Mountain Home

[Superman]

OK...MORE!!! NOW!!! :P

[Christian for Israel]

superman, thanks for the comments and interest! you can't imagine what they mean to a writer...without them there is no motivation at all to keep going.

in answer to your points, when i re-write it i intend to add a prologue and combine several of the first (too short) chapters into one or two. of course, before i can get to that point i have to finish it. :lol:

the diesel generator came out of a locomotive and is only for back-up. power normally comes from a small hydro-electric plant a few miles away. as for the size of the unit, check out this link for some different railroad diesels: http://membrane.com/~elmer/rail/product.html

as for vehicles, jack is somewhat excentric. he has a bunch of unusual vehicles in his collection. also, while he considers himself a survivalist he's a bit underprepared in some areas. :lol:

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 15

Finally, the day came that Eric soloed in the greyhound. He spent his first flight practicing take-offs and landings, sharpening his skills. After several hours of this, with Jack watching from the ground the whole time, he brought it in for a landing and taxied up to the elevator pad, folding the wings as he came. Shutting down, he emerged from the big plane with a huge grin on his face, "man that's fun!" He said.

As they started getting the plane put away, he turned to Jack and said "there's something funny about that field Jack, it feels rock hard. A couple of times I landed kinda hard, but the plane didn't sink in like I thought it would."

"Well," Jack replied "that's because it's really a concrete runway."

The boy looked at him funny and said "how's that?"

Smiling at his inside joke, Jack said "remember, I built this place to attract as little attention as possible. When I put in the runway I had it built of reinforced concrete, but set half a foot lower than the surrounding ground. then I had top soil spread over it and a layer of sod put in place. The result is a firm, smooth runway that doesn't LOOK like a runway. In fact, even thermal imaging satellites would have a hard time spotting it unless they knew where to look. the same goes for the hangar, but it has two feet of dirt on top."

Looking at him with even more respect, if that were possible, the boy said "that makes sense, no wonder it felt like rock. how big is the actual runway then?"

"It's six thousand feet long, and a hundred wide." Jack replied.

"Sounds like anything could land there."

"Not quite, I wouldn't try landing a passenger jet, although many of them are rated for smaller runways."

As they finished putting the plane away, the two men went inside, talking shop.

Later that day, Jack was thinking about the fuel problem again. In reality there wasn't much of a problem with the avgas for the moment. He had ten thousand gallons in the tank, and it was stabilized to last for at least five years. They only had two aircraft that used it, the para-glider and the ultra-light, and a few ground vehicles, which consisted of two atv's, three Max six wheel utility vehicles, and a couple of dirt bikes. there was Eric's old truck, but they wouldn't be using that very much. All in all, he doubted they'd run out before it started going bad. He knew that eventually they'd need a new source of fuel, and that was one of his problems.

The jet fuel situation wasn't so good. all of the other aircraft he owned used it, and he only had twenty thousand gallons on hand. He knew they could get more, and he intended to do that soon, but in time, that too would go bad and need to be replaced with new. He also had fifty thousand gallons of diesel fuel for the trucks and back-up generator, but it wouldn't work in the aircraft, except for the kestrel, he reminded himself. Diesel fuel was pretty much the same thing as jet fuel, but it wasn't clean enough and would clog up the engines fast.

Remembering that he'd seen something on the internet about a guy who produced a kind of crude oil in a new process, from garbage, Jack decided to see if he'd saved the pages on his computer. Going back to his apartment, he sat down in front of the terminal and started looking. It didn't take very long to find what he was looking for, but he also found something that completely blew him away!

Several hours later, Jack emerged from his room and made his way to the dining room. the rest of the gang was there, getting ready to have dinner, and Jack addressed them all. "You wouldn't believe what I found on our computer." he exclaimed.

At his outburst, the others gathered around, asking what he was talking about.

