Second Chances (16 page)

“Definitely,” Bert said, apparently taking the radio.

Quincy came running up to Cliff. Cliff handed him his notes. He scanned them and then frowned. “Ask them if they can get a better description. And more description of the wounds the Hex suffered,” he said.

“Bert, Quincy wants more information on the Hex. Body, size, and wounds if you can remember,” he said.

“I'll draw him a picture when we get back to base. I think for now this area is off limits. At least until this thing moves on,” Bert said. “Heaven help us if it comes knocking,” he said.

“Definitely,” Cliff said, making a note to add pole stakes and anything else they could think of to the defenses.

~~~~~~(@)~~~~~~

Trey and Doc Brown reported mixed reviews with the polyp juice as did the Browns one evening by the bonfire. The bonfire was becoming a nightly thing, a way for the community to get together, share and talk, and just unwind. Phil's battered guitar was put to use by Miranda, who occasionally would play it. She freely admitted she wasn't very good at it, but constant practice helped make her better. “It's a wonder material; I'll give it that. It not only coagulates blood, it also acts as an antiseptic. But it stinks,” Doctor Brown said, wrinkling her nose. “No magical curing properties, not that I know of. And it doesn't do anything for deep tissue injuries other than close the wound. If the patient is bleeding internally, they are still screwed,” she warned.

“Good to know,” Carlene said, nodding. “So, we should harvest it?”

“In my opinion yes. I'm not sure about the shelf life,” Doctor Brown said. “I suppose we'll have to see,” she said. “It might last longer if we drain it from the rind and then refrigerate or even freeze it,” she said. She looked over to Trey.

Trey got up and nodded. He was a black male, in his twenties, with a bit of a can-do attitude like John. He'd also been in and out of trouble as a teen until he'd gotten into mechanics in his uncle's shop. His family had gotten out of Michigan in 2008 after everything went south and the factories closed down. Trey freely admitted, had they not left he would have gotten in with the gangs; there had been literally nothing left, no hope. They had resettled in Seattle. Trey was their resident mechanical genius; he'd worked on just about every machine and had taken several mechanical courses. “This stuff has a high smoke point. That's good, otherwise a spark or even the heat from the sun would ignite it.”

“Yeah, can anyone say forest fire waiting to happen?” Bert said. A few people shivered grimly.

“True,” Trey said nodding. “I've...it won't work straight in a tank.”

“Darn.”

“Treating it like ethanol and cutting it with our remaining fuel stock seems to help. I tested it in a gas lawnmower. I haven't tried it in anything diesel. I'd like to though,” he said, looking at John, then Guy.

John shook his head. “I'm leery of giving it a go in my tanks. A lawn mower has a carburetor, so it worked fine though?” Trey nodded. “Huh. I watched a show on...that myth one...” He frowned thoughtfully.

“Mythbusters
,” Carlene supplied with a half-smile. “I know the episode you're talking about. It's the one where they tried veggie oil in a diesel car? Flex fuels?”

“No, well, yeah, that one, but I was thinking about the one where they tried moonshine in three cars from different time periods,” John said. “It was one of the few shows I watched,” he said scratching his head.

Carlene and Trey both nodded. “Yes, I remember,” Trey said. “The moonshine worked better in the modern car, even though it wasn't a flex fuel version. The computer adapted to the fuel. You're comparing it to this though?”

John nodded.

“The diesel vehicles and machinery don't have computers. They use fuel injection but no spark plug; they use high temperature heat compression for ignition,” Trey said.

“So, in theory, it will work. But the gumming up part...”

“Is a concern, yes,” Trey said. “But the rest are all in our favor. We can try it in something. If it doesn't work, I'll tear it apart and clean it,” he said with a shrug.

“I'd rather try it like you did with the gas, cut it with diesel,” John said. Trey nodded.

“We can treat it like biodiesel,” Guy said. They looked at him. “I've got a set-up in my shed. You take used oil and mix it with lye and other stuff and it turns out biodiesel. If you use some of the cruder formulas, you have to use a separate tank and warmer.”

Trey frowned, rubbing his chin. “Might work,” he said, looking over to Ross. “We can experiment, try it. Looks like I'm going to be busy,” he said apologetically to Ross.

“That's fine sweety,” she said with a smile. He nodded.

