This is where our water comes from, and if we don’t have fresh water then we’re going to have a huge problem on our hands.”
“Not only will we not be able to water the crops, but we’ll have to ration our own water,” Paige said.
“Not to mention the fact that running low on supplies can cause panic,” Anna added, and she looked at me with serious green eyes. “And we all know what panic can do.”
“You’re absolutely right,” I agreed. “So, for the time being, we’ll let everyone know that the pressure is low, but we’ll tell them that we have everything under control. We don’t want anyone to feel like we’re in trouble.”
“What about Otter Creek?” Paige asked.
“What about it?” Tara countered.
“It’s close to campus,” Bailey explained. “Good idea, Paige. We should check it out.”
“We might have to rerun the lines,” I said. �
��But it’ll be worth it to make sure we have plenty of water. Good thinking, Paige.”
“Thanks,” the brunette said with a proud smile.
“Let’s head back to the farm,” I instructed. “We’ll grab the truck and make a quick trip to campus to check out the creek.”
The girls all nodded, and we started the trek back to the farm. It was about a mile away, but we’d gotten so used to walking that it usually only took between ten and twenty minutes depending on our speed. The girls were obviously eager to get back to the farm, though, because they took quick steps through the woods, set on getting the situation figured out.
I didn’t blame them, I was concerned myself. Even if we could move the lines down to Otter Creek that would be at least a day’s work, if not more, and we would most likely need more line in order to hook it up to the farm property. It didn’t help either that the farther away from the water supply the more likely you’d have issues with the water line. More line meant more opportunities for malfunction, that was just basic math, and unfortunately, it looked like that was where we were at.
I didn’t even want to think about the winter time and what we’d need to do then. If the stream was back come fall then we’d be able to use the same line this winter that we used last winter, which was good because that line was already underground. But if not we’d have to dig a whole new trench, and that was some damn hard work I didn’t want to put my people through again unless I had to.
We reached the farm fairly quickly, and Betty and Rolly stood at the tree line and waited for us.
“How does it look?” the older woman asked, her dark eyebrows pinched together in concern.
I looked around first, but the civilians were on the porch or in the shade of the house getting a good drink of water, so I figured it was safe to speak to Rolly and Betty freely.
“It’s not great,” I sighed.
“Is there a leak?” Rolly asked.
“Not exactly,” Bailey said, and she bit her bottom lip.
“What’s going on?” Betty asked, and her voice was slightly panicked.
“The water is low,” I informed her. “We can’t be sure why at the moment, but it’s not a problem with the line.”
“Is the stream drying up?” Rolly asked.
“We aren’t sure,” Paige said. “I’m going to do some research on it, but if either of you knows if it has dried up before that would be helpful.”
“I’m afraid I can’t say,” Betty said with a shake of her head. “I haven’t been in these woods much over the years. Jenny and Dan would know better than I would.”
“I can’t say, either,” Rolly sighed. “I focused on the school, didn’t get out in the woods much.”
“It’s alright,” I told the two of them, then I turned my attention to Betty. “Ask Dan and Jenny, but be discreet. We don’t want to cause a panic.”
“Of course,” the old woman agreed, and she put her hands on her hips and shook her head back and forth.
“We’re going to figure this out,” I told her with a smile as I put my hand on her shoulder.
“Yeah,” Bailey added. “We’re going to run to campus and check on the creek down there.”
“Oh, good idea,” Betty said.
“It shouldn’t take long,” I told her. “Just keep everyone on track until we get back, and don’t act like anything is wrong. We need to figure out a plan before we come to everyone.”
“We can handle it,” Rolly assured me.
“I know you can,” I told him with a clap on the shoulder, then I led the girls over to the truck and we all piled in.
I waved out the window to the civilians as we made our way back down the driveway. I made sure to take it slow since the driveway was dirt and I didn’t want any dust flying up behind us, but all I wanted to do was to take off like a bat out of hell and get back to the creek near our home.
“Do we have enough material to run another line if we need to?” Tara asked as we drove.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I don’t think so. I think we’ll have to go on another run.”
“Okay,” my girlfriend agreed, and she put her foot up on the dashboard.
I didn’t want to run a new line either, but if it was the only way to get things done here, then that was what we’d have to do.
The sun beat down on us as we made the quick drive back toward campus, and I wiped the sweat from my brow just as I turned down our new driveway and parked the military truck.
We all got out and headed down toward where we’d blown the bridge during the wintertime. Our boat was parked there, along with Henry’s, but as I looked at the water it was clear that it was low as well.
