2nd Earth: Shortfall (9 page)

Tim and Billy take turns telling us all about it, they say it isn’t as exciting as our day, but it was fun for them. Tim says that when they got to town it was just like we described it to him. They went to the store and got as much food as they thought they could hold and still get the rest of the stuff they went to get. They went to the sporting goods store and got more of everything as we can see while we unload it all. Billy says they went to the bank to see if there were any silver coins and they found a lot more than they thought they would. They show us several strong boxes full of wrapped coins, mostly quarters, half dollars and silver dollars. There must be several thousand dollars here, not that money will do any of us any good, but someday it may have some value again. After leaving the bank they went to the farm store and started taking down the greenhouse. It came apart much easier than they thought it would, and they feel that if we go back tomorrow we can have the whole thing apart and bring the panels home to be reassembled.

It has been a full day for all of us, when we turn in for the night I can still see the faces of the men I killed today. I don’t regret doing it because they left us no choice. I keep thinking about what they would have done to Dayna and the other women and girls if we wouldn’t have been here. Tim, Billy, and I talked about it tonight, we were not going to anyway, but we decided to be sure we never leave the family without at least one of us here. The others proved that they are competent, but we may run into something far worse than today was.

9

In the morning we decide to go back into town to finish getting the greenhouse. I will stay home again while the others go simply because they have the experience of working on it yesterday. I will stay home and get the ground ready for where we want to put the greenhouse. As an afterthought just as the guys are leaving I ask them to see if they can find enough cement mix to make a floor for the greenhouse. That will also give us something to anchor it to as well. The guys got the measurements of the greenhouse yesterday so we lay out the ground then use the backhoe to dig a footprint deep enough to have a nice floor under it. We dig the outer edges deep enough to get below the frost line for stability. This is what I call a fun project because I have always enjoyed construction work. Around midday, Dayna comes running to get me because our final baby is ready to be born.

It is a baby girl and if complaining is any sign of being healthy then she is definitely healthy. Every time we deliver a baby Dayna asks me if I will get upset if she is pregnant. I always tell her the same thing, which is that I will be very happy when or if we have children. I have to admit that now I feel much better about it than I did when we were in the city. By the time I get back to work the guys are back from town and giving me the business about not getting the foundation ready to be poured. They are only kidding. It feels good to have great friends to do that with. They did find enough cement to pour two or three foundations, but only brought back enough for maybe one and a half. We look around for some gravel, but we don’t find any. We do however find quite a bit of old chicken wire fencing that we can put in the base to hold the concrete together better.

Speaking of chickens, one of the young ladies, who is about thirteen, comes over just before we are knocking off for today with a terrific find. She has a half a dozen eggs that she found in the woods not far from the house while she and her mom were watching some bees this afternoon. She says they found where several chickens have nests just inside the woods. They found them while they were trying to figure out if the bees they are seeing are honey bees or a different kind. She explains that she has been studying insects in one of the science books we brought with us. Anyway to get back to the bees, they followed some of the bees to where they were going and found a pile of what look like the hives that are shown in the book. There are hundreds if not thousands of bees in the hives so they are afraid to go any farther.

About the chickens, they didn’t seem to mind it too much when they were looking for eggs. They also say they found what looks like a chicken coop behind the house they live in. They are happy to show us where they found the chickens. They are right, there is a whole flock of them here in the woods and we wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot more of them around the woods. Next we go to where they say they think beehives are. I have seen beehives and these look just like most of the hives I have seen before. One of the guys from the house they live in, I really have to concentrate and learn everyone’s name, tells us that he is sure there is some bee keepers clothes in the closet in the room he is sleeping in with his brother. Since it is almost dark, we decide to wait until tomorrow. Then we will get together and figure out what to do about the bees and the chickens. Tim says he has a suggestion for some of the chickens right now. Barbequed chicken is one of his favorite foods.

