Deadfall: Survivors (15 page)

Tague has already headed up into the main computer room to dig around. Evan asked
for permission to go outside the house, to get a feel of how the terrain was outside. He mentioned setting up posts for watching animals, or people, living or otherwise. Heather said she’d come along. The rest seemed content for the moment to sit around the living area and discuss how they were going to go about their “chores”.

I
’ll  have to figure out something to eat tonight. Hopefully the food situation will be figured out by tomorrow, so that I don’t have to run a cafeteria anymore.

Entry 27 – Food Stores
[26]

These are the food reports given to me by Aaron. He spent the better part of the last two days gathering all this information, although he himself admits that there still might be more, and that his count is most likely not one hundred percent accurate. In either case though, he thinks he's about as accurate as needed to get a good understanding of the food contained in the freezers and storage rooms.

He has written these down
, so I’m  transferring them all to the computer. I have put my comments in
Italics
as well as his comments in
Bold
.

First Freezer.
Main Freezer.

1
,320-20lb vacuum packed boxes. Half wheat flour, half rice.

90
-20lb vacuum packed boxes of beans.
Not sure what kind.

90
-20lb vacuum packed boxes of soy beans.
Only because it said so on the box.

6
-100lb bags of powdered milk.

60
-10lb bags of powdered cream. 
For coffee?

250 assorted blocks of cheese.
Wrapped up.
Approximately.

75
-50lb bags of sugar.
Both white and brown.

12
-10lb bags of powdered eggs.

52
-10lb boxes of powdered potatoes.

275 vacuum packed meats.
All different kinds. Steaks, pork, whole chickens and turkeys. Not sure about total weight. It would need a scale. Each package is large, maybe, 20 to 30 pounds each.

300
-5 gallon bottles of frozen tomato pulp.

315
-5 gallon bottles of frozen orange concentrate.

Main food storage room.

2570
cans. Between 5-10lbs. Assorted vegetables. Peas, corn, beans, spinach, yams, and sauerkraut.
Seriously? Sauerkraut? Why? Is this needed for the survival of mankind?
I agree.

7
-100lb bags of salt.

12
-200lb bags of coffee.

4 large crates of baking soda.
Not sure about the weight of each crate, but, must be over 100 pounds.

102 bottles of honey.
Maybe about two quarts each?

2 barrels with what appears to be salt cured meat.
Beef jerky?

150
-16oz bottles of fruit preserves.

17 large crates full of peanuts.
Pb&j for the end of the world?

12 crates that hold about 20 plastic
bottles each, containing peanut oil.

7 boxes filled with small bottles
; pepper, garlic powder and other spices.
This is a great find. Wouldn’t want to live in the apocalypse without pepper on my eggs.

These are as accurate as I can get. From those numbers that we talked about last night, it seems like we have more food here than we thought about at first. Instead of the two years supply, I calculated that we actually have over seven years worth of food. That is a great relief. It allows us to really take our time, or, it gives us room to expand just in case we do find more people.

There
’s  a section in the freezer that’s empty. I talked to Aaron about this. The freezer had rows and rows of poles that hung about a foot off of the ceiling, and ran across the entire ceiling lengthwise. It looked like an elaborate walk in closet. When we mentioned this last night, Evan, ever the hunter, quickly pointed out that this would be the place to hang up meat that we had hunted. This makes perfect sense. We need to find just where meat hooks are, if this is indeed what it’s for.

After showing everyone Aaron’s food report, there was an air of relief among everyone. It’s not every day, especially in the apocalypse, that we get the reassurance of having plenty of food.
It was already understood that we had enough for a while, but seven years is a long time. One thing I think I will stress though will be that we shouldn’t rely on this food, and that we should try our hardest to get our own supply of food going as soon as possible, for freshness and just to keep us busy.

Entry 28 – No Toilet Paper
[27]

Work has progressed to get an idea of just what is available within the house. Last night, while eating rice, we had a discussion about the things that we found.

(Audio begins)

“Pass me the…”

Aaron
“There was only a small amount.”

Evan
“But that small amount is actually quite a bit, if you think of it.”

Aaron
“Yeah, but we still better not use it.”

“Thanks. Hold on, I don’t think this started recording. Oh, yeah, it did. Ok, so Tague, start with the tower, the radio thing.”

Tague
“Ok. I’ve  found out a way to see just everything that is electronically connected to the computers here. It seems that it was designed to have satellite connection, but I can’t find a way to uplink to any satellite. I'm not sure what that means, but to me it just seems like a way to stay connected to the internet. The tower is something else, though. It looks like there’s  a way to broadcast a radio signal, most likely to inform people of anything, most likely our location. The issue is that this broadcasting tower is not located here, but somewhere off of the house itself. Evan thinks that he knows where it might be.”