~~~~~~(@)~~~~~~

Quincy and Trisha rebred the small animals once the babies were weaned. Right after, they announced that project was completed Adam got onto the community about getting more of the ore. “And I'm not talking a couple backpacks. It takes one ton of raw ore to make a couple pounds. We need to relocate.”

“Now? Not going to happen,” Guy Roberts said, shaking his head. “You should have thought about that earlier.”

“Oh hell no!” Wendy said, shaking her head vehemently no. “I'm not going anywhere. We've set down roots here!” she said, pointing to the ground firmly. Her husband nodded.

“Well, it's done now,” Adam said mulishly. “We're run through Joy's shitbox Tercel. We got four good crossbows from it and some other metal, but all the fittings and stuff for the barn and other projects has run us dry,” he said. “Dawn's pickup is about used up too.”

“We're using half the material,” John interjected. “Not just melting it down,” he explained, which was true. The battered pickup had been trashed by the raptors. The engine had a bad head gasket so they'd parted it out to Victor then used a lot of it to make the large cart the Hadrosaurs towed. The rest of the scrap metal had gone to Adam.

Eric looked around the group noting the set expressions on a lot of faces. “We are strategically situated here,” Eric said slowly. “But I see your point. I'm just not sure we can do an expedition,” he said cautiously.

“I'll go,” John said quietly, raising a hand. Bert nodded, raising his hand silently.

Guy grunted then raised his hand. His daughter turned on him in surprise. “Dad?”

He shrugged. “They are right honey; we're going to need it. It's time to put up or shut up. My GM has off-road ability and it's lifted,” he said, turning to the group. “I've even got a snorkel kit for it,” he said.

“How long?” Wendy asked. She glared at her husband. “Don't even think about it,” she warned. He closed his mouth.

“As long as it takes to get what we came for or until the weather or animals drive us back,” Bert said.

“You'll need a medic,” Doc Brown said. Quincy frowned. She glanced his way.

“Doc, you are better suited here with the bulk of the community,” Bert admitted. “I happen to know you and a few others like Wendy are pregnant. I'm going anyway, and I have some first aid training.”

“I was a volunteer fire fighter, Doc,” John said, raising a hand from his lap again. She looked at him. “I took an EMT refresher course online,” he explained. She nodded.

“Hey, I've got EMT training,” Pat said, rocking little Teresa to sleep. “Not that I'm going,” she said. She looked over to Hector. He frowned but then nodded to her. They held hands.

The others looked to her, then to Hector, then to each other. A few couldn't meet the eyes of those who had volunteered to go. John snorted softly.

“I'll go,” Bull said, raising a hand.

“You're staying here to guard the base,” Ross said firmly. “With me and Trey,” she said.

“Although we'd love to have you along, Bull, I'd really prefer you here protecting my family and the kids here,” Guy said. “It's a tough job, but I know you and Ross can handle it,” he said.

Bull hunched his shoulder and then shrugged, childlike. “Okey dokey,” he finally said, pouting slightly.

Bert and John led the ten-person team with four trucks out to the hills to the place where they found iron and copper two days later. They took four pickup trucks they had rigged with improvised armor and off-road suspension. All four of the trucks were king cabs that ran on diesel. Trey and Wendy's polyp juice had worked out as a flex fuel; that had relieved John's concern. The trip to get the ore would be their first major test of the fuel; hopefully, it worked out. There was some concern that the fuel would leave them stranded in the bush. Trey had offered to come alone, but Ross had nixed that.

There was also now a concern about the supply of the poly juice. Doc wanted it for medicine and cleaning, Trey wanted it for fuel, John had discovered it made a good stain/varnish, and Carlene wanted it for lamp oil. Unfortunately, Wendy reported there was only so much to go around in the area; they quickly tapped out all the pods within a mile of the base. It was hoped that they would find more during their outing.

