Vaxdemic Book 2 Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Life is strangely familiar again. I haven’t seen the sun in a week, all my meals are delivered, and I spend my days sleeping and working. The biggest difference is I have someone to share it with. Garv and I are working to finish the generator the war rages on outside. According to Matt we’ve lost three men. I’d gotten to know the first crew at the dam pretty well, but when I asked Matt the names of the fallen, I didn’t recognize them. I felt like I should be upset, but I can’t seem to stir anything inside me for faceless people I haven’t seen. We’re not without victories. We’ve taken five of theirs for every one of ours. We’ve also captured some of their supplies, not that we need more stuff. Matt has laid in so much ammo and food we could last two years at the current rate.
What won’t last two more years is the dam. Three of the five working spillways are in use. It’s a little hard to sleep with the constant sound of running water, knowing what that water means. If the water tops the dam, the room we’re in will start to flood, and who knows how much damage that could cause with the generator in pieces. To make matters worse our assailants have been releasing floating trash upstream. We’ve been able to prevent most of it from reaching the spillways. A half inflated basketball somehow made it into the lowest spill way. We were convinced it was jammed, but when the water reached the third the backet ball fired out the other side of the dam like a cannon ball in the middle of the night. We thought we were under attack at first, until we heard water moving through the first spill way again.
There is some good news. The guy we sent with the broken bearing had returned. Matt’s son found two replacements in the industrial machinery we’d salvaged. The man who brought it back was shot in the leg for his efforts, but Matt says he’ll recover. We’re still receiving supplies, but the shipments are less frequent. Fortunately, we now have everything we need to put the generator back together.
It took us a long time to seal the inside with the protective paint Matt provided. Even longer to verify it was as thick as it needed to be. Several times we had to sand down spots, and several times we went too far and had to repaint a section and try again. It’s been a frustrating process that’s caused us no end of pain and frustration. Finally, it’s done. The new bearing has been fitted and housed, and the turbine has been cleaned sanded and resealed. The time has come to start rebuilding the generator.
Here's where the trouble is starting. Garv and I can’t put the turbine back in by ourselves, in fact to make sure it’s done right we’ll need more people than we used to take it out. We can’t afford to scratch the sealant or dent the blades. This means pulling people from the defenses for as long as it takes. With the dam under constant watch by the enemy how do we do this without them noticing the draw down.
We had a man fall asleep last week while on wall duty. The enemy took advantage and blew a huge hole in the wall. It was only by luck the defenders rallied and were able to stop a breach. It took two days to fill the hole and a lot of convincing for Matt not to hang the man who fell asleep. Luckily no one on our side died. This has made the idea of any draw down daunting.
Matt however has an idea. Scavenging some gear from enemy corpses and the timers we found from their first ploy he’s been making fake soldiers that can fire into the woods at random intervals. They won’t survive a daylight inspection, but he hopes setting them up late at night might be enough to buy us a few hours. I have my doubts, but I can think of no better plans. One night of particularly heavy rain we put his plan into motion.
Around 2 am I was awoken by Matt and ten of his men coming down stairs ready to get started. The process was more complicated than last time. The holds we used before could not be used again since we were afraid of marring the paint. The turbine also didn’t want to stay level. We need it to enter the bearing perfectly straight, or we risk breaking the bearing and the shaft. It took two hours to find a way to lift the turbine that would keep it level and not mess up the work we’ve done.
Once airborne we began the slow process of moving it into place. The men around us were jumpy. Every so often you could hear one of the bigger guns go off and I could see the men fighting the impulse to run to the walls. It took us another hour to position the turbine properly. Garv and myself even had to crawl under it to verify. I’m sure I’ll have nightmare for years to come about being sliced up by the turbine as a chain broke and it dropped on us. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. More shots could be heard as we slowly lowered the fragile metal construct into its housing. After what felt like a week we heard the thud that meant the shaft had reached the bottom.
After some initial sighs of relief Matt and his men rushed upstairs. Needing a breather ourselves and seeing an opportunity to ask forgiveness rather than permission, Garv and I followed. At least we could spend a few minutes in the greenhouse, or so we thought. Upon reaching the top of the stairs we could hear the shots weren’t coming from the wall, but rather from the lake side of the dam. Everyone rushed to the edge. Coming across the water toward the dam were boats. At first, I didn’t recognize them. Our attackers had covered the top and front with improvised armor, angled to deflect shots.
Matt scoffed and shouted for them to bring out the big guns. I retreated inward as they brought out the massive long guns that required stands and bipods. I covered my ears with some hearing protection Matt had provided, but the cacophony of a dozen large bore rifles still hit me like invisible waves. Several of the greenhouse windows cracked as they unloaded their magazines. When the firing was done several of the men started to curse. I ventured a look over the edge. The armor and the boats had been dented but the boats had not stopped. Even Matt looked defeated.
Garv however was bouncing up and down like a small child and frantically patting Matt on the shoulder trying to get his attention. Matt snapped at him, but Garv leaned close and whispered something in his ear. Matt asked Garv if he was sure, and when Garv nodded an evil smile spread across Matt’s face. “Alright, let’s get em.”
Matt and Garv dashed for his room and quickly shut the door behind them. Several of the men remaining reloaded and tried shooting the unarmored sides of the boats, but the whoever was driving them kept the armor to the dam, and the sides suffered little damage. The boats weren’t shooting back. I wondered what they could be planning when I remembered the explosives. What if they were just trying to get close enough to attach something to the dam? I started to panic. Frantically I tried to think of something, smacking my head when no ideas came. Maybe I could knock an idea loose.
Soon Matt was back with a box of strange bracelets. He gave on to each of us and then ordered his men to make sure everyone else had one. The men looked confused but rushed off to do as they were told. He was still smiling when they left. I was panicked and confused. I asked Matt what they were planning. He just smiled and didn’t answer. I started to yell. Obviously, he didn’t realize they were coming to blow up the dam. They weren’t far off. In a few minutes they would be underneath us and then we would be screwed. Matt continued to smile.
Matt’s men came back and told him everyone was wearing a bracelet. Matt laughed and said, “Tell Farkas to let them fly.” One of the men raced off. From the little field next to Garv’s building I heard him yell, “Seek and destroy!” The air was filled with the buzzing of drones. A dozen little quadcopters came into view. A few stopped, looked at us, then turned away toward the boats. In a minute’s time they were level with the unarmored sides. They hovered just long enough for me to hear a confused curse from the men on the boats before the drones flew inside the armor.
BOOM! The boats were replaced with fireballs, and bits of plastic were raining from the sky. Garv stood atop his building laughing like a supervillain. “No one attacks the home of Lord Garv Farkas!”
Bob Stackey
June 12 2024