Survivors

Just over three years had passed since Roger Barratt and his extended family took over the farm in rural Kentucky following a train wreck on the holiday of a lifetime after scooping an enormous win on the National Lottery, back home in Devon, England. When they crawled out of the wrecked train it was to find all their fellow passengers dead, and by the look of them, for some considerable period of time. It took them some time to accept that the world they knew was no more and when they did discover that, and despite all the evidence that suggested this, they all found it hard to believe, and it wasn`t until they discovered an elderly couple in a small town near the farm, several months later that they finally began to accept that the whole world had changed and more surprisingly, that they had all been unconscious for fifty years. The farm had changed almost out of all recognition since they had been there, with vast improvements being carried out by the younger members of the family. The farm was now flourishing with lots of fresh crops and fruit growing. They also now had a large herd of cattle which provided milk and this was made into butter and cheese by the younger women. There were also sheep, goats, pigs and chickens which provided an endless supply of eggs and rabbits which could be used for food as well. They had a decent garden, an orchard and a water mill which helped as well by providing hydro-electric power, in addition to solar panels and wind turbines, so the farm was entirely self-sufficient. They had a large fleet of vehicles of various types as well as boats out on the river. In the early days they had been out foraging stores and equipment most days and had built up vast stocks of everything they needed, by raiding all sorts of long disused warehouses and depots. They had a quarry on the land that they now considered their own, long disused but still with around seven thousand tons of ready quarried gravel, there for whenever they wanted it. There was an oil depot some forty miles away and a couple of family members usually went there about once a month to replenish their stocks of petrol and diesel, in huge road tankers that they swapped on every visit, taking in empties and bringing back full tankers. There were enough full tankers at the depot to provide enough fuel for probably ten years and plenty more in huge storage tanks which they would use when all the full tankers were empty The old world had ended in 2016, when an asteroid had collided with the Earth, causing unimaginable chaos all across the globe, with a shift in the planet`s axis which caused severe earthquakes and storms which accidently triggered the nuclear deterrents of many countries simultaneously, which wiped out a good portion of the world population.

This was followed not long after by an extremely virulent viral infection which pretty much took care of everyone else, leaving the world’s population practically extinct, with only a few survivors, many of these surviving by being underground for years. At around this time the aliens from space had arrived and virtually taken over the world, and they now had outposts scattered across the country all nearly two hundred miles apart, and no doubt the same all across the planet. Their settlements were protected by some kind of invisible barrier that no one could penetrate. Roger`s family group had had a brief contact with the aliens over two years before, but there had been no further communication and the aliens left them alone. One of the major jobs they had done within the first three months or so had been to clear roads on the farm, laying gravel surfaces and a good portion were concrete, some in better condition than others, as well as widening the road entrance to the farm to accommodate their larger vehicles. Now after two quite hard winters, the gravel was showing signs of wear and a couple of the roads had become impassable following the previous winter`s snow fall.

“You know I`ve been thinking”, Alec said over dinner one evening, “The roads were fine when we first laid the gravel but as you know it`s not wearing very well. I think we might have to consider resurfacing the whole lot this summer”.

“I had the same thought”, Des replied, That`ll be a good few weeks work if we all chip in, cutting out the gravel, making it good in places and preparing it for concreting. John, how much cement do we still have in stock”?

“At a guess, without looking it up on the computer, around a hundred tons”.

“I thought you`d say that, that won`t be enough. How much was left in the old builder`s merchants store last time you went there, Sheryl”?

“None, we cleared it out, if you remember we considerably overloaded the curtain-sider”!

“Yes, that`s right. I think we`ll have to look in the trusty old phone book again and try and find a cement works somewhere or failing that, another large builder`s merchants”.

“How much do you think we`re short by”? Pierre asked.

“If we`re doing all the roads, as Alec suggests, we`re well short. We`ll probably need around another five hundred tons at least”.

“Quite a decent load then, doesn`t sound too bad when you say it quickly”! Pierre replied ruefully.

“Well that’s sorted out then, it`ll be like old times”, Roger put in, “you two going off getting supplies and stuff. Just a suggestion here, with that amount of concrete to mix, do you think you could get hold of a bigger mixer, that little one we`ve got only mixes enough to lay a six foot by eight foot patch”.