"Ok, first let me explain something," Jack said. "A couple of years ago, one of the bulletin boards where some of my friends were posting ran into financial trouble. At the time they were asking for donations, but I contacted the board owner and offered to host the board on my server for free. He agreed, and after getting it all set up I forgot all about it. Well apparently, since the server never went down, even though the net itself did, all the board files are still on it. That includes all the news articles that were posted right up until the net crashed. I've just spent several hours going over those news posts, and they seem to have had a pretty good idea of what caused the plague."

At that, Jack found a chair and plopped down wearily.

Looking at the expectant faces all around him, he continued. "From the news releases the government put out, along with speculation from some analysts I trust, it looks like it was the US that started it all with a bio-weapon they developed. The articles said that somehow the french got a hold of it. They changed it, making it worse,and then some french scientist went to work for the terrorist organization Al-Quada. He brought the new and improved virus with him, and Al-Quada organized it's release from a dozen cities around the world, at the same time."

Jack looked at the faces around him. There were looks of anger and sadness, but none of disbelief. Shaking his head, he went on.

From what the reports said, the virus was designed to mimic the common cold. As it was released around the first of March, cold symptoms weren't suspicious. The symptoms continued for ten days to two weeks, then got much worse and ended up killing the person. The report from the CDC said that it was one hundred percent lethal, once you were exposed. Also, it was an airborne bug, and could live outside a host for at least forty-eight hours. All of that combined to enable it to travel everywhere in the world before anyone realized what was happening, and the last reports I saw before we lost the net said that the communicability rate was estimated to be between ninety-eight and ninety-nine percent. They said at that time as many as four billion were dead, including most in the middle-east by the way, and the rest were sick. That was the last report, posted on the eleventh of March. that's the day the net ceased to exist."

Stunned at the numbers, although they all knew it had to be that bad, everyone just sat and stared, lost in their own thoughts.

Finally breaking out of her funk, Mel said "well, I have to get dinner out. Pam, would you help me?"

Pam just stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, then said "uh...sure," and got up and followed her.

Dinner was a somber affair that night, but then Jack made another announcement. "Ok, I've been looking at our fuel situation, and it's not good. We've used around three thousand gallons of jet fuel in the past couple of months, out of a total of twenty thousand that I started with. At that rate, we'll have exhausted our supply in about a year. A short term solution will be to go out and get more, but even stabilized, it won't be fit for the planes within five years or so."

Jack looked around and saw he had their attention, and they understood the importance of finding a solution to the problem.

Continuing, he said "Not long ago I was reading an article about a guy who had set up a process to turn garbage into a type of crude oil that could then be refined. The article said that the process gave off distilled water and fertilizer as by-products, and the plant was fairly simple to build and run. That's what I was looking for when I ran across the board files, and I found it. Being curious at the time, I investigated, and have the plans and materials list on the computer. I propose we try and build such a plant, that would ensure that we had a source of fuel for the rest of our lives."

The others looked brighter with this news, and Eric asked "could we really do that?"

"I don't see why not, the process is simple enough. If you want, we can all go to a terminal and I'll send you the information to look over."

With that, Jack, Eric and Mel got up and went to the rec room to look over the information, as they could all have a terminal and stay in the same room to discuss the idea. Robin and Pam cleaned up after the meal, then went up and joined them.

After several hours of discussion, heated at times, they decided to give it a try. Eric wasn't convinced they could do it, but saw no reason not to give it a shot, the benefits would outweigh any trouble they had getting it going. With the decision made, everyone got ready for bed. Pam hung back until the others had walked out, then turned to Jack.

"That's a really good idea, I hope we can get it to work." She said, looking at him and thinking about something totally different.

Jack caught the look she gave him, and found himself having to fight against the urge to take their relationship to a level that neither of them were ready for. Finally overcoming the urge, Jack said "we better get to bed Pam," then leaned over and kissed her briefly on the lips before saying "good night."

Feeling slightly disappointed, but also glad in a way as she now wanted to wait until she was married to go to that level, the girl said goodnight and walked out to the elevator.

