Chapter 5

[West Georgia]

The next day, the three of us went over to Charlie and Robert’s new houses to help them. Both men wanted to set up stations and to clean up the houses making them their own. Charlie had brought wire and coax for antennas. Robert had left his stuff in the wrecked truck. Shirley told him to check out our garage for equipment, antennas, and antenna parts. Also, we could get wire in town along with furniture and food. Robert was knowledgeable about farming and farm animals. He was really more interested in checking out the farming potential of his new home. Ted came over after lunch and he and Robert talked about land and animals. They made plans to stock Robert’s farm with cattle and horses. We helped Charlie, Sylvia, and Michelle work on the houses and set the radios and antennas. Shirley invited everyone to dinner at our house. I didn’t know it but she had contacted Mary who volunteered to cook the meal.

It was a great meal and we had a good time. Robert and Ted had both developed an interest in Mary. It looked like “Uncle” Charlie might have to fight off Sylvia at some point. I didn’t think he would fight hard if at all. Michelle was, like Janice, something of a third wheel because of her age. I thought that Shirley had better be right about finding more younger men.

After dinner, we retired to the radio room for our net. Everyone called in with their news. Mitch was back as was Jack. Jack had seen signs of people on his trip but hadn’t seen any people. We talked a bit about how to recruit more people. We closed the net. Shirley tuned to forty meters and listened to 7.185, a popular frequency in the US before the Day.

“Shhh! There’s someone out there with a weak signal.” She said. “Station calling CQ, this is Shirley, K4SAA, in west Georgia. Come back.”

“K4SAA, this is K0EGR, Michael, in Kearney, Nebraska. Please come in.” [Ed. note: Hams would pronounce Michael’s call, K Zero E G R. Zero is always zero and “O” is always a letter.]

“Michael, this is Shirley. I have you four by six. We can read you. How are things where you are?”

“We are okay but there are only four of us. We need to join with more people. Go ahead.”

“Michael, we have a good sized group here and I believe you would be welcomed. Please tell us the makeup of your group.”

“I’m Michael and forty-two. My wife, Cindy, is forty-one. Our two children are Mike, eighteen, and John, who is sixteen. Our parents were both dead from accidents before the Day. We haven’t found any of our uncles, aunts, or cousins. We are both only children and so have no siblings.”

I nodded at Shirley. Janice and Michelle were both smiling happily. She said, “That’s great! Michael, what did you and Cindy do before the Day?”

“I was a mechanical engineer working for a machining facility. Cindy was a dietitian for a large company running their cafeteria and internal food services.”

“Michael, I have to check with other family members in our community but would be shocked if there were a problem. My husband and I are also engineers. The area here is primarily farming. We are trying to form a community big enough to survive long term and to keep technology alive over time.”

“That sounds good. We have been planning to leave for somewhere. We are in contact with one other family here or, at least, part of it and they want to leave also. The mother died of the virus but the father was an employee at the machine shop where I worked and is a great machinist. He has two teenagers, a girl and a boy. They would come with us, too.”

“Michael, that sounds great! While I must still talk to the others, start the process of heading this way. I suggest that you use two trucks or SUV’s and mount HF and two-meter radios in each of them. Please check in with us each night at eight o’clock eastern time on 3.970 on eighty meters.”

“Roger, Shirley. We will do all of that and I will talk to you tomorrow evening. Michael, K0EGR, will be clear on your final. 73.”

“73, Michael. Shirley, K4SAA, clear and QRT.”

She turned to me, “Wow! That will help things a lot!”

“Huh?” I intelligently replied.

“Think about Janice and Michelle.” she whispered.

“Oh!” I responded. “It will also be good to get another engineer, a machinist, and a dietitian to help out with skills. It’s a long way from Nebraska though.”

Janice grinned at Shirley big time and she grinned back.

That was it for the day and we all disbursed to our homes and beds. Shirley and I said that we were going into town tomorrow to start our hunt for water wheel parts. As we went into our room, Janice said that she was going to work the radio for new contacts. As I made love to Shirley that night, I had an appreciation of what Janice and some of the others were missing.

The next morning dawned with bright sun and we cleaned up and dressed. Janice was in the kitchen when we came in. We joined her for coffee and instant oatmeal. As I drank hot coffee and ate my oatmeal that was heated in the microwave, I realized how dependent we were in so many small ways for electrical power. We cleaned our bowls and cups and left Janice to call “CQ” for the day.

We went into Carrollton and stopped at a hardware store that also sold solar accessories hoping that they would have or would have leads on water wheel generation. We were in real luck as they had a small, complete water wheel generator in parts in the back of the store. We would need more if we wanted to power more than our house. However, in reading the materials with the kit, Shirley and I ran the numbers and confirmed that it would work for us.

“Jack, once we get one working and are off the power grid, your folks and the rest will get on board.”

“I agree, Shirl. Let’s look at this as a pilot program. Eventually, we will wind up in Atlanta or somewhere for more or bigger pieces. I think if we can get bigger generators, we will have to learn more about power generation because there would be more power than one farm would use. It would not efficient for one household to have a big generator.”

We loaded what we found into my truck and headed home. Once there, we checked with Janice. She hadn’t made any new contacts but had heard from Ollie. They were in a big SUV with radios and all their belongings headed our way.

They had seen no one in getting the SUV and supplies though they could see some signs of others scavenging. They figured two to three days for the trip. Her contact was on forty meters and they weren’t sure they could get through on eighty meters tonight but would try and listen anyway. She said she told him she would call after the net on forty for him.

We unloaded the truck and I looked over two projects that needed attention. I decided to move on the computer project first because I could finish it quickly and others could do the rest of that work. Once that had begun, I figured to start on our dam and water wheel.

I told Shirley what I was going to do and went in the garage and got started. A few minutes later, Shirley and Janice came in and started helping. It was obvious that Janice knew a lot about computers. As she worked, she told Shirley and me that her school had a lab and she was allowed to work in it to help. She smiled sadly, “I performed oral sex on the teacher and he was always willing to have me help and to teach me about computers. I enjoyed learning about the computers and he was not nasty to me nor did he make a lot of demands upon me. I already had a reputation so it didn’t really make any difference. My mom found out but didn’t do anything after I asked her not to.”

Shirley was close to her and gave her a hug. “Well, that won’t happen here. Jack is a good man and has a jealous wife.” She grinned. Janice’s smile back was much less sad. We all continued to work and soon had everything hooked up and working. We set up the computers without passwords so using them wouldn’t be difficult. I hooked up the router and connected it to our home connection to the Internet. It all worked which was a nice surprise. It took so long because we had to put together desks and mount the computers. Shirley got our papers and laid a big subject page upon each desk.