They got Guy Robert's black truck stuck once on the way; fortunately, it had a winch so they could get it out. Getting across some of the streams had been tricky; they had to find places to ford and move some rocks around a couple times, slowing them down. Fortunately, Bert had scouted the area earlier so they had only lost a couple of hours for all the detours.

Bert stood guard while John showed the others how to dig. Most of the ore was right there on the surface. The crew was nervous about animals, but their machinery and noise kept most at bay.

While they worked John took a pan from his kit and did some test pans in the creeks in the area. He found some colors in one creek that led to the northern mountains. That was interesting, he thought. But to get anywhere with it he'd have to haul his gear, including his trommel across the fields and land between the landing field and wherever the gold was. That wasn't something he wanted to do; they'd get bogged down for sure.

It took all afternoon for the crew to settle down. They found it was harder than they thought it would be. Adam was cursed quite a few times; he'd assured a few people that it was dead easy to mine on the surface. John could have told them differently; it was back breaking work even with machinery.

Once he was certain they were doing what they could with the spades and picks they had, he pulled Guy and Darion off with him to cut wood for the fires they'd need for the night. “I thought we were going back?” Guy asked.

“Do you really want to go overland in the dark in this place, Guy?” John asked with a snort. Guy frowned, then nodded. He looked over to Darion. Darion put on a brave face and shrugged. Guy smiled slightly as they went to work.

The sound of their chainsaws startled a few people, but then they settled back down. The crack and fall of a couple trees had Emilio cussing them in French, something about scaring the piss out of him. That got a laugh.

Bert brought in food he'd picked up from the surrounding area including birch bark, fire tinder fungus and other things. The food items went over as a treat.

Camping out in the pickups overnight was nerve wracking for most of the crew. Bert organized them into watch shifts. Everyone took a turn though most didn't fall asleep for the first couple hours. They had fires around the perimeter of the camp to keep animals at bay.

When it was his turn to take a shift, John noted a couple animals in the bush. He saw the occasional set of eyes or sounds of something moving, but nothing came close. Twice he saw bird-like creatures fly across the clear night sky. Near one a.m. there was some strange calls, not quite a wolf's long train whistle sound but similar. That got some other animals going, including the crested duck bills in the field a mile away.

~~~~~~(@)~~~~~~

Two days later they returned triumphantly weighed down by their ore and gear. Bert had made two kills while they had been out, supplementing their food supply. They'd been tempted to stay out another day, but the signs of clouds moving in made them think twice. “I don't know about you, but I don't want to try to cross some of those creeks we crossed filled with storm water,” Guy warned. “That one my GM got stuck in was narrow, but it had high slopes,” he said. The others nodded and packed up.

Miranda and the rest of the community came out when Bull alerted the community from the watch tower.

“Well, at least they are paying attention,” Bert said as he swung out of the truck. He waved to Eric and Carlene.

“Took longer than you thought?” Eric asked.

Bert shrugged, hefting his rifle. “No, about what I'd expected. You?” he asked, turning to John as he and Guy climbed out of the rear truck.

“About that, yeah,” John said. He looked over to Guy. The driver was looking at his teenage daughter. Guy shrugged off his daughter's accusing looks. She scowled blackly at Bert and John, then stormed off, clearly in a huff. Guy looked nonplussed.

“You'd think she'd be glad we came home safe,” John said to Bert. “Hey, not a scratch!” he said. “Home safe and sound,” he waved.

“That's not the point John, thanks though,” Guy said, slowly shaking his head.

“Then what is?” John asked.

“I stayed out later than I'd said,” Guy admitted.

Pat suddenly coughed, covering her mouth. They looked over to her. Her eyes were twinkling. “Daddy's in troouubble,” she teased. “Boy you are grounded for staying out past curfew,” she teased. Guy chuckled, shaking his head. The others snorted.