The young lady, whose name by the way is Jenny, smacks Tim for saying he wants to kill her chickens. After all of us laugh we explain that we will probably use some of them for food, but not until they have multiplied some. That seems to make her a little happier, at least for now. On the way back to the house Billy and Tim tell us that they found at least three or four pallet loads of chicken feed at the farm store today when they went through the warehouse. The girls used the rest of the venison to make another stew today and it tastes as good as the one we had the other day. Dan and Don, I finally found out the young mans name who spoke up earlier. He is Dan and his brother is Don, have been practicing with the bow and arrows and want to know if they can go hunting to get more venison. Jessica, who is Jenny’s mom, says that they found what looks like a huge commercial freezer in the lower level of the barn that is off by itself behind the houses. That is where the chicken coop is as well, I really have to get around more. There is so much more to this place than I ever imagined. We decide we need to make a list of what we intend to accomplish every day and assign tasks to everyone.

Dan asks again about going hunting, I smile and tell them that we should check out the freezer first, and if that works we can use more meat because we won’t have to worry about keeping it from going to waste. They smile and say they can guarantee that good venison will not go to waste. Jenny tells them that it will go to their waists if they keep eating like they do. It’s fun to hear the good natured kidding from just about everyone. While we are talking about freezers, Tim says he saw some cans of Freon at the farm store today and some refrigerator repair kits. They caught his eye because only a couple of the refrigerators in the houses work at all and those are not working all that well. That is a good thing to know. We will definitely get some of those kits and try fixing the refrigerators and maybe even that large freezer.

We construct our list and everyone volunteers for the tasks at hand. If we all do what we are supposed to it will be a very productive day. In the morning we start mixing the concrete for the base while the others do their chores. I am so proud of our family because no one has ever tried to get out of work or complained about having to work. Naturally the new mothers have their hands full watching the babies, so they do what they can around the houses, without over doing it. With the early start we have the base poured and leveled by lunch time, so after lunch we head into town to pick up the rest of the greenhouse and a few other necessary items. Both large trucks are fully loaded when we get back, but we are happy to have what we got.

Jenny even beats Dayna to welcome me back. She is excited about everything they accomplished today and wants us to come with her so she can show us. She and her mom worked on the chicken coop most of the day and it definitely shows, especially since there are at least twenty-five chickens roosting on the box nests that they cleaned and filled with fresh grass, which is long enough to be straw. They seem quite contented and Jessie and Jenny look about as proud as they can be. They proudly announce that they found several more flocks in the woods and are working on getting more of them into the coop which is large enough to hold around a hundred chickens. When asked how they accomplished all this they said they used their heads. They found several bags of chicken feed in the barn, so after cleaning up the coop and replacing some broken boards and fencing, they sprinkled feed from the woods to the coop and let the chickens follow it right in. When they got inside they closed the door. None of the chickens seemed to mind, they just climbed into the nests and have been sitting like this for the past hour or so. They are planning to continue enticing the chickens in this way for as long as they can.

Not to be outdone, Dan and Don take us into the barn to show us several pails full of honey and honeycomb. They ask for some help from a couple of the other guys or girls because the book says you have to use a hot knife to cut the wax from the comb, run it through a centrifuge to separate the honey, then strain the honey into jars to get the sticks, any wax that may be left, and dead bees out of it. They found cases of large glass bottles and lids that they washed out very well to put the honey in. They are happy to say that they barely took any honey compared to what is out in the hives. They say they read in Jenny’s book that you can smoke the bees to make them lethargic then went in wearing the bee suit. It was pretty easy and of course they had to sample the honey and they really don’t think the rest of us will like it so they are going to sacrifice and eat it all by themselves. They are laughing when they say the last part, all the other young people are already dipping their fingers in the warm honey and tasting it. Dan and Don are informed that they will not have to sacrifice after all. We all agree that this honey is better than the stuff that we found in the houses that had hardened. We were able to put it in boiling water to make it a liquid again. That was good, but this fresh honey is great. Needless to say they have several volunteers to help them put it into jars as well as eat it.

Tom checked out the freezer today, we are right near it so we all go to look at it. It looks like they may have slaughtered cattle and maybe even pigs and goats here because there are charts showing how to cut the meat up to get the different cuts. It is a whole large room in the lower level of this barn. Outside the room there is a place where they probably lead the animals in, then killed them, skinned them, and quartered them before they took the sections in to hang in the freezer to age. There are charts telling us how to do everything I just described. It is not the most pleasant chore we have to do, but we do have to eat and there are lots of cattle running wild on the property and all around us. Dad says that the freezer got a little colder when he turned it down today, but did not get as cold as it should be. He did find the service manual for it in a drawer in the room. It gives detailed instructions how to change the coolant which at this time is Freon gas. We brought back a couple cases of the gas and the kits for installing it into the refrigerators.

