AFTER THE DUST SETTLED (Countdown to Armageddon Book 2) Read online

  “The battery, of course, was fried. But I dug through my junk shed and found an old dry battery, still in the box, that had been there for several years.”

  Linda was puzzled.

  “What do you mean, a ‘dry battery?’”

  “Well, these days, all car batteries are maintenance free. They’re sealed at the manufacturing plant. You couldn’t service them even if you tried, because you can’t get into them.

  “But that wasn’t always the case. Fifteen, twenty years ago, they still made batteries for cars that had removable caps on them. You took the caps off periodically and added water to them to extend their life. You had to service them just like you changed your oil and tuned your car, and all the drivers back then knew how to do it.”

  Scott offered, “I remember those days. Linda, you probably don’t remember the batteries he’s talking about because I always checked your batteries for you. But I remember them well.”

  Tom went on.

  “Anyway, this battery was still in the box. And it was still dry. Never had acid in it. And I guess that’s what saved it from being fried. Because once I filled it with acid, I ran a long screwdriver blade across both terminals and it sparked like a son of a bitch.”

  He remembered that Sara and Zachary were sitting there at the table and said, “Oh, excuse me. I guess words like that just spill outa me sometimes.”

  Joyce laughed.

  “Shoot, don’t worry about that, Tom. They hear much worse than that from Scott.”

  “Anyway, I got acid for the new battery by busting open the old battery. It was fried, but the acid inside was still good.

  “And after I replaced the battery, solenoid and ignition switch, I said a little prayer, crossed my fingers, and turned the key. And it cranked right up.”

  “And you think you can do that with other vehicles too?”

  “Not all cars, maybe. But some of the older ones. The newer cars have computer chips and electronic ignitions that would have to be replaced as well. And they’re not so interchangeable as old fashioned ignition switches on older cars and tractors. But I’ll bet that any car made in the eighties or before can get going again with a little bit of work.”

  “But the battery… the one you had in your shed. Do they even make batteries like that anymore?”

  “Oh, sure. That’s why Bonnie and I are headed to the auto parts store. They don’t make them for cars anymore, but they still make them for tractors and farm equipment. And since we’re in a rural area, that store sells tractor and harvester parts as well as for cars. They also have old fashioned ignition switches. So Bonnie and I are taking a road trip.

  “But the store won’t be open without power.”

  “I already thought of that. I have a small crowbar in my pack. I’ll pry open the back door and get what I need. I’ll leave some cash on the counter for whatever parts I take, and a little extra for the damage to their door. Just in case anybody ever comes back. Which is probably doubtful.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing. So you’re saying that any old car can be repaired so that it’ll work?”

  “Yes, I think so, as long as there’s enough old fashioned batteries around. Any battery with acid inside of it was probably ruined. Only the dry ones should be okay.

  “And hell, for that matter – pardon me, kids… For that matter even never cars should be okay, provided they replace the electronic ignitions, main computers and fuse boxes. And all the fuses too. But I’d be willing to bet those parts are hard to come by. I don’t think they burn out very often, and even dealers are only likely to have a few on hand.”

  Linda took his hand.

  “Tom, it’s not safe out there anymore. We heard a lot of gunshots before we left the city. And saw a lot of fires in the distance. Won’t you reconsider coming in here with us?”

  “Thanks, but I’ve become something of a loner since the wife died many years ago. I’m set in my ways. I would like to come and visit you sometimes. But I think I’d do better on my own. At least unless things start getting really bad out there. I grew up a cowboy. I can rough it if I need to. And I can live off the land.

  He smiled.

  “If I need to. I may not need to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “While Bonnie and I were riding on Highway 83, we came across two Walmart trucks. Parked on the side of the road, a hundred feet apart. They must have gotten off the I-10 and were heading toward San Angelo to deliver to the Walmarts there when their engines died.”

  “I plan to make a few trips there the next few days to gather provisions. I’ve never stolen anything in my life, and I won’t this time either. I’ve got money in the bank I’ll probably never use now. I’ll write a check and leave it on the steering wheel. If they can figure out how to cash it, they’re welcome to it.”

  Scott turned to Zachary.

  “Zach, go upstairs and ask Jordan if it’s clear out front. If it is, open the gate to the compound and drive one of the Gators out there. The keys are in them.”

  Zach didn’t have to be told twice. He seldom got a chance to drive the Gators. To him, they were like go-karts on steroids.

  “Tom, I want you to tie Bonnie to the back of the Gator and take it back to your place. We’ve got two others to use for chores. We can spare one. It’s got a good sized bed on the back and it’ll be a lot easier for you to gather your provisions from the trucks.”

  “Thank you, Scott. I wasn’t looking forward to hauling that stuff back by horseback, a couple of boxes at a time.”

  “I’m also going to give you a walkie talkie and some batteries to take with you. And some flashlight batteries. You’ll need a working flashlight at the parts store. They’re all rechargeable, and we’ll have the ability to recharge them when they go dead. So just bring them back here and swap them out when they get weak.”

