Chapter 6

“We have a surprise for you. Come with us.”

I was being pulled along by a couple of hotties who might have been twins. Visions of the things we might do together danced through my head.

“What is it?”

“It’s a surprise, Silly”.

It certainly was. The bus that had been hanging over the edge of the drop-off was now completely back in the road and had been moved to a safe parking spot. I had been convinced that the front wheels would never see the road surface again, based on our lack of engine power and the extremely difficult position of the bus.

Not only was it in an ideal position, but I could see activity which appeared to be transforming the vehicle from a bus to a dormitory. How was all this possible? I looked quizzically at my twin partners.

“Silly, we simply dug ramps down to the front wheels so they did not have to be lifted vertically over the edge of the berm. That reduced the energy required for moving by a factor of 837.2%.”

“Wait just a minute. You girls may be certified geniuses, but you can’t reduce anything by 837.2%. It is a mathematical impossibility.”

“Oh, very well. If you want to be pedantic about it, the energy requirement was reduced to 1/8.372. Instead of having to lift a couple of tons of dead weight to raise the wheels, we transformed the energy requirement to a simple ramp exercise. Instead of needing vertical lift, which we could not manage, we transformed the problem into one of horizontal force, which we could manage.”

“Still and all, that would have taken more force than the truck could have provided. How could you possibly have created that much force? Besides, the truck doesn’t work now, right?”

“Divide and conquer.”

“Huh?”

“We were taught that a good approach to any problem is to break it down from an insolvable problem to a collection of smaller, solvable problems. We simply applied the combined strength of all fifteen of us to the problem.”

“Is that all it took? Surely you couldn’t pull more than around a hundred pounds, each. Even that would be impressive. I would have thought that you would need more than 1500 pounds of force for that job.”

“As we said, divide and conquer. We also used the block and tackle that we conveniently brought with us. Our mentor always told us to cheat as often as possible by using force amplification techniques, for instance. There were many potential uses for a block and tackle that we could visualize, so we made sure we had one in our kit.”

“Wow! Beauty, brains and amplified strength. I am impressed. What about the other activity I can see going on?”

“We designed containers for the goods we brought with us that could be reused for various needs that we could anticipate. The seats have been removed from the bus, leaving a large open space, which we are now transforming into a dormitory. It will be where most of us will sleep.”

“Oh, I was sort of...”, I drifted off a bit.

“Oh, Gramps. Don’t be silly. You won’t be able to handle more than three of us at a time in your bed, so the rest of us need a place to sleep. If you look inside, you will see twelve bunks, using the bus seat cushions as mattresses.”

I relaxed a bit, now that my solitary sleeping concerns had been addressed.

“What about the panels that are being assembled outside?”, I wondered.

“Those are the shells of the transport containers. They are being used to make dressing rooms and bathroom enclosures and will be connected to the bus through a covered passage so we can move back and forth without having to go out into the weather. We don’t want to have to run through the rain to take a leak in the middle of the night.”

“It looks like you have certainly done a thorough job of planning. Give me a rundown on the rest of your plans, if you will. I am so impressed with your state of preparedness.”

“Ok, just sit over here and relax. Cici, you and Didi sit on Gramps’ lap while I give him a review. Ok?”

“Sure. Can we play with him while you talk?”

“As long as he pays attention to what I am saying. If his eyes begin to roll up into his head, then back off till he starts breathing easy. Got it?”

“Got it.” They each grabbed a handful and began playing.

“All right, Gramps. Here is what we did to prepare for the end of civilization as we knew it. Again, we divided the problem into a series of smaller problems and assigned teams to each one. We knew that we would be needing food, clothing and shelter, but not in that order of priority. We assumed that the less clothing we wore around you, the better you would like it. Was that a good assumption?”

“You bet, although that wasn’t much of a stretch, so you don’t get as much credit for that as for working out a solution for getting the bus back on the road.”

She went on. “Food and shelter requirements became the highest priorities, with shelter being more of a one time problem, and food being an ongoing requirement. Then we subdivided food requirements into the broad areas of hunting/gathering and farming. Water was another consideration with an ongoing requirement.”

“I assume that you brought water collection and storage supplies and equipment.”

“Yes. The bus has water storage tanks capable of holding 1000 gallons, which is enough for a few days, depending on how we manage it. Later, you will see that we have several large tarpaulins that will be used to guide rainfall into the storage tanks. We also brought water purification tablets and test kits, plus a supply of bleach for cleaning and disinfecting.

We checked the average rainfall for this area and it was reported as having the highest level of annual rainfall in the US, at about 60 inches per year. It rains more here than in the Everglades. However, half or more is in the form of light rain or mist, so we need to make sure we set up to capture both light and heavy rainfall. Are you listening to me, Gramps?”

“Ah, uh, sure. Cici and Didi just got the best of me there for a minute. Now I’m all ears again, or mostly so. Please continue.”

“Very well. Girls, please be gentle with Gramps. You don’t want to break it. It is the only one we have.”

“Sorry, Patience”, they intoned in harmony.

Patience forged ahead. “We also plan to dig a catchment basin to take the overflow when the holding tanks are full, as well as rainfall diverted through small ditches we will dig to guide it. Water from the catchment basin can be used for irrigation, if needed, as well as other uses that do not require sanitary water.”

“It appears that everything you have done so far is exactly in line with what I had planned to do, except that I never got around to it.”

“You don’t have to worry about those things any more, Gramps. We will take care of you.”