Evan
“Yeah, so I was walking up along a trail just north,  and I can see a tall tower off in a peak northeast of here. It’s really tall, not like the short cell towers, but just like a radio tower. Think that might be it?”

“That’s the old TV tower on Mt. Pisgah. It also used to broadcast an FM station, if I remember right. Do you think that’s it?”

Tague
“Are there any other towers that you might know of?”

“None that I can think
of, not close to here.”

Tague
“Then that must be it. Ideally, we can tie into that tower from here to broadcast what we wish.”

Heather
“Like a rescue signal?”

“Anything, I guess. Is that something we want to do?”

Dawn
“Of course it is, we have to let anyone know that we are here, and that we can help them.”

Tague
“And risk letting people we might not want here know that we’re here?”

Dawn
“Zombies can’t listen to radio.”

Tague
“I meant living people.”

Aaron
“That’s a good point. Dawn, there are probably survivors out there who are turning this chaos into their own personal playpen. People with shady pasts who have nothing to run from now, or people who simply want to build their own kingdoms out of this mess.”

“Can it be used to communicate with anyone?”

Tague
“It’s just a tower, only to send out a signal. I think the satellite uplink is what would be used to communicate with, whoever is out there. But without knowing which area in the sky to point our dish to, I have no way of doing it. Also, as far as the tower, its offline.”

“It’s not working?”

Tague
“I’m  not sure. Perhaps I could travel over there and check it out.”

“That’s a good day hike all the way over there.”

Tague
“Nothing I can’t handle. I’ll take a few things with me, and make it a three or four day trip. You mentioned an inn nearby?”

“Yeah, Pisgah Inn.
Right down from the peak.”

Tague
“Then that will be where I can stay at night. Or at the tower itself, if there’s  any kind of building attached to it. Maybe I can take the young man, Chris. He needs to do something.”

Heather
(Agitated)
“Why? He’s doing his share. Why would you need to take him?”

Tague
(Surprised)
“I meant nothing by it. It might do him well if he did something other than fill out lists.”

Heather
“Chris? Where did he go?”

Dawn
“Sweetie, I think he just went to the bathroom.”

Aaron
“We found a room stacked high with those batteries from the power room down below. Spares probably.”

“That would make sense. I don’t know if those batteries were anything special, but if the plan was to hang out here for a very long time, those would definitely need to be replaced from time to time.”

Aaron
“Well, there’s a ton of them, that’s for sure.”

Lucy
“How do we get water here?”

(Short pause)

“I think, wells, and rain runoff too, I believe. There are a lot of springs around here.”

Lucy
“Well, I think we found a room that stores the water. Cisterns, I think that’s the correct word. Pipes running in and out with shutoff knobs.”

Aaron
“Knobs?”

Lucy
“Valves, whatever. Stop smiling.”

Tague
“The hot water ones are right above the battery rooms. Saw that on one of the computers. The water cycled to keep the batteries cooled is taken into the insulated tanks and the heat is exchanged there.”

“
I, was not aware of that.”

“I guess I really don’t know much about this place.”

Aaron
“Also, I think one of the rooms is a metal machining room, and next to that is the metal that I suppose would be used there.”

Evan
“Machining room?”

Tague
“Machines that can cut and carve metal to make replacement pieces. Very precise equipment. Something I don’t know how to use.”

“Probably none of us do.”

Aaron
“Tague, anything on any of the other rooms? We’ve found rooms with spare computer parts, wiring, and just many more things that I simply don’t know, well, we don’t know what they are.”

Tague
“No, but, I wasn’t really looking. Perhaps, when I come back, I’ll  try to see if there is any mention of the rooms. I would suggest looking at the manuals.”

Lucy
“I was thinking about that. I just wrote down names of things I saw labeled in those rooms.”

“Makes sense.
The computers must have some kind of search mechanism built into the software, right? Tague?”

Tague
“Again, I'm no computer expert, no more than any of you. But that would make sense.”

Lucy
“Well, I have pages and pages of names. There are three computers. Anyone can help.”

Dawn
“I can do that.”

“That’s good. We can all do something.”

(Mental note. Heather just gave me a terrified look. Not sure why.)

Heather
“I’ll help, of course.”

Evan
“Hey, I can go with Tague, if Chris doesn’t want to.”

“Hey, did you dig through the weapon room?”

Evan
“Weapon locker I think is the better word. Yeah. I'm still counting shit, but you’re loaded. Guns, rifles, spare parts for both, and tons of ammo. What was your dad getting ready for?”

“Anything, I think.”