  “What’s the walkie talkie for?”

  “Leave it on channel five. We’ll have another one on our security console, and we’ll leave it on twenty four seven. There will always be somebody sitting there, so anytime you want to come over and visit, just let us know ahead of time.

  “After I get all the security cameras set up, I’m going to block the end of our drive with dead mesquite trees. They’re thorny enough to keep people out. Better than concertina wire, in my opinion. The rest of the property is already lined with them. Once I block the drive, you won’t be able to get in unless we know you’re coming and use the tractor to drag the trees out of the way for you.”

  Linda tried one last time to talk him into staying.

  “Please, Tom. You may be stubborn and set in your ways, but you know there’s strength in numbers, and you’d be safer here. Heck, we all would be, with an extra man around to provide security and such.”

  He softened the resolve on his face, but he still didn’t bend.

  “I’m sorry, little lady, but I’ll take a pass. At least for now.”

  She went on.

  “And besides, it’s not fair for us who care about you to have to worry about you all the time.”

  Linda and Tom had gone out dancing a few times, and had even been intimate. But it was the first time that Linda had hinted she might be emotionally attached to him.

  A weaker man might have given in. But Tom Haskins was strong as a bull, and had a will to match.

  “Maybe if things get ugly. But not now.”

  -6-

  Jordan was a big help when setting up the electrical system. It reminded Scott that his son was almost a man now.

  Scott climbed to the top of the wind turbine to check out the generator. Although this wasn’t one of the full sized turbines used to generate power for cities, it was still pretty tall. And as he looked down seventy feet below into the compound, it struck him that this would be a great place for a sniper to perch and take pot shots at him and his family if he ever made it into the compound.

  He made a mental note to take a blow torch and cut the rungs off the ladder for the fi
rst twelve feet after he finished bringing the turbine back to life. He could always bring a ladder from his shed to service the tower after that.

  But chances were, any marauder happening by who wished to do them harm wouldn’t have a ladder in his back pocket.

  The wind was barely blowing when Scott climbed the tower, so he had no problem braking the propellers. It was unnerving enough being that high, for a man who wasn’t particularly fond of heights. But the rotating props made the whole tower sway, and that made it ten times worse.

  As for the generator, it wasn’t producing power, even before he’d stopped the props. So it obviously suffered some damage.

  Scott looked at it, and didn’t see anything visible.

  He surmised that the wiring on the inside of the generator was fried. That wasn’t something he could repair seventy feet off the ground. And he wouldn’t need to. He had a backup generator in the Faraday cage to replace it.

  Now his biggest problem was getting the generator down, and the replacement up. They weighed just over two hundred pounds.

  He’d run a length of rope over the housing above the generator and tied it to tie-down rings on the generator itself. The other end of the rope was three hundred feet away, tied to the front end of his Bobcat. And behind the wheel of the Bobcat, with a walkie talkie in hand, was Jordan, awaiting further instructions.

  They’d used old fashioned hemp rope, because it tended to stretch less than nylon. And stretchy rope in this case would be a very bad thing.

  The plan was simple. The rope that Scott ran over the housing and tied onto the generator would keep it from falling when he removed the bolts holding it in place.

  Once the bolts were out, he’d give Jordan the go ahead to drive the Bobcat slowly toward the tower. As he drew closer to the tower, the weight of the generator would lower it to the ground.

  Scott had gotten the idea from the days he went hunting with his dad when he was a kid. Sometimes when the deer they shot was too big to manhandle, his dad would use a rope around a nearby tree branch to heft the carcass across their fender in a similar manner.

  As the generator was lowered, Scott climbed down the tower and together, he and Jordan untied the old generator and then retied the rope to the new one.

  Then Jordan was back in the Bobcat, slowly backing up to his original position, while his father was on his way back up the ladder.

  Scott had to wrestle with the swinging beast to get the bolts to line up. But once he got the first bolt in place, the rest were easy.

  And once most of the bolts were in, he called Jordan on the walkie.

  “Okay, son, I’ve got it from here. You can go install those cameras now.”

  Jordan enjoyed working with his father on these kinds of projects. Scott had never had any formal training on electrical systems, plumbing, carpentry, or any of a dozen other talents that come in handy to keep things running. Scott had learned what he knew mostly by watching his own father as he grew.

  And his own sons would learn the same way. Scott knew that Jordan was capable of installing the new video cameras without supervision. Scott would go behind him to check his work, of course. But he didn’t expect to find any errors.

  Jordan was only doing the cameras on the house and the perimeter fence. There were two other cameras that needed to be installed, on the two hundred foot tall tower just east of the property. It was one of the line towers they’d followed up from San Antonio when they’d escaped from the city. It was strewn with eight high tension electrical wires, each one two inches thick. But they no longer carried electricity.

  After the cameras were installed on the outside of the house, Scott and Jordan would go off property together to install the tower cameras. It was just safer to use the buddy system any time they were away from the protection of the compound.

  Scott finished the last bolt. The generator was in place.