“Shit,” I murmured as I stared at the creek. It was the same as the stream, there was a clear line to indicate where the water had been before, and where it was now. It was down at least three feet, and though Otter Creek was larger than the little stream behind campus, there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t dry up this year, too.
“How did we not notice this, either?” Tara asked. “I know we don’t see this every day, but still.”
“That’s true,” Paige sighed. “We haven’t been down here in a few days at least, but I’m not sure how we missed this one.”
“Nobody was looking for it,” Anna said. “We’ve never had a problem with the water before, so why would we check it as if we had?”
“Anna’s right,” I agreed. “There’s no sense in beating ourselves up over this, it’s a new problem for us to solve and we’ll treat it as such.”
“What are we going to do?” Bailey asked. “Even if we ran a line down here, this is obviously low, too.”
“Paige, are there any other nearby sources of water?” Anna asked.
“Not really,” the brunette said with a shake of her head. “These were definitely the closest to us.”
“The further away our water supply, the more issues we could have with the line,” I explained. “And if anybody is near that supply then we could also have the issue of someone following it back to us.”
“There really isn’t anywhere else nearby that we could hook up to anyway,” Paige said. “I’ll check my maps again, but I’m confident that these were our best two options.”
“I mean, there’s still water here, though,” Tara said with a shrug. “We could use it while it’s here, right?”
“We could,” I agreed. “But it’d be closer to run a line from here to campus, not to Betty’s place, and right now the creek has more water than the stream.”
“So if we hooked this up to campus and tried to keep using the stream for the farm then the stream would run out first,” Paige said with a nod.
“Right,” I agreed.
“We could haul the water,” Anna suggested with a quick raise of her shoulders.
“Hm,” I said, and I thought for a moment. If we hauled water from the creek to the farm then we could continue to use the water from the stream on campus, though we’d still need to be careful with our consumption. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“What about the fuel that would take?” Paige pointed out.
“Fuck, that’s a good point,” Anna sighed. “We’d have to haul water every day, that would definitely add up.”
“We’d probably need more than one haul per day,” I agreed.
“That’s just going to add up even quicker,” the redhead said.
“We should go talk to Renee,” Paige suggested.
“We could possibly make some sort of trade for more fuel if we’re going to need to haul water,” I said.
“What do we have to trade right now, though?” Anna asked. “Our crop is a few months out, and we’re already planning on trading some with them then.”
“Renee’s super nice,” Tara said. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”
“I’m inclined to agree with Tara,” I said. “I think we can figure out something as far as that’s concerned.”
“She does seem to really li
ke us,” Anna chuckled.
“That’s an understatement,” Paige laughed.
“Wouldn’t you like the people who overthrew the evil dictator?” Tara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re giving yourself a lot of credit there,” Anna said. “I don’t like it, but you kinda deserve it.”
“Duh,” Tara said with an eye roll. “I stabbed him in the dick. I def deserve, like, all the credit.”
“I’d say part of the credit,” the redhead corrected.
“Whatev,” the platinum blonde scoffed.
“Look at Tav’s face!” Anna exclaimed with a laugh.
Tara looked over at me and my still bruised face, and I raised an eyebrow at her. She had done a great job on our mission, but Anna was right, I think I deserved a bit of the credit.
“Eh, I’ll give you that,” Tara chuckled. “Tav did quite a bit of work.”
“Thank you for your generosity,” I said dryly, and all the girls began to giggle.
I led the girls back to the truck then, and once we were in, I realized once more just how hot it was outside. The inside of the military truck was hot as hell, and I immediately rolled down the window to allow some cool air in, but it didn’t help much. The steering wheel was blazing hot under my hands, and as soon as my back made contact with the seat I began to sweat even more so that when I leaned forward I could feel my shirt peel away from the seat.
Luckily, the drive to Betty’s house was quick, and we pulled into the driveway and made our way up until we found everyone still gathered around the old farmhouse.
Once we parked, I hopped out and found Betty and Rolly.
“How did it look?” Rolly asked.
“It’s low as well,” I informed him.
“Shit,” he breathed. “Nobody was paying attention to the water level.”
“I know,” I said with a shake of my head. “We didn’t know we needed to.”
“I spoke with Jenny and Dan,” Betty told me.
“What did they say about the stream?” Paige asked.
“They do seem to recall it drying up a couple of times,” the old woman said. “But they said that was years ago when they were still quite small.”
“I wonder how hot it was during those summers,” Bailey mused.