(A shout, or a scream)

Heather
“What was that?”

(Noise of chairs moving)

Heather (Shouting)
“Chris?”

(End audio)

We all went rushing off into the hallway, where Chris was screaming from the bathroom. We tried to enter, but he had locked the door. We tried repeatedly to bust the door down, while Heather was in tears, crying frantically for us to do something. Among all the frustration and the loud shouts, it took me a bit to hear what Chris was actually shouting about. I had to shout out for everyone to be quiet before we all heard what was going on. I even had to put my hand over Heather’s mouth, just to get her to quiet down for a moment, although I quickly removed it when I realized what I had done.

When we took a moment to listen, Chris was shouting, but not for his life, but rather, for his ass. Our bathrooms had no toilet paper, and apparently, this was the first time he had had to make use of toilet paper. For a moment, Heather looked at me, almost in disbelief,
a few smiles appeared, and Evan broke out in laughter.

I hollered back into the bathroom that we had no toilet paper, and never would. Instead, we had a bidet. Of course, I had to explain the function, all the while not trying to laugh, especially at the groans and moans coming from the bathroom, most likely from the young man who was going to have to spray water at his rear for the first time in his life. I think the terms “are you serious?” and “are you kidding me?” were used more than once each. Heather shouted, asking why he had locked the door, and the obvious response was that he had to go. The quick moment of terror had quickly been replaced with a moment of levity, although Chris was probably still terrorized. His shouts from the bathroom had been shouts for toilet paper, and when we had not heard him above our conversation, he had begun shouting even louder.

Heather was not amused. She actually stayed close to me, visibly shaking. She took it upon herself to be her brother’s keeper, and that brief moment, where she might have thought she had  lost him, had brought her to shake, in weakness or fear. I can only fathom just how many times she might have thought she had  lost him, or thought she had lost herself as well. She still had yet to open up at all about how she had survived, and I was afraid to ask. I am, by far, no counselor or psychologist, and I was simply too afraid to open that box and not be able to contend with what might pour out of it.

After Chris had come out, Evan cheered him, leading him to smile smugly. He led him by the shoulder over back to the table, laughing loudly the whole time, joking about the freshness of his ass, or if he had used hot or cold water. Meanwhile, I walked the visibly shaken Heather over to one of the couches and sat her down. Her eyes were wet with tears and she was still shaking, even if just slightly. I knelt down in front of her and I asked her if she needed anything, again, trying not to dig up anything, and she nodded her head no.

Maybe it would be good for Chris to go with Tague. It would be a bit traumatic , maybe, at first, but it would allow Heather to get her mind off having to take care and be on watch over her brother, and maybe relax for the first time in a long time. Maybe I would see if she wanted to go out and shoot some of the guns with me tomorrow. Maybe shooting a gun could raise her confidence, or self esteem. I know that it did that to me. I could only hope that it had the same effect on her.

She held my hand for a moment when I stood up, looked at me, and said thanks. I almost shrugged my shoulders, not sure what to say. Then I walked over and got a drink for her. Watching back on the rest of the group, most of them back to eating or still making fun of Chris, I noticed that we were all still holding in what had become of us.
Most of them had dealt with it all in their own way. Evan kept to his bravado,  guns and jokes to hide the fact he had killed his father, even if he was a zombie. Aaron and Lucy hid within each other, seeking to hide the fact that each had lost their own spouses and children. Dawn kept trying to be a caretaker, to quell the guilt she carried. Tague tried to remain quiet and non-emotional, just to hide the fact that he had been ready to die when the comet hit, and was now alive, and surviving. Chris, well, who knows what he has seen, and what he is hiding.

Me? I'm hiding the fact that I didn’t suffer. I'm hiding the fact that I simply don’t understand what everyone has lost
, or how they are dealing with it. I lost my dad, but it wasn’t traumatic. We weren’t even that close to begin with, despite what I tell everyone else. I hadn’t gone hungry or thirsty. I hadn’t seen people mauled around me. I had hot showers. Deep down, I wish I had suffered the same as all of them. In that way, I would feel equal, instead of guilty.

It’s really a horrible thing to think. I remember being a kid, and being into my swords and shields phase. I always thought how cool it would have been to be alive during the medieval ages. The
truth of it is, was, people in those times didn’t live long, were wracked with disease, and most people never left the place where they were born. Freedom was almost non-existent, and war plagued most of the kingdoms. It actually was a horrible time to be alive, unless you were the king.

I really was lucky, and I knew it. There is no way I would have survived as they had. Instead, I was the king, sitting on my throne in the mountains
; the sole person living in luxury. I felt shame, but I’d rather feel ashamed, than feel death.