After breakfast the next day, Jack said "we need a game plan folks. I believe the first thing we need to do is replace the fuel we've used, and store as much more as we can so that we'll be covered until we get the plant up and running."

Eric spoke up, "So where should we go to get the fuel, and how do we get it here?"

"Well, military jet fuel is already stabilized, saving us the trouble of trying to do it ourselves. So there are two choices, Mountain Home air force base, or Gowen field up in Boise. There's an Idaho air national guard base at the airport up there, and I think it'd be our best bet."

"Why all the way up there?" Mel asked. "Isn't Mountain Home closer?"

"Actually they're about the same distance, but Mountain Home is just an air force base, the national guard base is also home to the army reserves and regular Idaho national guard. It seems to me that, as we will need a way to transport the fuel we find, the guard base would be more likely to have military fuel trucks. Also, there are some airplanes up there I want to take a look at."

"What planes?" Eric chimed in.

"How about an A-10 Warthog for starters, and some C-130's as well."

The boy's eyes got big as saucers and he said "A-10 Warthogs!, Those are great!"

Robin now spoke up "what's a warthog?" She made a face. "It sounds nasty."

"They're great, they're tank killers, and have a humongous gun and bombs and missiles and stuff!" Eric said excitedly.

At this, Mel gave Jack a look and said "what would we ever need something like that for?"

Jack sighed, he could have done without the boy's enthusiasm right now, this was going to be a hard enough sell anyway. "Look at it like this Mel, we'll have to go out occasionally. What if one of these times we get attacked? What if the people attacking us have gotten into a military base also and have an armored vehicle?" Jack knew he was reaching, and the likelihood of anything like that happening was small, but he had always wanted one of the ugly planes, and now was his chance to get one. "With a plane like this, if it were flying above the people on the ground, it wouldn't matter what they had, it could stop them cold!"

Mel knew the look she saw in Jack's eye, she'd seen it often enough in Jerry's. Bowing to the inevitable, she said "Ok, that makes sense. So what's the plan?"

"I thought Eric and I would take the greyhound up there and have a look around. I'd like to have someone else along also, as, if we find what we're looking for, one of us will have to drive it home, and we'll need another person to ride along for protection. And I'd like to have someone up in the kestrel to be able to scout ahead and let the driver know if they're getting into trouble."

"Well," Mel said "You'd probably be the best choice to drive, as you've got experience with trucks like that. That leaves Eric to bring the plane home, and us girls for the other roles. Pam's probably the best shot with either rifle or pistol, so I guess she should ride with you, and me and Robin could be up in the helicopter."

"That sounds good except for one thing," Jack said. "Someone needs to stay here and man the radios and shelter defenses. I know there's not really even a remote chance of us being attacked, but we need to set a precedent now, because that may change in the future."

Everyone thought that sounded good, and they decided to do this the next morning. The rest of the day they spent getting ready, including briefing Robin on handling the defences and radios. Eric was nervous about flying home from so far out, but Jack showed him the radio direction finder in the plane, and said it would bring him to within visual range of the complex. Mel had soloed in the little helicopter the week before, but wanted to take it up one more time to be sure she could handle it on such a long flight. Not that it was very far to Gowen field, only about thirty miles, but she wasn't used to leaving sight of the complex. She also had one of the direction finders, tuned to home in on the greyhound.

Finally, all the preparations were made, and everyone decided to turn in early, tomorrow would be a busy day.

[Christian for Israel]

Chapter 16

The next morning after breakfast, Mel, Pam and Eric headed for the hangar while Jack went to the garage silo. Arriving and realizing the mog was still on the pad, he went to the toyota and moved it on into the maintenance bay, then moved the mog into the tunnel. Now that the elevator was clear he raised the pad up to the next level and selected a four seat Max and a trailer. Hooking them together and driving them onto the pad, he raised them to the top, noticing that the others had gotten the greyhound up to the surface already. Driving over to the plane he saw the kestrel rising up on the hangar elevator pad, with Mel standing next to it. As he arrived, Pam asked him why he was bringing the Max.