We also brought back a brand new refrigerator to see if it will work. If not we have instructions on the back that explains how to recharge the system. Since preserving food is a number one priority we take the time to recharge the freezer. The job takes less than an hour and that’s with having to read the directions several times to make sure we do it right the first time. Tim reminds me that in our time Freon was outlawed because they say it pokes holes in the ozone. I remind him that the world was almost totally destroyed by a neutron war and he is worried about a couple ounces of Freon. We both decide we have more to worry about than what that gas will do to the ozone. None of the others have any idea what we are laughing about, but they are excited about the freezer getting fixed so we can use it.

When it is done we set the thermostat and put a thermometer in the freezer to see how accurate the thermostat really is. We will check on it again in several hours to see how it is working. We spend the rest of the day recharging refrigerators and manage to get three of them working before supper. The new one we brought home works just the way it is so we figure it will be easier to go back to town and get enough new ones to go around. Dayna proves she is just like Ma Horton, she tells me if I’m getting a new refrigerator I need to get a new stove to go with it. That will have to wait until the greenhouse is up, just as I say that her dad volunteers to go into town with Dan and Don as well as a couple other young men and a couple young ladies that haven’t been there yet. That will work, we will stay home and work on the greenhouse and they can go into town. This way they can try to find just the right color kitchen appliances for everybody.

The people in just about every house say they would love to be able to find some paint and maybe some new carpeting for their individual homes. Dayna has already made me promise to look for some paint, she wants yellow for the kitchen and either a light blue or a tan for most of the other rooms. The farm store has a bunch of paint if it is still good enough to use. The team going into town tomorrow will bring back several different colors along with brushes, rollers and anything else they can think of. Dayna tells her dad to see if he can find some yellow exterior paint as well, then turns to me and asks how many gallons do I think it will take to paint the outside of the house. At least I know what one of my projects is going to be when the greenhouse is up and functional. The houses can really use a good coat of paint or two and I have never minded painting. It is one of those chores that show improvement very quickly.

In the morning we are up with the chickens, at least one of those the girls enticed into the pen is a rooster. We grab a quick breakfast and then meet at the site for putting up the greenhouse. Those going into town are getting ready to leave and the others are starting on their chores. Jenny is very excited. Apparently overnight a large flock of chickens came up to the coop and is pecking the feed that is left around the outside. When she opens the pen and sprinkles more food on the ground leading into the coop they follow along and set up residency on the nests she set up for them. She asks if she should gather the eggs, when we tell her to let them hatch for a while she is obviously relieved. One of the other girls, who lives in the house on the far side of Jenny, named Samantha asks if she can help take care of the chickens. They are both just about the same age and Jenny is more than happy for the assistance.

Tim, Billy, Rod, and I start assembling the greenhouse. If you ever want to see a funny sight you should come and watch the four of us try to build something. Not that we don’t know what we are doing, we just have a lot of fun doing it. Our wives come over several times to tell us to quit fooling around and get the job done correctly. It was even funnier when Billy sticks his tongue out at Ramona when she turned to head back to the house. The funny part is when a man over seven feet tall and weighing over three hundred pounds tries to convince his wife who is about half his size that he didn’t do it. She has him backed against one of the walls and when the rest of us laugh we get in trouble with our wives. All in all we are having a lot of fun today and we are even accomplishing quite a bit of work.

For the first time in my life I feel like I have a purpose in life and that I have a strong family to be part of. I always felt like part of the Horton’s family, but in the military even though I was part of a well trained team, I never really felt all that close to most of the others. We very seldom did anything outside of our duties and missions we would go on. I wonder if Tim and I have been declared deserters by now or if anyone has even noticed that we are not there yet. I suppose that there is even the chance that Tim and I are still there as well as being here. There are so many unanswered questions and there is no way that I can think of to answer them, so there is no sense worrying about them.