2nd Earth: Shortfall (15 page)

16

The days go by as usual. We work during the day and usually go to bed fairly early, because we do work pretty hard, most of the time. The electric heaters are working well in the houses we put them in, so we decide to get more since electricity is coming from the wind and is not something that we are using up. We are sitting at the table eating breakfast one Friday morning, when I get the idea in my mind that I have to go to a town or small city that is south east of us that we have never been to. I have no idea why, but I feel that I have to go there today. Dayna and Rod feel like going for a ride, so we head out for our destination not knowing exactly why. They both tell me while we are driving that they have had times where something tells them they have to do something specific. Rod says that the day they met us is one of the times he listened to that voice, or whatever we want to call it, and he hasn’t regretted it for a moment since.

According to the map and road signs, that are still standing, we are just about five miles out of the city when we see a young man walking toward us on the side of the road. As we get closer, we can see that he is wearing a military uniform, a modern military uniform and is carrying a duffle bag. We pull up and ask him if the town we are looking for is back behind him. He tells us he is sorry, but he has no idea, he has been walking since sunup, but has no idea where he is, or what he is doing here. He says he is not even totally sure if he is even awake and if this is all a bad dream. I smile and he asks if I think it is funny. I assure him I don’t, and ask him what unit he is with, I can see he is in the army by the uniform he is wearing. He tells me and I ask him if he was riding on a train or subway recently and fell asleep.

He asks how I could know that, he says he was home on leave, having just returned from a war zone and he was going home to see some friends for a couple weeks. Dayna asks about his family and he says he doesn’t really have one. He was adopted and both adopted parents died in a car accident about a year ago. I ask him if he knows what the date is, he says when he got on the train it was one-fifteen a.m. on the twentieth of January, 2010. Now he isn’t even sure that he is on the same planet. I ask him if he would like a ride, he says why not, one destination is as good as the next, and if he doesn’t have to walk, so much the better. Besides he has been walking for over four hours and we are the first live people he has seen. We continue into town just to see what it looks like. We find several stores including a restaurant supply store. When we go inside, I know I have to have some of the cooking stuff in this store. There are several very large deep fryers and some very nice large gas grills like restaurants use.

We get a couple of each loaded on the truck and I find a large meat grinder that is about twice the size of the one we have at the farm. The soldier asks how we are going to pay for all this stuff. I tell him if he can find someone to pay, I will be happy to pay them. He looks around and says that I have him there. In that case, he wants to stop at a store that has clothing in it. While he is doing that we visit the bank and get as much of the silver money as we can. He comes out wearing some new jeans and a flannel shirt and has a nice fleece jacket and a wool stocking hat and some gloves. His duffel bag is bulging as well so he found some clothes to wear anyway. We invite him to come home with us, and he says he has nowhere else to be for a couple hundred years, so he may as well.

On the way home I tell him about Tim and I and how we came to be here. He is not as surprised as I thought he would be. His story is very similar to ours, except the location. The more we talk and the more I find out about his experience in the real world so to speak, the more I am convinced that he may have been sent here to help us. I know that sounds crazy, but Dayna and I along with Robin and Melissa have talked about this a lot. We feel that Tim and I were sent here by some higher power, we believe in a Heavenly Father, to help as many people as possible get the world back on the right track. There is no way to know for sure, but if you believe in the Bible, all things must have order and discipline to survive. We are also commanded to help each other and to live in harmony with one another. That’s the way we are trying to pattern our family and our neighbors are doing the same. The people that we talk to on the short wave radio are doing that as well. As I said there is no way to know for sure, but we are going forward planning to live as close to the teachings of the Bible as we can.

When we get to the farm he is impressed with what we have done to clean it up, and to make it pretty up to date, considering what we have had to work with. When we get to our house and the children come up and call me daddy he looks surprised. He asks me how long we have been here, he can see that Teddy is around ten and Kathy is eight. We explain that the children barely knew their fathers if they did at all. It is not uncommon for men to disappear in the big cities for a variety of reasons that we can think of, and there are probably some that we don’t have any idea about. For all we know, they may make the trip the other way than the way we came in, only going out. He has a lot of experience with windmills, and with propane, and natural gas. He worked for a company when he was a civilian that set up windmills and did drilling for gas.

In the military his job was with the Army Corps of Engineers going into areas and doing basically what he did as a civilian. After an excellent hamburger on a home baked roll we take a walk around the farm to talk about some changes that may help us. He says we are doing very well for not really knowing any more than we have read in books. He does recommend that we get as many repair parts for the windmills as we can just in case and he can even help us know which ones will wear out the fastest.               I explain my fears about depending on propane and then running out a couple years down the road. He says that sounds like a valid concern to him, I also tell him about the gas well that we found over by the pond. That peaks his interest and he wants to take a look at it as soon as we can.

That’s all I need to know to take him for a walk to the pond. When we get there he is familiar with the pumping equipment because he is telling me all about it. He says this one obviously stopped because there was no reason to keep pumping gas to where it is supposed to. I ask him if there is any way to find out if the well is still any good. “If it is can we get the well working again, and if that is all possible, is the gas something we can use?” He smiles at me and says “unfortunately not” to all my questions. Natural Gas and propane are often found in the same deposit in the ground. Actually, propane has to be refined out of natural gas and even oil deposits. We would need a very sophisticated refinery to be able to use the gas in that hole. The good thing is, if society ever reaches that stage again, we are ready for it.