"Well, it's a long way from the runway to the national guard armory, I'd rather not walk if I don't have to."

Remembering that she'd be going with him, Pam thought that was a pretty good idea.

Working together, they got the vehicles loaded and tied down quickly. Jack and Eric went to the cockpit and started the engines while the girls found seats in the cabin. Calling Robin and letting her know they were leaving, Jack advanced the throttles and was soon airborne.

Sitting in the control room, Robin was thinking that she'd been foolish to stop her flight training at the ultra-light. If she'd gone on to the kestrel like the others, it could have been her up there going on this trip, getting involved instead of being stuck back at the shelter. She resolved never to give up a chance to learn something again, whether she was interested in it or not. Who knew when something she had learned might prove useful to the rest of the group.

It was a short flight to Gowen field, and Jack never got higher than five hundred feet. Flying low and slow over the city of Boise, he didn't see anything moving, but experience had taught him that didn't necessarily mean anything. Circling the airport and seeing nothing dangerous, he set the plane down and rolled to a stop. As soon as he shut down, everyone got up and off-loaded the vehicles. With Eric and Mel staying to watch the plane, Jack and Pam got in the Max and took off towards the national guard buildings, looking for the motor pool.

They found it within fifteen minutes, and Jack immediately saw what he was looking for. The truck was called a HEMTT-LHS. It was a ten wheel drive vehicle equipped with the pallatized Load System (PLS), which enabled it to carry a three thousand gallon tank of fuel, and pull a trailer with another three thousand gallons. It could also off-load the tank and be fitted with either a box or flatbed for use as a regular freight truck. Adding to that was the fact that it was designed as an all terrain vehicle, and therefore was perfect for their needs. In the motor pool there were four of them with their trailers, along with several extra tanks and other assorted gear.

Also in the yard were several five ton six-by-six's, and some hummers. Jack noticed that the hummers had .50 cal Browning machine guns mounted, and he started thinking about trying to mount one on the kestrel to give it some bite. It would mean that the small craft would only be able to carry one person with the added weight of the gun, but it would be possible to then use it as an escort vehicle instead of just for observation. They were all aware that the area outside the complex lived by the law of the jungle, and if they were going to survive in it, they were just going to have to adapt.

Setting aside his thoughts for the moment, he walked over to one of the tankers and tried the door. Of course it was locked. Next he tried the armory itself, and after shooting out the lock with his rifle, walked in along with Pam, and started to look around. Inside, past the office spaces, there was a large empty warehouse sized room. Along the walls of the room were cages built with cyclone fence, and containing crates of equipment. Going back to the offices, they started going through them. In the third one they found a metal box mounted on the wall and, hoping it was a key box, Jack began prying at it with his knife.

"Next time We go out to do something like this, remind me to bring a crow bar and bolt cutters, ok?" He said to Pam.

Smiling at him and trying not to giggle, she said she would try.

Finally, the box came open, and it was indeed the key box. Inside were vehicle keys with the serial number to the vehicle on the tags. Also in the box were padlock keys, and Jack was hopeful that they would fit the locks on the cages in the other room. Remembering his priorities, he took the vehicle keys and they returned to the yard to try them out.

Jack walked up to the first HEMTT, found the key that matched the serial number on the truck, and unlocked it. Climbing inside, he tried to start it and, although it turned over slowly, it refused to start. Climbing back out he looked around until he found where the batteries were mounted. Of course, it was a twenty-four volt system, but he hoped the added power from the Max battery would be enough to boost it and start the truck. Pulling the Max over, he connected the battery cables he remembered to bring, and got back into the vehicle to try it again. This time it fired up, and they were good to go. As Pam got the Max out of the way, Jack backed up to a trailer and hooked up. Then, going slow so Pam could keep up, he headed for the tank farm to fill the truck and trailer with fuel.

Twenty minutes later they drove back to the plane, and Jack told everyone they were good to go.

"Pam, why don't you let me and Eric take the Max back over to the armory. I want to go through those storage rooms and see if there's anything useful in them."

