THE DAY: A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series) (15 page)

Stone
River Refinery

Roxana,
Illinois

              
Frank
Talbot was talking to himself, not for the first time
in the days since The Day. "Don’t they know that this
country was NUKED? Why do they keep calling? I’m the only guy who was
stupid enough to stay here after the bombs went off, but somebody had to shut
this humongous puppy down. What if I hadn’t had six years of engineering and
graduate school? What if I’d only worked here for a year or two, instead
of twelve. It takes skill to gradually turn off an oil
refinery,
that
is without blowing it up along with half of Roxana. Can’t
whoever
keeps
calling just get the message and hang
up? I need some sleep."

              
The
phone in the Dispatcher’s office at Stone River Refinery continued to
ring. It was directly across the hall from the refinery’s Primary Control
Room, making it difficult to ignore. Now that the final steps and procedures
for shutting down the refinery were completed, Frank Talbot thought again about
sleep, which he desperately needed after 36 straight hours without any. But, he
knew that he couldn’t just curl up on the floor and power nap, not as
long as that pesky phone continued to ring. Oh, alright, jerkwater, I’ll
answer your call. It better not be a sales call or I will give you such a
tongue lashing that you…."

              
"Yeah.
Stone River Refinery.
What can I do for you
?....
Is anyone even there? Well,
I’ll be…."

              
Surprised
that his call had actually been answered Thad took a moment to snatch up the
handset and answer, "Hey….hey….this is Thad Stevens over at
Columbia Food Distribution….you know….in Columbia, Missouri.
We’re one of your fair sixed customers.
Usually north
of thirty to thirty five thousand gallons of diesel per month."

              
"
Hunh
….well, you’re talking to Frank Talbot.
I’m the Chief Engineer and I don’t have a clue who buys what.
Sounds like you buy our diesel product….but you won’t
be….buying it, that is….not for a really long time."

              
"What?
That’s why I called….and by the way, thanks for finally taking my
call. I needed to know if we’re still scheduled for a Thursday afternoon
delivery of our normal four thousand gallons…like I said….of
diesel?
"

              
"Simple
answer is no. No one will be getting any products from Stone River for some
time….I
don’t
know how long….if
ever, frankly."

              
"What’s
that supposed to mean? What’s happened there?"

              
"Well,
here’s the deal. This refinery gets its crude from two pipelines.
Pipeline number one runs just west of the Chicago area, southwest
across Illinois.
Pipeline two comes up from the Gulf of Mexico, starts
in Houston. Number one is still functioning, but it’s close enough to
Chicago that anything flowing through the line is radiated, you know, with
gamma rays and such. Our Geiger Counters started going crazy within just a few
hours of the nuking of Chicago. As an immediate consequence, pipeline one was
shut down."

              
"When will it come back up, Frank?"

              
"That’s
the thing. We can’t allow radiated crude oil into the refinery. As soon
as it started flowing into our system it would radiate everything here. Then
even if we did start refining again, we would be cracking petrol products that
were radioactive. Think of that. You stop by your local gas station and your
choices are regular, super or radioactive. I don’t think so. The
half-life of a normal nuclear explosion is between 1,000 and 10,000 days,
depending on several factors, like the concentration of Cessium-137 and
the…."

              
"Whoa,
mister engineer man, you’re already over my head here. I get why you
can’t use radioactive crude oil, but what happened to the second
pipeline, the one from the Gulf?"

              
"Not
good. The static pressure on the crude flow….uh…let’s
see….in layman’s terms the amount of the flow through the pipe
started slowly declining this morning. For the first few hours after the nukes
went off I didn’t see any difference that could be measured,
but…."

              
"But,
was that because of what was already headed your way, in the pipeline, so to
speak?"

              
"Yeah, so to speak.
But, about six
this morning the alarms monitoring the flow started going off.
Then,
within an hour it was lower than 40%. Now it’s a trickle. I shut down the
line, because it causes damage to the cracking system if the flow’s not
over 40%
capacity
. That’s all by way of saying
that Stone River Refinery is offline. No petro products. Not now. Not for a
long time.
If ever."

              
"Why
do you say maybe never? Couldn’t the Houston flow come back?"

              
"Houston
was nuked."

              
"Ouch.
I hadn’t heard that. So the oil fields, and oil docks and just about
everything dealing with oil in that part of the U.S., coming in off the Gulf, I
take it, are toast? If they could pump to you,
which
doesn’t sound very likely, it also would be radioactive crude oil,
right?"

              
"Thad,
you sound like you had some oil background. Want a job? I’m the only one
still at the refinery, but I could use some help holding this place together,
until somebody a lot smarter, and a lot richer, than me decides what to do with
it."

              
"Thanks
for the offer. My dad was a wildcatter for a while, but he lost it all. My love
is shipping food to grocery stores to feed people. But, Frank, what I’m
hearing is that my job, apparently much like yours, is over. You’re
telling me you’re not going to be refining any petroleum products. If I
can’t find a refinery in Kansas that is still in business, I’ll be
out of business, too. Whoa! You know what that’s going to mean for
several hundred thousand grocery store shoppers in another few days?....How do
you spell hunger?"

              
"Sorry
to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re only just two small cogs in the
giant financial system which is shortly going to be totally shut down. We
supply four electric generating plants with petroleum products to run their
generators. We’re still able to talk on the phone and have electricity in
our offices today because those electric plants are still cranking out wattage.
They have back up storage capacity allowing them to make it through a natural
disaster, but not for more than a week, some for just four days. Pretty soon,
though, lights out. The electric plants that burn coal to make electricity will
soon find that the trains in this country that haul the coal don’t run on
water. Without diesel fuel they’ll be done….I don’t know how
you get deliveries of food to your warehouse in Columbia that you then ship to
grocery stores, but I suspect it’s by semi-truck, maybe by train.
Right?