  He looked over his shoulder and inspected the ham radio antenna that he’d attached to the turbine the previous spring. In the days ahead, he’d dig out the ham radio from his Faraday barn and use it to contact other survivalists around the world.

  Scott knew there were others out there like him. Others who saw something ugly on the horizon. And who took steps to protect their electronics so that they could maintain more or less a normal lifestyle after the catastrophe hit.

  He hoped there were enough of them out there to set up a network to pass news back and forth. The ham radio, he strongly suspected, would be their only link to the outside world.

  -7-

  Scott checked the last of the cameras Jordan had installed on the outside of the house. They weren’t complicated. The cameras were the same brand and model as the ones he took off. It was just a matter of connecting the same colored wires together and tying off the excess. A no-brainer, really.

  But Scott was happy to see that there was nothing haphazard about the job Jordan did. He very carefully trimmed the wire ends so that there was no copper exposed. He made sure the electrical caps were securely in place. And he tied off and tucked the excess wiring away loosely, so it wouldn’t be pinched and cause a short.

  “What are we going to do with the old ones, Dad? Are we going to throw them away?”

  “No, we’ll put them in the workshop for now. Whenever we get some free time, we’ll take a look at them. If we can repair any of them, we’ll save them as backups in case any of the new ones ever go bad. Are you ready to go out there in the big bad world and hang the tower?”

  “Sure.”

  “Okay, why don’t you go inside. Get an AR and a couple of magazines. Bring one of the handguns too. They’re already on web belts with extra mags.”

  “Okay, but do you really think we’ll need weapons?”

  “No. I don’t think anyone will start working their way north out of the city until the food runs out down there and they really start getting desperate. And then when they do evacuate, they’ll be on foot, and it’ll take them several days to get here. Actually, I’m hoping that they all find places to relocate to along the way, long before they get here.

  “I just want to be safe, that’s all. Since we have the weapons anyway, we might as well make use of them. Just in case I’m wrong, and there’s already somebody out there.”

  The pair loaded a tool bag, the two camera kits, a cutting torch and acetylene tank, and the AR-15 rifle onto the back of a Gator and headed out the gate of the compound. Zachary locked them out as they left, and was given specific instructions not to let them back in unless the lookout verified there was no one in the area.

  Jordan drove the Gator to the end of the long drive and turned right on the dirt road that fronted their property. It was actually a county road, but one which seldom got any maintenance. And now it never would again.

  They followed the county road until it dead ended at the power lines. And they drove under the nearest tower, a steel and iron behemoth that looked ten times taller now that they were directly beneath it.

  The tower had iron rungs welded eighteen inches apart, so that linemen could climb up to do maintenance.

  Scott donned a safety belt, removed the brace and solar kits from the camera boxes, and went up.

  Sixty feet above the ground he clipped onto the tower with a carabiner clip attached to his safety belt. If he happened to fall, he wouldn’t fall far.

  He spent the next forty five minutes installing two camera brackets and two small solar panels. Each of the solar panels had built in batteries to store the power for operating the cameras twenty four hours a day. The cameras themselves were wireless, and would send their signals to a receiver at the security console. When they were done, they would be able to see intruders coming, day or night, from half a mile away in either direction.

  Once finished, he climbed back down and took the AR-15 from his son.

  “Tag. You’re it,” he said.

  It was important to Scott that Jordan did an equal part of the work on this project. It would help bui
ld his self confidence, and give him some investment in the job.

  So Scott took over guard duty while Jordan carried the cameras up to install on the braces.

  Once done, Scott called Linda on the walkie.

  “Linda, this is Scott.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “We’re all hooked up, and the sun is shining. You should be getting a signal on cameras five and six.”

  “I’m looking at them now, Scott. The signals are clear, but camera five is aiming too much toward the ground.”

  “10-4. Do you copy that, Jordan?”

  “I copy.”

  Jordan adjusted the south-facing camera.

  “How’s that?”

  “Much better. Now we’ve got a clear view in both directions.”

  “10-4.”

  Jordan came down from the ladder and took off the safety belt. He handed it to Scott, but Scott waved it off.

  “Don’t you want to check my work, Dad?”

  “No. I’ve seen your work. You’re thorough and careful. I’ve got to start thinking of you as a man instead of a boy. And I’ve got to trust that you have my back, and the backs of the others. So, no. I’m not going to check your work.”

  A tear formed in Jordan’s eye. For the first time in his life, he felt on an even par with his father. It was a good feeling.

  “Ever used a cutting torch before?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Well, it’s about time you learned. Watch every move I make while I cut a few steps off this tower. Then you can do some too.”

  Scott climbed up the rungs until he was about fifteen feet from the ground. Then he opened the valve on the wand of his cutting torch to release the gas, and used a flint sparker to ignite it.

  The torch cut through the rung above him like a warm knife through butter.

  “Watch out!” he shouted just before the rung broke free and fell to the ground. Jordon stepped aside out of its way.

  Scott did the first few rungs, then let his son do the last few.