Chapter 30

OH ... MY ... GOD!!! Santa Clause has visited us again! Cindy and Hank were making a routine aerial sweep over LS3 when they found it. Cindy landed while Hank flew cover, and she was so astounded that she almost fainted. Another of the cargo trimarans had landed in our laps. This was not quite as big a load as the first trimaran, but it was certainly welcome. There were 200 shipping containers that turned out to contain everything necessary to stock a full size shopping mall.

She had Hank radio for "full backup." That meant that she wanted as many people as possible to come to LS3 and help her celebrate the literal windfall of goodies. Our computer expert, Margaret, was air-lifted to the site and immediately began hacking into the computer to get to the manifest. In minutes, she had started printing a shopping list like you wouldn't believe. Every woman who saw the list went wild—there was container after container of CLOTHES!

Most specifically, there were bras! That was the container they wanted opened first. The new forklift drivers, Hattie and Maureen, were sent off to LS3 with a heavy escort to start unloading the cornucopia. The first two steps of the plan for unloading were to establish a defensive perimeter of guns and containers so that we would be safe from carnivores. The second step was to unload that container that held the bras.

When the forklifts arrived, they started unloading containers without regard to what they contained. The intent was simply to unload enough to form a star-shaped fort two containers high that shotgunners could stand on to shoot at attacking carnivores. Air cover would be used to provide the heavy artillery when we needed it.

It took a day and a half to get the first step completed, then we came to the great event that the women had been waiting for: the unloading of the container of bras. Adel and Mable supervised the distribution of the bras; otherwise, surely there would have been fights breaking out. The men had the good sense to stay out of the way and let the women handle the situation themselves.

Lunch that day consisted of sandwiches and coffee prepared by Harriet and her crew who had been recruited with the promise that they would have first chance at finding a bra that fit. It was kind of funny to see women standing around and serving food while wearing nothing but pushup bras, sailcloth aprons, and working boots. The women were not amused.

It was not until the next day that the containers of panties and jockey shorts were opened, but both genders did feel better when those tender areas were finally protected after years of exposure to the elements. The only ones who did not bother with clothes were the children who did not yet need protection and/or support.

Fortunately, when the gold rush was over, there were still plenty of units in the supply, so each person would have several of the items on hand to cover the time when laundry was being washed.

There were plenty of other clothes in the various containers, but nudity had become such a habit that nobody rushed for clothes just for the sake of covering skin or decorating themselves. Of course, work clothes were a different story. Jobs where full body protection was useful or important had those people gratefully digging through packing crates looking for suitable items. The pilots were especially happy to have clothes so that they could fly more than a few hundred feet off the ground without the chance of frost bite in tender areas.

Fortunately, there were several containers of domestic washers and dryers, so every household could have one if it was wanted. Detergent was more of a problem, but Bill promised to work on that as soon as he got back to his laboratory. Wilbur was already calculating the increased water and sewage needs.

Once things calmed down, we recognized the problem of transporting this stuff to LS1, which was still were everybody wanted to live. Amy, Amos, and Zack got together and figured out how to cobble together a tractor from a large motor in the new trimaran and other parts that were lying around. A container was cut in half and a jetski motor was mounted inside. Some wheels were found for the half container to ride on, and the biggest problem was steering. They sweated over that one for a while, but finally came up with a method which required a strong driver, though it did work well enough until they had time to work out a better method. They were limited to 5 MPH, but that sure as hell was better than nothing. Amos was the only one of our people strong enough to steer the monster. The big advantage was that they found enough wheels for three trailers, and that turned out to be the pulling capacity of the tractor when it was fully ballasted.

It took three weeks of hard work by a flock of people to get the tractor ready, but Amos was finally able to make his first trip from LS3 to LS1 with two containers and a forklift. The forklifts had been hard at work unstacking the containers from the trimaran while the tractor was under construction, so that only one was now needed at LS3. Therefore, one forklift would remain at LS3 to load the containers onto wheels, and the other forklift would be returned to LS1 to unload the containers.

A schedule had been worked out as to which containers would be emptied first and which containers would be left untouched because the contents were not currently needed. The latter group of containers would be the last ones to leave LS3 since they had been designated to make the protective wall for LS3. While we were about it, we picked an empty container to replace the safety shack at LS3, which was showing some signs of weather-induced deterioration. We still did not plan to assign a permanent radio to the location, yet, but that decision could change at any time.

It was the end of the monsoon season when Bill brought up the subject of trying to find a source of crude oil. It was not because he wanted to start using internal combustion engines, but because oil is the perfect raw material for literally thousands of finished products. One of the pilots asked, "How could we find oil. Doesn't it come from dinosaurs?"

Bill answered, "That was a popular misconception for a long time. I'm not sure how it got started, but it is totally untrue. Methane is produced by natural processes within the earth on a continuous basis. More heat and pressure converts the methane to more complex compounds that eventually work their way up to oil. So that should be around already. What we won't find in large quantity is coal, but I had rather have oil as a raw material, since it is already in a convenient liquid form.

"What you need to look for is patches of black on the surface. You don't need to see it as a liquid. It is quite possible that the surface may be covered with a heavy tar that looks solid, but isn't. All pilots now carry a digital camera, so please take a picture of anything that looks promising. A thousand mistakes will be paid for by one success. Let me know whenever you find something that is remotely a possibility, and I will check it out. Don't be reluctant to call it to my attention, since we really do badly need that oil."

This prompted more discussion, but the pilots promised to keep an eye out for any possible oil or tar pit. Ed had instructed his air force pilots to take pictures of the areas they flew over, so he already had a very good map of their area out to a radius of nearly a hundred miles. The problem was that no effort had been made to eliminate the shadows, so that there were a lot of meaningless black spots on the current map. That was what made it unusable for Bill's purposes.

However, there was an area southwest of LS2 that might be promising, so Bill asked to be taken for a flight over that area in a two-seater. Maureen flew as his pilot, and Hank and Jerry flew as protective cover. They made several passes over the promising area, and Bill got more and more excited. This place had all of the earmarks of a vast pool of oil, the most obvious of which was the vile smell.

Bill asked Maureen to land so he could get a closer look. She took him in as close as she dared, but they still had a fairly long walk to reach the pool. On the way, they spotted the skeletons of several raptors, and there was even a T. Rex skeleton. They both were carrying shotguns, and the cover planes were keeping a close watch. Still, they were nearly jumped by a gang of Velociraptors that was hiding in the tall ferns.

Fortunately, the raptors were spotted in time by one of the planes and Hank was able to eliminate them with cannister shot. Right then, Maureen wanted to leave, but Bill insisted that he needed to check out the potential oil pool. He was able to get close enough to obtain a sample of the oil, and that was when Maureen was finally able to convince Bill that it was time to leave.