              
"Spot
on. I was just thinking as we were speaking that I’m out of business two
ways. I not only can’t get the food shipments to the groceries, but I
won’t be receiving much, if any, food since it all arrives here by truck,
a small amount by train, but, as you said, the trains run on diesel. Actually,
a third big problem, come to think about it, is that the food distribution
business operates on almost immediate payment to food suppliers. If the banks
are closed and the internet is down, we’re done. Plus, the just on time
system of food shipments and deliveries in this country has been fine-tuned so
that the average food market is virtually empty, cleaned out, of food products
within four to seven days, depending on size and location, not including
cleaning products, paper goods, that kind of thing. And….that’s
with normal shopping, not the looting that’s hit the stores that the
radio’s been warning everybody not to do. They might as well advertise
it. ‘Get to the store quick, while there’s still a can of soup
left.’ Most of today’s younger
generation think
that food comes from the super market. What a shock they’ll have. Whew!
We’re done, Frank. Heck, the country’s done."

              
"On
that cheery thought, Thad of Columbia, Missouri, I wish you well. Sorry we
won’t be selling you
guys
any more diesel.
You’d better load your car’s trunk with some canned corn, though.
Know what I mean, Thad? Good luck."

              
"Thanks,
Frank, but I don’t think lucks got much to do with it."

Sam and Laura’s Kitchen

Minneapolis, Minnesota

              
Sam’s
hands were still shaking, even though their unwanted visitors had left their
porch several minutes before. Laura, still red-faced, was dabbing tears from
her eyes. Both recognized that they had just escaped the event that they both
feared the most. Since The Day they had frequently discussed what they would do
if someone forced their way into the sanctity of their home. Now it was
decision time.

              
"Sam….oh,
Sam….those men are
serious
.
They’ll be back
tonight.…or
tomorrow
night."

              
Sam
finally laid his revolver back on the counter. Trying to calm his nerves and
control his still wavering voice, he said, "Laura….We’ve
talked
about this. We both know that I
won’t
kill anybody, not just to
protect what little food we have left. If they break down the door, we should
just let them take what’s still in the kitchen. I won’t take
somebody’s life, especially when they’re probably starving. We
talked about that poll that came out last year that said that 58% of Americans
would kill someone who threatens their home or family. Less than 20% said they
couldn’t do it, which is where I am.
I
can’t do it."

              
Laura
was just able to talk, sobbing as she said, "I know, Sam….
I know
….You made that decision
right after the nukes went off and you knew
then
what was going to happen. But….Sam….you heard what they said about
me….your wife….
a woman
,
as they said. If they come back….that is….
when
they come back, they’ll surely take our food and our gun
and that box of bullets, but then….Sam, they’re going to….
to take
me
."

              
Sam
looked over at his wife, who had been barely able to speak. He carefully chose
his words, saying, "My dear….you
know
….I would
never,
ever
let anyone hurt you. Not if I could do anything about it….
but
…."

              
"But?"

              
"But….since
I can’t pull the trigger and actually take somebody’s
life….it seems to me that we only have
one
good option. We don’t have any place to escape. No
relatives or close friends in the wilderness. We don’t know anyone who
has any food. Everybody we know is in the same fix."

              
"Well,
Sam, if we have no place to go and you won’t use your gun
to protect me
….to protect
us
….then what are we going to do?
What’s our plan?"

              
"This
is difficult for me to say, but, Honey, we need to seriously think about an
early exit."

              
"An early exit?
What does that
mean….oh….oh….You mean
taking
our own lives?
Suicide?
Seriously,
Sam?"

              
"I
don’t like the idea
either
,
Laura, but
what else
can we do?
Without food, we’re going to be dead within a few days, no more than two
or three weeks, anyway. We’re not willing to kill people who break in our
house. So….so….since we’re not going to live long term,
I’m just suggesting that we
speed
up
the inevitable."

              
"
Speed up?
Like what?
When
, Sam?"

              
"Before
I answer that, I think we should talk about what my sister said to us last
Thanksgiving."

              
"Thanksgiving?
I don’t remember what she said.
What did she say?"

              
"Remember,
we were all talking about the news report the day before that a couple over in
St. Paul had committed suicide. My sister brought up the Bible. You know she’s
a so-called evangelical Christian, whatever that really means."

              
"Laura,
I know where she’s coming from, religiously speaking, but I don’t
recall what she claimed the Bible said about suicide."

              
"What
she said, quite simply, was that taking one’s own life is
a sin
….and the Bible preaches
against it. She quoted a verse about our bodies being temples of God, or
something like that.

              
"Well,
your sister certainly
preaches
against it, I do recall that now. She went on and on about the Bible being
against murder and she argued that suicide is self-murder. But, since I
don’t buy most of what the Bible says, I don’t see that your
sister’s weirdo religious beliefs from a year ago, before The Day, should
affect us,
now
."

              
"No,
I guess not.
I just hope we’re
right."

              
Sam
and Laura looked into each other’s eyes, neither saying anything. After
thirty-two years of marriage they could almost read each other’s
thoughts. Once Sam and Laura rejected the Biblical view of what they were about
to do, they realized that they had arrived at a life-ending decision.