It is late afternoon, and he is pretty tired, so we will go into town tomorrow to see if we can find the parts we should have on hand for the windmills. He gets to meet the rest of the family and our neighbors at supper. We have a special supper in the meeting building so everyone can meet him at once. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that his name is Ken. It is decided that he will stay with Billy and Ramona, at least for now, they have a couple extra bedrooms plus anybody that would try anything with Billy around, would have to be crazy. In the morning he wants to talk about the windmills we are using now. Tim and Tommy explain to Ken why they have done things the way they have, the book we have tells us too. Ken agrees with it pretty much, but says the job of switching some of the houses over to the new windmills could be done easier if we do it another way.

Don’t ask me what he said, because I lost the conversation when he said windmill. Tim and Tommy seem to know what he is talking about though, so we decide to go into town to get the stuff we will need to make the changes. On the way in he talks Tim and Tommy into putting up another windmill to run the new building and to power the electricity we will need in the greenhouse. I stayed home so that someone would be around to watch over the family. When they get back I am happy to quit painting bedrooms and help with the windmills. Tim and Tommy watch him closely as does Ryan and Roy who came over from our neighbor’s farm to see what we are doing different. Ken is going to go over there after we are done to look at their setup and make any suggestions that may help them.

We no sooner get the windmills switched over then Jenny, Samantha, and Jessica come looking for Frank, because the incubator that they have been using to hatch the baby chicks is not working right. Ken knows something about incubators so we go to take a look at it. Come to find out all it needs is reset because it is on a line that is connected to one of the circuits that was switched over. The guys say they would have waited, or at least warned everyone, if they had realized it. Ken and Frank show Jenny, Samantha, and Jessica some things the books didn’t mention that help them feel more comfortable using the incubator. Tomorrow we are going to enlarge the chicken coop inside the barn so that when the chicks are big enough, they can stay in the barn during the cold weather. Thanks to the diligent efforts of Jenny, Samantha, and Jessica we now have a very nice flock of chickens that allows us to have eggs a couple days a week for breakfast and still continue to increase the flock.

The evening goes by as usual. We all enjoy the routine and the serenity that we have here compared with the city. Dayna has some good news tonight, she has been talking with Robin, Melissa, and some of the other women who have had children, and they all think she is pregnant. The twins ask her if that means she is going to have puppies like Princess, that’s what they call the mommy dog. We explain that she is going to have a little baby just like little Adam and Sara and the other newborns we have had join our family. They get excited and ask if they can play with the baby and hold it sometimes. They get even more excited when Dayna tells them it will be their little brother or sister.

In the morning Ken goes over to the neighbor’s farm with Tim and says that their windmills are functioning great and says they shouldn’t need to add anymore unless they decide to build more like we have. They are planning to do pretty much everything we have done, as far as adding a greenhouse and the large building. We know where there is another greenhouse so we make plans to help them get that, and we saw another large metal building a few miles past the small town we always go to. We lend them several of our young men to help with the projects. It is when I return from working at our neighbor’s farm one evening that we realize one of the greatest fears a parent can have.

It is late afternoon when I get home and go into the house where I am looking forward to the warmth and great atmosphere that always abides with us here. As soon as I walk into the house I know something is drastically wrong, because there is no one to meet me like usual. In fact the house has no sound, which is totally different with five children living here. I head back out to see if I can find someone who knows what is going on. I hope with everything I have that everyone is in the meeting building, but the feeling I have in the pit of my stomach tells me I am going to be disappointed. As soon as I step on the porch I see Dayna and Melissa running toward me, and they don’t look happy. They have been crying and probably still are. They ask me if I have seen Tina and Tammy this afternoon.

“Jon, please tell us that you took the twins with you this afternoon. The last time anyone remembers seeing them is at lunch time when they were following Jenny, Samantha, and Rachel to the chicken coop. We were hoping maybe you came home and took them with you.”

Now I know why I have this feeling of dread, in this weather those two four year olds can’t last very long in the woods or anywhere outside. I tell them I haven’t seen them and they start crying more now. Dan, Don, and Andrew come running to tell us they saw the girls a couple hours ago walking toward the meat barn following Zeus, that’s what they named their puppy. Great, that pup is not afraid of anything and those two will follow him anywhere. The barn is a good place to start so we run there to see if there is any sign of them. It snowed this afternoon and we can still see the little footprints in the snow leading to the barn and then towards the woods behind the barn. Sure enough they are following the puppy or walking with him, his prints are clear as well.

Princess comes running from the area of the houses and acts like she wants me to follow her. I take her head in my hands and tell her to find the twins and Zeus. She seems to understand what I am saying, because she takes off running in the direction the tracks are going. The guys ask if they can go with us, I’m not about to turn down help at a time like this. It’s a good thing Princess slowed down for us to catch up with her or we would have lost her in the darkening woods. Poor Melissa is almost hysterical. I’m not far from that myself. My biggest fear is that we will find those two precious babies lying dead somewhere in the snow. Dayna keeps assuring Melissa that everything will be okay. Melissa keeps saying it’s all her fault, she thought the girls went out with Jenny and the others so she didn’t worry.

“Jenny, Samantha, and Rachel are scared to death, they say it’s all their fault and will never forgive themselves for not making sure the twins were home safely if anything happens to them.”

I tell Dan that nothing bad has happened, we will find them any minute now, and everything will be fine. Dayna whispers in my ear asking if I really believe that.

“Yes I do, I have to. The alternative is not something that I will be able to live with.”

Melissa says she refuses to believe that her babies won’t be home tonight. Just as she says that, Princess, who has been walking just ahead of us, starts barking and runs ahead as fast as she can run. We start after her and hear the girl’s voices laughing and the puppies high pitched barking. We run as fast as we can and in about a hundred yards we see the girls petting Princess and laughing. They seem to be talking to someone, when we get to them Melissa grabs Tina and Dayna grabs Tammy. They are hugging them, crying, and laughing all at the same time. Finally we can ask the girls what they are doing out here in the woods alone.