“Good point, leave that with us”.

“When do you intend going out to try and locate some cement”? Anita asked.

“As soon as possible I suppose, if we`re going to do the job, we just as well get on with it, then we`ll have all spring to work on it if need be, but as long its done before harvest it`ll be okay as Roy`s tractor will still get through the bad patches to plough the lower fields and sow seed, it`s just the combine that`ll need a better surface. I`ll get the phone book out and try and find something when we`ve finished dinner”.

“What vehicle will you take”? Tammy asked.

“Something small to start with, no point taking a big truck until we know what we can get and from where, why do you fancy a trip out again”?

“Yes I do actually, I`m sure Sheryl and Anita are up for it as well. It`s been a long winter with us not going anywhere other than the quarry”.

“Okay, we`ll take the mini-bus, there`s plenty of room for all of us in that”.

Des retired to a sofa after dinner with the telephone directory and the map to try and find a cement works, hopefully not too far away. After a while he found what looked like a decent place to start, a cement works in Toledo, Ohio.

“The good news is I`ve found a cement works, the bad news is it`s in Toledo, Ohio which is three hundred and sixty miles away. The next nearest one if that proves no good is up on the shores of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota which is even further away at nearly nine hundred miles. There`s a commercial vehicle dealers in Pittsburgh which might well have a truck mounted cement mixer and that`s nearly four hundred and fifty miles away from here, so it`s going to be a long haul”.

“Just a suggestion here”, Roy interjected, “Why don`t I get someone to drive me to Pittsburgh and hopefully get a mixer truck while the rest of you go the cement works to have a look at it and see if it`s suitable, Carina can handle the cattle for a couple of days, can`t you”?

“Yes, of course I can, there`s only sixty three milkers at the moment, so no problem. The boys can give me a hand cleaning out”.

“Okay, that’s sorted, who are you taking along as your driver”?

“I`ll go with Roy if you want”, Tammy put in, “Then you can take the Range Rover instead of the mini-bus. I`ll take the Toyota pick-up if that’s all right with everybody”?

“That sounds ideal to me”, Des replied.

“I take it that you`ll all want overnight rations then”, Zane stated,

“Yes please, that would be great”, Sheryl replied.

“Do you know what you`re looking when you find the dealership”? Tammy asked.

“Yes, pretty good idea, the largest mixer we can find mounted on a truck. I remember seeing them in Washington when we were there years ago in the old world, some are really big, they were working on some new development there, and the ones that stick in my mind are as big as the curtain-sider, so if we can find one of them it would be ideal”.

Take some extra fuel in the Toyota”, Pierre said, “We`ll do the same as well. We don`t want to run out and get stranded. Des, if you`ve finished, we`d better make sure both vehicles are filled up and fill some jerry-cans for each of them”.

“Yes, good point, let`s do it”.

“I`ll sort you out a couple of tents and some sleeping bags, neither of the vehicles you`re taking are really suitable for spending a night out”. John said.

“Thanks, John that would be great”.

“Tamsin, could you come over here a minute please”, Des said.

Tamsin came over and sat on the arm of the sofa.

“What`s up”?

“Have a quick look at these two routes for me please. Are they okay or are there any settlements we need to be aware of”?

Tamsin took the map and Des`s hand written route instructions and took them both over to the table where she spread the map out. After studying the map and instructions for a few minutes she came back to the sofa.

“The direct routes to both the places you want are no good. There`s an alien settlement at Dayton which affects both your routes. I think for Toledo you`ll have to go via Louisville, Bloomington and Fort Wayne and for Pittsburgh you`ll have to travel via Huntington and Morgantown. I don`t know the distances, I don`t know how to work them out”.

“Thanks, Tamsin that’s a great help. Sit down properly on the sofa and I`ll show you how to work out the distances”, Des replied.

“Why don`t you come with Roy and me and you can navigate”, Tammy said.

“Yes please mum, what about Taylor, she can read a map as well as me”?

“I don`t want to go”, Taylor put in, “I`m going to stay here and help Carina, Alfie and Jason look after the cattle”.

“Okay, that was easily sorted out”, Carina replied.