"Aww, if I have to." the girl said. Reluctantly getting up.

The two men quickly got aboard, returned to the armory and went inside. At the back of the room was a roll-up door, which they opened. Going back out to the Max, Jack drove it around to the door and into the building. Then they started opening cages and looking through the contents. In short order they found several cases of M-16 A2's, along with stacks of cases of ammunition. Jack knew they didn't need any more guns, but decided to take a case of rifles anyway. He also put five cases of ammo on the trailer, knowing that he could always return for more later. Next to those were stacked cases of .50 cal ammo, already linked for the Browning machine gun, and Jack grabbed one of these as well.

Seeing this, Eric said "what do you need that for?"

Jack filled him in on his thoughts about arming the little helicopter. The boy got a huge smile on his face, and enthusiastically helped load two more cases.

They looked through the rest of the cages, but didn't find anything else they wanted, and soon drove back out to the yard, closing up the place as best they could, and especially locking the cages and taking all the keys. Jack didn't think anyone else would bother coming there, but why take the chance?

Back in the yard, the two looked over a hummer and figured out how to get the machine gun off. Adding it to their load on the trailer, they left and went looking for Warthogs.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Finding the flight line, they soon were looking at two A-10's. both were fully armed and had bombs and missiles hanging off the wings. Jack said "I don't think we need all that ordnance, and I have no idea how to remove it safely. Why don't we keep going and see if we can find some other planes."

Eric agreed, and they kept going. A few minutes later they found what they were looking for. Outside a hangar that Jack guessed was used to house ordnance for reloading, they found a Warthog with nothing on the wings. Looking over the aircraft, Jack figured out how to open the main guns' ammo compartment. He saw that the gun was loaded and ready to go. Next he climbed up and looked in the cockpit.

The cockpit was different from any he'd ever seen before, and suddenly he wasn't so sure he could do this. Jumping down he said to Eric, "now that I've looked inside one of these, I'm not so sure I could figure it out."

Starting to get a disappointed look, Eric said "sure you could, you're a great pilot!"

"I don't know, the controls aren't anything like the greyhound. I've never used half that equipment and if I did the wrong thing I could crash. No, I think it's best we give up on this, at least for now."

Looking really disappointed now, the boy said "aww, I guess...if you're sure." And returned to the max. Turning back, he said "But it is cool looking, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Jack heartily agreed.

As they drove back, Jack noticed the C-130's parked along the side of the tarmac. Turning toward them and stopping, he said "Let's just take a look, ok?"

Eric was game, and soon they were inside one, looking at the cockpit. "Now, this is something I could fly." Jack said.

"You want to take one?" Eric asked.

Considering it for a moment, Jack said "No, not right now. We really don't need one for anything, and we can always come back if that changes."

Not really caring one way or the other, Eric readily agreed.

Eventually they made their way back to the plane. When they got there they found the women had topped off the greyhound's tanks from the truck, and gone back to the tank farm to refill it. Surprised, Jack asked who had driven it.

"Pam did," Mel said. "I rode along, but she did really well, better than I could have done in a million years."

Impressed that the girl would try something like that without someone there to show her how, Jack said, "good for you, do you want to drive it back to the complex while I ride shotgun?"

Happy that Jack was pleased, she said "Sure, if you want me to."

"Go for it." He said.

Looking over the trailer, Mel asked about the 'big gun' as she put it. Jack said "Well, I thought we could mount it to the kestrel and give the pilot a way to actually protect those of us on the ground, instead of just observing."

Mel thought that an excellent idea. "What about that plane, the hog...or whatever you called it? are you going to get it too?"

"No, I decided against it," He said. "I wasn't sure I could teach myself to fly it without killing myself."

Mel gave him an approving look. 'apparently he has more sense than most guys after all', she thought.

As soon as they were set, Eric took off in the greyhound, Mel in the kestrel, and Pam climbed in to the drivers side of the truck. Jack got in the other side, secretly glad to be providing the protection. His H&K was far superior to the little carbine Pam carried. He wondered if he could convince her to move up to one of the full auto M-16's they'd found, if nothing else.

As they started off, he brought the subject up. "Pam, I know you like that carbine, and it's yours to keep, but what would you say to using one of the M-16's we found instead when we go out?"

"Why, is it a better gun?" She asked.

"In some ways, yes." He explained. "It's the military version of the gun Robin carries. One of the features it has is full auto fire. What that means is, when you pull the trigger it fires three times instead of only once. It also penetrates a little better than the carbine's round."

"So, it's better to fire faster?" the girl asked, looking interested.

"Well, it can be. I mean, if you're able to concentrate and use your sights to line up on a target before you fire, it's not any better than semi-auto. But if you instead point the gun in the general direction and shoot hoping to hit something, what we call 'spray and pray', it's better."

"What about a gun like what you carry, why is it better?"

"Well, this gun has a larger, more powerful bullet. It is effective out to about a third of a mile in the right hands, about three times the range of the carbine or the M-16. And, since the bullet is larger and heavier, it'll penetrate light armor better also. The thing is, it has more recoil, and you said you didn't like that."

The girl sat and thought about it for a minute. "Could I try it anyway? I might be able to get used to the kick, and I'd rather have the bigger bullet if it's that much better."

"Sure thing, as soon as we get back you're more than welcome to try both of them, and you can carry whatever you're comfortable with." Jack said, happy that she seemed so willing to try.

By this time they were coming to the fence that surrounded the airport. Calling Mel on the radio, she said there was a gate about half a mile to their left. Pam turned in that direction and soon they came to it. Driving through, they soon came to a road that served the local industrial park, called Orchard st.. Turning right and keeping it slow, they soon made their way to the interstate, where they were able to get up to about forty. Jack didn't want to go any faster as they didn't want to have to stop suddenly. Mel was staying about a mile ahead of them, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.

The whole trip, they never saw a soul, but Jack had an uneasy feeling of being watched until they left the city behind. An hour later they pulled in to the complex, and Jack dropped the trailer off near the aircraft fueling area. then, opening the tank cover, he dumped the contents of the truck's tank into the underground one, filling it all the way up. Happy to have the tank full again, he said to Pam "We can go to back to Gowen in a few days and get another trailer and fill this one up again, but for now I'm happy."

Smiling as she got out of the truck, Pam said "well, if you're happy, I'm happy."

Giving her a wry look, Jack walked with her back into the shelter.

[Christian for Israel]

more pics:

max 6 wheel drive amphibious ATV
[img]http://www.homestead.com/maxatvs/New25hpIVSales.jpg[/img]


kestrel jet helicopter
[img]http://www.vortechonline.com/g1/grfx/kestrel+bldtip%20jet.gif[/img]


HEMTT
[img]http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/images/hemtt.jpg[/img]

[DocOutlands]

I think a .50's recoil would be waaaaaaaay to much for that flying roll-cage. I *might* try mounting an M-240, but I'd be real iffy. And were it me, I'd take a small plane and four people, in order to bring back three trucks in one convoy. Sure that leaves them without shotgun riders, but that's 18 THOUSAND gallons of fuel, three off-road trucks and trailers, and whatever else they can cram into the cabs. (.50 ammo, batteries, etc)

[Christian for Israel]

lol doc. heck, it's only 30 miles away, they can go back any time they like for more stuff. besides, they already have 20,000 gallons at home. :lol:

as to the kestrel...just wait and see. &#58

[Superman]

I can't wait...want...more.&#4 6;. &#58

[DirtPirate]

I hear ya Superman...but I also realize if CfI posts em up too fast...we'll really be Jonesing when we get to the point where he is in the writing....we'll have to actually WAIT for him to write it... :shock:

(but then I think two to three chapters a day would be a nice read too... )

[Superman]

I know what ya mean!

I am asking permission to print this off so I can have my own hard copy...would that be alright CFI??